Hiya! Okay~ Time to get into real people stuff, I am naturally leaned toward around 2400 words worth of writing so let see if I can do more today~ Enjoy~
-Sly
I wasn't really sure what it was, but the group as a whole seemed to be feeling much better for the van ride to Haiti. Well, it was more or less a ride to a boat (well cruise type ship, it was giant…) where we waited while we were getting taken to Haiti. Milo seemed to be excited for the next mission and Naiya was bright and full of energy once again. I couldn't keep a grin off my face at the sight of them being happy to be with us.
Bentley had been searching for information on Mz. Ruby, but he joined in the conversations with us every now and again. As usual, Murray was bounding with energy and all of this positive energy made him even happier.
I shook my head at Naiya and Murray before telling them they should probably go and burn off some of the excess energy. They were gone in a blink, I didn't realize two people could be so fast until this moment. I noticed Milo walking around passing by people. It was kind of cold, but we were apparently almost there, so soon it would get hot and humid. I looked at him as he casually passed by people and weaved around most of the deck before slipping behind a wall.
I walked up to him and stared down at the coon who was looking at quite a few objects in his hands, completely oblivious to the fact that I was behind him.
"You know, there's no honor in stealing from regular people."
He yelped and froze up before meeting my gaze and smile. He sighed feeling relieved that it was just me.
"Like you have never stolen from a commoner. Besides, I just wanted to look at some of these things." He explained.
I shook my head at him before he smirked and flipped his hood back on before slipping back through the crowd and returning a minute or two later with nothing in his hands or pockets. I gave him a confused look. I couldn't wrap my head around why someone would steal something then immediately return it. Sure, there was no honor in it and he said he just wanted to look at them, but it still made little sense to me.
"Anyways, you sure are happy today, I swear yesterday you were so upset and could barely and contain the negative emotions. What happened?"
He just looked at me before chuckling. However, a few moments later it turned to sadness once again. It was an instant reaction, his emotions were almost like snap freeze. One second he was warm and happy, but instantly became cold not a minute later. He stared down seemingly lost in a trance. I grabbed his shoulder and made him look at me. His eyes almost appeared grey and dull compared to the normal green. He tried to look down again I kept his head up and didn't let his eyes leave my gaze.
"I wasn't really happy today… I just like keeping the true emotions hidden. I'm gonna go sit in the van…"
"I'll come with you then."
"No."
I raised an eyebrow at the objection and just looked at him.
"Okay then," was the only response I could come up with.
"Sly…" He was tearing up a bit, "I didn't mean to hurt you…"
"What do you mean, you didn't hurt me."
"I'm… I'm the reason."
I knew where this was going and pulled him close to me before he could continue. It wasn't a place I wanted him to go, and I knew he wouldn't feel comfortable until he said it, but I couldn't let him say it.
"None of this is your fault, Okay? You had nothing to do with it, there is no way you could've stopped this." I tried to comfort him, but he was gone again.
I saw Naiya and Murray about to round the corner and decided that this wasn't a form they should see Milo in. After all, I knew he wouldn't want them to see him like this. I quickly picked him up, he was light and not too hard to carry and brought him back to the van and shut the door behind us.
-Milo
I couldn't look at him. He was too much like him. The more I thought of him, the more I lost it. Sly closed the doors to the van and it was just me and him again. I was slightly glad since I didn't really want anyone to see me so broken. I glanced at the front seat to see Bentley had also left. I relaxed a bit and squeezed my eyes shut tight trying to forget it all.
"Milo, you need to tell me what's wrong."
~Milo, you need to tell me what's wrong."
"Nothing's wrong, Jay…"
"Who's Jay? And I can tell when you are sad about something."
~Don't lie to me, I can tell when you are sad about something"
"It's no big deal. I promise Jay…"
"What are you talking about? You could barely keep yourself together out there."
~Come on bud, you could barely keep yourself together out there."
Warmth. I finally opened my eyes only see blue. I looked up slowly to see a pair of brown eyes staring down at me. There was a frown to accompany the worry that filled his eyes. I felt the arms around my back again. Sly was a person who was all for hugs. I couldn't quite understand why though. I could only imagine it was because of what happened early in his life.
He gave me a quick smile then I returned to the shock. They are so similar, but that's not possible. They aren't the same. Sly is… Different… I think. I can barely remember Jay.
" Who is Jay?"
Again I snapped back to reality.
"He was my brother."
"Okay, that makes sense. Why were you calling me Jay?"
"I was?"
I barely even noticed the difference in the conversations. I also didn't realize I was talking out loud.
