Hello everyone! And welcome to all the new followers! There sure are a lot of you, wow. Sly 4 coming out has really brought some life back to the fandom! I hope you all enjoy!

Updating a little early today because tomorrow's going to be really busy for me.

On with the chapter!

My knees hit the sand first, followed by my forehead as Penelope let out a short shriek.

It hurt; it was more pain than I'd ever been in. It was heat and the most excruciating piercing and throbbing pain, all at the same time. I couldn't even pinpoint the exact place I'd been hit, the pain was just everywhere on the right side of my abdomen.

"Leave 'er for the gators, load this treasure up!" Was all I heard dimly through a rush of blood and waves.

I gasped for air because it took me a full twenty seconds to remember to breathe. Every inhalation, every heartbeat made the burning that much worse. It's not like you see in movies at all, it's not something you can brush off, getting shot. Your whole world suddenly becomes that small bit of your body that radiates agony so intense that you are immediately convinced that you are dying.

But I wasn't.

I knew I wasn't, because my hands told me that the place the blood was coming from was barely an actual bullet hole. A fraction of an inch to the right and the projectile would have just grazed me. My knowledge of my own anatomy was limited, given my screwed up DNA, but it informed me that, provided I could get help, I would survive. The fact that it wasn't fatal and still hurt that bad was something of a mystery to my mind.

I had to get to the gang. They'd stay anchored at the beach while they planned, it wasn't like they had anywhere else to go. Good Lord, how was I still able to think?

I sank my teeth into my lower lip and slowly drew one leg up to plant my foot in the sand. My vision filled with tears. I made no effort to fight them back, I'd been shot, I was allowed to cry if I felt like it. I brought my other leg up and struggled into a standing position. My vision was positively swimming now, but I was up.

Now to try walking.

It had gone against every fiber of Sly's being to leave two of his team members behind, every shred of his willpower to trudge back to his ship along with the rest of his gang.

But no amount of self-control in the world could have stopped him when he heard the gunshot and the scream.

He took off running. He knew he'd never run so fast in his life, but it still wasn't fast enough. He crested a hill and saw a small boat making its way to LeFwee's ship, but couldn't see who was on it without stopping and taking out his binocucom.

He ran right past the alligators, just barely out of their line of sight. He made it to the beach they'd just dug up and his breath caught when he saw a figure stumbling vaguely towards him.

"Kaia!" He called when he was in earshot, "What happened?!"

She stopped and looked up at him, but didn't respond. He saw why as he got closer and saw the spreading stain of red dyeing her hands and her shirt. She tried to take another step forward and somehow tripped, falling to her knees. A whine of pain forced its way out of her throat at the jar, "I don't like pirates anymore."

'At a loss' did not even begin to describe Sly's state of mind. He reached for the hybrid, then stopped, scared of hurting her more. He had never seen her like this; she always had a smart remark, made it her role in life to be one of the guys and a royal pain in the neck at the same time. He'd never seen her this vulnerable before, it was just wrong.

He snapped himself back to his senses in less than a second, he could worry about that later. First things first. He knelt next to her and turned on his mic. "Bentley, Kaia's been shot. She's conscious and I can get her to the boat, can you be ready for us?"

"Consider it done."

"Kaia," She looked up at him through her hair, "I'm going to pick you up now."

She glared at him, but it was a poor imitation of her usual expression, "Don't you dare-"

He did anyway, as gently as possible while still being quick enough that she wouldn't be able to do anything about it. She folded into his arms and for the first time he realized how small she was, he'd never really noticed before.

He started to run again, across the uneven island, keeping his eyes ahead and trying very hard not to look down at the blood.

"When this is all over," He was surprised to hear her speak, "I'm moving to Holland. Nothing bad ever happened to me in Holland."

Sly couldn't help a small smile. That was more like it, "Nothing bad happened to you in Australia either."

"Yeah, but I hated Australia," She inhaled sharply at a particularly rough step, "So I'm moving to Holland."

