Sly Cooper Remake: Hearts of the Raccoon and the Tigress

by NEBSparky86

Here is my personal take on a remake of the Sly Cooper series. Sly Cooper and his friends have escaped from the orphanage they met at after performing their very first heist of stealing cookies. The trio are then taken in by the Klaww Gang, where Sly meets a violet furred tigress who would become his lover. Will the two of them be able to succeed and carry on the Cooper legacy?

4. Episode 3: Vicious Voodoo

Sly Cooper Remake: Hearts of the Raccoon and Tigress

Vicious Voodoo

From the Notes of Sly Cooper: "The third member of the Fiendish Five was the infamous voodoo priestess, Mz. Ruby. Born into a family of mystics, other children found her... scary, teaching herself to summon the undead, provided what few friends she had. A career in crime allowed an adult Mz. Ruby to punish the world for fearing her as a child. Chief mystic for the Fiendish Five, her powers allowed them to break both the laws of man and nature at the same time. Yet, despite the whirlwind success of her youth, she'd managed to slip into obscurity. Last known sightings claimed she headed out of civilization and deep into the Haitian jungle."

oooooooooooooo

Arriving on cue, thanks in part to an informant, Neyla arrived at the swamp that lead to the base of operations of the infamous voodoo priestess. Ever since Muggshot mentioned Mz. Ruby to her raccoon lover, she started having dreams about her past life and began having problems sleeping. Neyla had told the Contessa about her dreams and the spider prison warden suggested that she ignore the dreams and focus on the task at hand which was the defeat of the Fiendish Five.

"It's not so easy to forget and move on," Neyla said to herself after whacking a mosquito guard away from her. "Well… guess I better find what's in the vault on the way and go look for those blueprints to Mz. Ruby's stronghold."

Seeing the vines, the violet-furred tigress was glad that she got to meet with her boyfriend after the Mesa City job. Sly was gracious enough to let her read from the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus and taught her the Ninja Spire Jump along with the recently acquired pages detailing the Raccoon Rope Walk and Rail Slide. Armed with the knowledge of both techniques, Neyla would be able to advance through the swamp towards the stronghold.

Much like Raleigh's stronghold in Britain, security was very lax and Neyla encountered very light resistance. As she arrived at the guard compound, she noticed that a couple of water rat voodoo guards were grabbing something that was in a vault.

"We better move these blueprints before Mz. Ruby finds out we left them here," one water rat said to his companion. "She said that apparently, similar blueprints for Raleigh and Muggshot's places had a habit of being left in the vaults on approach."

"Can't believe that a techno-freak and steroid-pumper like those two were stupid enough to leave such clues on the front door of their own hideouts," said the other water rat guard in agreement with his companion. "So… wanna go to that golf course in Punta Cana next weekend?"

"Ooo…, I know which one you're talking about," the first water rat guard said as looked to his companion. "It's the new extreme golf course three kilometers southeast of the Excellence Punta Cana resort, right?"

"That's the one," answered the second water rat guard.

"Oh… you're on!" exclaimed the first water rat. "We gotta get some of the other guys in on the action, too."

As the two water rat guards were talking about the newest golf course in the neighboring Dominican Republic, they were unaware that a lone, violet-furred Bengal tigress was on the prowl. With stealth on her side, Neyla quietly prowled the guards into the compound and towards an area that contained a very tall gate. As she followed the pair, Neyla noticed that the bulk of Mz. Ruby's security force were hard at work containing the area's native inhabitant, a huge reptilian creature that was being forced back into a cave about to be sealed.

As for the guards they pressed on to the vault which didn't take them long as a makeshift path was set up for them. Once they reached their destination, one of water rats input the code. The first water rat guard looked to the code and to his companion and asked, "Seriously? Why a code of 4-4-4? Wouldn't 6-6-6 be a much better and more intimidating code to crack?"

"You'll have to ask the lamebrain who came up with the stupid thing," answered the second rat, as the both of them were unaware that they were being stalked by an intruding Bengal tigress. "I think they mentioned something about forcing any idiot who tries to crack the code to have personal demons. I dunno."

"But to be honest," continued the second water rat guard as they kept moving, "the priestess should've just kept these blueprints up in the temple with that other page thing she's held on to for a decade… GAH!"

The same water rat had fallen unconscious as he had been struck from behind by an unknown assailant. Before the first guard had time to react, he too had been struck unconscious by the same attacker. With both voodoo guards knocked out, Neyla then swiped the blueprints that were in their paws and stuck her tiger head symbol on the inside of the vault door before closing the door and leaving the page from the Thievius Raccoonus in the vault.

"Sorry boys, nothing personal," Neyla said quietly to the unconscious rats. "Hope you get your chance to go golfing soon."

With the stronghold blueprints in her possession, Neyla was quick to exit that area and sneak out of the complex before she was spotted by the voodoo priestess. Unfortunately, the escape from complex would not be easy as Mz. Ruby herself was out and about making rounds and inspecting the operation herself. The alligator mystic surveyed her surroundings and noticed her guards were not present. Before letting her anger set in, Mz. Ruby remembered that she had a reptilian creature that had recently escaped and required her guards to hunt it down and capture it.

"Hmm… there's a strange vibe I'm a feelin'," Mz. Ruby said to herself as she intently scanned her surroundings.

'Bullocks!' Neyla thought to herself as she feared that the voodoo priestess was immediately on to her.

"Priestess Ruby, we've got the creature contained," a water rat guard informed his boss.

"Well done," replied Mz. Ruby, as her concentration had been broken by the guard. "Make sure that all patrols are doubled. I can feel a most distastefully bad vibe a-coming."

"It'll be done, Priestess," acknowledged the water rat guard.

"Also… make sure no one else is snooping around," Mz. Ruby said to the water rat guard before disappearing.

