Ziggy's Corner: Okay, we're on chapter 21 now! Got me a new computer, and unfortunately can't use the info from my old files on disk. I'll have to look up information and family names when I need to on my old broken down computer, and probably only when my brother is in school, as he was given the old computer and used it only for video game, and music. When I couldn't solve a problem right away, he got lippy, and lost the computer, which is hidden. He's almost home today, otherwise I'd be looking things up. Fortunately I remember the characters, and most of Carmelita's family. Anyway, a month in a half has passed from last chapter to this one. Its nearly Christmas time as this second half takes place; and the action has moved from Australia, to California, my home state, Egypt, and Europe. Okay, let's get ready to go! Oh, by the way as of March 7th of this year, I am no longer a thirty year old. I'm not 31! Lol, but that only made sense, didn't it J And yes, this story still has bronze, with 56 reviews. I wish I could answer each review personally like I did in my previous chapters, but that's no longer allowed. Anyway take heart, you're only away from the silver by two reviews, and the gold by three!
Barstow. It had to be Barstow that Morgan Skye fled to. Sly sighed and watched as dust and sand dunes raced by, one after another. Sure there was some grass, but with Winter coming, it was all drying up. There were buildings between Victorville, and Barstow, but they were far and few in between. Mainly it was dairy country between these two places. "Why Barstow of all places?" Sly groaned. "There's nothing exciting here, no organized crime to pickpocket, nothing worth stealing."
"We're not here to steal anything, Sly," Bentley sighed. "Morgan Skye went this way, according to all my readings and notes. More importantly, if we find her, we might find clues to your mother," he raised and eyebrow, and looked at his friend, "unless you've had a change of heart?"
His mother. All these years he had thought she was dead, killed in an accident caused by the Fiendish Five. Then after Charlie was defeated, he learned that she might still be alive! Why hadn't she looked for him? Why had she left in in that orphanage? Had she though he had been killed along with his father? Sly grew lost in his thoughts. He could remember her, slightly. She had such a soft, pretty voice, a calming presence. She had been good at snuggles and tickles, and he sort of remembered snuggling in bed with her and his father one terrible rainy night.
"No, no change of heart," Sly said, looking at his friend. "Besides, how could we deny Murray the joy of so many fast food restaurants so close together? Or you the opportunity to study the rocks and other relics from the Barstow Museum, or Calico, or …,"
Bentley Wiseturtle chuckled, "Or the Harvey House, or other sites of interest to me either in or just outside of the town?"
The raccoon smiled and sat back in his seat as they passed a sign that said that they were entering city limits. Still the thought of being in the unofficial capital of the Mojave Desert, a town that has nearly burnt down three different times, and flooded once, it wasn't the most pleasant of places.
There was almost nothing for children and teenagers to do here, save for a building called the Fun Zone, but that might as well have called itself Pleasure Island, as the only ones who went there were drug users, pushers, or gangsters. There were two different video game stores here, which catered to the Anime set, trading card games, both owned by the same people, and both bearing the name, Game World. The politicians here were well known to bore their viewers to sleep, and had for a long time debated over letting an Indian Casino be built near the small community of Lenwood, which was just a few minutes from its richer, and just as ignorant "master". What was more, was that the people in that small community could not even vote for the politicians who decided a lot of the things that ran their lives, as they were not universally incorporated into the actual city.
"Whatever happened to no taxation without representation?" Murray wondered aloud as Bentley read the brochure he had downloaded about the area from the Internet.
"Their not really being taxed, just told what may happen without their universal approval," the turtle said.
"Sure, that makes everything so much better," Sly chuckled.
"The only thing really keeping them afloat is a Wal-Mart, but that closed down many smaller stores, and helped lead the strike in which a good number of grocery chains were really hurt for a while." Bentley turned the page, and looked at more information, "Although most people in Barstow do their shopping outside of the city, near Victorville."
"And the politicians haven't realized this why?" Sly asked, leaning on his cane.
"If they have, they haven't seemed to really care," Bentley said. "Most of the meetings I've forced myself to watch nearly drove me to leap out of the second story motel we were staying in for a while and end my misery."
Sly and Murray both laughed at the same time, "I thought you liked watching all that political mumbo jumbo," Murray said, looking at his 'little brother'. "You always say you find C-Span fascinating."
"Not to mention all those political sites you log onto to see which country and its providences, states, or counties are coming with new laws," Sly added.
"I do like the political, 'mumbo jumbo'," Bentley conceded, "but the mayor and councilmembers of this city can't find their butt from their heads. I watched one developer come to them with a plan to build a giant book store, one that could generate a good deal of catch, and all the could do is twirl their fingers, constantly ask who he was again, and what he was talking about again, and talk amongst themselves. The mayor even had the audacity to laugh at his people, when they came forward and asked for their curbs to be taken care of, or when they defended the developer's plans. One of them even stood up, stretched and yawned as the man was making his presentation!"