"You're going to make us relocate the entire Safehouse to Holland, aren't you?"

Bentley had almost finished laying out the meager pickings from what served as an infirmary on the ship in the captain's quarters when Sly practically kicked the door in.

"Where should I put her?"

"Here," Bentley gestured to a long table, which he had covered with the cleanest sheet he could find.

"I'm conscious, you know." Kaia hissed, staring determinedly at the ceiling.

"Yes, how are you feeling?"

"Oh, you know," Her bitingly sarcastic voice was cut off for an instant by a heavy wince when she was placed on the table, "Can't really complain. Got shot."

"I mean are you in pain or shock?" Bentley was doing his best to keep her talking as he pried her hands away from the bloody part of her shirt and pulled it back.

"Pain," she hissed as he prodded at the wound, "Definitely pain. When is the shock going to kick in?"

"Hopefully never, it's not a good thing," But it was weird that she hadn't gone into shock, "Do you know what shock feels like?"

"Yeah."

"Tell me when you start to feel it."

"Can I do anything?" Sly asked, a touch desperately, from where he'd been standing out of Bentley's way.

"Yes," the turtle said, reaching for a white box, the only first aid he'd brought along, "Go get the Guru."

"Why do you need the Guru?" Kaia asked, digging her fingers into the desk in her attempts to keep still.

"I have to clean, stitch, and bandage the two holes you've acquired. That is going to be extremely painful. I could not find any sedatives."

It took her pain riddled mind a few moments to connect the dots, "So you're going to have him use his freaky mind powers to put me under?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Avoid getting angry, it makes your heart beat faster, which makes you bleed more. And kindly lay back down before I make you."

Her hands clenched into fists at her sides, "Can't you use your sleep darts?"

"Your willingness to consume drugs over hypnotism is worrying, but no, I can't. One of the ingredients in that particular cocktail is a blood thinner, which is the last thing you need right now."

Sly returned with a vocal companion.

Bentley had never been more relieved to hear the Guru's voice, "Yes, can you put Kaia in a trance or something so I can patch her up without her kicking me in the face?"

"I wouldn't kick you in the face and I swear, if you come near me Guru-" Her head dropped the two inches to the table with a slight thud immediately after the Guru began to chant and spin his Moonstone.

"Bentley, how bad is it?" Sly asked softly.

"It's not. She was lucky, it didn't even get near any organs or major veins or arteries and it went clean through. I just have to patch her up and she'll be on her feet and annoying us again sooner rather than later. We're just going to have to keep an eye out for infection and make sure she doesn't reopen the wound."

The turtle pretended not to notice the weighted sigh of relief that escaped his friend.

Waking was a singularly interesting experience.

My dreams had been many and varied, mostly a blur of colors and faces, but not unpleasant. Transitioning from dreaming to waking was slow and gradual, almost seamless; to the point where I was vastly confused when I opened my eyes and saw a ceiling.

I wondered dimly why my bed was moving, then I flexed my sleepy muscles and winced at the pain that lanced up my side. Oh. That was why.

Still, I'd apparently been upgraded to the captain's quarters, which was nice as there was an actual bed there. And my side didn't hurt half as much as it had earlier. In fact, it was such a dramatic reduction that I felt a bit like a drama queen when I recalled how I'd reacted before.

Even so, I was careful as I eased myself into a sitting position, mostly with my arms. The bandages wound around my abdomen were thick and tight, but that was somehow reassuring. My shirt had been left mostly intact, except for the bloody bottom half, which had thankfully been left undone to avoid putting pressure on the bandages.

I gradually draped my legs over the edge of the bed, smiling when I realized the object my feet touched was my backpack. That was good, I didn't want to keep wearing my bloodstained, holey shirt. Hoping against hope that no one would randomly decide to come check on me, I shrugged it off and grabbed a T-shirt at random from my bag.