Once the priestess was gone, Neyla made her way back towards the guard compound and set the blueprints to Mz. Ruby's production facility back into the vault and closed it up before getting herself out of the way.

oooooooooooooo

A few hours later, on cue, the Cooper Gang arrived on approach to the lair of the voodoo priestess. As usual, Murray backed the van into position and the back doors opened so Sly could begin his approach. Before Sly could approach the first set of clue bottles, Bentley came on the binocucom and promptly informed the raccoon thief, "Sorry, Sly, but this is one mission you will have to accomplish without me."

Sly then asked Bentley coolly, "You don't believe in ghosts, do you?"

Bentley was quick to answer with, "Sure I do. My scanners have picked up verifiable paranormal activity, but that's not the problem. This swamp is oozing with disgusting mold and bacteria."

Sly sighed and rolled his eyes before retorting with, "Suck it up, Bentley. We've got work to do."

"Well, alright then," replied Bentley conceded in defeat. "Don't forget to use the new move you learned from Muggshot's section of the Thievius Raccoonus."

The raccoon thief then asked Bentley as he looked at some worn out bark, "You mean the Raccoon Rail Walk?"

"The roots and vines around here are perfect for that," explained Bentley. "All you gotta do is..."

Sly cracked a mischievous smile as he replied with "...Jump and hit the circle button?"

Bentley huffed in annoyance with Sly's jokes as he could hear Murray laughing in the background. The three of them had a job to do and plus there was the fact that Arpeggio had contacted them personally and summoned them to the blimp, that was 100 miles west and outside of American airspace, after they finished their stay in the United States.

The British parrot wasn't pleased with them for the Mesa City job. Despite Neyla's assistance in finishing the job on time, the head of the Klaww Gang himself wasn't happy that valuable time had been lost when Sly had to backtrack to the vault in the outskirts of Mesa City. Despite such displeasure, however, he couldn't argue with the results and took into account that the Cooper Gang hadn't failed him like their overly ambitious, hot tempered, onetime associate, Cyrille Le Paradox.

Still, Bentley had his jobs to do as he replied with, "Especially where you see the bark has been worn away. And where it's super slick from icky slime and moss, you'll rail slide like a skater grinding pipe. And enough with the 'jump and hit the circle button,' Sly. We're not in a video game."

Sly chuckled under his breath as he replied with, "I'm liking it."

Once Sly was able to practice both the Raccoon Rope Walk and Raccoon Rail Slide, the raccoon said to himself, "Really wish Bentley wouldn't worry as much about germs. He's got nothing to worry about considering that I'm the one out in the field having to be exposed to all the germs that he whines about."

Sly made his way through the swamp collecting clue bottles and making use of his Raccoon Roll technique whenever he could use it to try and speed up his approach to Mz. Ruby's lair. Though one good thing about said technique was that it was super charged with electrical energy that packed a punch on any unlucky guard to cross his path. With the Raccoon Roll, Bentley informed him that he was making good time on their job. Knowing that his ancestor's technique was helping him perform better was something that Arpeggio would have to consider the next time the small gang had to meet with him.

Upon reaching the guard compound, Bentley contacted Sly via the binocucom. Sly looked through his binocucom to get a view of what was awaiting him in his path to face the voodoo priestess. The raccoon thief could see the huts that the guards lived in, candles that were lit up, a vault, what appeared to be a large alligator face in the distance, and a treasure key sitting on a tiki pedestal.

"That's Mz. Ruby's lair," Bentley informed Sly as he was looking at the large alligator face before switching his view to the treasure key. "To get in, you'll need that key on top of a tiki pedestal in the guard compound. There's a bad mojo force field protecting it, so you'll have to destroy all five of the purple candles surrounding it."

"No problem," Sly replied coolly with a smirk on his face.

Bentley sighed as he shook his head and then cautiously warned Sly, "Don't get cocky, or you'll end up with your head shrunk to the size of a pea. You've got to get past those voodoo guards — and I'm warning you — they're mean, and they work like a team."

Sly was quick to reply, confidently, "So do we, buddy!"

"I'm serious, Sly!" Bentley exclaimed before gulping. "You know I have to keep you alive. And you're not making that job easy for me. Especially with what Neyla will do to me if you don't come back to her alive."

"You worry too much, Bent," replied Sly after letting out a sigh. "I'm gonna go to my sexy cat… alive and in one piece.

"As for the guards," continued Sly, as he watched the water rat guards circling the compound, "I'll just use the Mine technique that I used back in Mesa City. I highly doubt that the guards are gonna notice a hat in their path."

"That… that sounds like a logical plan," conceded Bentley, as he nodded in approval.

"I'll just need to wait until the guards aren't within my visual sights, plant the explosive," Sly explained to Bentley as he went over his plan, "pull back and boom! Guards are down and out for the count."

"Alright then, Sly," replied Bentley. "But you're gonna have to be fast and careful when you plant the explosives."

"Come on now," Sly replied to Bentley with a smirk on his face, "this is me we're talking about."

Sly then put his binocucom away and went to work in eliminating the guards surrounding their compound. His first target was the voodoo water rat that was closest to him. Once the guard was circling around a hut, the raccoon thief then planted the first explosive and then retreated to safety as the guard was returning. Once the rat was in prime position, Sly activated the mine and took out the guard.

Sly repeated the process four more times until all the guards were knocked out. With the opposition eliminated, Sly was free to destroy the five purple candles. Before Sly set his sights on the candles and the treasure key, there was the vault that he had to crack. Before opening the vault, Sly approached the vault and Bentley came on the binocucom and said, "If I did my math right, and I always do my math right, then the combination has got to be 5-8-8."

The raccoon thief inputted the code to the vault and it unlocked to reveal its contents. Bentley then chimed in with, "These are the blueprints to Mz. Ruby's production facility. I'll pipe this information into your binocucom. Use it to find breakables and clues nearby."

"That's my girl," said Sly as he removed his lover's tigress symbol on the vault door.

