It's going to take longer than expected for the main heist here. Oh well. Characters will start getting a little out of character. After all, this isn't the same world as in the game.
Note: Altered O.F.'s doom description to make a little more sense (can't make complete sense since this is based on a video game with anthropomorphic animals, a giant metallic owl, and a bunch of other things that don't make complete sense).
Disclaimer: I don't own Sly Cooper. Sucker Punch does. And I don't own DDR.
Chapter 10: Things Just Got Weirder
Sly, Bentley, and Murray just stared at Faye like bug-eyed goldfish with their mouths slightly agape. Faye smiled softly but it broke into a full-blown grin from ear to ear. Faye's mask was missing along with some of her disguise makeup, her clothes were dusty and sort of wet, and her eyes were welling up. She trembled as her staff's bottom rested on the ground.
"I…I missed you guys," Faye's voice quaked. "I thought for sure I'd never see you again." Faye ran up to Murray, the closest person. She clinched some of the front of his shirt in her hands and let her tears roll onto the fabric. Murray put his hands on Faye's back. Sly was the first to speak up.
"How…" Faye backed her head away from Murray, took a step back, and closed her eyes.
"Yeah… I survived." Her eyes barely opened as she stared at the floor. "I don't mind what you have to ask…I'm just glad to be back. Right now though we have to gain control of the electronic winch." She looked up, her eyes fully open now. "So let's get to work." Faye seemed to have stopped shaking a bit and took her place between Sly and Murray.
"Well as I was saying. The second I enter their servers they'll be onto us. You guys need to work together to keep the thugs off my back," said Bentley with a stifled smile. He tried to seem serious but the smile wouldn't go away. There was a sense that he wanted to shout with happiness but under the circumstances, it could wait.
"You two and me pals, side by side by side," said Sly, possessing a wide grin.
"'The Murray' knows no fear," said Murray. Unlike Bentley, he kept that beaming personality going.
"Welcome back Faye," said Sly. Bentley turned his attention to the computer behind him.
"I wouldn't have it any other way," said Faye.
"Okay, I'm in." Some goat and monkey guards came through the door on the opposite side of the room. "Hacking the level six barrier." Sly smacked the first goat guard into the monkey guard with his staff.
"Hey Faye," Smack! "What happened after the waterfall?" asked Sly between hits.
"Well," Crack! "Long story short…" Murray punched the guards silly. "My cane got snagged on a teak branch and it broke my fall."
"Almost there…got it! Moving onto the level five system," said Bentley, moving to the second computer. Sly, Murray, and Faye backed behind him with more guards spilling from the door. Faye struck a guard in the back, Murray walloped 'em all big time, and Sly continued his usual hit and dodge technique.
"…I found a secret staircase at the bottom of the waterfall. It led up but I didn't know where the door at the top would take me, so I took the air vent."
"Okay I'm close," said Bentley. Faye ducked under a charging monkey and hit it with her staff in the…well, one could just say the monkey had a high-toned voice and went cross-eyed before Faye flung it by the left arm to Murray.
"And here I am," Faye finished her explanation and asked her own question, "So what happened after my absence?"
"Changing back for level four access," said Bentley as he changed computers. Again the trio took out the guards with their own moves. There was a brief pause from Sly.
"We regrouped and came here," said Sly. Ten guards of goats and monkeys came rushing through the door and charged at the intruders.
"Hey Murray. How you holding up?" Faye shouted to the pink hippo.
"'The Murray' is ready for more!" he bellowed.
"Almost got it!" announced Bentley. Faye pointed to the throne in front of the fireplace to her right and yelled,
"Murray! Stomp, grab, and throw!" Faye took on the goat Murray was dealing with and thwacked him across the face with her cane and high-kicked him in the same place. Murray stomped near the throne, picked it up, and threw it at two monkeys and a goat.
"Okay, going for level three," said the turtle, going back to the other computer. Seven more guards came in as Sly finished off a monkey.