Sly shook his head. Can you say recall? He chuckled to himself, from what his best friend and 'brother' was telling him, no, they probably couldn't. They probably couldn't even spell it let alone spell it, but what were the people of Barstow to do? This was a city in a state that a few years back had over one hundred candidates for governor, and who had elected an actor with really big muscles because they liked his movies.
They arrived at the motel a few minutes later, and quickly snuck into the room, careful of not being seen. Morgan Skye was somewhere in this city after all, and they didn't want to key her off too quickly. Those chips were important to more than just finding Sly's mom. According to the Aborigine chief, should they fall in the wrong hands, something vicious could be released. Something like Clockwerk, or something far worse. He'd beaten the menace twice now, he had no intention of reliving the nightmare a third time.
The three friends settled down in the motel room, and mapped out their next move. Bentley would do some surveillance, and see if he couldn't pin the Australian thief down to one spot, while Sly and Murray would get the lay of the land. After they ate, relaxed a little, and took a few hours nap, the three went to their separate missions.
Sly wished he could have called Carmelita, told her what he was doing, but that was dangerous. After all, they were both working. Which meant it was back to being cops and robbers for them. Had she found out where he was, she would have hurried over to put the cuffs on him, just as she had tried many times before in the month in a half that they had agreed to be boyfriend and girlfriend. The kissy kissy, snuggle-snuggle hour, that Christian liked to call it, was only reserved for "off hours".
He smiled, remembering once when he and Bentley had brought Carmelita and Rose Marie to their headquarters to play a combat racing video game. Surprisingly his girlfriend was quite good at it, but no where near as good as he was, until Rose Marie had made a snide comment to help edge her on.
"Just pretend he snuck in and caught you coming out of the bathtub," she had said with a wink.
It was all she had needed. Not only did she waste both Bentley and his girlfriend to get to Sly, but also a dozen or so other players from the Internet who were unfortunate to get in her way. She nearly managed to get Sly, but he cross the finish line right before he blew up, and thus officially one the game.
"What do you think about that, Ringtail?" she had asked him.
Sly had smiled slyly and stroked his chin. "I have never been more turned on in my whole life!" She had kicked him for that, but she had done it with a laugh, so he knew she wasn't to ticked at him.
The raccoon had felt bad that both he and Bentley had found a girlfriend that they liked hanging out with, leaving Murray out in the cold, but he claimed he didn't mind. He liked going into his room and meditating, furthering his teachings that he had learned in Australia. Still Rose Marie constantly claimed that he needed a girlfriend, and she and Carmelita tried their best to set him up a couple of times. The only real girl he'd liked was another fox, one named Ruta, who was Carmelita's best friend. But for the time, they just claimed to be friends, so the girls let it drop.
He shook his thoughts aside, and blinked, before continuing his work. Morgan, he had to catch her, and get those chips back. His mother, the world, they were counting on him.
SLY COOPER
A pair of eyes watched the raccoon leap from one roof to another, placing some tracking devices, and mapping out something that was apparently important to him. Nyoko took her binoculars from her eyes and smiled, he had survived her poison. Her body grew warm with that thought, his muscles stretching and bending as if he were exercising just for her. She had heard rumors that he had survived ever since she had slipped from Charlie's base, and avoided getting captured. Her bones cracked, and her whipped itched for action, but now was not the right time.
He's looking for that numbat who I fought with. His former lover. She had the computer chips, the chips I have to collect. Neither one seems to know just how important those things were, what they were worth. Nyoko reached down and pet her mechanical pet, Cooyoko, one of Dr. Goren's tickle bots that she redesigned to be her little enforcer, pet, and eyes and hands when she could not get close enough to do the job. She named it after Sly, or his last name, merged with her own name. What she wouldn't do to make him hers. If he asked, she would gladly give up crime, to be the one to be in his embrace at the end of the day. But he had chosen the fox over her, or the numbat. No doubt that stung Morgan Skye as well, but it was of little consequence.
"Keep an eye on him, my pet," she cooed at the machine. It tapped its metal feet and squeaked and beeped in acknowledgement, and then whistled a question. "No don't hurt him. Just watch," Nyoko said. "If I've already found him, then so has Morgan, and if she has found him, it might be that she'll try and convince him to join her in whatever it is she has planned. That's when we'll strike, that's when we'll get the chips."
Cooyoko cooed another question, and she ran her hands over its smooth dome head. "No, I won't force him to join me," she sighed. "It would be much more enjoyable for him to do that on his own free will." She looked down at it, and ran her fingers through her newly shortened hair. She had let her hair be cut, because of her defeat, as a sign to remind her of her disgrace. But this new pixie look was to her liking, and she found many males drawn to her with her hair like this, than with her long flowing flocks, which had given her a more gothic look.