"Yeah you seemed like you've already had this conversation."
"I have. You two are so similar it scares me. Whenever I see your eyes," I looked up at Sly taking note at the happiness that returned to him, "I see him. He was always there for the worst like you are," I looked away from Sly and just stared at the floor for a second. "I'm gonna go to sleep, wake me when we get there."
"Sure thing, bud."
He released me and I quickly drifted to sleep. I felt calmer after telling Sly everything. There was nothing left to hide and most importantly. Someone finally knew my story.
-Naiya
" I win again!" I was so excited and was full of energy after sleeping for so long. We had been on the boat for a week and we were about to arrive in Haiti where the drive would begin.
"No fair! I want a rematch. Bentley, you can be the judge of who finished first this time."
Said turtle just sighed before giving a hand motion to continue with our little game. All we were doing was running around the ship multiple times and I had won about four times now and Murray won once. I needed to make up for the loss since someone tripped me. I found it entertaining running around the ship since the scenery always changed. One second there is vast open ocean and the next second, 'Hey! Look!' Even more vast open ocean.
We set up at the starting line as Bentley dryly counted down. "3… 2… 1… *sigh* go."
With that, Murray and I were off I took a pretty sizable lead since we had been running for hours and Murray was a bit less suited for running than I was. After the first lap, I had made it halfway around and was on the front of the ship when I saw a speck in the distance. I squealed a bit (Only a bit) before waiting for Murray who stopped next to me to see what I was excited about.
"Isn't it beautiful," I might've been tearing up. "Land."
"Um, sure? Are we gonna finish the race?"
"Let's just walk the rest of the way," I smiled at him and continued to do just that.
Another ride in the van. Oh joy, I can hardly contain myself. Normally I'm not a fan of riding in the back of a van without any seat belts or seats for that matter. However, this was a whole new form of bad. The 'road' we were driving along was basically just dirt and tree roots. There were also a few rocks thrown in there just to keep things interesting. I grabbed onto the front seat for dear life as we drove along.
Two hours… two agonizing hours of pain, suffering, and Sly laughing at me for my reaction to what was happening. It was almost enough to make a girl murder a raccoon. Not Milo, though. Milo just shook his head as Sly laughed and punched his shoulder occasionally to silence him. I appreciated the effort. He seemed a bit upset when before we got off the boat, but once on land he seemed comfortable again.
With the van's stop, I flung myself out the back only to see a dark swamp and a lot of creatures moving around. It felt like everything was moving. I looked at what appeared to be a mosquito. I hoped it wasn't since it was at least three feet long. I stared it down, Bentley had returned a shock pistol I had to me once they all decided I wasn't a real threat to them. I aimed at it, but Sly grabbed my arm and shook his head
"But it's giant!" I tried to reason with him. Needless to say, it didn't work.
I sat in the back of the van once again and looked at Bentley who having a panic attack after Sly left. I just stared at the turtle who seemed to have more tech out than usual.
"Um, Bentley? What's… All this" I gestured with my hands to the excessive amount of technology that was engulfing the turtle.
He just looked at me like I had three heads before responding.
"The paranormal activity in this swamp is off the charts! My EMF readings are spiking and there are ghosts all around us." I just blinked at before sitting down in the back of the van and slowly and softly banged my head against the wall.
"Why did you have to do this to me."
Milo shook his head before getting his things together. He had his rifle attached to his back this time. I hadn't actually seen him with it yet, but according to Sly, his aim was impressive. I wasn't sure what to think about him in a combat or assassin sense. He had knives and being close to people, but he apparently had a special rifle with him that he was good at using.
"Do you prefer your rifle or the knives when you fight?"
The air was just sort of still after that question. He just looked at me. It was a bit out of the blue, but when I was curious enough, I always find an answer. After a few seconds, he responded.
"I suppose it depends. I personally prefer the range since I've been using the rifle longer than the knives. Although, since the knives are passed through the family, I feel obliged to use them. Actually, we have a sort of book like the Thievius Raccoonus," Bentley's attention was diverted from Sly's ghost problems to listen, "We called it, The World Within. The title was a bit strange, although after reading through it a few times you can feel things as if they are a bit different. There are a bunch of stories and techniques developed. Everyone has a move in here except my one sister and brother since neither got the knives. I plan on leaving my mark soon."
There was a grin on his face. I stared at him in shock, just a little bit, though. He told us so much I thought I was gonna explode. I went from knowing almost nothing about Milo to knowing about his legacy and things about his family.
