Ziggy's Corner: Okay on to chapter 22! Remember to review! The story is now away from the gold medal by eight reviews. However, there are only four keeping you away from the new silver holder, the old gold medal holder. But there's a plus here, as the current gold winner, is finished. And the silver holder will only be nine chapters less than this story, so Everything's Relative might indeed eventually end up with the gold for a good while! Anyway on to the story.

Morgan Skye stretched as the early morning light struck her as she camped in the tent and looked out. She wasn't big on camping, and even less big on camping in the desert, rather than the forest, but from what she discovered, there was someone here who could help her make sense of this puzzle. She caught some insects and a retrieved a few eggs for her breakfast and then wolfed them down as fast as she could. Morgan took a quick shower cautious of anyone who might be watching her, and then dressed, holding the chips in her hand, and put them in her pocket.

If there was anything good about the desert, it was the area around Calico. The hills were brightly colored, even in winter time, with bright reds, browns, a few patches of black. The Ghost Town used to be a major source of silver in the late nineteenth century, and was a little older than her southern neighbor, of Barstow by at least ten years. Neither was a favorite of the numbat. The politicians of Barstow were fools, the people even more foolish, and this Ghost Town was an expensive camping site … and a cramped on at that. People from all over the world came to see this Ghost Town, that wasn't really much of a ghost town. A few individuals still lived here, and there was even an operating school, though not in the town, named after it.

She walked up the steep hill, her eyes getting used to the light. She was to meet this man, this priest or whatever he was now, and get the information that she wanted and very much needed. Morgan knew that Sly had tracked her here, and was both cautious and a little relaxed. There was no Carmelita, and that meant she could focus on trying to get him back. Not necessarily to make him unfaithful, but if this was her last chance to get back together with him, she meant to take it. Still, he was only the second thing on her mind. This chips were important, something about an owl cloaked in dark flames, devouring souls. There was a raccoon attached to this thing, and she kind of hoped that it meant that it was not Sly who was connected to it.

The raccoon walked up through Calico, her mind racing, her eyes glowering at every direction. She knew that Clockwerk had something to do with his family, but she also knew that with Carmelita's help, that wicked villain who cared only for his own legacy was finally defeated, and was taken by the ages after thousands of years of stalking Sly's family. She wasn't sure if this owl was Clockwerk. After all, he had lived in the very earliest eras of Egypt, as had Sly's family. And everything she had learned was about ancient Egypt.

The mystery had driven her mad, until she happened passed a certain web site that was owned by this priest. Fr. Hayden Mac Cullum, who claimed he could read ancient Egyptian, as well as had a knowledge of some kind of doomsday prophesy. She hurried to pack her things after contacting the man, and set off for California. She knew Sly wouldn't be happy with the loss of the chips, but she figured he'd be right on her trail, and originally he was, until he took a break for dating. That had given Morgan the lead she needed to really push forward to the end of the goal.

She sat in the tavern, and watched people come and go, as day went on. Hour after hour, she waited watched, ordered a late lunch, and waited some more. Her anger was growing with each tick of her watch, and she began tapping her foot. This was the tavern he had told her to meet him in, wasn't it? Was he full of baloney? Had he lied? But if he did, why? Finally at six thirty in the evening, she rose to her feet, totally tired, and completely miserable. She had held her bladder most of the day, and only used the bathroom two hours ago, ordering the person on the other side of the counter that she should be instructed if someone, a priest, had come looking for her. It shouldn't have been too hard to see a Komodo Dragon walk through the doors, in the clothes of a priest. However; the small ape claimed that he had seen absolutely nobody.

The numbat sighed agitatedly and then began walking back to her base of operations. The cool desert winter air flicked through her fur, and she sighed even more agitatedly. She didn't like the cold, but then again she wasn't very fond of the warm heat that summer brought. She of course liked the beach, and was excellent at surfing and bogy boarding, but her other careers kept her almost too busy to enjoy these sports … almost.

Morgan hurried back to her base, wrote a quick email to the priest, and then took yet another shower. When they were dating, Sly would constantly tease her about how many times she'd shower. It got so intense one time, that she decided to forgo a shower for the next three weeks. She reeked so bad, flies who buzzed near her had to use tiny little gas masks just to see straight, let alone breathe. After that incident, Sly had never again spoken about her showering so many times, and once or twice offered to join her. The first time she decked him in the eye, but the second, she let him have a pep show, and giggled as he gawked at her.

