Hi again. Here is the next chapter of my story. Again, I do not own Sly Cooper or other official characters except for the ones in my story. Enjoy!
Sly Cooper and the Space Thieves
Chapter 2- The Debriefing
After two hours of traveling, Emperor Kanog's flagship had finally arrived at the Mantian home world of Plaxis Prime. It was a huge planet: It was as big as Jupiter and was covered in red and yellow clouds, while it had two rings of asteroids orbiting around it. "Wow! That is one big piece of rock!" Sly said as he and the gang looked through their windows. The flagship made planet entry and landed at a landing pad nearby. "Emperor, we have landed in Docking Port 5. We are ready to disembark." Said his helmsman. "Good. Inform my guests to follow me to my palace." Kanog instructed. Shortly afterwards, Sly's group was told to meet and follow Kanog to his palace. "Well, here we go." Said Sly. Carmelita and her commandos followed them and thought 'The sooner this matter is settled, the sooner I can get back to arresting Cooper. I just hope nothing else unexpected happens.'
They walked out of their quarters and followed Yanor again to the ship's exit door. Outside, Kanog tells his security chief he can take it from here. As Yanor was walking away, he whispered in Sly's ear: "Be on your guard, Thief."
He didn't know what he meant by that, but it seems Kanog did not notice. Once he was gone, Kanog spoke. "Welcome to Plaxis Prime! From here you can see the capital city of Trok, as well as my royal palace a few miles from here. Come, once we're inside I will tell you more about the criminals who stole the Manta Heart." They walked while Kanog led the way.
When they reached the palace half an hour later, they got a good look at it. The palace was 50 ft high and 100 ft long with enough laser turrets to blast away an invasion force. It was covered with strange, silver like metal and had what appeared to be an acid moat around it. "What incredible architecture. To say the least it is amazing!" Bentley pointed out. Kanog responded appreciatively, "Thank you, Bentley. I am glad you like the outside, but the inside is much more impressive."
"Activate the bridge and open the gate." Kanog instructed to his guards in the palace. "Yes, sire. The bridge has been activated and the gate has been opened," the guard replied. A bridge of blue energy appeared and everyone watched as the huge, silver colored gates opened. "Shall we?" Kanog asked. Everyone followed him inside and as they did, the gate closed behind them. However, the inside of the castle was not what Sly and the others had expected. "Aw, man! There's nothing here but a pad thing and a bunch of buttons on a red box!" Said Murray. It was true: There was a huge room where there was nothing but those items. "Is this some kind of trap, Kanog!" Carmelita shouted in outrage. The emperor laughed and replied. "No, no Inspector. This is no trap. What you see is my Transporter Pad! These buttons you have pointed out, Murray, each represent a different location in the palace. Just stand on the pad, push a button and you will be instantaneously transported to another pad at that location. For example, the blue button takes you to the dining room. While the white button takes you to any select restroom, the gold one will bring you to my throne room. Today," he continued, "We shall go to the security records room, which happens to be the red button. Now, I will go first. Then I want you all to be transported in groups of two. Starting with you Sly and Carmelita." They nodded. Kanog stepped on the pad and pressed the red button and instantly the pad turned on, and it had glowed red just like the button. "Transport to security records room." Said a computer like voice. Immediately, he was gone in a red flash. Everyone was impressed by this technology, especially Bentley and Penelope. "Incredible! I've got to know how it works!" Penelope agreed. "Yeah, too bad we don't have this technology on Earth." Sly looked at Carmelita and asked, "Well, shall we get 'beamed up'?" She shook her head in annoyance. "Let's get this over with, Ringtail." Carmelita replied as they stepped onto the pad.
Ten minutes later everyone arrived at the security room, and it was a sight. The room was full of computers, monitors, and a huge table in the middle. There was only one other occupant there. He wore tan armor instead of black. Sly figures that the Mantians have different colors for each rank or position. Kanog came forward and told all of them to stand around the table. "Now that we are all here, let us begin. Lieutenant, load up file Manta Theft." He commanded. His lieutenant typed rigorously on the controls and shortly afterward, a hologram appeared above the middle section of the table. The image that appeared was a small statue of a white and blue manta warrior with a long, blue sword. "This is the image of our sacred Manta Heart. His real name was Zarus, and he was our greatest warrior on Plaxis Prime. Twenty years ago, he heroically died to save us from a great invasion of hostile madmen threatening to wipe us all out. He was strong and pure hearted, which is why we named his statue the Manta Heart."