With the blueprints in hand, Sly then focused on destroying all five candles… while the coast remained clear. Destroying them wasn't hard as Sly methodically took them out and weakened the bad mojo barrier protecting the key. With the candles destroyed, Bentley piped in on the binocucom with, "You've done it! The mojo force field is down, and you can steal the key!"

oooooooooooooo

Observing Sly picking up the first treasure key, Neyla pulled out her personal cellphone and dialed the number for their boss, Arpeggio. Like clockwork, Neyla had to report in once Sly was well on his way. As Sly entered the temple complex, the green holographic marker that had been there briefly had disappeared. Neyla remembered that once an area had been picked clean of its treasure key and section of the Thievius Raccoonus, then there was no need for Sly to enter the area again.

"Arpeggio, it's Neyla reporting," the violet-furred tigress said to the Klaww Gang leader. "Apparently, Carmelita has me tailing Cooper and his crew, unlike in Mesa City.

"Yes, they've found Mz. Ruby's stronghold," continued Neyla. "I'm going to hold here at the guard compound. It appears as though that there are some powerful bad mojo barriers.

Neyla sighed and rolled her eyes as she replied to Arpeggio, "I'm aware of his mission to take down Mz. Ruby. I've already scouted out the operation here and found the blueprints for the old girl's fortress. I placed them in the vault located here at the guard compound. Yes, just like I did twice beforehand . Once the bad mojo barriers have been eliminated, I'll signal Inspector Fox to come raid the place.

"Why?" Neyla asked her boss as he had asked her a question. "Because Sly will have more than half of the treasure keys needed to assist him in getting up to the skull temple. I'm asking you to trust me. Sly did manage to improve his time reaching the guard compound. I figured you'd be pleased to hear that. Now if you'll excuse me… I have to keep tabs on Cooper."

oooooooooooooo

As Neyla was speaking to their boss in the Klaww Gang, Sly rail slid down to the main complex. The raccoon thief was greeted by the sight of at least four water rat flashlight guards and an ominous looking structure that resembled a giant alligator. Before advancing any further, Bentley came on the binocucom and reported to Sly, "My paranormal scanner is maxing out on that structure."

Sly Cooper then looked to the giant alligator head and then replied, "A reading like that could only be coming off Mz. Ruby herself."

Bentley gave a nod of agreement and said, "I think you're right, Sly. If you want a crack at Mz. Ruby, you're going to have to find a way inside that Skull Temple."

Upon reaching the temple complex, Mz. Ruby herself came over the intercom and announced, "Wake up, you lazy bags of swamp gas! The voodoo vibe is thick tonight. Let's take advantage of this powerful mojo and step up production. Keep piling those shiny bones into the soup. We'll have an army of ghosts by morning and take over Mexico by the end of the week. Hear that voodoo, children? Our family is about to grow, grow, grow!"

"Zombies… really?" Sly asked to himself. "No wonder she fell into obscurity. Regardless, Carmelita is gonna love burying her six feet into the ground. She is, after all, violating the World Peace Accords of '71."

"Yeah," agreed Bentley. "You're not kidding."

Sly then noticed a small gate and threw his only key at it. Of course his attempt failed because he had only the one key and there were three padlocks on the gate. When the attempt to unlock the small gate failed, Bentley chimed in with, "They seem to have this gate locked up pretty tight. Must be something pretty valuable in here. A couple more treasure keys should give us the answer."

"Guess everything can't be easy," Sly said to himself with a smile. "If it was easy, then there wouldn't be anything challenging."

Sly then saw a green holographic marker that was neatly tucked away and had a water rat guard blocking his way to it. However, the raccoon thief noticed a pipe-like structure made of bones that he could use to climb over the guard. He did just that and then waited for the water rat guard to turn his back before dropping down and knocking him out.

oooooooooooooo

After arriving in the section that Bentley had dubbed "Piranha Lake," the turtle genius spoke to his friend. Sly scanned his surroundings and saw a pretty big lake that had many fish in it. These freshwater fish were not native to the Haitian jungles, but South America. Apart from seeing the alien piranha fish, the raccoon thief also noticed a swamp skiff that was sitting at the docks. But before he jumped on the flamethrower equipped skiff, Sly let Bentley give him the rundown on what he needed to do.

"Sly," began Bentley, "the only way to open up that voodoo gate is by lighting all 25 tiki torches with the flamethrower on your swamp skiff.

"Oh, and one more thing... you need fuel for the flamethrower," Bentley added as his raccoon best friend was scanning the alien freshwater fish, "and the only source of oil are those piranha you see swimming around. Run them down with the boat. One fish fuels one shot. Hurry, you only have two minutes to get all the torches lit!"

Sly then proceeded to board the skiff and charge forward towards collecting the key. As Sly began to collect fuel for his skiff, Bentley came on the binocucom then said, "Hey, Sly, to save time near a tiki torch, run a fish over and then light the torch."

"Good thinking Bentley," Sly replied thoughtfully. "Besides, I gotta dump the oil I already collected."

Sly was able to light five tiki torches before he had to collect more oil to light more torches. The raccoon thief took Bentley's suggestion to heart and applied it as he was lighting the remaining 20 tiki torches. But, not all of the fish were easy to run down as some of them were quite slippery and got away from the raccoon thief. With half of the time remaining for Sly, he had managed to successfully light ten more torches and had at least four shots that missed their marks.

"Gotta keep going," Sly said to himself as he had managed to run down two piranhas and then light another two tiki torches. "Got seven more torches to light and not enough time left on the clock."

"S-Sly, I'm picking something up on my paranormal scanners," Bentley chimed in a panic. "You gotta hurry, man! Hurry before whatever I'm picking up on my scanners comes in and douses the flames on those tiki torches!"

"Four more to go, Bentley," reported Sly, as he had lit his twenty first tiki torch and then proceeded to light the remaining torches. "Three… two… one… and… DONE!"

"Phew!" Bentley exclaimed in relief as Sly then heard something break on the skiff. "Well… it looks like whatever it was I picked up on my paranormal scanners has gone away. For now at least. Hurry up and grab that key before whatever it was I picked up decides to come back."