"There's just no end!" exclaimed Faye. She heard a yelp and turned to see Sly getting hit by a monkey's spear in the right thigh. It and two other monkeys surrounded Sly and closed in.
"Why you…come 'ere!" Faye yelled. She ran to help but Sly pulled off a three-sixty spin and knocked them all out with his staff.
'Great. This is going to come back on us I know it!' Murray socked a monkey through the hologram projector of the world and into a goat.
"I'm so close!" shouted Bentley, typing away with his hacking skills.
"Keep it up Bentley! You're doing great!" shouted Faye as she took on a goat with an overhead smash with her cane. Out of the corner of her eye Faye saw something move. A monkey had snuck around her to Bentley. The guard breathed in and Faye tripped it with her foot. Fire sprouted upward from the monkey's mouth as it landed on its back. "Fore!" Faye used her staff like a golf club and sent the monkey into next month and a wall.
"Yes. Heading for level two!" declared Bentley. Faye was now back-to-back with Murray.
"Hey Murray. Pick me up, will ya?" Murray lifted Faye up to his shoulders. A goat guard came behind Murray and Faye bent backwards with her legs around the big guy's neck. "We haven't met before have we? Well let me introduce you to my staff!" Faye swung her cane at the guard and watched as Sly hit the goat up and down to the floor. "Sorry to see you go so soon," said Faye. She raised herself back up and punched a monkey who jumped over Murray's fist.
"Almost; almost have it!" said Bentley.
"We're almost there guys. Just a little more!" declared Faye. "Throw me there." Faye pointed to a guard coming behind Bentley. Murray overlapped his hands and Faye hopped on. He threw her at the monkey and she held her cane out. She propelled into the tree hanger, slid on him like a sled, and stood on top of him.
"Going for level one access!" Bentley hyperventilated as he hacked the last barrier.
"Alright, let's go!" said Faye. Sly double-jumped and cane-spiraled down into a goat. The guard flew past Faye into the mantle of the fireplace. "Battle field in here," she murmured.
"This is intense! I can taste it!" said Bentley. He was obviously excited.
'He's getting faster at hacking.' Two goats and one monkey remained and each took one on. Murray punched at a monkey, Sly swung at one goat, and Faye threw the other goat. The three guards collided behind Bentley with a thud.
"I'm unstoppable! I've got control of the winch. Thanks for the backup guys," said Bentley, turning away from the computer. He stopped for a moment seeing the dozens of guards on the floor. One of them somehow wound up with a wedgie and was hanging from the broken pipe above.
"No problem, me, the big guy, and Miss Level-Headed had it covered," said Sly.
"It was…kind of fun," said Faye with a smile. She seemed to have forgotten what had happened only minutes before with the underground passage.
"Murray, let's hook up the direct feed and get out of here while the coast is clear," said Bentley. He pressed a few buttons on the computer and left through the double doors with Murray. Faye leaned on her staff at an angle and watched them leave.
"Are you coming?" Sly asked her. Faye turned to him.
"In a moment," she answered.
"Just remember that we need to get the gems off the headdresses of Rajan's elephants."
"I remember. Don't worry I'll be there." Sly ran to the edge of the floor and jumped down to the first. Soft splashing was heard as Sly exited the building through the waterway. Faye strolled over to the hologram projector in the middle of the room. She grabbed the first thing she saw among the buttons, knobs, and switches: a control stick. It was like the kind a person would see on an arcade machine but had a black button on top. Faye moved it counterclockwise and the world map turned to the left. She pressed the button and the hologram disappeared. In its place came a green holographic screen that looked like a computer screen.
"Guard duty for this month is as follows... Blah… Lunch schedule…" Faye read the list contents and brought the control stick down and continued to read, "Current bank balance… In the billions! Whoa. This guy is loaded. Login?" Faye crossed her arms for a moment, uncrossed them, and looked at the buttons on the pedestal. "Good thing they're labeled," she muttered. She pressed a gray one labeled 'Keyboard' and a hidden panel equipped with a keyboard and mouse flipped down from the front side of the podium. Faye grabbed the mouse and clicked on 'Login.' Faye's eyes bulged when she saw the name.
