The thief and voodoo
chapter 2
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(Time-skip)
Deep within the Haitian Jungle is where one would find a place people would keep their children away from.
Said place happened to be a large alligator skull-shaped temple that resided far above a ghost production facility that was being guarded by Voodoo Mystics as it mixed the swamp water with several bones sticking out of there.
Deep within the Skull-shaped temple is where we find a shadowed figure as they sat on their impressive throne that was made of bones and skulls. The figure's right hand was in the light that the skull-shaped torches were casting and the hand revealed to be a claw that was green and scalie with a few gold rings on the arm.
The figure let out a bored sigh as most of their work was finished for the week. They had finished production on their ghost production factory, check. They had acquired an extremely large snake for security measures, check. Had an impressive hideout that made people too scared to come, check.
They pretty much had conquered the entire jungle with their servants and ghost minions, but after completing all that, it quickly dwindled some of their time and left them extremely bored. Sure they had an impressive hold over most of the jungle, but it was pretty much pointless when not many people came here in the first place.
The figure stood up from their throne and walked into the light to reveal an anthro alligator with curves to her young body, that had a pink colored shirt that strained against her impressive c-cup bust. Her light green underbelly was shown with a red jewel in her belly. Her fingernails and toenails were all painted red. She had two golden rings on her wrists and one on each of her ankles. Her jaws held sharp teeth and had spikes on the tail that slipped out from behind the loincloth that covered her lower regions, and also revealed her long, slender, and firm legs with visible muscle on them. She had a red bandanna on her head that covered the top of her blue hair.
Ruby let out another tired sigh and held up an item that was held by a piece of string. The item in question was a small emblem of a blue and white raccoon head that made it truly look like it was wearing a mask.
Ruby sighed as she held the emblem with gentleness and smiled as she let her memories come out and relaxed as she remember how she came into possession of this.
(Flashback)
It had been two days since the young Ruby had met with Sly, and it had been the best moments of her life. It was within those two days that she experience true joy that all children should have. It was during those days that she and Sly experienced all kinds of games that she never played with the other children.
Games like hide n seek where Sly actually found it funny to see Ruby trying to hide as one of the small logs due to her green skin in the dark water. When she first tried that, the kids thought she was trying to eat her, but he complimented her and said that she was good with blending in with the environment.
They then explored the jungle where Sly took to the vines quite nicely after Ruby showed them to him. He swung on them as though he was a monkey. Ruby pouted when she slipped and fell into the water after losing her grip on the vine. She was close to tears, but Sly did a good thing by pretending to slip as well and splashed down next to her. He just turned to her with a smile and caused Ruby to share a laugh as they began a splash fight, all the while laughing their little hearts out.
But soon those two days met a sad end as Sly's vacation ended and he had to say goodbye to Ruby while his parents packed up the tents.
"But I don't want you to go." replied Ruby who was about to let the tears out at hearing her first real friend leaving.
"I know. I don't want to leave, but my parents say we have to head home. I'll miss you." replied Sly who didn't want to leave his close friend alone either.
"Will I ever see you again?" asked Ruby who knew she couldn't make them stay, but wanted to have hope that she would see him again.
"I got something that should make you feel better." Sly reached into his pocket and pulled out a small metal emblem that resembled a raccoon that his parents gave him. He held it out to Ruby who held it and examined it. "Consider this a promise that we'll meet again in the future when we're older."
Ruby felt astonished and happy by the gift and pulled Sly into a hug which he returned. They both pulled away reluctantly and waved goodbye to each other as Sly hopped into the car and waved goodbye to his friend as he and his parents drove out of the jungle.
Ruby looked down at the symbol and felt something in her. A feeling that made her feel an emotion she hardly ever felt. A feeling she only first felt when she was revealed to be a mystic by her parents. Determination. She felt determined to not only be a great mystic, but to also see her one true friend again. She turned around and headed home as she had a lot of work to do for the years to come.
(Flashback end)
Ruby let the symbol dangle from her neck and returned to her throne as she enjoyed the memories of her first true friend. He may have been young, but he still cared enough to play with her, and that truly made her happy. Even as she looked at the symbol, she could feel her jaws turn up into a genuine smile as she imagined the symbol to look like Sly's smiling face.
It may seem odd on why she had taken control over all the Haitian jungle, but she actually had a good reason. It was during her first year of being a teenager that the people of the village that lived near her parents home decided that they had enough of her family. They marched to their home with torches and ended up burning their home down.
