Ch30: Violence or Peace
While I tried to locate Murray to meet up with the others, the operation was soon under way. Sly began by infiltrating the Opera house with Bentley and going into the tar room to destroy the tar pumping stations that polluted the town's water. I had to admit, I was a little bummed out that I couldn't be down there with him, but I had to find Murray and bring him to the stage AFTER the song with Bentley ended.
I finally found him meditating by Rialto Bridge, something I wouldn't have guessed someone like Murray could do. I tapped him on the shoulders and snapped him free from his meditation, just as the song was starting. I could hear the music from all the way out here... from across the bridge. "Hey, big guy?" I asked, Murray looking back at me. I wasn't hiding my eye right now, so he tried to avert his gaze from my face. "If I wanted to hurt you Murray, I would've done it long ago," Neyla frowned, which made Murray sigh heavily. "You already did hurt me... I didn't know I could ever be afraid of anything... but now I know... I'm afraid of losing my friends..." he frowned.
"Why?" He asked next. "Why did you hurt my best friend? He... he couldn't even defend himself!" I could tell Murray was getting upset, so I placed my hand on his shoulder. I didn't speak, letting Neyla do it instead. "That... that was my fault..." Neyla sighed in the eye. "I was overtaken by the corrupt body... I couldn't think straight with the hate chip installed... when Bentley removed it, I closed the mouth without even wanting to... I didn't like it anymore than you did..."
I didn't even know about that at all! I mean, sure the hate chip was a factor, but I didn't know it could actually make you go into blind rage! "I'll make it up to you... I promise..." "It's not a promise if you can't even tell the truth about who you are yourself..." Murray frowned. That made Neyla think a little bit, her thoughts jumbling with mine as the song ended and Carmelita shot the chandelier JUST as it would hit Octavio.
"FREEZE! The lot of you are going to jail!" she exclaimed, her acting VERY serious. We then ran over as the guys managed to chase after him in Carmelita's boat, which made me smile. "You!" she growled, looking right at me and Murray. "C-Carmelita... don't do anything rash now..." I gulped, wondering if she would really try and arrest us. "I'm not talking to you, Sylvia," she glared, looking right at the eye on my face. "I'm talking to that backstabbing bitch."
"I have a name you know," Neyla groaned. Of all the people she hated to see most, Carmelita was the worst of them in her eyes. (Or eye...) "You need to give Sylvia her life back! Do it now or I'll arrest both of you," Carmelita glared. Neyla sighed angrily. "Even if I wanted to I couldn't! The eye is now a part of her as well as I am. If the eye is removed, the effects on Sylvia's brain would be catastrophic! She might not even survive if I'm removed!"
Carmelita glared and aimed her shock pistol at me. "She's not lying, Carmelita," I frowned, grabbing my cane in case I had to defend Murray from her. "Trust me. This eye actually has given me a built-in lie detector... so I know that you're lying when you say you'll arrest us."
Carmelita gasped, her face looking conflicted at this. "I-I... How?" she gulped. "I'm still in control, Carmelita, so I can speak for both of us. We're going to continue helping the gang and there's nothing you can do about it. Okay?" Carmelita sighed deeply and shot a shock blast from behind her, the shock of it actually hitting Octavio's gondola as it came down the river. "NO! More to the left you idiot! We're gonna crash!" Octavio said as Carmelita ran off. He collided with the opera stage and destroyed both it and the boat.
"It's over Octavio. Hand us the demolition switch and we'll all try to outrun these cops," Sly said, looking at him. "You boys-a chasin' me for dis? Fine big-a-shot. It took me six months to prepare-a this-a thing. But what the hey? I got more where this-a came from." While he spoke, Murray had already made it to the vantage point and I had turned invisible. "Did you guys see that boat? And how it sped up and jumped and smashed into that thing?! DESTRUCTION! SO COOL!" Murray exclaimed. "You think that was-a 'cool', punk?" Octavio smiled.
He then did the most evil thing he could do. He pressed the button, a building in the distance sinking into the polluted waters. "You monster! Stop it! STOP IT!" Bentley yelled as Octavio kicked him square out of his chair. Murray then started to get amazingly angry as the waters stopped producing tar. "THAT DOES IT! I'll floss my teeth with your spine!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, jumping off the building and sucker punching Octavio's elderly mug. "THE MURRAY RETURNS!"
As Murray went off to fight Octavio by the police station, I stayed behind and helped Bentley up and back into his chair. "O-Ow..." he groaned as I lifted him up, noticing that he had a large cut on his hand. "I'll handle this..." Neyla frowned. I didn't expect what happened next. Neyla's eye emitted a small, red beam of light that actually healed Bentley's hand completely!
"Wh-what?" both me and Bentley exclaimed. "I-I wanted to... you know..." Neyla said, the eye going from red to docile yellow. She didn't want to say more. She only spoke when the eye was red. I smiled and petted the metal eyebrow, as if to console her. "You're forgiven... Neyla..." Bentley sighed. It was then that Murray and Sly showed up.
"You wanna tell them, Bentley?" I asked him, stepping away from his wheelchair so he could roll away with us. "Neyla... she healed a scar on my hand." "Huh? Didn't expect her to do that..." Sly frowned. Then the eye went red again, but quickly went back to yellow. "She didn't like that comment, Sly," I frowned as we headed away and back to our Safehouse, just barely escaping the police force.
"So? What are you gonna do now Mur-" I was about to ask, just then noticing him put on his mask and gloves. "The Murray is back in the business!" I smirked, giving him a high five. It kinda hurt, but I didn't mind. With my help and the rest of us, Murray was now ready for the Cooper Vault job!