Ch18: Two Years Later...
The date went surprisingly well, especially since I expected Sly to do a sneaky thieving spree when we got there and he ended up behaving for the whole thing. Afterwards I took him to San Francisco for a date, showing him the place where my home would've been. It was nothing special, just a simple little cave, but it held something very close to me, something that Sly respected dutifully.
For the next two years, I kept up with my training in the ways of Sly's ancestors' moves. I knew that Sly eventually forgets the moves in the other games, so I thought it okay that I should at least be able to do a few that were worthwhile. The moves I perfected and kept renewing were the raccoon roll, the invisibility trick, the time stopper move, and the anti-gravity/water safety techniques. I felt that these were the moves that would help immensely later on, even if it did change the story line ever so slightly.
I also got the chance to have a chat with Carmelita, who managed to sneak away from her new Constable (AKA, Neyla) to tell me some things I needed to know. For one, only she and her boss knew about me being from a different world and only us three knew the timeline for the game. Her boss WASN'T the Contessa, rather she was the prison warden instead. Carmelita's boss was some rich dude that happened to be the leader of her police force that she was assigned to in Paris.
She also mentioned that no one was to know about the two of us knowing anything about what would come, but most importantly keeping it secret from Neyla and the Contessa. She didn't need to explain to me why it was utterly important they didn't know this. But that also meant that I had to do something to prevent the Contessa from getting the Clockwerk eyes, simply for the reason that I didn't want her to nab them and force the truth out of Carmelita.
So, the very night before the museum would be attacked by the Klaww Gang, I sneaked into the police station ALONE and swiped the eyes right from the Clockwerk Part storage room. In return, I placed two fake Clockwerk eyes there and ran off, the fakes looking much like the originals, only without powers. It was hard to make them look the same, but I managed with help from a random blacksmith in town. Carmelita, the Coopers, and the Klaww gang wouldn't know this until around chapter five would happen for Sly 2.
Then... two days afterwards and exactly two years after we defeated the Klaww gang, we went to the police station. "My hulking frame is too much for that puny rope," said Murray, who I trained with day and night until he was the embodiment of awesomeness that he was in Sly 2. I was actually pretty pleased with how well he managed, using food to help him train like in Kung Fu Panda. "You two go ahead and unlock the doors from the inside. I'll be waiting in the hallway to help you carry out the Clockwerk parts."
Me and Sly were working alongside each other in this mission, which worked out well since our skills were pretty even with one another. When we entered the Clockwerk parts storage room, I was the only one not surprised by anything. I wasn't surprised by Carmelita's acting at seeing us, nor the parts not being there, nor the little 'hint' that Neyla gave about the Klaww Gang.
In fact, my unwavering nerves made Sly a tad suspicious when we were on our way to Dimitri's nightclub in Paris. "Are you trying to hide something, Sylvia?" Bentley asked me when he saw how nervous I got when Sly eyed me with eyes of suspicion. "Um... no. I just have a weird feeling..." I lied. I had to come up with something about why my nerves weren't shown during the job at the police station. "A weird feeling?" Sly asked, confused. "A weird feeling about Carmelita's partner... I mean, if she is a cop, why is she giving us hints?"
Indeed, I was a bit truthful in my words, but they still weren't happy with the answer. "Listen guys..." I frowned, going to tell them something without actually spilling the beans. "If you're wondering why I wasn't nervous or surprised about anything during the job at the police station, it's because... I had a weird dream last night..." I lied again.
"The dream was nearly exactly what happened today, though there were some things that were different. Mainly the fact that in my dream, all the parts except the eyes were gone and Neyla came in and swiped them as Carmelita watched. I don't know how I can say this, but I don't trust her. And that's saying something since we're both cats."
That lie seemed to make their heads nod, almost as if it was working. And it did, since they tried to assure me that it was just a dream and not to read into it too much. I smiled back at them, knowing full well that I had to lie to protect the story. If I had told them the truth, I don't think it'd have benefited anyone since the Neyla betrayal, one of the most important factors of this game, wouldn't happen at all.
"Okay then. How about we go ahead and do some reconnaissance work?" Bentley asked, Sly and I smiling at that. "Sly, you go ahead and redirect some satellites so we can eavesdrop on Dimitri. Sylvia and Murray, you two go to the wine cellar and take some photos of Dimitri's secret operations with the Clockwerk Tail Feathers." All three of us nodded and we headed out the door, each of us going to our respective jobs.