"StableKayla? Sheeze, what an egomaniac…" she muttered under her breath. She groaned a bit, seeing that she needed a password. She tapped the podium and shut her eyes. "What is the password? …" she opened her eyes, "Maybe…" She typed in 'Clock-La' and pressed enter.
"Access Granted," said a low, male, computerized voice. "Welcome Administrator StableKayla"
"Lucky break. …Administrator?" Faye started wondering why Neyla was an administrator on Rajan's computer when another screen came up after the first hologram faded. What came on made Faye's eyes bulge. The words 'My World' were pictured above a diagram of Clockwerk. A short paragraph was written below with the scribbles of a madwoman. Faye read it, whispering to herself,
"The Dimension Disrupter worked, but only halfway. The girl we tried getting into our world ended up keeping her memories. I'm somewhat sure of what went wrong. Someone must have built their own Dimension Disrupter and intercepted us. I will find out who did this, but in the mean time I need to get that girl to side with me. She has the key to the Cooper Gang's destruction and success. All I need to do is get to her one way or another."
Faye clinched her fists. "The nerve…of that…that…"
"It came from over here," came a voice from behind the doors. Faye quietly gasped, clicked 'Logout,' pressed the keyboard button, and pressed the control stick button.
"You sure? I didn't hear anything," said another voice. She ran over and off the edge of the level and ran for the waterway like Clockwerk was behind her. The double doors opened and two rhinos came in. She waded through the water as silently as possible. The guards shone their lights around the room.
"I know I heard something," said one guard. Faye bent down and crawled through the hole before a light shined on the water.
Faye came out on the other side of the tunnel wet beyond all belief. Her hair hung down front and back, her clothes were badly soaked, and she was shivering.
"That. Water. Was. Cold!" Faye began climbing the pipe beside her. "I'm always landing in friggin' cold water! I'm like a cat; I hate water; especially cold water." She hopped to the first low balcony and squeezed her clothes dry. "Did I do something to deserve getting dipped in freezing cold waters? I don't think so." She squeezed her costume. "Water resistant my foot. I can feel it through the dang thing. One moment I'm in my room, sound asleep and the next I'm in a dang…f, freezing cold room in a dang cold museum ticking off a dang officer." Faye hopped to the next balcony. "Oh but not any police officer. Carmelita Montoya Fox is who I ticked off with a comment about a monkey! Then I get carsick! And that's not all ladies and gentlemen!" Faye sounded like a game show host as she shook water off herself. "This girl got her hand grabbed by ugly-as-heck Dimitri, fell in a fountain, missed the chance at strangling a dang Dodo-head traitor that needs a beating, danced with a ten-foot tall egomaniac, fell into a raging river, fell off a dang waterfall, found herself as a dang pawn, got betrayed by a former contestant, got in a fight, nearly got barbecued by a stinking monkey, and has been in freezing cold water for the umpteenth time within the last few minutes!" Faye stressed her last words. She took a deep breath and let it all out. "And now folks it's time for her next show: elephant riding and gem grabbing."
"So, are you ready to do some thieving?" Faye breathed a faint mix between a gasp and a scream that barely escaped. Faye looked up at the balcony above her to see a familiar masked thief. Sly grinned as he leaned over the balcony's edge with his arms crossed.
"How, how long have you been there?" she asked Sly.
"Just long enough to hear you rant about a Dodo-head traitor that needed a beating," said the devious bandit. Faye pressured her teeth together.
"You did?" she said through clinched teeth. "Oh boy," she breathed, unclenching her teeth, "Looks like I'll have to explain, huh?" Faye held hope in her eyes for Sly's answer.
