Ch46: Time Travel, Japan Style

Even though I really wanted to have a dream with my family every night, it wasn't really like that. It was at least every other night when Neyla had fully recharged. She told me that summoning them in my dreams took a lot of power to do and that she needed to rest after each time... and that, when we started the next jobs, we'd have to hold off on dreams for a long while.

And then the day finally came. The day that we'd be traveling through time. Bentley had noticed that the pages in the Thievius Raccoonus were disappearing and that Penelope had simply vanished. I didn't have the heart to tell him about the betrayal... I figured I'd have my own heart to heart with her once we reached that point in time... to find out for myself why she betrayed us all and... me. We were besties after all!

The heist at the museum went perfectly. While I waited in the van for the others, the team managed to grab the ancient samurai dagger and return to the van in one piece... but there was one factor that was different for the timeline this time...

"So... how does this time travel thing work?" asked Opal. I was stunned that she decided to stay with us after the Cooper Vault job. She apparently said that the other goddesses of the Dreamtime (how she wasn't the only one was beyond me...) allowed her to stay with us so long as she continued to be peaceful and not hurt anyone with force. (Although, using magic was okay, as seen with Tsao...)

"Simple," Bentley smiled, putting the dagger in the small container in the van. "We put the item from the time period in here and... any time you want to punch it, Murray." Murray did so immediately. "With pleasure, chum!" We then sped off from the ground into a very cool looking warp tunnel that would take us to one of Sly's most famous ancestor's time periods: Feudal Japan, home to Rioichi Cooper.

When we finally got there, however, it was just as I remembered from the game. The town was crawling with gladiator pigs and other guards and Rioichi... he was nowhere to be found. "Where is he?" Sly asked, confused about the situation. "I think you should do some recon first, Sly," I smiled. "I'll help you out, how about that?" "Okay. Anything to find out where Rioichi went to."

After we left, I noticed something going on with Neyla's eye. She was thinking to me something that I didn't expect her to think to me, but she did. 'You do realize that now that we're in the past, that means Mr. Owl is around, right?' Her words shook me up a bit, but I simply shivered and pressed on. She was right. After all, in the games, Clockwerk was able to be seen in every time period minus the present, though only as a background piece. If he even came close to me, he definitely wouldn't know who or what I was.

Shrugging those thoughts off to the side, Sly and myself took photos of the imperial prison, the dragon gates, and Rioichi's sushi shop. Once we did this, however, we immediately noticed El Jefe, the tiger. (Seriously, how many tigers are in this game?) After we took a photo of him, Bentley pointed out the obvious that we weren't the only ones with a time machine. Then we had to come to terms of looking for Rioichi... and we did it in style.

Once Sly got the samurai armor off of all the guards, he put it on as I turned invisible and tricked the guard at the prison to let him in via threats about turning him to the general. (Real smooth raccoon...) And soon we were in the prison. Sly fooled the guards completely and I moved onward until we both made it to the area with Rioichi. "Rioichi? Is that you?" asked Sly.

Rioichi simply glared at Sly, since he was still in the armor. "Another one of El Jefe's guards comes to harrass me, hm?" he asked. "No, we've come to bust you out," Sly said, quickly taking off the armor. "My name is Sly." "And... I'm Sylvia," I smiled, turning myself visible from out of nowhere. "Ah, fellow ninjas. I would much appreciate a rescue, yes," Rioichi smiled, though he made sure to study the metal parts of my body, mainly my ears and eye. "No problem. Just hang in there, we'll get you out," Sly smiled. "Oh hah, funny," he frowned, a groan coming from his gruff voice.

We then made our way around the long way as I turned myself invisible once again and we both continued through the fortress filled with guards. We made it over to Rioichi's cage in a stellar time of 3 minutes, which was actually quite impressive if we were playing the game. "Okay... now it's time to free him... grab hold," I smiled, having him climb on my back. "You're not going to fly again, are you?" Sly asked. "Just stay on and I'll get us over there."

I then smiled as I unfolded my wings, Rioichi's eyebrows raising when he saw this. I giggled and jumped up, flying myself and Sly over to his cage and landing lighter than a butterfly. "You are no normal ninjas to have these moves... only a Cooper could make it over here," Rioichi smirked as I picked his lock like I did in Carmelita's office. (How far I've come, eh?) "Well, I didn't mean to alarm you, but... my full name is Sly Cooper. I'm from the future," Sly said.

"It takes a lot to alarm a ninja... with all that has happened here of late, I believe you," Rioichi said as I pulled him out and he grabbed hold of my waist along with Sly. "Hold on boys, cause this flight may get a little bumpy," I smiled as the cave system started to go as I flew our way out of the prison and completely annihilated the front gate with an eye blast. We emerged from the prison seconds later and I turned us invisible.

"Hmm... I feel I must ask this now than later, but... why do you have parts of my nemesis on your person?" Rioichi asked as we flew over the village to the hidden hideout cave. "It's a long story, so I'll tell you when we get there, bub," I said, winking with my left eye at him. "Hmm... just hope that the real one of this time doesn't see your current form. He may get... suspicious about you..." I sighed and nodded giving a grunt of approval as we flew into the hideout.