And, chapter 7 is here! Sorry about the lateness. Work/social life/video games/guitar really takes up my free time.
I've decided to do the sequel. Actually, I kind of knew I was going to do it a long time ago. Like, during the third chapter actually. I just never really announced that I had ideas of a sequel until chapter 6.
Okay! Read on!
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Chapter 7: When a Stranger Calls
"Ngh, my head."
Those were Sly's first words as he woke up, laying face down on a solid ground floor. He was badly bruised and his face was covered in dried blood, but he couldn't remember why. He looked up, and found himself in a cell. He got himself to his feet quickly, only to fall back down on his knees. Whatever they drugged him with made him extremely drowsy. He looked around in the cell. There was nothing more than a single toilet. They didn't even provide him with a bed. But who exactly were "they?" Who had taken him to this cell? He tried to remember what happened. He slowly pieced together the events from the night before. He remembered being attacked. Why? What were they there for? Why did they kidnap him? Carmelita... Did she escape? Is she okay? There was no way for Sly to know. He didn't have any way to contact her.
He slowly got to his feet and paced around in his cell to try and wake up. He walked to the cell door to see if he could pick the lock, only to find that it was an electronic lock, probably controlled by the computer terminal across the room from the cell. Cursing to himself, he sat back down on the hard ground. A few minutes passed, and the raccoon began to get annoyed. Where were the people who took him? Surely they would've left someone to guard his cell? And then he saw it. In the corner of the room, facing his cell, there was a surveillance camera. He looked up at it, gave it a dirty look, and turned away. Surely they would send someone in soon. They had to know that he was awake. And yet, no one came. Sly grew angry.
"Hey!" Sly yelled to no one in particular. "I'm awake you bastards! You're not even going to send someone in to gloat?" Sly waited, but no one came. He punched the wall near him in anger. He sat back down on the floor. Suddenly, the door to the room opened. A white tiger walked into the room.
"Phillip Marakov," Sly said, with no emotion. The tiger smiled.
"Very astute Cooper." He walked closer to the cell. "I must say, it's quite a sight. Sly Cooper, finally behind bars."
"Shut the hell up and tell me what you want with me," Sly demanded. The anger in his voice was more than obvious. Marakov chuckled.
"Okay. I'll get right to the point then. I need your family cane, and you're going to tell me where it is." Sly's face went from angry to confused.
"My cane? Why do you want it? And what the hell makes you think I'd ever tell you where it is?"
"Oh, you'll tell me. Trust me." Marakov smirked evilly. "But, we'll get to that later. As to why I need it, it should be obvious." Sly said nothing at first, but then he realized what the arms dealer was talking about. Sly's eyes widened.
"The Cooper Vault..." Sly grew silent for a moment. "Don't you think that you're going a little overboard for something as simple as money?"
"Ha! Money. The root of all evil, as the saying goes. You don't understand Sly. I'm not just after your money."
"Then what are you after if it's not just money? That's all there is in the vault." Marakov chuckled again.
"You can't even begin to understand what I'm after Sly."
"What do you mean?"
"It doesn't matter what I mean. If you really want to know why I'm after your family vault, you'll have to somehow find out yourself." He smiled. "Though, I'm sure that if you haven't found anything other than riches in your vault, then you'll probably never find out."
"What are you talking about? Are you saying there's something hidden in my family vault?"
"Maybe, maybe not." Sly sighed.
"Fine, don't tell me. I don't care. That doesn't change the fact that I'm not going to tell you where my cane is."
"That's what you think Sly," Marakov told him. "Just wait. You will tell us."
"How did you even know about my family vault anyways?"
"A little bird told me." Marakov smiled at the angry raccoon. Sly said nothing. He had no idea what he was talking about. "I'll leave you be for now Sly. I'll see you in a while. Rest up while you still can." He gave the raccoon one last smirk before walking through the door. Sly sat back down on the ground. How was he going to get out of here? He could only hope that Carmelita was able to escape and get help. He didn't like the tone that Marakov had when he was talking to Sly. He thought about what the tiger said to him before.
"Just wait. You will tell us." He sounded way too confident for comfort. What was going to happen? Why was he so sure that Sly would tell him where the cane is? He didn't seem worried at all.
For the first time in his entire life, Sly was scared of a criminal.
-
The Chief threw a folder onto the desk of Inspector Carmelita Fox. She was sitting in her chair, drinking coffee and reading over a few case files. She had tried avoiding the other officers within the building. She didn't feel like dealing with any of them today. They had surely heard of what had happened, and she didn't feel like hearing all the pity.
"This is all we could find." The Chief had a solemn look on his face. Carmelita picked up the file and looked through it.