"Ow! … Okay, that is so not happening," I muttered aloud after trying to pull on a T-shirt. That just stretched my side in a way it decidedly did not like. Unfortunately , there'd been only the one button-down and tank tops were just as out of the question as T-shirts.

I wasn't going to put back on the other button-down, so that left me with one unsavory option. Before busting me out of the mental institution, Penelope had been assigned to get me a swimsuit for the 'cruise'. It was a bikini, which was why I'd never worn it and had never intended to. Now, though, with the vast majority of my wardrobe out the window, I wasn't left with much of a choice.

It was a really weird outfit, a bikini top, cargo shorts, bare feet, and enough bandages for a Halloween costume, but it was better than the alternative.

I'd barely gotten to my feet when the boat pitched suddenly to one side, almost sending me off them. At the sound of splintering wood, I scooped my baton up off the floor and hurried outside.

"Where are the masts?! Why is the ship on fire?"

"Kaia what- hit that tentacle there!- what are you doing up?"

I dodged and hit the pink appendage on reflex before realization dawned, "Are we fighting a sea monster?!"

"Yes!" Sly shouted back before seizing the firing ring on one of the cannons and pulling it hard just as a giant creature appeared beside the ship, in the line of fire.

A keening noise sounded from the waters as the creature slumped against the side of the ship. I slowly made my way over. I think it was a giant squid, or something close. It was huge, that was for sure, and had one gigantic yellow eye that I could see.

As I reached Sly, the hatch behind us opened and the rest of the gang poured on deck.

"A grand battle that was!" The Panda King boomed, looking pleased for once, "Worthy of the names King and Cooper!"

"You really softened him up for me."

"That was a solid action-reaction, bros! You two stands tall!"

"Oh great, testosterone bonding." I grumbled, heaving myself up to sit on one of the cannons, "Fantastic."

Fortunately, Bentley seemed to not want to take part in the post-battle, slapping each other on the back fest, "Say Guru," He muttered aloud, eyes narrow in thought, "Could you get inside this creature's mind?"

The Guru muttered contemplatively.

"That's a brilliant idea! ... But do you think you can pull it off?"

The koala chuckled sadistically.

"Then let's do it, just take any precautions necessary."

Sly apparently had just started to pay attention, "What's he trying to do?"

"Get us a new ally here in the sea." Bentley said over the sound of the Guru's chanting.

The large eye focused suddenly on the Guru and stayed there for a moment before the sea monster turned and disappeared under the waves.

I jumped when a tentacle shot out of the water, wrapped around the Guru, and pulled him in after it.

"Master! Don't leave us!" Murray called into the fog.

"Don't worry, he's fine," Bentley assured the distraught hippo as the ship shuddered and began to move. "He and Crusher are going to tow us to where we left the other ships we captured from the Red Sail Sea-Dogs, this one is on its last legs."

"Wait, we have other ships? Who are the Red Sail Sea-Dogs; will no one fill me in?" I was starting to wonder if I'd have to take up ribbon-twirling to get some attention.

Finally, Sly looked over at me, though not with answers. "What are you doing up?" I crossed my arms and glared at him, refusing to answer. He averted his eyes, "And what are you wearing?"

My face flushed as I threw my hands up in the air (but not that high, because that hurt), "Getting a tee on over the bandages hurts and I only had one button-down, what do you want from me?"

Fortunately, Bentley, the voice of sanity, took over then, "Well, you're looking lively, Kaia."

I waved him off airily, playing off the situation as much as I could, "Just a little bullet. Aside from the oddest craving for peanut brittle, I'm fine."

"Oh yes," The turtle's tone was dry, "Just a little bullet that had you out of commission of two days."

"… What?" Was he serious? "Two days? It felt like an hour." I had no sense of space or direction, but up until then I'd always been able to rely on my sense of time.

"Nope, two days." Sly was rubbing his forehead as though he had a migraine, "The Guru put you in some kind of trance to speed the healing process."

