HI GUYS, SLY 4 IS OUT, I HAVE IT, HERE HAVE A CHAPTER I DIDN'T PROOFREAD, IMMA GO PLAY!

"Where are we going anyway?" I asked, looking over my shoulder, in the direction we were headed.

Sly stopped rowing and I did as well. He spun in his seat and faced the darkness, "It should be somewhere around here."

"What?" I followed his example, facing the same darkness, "There's nothing there."

"Exactly."

I got what he meant a second before there were several dull, vague noises, and the sky exploded.

The Panda King. I squinted against the sudden lights in the distance. "Is that a cruise ship?"

"That it is." Sly said with a grin, taking up his oar again and elbowing me out of the way to take mine as well, "It's a long story."

"Fantastic. I love stories." I settled myself at the front of the boat, dimly wondering what the front of a boat was called. The only nautical terms I knew were 'port' and 'starboard'.

"Maybe it ought to wait until we get onboard," He said, peering over at me, "And get you a blanket or something."

I hadn't even noticed I was shivering and couldn't feel my feet until he mentioned it. Suddenly it was freezing, "Maybe it ought to."

I've hated rope ladders ever since I was little. Maybe that was part of the reason I was afraid of heights, I always fell when I tried to climb a rope ladder. Guess how I was supposed to climb up to the deck of the ship?

"You," I informed Sly, tugging on the rope ladder to make sure it was secure… and to stall for time, "Are staying down here until I am safely up there."

I could practically hear his smirk, "Scared of falling, Jinx?"

"I will push you out of this boat, don't think I won't." I sighed and shook my head, "Then I'll have to save you from drowning, then we'll both get hypothermia. I have got to teach you how to swim!"

"Up the ladder, Jinx, it's not going to spontaneously become an elevator."

"I hate you."

"No you don't."

"Close enough."

Several stories later, I reached up to grab the next ladder rung and my forearm was enveloped by a large, pink hand.

I find it extremely unfair that Murray can pick me up like a ragdoll, it makes me feel very small.

"Murray… Murray, it's great to see you too, but… I can't breathe."

He pulled back and scrubbed at his runny nose with the back of one massive hand, "'The Murray' is glad to see you back safe and sound!"

I patted his arm, dutifully ignoring his sniffling. "Thanks, Murray. Ah, Guru! Hello."

The koala muttered under his breath as he looked me over.

"Shut up, I've had a hard day."

"Hard?" Sly's head popped up over the railing behind me, "And here I was thinking this was a good day. Will no one help me up?"

I seized his arm and pulled, "RC chopper ride. That's all I'm saying."

"Sorry, I tried to make it as smooth as possible."

"Penelope!" I ran over to give her a hug, "Don't worry, anything to get me out of there. It was so boring."

"According to the files, you caused quite a lot of trouble," came a voice from behind us. I turned and smiled.

"You would have too, you know." I bent over and wrapped my arms around the wheelchair bound turtle, "Thanks for the out. Missed you." And I had, almost as much as I'd missed Sly. Bentley was good to have around, he was a veritable bottomless pit of knowledge and he was just one of those people more than capable and willing to manipulate you for your own good. … Why I thought that was a good trait was beyond me.

"Sorry it took so long. I think Kristian was keeping you off the grid for as long as possible on purpose." He tilted his head at me and if his glasses hadn't been reflecting the light so completely, I probably would have been able to see them dart over me in examination. "How are you feeling?"

"Yeah, he probably did. I'm fine, I managed to avoid having to take any meds through sleight of hand- thank you for that," Sly nodded in acknowledgement, "And a puzzle box. Panda King!"

The large bear, who had just come down from a higher level, smiled slightly and bowed, "It is good to see you well, Kaia Jenks."

I grinned at him and looked around the deck. "So, anyone feel like telling me why we're here? The lights are pretty."

"You dig? Not bright as the club beat, but a home away from casa for Dimitri!"

I looked over my shoulder very slowly.

I refuse to be responsible for my following action.

"You really need to learn to control the violence of your reactions, Jinx." Sly sounded more amused by the situation than interested in actually reprimanding me.

I grunted at him, "I've been under severe, prolonged mental stress." I opened an eye and looked at him, "Didn't I lock the door? …Right, locking a door is probably like giving you a cookie."

He chuckled. After my rather… aggressive reintroduction to Dimitri I'd headed to my cabin (been grounded by Bentley) for the night. There I took the longest shower I'd ever taken and got over-excited at the prospect of using my own shampoo (which looked to have been stolen straight out of my bathroom at The Safehouse; I would have given a major limb to have witnessed that). Some of my clothes had also been added to the drawers, so I donned a T-shirt and pair of pajama pants, wrapped myself in a robe, and flopped onto the fluffy bed. Sly had apparently let himself in while I was in the bathroom changing.