"Blood. That's all you found?" She asked with a disappointed tone.
"Yes," the Chief replied. "And, as of our knowledge, there were no witnesses other than you."
"Damn it." She slammed her fist on the desk in frustration. "We have no suspects, little evidence, and no leads."
"I'm sorry." He gave the inspector a sympathetic look. "Carmelita, I know you don't want to, but please. Go home, or wherever you're staying right now. You have the case file now, and you're in no condition to work today." Carmelita sighed. He was right. She couldn't focus today. She was too worried about Sly.
"Fine." She got up and headed towards the door. Suddenly, she realized something. She turned back to the chief. "Sir, I forgot to tell you. My shock pistol was destroyed during the attack." The Chief nodded.
"Go and take one from the supply room."
"Thank you sir."
She headed out the door. Maybe Bentley and the others would be more help. After all, the Cooper Gang had a knack of finding criminals that Interpol couldn't find.
-
One hour had passed before Marakov returned to Sly's cell. However, this time, he brought a few armed guards with him. He walked over to the computer terminal as the guards walked towards the cell door. They had their guns pointed towards Sly. Marakov typed a few commands into the terminal, and the door opened. He walked into Sly's cell. Sly stood up.
"Okay Sly. Time for our little interrogation." He led Sly out of the cell, where one of the guards smacked the former thief's head with the butt of his gun. He fell down, unconscious.
When he regained consciousness, the first thing he noticed was that he couldn't move is arms or legs. He looked over to them to find that they were strapped down tight onto a metal table. There was a strange metal device going around his chest, with wires coming out of it. His face fell. He understood exactly what was going on.
"Finally awake eh?" said an unfamiliar voice. Sly lifted his head slightly to look at the man standing by the table. The man was a badger, no taller than Sly was. "So, I finally meet the infamous Sly Cooper. It is quite an honor. I'm Jacob Carson."
"I don't care who you are," Sly said. The man smirked.
"Fair enough. Let's get started shall we? I assume that you already know what I plan to do here, but allow me to clarify. We need your cane, and we're willing to do whatever it takes to get it. You can save us the trouble, and save yourself the pain, if you tell me right now where it is."
Sly's heart pounded. He'd rather not endure what they were planning to do to him, but he wasn't about to tell them where it was. Not only would that give them full access to his vault, but it would put Bentley, Penelope, and Murray in danger. He breathed in deeply and gave his reply.
"No."
Carson frowned. "An unwise decision, my friend. Still, it will be fun testing this thing out." He walked over to the control pad attached to the table, punched in a few commands.
Electricity shot throughout Sly's body. It was unlike anything that Sly had ever experienced. Every nerve in his body exploded in pain. He couldn't keep the scream from escaping his lips. The large room echoed with the sounds of a man in terrible pain. Sly knew nothing. There was no time, no space, no emotion, no sense, nothing. Only pain.
And then, it stopped.
Sly's body twitched involuntarily. The pain subsided a little, but Sly could still feel the electricity going through his body. He breathed heavily. It was worse than he had anticipated.
"Y'know, this is the first time I've actually used this. I've never been able to test it. Since it's the first time, I was hoping you could give me some feedback. Tell me Sly, how painful was it? What would you compare it to? A thousand needles stabbing your entire body perhaps? Or maybe being thrown into a pit of fire?" Sly said nothing. He was still trying to stop twitching. "Now, about that cane of yours..."
"...piss off..." Sly's voice was shaky and weak.
"Tsk tsk. I will not tolerate such vulgarity in my torture chamber Mr. Cooper. Didn't your parents ever tell you that it's not nice to swear?" Carson smiled. "Or can you not remember them? I mean, it's been so long since you last saw them hasn't it?" Sly's face hardened. "Where exactly are they anyways Sly? Are they dead? I heard that Clockwerk and his cohorts killed them. Is that true?" Sly kept his silence. Carson was trying to get to him. And it was working. "Can you remember it Sly? The scream of your mother as that last little bit of life left her body? The sound of metal talons ripping through your father's bones? The gruesome image of your parents, lying in a large pool of their own blood? Do you remember?" He edged his fingers closer to the console.
"Shut the hell up you bastard!" Sly growled.
Suddenly, Sly felt the pain again as the electricity surged through his body. It almost felt worse this time. Did he increase the voltage? The scream was louder. Although it only lasted a few seconds, Sly thought it lasted for hours. It was soon over.
"What did I say about vulgarity? There are consequences for those who don't follow my rules Sly." Sly couldn't even comprehend what Carson was saying. The pain was too great. He could barely think. Carson smiled at the raccoon. "This is going to be a fun day."
-
Later that night...