"Oh he is so lucky he's in the water right now." I shuddered at the thought. That was just creepy. Plus side, it explained why I wasn't writhing in pain anymore. That was good for my dignity.

"You weren't supposed to wake up until you were fine again. I'm guessing that's not the case."

I didn't let Bentley do any more fishing than that, hopping to my feet instead, "I'm fine enough to help out. And don't you dare tell me I'm not allowed, Penelope's my friend too, I want to do what I can." It was true, she was annoying as sin sometimes, but she was still a friend. That won Bentley over, so I kept talking before Sly could say anything. "So, what's the plan?"

Bentley turned to the hatch below deck, "Let me set up the slideshow and explain it to everyone at once."

"You do know," I mused in Sly's direction, picking at the sleeve that was engulfing my arm, "That Carmelita runs around in less than that, right?"

"That's different." Sly had disappeared shortly before the briefing and returned with a button-down he used for one of his disguises. It looked like a dress on me, but it was better than nothing.

"I'd ask how, but you'd lie."

"Can we get started please? Thank you. Now, Operation: Reverse Double-Cross. Our objective, as we all know, is to save Penelope. Given her crafty nature, LeFwee has undoubtedly locked her up in one of his most secure locations. They are one, the Skull Keep and two, the brig of the Death's Head."

"His ship is called the Death's Head? Wow, someone's sure of his lethality." I muttered, wrestling to roll up the cuffs on the monster of a shirt Sly had insisted on me wearing.

Bentley just sighed and continued. I felt bad, he must have really been worried about Penelope. "Our team is too small to assault both simultaneously, so we'll have to fall back on a little sleight of hand. First, we sail into harbor and exchange broadsides with the Death's Head. Armed with the element of surprise and our canon upgrades, it should be a fair fight."

"Should? That doesn't inspire confidence."

"The Death's Head has specially armored bulkheads. It won't be easy to sink; and we're not going to try. Penelope might be on board, so we cannot sink this ship. As soon as the masts fall, Sly should jump on the enemy ship and then promptly surrender."

"Ummm… what?"

Finally Bentley turned and gave me his 'quit interrupting' glare. For a moment there, I thought he'd lost the ability to access it. "It's a necessary step for two reasons. First, that ship is packed with pirates, way too many to fight hand-to-hand. And second, it's our best chance to get an audience with LeFwee. Given his smug nature, he's sure to brag where she's hidden if we can get him angry enough. You hear that, Sly? Irritate the daylights out of this guy! It's our best and only chance to rescue Penelope."

Watching a plan come to light was a nice moment for Sly and he grinned, "A job I was born for."

"Once he talks, we roll out plan A or B, depending on the situation. This LeFwee is a smart man, our only hope is to outsmart him at his own game."

"How do we outsmart him when he's the one making the rules?" I asked. I was a little concerned Bentley hadn't noticed the flaw in his plan, "If he's so smart, he'll know that we don't know where Penelope is, he could easily lie once Sly gets him mad."

I was actually treated to a small grin from Bentley, "Now you're thinking like a thief. That's why we have secret plan C."

Sly sat up a little straighter, "What do you mean?"

"Taking our adversary's intellect into consideration, I viewed the situation from his perspective. If it were me, I'd do just as Kaia said and lie about Penelope's location. I'd set up a trap."

"You're sure you're up for this?"

"For the billionth time, yes." I assured the overbearing raccoon, gingerly refastening the buttons on my bloody shirt around the bandages. "There's a ton of guys on that ship, right? The more we can freak them out the better. Besides, I get to channel my inner Ring girl." I finally finished with the evil buttons and turned, "Well, how do I look?"

He shook his head with a slight smile, "Like death warmed over."

"Excellent. Bentley, I'm ready to go!"

The turtle rolled up to us, "Alright, Kaia. We'll only need you and the Guru if we have to implement plan C, so try not to draw attention unless we call for you, this is a delicate operation."