Sly complied with Bentley as he and his crew were on the clock and the time frame that he and his friends had been given to complete the job against Mz. Ruby was sternly cut short by their boss, Arpeggio, as punishment for taking longer than expected to complete their mission in Mesa City. Thinking that he didn't have any more oil on his skiff, Sly decided to try and see if he could fire the flamethrower on the skiff. Much to the raccoon thief's surprise, the flamethrower fired out flames.

This puzzled the young raccoon thief, but this inquiry would have to wait until he acquired the second treasure key. As he disembarked from the swamp vehicle, Sly noticed that a piece of paper, that had originally remained over the top of fuel line, was sliced in half. With his curiosity partially satisfied, Sly then made his way to the treasure key and collected it.

oooooooooooooo

After collecting the second treasure key, Sly then made his way to the next area above "Piranha Lake" that the turtle genius had then dubbed, "A Grave Undertaking." The raccoon thief did have to go around a water rat guard that was blocking his direct approach to the area with the third treasure key and another page from the Thievius Raccoonus. After knocking the guard out, Sly proceeded to plumb the depths of the next area. He was then contacted by Bentley after rail sliding to collect coins and the first clue bottle on a stump island.

"Sly, you'd better be on your guard here," Bentley informed his raccoon best friend. "My paranormal scanners show this place is really haunted!"

As Sly whacked the thick branches with his cane, ghostly water rats charged at him as he cut his way through brush. Once the brush was clear, the raccoon then spotted a gravestone and destroyed it. Upon destroying the first ghost generator, Bentley piped through on the binocucom and said, "Now that was very interesting. When you smashed that gravestone, the ghosts stopped coming. It must be some kind of ghost generator. Maybe if you smashed them all, you'd be safe."

The journey through the haunted area was definitely dangerous as Sly was attacked by mosquito guards, guards that were created through Ruby's voodoo magic and of course, the ghost rats.

"Yeesh," said Sly after he cleared out three headstone ghost generators and lost one of his lucky charms. "What is it with Mz. Ruby and ghosts?"

"Don't you remember from the file on her, Sly?" asked Bentley as he had overheard Sly's question. "She didn't exactly have many friends and the undead replaced what people she couldn't find as friends."

"Yeah, but she could've grown out of it," replied Sly as he finished collecting the clue bottles within the area of the small arena.

Sly did have the misfortune of making a misstep and fell down to the entrance of the now empty arena. The raccoon thief wasted no time in getting back up where he needed to be as he utilized the Raccoon Roll technique to make up for lost time when he fell. It was then that he gained enough coins for another lucky charm to form and join to his remaining lucky charm to form another golden lucky charm.

"I seem to be losing lucky charms at a much quicker pace than I did back in Mesa City," Sly said to himself aloud as he had to do battle with a whole host of rat ghosts that came from a single gravestone in front of him.

Knowing that time wasn't on his side, Sly then decided to charge through the host of ghosts and sacrifice his newly acquired lucky charm to get a momentary respite. The ghostly rodents disappeared once one of them struck the golden energy field blocking them from claiming the thieving intruder's soul. With that momentary respite, Sly took advantage and destroyed the gravestone before more ghosts popped up again.

As for collecting clue bottles, Sly was making excellent progress, despite the reduced time limit placed on him and his pals. Of course, guards still tried to stop him from collecting the clue bottles and advancing towards the treasure key. Despite managing to slightly slow down his progress, Sly was still able to blast through them and keep surging forward. However, the guards were able to strip Sly of three lucky charms and put him in a precarious position. Thankfully, he managed to make it to the vault once he obtained all of the clue bottles. Before opening the vault, Bentley came on the binocucom and said, "Okay, okay, this is kind of a guess, but try 1-2-8."

Sly frowned when his turtle friend said that the code to the vault was based on a guess. Usually, Bentley was always certain and had all the answers. Despite this, the raccoon input the code and found that it was correct as he claimed the set of pages from the Thievius Raccoonus. Once he collected the pages, Sly then collected the third treasure key. With the third treasure key collected, Sly checked his watch and saw that despite the minor setback, he was making good time before Bentley warped him out of the area.

oooooooooooooo

After returning to the main area of the complex, Sly headed towards the next area Bentley called "The Lair of the Beast." Along the way to this area, Sly knocked out another water rat guard before entering. As the raccoon thief entered the area, he noticed a huge, intimidating gate that had a pair of serpents as part of the design on it. Despite the look of the gate, however, Sly was not deterred by its look.

Bentley then came on the binocucom, saying in puzzlement, "What's with this industrial-strength voodoo gate? Mz. Ruby must really be trying to keep something out."

Sly was quick to calmly, yet eagerly, reply with, "Or maybe... she's trying to keep something IN!"

The raccoon thief began to work his way through the area, collecting clue bottles and more coins to acquire a lucky charm to protect himself. Sly mostly faced mosquito and spider guards in this area, not encountering any water rats with flashlights. As he went through the area, he noticed that things were eerily quiet and the only noise he could hear was the buzzing of the mosquitoes that guarded the area and the sounds of the night. At some point through the area, Bentley came on the binocucom and reported, "These walls are making me claustrophobic."

The turtle genius then spotted reeds swaying from something moving underwater and then said, "Whoa! Did you see those reeds move? There's something huge under there. You better get going!"

As he reached the second signal repeater, Sly noticed a blocked cave as it certainly held something that the female alligator voodoo priestess didn't want escaping. He also noticed that some pieces of paper were trying to keep a seal in place. The raccoon thief's curiosity would have to wait for another time as he had a job to do and so little time to complete it. After collecting the coins that would form a much needed lucky charm and the clue bottles Bentley needed to crack the code, Sly pressed on. As he pressed forward towards the fourth treasure key, the seal failed and an oversized reptilian monster came out to chase after Sly.

"Sorry big guy," Sly said to the overly massive creature, "but I'm not on the menu tonight. I've places to go and a very lovely tiger girl waiting for me."

The creature gave no verbal reply, but continued to give chase and pursue Sly. The creature, however, did seem to keep its distance from Sly as it noticed him collecting the clue bottles and even smacked a couple bottles that he missed because of the pursuit. Before opening the vault, the reptilian creature yielded his chase of Sly. With all of the clue bottles collected, Sly went to the vault and Bentley contacted him via binocucom and said with a grimace, "I had to overcome some personal demons to get the answer to this one. Try 4-4-4."

