Alright, the very first story I'm ever posting to this website! Recently, I had an urge and revisited the Sly Cooper game series from my youth. It may not be my favorite game series, but it's certainly up there, and ever since I was a kid the fact that the series ended on a cliffhanger bothered me. Well, I may not be the first to try and give the whole franchise a proper ending, but I couldn't resist taking a crack at the idea. Hopefully, my interpretation of Sly Cooper 5 lives up, and I have a ton of ideas already rolling in my head. Let's see how this goes!
The sun began to set on the horizon, the Eiffel Tower shining brightly as nightfall took hold on the city of Paris. It was a beautiful view, and people of all classes enjoyed themselves throughout the area. However, this gorgeous sight could do nothing to lift the spirits of one turtle named Bentley sitting in a wheelchair. "Figured I'd check the old hideout again. Maybe this time you'll be here, Sly…" He sighed to himself. He'd lost track of how many times he'd shown up to this rundown apartment. It was where the notorious Cooper Gang used to coordinate their incredible heists. Sly Cooper was the leader, the latest in a long line of master thieves who would steal from other criminals and write about their adventures in a book called the Thievius Raccoonus. Bentley was the brains, planning out their escapades to the finest detail, and though he'd been confined to a wheelchair for a long time now, nothing could keep him down. Murray was the brawn, a heartfelt hippo that could tackle almost any opponent, and valued his friends just as highly as the team van. Bentley remembered all the adventures they'd been through together: beating the Fiendish Five and recovering the stolen pieces of the Thievius Raccoonus, stopping the Klaww Gang from piecing the gang's ultimate foe Clockwerk back together, pulling a grand heist to discover the secrets of the Cooper Vault on Kaine Island, and traveling through time to prevent the Cooper lineage from being erased from history. It was at the end of that journey, however, that Sly Cooper had disappeared, and his friends had no idea where the raccoon was now. That was ten years ago, and by now the old team had gone their separate ways. While they would all keep in touch and search for years, each one of Sly's friends had to come to the painful realization that they would likely never see him again. Still, Bentley found himself returning to the old hideout every now and then, hoping in vain that maybe someday his best friend would be there. But as always, he found nothing. "I miss you, Sly. We all do. I hope that wherever you are, you're doing okay."
Sly Cooper wiped the sweat from his brow as he stood perched atop a small building. He was stranded several thousands of years in the past in Ancient Egypt, in the place that would eventually become Cairo in the present day. "Let's see…" He looked over the horizon, scanning his eyes through the sand dunes until he spotted a metallic glimmer in the sand. He then jumped atop a few more buildings before landing on the ground and grabbing the object that caught his interest: a piece of the time machine that brought him to this place to begin with. "That's another piece down! Of course, without Bentley there's no way I could make another time machine, but I've gotta try. Otherwise, I'll probably collapse into dust from all this heat…" Sly pocketed the fragment and headed back for the hideout he'd established in the area.
Bentley returned to his lab, feeling just as sad as when he left. He'd become famous worldwide for his inventions and most of the time he was happy, but without Sly things just weren't the same. Bentley once again found himself reading through the Thievius Raccoonus, desperately searching for something to point him in the right direction. "Drat! I'm so close to finding answers! I have my time machine right here, I just need some clues!" Closing the book and putting it aside, Bentley started looking through the mail he'd received recently; as a famous public figure, he got fan mail and patent requests pretty often. One letter in the stack grabbed his attention immediately: its color was a distinct shade of pink, and it was stamped with the familiar silhouette of a mouse. "Alright, Penelope. What've you sent me now?" Bentley opened the letter. Penelope was a former member of the Cooper Gang, and was once the girlfriend of Bentley. The two were very close, until she began to feel that Bentley's potential was being held back by his friends. She betrayed the team and the couple broke up, but she escaped from prison almost immediately after her capture. Ever since, she would send mysterious postcards to Bentley, and he had no idea what they meant. Indeed, this letter contained a postcard of a similar nature. It depicted the interior of a famous museum; all of the exhibits were intact, except something was off. Bentley stared for a moment longer, then gasped. "Wait a minute! One of the exhibits is missing! There's supposed to be a priceless Egyptian pharaoh's mask in that case, but it's gone!" Bentley's surprise then turned to sheer joy. "A clue! Ancient Egypt, that's it! I've gotta find that pharaoh mask!" Bentley didn't hesitate for a moment longer as he sped out of his home faster than he'd ever gone in a long time.