"Whatever Sly has been doing with you is working. You are really starting to open up to us." Bentley spoke from behind his laptop.
"I suppose. I also just take a while to get used to people. I'm just a shy person regardless of my profession."
I wanted to ask him more, but I also remembered Sly telling me about his family. It was horrible what happened. I didn't want to bring it up since he told me it struck a certain part of him and generally wasn't a wise decision. I just smiled and waved him off as he chased after Sly like he usually did.
-Milo
It was nice to be running around again. Being stuck on the ship wasn't something I really enjoyed and I sincerely hoped we had another way to get out of here. I slid along the vines occasionally and walked along some branches attempting to catch up to Sly. Before and while we were on the boat Sly taught me how to walk on the rails. Sliding was a different story, although it was relatively similar.
The life was buzzing in the swamp and everything appeared to move. I had my rifle on my back for this mission since carrying it was not really an option. Something I wasn't expecting was a tree(?) to grumble then try and smash me into the ground. Without any real hesitation, I shot at it until it inevitably fell. Sighing, I continued forwards seeing Sly standing still waiting for a guard to look away. When said guard looked away, Sly slipped across the ledge before climbing up and taking the guard out from behind. I just stared at him as he continued forwards to whack some candles until they extinguished and a weird purple glow surrounding the key disappeared.
~So the magic in this place that Bentley was talking about is real. Why did I bother coming out here…
Suddenly an earpiece I put in earlier cracked to life cutting me off from my thoughts.
"You know Milo, I could always use some help."
I looked at a raccoon who was waving up to me, undoubtedly smirking. I just sighed and looked back at him before making my way over to him quickly.
"It's more fun to watch, though."
"You like what you see?" Sly said in his most cocky tone.
"Yeah, it's fun seeing a raccoon run through a swamp avoiding magic and monsters and basically clinging to adrenaline for life." I just sighed.
"That's what makes it more fun!"
"..." I just sighed loudly and exaggerated how annoyed that statement made me.
I met up with Sly after a few minutes of sliding around and grappling occasionally. Grappling wasn't something I particularly trusted here since literally everything could either come to life, fall apart, or just be too slimy for the cord to attach to.
"What took you so long." Sly teased smirking and hanging over his cane.
"I was sightseeing. I think there a snake that wanted to eat you."
"I could only dream."
After shaking my head (again, this was far too frequent) we headed to the next section. The ground here seemed relatively stable. Sly had been talking to Bentley about getting more treasure keys to unlock some sort of pot thing? It had enough pressure built up to launch Sly to the lair of Mz. Ruby. I'd read about her a few times. She was a voodoo master who could summon the undead and control people. I thought it was just a tale, but it was definitely a possibility from what I'd seen so far.
"Okay let's split up this time. We'll get it done faster and be out of this swamp sooner. You just don't want to have to run around as much."
He just pa my head slightly hitting my left ear. I could feel half of my slit ear come down until Sly stopped what he was doing and looked a bit panicked.
"Sorry about that. Did that hurt?"
I looked at him curiously but remembered that I hadn't told him what happened to my ear. I just chuckled slightly.
"Don't worry it's as bad you probably think it is."
With a reassuring look Sly headed out in a direction and I took to another.
I headed towards a small cavern type area and climbed along a root along the top of the cave before descending on a guard below me and swiftly removing him. I walked through the area to see a lake and bunch of unlit torches. The earbud crackled to life again.
"Milo," Bentley began, "the only way to open up that voodoo gate is by lighting all 25 tiki torches with the flamethrower on the swamp skiff."
"Okay, no problem."
"Oh and one more thing, you need fuel for the flamethrower. And the only source are those piranha you see swimming around. Run them down with the boat - one fish fuels one shot. Hurry, you only have two minutes to get all the torches lit!"
"Alright… wait what?! Two minutes?
The connection dies and I sprinted to the skiff to see A little timer and a meter for the amount of shots I had left.
"Why do I get so little time…"
I finally lit the 25 torches and got through the gate after what felt like forever. Every time the timer stopped the torched went out and I had to go back to the dock to start again. Tedious. Aggravating. These are the best words to describe this task. I couldn't even think straight I was so annoyed. However, a very nervous Sly caught my attention. I stared at him and he just looked back at me seemingly shaken. I'd say he looked like he'd seen a ghost, but that was so likely that there was no point in saying so.
"Sooo, how'd it go?" I asked tentatively.
"There was a snake…"
I just looked at him confused at what he just said.
"A snake? That's what is making you so frightened, I never thought the 'great' Sly Cooper would be afraid of a snake." I poked.