Sly input the code and found yet another page from the Thievius Raccoonus. This page gave him the ability to see bios on the guards when he looked through his binocucom. With the page in hand, he went back to the stand where the fourth treasure key was located and smashed the stand. Once the key was in his backpack, Bentley warped him out of the area and back to the main complex.

oooooooooooooo

After returning to the main complex, Sly headed back to the small gate that he tried to unlock earlier. He threw three of the four treasure keys that he collected at the gate in order to unlock it. Once the gate was successfully unlocked, the very same creature that pursued him earlier made his way out into the complex and then smashed through a barricade that blocked Sly from another section of the complex. After smashing through the barricade, the monstrous reptile then eyed the raccoon before jerking his head towards the skull temple.

Sly caught on to what the creature was trying to say as he said to the creature, "If you're wanting Ruby gone, don't worry. We'll get rid of her so you can have the jungle back."

With the raccoon's reassurance, the creature gave Sly a nod of approval and a slight roar before heading back into his confinement. Once the barricade was eliminated, Sly picked up the coins that came from the creature bulldozing through it and earned himself another lucky charm that turned his blue lucky charm back into a golden lucky charm. After accessing the second area, Sly came upon what looked like an egg beater that was stirring up a soup that included bones and body parts. It was then that Bentley came on the binocucom and said, "Looks like this is some kind of giant voodoo egg beater to stir up that unsanitary mess."

Sly looked at the egg beater and then saw something caught his interest as he chimed in with, "If I can unlock the cauldron's lid, I might be able to thrash their production and build up enough steam pressure to get launched up to Ruby's skull temple."

"Okay, sounds like we've got a plan," Bentley said as the turtle genius was pleased that he didn't have to do all the thinking as Sly came up with a simple plan. "To get around that thing, try moving in the shadows made by the mask so that the guards won't see you."

Once the plan was formulated, Sly rope walked to the other side of the complex and then came back around to where a barrier was erected through the use of bad mojo. After taking out the water rat guard, Sly was free to take out the bad mojo barrier. The raccoon then destroyed the two candles that kept the bad mojo barrier up. After destroying the barrier, Sly called to Bentley, "Bentley, get on the horn with Neyla and tell her to call in Carmelita. All of the barriers are down and Carmelita can get Mz. Ruby."

"Roger that, Sly," acknowledged Bentley.

oooooooooooooo

"Alright Bentley, I'll contact you once Inspector Fox has been contacted," Neyla said to Bentley once he had contacted her. "You're doing a wonderfully delightful job in keeping my raccoon safe."

The violet furred tigress heard Bentley sigh in relief before he replied with, "Thanks. But your boyfriend isn't making it easy for me to keep him safe."

Neyla chuckled before responding with, "But he's got you to remind him that I'm waiting for him."

"And he also reminds ME of what'll happen if I don't bring him back to you," countered Bentley.

"No worries, dear chum," replied Neyla. "I won't turn you into turtle soup or a custard. Just make sure Sly makes it through this job and he'll get to enjoy my company when you boys go for rest."

"Well… that'll make Sly happy to hear that news," said Bentley. "But right now, I gotta keep him focused on the task at hand."

oooooooooooooo

After contacting Bentley, Sly went an area that the turtle called "Down Home Cooking." As Sly entered the area, he noticed a bunch of chickens, hay, and pots that scattered all over the area. His inquiry would come as Bentley came on the binocucom and said, "With all the hay and feathers in here, just looking at this place has got me breaking down in hives, but we've got no choice.

Sly looked up to see a ghost holding on to a treasure key as Bentley continued, "That ghost over there contacted me on specter-wave radio, and we've cut a deal. He's promised us a key if you can whack 50 chickens. I guess he needs them to make a big pot of gumbo, but he's scared of the bomb-toting roosters. Be careful, or they'll blow you to bits! Think you can do it?"

"No problem," replied Sly.

"And yes, Sly," added Bentley. "I know what'll happen to me if you get blown to bits. You don't need to tell me."

"I didn't say a thing," Sly replied to Bentley before jumping down into the pen.

Sly began chasing down chickens and whacking them as he went along. Whacking the first 12 or so chickens was the easy part. It was once the thief whacked the 13th chicken, out came roosters with bombs in their arms.

"Intruder! Intruder!" exclaimed the first two bombing toting roosters. "Must destroy the intruder!"

"Oh, geez!" yelped a surprised Sly as the two bombing toting roosters were starting to close in on him. "Gotta put some distance between me and those suicide roosters."

Sly leapt over a couple pots to get some distance between himself and the roosters as the fuses on the bombs had only a couple seconds left before exploding. Sly tried whacking as many chickens as he could for the water rat ghost. Unfortunately for the raccoon, he had to be careful not to hit the bomb toting roosters with his cane. Thankfully, once the bombs exploded, Sly was clear to keep whacking another nine or so chickens before another set of bomb toting roosters came out to defend the hens.

"Yeesh, what is it with these guys and bombs?" Sly asked himself as he found out that he no longer could jump over the large pots and had to run around them to dodge them.

"Boom! Boom! BOOM!" shouted the roosters as they charged after Sly. "Intruder will go boom instead of whacking our chickens!"

Sly's quest to whack 50 chickens was an arduous task as it wasn't easy to keep the bomb toting roosters away from him. He lost one of his lucky charms to a pair of roosters that connected with his golden energy field as he whacked the fortieth chicken with only thirty seconds left on the clock. Right as he whacked the fiftieth chicken, the roosters finally yielded and the ghost dropped the fifth treasure key as per the agreement he made with Bentley. As Sly picked up the treasure key, he said, "I will never look at gumbo the same way again."

oooooooooooooo

After collecting coins from defeating another guard, Sly made his way around the voodoo egg beater towards the next area that had a hovering vehicle waiting for him. The area was dubbed "A Ghastly Voyage" by Bentley and the raccoon thief was about to find out why it was called that. As Sly entered the area he saw a boat that was waiting to take him across the river. Bentley came on the binocucom to give Sly a brief tutorial on how to use the vehicle.