"It's your business. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," he said. Faye smiled as Sly dropped down to her level. "Let's go get those gems." Sly took out his binocucom for a moment and scanned the area. He put them up and said, "This way."
'He searched for the holographic marker.' Faye stayed close behind Sly as he headed near the center area to the elephant's pen. Faye stole a glance to Sly's injury from earlier in the boardroom. It didn't seem to affect him as he seldom ran but mainly walked to their destination. It had to be taken care of before it worsened, though Sly might have already done something about like beating up a guard and taking their first aid kit. Before Faye knew it, they had arrived at the entrance to Rajan's prized elephants' pen. Sly took out his binocucom and communicated to Bentley. 'How many times does he take out that binocucom during one heist?' Faye sat on the steps of the elephants' pen in front of the door. Sly put away the binocucom after a while and crawled under the steps. Faye got up and ran for the basket behind the pen for all she had. She was in sight of the basket when she heard it. The elephants trumpeted piercingly as the pen's door bust wide open. It was a miracle that the door didn't fly off its hinges.
Faye jumped on the basket, landed on the rooftop, and walked to the other side where the elephant awaited for its headdress to be torn apart. Sly was on the ground staring at the huge beast and came around the same side Faye did. She leaped onto the elephant's saddle and went to work on the headdress. She thwacked the heck out of the headdress as the elephant protested with its constant trumpeting and swung its trunk at Faye. She jumped over the elephant's nose and continued her beating. The gem soon came off and it threw Faye off its back towards the river as it crossed the bridge. Faye used the elephant's tail as a literal example of a lifesaver and landed safely on the ground. She put the gem in her pouch and hopped on a basket onto a roof. On the other side, Sly had jumped onto the same elephant Faye had and was going at the next gem. Red smoke traveled past Faye, signaling her to jump onto an elephant. When she did, she immediately took on the task of getting the proud creature's gem.
"The nerve of that backstabbing, no good, callous, pain in the butt, dirty, rotten, evil foul little cockroach-ian of a Dodo-headed villain…" The elephant trumpeted and swung its trunk at Faye while she muttered about Neyla. Faye turned her head just in time to be struck in the stomach by the mighty giant and crash against a wall.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Faye looked around her. Everything was pitch black. She held up her hand in front of her face and couldn't see it.
"Where am I?" her voice barely echoed. Her words were lost in darkness the moment they came out. "Hello?"
"Hello, Faye Tym Destine," said a slightly hoarse feminine voice.
"You know my full name? But…no one here knows my full name. Not even the Klaww Gang, and they brought me here," Faye spoke back.
"That is true," the voice said.
"You sound familiar. …Who are you?"
"Don't you know? I am you." Two spotlights came on. One was on Faye and was on…Faye? An older version of the teen stood before her but she was somehow…different in more ways than one. She had a vertical scar on her left eye and scars on her legs and arms. Her shirt was torn in three places, slanting down from left to right across her chest, as if talons had ripped into her. Her hair was a dirty blonde and her once sapphire blue eyes were darkened, and it wasn't the shadows playing tricks. She was taller and no longer held innocence in her eyes. It was like looking into her heart's dark side.
"I don't know what to ask first," said the younger girl.
"Then let me explain what I can," said the older Faye. "I come from a time different yet the same as yours. In this time, the Klaww Gang have succeeded in erasing your mind of all but your name, the Cooper Gang's weaknesses, and the plot they devised with the spice and Clockwerk parts."
"My mind? You mean your mind too, right?" interrupted younger Faye.
"Yes but for the sake of less confusion I'm saying your mind. If you feel the need to say 'No,' 'Can't be,' or anything like that please wait until I'm done." Younger Faye nodded. "Now, the Klaww Gang in my time have devastated a majority of Interpol and…"
"Yes?"
"…This may be too hard for you."
"Please. It may help me if I know." Older Faye sighed and stood up straight.
"…and Carmelita was among them."
"What…?" Younger Faye's eyes were watering.