She dried off, downed her dinner, and flipped through her papers about the region and the chips yet again. The puzzle was driving her nuts, making her lose sleep. She began pacing slowly, looking at the book she had bought in Cairo just before coming to the United States. There was something here that she should have put together, but it was as if an extreme piece of the picture out and tossed in into the incinerator. She took a nap, and woke up around two thirty in the morning, the sounds of her computer blaring an alarm making her leap out of bed.

It was pitch black, save for the glow of her computer, and the small illumination of her clock. Morgan stumbled forward to get access the email, and cursed as she read another piece of junk mail Her finger jammed down so hard as she went to delete it, she nearly sprained it, and she cursed the inventor of spam junk mail to a long overdo beating. Going through the rest of her mail she sighed, and clicked the computer off, set to alert her if something else would catch her interest.

Her fingers cracked as she rested in her bed again, her eyes wide open as she stared in the darkness, until boredom settled in, and she clicked her remote, to turn on CNN, to watch if any of her company's stocks had risen, and then began channel surfing. At least I still enjoy my favorite sport this way. She came across another priest talking about how an older woman had warned him that if his sermons weren't good enough, he'd end up in Purgatory, where they'd play his tapes over and over and over again, and force him to watch them. She thought that was pretty funny, then she switched to both VH-1 and MTV, and watched a few of their programs, before switching over to MTV2 and watched a stupid Sesame Street rip off, which she quickly surfed past. So much for that channel's promise of only being music videos. She then found a repeat of Drake and Josh, and watched, for the duration that show. Morgan was too old for the boy, but she liked his music, and had to admit she was shocked at how well he looked after his accident at the Kids' Choice Awards. But she knew Irish Setters were good at heeling if left alone. She had two of his Cds, and planned on counting down until she could get his third. He was a good kid, and the one time she'd met him, she had found him eager to help her bring down a Yakuza thug. Her finances protected him from any kind of pay back, that the Japanese mafia might have inflicted on him.

It was soon four o'clock, and she was still not tired. She was watching a documentary about ancient Egypt on the History Channel, but found it boring. She nearly switched when the announcer told the audience about something about a cult of a god named … well she couldn't pronounce it, but it dealt with an owl. Her eyes were glued to the set, and she waited with baited breathe, when the base of hers began to rock back and forth, and she cursed a little. "What a bloody wonderful time for an earthquake." It continued to rattle, until the television dropped to the ground and shattered, the numbat leaping out of harms way.

"This is no earthquake," she raised an eyebrow, and made her way to her door, slinking out of it as the base turned on its side and was tossed clear across the camp grounds, dozens of screaming people ran around, their arms in the air as they dashed too and fro. The numbat turned and saw the origin of the madness, a very large masked figure, that looked very reptilian. "You lost, or don't you like the service the good people of Calico provide?"

"You have something that I want," the reptile growled, glaring at her with bright yellow orbs it must have called eyes. He wore a long black overcoat, with gray knee pads over it, silver white fingerless gloves, and a mask that gave little room to hint his real identity.

"Where did you get that line? Off the bad guy on line dictionary of supposedly villainous phrases?" she asked with a smile.
The reptile launched himself at her, and she sped away, rolling into a ball as he tried to stomp where she had been. "I don't suppose I could interest you into at least going to villain school to learn real phrases?"

The reptile growled and pulled out a stick, and launched yellow glowing disks from it. Morgan's eyes grew wide, and she leapt too and fro, ducking, jumping into the air, using her katana blades to twirl herself around the branches of the scattered trees around. "I didn't think so," she said with a shrug. She looked around, there were too many people around for a fight. And with all these witnesses, she could say good bye to Morgan the businesswoman, and say her hello's to the old face of Morgan Skye, master thief and wanted criminal.

"What do you say we go someplace more private," she asked, leaping to another branch as the reptile swung at her.

"Why? These people don't mean anything to me, and they won't be around for much longer as soon as you give me the thing I've come for." He chuckled and fired in her direction again, growling and hissing as she blocked his shots with her blades. "You have skill, perhaps you'd like to become one of us? There wouldn't be any need for violence then."