Carmelita sighed as she sat down on the couch and watched TV. She couldn't believe it. There was absolutely nothing she could do at the moment. The case file proved to be fairly useless, and all that the Cooper Gang could do was give their suspicions. Carmelita had a possible suspect, Phillip Marakov. He was the only one who had a possible motive. After all, he was being tracked by Sly. But she had no idea where he might be. No one knew where his operation was based. Bentley was still trying to find a way to find Sly, but it was harder than he thought it would be. As she watched the news, Bentley walked over to her.
"Any luck?" she asked, hopefully. Bentley shook his head.
"He could be anywhere, even if Marakov took him. There are just too many places to search. I've tried narrowing it down, but there's still dozens of places to search. It could take weeks to find him if we began searching all possible locations, and by then..." Bentley's voice trailed off. He didn't want to finish that sentence.
"Damn it."
"I'll keep looking. We'll find him. Don't worry."
Carmelita watched as the turtle wheeled himself back to his room, to search on his laptop. Carmelita sighed. Suddenly, her cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked at the caller ID, expecting the Chief. It wasn't the Chief. It was a blocked number. Carmelita looked at it in confusion. She opened the phone and brought it up to her ear.
"Fox here."
"Hello there Inspector Carmelita Fox." The other line had a low voice. Carmelita's face hardened.
"Who is this?"
"No one in particular," The other line replied.
"Who the hell are-?"
"We have him," the other line interrupted. Carmelita gasped. It was them. The ones who attacked their apartment.
"You bastard."
"Now is not the time for name calling Miss Fox. There are more important matters at hand."
"Where is he?!" Carmelita shouted into the phone. The voice on the other line chuckled.
"Don't worry. We're taking real good care of him."
"Why are you after Sly?"
"We're not after him. We're after his cane."
"His cane? All this because of a stupid cane?"
"Heh, you're more naive than he is." The voice chuckled again. "If you want to see him again, you'll do as I say."
"What do you want from me?"
"You will meet with one of our clients at the cafe by the water tower in a half an hour. You will come alone. You will bring Sly's cane." Carmelita hesitated before answering.
"How do I know this isn't some sort of trap?"
"You can't know for sure," the voice answered. He paused for a second. "I know just what will make you agree to give us the cane."
"What do you mean?"
"Just one second." Carmelita thought she heard the sound of someone tapping on a keyboard. "Carson, turn on the microphone from in there." Suddenly, Carmelita heard a heavy breathing, as if someone was out of breath. She heard a second, unfamiliar voice.
"Well my friend, things just got a little more interesting." No one said anything. The heavy breathing continued. "You must be in pain. We've been at this for a few hours, yes?" Carmelita heard someone groan, as if in pain. "You know how to stop the pain. Tell me. Where is it?"
"Go to hell." It was Sly. His voice was incredibly weak. It was almost a whisper. Suddenly, he screamed. Carmelita held the phone away from her ear. She heard the snapping of electricity behind the loud screams. After a few seconds, the screaming stopped. The heavy breathing started up again.
"You know, someone is listening into our little chat right now," she heard the other voice say. "Do you know who it is?" Sly said nothing. "It's Carmelita."
"Carmelita!" Sly shouted. "Don't do what they say! They'll kill you!" He suddenly screamed again. Carmelita winced at the sound. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. The screaming was suddenly cut off.
"Hello again, Carmelita." It was the voice from before. The one who had called.
"You... you sick bastards..."
"You got thirty minutes. Bring the cane." The other line hung up. Carmelita stared out in front of her with an open mouth. Her lower lip was trembling.
"What did they say?" Bentley asked. Carmelita turned to him.
"They said to bring the cane to a cafe in a half an hour." She got up and headed to the closet. She opened the door and pulled out Sly's cane.
"You're not really going to go are you?" She nodded. "Carmelita, what if this is a trap? What if, once they have the cane, they kill both you and Sly?"
"What the hell else are we supposed to do Bentley?" she shouted. Murray and Penelope walked into the room.
"Geez, could you be any louder?" Penelope asked. "What's going on anyways?"
"The people who took Sly want his cane," Bentley told her. She looked at Carmelita.
"And you're going to give it to them?" Murray asked. Carmelita nodded. "Are you crazy?"
"This is the only thing we can do that might save Sly. I'm going. Don't follow me." She walked out the door holding Sly's cane, ignoring the protests from behind. She got into her car and drove off.
--
Chapter 7: Done.
So, what is Marakov really after? What else is in the Cooper Vault that would be of use to him besides money? Is there some sort of secret treasure hidden within the Vault? Something that Sly doesn't know about? You'll have to wait and see!
Until next chapter folks!
-eaglefan101