Ch.9: Rise of Blood Phoenix

The next thing Bentley knew, he had his arms pinned down by Luna and Shadow Wolf. They were in some kind of musty old cave with torches lighting the interior. Bentley struggled in his captors grasps.

"Let go of me!" said Bentley "you won't get away with this,"

"Oh" said a sudden voice "I believe we will,"

A throne suddenly appeared out of nowhere. On top of it, was perched the mythical form of the Phoenix. Except it didn't look like any Phoenix Bentley had ever seen. This Phoenix, instead of looking like it was born from fire, looked like it had come from blood. It seemed more gruesome than a...welll it was to nasty to describe.

A red wolf was now staring at Bentley. His lone, silver eyes seemed to be groping around Bentley's inner sole. Bentley gulped as he asked.

"Who the heck are you?"

"I...my friend...am Blood Phoenix" said the wolf "leader of this little cerade layed out before you. Now that you're here my plan is one step closer to completeion,"

"So you're the one who was leading this operation to begin with" said Bentley " but why did you kidnap me? Why did you try to kill my friends?"

"You were mandatory for my scheme to work" said Blood Phoenix " you're friends, that you call the Cooper gang were standing in my way. The first step of course was to get rid of Sly. Luna and Shadow Wolf were on recon to steal the Jade Dragon when Luna spotted Sly from the roof. Shadow Wolf had his 'pets' attack the Inspector and ran off with the dragon. I called in an emergency phone tip to the cops that someone had just attacked thier boss. They arrived right on shecdule and Sly was blamed,"

"The second step was even easier than the first" explianed Luna, holding onto Bentley tight making sure he couldn't roll away. " By freeing Sly from prision your gang was sure to get hunted down more than ever. Which made it all more the easier for Phase 1 of Operation: Black Fire to begin. Leaving the note under your door I headed over to the police station and attacked Carimilita. Knowing Sly's little weakness I led you to my position with a howl and dropped her into the water. Sly would have drowned trying to save her. Making it a lot more easier in kidnapping you later,"

"But that fool Dimitri had to spoil our plans" said Shadow Wolf digging his claws into Bentley's arm. Bentley resisted to scream as Shadow Wolf continued. " because he saved them both I never got a chance to take care of that hippo leaving you defenseless and easy to snatch,"

"I still don't understand why you were trying to kidnap me?" Bentley feeling Shadow Wolf's claws dig deeper into his skin.

"We've already told you to much" said Blood Phoenix halting the converstation " prepare the ceremony. It's high time for the Great Fear to reawaken from his ashes and be born agian,"

Back with Sly and the remiander of the gang, including Carmilita, the search for Bentley and his kidnappers was on it's last leg. Sly swung his fist at a nearby tree causing the hard timber to shiver by the force of his blow.

"I can't believe I let this happen!" said Sly " I had a funny feeling that Luna and her gang were after Bentley and I couldn't stop it!"

"Calm down Sly" said Carmilita soothingly "we'll find him,"

Sly eyed Carmilita for a brief second then turned his eyes away. For the first time since this crazy thing began he knew Carmilita was being sincere about helping him retrieve Bentley. She probally would done the same if one of her friends ever ended up in trouble.

Penelope was probally feeling the worst. She loved Bentley and knew he felt the same. If Luna and Shadow Wolf did anything to harm her turtle she was going to make them pay.

Murray was more than ready to make Luna and her gang pay for what they've done to the Cooper Gang ever since Paris. Dimitri was actuaclly looking a little more serious than usual too. I guess the diving gear stopped going to his head after Luna and her gang returned.

Penelope looked at Dimitri and asked "You know Luna right? Where would she hide out?"

"Where else?" said Dimitri "in a den. Caves, holes...take your pick,"

"There's plenty of caves on the island" complianed Murray "we'll never be able to find the right one in time,"

"We have to try" said Sly "come on!"

With that the Cooper gang began to search cave after cave after cave. When they were finally about to give up Carmilita suddenly spotted something in the light of her shock pistol. Motioning for the others to follow they went in.

At last they found themselves right where Bentley and Luna's gang had been a second ago. The bloody phoenix perched on top of Blood Phoenix's throne seemed to be narrowing it's eyes at them as they came closer to it and it's perch.

Carmilita lokked at the ground noticing several footprints and one set of wheelchiar tracks.

"They were here" she said "but it looks like they've gone to another location,"

"There's got to be a way to find out where they went," said Sly.

A light bulb suddenly lit up over Penelope's head and she had an idea. Quickly drilling her hand into her pocket she retrieved a small minature computer and turned it on. Two bright red dots were flashing on the map in the middle of the screen.

"I can't believe I almost forgot about this" she said " ever since the fight with Doctor M. Betnley took his idea of a tracking device and planted one on his wheelchiar just in case The first dot shows where we are and the second dot shows where Bentley is,"

"Then what are we standing around for?" said Sly getting impatient "let's find Bentley,"

Meanwhile Bentley hoped by now the gang was close to finding him through his tracker. Penelope was sure to be on the island, they would have found her first and she was sure to help them find him.

The air was getting hotter and Bentley wished he could use his legs so he could fight his guards and run out of thier grasp. Even if that did happen Luna and Shadow Wolf's grasp appeared to strong to break. Blood Phoenix was leading them closer and closer into the hot, humid center of the volcano.

Whatever this Great Fear was and whatever part Blood Phoenix had for Bentley to perform to resurrect it. One thing anyone knew...it wasn't going to be good.