"You talking about killing innocent people one second, and no violence the next? What kind of crazy cult are you a part of?" she asked, swinging into the darkness, hoping to plot her next move.

He smiled, and cocked his head, "The kind that is going to rule the world, of course."

"Yesh, another lame villainous statement? You need help, mate." I have to lure him away from here. "Catch me if you can, handsome." She leapt down and rushed out of the camp site, constantly checking to see if he was following her. For half an hour he did seem to be, until at last he didn't appear from the other side of the hill. She blinked, her chest hurting, her lungs crying for air, and the numbat stumbled against a rock. Was that it? And if it was, what the heck was it about?

"Those computer chips, darling," he cooed from behind her. She turned around and felt his boot strike her face. Morgan heard the crack of teeth as she was sent spiraling further down the hill, until her blade caught a piece of stone and she managed to keep herself from failing down completely. "I want those computer chips," he growled again.

"That much is obvious," she groaned. "But wanting and getting are two different things."

"I'll pry them from your fingers, if I have too," he hissed, leaping from the top of the rock down to her body. He glared at her for a long time and held his hand out. "The chips please."

"Bite me," she growled. The reptile growled and picked her up and chomped down on her thigh, shaking her a little before dropping her down, her blood dripping from his jaws.

"You've been bitten, now give me the chips," he said, his voice low and guttural.

"You're not the priest," she said half asking. "The one who said I should come to visit him."

He raised an eyebrow. "Priest?" He smiled then and stroked his chin. "Interesting, what did you tell him?"

"I didn't think you were him, he never showed up. Besides you look more like an alligator to me," she said, trying to pull herself to her feet. She blinked and mentally told herself to shut up.

"I'm a crocodile for your information, but now that I've got that little bit of info, you sure you don't want to convert and let us know even more? You'd be a very good asset."

She looked at him for a moment and scowled. "Sorry, I've been a loner for too long."

"He told me you'd say that," the crocodile said. With a whip of his tail he sent Morgan all the way down off of the cliff, and watched her drop to the ground, and lay motionless. He hurried down the hill and picked through her clothes, until he found one of the computer chips. "He also said you'd only be carrying one of the chips." He looked down at the body and sighed, well I guess you're not much further use to us after all."

SLY COOPER

Carmelita thanked the curator of the museum for his kindness, and walked out of the building. She'd been here in Cairo for over two weeks, sent here when her superiors got a call that an artifact was stolen from the museum, ala the Cooper Gang M.O. style. She had to admit, it looked just like something Sly would have done, and there was a calling card, with Sly's design right where the artifact had been. Her heart dropped, she knew he had kept up his thieving ways, even though they were dating. He still could not give up the "fun" of cops and robbers, but she also knew that he wasn't the kind who'd rip off the artifact and then destroy it, leaving it in pieces where she'd look. Sly wasn't like that.

The woman also knew her boyfriend was looking for clues for his mother, and to solve the prophesy that Eko would had told them about. But after getting his answers, Sly would have returned the artifact, or would have placed it neatly on a desk in her hotel room, where she was sure to find it in one piece … right after sneaking a peak at her in the shower. So if it wasn't Sly who was responsible, then who? Her sisters told her about their experience with a computer program that claimed to be Neyla, and she knew that villainous bitch knew about the Cooper Gang's M.O. but even if she could bring herself to admit that Neyla had come back from the dead, a computer program could only do so much! Maybe she convinced some kid to pull the stunt, but he or she would have to be some kind of whiz that surpassed even Sly's talents. Was there anyone who had such that talent?

Carmelita had time to spare now that this case was solved, and went to her hotel to change and explore the ancient city, catching the sights, watching the people of the city walk, talk and dicker over this price or that. The young fox shook her head and went to a number of shops. She had to buy something for her family, and then there was Ruta. Her best friend was a year younger than her, and was almost the exact opposite of her. Where she had been stiff and saw things in black and white, Ruta saw things in color. She was also an Interpol officer, but she liked to have fun, more than Carmelita. She liked dresses, parties, and justice.

"A super girl of the Interpol group, huh?" Carmelita asked.