"So, why are we here anyway?" I gestured vaguely to the room. It could have almost pass for a normal hotel room except for the balcony (which I never intended to venture onto ever) that overlooked only water, "Is The Safehouse nautical now?"

He snorted, stretching out a little more on the couch, "That'll be the day, though we might have to steer clear of Paris for a while. Nah, Dimitri called in his favor. He originally just booked passage for the gang, but we bought out the rest when we decided to use it as the getaway vehicle for your rescue. Easier to deal with that way."

"Okay, 'rescue' might be a bit of a stretch," I was interrupted mid-sentence by a very rude yawn as I stretched. "And while we're on the subject, exactly how much money do you guys have to be able to buy out passage on a cruise ship?"

Sly grinned and tapped the side of his nose, "Secret secrets. Don't you want to know what Dimitri's favor is?"

I sighed, pulling a pillow down to the foot of the bed and burying my head under it, "What favor did Dimitri ask, Sly?"

"Pirates."

I waited a moment, then lifted the pillow an inch so I could look at him under it. "I can't have heard you right. Did you just say 'pirates'?"

His eyes were alight with excitement, he was almost trembling with energy as he sat on the edge of his chair, "The favor Dimitri asked is that we recover diving gear that was stolen from his grandfather a long time ago. Stolen by a pirate. A pirate who lives in a town called Blood Bath Bay. Which is easily the most lawless town on Earth where the inhabitants doggedly maintain the ways of their pirate forefathers."

My mouth dropped open. When I reigned in my surprise, I had to say, "It is a really good thing you came to get me beforehand, if I'd missed this I would have killed everyone." Then I shook my head, "Only you guys would find a way to rob stereotypical pirates in the twenty-first century."

"Oh, ye of little faith. Oh, by the way- late Christmas present!"

I managed to catch the bag thrown at me by contorting at a weird angle that made every vertebrae in my back crack and almost dropping my pillow on the floor. I recovered gracefully.

Sly looked over the arm of the couch at me, "Nice catch. How's the floor?"

"Doesn't matter, caught the bag."

I sat up with a grimace and pulled the tissue paper out of the bag, followed by…

I burst out laughing and held up the plush raccoon, "You are so vain!"

"That depends completely on your point of view."

I shook my head and cuddled the plush, "Still, it's soft. Thanks. Did you all find the presents I had for you?"

"No way, we didn't go in your room any more than we had to."

I rolled my eyes, "Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean my room is a toxic wasteland. Though it probably is now, I didn't get a chance to clean it before China…"

"My point exactly."

I threw the pillow at him. He dodged and tossed something else at me, which I actually managed to catch. I groaned when I realized what it was.

"Hey, it's either that or you spend the whole trip throwing up over the railing like last time. Besides, those have been cleared by Bentley as poison free."

"That does little to reassure me, but I suppose it's a necessary evil." I shrugged and popped the top on the bottle.

As easily as the banter returned, it was hard for me to really ease back into my role in the gang. It was through no fault of the gang, of course, it was just hard for me to relax my position of having to be withdrawn and aloof because anyone who had spoken to me for the last couple of months had had an ulterior motive.

I think Bentley had anticipated that. Since the gang had bought out the ship, I could wander as much as I wanted without running into anyone, but if I felt the need for company, it wasn't hard to find a member of the gang either.

Things didn't get better overnight and I had to apologize a lot for snappy remarks that came out without my permission, but things did get better eventually. By the time we reached Blood Bath Bay, I could say with confidence that I was almost back to normal.

I spent a surprising amount of time on the deck of the cruise ship. I'd never gotten the point of sunbathing, but at the beginning of spring the air was cool and the smell of the fresh ocean was to die for. A book, an iPod, and a plate of fruit made the area perfect for relaxation.

At least, until I was interrupted.

"Can you overdose on oranges?" Sly asked curiously after pulling the earbuds from my ears and looking over at my plate.

"Oranges are awesome. I missed oranges. And we're at sea, it seemed appropriate." I said, noting my page number and setting my book aside. "Besides, now my hands smell all citrusy. Let me guess, we're near Blood Bath Bay?"

"Yup," He practically dragged me off my chair, "Come on, let's go! Pirates!"

"You are six years old today. Tell me you didn't have Lucky Charms for breakfast. What are you- stop sniffing my hand!"

"It smells like oranges!"

"I told you it would! Here, have an orange. You can smell it and eat it, how about that?"

"Oranges aren't soft."

"You're ridiculous. Bentley! My last bastion of sanity," He tossed me a familiar bag. "I hate you."

