Next chapter already. I've got the first few chapters mostly planned out, so they should be coming out pretty quickly. No promises though.
Chapter 2: Setting Out
"No! It's...it's gone! All gone!"
Sly rolled his eyes at the melodramatic display. He couldn't tell if Le Paradox was really this torn up about his destroyed blimp, or if he was just trying to make him feel sorry for him. Either way, it was getting old.
The skunk had been at this ever since Sly reluctantly decided to untie him this morning. He was tempted to leave his wrists bound for the duration of their time together (and he didn't even want to think about how long that would be), but decided that this would be a lot more trouble than it was worth. He was already prepared to head out, but Le Paradox insisted on digging through the wreckage of his blimp for anything of value. Not a bad idea, but did he have to put on such a show about it? "Yes, I get it. I blew up your blimp. Well, actually you did, or did you forget that part?"
Unsurprisingly, Le Paradox ignored him. Seeing nothing but junk in his own search, Sly took a peek over at his "partner" to see if he had found anything.
"Woah! What are you going to do with all that?!" The skunk had an entire pile of scrap gathered behind him, and he watched as he added one more piece to the collection.
Le Paradox groaned, as if it took him an immense amount of effort to answer. "If you must know, I'm gathering components so I can repair this thing."
"Repair the blimp?" Sly asked incredulously.
"No, you fool! Repair the time machine!"
Sly quirked his head to the side. "That...doesn't sound much more feasible. That thing was huge."
"Because it was designed to transport my entire blimp through the fabric of space and time. Your version was smaller because it only needed to be attached to your silly little van. Likewise, if it only needs to transport me-I mean us-then I could create an even smaller version that will do the job."
Sly noticed the slip-up, but chose to ignore it. "Uh-huh. And you think you can do that?"
He smiled. "Of course. I built the original model, didn't I?"
"No you didn't. Penelope did."
His smile vanished and he chucked a gear at his face, which he swiftly ducked. "Enough with the frivolous details! At least I'm actually trying to get back to the present instead of just trying to survive!" With that, he went back to his search.
Sly had to admit that the skunk had a point. There was a good reason why Bentley was the plan guy and not him. He was a lot better at thinking things through.
"I'm going to need some tools, though," Le Paradox muttered. "Maybe we can find some in this mystery town you think is out there."
Sly just turned his head away and huffed.
It was mid-morning by the time they finally set out. Le Paradox scooped all of the time machine components into a brown sack he found inside the temple, then almost immediately started complaining about how heavy it was. Sly elected to carry it instead, not because he actually fell for his blatant sympathy ploy, but because he trusted himself with it much more than he trusted Le Paradox. For that same reason, Sly refused to let him walk behind him, lest he manage to swipe his rapier and literally stab him in the back. Unfortunately, that also happened to put him downwind of the malodorous thief.
Though Sly lacked most of the Cooper Clan's advanced tools at the moment, he did at least have a compass on him to lead the pair north. Should night fall before they found a town, he knew that they could also follow Polaris, the north star. Despite what Le Paradox seemed to think, they were not helpless.
His mouth was starting to dry up and he licked his lips. Could really use some water though. Direction or not, we need to find civilization soon or we're done for.
"Ugh. I can't take this obnoxious heat," Le Paradox whined, wiping his brow. "Now I remember why I hated Arabia so much."
Sly was feeling the heat too. His standard thieving outfit was not built for long treks through the desert and he was already sweating up a storm. He couldn't imagine that Le Paradox was faring much better with his aviator's outfit and abundance of black fur.
Some time had passed since they started their journey and there was still no sign of a town on the horizon, but distance was a difficult thing to judge in the middle of the desert, as was time for that matter. Nevertheless, the heat and lack of nourishment was rapidly taking a toll on both of them and Le Paradox was the first to crack. "That's it! I can't take this anymore! I am not going to die out here with you!"
Le Paradox suddenly whirled around and lunged at him. Delirious from thirst and occupied by the heavy sack, Sly's reflexes were not as quick as they should have been and he was tackled to the ground. He instantly went for his cane, expecting to engage in the world's most redundant fight to the death, but it was the sack Le Paradox was after and he ripped it from his paws. "Give me those components! I need to repair the time machine!"
Sly grabbed onto the edge of the sack and yanked both it and the skunk back towards him. "Now?! You don't have any tools and we're in the middle of the desert!"
Le Paradox pulled it back to him again. "Then I'll find something on my own, but I refuse to stomach your company any longer!"