The first order of business was getting some lifelong friends up to speed. Bentley first went to find Murray, approaching him after the hippo had just finished a big wrestling match. Murray joined in without a second thought, and so they went to find someone else: Carmelita Montoya Fox. She was one of the top agents at Interpol, and though she fought for the law, she and the Cooper Gang knew each other very well. In particular, she had an on and off relationship with Sly, and while his tricks and schemes could infuriate her to no end, she knew deep down she loved him. Out of everyone, it was her who seemed to miss Sly the most. He brought a form of excitement in her life that nobody else did, and several times he put a lot on the line for her sake. So, when the door to her office opened to reveal Bentley and Murray standing there, she joined them without question. Bentley took them to the museum to explain everything. "Okay, guys, I think I might have a way to find Sly. This museum is the same one that used to be run by Cyrille Le Paradox, and it's been pristine ever since he was locked away. But now, Penelope's sent me a postcard of an Egyptian pharaoh's mask missing from its case! She could be telling us Sly's in Ancient Egypt!" Bentley smiled excitedly. Carmelita sighed. "Ugh, that wench. How do you know this isn't a trap? She hates Sly, she wouldn't want him to be rescued!" She said, and Bentley nodded. "I know, but it's the only lead we have." Murray patted Bentley on the back. "Besides, if there's any bad guys waiting for us in there, The Murray will demolish them in a flash!" He said excitedly. "Right, let's check the security footage first and see if we can find anything." Bentley hacked into the security system for the museum, and the trio watched the various screens for anything fishy. After a moment, they all saw something that surprised them. Someone busted into the museum and stole the mask, someone very familiar to them. "No way!"
Meanwhile, Cyrille Le Paradox tossed and turned in the hammock inside his prison cell. It'd been ten years since he was defeated atop his blimp by Sly Cooper, and though his enemy was now lost in time, Le Paradox's lifelong prison sentence nullified that victory. "This place is the worst! What a cruel twist of fate, that the greatest thief in history, Cyrille Le Paradox, rots away in solitary confinement." He bemoaned to himself. "Quiet in there, punk!" One guard shouted, and that promptly got Le Paradox to pipe down again. "Parolees, coming through!" Another guard said. "Hmm?" Le Paradox got closer to the glass of his cell, watching in surprise as two of his former minions walked along with some guards: Miss Decibel, a musically talentless elephant who'd reformed completely after being double crossed by Le Paradox, and Grizz, a rejected artist bear who refined his work while in prison. Both of them had improved their ways substantially behind bars, and were being let go for their good behavior. "Really? You two miserable failures are being freed?" Le Paradox asked. Miss Decibel groaned. "Cyrille, I believe you have no right to talk to us now." She said. "That's right Cyrille, you played your part! Now the Grizz and Ms. D are off to make some art!" Grizz said in a musical way. "Um, yes, what he said. You know, Cyrille, maybe if you were nicer, you wouldn't be locked away right now. If prison is so bad for you, just do what we did." Miss Decibel said. Le Paradox scoffed. "Pah! I will not rest until Cooper and his whole family are nothing but a bad memory!" He said. "Do as you wish. It's time we lived like people again, not criminals." With that, Miss Decibel and Grizz exited the prison. Le Paradox got back in his bed. "Those imbeciles. Cooper took everything from them, can't they see? I swear, if I had better help, it'd be me who would be in all the history books, not-" Out of nowhere, explosions and commotion began throughout the prison. Le Paradox jumped out of bed, trying to see what was going on. "What in the world?! Who's making all that racket?!" Before he could process what was going on, he saw an incredibly muscular dog with