"That vehicle seems to be outfitted with some sort of high energy cannon," Bentley began his brief tutorial. "Use the left handle to move, and aim the right handle in the direction you want to shoot. Remember, you can always shoot in one direction while moving in another."

The journey on the jungle wasn't without danger as the raccoon thief had to fight off ghosts and destroy the headstones generating them. Not just ghosts were trying to stop Sly, but also large alligator snapping turtle guards with flaming skeletal heads as well. With some skill, Sly managed to repulse the ghosts and the flaming turtle guard without a scratch and his golden lucky charm intact as well. The boat stopped at its destination and Sly proceeded forward, leaving a trail of destruction in his path as he collected coins.

As he destroyed two headstone generators, a flaming turtle guard got lucky and caught the raccoon by surprise as he launched a flaming skeletal head at Sly and struck the golden energy field blocking the guard from hitting Sly directly. The loss was unfortunate for Sly as he had only about 75 coins and was going to need another 25 to regain a lucky charm and have his golden protective field up once again. After blasting the flaming turtle guard and the headstone generator, Bentley chimed in upon Sly approaching the second signal repeater.

"According to my paranormal scanner," reported in Bentley, "that flowing soup is really highly charged ectoplasm! It's just got to be the source of power for those headstone generators!"

"Yeah," Sly replied under his breath and rolled his eyes as the signal repeater flashed and check pointed his progress. "Thanks for stating the obvious."

Sly then snarled to himself, "Must be nice for Bentley to be able to sit around in the van and bark instructions to me and Murray. We're the ones sticking our necks out in the field while he sits around and gets to justify his phobia of germs as a reason to hide out."

"Come on, love," an all too familiar tigress said to Sly over the earpiece, "not everyone is qualified to be out in the field. Besides, Bentley does what he does best and that's provide you boys with support."

"Yeah, but still…," Sly said to Neyla, trying to keep his cool as he blasted another headstone generator and destroyed the rubble barrier blocking him from another flaming turtle guard.

"Give him time, Sly," Neyla calmly replied to her beloved. "He'll be out in the field soon enough. But it's gotta be on his time."

Sly then blasted through another set of barriers and collecting the remaining coins that he needed to form another lucky charm and regain the golden lucky charm that he needed to protect himself. After dealing with the two flaming turtle guards, Sly's last obstacle in his way to the key was a trio of headstones that generated a hoard of ghosts that sought to claim him as their victim. With some fancy maneuvering, Sly managed to break through one of the barriers and destroy the headstone behind it before charging at the remaining two, unprotected from behind. With the last two ghost generators destroyed, Sly was able to claim his sixth treasure key and had one last area to go through as the vehicle disappeared and Bentley warped him back to the complex.

oooooooooooooo

After being warped back to the complex, Sly had to make the rotation back to the area that he bypassed that Bentley called "Descent Into Danger." Seeing how there weren't any green holographic markers lit up anywhere else, but this area he was about to go through Sly let out a sigh as he entered the final area. All that Sly could think about was Neyla and how much he wanted to have her in his arms and give himself to her. But now wasn't the time to think about wanting to make sweet love, Sly thought to himself as he cleared some brush with his cane and collected clue bottles. The raccoon then took a minute to see if he could find where any clue bottles were located. Seeing the location of some of the clue bottles through his binocucom caused Sly to grit his teeth.

"Dammit," snarled Sly as he saw the locations of the clue bottles. "That's not good at all."

"Something wrong, Sly?" inquired Bentley, as he knew his raccoon best friend only used profanity whenever there was a monkey wrench thrown into a plan.

"I'm really gonna have to backtrack for clue bottles," Sly answered in a displeasing tone. "Really gonna have to rely on my Raccoon Roll technique to make up for any time that I lose."

"Oh my gawd!" exclaimed a horrified and disgusted Bentley, as Sly went past a waterfall that contained bones and body parts. "A green waterfall overflowing with bones and body parts. I'm telling you, the health department's going to come down big time on this dump.

"I'm looking at the blueprints for that area, Sly," Bentley said as he was quick to get over the disgusting revelation of bones and body parts being used to create an army of ghosts. "And the best thing you can do right now is ignore the clue bottles on the lower area, you're in right now, until you can get to the point where you can drop down to that far snake statue head and then work your way back to save time. But I do agree that you'll need to utilize your Raccoon Roll technique in order to keep a consistent time to complete the job of retrieving the treasure key."

"Copy that, Bentley," acknowledged Sly as he did what Bentley suggested and bypassed the clue bottles on the lower level.

Once Sly disposed of the flaming turtle guard in his way, he made his way up the bone poles, he was met by a spider guard that tried to block him as well. Sly looked to see the clue bottles that were on the upper level that he could visibly see and went to collect those bottles with little difficulty and no opposition. Once those clues were collected for Bentley, the raccoon thief then proceeded to eliminate two water rat guards.

At some point through the trek, Ruby came on the intercom and announced, "Hey there, Sly Cooper! That's right, I know you're here. I've seen it in the stars. It's all over my tea leaves. I'm in your mind, raccoon. I know your game. You better run for it, or me and my voodoo children are going to sign you up for an eternity in zombie servitude!"

"As if, Mz. Ruby," Sly shot back under his breath as he made it to the destination that Bentley said he needed to go towards. "Alright Bentley, I'm at the snake statue head and I just collected the clue bottles. I'm beginning my backtrack now. Keep an eye on that clock and see how well I do in backtracking."

"You got it," replied Bentley. "I'm already keeping an eye on the clock now."

Sly began going back towards his correct path, collecting clue bottles that he had left behind. Sly utilized his Raccoon Roll technique to speed up whenever he could use it. The remaining two guards on the lower levels were easily dealt with as the raccoon thief made his way back up to the upper levels and towards the treasure key.