"Don't worry, we'll just chill at the bottom of the ocean with the sea monster, we'll have cake." I carefully pulled myself up to stand on the railing of the ship, "Okay, when's my ride getting here?"

Bentley put two fingers to his mouth and let out a piercing whistle. The next thing that happened, I can only describe as an earthquake in the ocean. The ship shuddered and the water on the side where I stood began to bubble and froth until, finally, Crusher emerged, the Guru clenched in one tentacle like a little sea monster teddy bear.

"Well… that's convenient."

I waited, toying with a fraying part of the rigging while Bentley explained the plan to the Guru. When he was finished, Crusher went partially under the waves so I could step over to the little tentacle thing on its head and loop an arm around the top of it to hang on.

"Remember, Jinx… don't jinx us."

"You know what my theory is, Sly?" I paused a moment for dramatic effect, "I'm pretty sure I have nothing to do with your bad luck. And Bentley, don't worry. We'll get Penelope back."

The turtle blushed, then huffed and looked pointedly over there. Sly laughed and waved me off as I saluted and plunged under the waves with Crusher and the Guru.

Even I have to admit, the Guru has some pretty nifty powers. At that particular moment, he was using his telekinesis to form air bubbles for us both.

We really were chilling on the bottom of the ocean. It was really pretty cool, being able to see clearly that far down. Of course, there was no wildlife nearby because of our pink friend, but that was okay. I was busy listening to the canon fire.

At least, I had been, until about ten minutes previous. At the moment, it was mostly a 'waiting with baited breath' sort of situation.

Then we heard the explosion.

In the distance, the Cooper ship arced away from the Death's Head and back toward us. Plan C it was, then.

I had a brief second to think 'Gee, I hope no one's dead' before the air bubble surrounding my head vanished and I got doused with sea water. Bentley's theory had proven accurate, the salt water caused the dye powder in my fur to dissipate a lot faster than normal. Before long, the gross yellow was gone and my fur was white again.

A shadow fell over our merry little group. About time Bentley got here, I was running out of air.

Crusher shuddered and rose at the sound of Bentley's shout. I held on tight as we broke the surface of the water and almost slipped off my perch.

"'Tis Crusher… Crusher!" Haha, seemed like they were already panicking. I looked down at the scattering pirates, "And the girl with witch-eyes! She's here to curse us!" Why did they always call me a witch?

Still, the whole point of my dressing up in bloody clothes and turning white again was to play to the superstitions of these pirates.

So, for the first time in my life, I used the uneven pitch of my voice to my advantage and threw my head back to let out a throat-tearing cackle as the Guru and Crusher cleared the deck of any pirates who were trying to stop Bentley from rescuing Penelope rather than abandoning ship as fast as possible. The screams of fear were peculiarly satisfying.

Bentley was using a tool that seemed to be a combination of a sonic screwdriver and a Swiss-army knife to open up the locks to the brig and was moving surprisingly fast across the ship as it pitched side-to-side while Crusher pounded on it. When he finally got the thing open, Penelope jumped out and even I had to say that that was a pretty dress she was wearing.

Then LeFwee freaking materialized and put a sword to Penelope's back. I groaned aloud, but kudos to the girl for not freaking out this time and instead giving LeFwee a 'Seriously?' look over her shoulder.

"Call off yer squid or the girl gets it!" demanded the Least Creative Man on the Seven Seas.

"Back off Guru, I'll handle this."

Wait…. What? Even as Crusher moved away, I opened my mouth to object Bentley going up against the killer, no matter how confident he seemed, but then he looked over at me. He made eye contact, then flicked his eyes upward for an instant.

I followed his gaze and… was that a speck of blue? I looked closer and had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. How did Sly get all the way up there?

As LeFwee was monologue-ing, Sly circled the ships a few times to decrease in altitude then, just when LeFwee looked like he was going to run Bentley through, Sly angled down and landed between the parrot and Penelope.

