Wow, I have been on a roll with the updates this summer! Sorry this took a while I wanted to take my time with this one. I also want to thank Plazmatik for his critiques last chapter, I'll definitely try and put them to use in future chapters. But enough of my rant, on to the story!
Disclaimer: I do not own Sly Cooper just this fic.
Chapter 19:Discussions
"KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!"
That was the sound that woke up the sleeping pair.
"Sly! You awake yet?" said the voice of Bentley. The sound of his voice was enough to send the two of them into a quiet frenzy.
"How long were we asleep?!" Neyla asked Sly as they struggled to get dressed.
"Nevermind that. How are we going to explain this?" Sly replied. They both knew last night had taken a lot out of them, but they didn't think they would oversleep. Then Bentley knocked again.
"Everything alright?" he asked. Soon they were both dressed, but now they had to figure out how to explain this to Bentley.
"What are our options?" Neyla whispered to Sly. He thought on this for a few moments before he answered.
"Let me answer your question with a question. Do you want to tell them about us now or later?" Sly asked. Neyla wanted to argue but he had a point. Even if they managed to lie about their situation, they would have to come clean eventually. That and given the events of last night the sooner the others know the better.
"The truth it is then." Neyla said. To give her that extra boost of confidence Sly took hold of Neylas hand in his own. With a deep breath they opened the door.
"Finally we were starting to get… Neyla? What are you…" Bentley started then he saw their hands.
"How are you doing this morning Bentley?" Neyla asked with a nervous smile. Bentley however crossed his arms and put on a stoic expression.
"Looks like we have some explaining to do." Sly said. Bentley nodded and the three of them met at the main table with Murray. Once everyone was settled Sly and Neyla explained everything about their relationship. Everything up to that point, with the exception of the full details of the previous night, we're brought to light then and there.
"So yeah… that's essentially what's been going on between me and Sly up to today." Neyla said.
Once they were done Bentley for the most part had a neutral expression on his face, but Murray's jaw was dropped. "Any questions?" she asked. Bentley merely sighed in response.
"Mainly one. When were you planning on telling us if I hadn't caught you?" Bentley asked.
"We were going to tell you eventually. Namely once you guys got used to her being in the gang." Sly said. Neyla nodded confirming his statement. Bentley then sighed.
"Are you upset with us Bentley?" Neyla asked. He shook his head in response.
"No. But I am a bit upset that you didn't tell us sooner, but at least you're telling us now." Bentley said with a sigh. They then turned to Murray who was still letting it all sink in.
"What about you big guy? What do you think?" Sly asked.
"Well I'm happy for you guys, but aren't you worried that a certain someone's going to find out about this?" Murray asked, of course referring to Inspector Fox.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, but for now, we're letting you guys in on it." Sly said. With that said Sly and Murray left, but before Neyla could leave Bentley called her.
"Neyla, a word if you please." Bentley said. Neyla wondering what he wanted approached the turtle.
"Yes Bentley?" she asked. Bentley took a deep breath before he spoke.
"I know you've changed a lot since joining with us, but let's get one thing straight." Bentley said as he put on a stern look. But before he could say anything else she seemed to see where he was going.
"I won't hurt him Bentley. Not again. I promise." Neyla said. Bentley nodded as his expression softened.
"Alright then. Remember I've got my eye on you." Bentley said as he left the room to make preparations for the night.
Once night was upon them Sly, Murray and Neyla geared up and headed to their first target of the night: the oil fields. Once they arrived they checked to make sure everything was set.
"You guys ready to head out to the oil fields? Should be right through this cave." Sly said.
"Oh, yeah! Bentley said there'd be heavy machinery and destruction going down!" Murray said.
"Sounds like your thing big guy." Neyla said.
"Y-E-S, yeah!" Murray said.
"We're going after some radioactive oil right?" Sly asked. But Murray gave him a stumped expression.
"I don't know. I can never pay attention to those slide shows… Don't tell Bentley." Murray said.
"Secret's safe with us Murray." Neyla said. Then they entered the cave. Before long the trio had reached the oil field and made contact with Bentley.
"Sly, phase one is to protect the power stations while Murray get's all six oil wells flowing." Bentley said. "Once phase one is complete use the Super Claw 10,000 to transfer to the next oil field." he said.
From there he gave Sly a crash course on how to use the machine properly, from the grab/release to it's throwing action. Once he was done the nearby miners had caught on to them. While Murray manned the oil pump, Sly tossed the incoming guards into the nearby electric fence, while Neyla took out any stragglers close quarters.
Thanks to Murray's superb strength, he had the first three wells flowing in no time flat. From there Sly used the claw to pick up Murray, while Neyla entered the cockpit with Sly. Afterward they entered the next oilfield, and as before Murray had the last three oil wells running in record time, while another batch of guards were taken out, thanks to Neyla and Slys efforts.