big guns in each hand calmly walking through the hallway. The big brute was walking with his arms since his legs were so skinny. The dog knocked aside guards with ease before smashing open Le Paradox's cell with his bare hands. The skunk cowered in the corner of his cell as the dog towered over him. "W-who are you?" Le Paradox stammered. The dog put away his guns for a moment to remove the cigar from his mouth. "The name's Muggshot, wimp. Now come on, I'm busting you outta here!" He said, gesturing for Le Paradox to follow him. "Really?" Le Paradox ran after Muggshot through the prison; the big dog was shooting down and fighting through any guards that tried to stop them. "Yes! After a decade of imprisonment, Cyrille Le Paradox is back!" The duo made their way outside the prison, and a big reinforced van was on the horizon. "There, follow me before the guards take us down!" Muggshot continued to fend off guards as Le Paradox jumped into the van, with Muggshot joining him afterward. The vehicle promptly sped away at top speed. Le Paradox was filled with excitement, his face brimming with joy. "I'm free! I'm finally free! Oh, many thanks, Muggshot!" Le Paradox gave a little salute to Muggshot, who just shrugged. "I'm just the muscle for that breakout, she's the one you should be grateful for." Muggshot pointed to the front seat of the van. "Yes, don't forget the real brains here, Le Paradox." A female voice said from the front, which Le Paradox recognized immediately. "You?! Well, I can't say I expected you to bust me out. What glorious plans do you have for me to enact, my loyal minion?" Le Paradox smiled before Penelope looked into the back of the van, giving him an annoyed look. "I'm not your servant, Cyrille. This time, you're gonna work for me." She said, and Le Paradox promptly went quiet, as he knew this time Penelope held all the cards. Muggshot pulled out an expensive looking pharaoh mask. "So, uh, I'm supposed to just drop this thing now?" He asked. "Yes. They're supposed to find it. It's time to get everything in motion." Penelope said. Muggshot tossed the mask out the back of the van.
Not long after, Carmelita and the others arrived at the scene, her status as a police officer allowing them all on the crime scene. "So what happened here?" She asked. A wounded guard showed her the security footage. "A large scale prison break. This big dog busted in, but he only escaped with one prisoner." Carmelita gritted her teeth as she saw what happened. "A bigtime criminal, Muggshot, just got Cyrille Le Paradox out of prison. But why?" She asked. "We have no idea, but we saw them get away in a van. It was going at speeds incomparable to any of our equipment!" The guard said. "There's only one other person who could modify a car to that capacity." Bentley said, and they all glared. "Penelope." Carmelita looked again at the evidence. "What does she want? And why does she need Le Paradox?" She asked. Another guard presented the pharaoh mask. "Again, we don't know. We found this artifact that was previously stolen from the museum. Who knows if it's important, though." He said. Carmelita immediately took the mask. "It's important to us! We'll investigate from here!" She said; the team returned to Murray's van, which was parked nearby. Bentley placed the pharaoh mask into the time travel port. "We have our destination! I just have one question. Why would the criminals leave the mask for us to find? There's no way it was an accident." He said, thinking through the possibilities. "We'll figure that out later. For now, we're finding Sly, wherever or whenever he might be." Carmelita said, and Murray nodded. "I couldn't agree more! Time to punch this thing in gear!" Murray grabbed the stick shift, hit the gas pedal, and the van began to accelerate forward. Everyone shouted in excitement as they were transported backwards in time.
And that's a wrap for the prologue! Already, a good few characters have made their appearance. What's going on in Ancient Egypt? What does Penelope have planned? Will Cyrille Le Paradox get the back massage he so desperately needs? Stay tuned to find out!