Kanog paused for a moment, and then continued. "That is why the Heart is precious to my people, and why I must get it back. With your help we can do it." Panda King was touched by the history lesson. 'Zarus was a strong warrior who died to save his people. I wish I could have met him.' He thought. Kanog went on. "Lieutenant, show the images of the robbery." His lieutenant typed again and the image changed. They saw a huge gold room with the Manta Heart on a pedestal. There were no doors to walk in, just another transporter pad. About a minute later someone transported in the room in a green light, but not from the pad. The intruder looked like a 6 ft tall walking dolphin with hazel eyes. He was wearing aqua green armor with blue gloves and boots. He had no weapons, but he had a strange device on his left wrist; Bentley guessed that was another type of transport technology. He walked up to the statue and took it from its resting place. He activated his wrist device and began to transport out. A few moments before he disappeared, he held up the Manta Heart and shouted: "Long live Zarus!" Then he was gone. The hologram changed again, and the same dolphin like alien appeared.
"That is Jacor, the leader of a race called the Aquians." Kanog said to them. "They are an insane people who steal precious items from different worlds and don't care about what happens to those who get in their way. Their technology is, sadly, far more advanced than ours." Bentley couldn't believe that there were other aliens with better tech than these guys. "That is how they got past our security systems protecting the Heart, and their beaming technology is untraceable so we cannot follow them. As I said before, we have searched for the Aquians for months but turned up nothing. The location of their home world of Dolphus is secret, even to us. They just appear out of nowhere, steal something of great value, and then disappear without a trace. It is maddening!" Kanog shouted as he said it. Sly was impressed with these Aquians; they pulled off heists from other planets without breaking a sweat! "So, what you're saying is that these guys are the best race of thieves in the galaxy and none of them have ever been caught?" Sly asked. "Exactly, Sly. To this day, no one has been able to capture an Aquian. Least of all Jacor, he's the best of all of them." Kanog answered.
"Hold on, Kanog." Carmelita interrupted. "If Zarus was your world's hero, then why did that Jacor character say "Long live Zarus!" when he took the Manta Heart?" Everyone else was puzzled about that scene. Kanog thought for a moment and yelled out, "Like I said Inspector, he and his people are insane! They love taking what isn't theirs and say things that don't make any sense!" Sly thought that answer seemed weak somehow, but he let it go for now. After Kanog had calmed down a bit, he got back to the issue at hand. "Well, now you know what you must do: Find the Aquians, retrieve the Manta Heart and bring it back here safely. You know what they say: It takes a gang of thieves to catch a gang of thieves, with you as an exception Inspector Fox. This will be very difficult, so we will lend you a hand."
"Just how are you going to do that?" Bentley asked. Kanog said, "As we speak, your pirate vessel and all your vehicles are being modified by my team of expert engineers. They will enable you to perform the task at hand at locating the Aquians. They should be done in about 5 hours from now." The whole group was dumbstruck when they heard this. "Are you telling me, Emperor Kanog, that the Dragon Thief, the Cooper van, Sly's airplane, and Carmelita's police boat are being turned into spaceships in such an short amount of time!" Bentley shouted. Kanog laughed and replied, "Yes Bentley, it is a necessary procedure. Besides, I'm sure you don't mind having space vessels of your own?" "Of course we don't mind." Said Sly. "I always want to do a little space stealing."
"Glad to hear it, Sly. Now I want you all to go to the training room except for Commander York and his troops. It is where you will learn the skills you need to pull this thing off. All the equipment you'll all need is there. Just do the same thing on the Transport Pad, except press the yellow button to get there." Kanog instructed. One by one, everyone vanished in a yellow light except for Commander York and his commandos. "Why are we not joining them?" He asked the emperor. Kanog smiled oddly. "I have a different assignment for you and your soldiers." Commander York was confused about that. Then from behind him, Kanog's lieutenant shot the commandoes from behind until they were all on the floor. "Good work, Lieutenant Basha. Now, take them to the lab before they wake up." He commanded. Lieutenant Basha moved himself and the entire commando team onto the pad and transported them to a lab with the black button.
Kanog smiled again as he went to the pad and pressed the gold button to go to his throne room. "Those troops will serve me well in the very near future. If all goes well, Sly Cooper and his worthless bunch will bring me the key to ultimate power! Then no one can stand against me!" He laughs insanely as he disappears in a gold light.