"That's it! They're all gushing now!" Murray said.
"Nice work guys. Now that all of the oil wells are active, we can move on to phase two,where we light the crude oil on fire!" Bentley said through their ear comms. With that said Sly picked up Murray and Neyla and headed out to the next oilfield. Once they arrived there was a catapult and flint rock dispenser nearby.
From there Sly had to alternate between flinging guards and loading the catapult, which meant Neyla had to pull double duty. All the while Murray launched the rocks at the oil wells, igniting the oil on impact. About thirty minutes later all of the guards were dealt with and all the wells were lit.
"Now for phase three. With the oil wells alight, the pressure differential should draw the deep uranium enriched glowing oil to the surface. You'll need to be EXTREMELY careful in retrieving a small sample." Bentley said. But there was someone missing.
"Where's Murray?" Neyla asked. Then they heard a raucous laughter bombard their ear comms.
"Sly! Neyla! Look at me! I'm glowing! Woo!" Murray boomed. The pair looked in the direction of the oil and sure enough, there was Murray dancing around being coated in the glowing oil. The pair couldn't help but laugh at the sight. After they retrieved the now glowing hippo, they headed back to the safe house where Murray handed the oil over to Bentley, and geared up for his next mission: feeding miners to the croc. Sly and Neyla took this time to relax.
"That was certainly interesting." Neyla said as she laid down on Sly's bed. Sly only nodded as he laid down next to her. It was quiet for the most part until the silence was broken by Sly.
"Hey Neyla can I ask you something?" Sly asked sitting himself up. Neyla responded by sitting up cross legged on the bed next to him.
"Sure thing. What's on your mind?" Neyla asked.
"Since I told you about my past feelings for Inspector Fox, I think it would be fair if you told me about your nightmares." Sly asked receiving a wide eyed and somewhat stunned look from Neyla.
"R...Really?" Neyla asked. Sly simply nodded. Neyla thought on it for a few moments. 'I suppose the worst thing that can happen is him thinking I'm crazy.' she thought. She gathered her strength and took a deep breath. "I've disclosed a little bit about my nightmares with Bentley, but I think I can tell you the full details." she said. Sly listened as Neyla began to recount her nightmares up to that point.
"My nightmares began in Paris the night after you found me..." she started. "I never know when they happen, but when they do it's always the same place: A maze of caverns with a pit of lava at the center. But out of the things there the one that scares me the most is the being living there." From there she proceeded to describe the shadow, which she now knew to be an incarnation of Clockwerk.
"When we first met he seemed really cross with me. Now that I have my memories back I can see why." She said. From there she described to him the various tortures Clockwerk had inflicted on her. "And the worst part? Every wound he inflicted on me in his realm appeared in reality." Neyla said rubbing her arms. Then came the hardest part for her to tell him.
"And if that weren't enough, he somehow found out about our relationship and well… you saw what he did to me." Neyla said. "But that wasn't the worst part of it, before he began he showed me visions of what had happened to your family… to your parents." Neyla said tears starting to form in her eyes. From there Sly proceeded to embrace her in a hug.
"You don't need to say anymore Neyla." Sly said. From there Neyla let the dam burst and began to cry on Sly's shoulder. Once she was calm enough she spoke.
"Thanks for talking to me about it Sly. I really needed that off my chest." Neyla said. Sly nodded and kissed her forehead.
"I'm glad I could help." Sly said.
"Ahhh!" screamed the flashlight guard as he was tossed into the maw of the Croc, devoured in an instant.
"Take cover Murray, here comes a guard wearing the Mask of Dark Earth. Let's see if all your hard work with this Croc pays off." Bentley said as Murray took cover to avoid detection. When the guard neared the water, the Croc went ashore taking the guard by surprise. The poor fool was able to get a shot off before the beast pounced and devoured him.
However right before the guards demise, the Mask pulled itself off and ran.
"Tarnation! That mask keeps getting away! Since when do masks get away?!" Bentley said furious that the Mask had evaded destruction once again.
"Well at least we tried Bentley." Murray said.
"I suppose you're right. Come on back Murray, we have some more work to do." Bentley said. With that Murray returned to the Safehouse.
"Move it out!" Carmelita said to her troops as they exited the cargo plane that brought them here to Australia. It was two days ago when Interpol was alerted about a group of individuals resembling the Cooper gang. After doing further digging on her own, Carmelita traced the gangs tracks to an opal mining camp. If anything was a prime target for the raccoon it would be that.
With all their equipment loaded onto trucks, they headed out for their target.
And with that another chapter comes to a close. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Please leave a review I greatly appreciate it. Till then I'll see you guys next time!