Luckily her father built their home on top of a trapdoor that led to a series of tunnels around the swamp that their ancestors made. Her parents had made it out safely, but she ended up getting lost within the tunnels. She found herself in the area that would later become her hideout. She was scared at not being with her parents, but learned from her parents that if they were ever separated, it would only be a matter of time before they found each other. It also helped her to have Sly's gift that made her feel at ease that she decided to be strong and live on her own for the item being. She eventually strengthened her powers to summon large amounts of ghosts and eventually had Voodoo Mystics to help protect her home.
It would later become years before she got a message form her parents. They had made it across the country and had been spending the last few years trying to find her around the remains of their old home and the tunnels. They had managed to get their message through from one of her ghost cats that had gone out on its daily patrol. It met with them and delivered their message to her as they had some shocking news for her.
After hearing about how her powers had become from years of practice, they had told her that it was time for her to live by herself. She was upset as she thought her parents didn't want her, but her mother explained that the reason they couldn't come was because the final stage of her training meant she needed to live by herself a little while longer before her training was complete. They were impressed by her progress and said that after a while they could meet her and were excited and proud.
So for the later years to come, she would slowly take control of the entire jungle and create her every own empire. Sure most of them were ghosts and crazy juju masters, but it still worked.
"Excuse me, madam?"
Ruby's high senses made her react fast enough to look down and notice a frog, smaller than her, wearing a top hat. It seemed funny to see, but she learned awhile ago to never judge a book by its cover. The fact that this frog easily came to her and bypassed her guards proved that point was on the spot.
"Sorry for interrupting you, but my name is Sir Raleigh, and I've come here to offer you an invitation." replied the frog.
"What kind of invitation? Asked Ruby who was now on the defenses because of this frog. If he got this far without problem, he could be really dangerous to fight.
"An invitation to join the group I am in. We are the Fiendish Five. A criminal organization that has banded together to accomplish our own sinister goals. I came here to over an invitation to you, as ordered by my boss." replied Raleigh who used air quotes around the word 'Boss.'
Ruby didn't like the sounds of that and wasn't scared to voice her opinion. "Not my style." replied Ruby as she turned back to her throne and walked away from Raleigh.
Raleigh was mad that she would turn away from him like that. Him! He would have lashed out with his tongue, but he noticed something around her neck. It moved into the light just the right way to reveal the symbol of the Cooper clan. Raleigh was confused why she would have it, but took it as something else. Perhaps she stole it from a cooper's dead body that strayed too far into her territory.
"I see you've already met our enemies, the Cooper clan." replied Raleigh who was too smug to notice Ruby suddenly stop in place with a shocked look on her face.
"From that symbol of theirs, I can only guess that you met a Cooper during his untimely demise, right?" asked Raleigh who was too cocky to notice the look Ruby was giving as she stared away from the frog.
'Is he talking about Sly? If what he says is true, then I can't tell him who gave this to me. I can't take the chance of all of them attacking her base. It would be a disaster for all her hard work to go up in flames. Suddenly, an idea struck them. If these guys were going after the Cooper clan, then did that mean Sly was in danger? She gritted her sharp teeth in anger at just hearing of that.
She held the symbol to calm her nerves to try and keep herself from shredding the frog where he was sitting. Perhaps she could use this to her advantage. If she joined, then maybe she could not only use them to try and find Sly and warn him, but then she could finally see her first true friend since they were little.
She let out a dreamy sigh as though she was a young girl and turned to the frog who finally noticed her taking notice of his presence for what seemed like a while. "All right, I'll join your little group." replied Ruby who wasn't too keen on the idea.
Raleigh grinned and gave himself a pat on the back for what he believed was a good job for his part. "Good. We'll send you the coordinates on where we will meet once we have enough members. You won't regret this, Mz. Ruby."
Ruby gritted her teeth as she was not a fan of being known as that. It left a bitter taste in her mouth thinking about that name, and it made her sound old. She held her tongue as the frog let himself out and gave her something alright. A headache with stress that made her do one thing to take her mind off things. Go off and practice her magic on a few helpless training dummies.
She turned around and made her way to her gym to vent all the extra she got from that stupid frog as she looked down at the symbol and thought to herself. 'Don't worry Sly, I'll make sure they don't harm ya.'
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We now find a young raccoon that sat on the railing of the balcony to the hotel he and his friends were currently staying at. Luckily it was new, so the employees had no idea that he was the infamous Sly Cooper.
The young raccoon was sitting on the railing as he looked at a replica of his very first Cooper clan symbol. He looked at it as memories of when he was a kid passed by and brought a happy smile to his face.
"Don't worry Ruby. I made a promise, and I intend to keep it." replied Sly as he got off the railing and headed inside as he and his friends needed rest for their big heist tomorrow.
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well people, I hope you liked the fast update and the changes I made to Ruby. I decided to make her more closer to Sly's age and made her give Carmelita a run for her money.