"How did I do time wise as I backtracked?" Sly asked Bentley as he made his way back to the chandelier where Mz. Ruby made the announcement over the PA.

"It took you a minute and a half to backtrack while you collected clue bottles," answered Bentley. "You're doing alright so far, Sly."

The raccoon was pleased to hear that he was making good time upon reaching a large room with spotlights. Sly was admittedly confused by the security system in place. He pretty much expected the voodoo priestess to have something made out of black magic, not a laser wall or spotlights. For someone who was supposed to be the master of voodoo magic, seeing her rely on technology wasn't helping Sly's understanding of Ruby.

"Look at all the security," Bentley said as he looked at the security system in place. "This must be the source of all the disgusting green soup!"

"Yeah," agreed Sly as he went forward and had to dodge the security spotlights. "But this is not helping my image of Mz. Ruby. I was expecting the whole voodoo kit and caboodle."

"In her defense," began Bentley, "she probably wasn't expecting anyone to get this deep into her operation."

Sly had just taken out the last remaining flaming turtle guard and then proceeded to collect the remaining clue bottles. With all but two clues collected, Bentley was very close to decipher the code and Sly made a very long pipe appear after disposing of a guard blocking his path. He then began rail sliding towards the key, after seeing that the final two clues were at the vault that he needed to crack. Before opening the vault, Sly collected the final two clues and Bentley chimed in.

"I pretty much had this code cracked before you got the last two clues," Bentley promptly informed Sly before he began to brag. "These codes are nothing before my righteous analytical ability! The combination has to be 5-7-1."

oooooooooooooo

As Sly was inputting the final code in Mz. Ruby's final vault in the complex, Neyla was contacted by Bentley. He promptly informed her that Sly was collecting the final treasure key that would send him up into Ruby's skull temple. With the confirmation that she had been waiting for, the Klaww Gang plant then made the call after receiving information that Carmelita had arrived in Haiti.

"Inspector Fox, it's Constable Neyla," the violet-furred tigress said over the phone. "I've tracked down Cooper here to Haiti.

"Yes, he's assaulting Mz. Ruby's stronghold," Neyla answered Carmelita as she had been asked if Cooper was in the country. "Mz. Ruby's bad mojo force fields and barriers have been eliminated. Time to storm the temple, Inspector. You can bring the rain."

Once her call to Carmelita was finished, she hung up and dialed a separate number using a separate phone. As she dialed the number, the she tiger's thoughts moved away from her assignment to Sly. She was looking forward to spending quality time with her boyfriend without Inspector Fox or the Klaww Gang harping on her. Though, she did consider wanting to reward Sly with a date night that would include them spending time consummating their relationship and commitment to each other in a hotel bed.

Neyla shivered in delight at the thought of making the last surviving Cooper her conquest. But she had to remind herself that conquering said raccoon would have to wait until Clockwerk was defeated. This thought left Neyla letting out a sigh of disappointment as she wanted her raccoon lover and wanted him badly.

As she sighed, Arpeggio picked up the phone and the she-tiger went straight into her professional tone and then said, "Arpeggio, Neyla here."

Neyla saw her raccoon lover launch himself up to the alligator voodoo priestess's temple as she replied with, "Yes, Sly's begun his battle with Mz. Ruby. He'll get the job done. I know he's acquired all of the pages of his family's book that were in that evil alligator's possession.

"How do I know?" Neyla asked her boss in an irritated tone. "It's obvious to me. Bentley wouldn't be leaving the holographic markers he projects for Sly up if he didn't acquire all the stolen pages."

Neyla huffed in frustration as she finished with, "Stop trying to antagonize me into doubting my Raccoon."

oooooooooooooo

As Neyla spoke to their boss, Sly had launched himself up to Mz. Ruby's temple for what Sly called… "A Deadly Dance." The thief then eyed his target to defeat and then narrowed his eyes in contempt. The alligator voodoo priestess was oblivious to the glare she received from the uninvited and annoying guest who forced his way into her inner sanctum.

"Mmm, I could feel that Cooper vibe a-coming," said Mz. Ruby as she was practicing some kind dance that Sly hadn't yet picked up on. "Most distastefully bad juju."

Sly still glared at the alligator priestess as he remembered both of his parents battling her. He even remembered the pain from watching his mother fall to Mz. Ruby, knowing she had used some kind of magic trick. Sly silently vowed that he would never fall to the same witch who claimed his loving mother.

"Yeah, well you give me the creeps too, lady," Sly replied to Ruby acidly. "Cooking up an army of ghosts isn't a very neighborly pastime."

Mz. Ruby laughed at Sly's attempt to sound threatening. To the alligator priestess, Sly sounded more like a child trying to act tough. Mz. Ruby had seen plenty of opponents try to act the same way… only for her to imprison their souls and claim the husks for her ever growing army of ghosts and zombies. For the voodoo priestess, if this "boy" was eager to face her, then she would face him and make him another one of her victims.

Mz. Ruby then said after laughing at Sly, "Oh, Sly, I see your mouth moving, but all I hear is blah, blah, blah. Well, if jaws need to flap, then let them flap. See you in the next world, Sly Cooper."

The raccoon made his way to the voodoo priestess while have to jump from tooth to tooth while dodging the sharper teeth that would try to impale him as he spire jumped across to meet his foe head on. As Sly made his way to Mz. Ruby, the alligator began taunting him.

"You think you're tough, Sly Cooper," Mz. Ruby began her taunting, "but you're really… just… a scared… little… boy. Aren't you? BOY!"

"I'll show her who the scared little boy is," Sly said to himself as he got up to the voodoo priestess, as she began smacking her tail on the ground to create shockwaves.

After hitting Ruby for the first time, the voodoo priestess teleported away from the raccoon thief. 'At least Muggshot had enough backbone to stand and fight,' Sly thought to himself in displeasure.

"Come back here!" called out Sly as he found Mz. Ruby. "You can't run away forever!"

Mz. Ruby calmly responded with, "Quite true, quite true. Why don't I have my servant, Chumley, escort you over here?"