What happened next happened almost too fast to follow. LeFwee swung with his cutlass, Sly brought his cane up to deflect the blow, but it was too fast for him to block perfectly. He stumbled back and tripped over Bentley's wheelchair, simultaneously knocking the turtle to the deck and losing his balance completely. He went over the rail.

"Sly!"

I jumped from Crusher to the deck of the Death's Head. It was quite the fall and I landed weird on my ankle, but I ran to the railing anyway. Just bubbles in the water, no sign of the raccoon. Why, oh why had I put off teaching him how to swim?

I dimly heard Bentley call for the Guru to get Sly and saw Penelope jumping between LeFwee and Bentley with her own sword out of the corner of my eye as I planted a foot on the railing and heaved myself up and over. I could feel the new skin at my side stretching taut and tearing under bandages and that plastic that had been meant to protect the wound from water, but I ignored it.

I hit the water hard and immediately began looking around for Sly. Where was he? I finally thought to look downwards and spotted him, but he wasn't moving. My heart stopped, but I dove down and grabbed him around the middle. I struggled to kick to the surface, hoping he was just stunned.

He was heavy though, heavy and waterlogged and for a moment I didn't know if I was going to make it to the surface before I ran out of air myself, but then pink entered my peripheral vision. Crusher had taken his sweet time, but maybe that was just the adrenaline talking…

A tentacle wrapped around Sly and I and I wondered briefly why the tightening appendage didn't seem to be hurting the wound on my side, then decided I didn't care and willed us more quickly toward the surface.

We broke the surface and Crusher dumped us as gently as was possible for a giant squid onto the deck of the Cooper ship. I crawled over to the limp thief and rolled him onto his back. A quick and panicked check told me he wasn't breathing and if there was a pulse, I couldn't find it.

My mind went utterly blank, "Sly!" I called, gripping two fistfuls of the front of his shirt and shaking him, "Sly, you have got to hear me and wake up, I don't know CPR!" His head flopped back and forth unresponsively.

I was such an idiot! When Bentley had half-heartedly thrown me the roll of field-medic, I'd done a ton of research into first-aid, but I'd never learned stupid CPR! That should have been the first thing I did, especially since Sly didn't know how to swim! I knew the basic theory, pretty much everyone does, but that was not going to help me! I didn't know how to position the head so the air went into the lungs and not the stomach, I didn't know where to put my hands for chest compressions, I didn't know what to do!

In a moment of raw panic, I threw my right arm somewhere behind my let ear and backhanded Sly as hard as I could.

He woke up fighting, which was good for my heart, but bad for my face. He got in a solid left hook before I could pull back out of his range and almost landed a kick to my ribs before becoming preoccupied with coughing, spluttering, and emptying the contents of his stomach and what seemed like half the ocean onto the deck.

I probably would have been more sympathetic if I wasn't in the process of running my tongue along the inside of my mouth to make sure my teeth were still in place. When I tasted blood, I couldn't bring up the enthusiasm to do more than just sigh, glance over to make sure Sly was still conscious (he was, and looking around like he wasn't quite sure what he was doing alive), and flop onto my stomach.

"Sly," I said, concentrating on the movement of the ship and the feel of my cheek against the wood so I could fight back both the urge to burst into tears of relief and the urge to throw up out of the after-effects of anxiety, "As soon as we get a chance, I'm teaching you how to swim. And if you try to bail on me I swear by all that is considered holy, I will kill you until you are sorry."

I felt him drag himself over to me and lay down as well, so I risked opening my eyes a bit. His were closed and his breathing was controlled, like he was consciously enjoying it. He finally opened his eyes just a little bit as well and cracked a grin, speaking in a whisper and extending his hand a few inches out to me, "Fair enough."

I took his hand and smiled back.

And- done! See, I didn't give you a cliffhanger this time! But Bloodbath Bay is over now, so we're getting towards the end of the story. I hope you enjoy what's to come!