Ruta looked at her best friend of fifteen years, her hair a mixture of blonde and brown, with a touch of red. Her clothes were normally light blue, unless it was winter, in which case she liked wearing white. "Super girl?" She asked with twitch of her ear. "I would prefer to Wonder Woman." They chuckled about that, Ruta was a secret operative working for Interpol, so most of the regular agents didn't even know about her.

She wondered what Ruta was doing right now, more to the point, what Sly was doing. She still had her doubts that he was here in Cairo without visiting her. Though she had ideas that he knew she'd slap the cuffs on him if he tried. She giggled, "He'd probably like it."

Just two weeks ago, during their last date, she had dressed up like Daisy Duke for him, and let him play the bumbling officer trying to catch her. Despite his best efforts, even he had a hard time catching her, just as she had a hard time to get him when she was right on his ass. She made it up to him by taking him to dinner at a fancy restaurant, though she denied any and all access to her bedroom after the date, not that he was being pushy about it. Sly was nothing, if not a gentleman.

As she finished her shopping, Carmelita went back to her hotel room, and dialed his private number. "Just letting you know what's up Ringtail," she said, fighting the urge to baby talk him. "Someone stole some kind of artifact in Cairo, and pulled the same stunts you do. If it was in fact, you then I suggest you get out of Egypt before I catch you and tie Willy around in knots so tight, he'll won't be able to breathe, let alone wanting to be free. Not that I believe that it was you, but just a friendly warning."

She hung up and dialed her father. "Poppa, it's Carmelita."

"Hello mija," her father said. They talked about the current situations, about what had happened these last two months, and about Sly. "I'm still not sure I like the idea about you dating that boy."

"Poppa, don't worry so much," Carmelita said.

"If I wasn't worried, if I didn't know you weren't, then you would not have called tonight. In fact, you've called each night since you started dating him. You told me that Clockwerk is gone, as is Neyla. Charlie has been beaten, so what is it exactly that you're afraid of?"

She frowned and blinked, her mind thinking. "I'm not sure what you mean, poppa."

"Yes you do," he snapped. "Don't you lie to me, Carmelita."

She blinked and thought yet again. "Poppa …,"

"Child, you know that I love you, jut like your mother, but you are a big girl now. If you're afraid that one or both of you are going to be attacked, and used by someone out there, well I suggest you make your peace, or break up." There was a silence and then he spoke, "You do know if you catch him in the field, its your duty to arrest him?"

"I know that, poppa!" she snapped, and then recoiled as she realized what she had done. "Father, I'm sorry."

"I understand your feelings, my daughter," he said, looking at her tenderly. "I just want you to be careful."

Carmelita smiled and blinked. "I know."

"And remember Carmelita," he said, his voice growing playfully more forceful.

"We haven't slept together poppa," Carmelita giggled with a roll of her eyes.

"And you better not unless that boy gets a decent job and can afford to take you on as his legal partner in marriage."

"And only in the Catholic faith," Carmelita said, repeating her family mantra.

"With good Catholic mijos and mijas," he added with a half joke.

"I have to go, poppa," she said. "I'm getting tired, and have to get ready to leave Egypt tomorrow."

"Have a safe flight then, and good night."

They hung up, Carmelita said three Rosaries, one for her family, one for herself, and one Sly, before reading her latest novel, and then turned out the lights. She was a heavy sleeper, and had heavier dreams. Heaven and Hell mixed with light and shadows. She tossed and turned, her eyes fluttering under her lids. Sweat poured down her, as in her dreams two beaming red eyes glared at her constantly, watching her every movement.

"Sly? Sly, where are you?" she cried out. She was running through a dark hall, nearly crushing her. Somewhere in the darkness she could hear a cruel laughter, and bright red crimson oozed from the wall. Blood?

"He won't be able to save you my dear, no one can save you." Demons ran from behind her, their eyes full of blood-lust. "Nothing can save you. Or any humanity."

Carmelita continued to run, fleeing from the demons, crying for her hero to save her, for anyone to save her. Just as she feared that death was upon her, she woke up, and screamed like she had never screamed before, as she escaped an evil that she had never felt before. Her body was soaked, her eyes were blood red and her head was pounding. There was a force out there, one that she feared, one greater than Clockwerk, or Neyla, or Charlie the Great who was after them now. And nothing was going to be the same.

Okay, what do you all think?