The machine whirled and accepted its duties, stretching out with a long slender tongue, like that of a dog, and licked its master. The scorpion threw back her head and giggled, she hadn't taken out the tickle option from the machine., and continued to stare at Sly.
Nyoko smiled, wondering wither or not Sly would like the new look, and pulled her hood over her face, ready to perform her own next task. Those chips, those two chips were worth so much, they could make her dreams come true if she wanted. And she wanted … very much. "Wait for me, my love," she cooed. "Our time will come, perhaps. Just wait."
SLY COOPER
Hers was not the only eyes that watched the raccoon. These eyes were pit black and full of energies that belonged to no mortal being. Its red wings ruffled as it moved, its head turning to an arch, switching from Sly and the scorpion, to the turtle and then him to the hippo. They narrowed, as the figure moved from foot to clawed foot. It gasped for air and fluttered its massive wings. "Sly Cooper," it said, its voice hallow and dead, speaking the name more like a curse than it was the name it was.
All around the being were flames as high as the Empire States Building, and some even higher than that. The winged creature writhed in pain, but refused to take its eyes off of any of them. Morgan Skye, that numbat seemed the only one who was truly wise to what those chips would do, and she was being very secretive about her movements. She knew that Sly was in the same town, she knew that Nyoko was here too, and she might have even felt the shadowy being's presence staring at her. It didn't care.
Screams turned its attention away from the individuals. Blackness, pure blackness was below him, with hints of flames rising and slamming against sharp walls. It knew these flames were the souls of the fallen angels, and the damned. The smell of sulfur and brimstone was strong, as was the smell of burnt flesh and hair. Those flames, the ones slamming against the walls were in actuality the souls of the damned. Constantly beings were flailing down into the pit every day, and still nothing abated its hunger. Even the demons roared with agony and terror of being shut away from the vision of their God. Voices cursed their lives, cursed that they had not listened to their religions, and had gone down the path to destruction. Fingers arched in agony, limbs bent in pain, until souls looked more like flaming circles than the people they once were. The path to Hell was open and wide, but the pit of Hell was narrow and endless. Bodies flung together, and demon and fallen soul tortured one another as they tried to pull free from the other's grip.
Further down, passed the flames, were endless caves of bitterest dark. Those souls whose sins had condemned them to this agony, continued their acts, either screaming for mercy and an end to it, or to constant nervousness, fearing that someone might catch them in their sinful actions, although no one ever would. God was a being who granted to those anything their hearts desires, but warned of what the individual wanted. And yet foolishly enough, no one seemed to consider those ramifications. Satan wanted his own kingdom, and was granted it, but it was nothing like Heaven. Those addicted to pornography, to alcohol, to mind altering drugs. They were all granted their universal wish, their habits forever granted to them. And yet, after hearing the divine voice of God, the source of truth, these tortures which at the time on Earth had seemed like pleasures, were revealed for what they were. Worse than tortures, chains made link by link by the individuals themselves!
Caves of ice, where the naked froze for all eternity, rather than put their trust in modesty, caves of eternal paths, for those who refused to accept aid from friends or family. Flesh was sliced, pulled apart, only to reform and begin to be subjected to the tortures all over again. And all the while, the suffocating stench of hatred choked all. Hatred of themselves, of this foul place, of Satan, of humanity, of free will which they abandoned. Hatred of God, who they still rejected, even when hearing His voice at the judgment seat. The last test, which very few of those in the deeps of sin passed, preferring their iron shackles of their habits and their vices as the easier road. They all knew it was no longer easy to carry those chains.
The shadowy figure remembered once what he had heard a prophet once say. "Easier to accept is the Cross, than the chains which we forge ourselves."
It was from this pit, that the foul specter had wished to depart, from this foul pit which prophesy claimed he would depart. And it was from this foul pit, that this specter would establish upon the Earth itself. Two hells, no protection, no sanity. Only pain and agony and flames as high as the Empire States building, and some higher. The prophesy was coming to pass, and the dark shadow flexed its large massive red wings, and laughed. It would all be because of Cooper.
Boy talk about the stuff of nightmares! Anyway with this new villain in the story comes a new path, as the story is going to keep being action/Adventure/Comedy, but Supernatural elements are now add too. The scene from Hell? It came from the testimonies from the saints and prophets, who were allowed to see its horrors, as well as from my own feelings of what it might be like. I most definitely do not want to go there. Well, there you go, Heidi, you're character has been mentioned. Soon she'll be seen too! As will my own character and the DivineOne's. Thanks for reviewing! And keep them up! The more reviews, the better the chance of getting gold! Carmelita comes back in the next chapter.