"Need I list the reasons?"

"No, but I'm still not going to be happy about it." I grumbled, opening up the bag and taking a look inside, "Great, I'm going to look like a banana."

"You're going to look like a hybrid no matter what," Bentley didn't even look up from his blueprints, though he did idly pop a wheelie. I don't even think he noticed. "The goal is to make you not look like a white hybrid with black hair."

"Everyone always wants to be famous. It's really annoying."

"Speak for yourself," Sly suggested, plopping down into a lounge chair next to Bentley and kicking up his feet.

"Oh you can get away with it, there are lots of other raccoons. I'm going to go turn into a banana, be right back."

The Guru chortled when I reemerged.

"Thank you for your opinion, now shut up." I growled, shoving Sly's legs off the chair so I could sit down. The gang had gathered on the deck for a quick meeting before heading for shore.

"Alright," Bentley wheeled in front of the group like a general briefing his troops, "This is a simple recovery, so we shouldn't need to be out in force. Sly, Murray, Kaia and I will row over to the bay and set up a Safehouse. My intel tells me that Black Spot Pete still lives there, so we'll find him and get some information. With any luck, we'll have the diving gear by tomorrow morning."

"Better not take Jinx along then- OW!"

Murray ferried us each over individually, first Bentley, then Sly, then finally me. By the time we arrived, the Safehouse had already been completely set up. We had to sneak past a cat with a peg leg to get inside, something I had far more trouble not laughing at than accomplishing.

"Hallo Bentley! Where is Sly?"

"He's headed to meet Black Spot Pete."

"What, already?" I sat down in a chair where I could see the binocucom monitor, "That was fast."

"Yeah, well, I want to get out of here as soon as possible."

I blinked in surprise at the irritation in his voice, then grinned, "Not enough tech for you?"

"I can barely get a signal, even with the satellites!"

I resisted the urge to pat him on the head in favor of paying attention to Sly, who had reached his waypoint.

"There he is, Black Spot Pete."

"I didn't think pirates could get that old… thought scurvy would get 'em or something."

"This is why you eat oranges," I supplied.

"Don't let your guard down for an instant. All pirates are killers, plain as that, and they don't trust outsiders at all. How's your pirate accent?"

"Arrgh! I forgot me number two pencil for the scantron test!"

I facepalmed. Loudly.

"Joke all you want, Sly. But that guy won't help you out until you've earned his trust."

Bentley was right, Sly and Pete's chat was short, sweet, and ended with a death threat. So far, this pirate thing was living up to expectation. Apparently, Pete would only talk of treasure with one guy and liked to stab anyone else who attempted conversation on the subject.

This meant Sly had to convince Black Spot Pete that he was his old shipmate 'Cantankerous Tim'.

"Is there some sort of 'Pirate Name' initiation for these guys?" I wondered aloud as Bentley instructed Sly how best to steal an eye-patch from a pirate that was paranoid about monkeys. Dropping an anchor on his head could hardly do any more damage.

"Their nicknames are probably given from events at sea," Bentley explained automatically, "They're pretty superstitious, so Black Spot Pete probably got his name from killing so many people."

"Legend of the black spot?"

"Indeed. Now, Sly, you need to steal this guy's peg leg…"

After assembling the eye-patch, peg leg, and a hat, Sly stole some more clothes and went back to see Black Spot Pete as Cantankerous Tim.

"Your pirate accent is just as bad as your Italian accent." I decided to inform him when he finally walked back into the Safehouse.

"Arr, yer jus' jealous!"

"Alright, you two," Bentley pushed back from his desk and rubbed his forehead, "This is obviously not going to be quite as easy as we thought."

"So we have to steal from a different pirate, big deal. So what if this one is not necessarily over the hill?" I took the pirate hat from Sly and looked it over.

"I've been doing my homework on this 'LeFwee' character-"

"In the three minutes since you heard about him?"

"Indeed. His reputation is bloodthirsty and he is the self-proclaimed 'Smartest Man on the Seven Seas'."

"Well, he's never gone up against you, little buddy." Murray had been so quiet in the corner, I'd almost forgotten he was there.

Bentley coughed into his hand and pretended he hadn't heard, though his cheeks were a little darker. Oh, Bentley and his inability to take a compliment. "I'm setting up a webcam link back to the ship so the others can see the slideshow too. Should just take a second… Ah! There we go."

"Bentley? Do ya read me, Bentley?"

"Loud and clear, Penelope." The turtle had the most fascinating look on his face. Sly and I exchanged amused glances, "Everybody there?"

"We are all present, turtle."