In the midst of their tug-of-war, Sly's ear twitched as he heard something other than a screaming skunk. "Wait! Hold on a second!"
"No more waiting! I'm leaving and there's nothing you can do about it!"
Sly kicked Le Paradox's legs out from under him and reclaimed the sack, effectively proving him wrong. With this brief respite, Sly stood back up and listened as the sound continued to get louder and louder. By this point, Le Paradox heard it as well and was looking around in concern. "What...what is that?"
Sly put the binocucom up to his eyes and looked out over the horizon, focusing on a group of steadily approaching figures in the distance. "Sand cats. A bunch of them, coming right for us."
Le Paradox looked hopeful. "That's good, right? We're being rescued?"
Sly lowered the binocucom and wrapped his fingers tightly around his cane. "No, no we're not."
Before Le Paradox could respond, the party was upon them. A group of eight camels circled around the pair and surrounded them, each being ridden by an Egyptian sand cat. The felines did not look particularly happy to see them, and the swords and daggers attached to their belts left little question what they were here for. They were all female, though they wore clothing considerably less conservative than was normal for the time. All the more fitting for desert bandits.
The apparent leader of the bandits rode forward to greet them. She looked just a bit more intimidating than the rest, sporting a sinister grin and dark violet eyes. From her ears hung a pair of ankh earrings that swayed slowly as she spoke. "Quite a bizarre pair of travelers we have here, ladies. I don't think I've ever seen such strange clothing before."
"Oh yes," another replied. "And that big sack looks enticing as well. I wonder could be inside..."
Clearly, these bandits were under the impression that they were lugging around a load of gold and jewelry, and Sly sincerely doubted that correcting them would make this any better. "Sorry kitties, but these trinkets are mine." He swung his cane to his side threateningly.
"Oh really?" the leader replied, narrowing her violet eyes at him. The other sand cats were starting to reach for their weapons.
Le Paradox grew nervous about this turn of events, but he knew how to make the best out of a bad situation and extended his paw towards Sly. "My rapier, if you please."
Sly didn't even look at him. "No."
His eyes widened. "W-What?! How do you expect me to defend myself?!"
"You'll figure something out." In truth, he had no intention of letting Le Paradox be seriously hurt if he could help it, but he would rather worry about that than risk the (rather high) possibility that he would turn on him.
Sly didn't wait for the bandits to strike first. He shot forward, hooking his cane under the legs of the leader's camel and tipping the beast over. The feline gave an indignant yowl of alarm as she fell right along with it. The rest of the sand cats took this as the signal to attack and charged in at him. Sly's natural reflexes came back to him in the heat of the moment as he easily ducked and swerved around their swinging blades, tipping two more camels and their riders in the process.
The sand cats got the hint that this plan of attack wasn't working and dismounted to fight him on foot. The swords they wielded were not the kind he was used to, but curved sickle-swords known as the khopesh. The design of the khopesh was very similar to Sly's cane, a fact he would have found amusing were he not fighting for his life against them. He used his cane to block their swords, while pushing back and striking when he found an opening. Their individual fighting skills were no match for his own, but there was just enough of them that Sly couldn't afford to let up for a second.
Le Paradox was watching all of this, not quite sure who to root for, when two of the sand cats took notice of him and started closing in. He took a step back and gulped. "Uh...Cooper?"
Sly heard the call for help and it incited him to fight more aggressively. That could've easily backfired, but the sand cats surrounding him were taken by surprise and thrown off-guard. Sly spun his cane in a wide arc, taking out all of his attackers at once. With them dispatched, he ran over to help Le Paradox when a pair of swords came at him and he had to stop to block them. It was the bandit leader, now snarling angrily at him.
"So you have two swords? I can see why you're the big shot," Sly taunted. The cat hissed and attacked again. She was noticeably more skilled than the others and Sly traded blows with her for a few moments as they passed by the brown sack lying on the ground. Sly took notice of the object and, as he pushed the feline back with one paw, he used the other to grab hold of the sack. By the time she recovered, it was too late to avoid the sack flying at her head and she was knocked out instantly.
Sly casually dusted off his paws and walked over to Le Paradox, having been able to tell for quite some time that he was no longer in danger. The skunk was turned away from him, breathing heavily. The remaining two sand cats were lying on the ground in front of him, visibly emitting noxious green fumes. Sly couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for them.
"See? Told you you'd figure something out."
Le Paradox turned around slowly, shooting him his coldest glare yet. "I...hate...you..."
Sly smiled. "I noticed."