"Not only them, but Sly Cooper as well as Murray." Younger Faye fell to her knees sobbing.
"Their deaths were gruesome. It's better if I don't say. But there was hope." The younger Faye immediately looked up. "Bentley survived." A smile appeared over the youth's face.
"I…you…Great I'm getting confused myself." Older Faye saw that her younger self could handle no more stress, so she switched the point of view in her explanation.
"I was sent to find and destroy him but upon finding him, he told me that the Klaww Gang was evil. He convinced me with footage of the people of Paris getting in fights from the spice and a recording of the Klaww Gang talking about me being a pawn. I returned to the Klaww Gang's headquarters and stole the Dimension Disrupter's blueprints. I gave them to Bentley and he pointed out that the machine was run by the Clockwerk parts. If he had a few, he could fix the problem by intercepting the past event when I was brought to Sly's world and cause the memories from being erased."
"He did it!" Young Faye cried. "He did it!" A mile wide grin spread on her face.
"Yeah, he did. He also made it so my past self would end up in the very Museum around the very moment where Sly and the gang dropped in so you wouldn't bump into the Klaww Gang. But I was punished for helping him. Neyla as Clock-La tore me apart with Dimitri and his red spheres of electricity, Rajan and his electricity granted by Clockwerk's Heart, Jean Bison and his deadly staff granted by Clockwerk's Talons, and the Contessa with her hypnosis. The reason Rajan and Bison had their weapons even though Clock-La was active was due to that foul being's and Arpeggio's mind to make near exact replicas of those accursed items." She closed her eyes, silently inhaled another breath, and went on a bit more quietly, "Each one of them unleashed their attacks as the Contessa's hypnosis kept me still. It wasn't pretty." Young Faye stayed quiet and seemed to be taking it all in. "Keep in mind that this is just a vision; it's not real and neither was the reality in which the Klaww Gang rules. A false reality."
"So…I have to stop that false reality and create a true reality," said Young Faye.
"Yes. If you need a question answered, look to your visions. Now, you must wake up. Wake up… Wake up…" Older Faye faded with her voice as a male one took her place. Everything went black as the voice got stronger.
"Wake up Faye. Faye?" Faye opened her eyes and looked around. A stone table was all she could make out as she rose from the ground. Other figures were blurred but recognizable by green, pink, and gray.
"I'm up, I'm up. Oh…my head's throbbing… How long have I been out?" Faye shakily got to her feet.
"About an hour. The headdresses have been taken care of. You took quite a hit," said Sly helping her stay steady.
"Now for the heist. Darn elephant… Got to add that to my list of things to avoid." Faye took a seat on the stone chair as the projector started up. Bentley spoke as the words "Operation: Hippo Drop" came on screen,
"Okay, synchronize your watches. This heist is going to take extreme precision. Here's the plan: I'll start things off by demolishing the palace's main bridge. That should cut off reinforcements from the Guest House and, hopefully, distract the ballroom guards standing watch over the Clockwerk Wings. Sly will then take Carmelita up on her offer for a dance and while the crowd is transfixed by their tango… Murray will lower into the ballroom on the electronic winch. Once down, he'll cut the wings free and then winch back up for an exit. Murray should then make his way out of the palace. I'll cover his exit with the RC-Chopper. Once he's past the drawbridge, we're home free." The projector shut off as the gang got ready for Operation: Hippo Drop.
The entire plot hasn't been unfolded, so stay tuned. If you haven't figured out what Faye said in chapter eight, here's the translation:
"What happened so near that seems so long ago?"
In other words, an event that just happened seems like it's been an eternity since it happened. You can't tell what to make of what just happened.
"Whether the twilight comes or goes, we march forward."
No matter what happens, life goes on as we march onward.
"Fate can be denied but only to a certain extent. Fore whom has the power to overthrow its word?"
You can push destiny in a different direction but only so far. You can't fully overpower Fate.
Hopefully that helped some of you. See you all in the next chapter!