I squeezed behind Bentley so I could see the screen. "Hey guys! I have a pirate hat." I flipped it in my hands and put it on.

I never expected to receive a fashion critique from the Guru.

"Oh, what do you know, you run around in a loincloth."

"I think that hat is stylin'! Ninteenth century chic, dig?"

I took off the hat and tossed it to Murray, "Here, have a pirate hat."

"Cold."

"Can we get started, please?" Bentley asked almost tolerantly, turning the camera so it could see the projector, "Thanks to Black Spot Pete, we've got a lead on Reme Lousteau's treasure. It's buried somewhere on Dagger Island, a landmass many leagues from our current position. In order to make the voyage, we'll need to steal a pirate ship from the harbor."

Sly sat back in his chair with a dazed grin. I waved a hand in front of his face and he swatted it away idly, "Just a second, I'm having a moment with my inner six year old."

"Don't get too excited. This will be no easy feat given the cutthroat nature of these… cutthroats."

"Nice."

"Ahem! First, Sly and Murray will steal a jollyboat and blast the rudders off any ships that could chase us into the open ocean. This action is sure to alert the Harbor Patrol, so be ready for a sea battle. With them out of the way, no one will be able to stop us from sailing out of the harbor."

"Wait a second… the pirates have a Harbor Patrol?"

"Meanwhile, Penelope and I will break into LeFwee's keep and steal the map to the buried treasure. Once both objectives are complete, we'll steal a ship and head for Dagger Island. Then it will be a simple matter of following the map, and digging up the loot."

"Best case scenario?"

"Best case scenario." He agreed, allowing a small smile.

"Hey, Jinx."

I looked up from inspecting my baton (I had finally gotten my hands back on it) at Sly's incessant prodding. "Are you even aware that I have an actual name?"

He ignored the question, of course, speaking instead in a hushed tone so none of the other three in the Safehouse could hear us, "What gives? Usually you throw a fit when you don't get a job."

Okay, that was a fair question. I gave my baton a sharp smack to shut it and looked up at him, "Well… I'm still a little rusty. I was almost completely inactive for over two months. But mainly," I let my eyes flick over to Bentley and Penelope, who had their heads together over a blueprint and identical smiles, "The only job that I'd really be good for is breaking into LeFwee's keep, and who am I to interfere if Bentley wants to spend some time with Penelope?"

The raccoon blinked in surprise, then his face softened and he gave me a grin, "Look at you. Turning into a matchmaker on me?"

I snorted and sat back, crossing my arms, "Hardly. Though I might if they don't get it together sooner rather than later. Still, I have to admit a little jealousy. Usually I get to do that stuff, it's not nice, feeling like you're being replaced."

"Hey, hey, hey, you're not being replaced. Why don't you come with me and Murray to steal the jolly boat?"

I laughed a little, "Unless you want me to throw coconuts at the Harbor Patrol and shout multilingual obscenities, I don't think I'll be much help. Don't worry though, I'll find a way to keep busy."

"That's what I'm worried about."

I didn't get a lot done that was productive in my little romp around Blood Bath Bay.

With my now pale yellow fur and blonde hair (I did not make a good blonde) I was content to stay out of sight and mess with the pirates from a distance. Stone Jake got the worst of it. His recent head trauma didn't seem to have curbed his monkey paranoia, which I exploited ruthlessly.

I also got a kick out of making noise and then disappearing before I could be found, especially after Bentley and Penelope's gadget blew up over town and the pirates got paranoid. They really were hilariously superstitious, it was fun.

I returned to the Safehouse, juggling an armload of coconuts, and was surprised to find Bentley sitting in front of Penelope with the first aid kit.

"What happened?"

"Some sort of blinding dust in the chest where LeFwee was keeping the map." Bentley explained, handing a sopping washcloth to Penelope and having her hold it over her eyes, "There don't seem to be any permanent effects though."

"Well, that's good." I loudly made my way across the room and sat next to Penelope, "Must have been fun getting back to the Safehouse though."

"Bentley saved me! He used his grapple-cam to lead me back here." That tone of voice was one usually reserved by Penelope for comments on Sly 'masterful manner'. Could it be that she'd finally shifted her attentions?

I turned and gave Bentley the most roguish smile I was capable of. He raised an eyebrow and lifted a water pistol in warning, before continuing to speak to Penelope, "Just keep that cloth over your eyes, hopefully it will help to flush out the powder. You'll probably be extremely sensitive to light for a while, though. Kaia, you want to help me pack up? Sly and Murray have finished with the jollyboat and we should be ready to head out to the ship we're stealing within the hour."

GOODBYE, SOCIETY, I'LL SEE YOU ONCE I'VE BEATEN THE GAME!