For Sly Cooper, this sounded all too much like a trap as he was hesitant and then asked, "Alright, what's the catch?"

Mz. Ruby remained nonchalant as she replied with, "Oh, not much. Just a little game I like to play with all my annoying guests. I want to see how well you pay attention."

Sly narrowed his eyes at the voodoo priestess as he asked her, "What do you mean?"

"Well, I'll unleash my mighty mojo magic upon you," Mz. Ruby explained to Sly. "If you repeat what I do, you'll dodge it just fine. If not, you'll get zapped."

Sly caught on to what the voodoo priestess explained to him and replied with, "A little voodoo Simon Says, eh? Sounds easy enough."

The raccoon then jumped on the back of the turtle and began his approach to his opponent. Mz. Ruby began sending waves of magical energy at Sly in form of various shapes. Sly couldn't help snickering as he said to himself, "I'm sure Bentley's thinking to himself that we're not in a video game right now." Of course, Sly dodged the magical energy sent at him. But as he dodged the magical energy, Mz. Ruby kept taunting him.

"You're certainly tryin' hard to be brave… BOY!" Mz. Ruby kept taunting Sly.

"Come on Sly," the raccoon thief said to himself as he kept dodging the magical voodoo energy sent at him. "Stay focused on the task at hand. Can't let her get in your head."

As Sly got closer, Mz. Ruby then added to her taunt, "I'm in your mind… little raccoon… BOY!"

Once the alligator voodoo priestess had stopped using her voodoo magic, Sly got off the turtle's back and charged at Mz. Ruby as she slapped her large tail down on the ground. Sly was too quick to get hit by the shockwaves produced from the alligator slamming her large tail down. He first brought his fist into the voodoo priestess's face before he slammed his cane down on her.

Once she was hit by the cane, Mz. Ruby retreated again to another area of the temple with Sly in hot pursuit. Mz. Ruby kept sending magical voodoo energy at Sly as she kept up the taunts at the raccoon thief. However, the voodoo priestess did catch a glance of something that caught her interest. She had caught sight of a violet-furred tigress as Neyla was keeping tabs on the deadly dance nearby.

'Once I claim the soul of this frightful little boy,' Mz. Ruby began to think to herself, 'I'll go after that naughty spy. I knew someone was snooping around.'

Mz. Ruby had been caught off guard by Sly as he brought his cane down on the evil voodoo priestess. With her defeat, Mz. Ruby then said, "You've certainly got some rhythm, raccoon, but it won't help none if you're fixing to go after the Panda King.

"He's tough with a capital T," she added. "If you go poking around his stronghold in China, you're likely to get poked back."

"Yeah, well if he's anything like the rest of you," shot back Sly, "I think I'll manage."

"Seems… you're not the same… scared little boy I thought you were," Mz. Ruby said before she passed out.

oooooooooooooo

With the fight over, Neyla sent her warning to her thieving lover about Carmelita's arrival at the facility and that he needed to clear out. After sending the warning text, she promptly called the British parrot. The she-tiger had to clear out of the temple and rendezvous with Carmelita as the vixen was due to arrive in mere minutes.

"Arpeggio… it's Neyla," Neyla said to head of the Klaww Gang. "Sly's defeated Mz. Ruby. He'll be on his way to China to go after the Panda King. But the boys are planning on taking some time to rest and relax a bit before they assault the Panda King's stronghold."

"Alright," acknowledged Neyla before the call ended and she let out a sigh. "Fine. Whatever. I really hate having to deal with the Contessa."

Neyla was later assisting with the roundup of Mz. Ruby's minions when something caused the tigress's ears to twitch. She could hear something calling out to her. At first the she-tiger tried to ignore the strange feeling, but she couldn't ignore it for long as she then felt as if she was displaced.

After regaining consciousness, she saw that she wasn't in Haiti, but back in India as she saw a child, who looked just like her seven and a half year-old self, silently creeping up on a raccoon woman who was making her way to a police station and had to go through a crowded marketplace.

"What's going on here?" Neyla asked herself as she watched the young violet-furred tigress try to creep up and snatch the raccoon woman's purse. "This… this looks familiar."

Before the scene could unfold, Neyla was sent back to reality and to Hati, where Inspector Fox was trying to get Neyla's attention. After shaking her head and coming back to her senses, she looked to Carmelita and told the irate, if somewhat concerned, vixen that she was going to do a search of evidence. The Inspector was a bit confused by Neyla's change in mannerisms, but allowed her to conduct her separate investigation.

As Neyla went into the temple, she started her search in the priestess's personal quarters. The tigress couldn't find much of anything in the way of evidence at first. It was then that the voice calling out to Neyla was getting louder from within the temple. The tigress then followed the voice to its source.

oooooooooooooo

From the notes of Sly Cooper and Neyla: Sly: "Mz. Ruby's section of the Thievius Raccoonus held notes from my pioneering ancestor, Slytunkhamen. His invisibility technique allowed him to steal from corrupt pharaohs and greedy noblemen.

"Right on schedule, Inspector Fox's arrival cued my exit. The production of zombies, made illegal in the World Peace Accord of '71, earned Mz. Ruby a life sentence behind bars. While the gang and I enjoyed a few weeks in the tropical sunshine, working on our tans in preparation for our next caper."

Neyla's personal entry: "Going through Mz. Ruby's temple was an arduous task. Once I followed the voice that was calling to me, I found myself in a room full of various jewels. Many of the jewels looked very peculiar and it seemed that there was something within them. But one specific jewel stood out to me, a ruby that was set on a circlet. The voice that came from the ruby circlet seemed familiar to me as it reminded me of a familiar woman from my past. It was then that I came to… "acquiring" the ruby circlet that would become a part of my personal attire. After that, I joined my old friends for some time off. And believe me… I certainly needed a break from the "famous" Inspector Carmelita Fox as much as the Klaww Gang.

oooooooooooooo

Author's note: Another chapter is complete. Let me know what you think. And as always, please favorite, subscribe and review this fic. Every bit helps. More than you know.