He grabbed the key from me and unlocked the locks on a gate to a small channel of water. I didn't really know how it was gonna help us but I just sat on a rock and wait. I saw some ripples in the water and raised an eyebrow at it. Sly was kneeling behind the rock and me. I wasn't quite sure why.
A quick burst erupted from the water and I saw it. A giant snake charged through the water. Actually, giant doesn't even come close to describing this monster. I just stood up and backed up falling over the rock and landing on Sly. The snake broke a gate blocking the next area before diving back into the water and disappearing.
Sly pushed me off him and I laid on the ground for a minute before Sly finally gave me a hand. I just looked at him realizing I was giving him the same look he gave me.
"It looks like you've just seen a ghost."
"Why am I even here," I spoke so plainly that there was no question in my voice.
"Because… you enjoy my company." Sly grinned at me.
I just looked at him and shrugged walking past him.
"Whatever… the gate is open let's keep going." I hid a smirk under my hood which I had flipped back on.
Another few hours or so of walking through a swamp trying to get these keys, I was beginning to get tired. It was kind of a bother sliding around so much and dealing with things that may or may not be dead. I just sat back in some shadows waiting for Sly to return with the remaining three keys. I had climbed up a waterfall and whacked a bunch of chickens for a ghost who wanted gumbo Although this literally made no sense since he is dead and can't eat nor could he die to the explosive roosters that he was afraid of, but it was for a key so I guess I don't mind.
I noticed Sly across the way attempting make it over to me. I was the closest to the locks, however, I was still a fair distance away. Around a minute later the raccoon was standing in front of me and I looked up at him with a slight grin as he looked down at me. For some reason, I was always surprised by his height. He reached a hand out to me and I handed him my keys.
"You should go back now."
"Aw. How boring. Okay."
I turned around and gave the raccoon a salute as he unlocked the locks and was launched into the lair of Mz. Ruby.
-Naiya
"Bentley" I whined slightly.
For a minute all I got out of Bentley was a sigh until he responded.
"What do you want?"
"How does this whole thing work?"
I waved my arms motioning that I was talking about the entirety of what Sly was doing. He was dodging some weird symbols until he made it to Mz. Ruby and hit her. She then teleported as weird poles started shooting out of the water.
"Magic," Bentley replied dryly.
I didn't want to accept that answer, but I realized that magic was the only plausible option, so I nodded contently and stared at his computer noticing how Sly dodged around.
"You should get some sleep Naiya, I don't think you've slept since we got here about a day ago."
I knew I should get some sleep, but I wasn't really tired. Although I definitely could feel the effects of the sleep deprivation. I sighed and vaulted over into the back and rested my head on my backpack. Milo was asleep in the corner again. I wasn't surprised since he was running around a lot and was barely able to walk when he got back to the van. It was only a couple minutes before I was asleep.
Sly had shown up and jumped into the back of the van. He dropped his hat when he got in and we sped away from the scene. Unfortunately for a certain sleeping person, the hat landed on me and I yelped as I shot up. I looked angrily at Sly ignoring the headrush the best I could. Sly just gave me a grin and stuck his hands up in the air. I shook my head and gave him his hat back.
"Did you get the page you needed."
"Yep. It's an interesting one."
"What does it teach you about?"
"You'll find out" He winked at me.
I just glared at him not wanting to find out what that meant. He leaned back against the wall and let out a sigh of relief. Milo's ear perked up at the sound of Sly being back. He slowly got up and stretched before looking around. He didn't say anything, though, it felt a bit awkward for me, but Sly seemed completely unfazed by everything. Milo leaned over towards Sly and looked at the pages quickly analyzing them.
During this process, his eyes shot wide open.
"No." He whispered in shock.
I just looked at him and Sly whom was giving a sinister grin. I didn't like it.
"What is it?" I questioned quickly.
"Is this even possible?"
"For a Cooper, anything is possible," Sly said
"WHAT!?" I yelled out.
Milo gave me a confused look.
"You didn't tell her?"
"Nope."
"That is likely for the best."
I grumpily folded my arms and looked to the side as Sly laughed and Milo just shook his head in disagreement from why Sly was laughing.
Okay~ I'm tired… it's 1:28 A.M. 8/10/16 and I on the edge of consciousness. I hoped I will release the next chapter sooner. Also I 100% completed Sly 2 and I intend to 100% Sly 3, right now I'm on chapter 5 (6?). Umm yeah, I think this chapter is longer than normal. Yeah Reviews are appreciated so I can see how it is for the other readers out there. Anyways… Cya~
