Sly Cooper and the Silver Dust

Chapters

Prologue: Crushed Into Dust
Chapter 1: When the Dust Settles
Chapter 2: Life Goes On
Chapter 3: Let the Hunt Begin
Chapter 4: Tide of Terror: Checking In
Chapter 5: Tide of Terror: Scooting

Prologue: Crushed Into Dust

Crushed Into Dust

The blue Cooper Van dove through open road, the decorative fire paint job in the front barely visible in the darkness of the night. A pink hippo named Murray, or The Murray as he liked to go by, was driving the van in his favorite blue shirt, red gloves and red mask. Bentley the turtle sat in the back with his red bow tie on, tinkering with a pair of binoculars behind his bulky glasses. In the passenger’s seat was Sly Cooper, which the gang was named after, wearing a blue shirt, gloves, shoes, and hat. He sat there thinking to himself with his father’s golden cane leaning against him.

Sly came from a long line of master thieves that used the cane as a their signature weapon and only stole from master criminals. The Coopers did this partly because of challenge of doing so, and partly for honor. After all, there could be a challenge if they found a place of high enough security, but they was still not honor in this. Many of the Coopers even started to get the criminals arrested for their crimes when they were done them.

All of the Coopers wrote down their techniques in a book for the next generation and they called this book the Thievius Raccoonus. Parents would read it with their children they turned eight and would help them learn the techniques it holds.

Sly remembered his eighth birthday all too well. He sat on his father’s knee as his father took out the book. His father opened it up when they heard the sound of a window breaking. Sly’s father told him to hide in a closet as he ran over to a safe, threw the Thievius Raccoonus inside, locked it, and put a painting up in front of it. Sly ran into the closet and closed the door. However, curiosity got the best of him and he opened it up just a crack. This was probably his biggest mistake. Sly couldn’t do anything but watch in horror as five mysterious figures stuck his father down. After they finished off his father they started to ransack the place, and it wasn’t long before they tore down the painting his father had put up. Rather than guess the combination, one that had a metal arm, from what sly could see with the limited vision the ajar door gave him, ripped the safe’s door clean off. The five took the Thievius Raccoonus and ripped out the pages, each tear leaving an echo in Sly’s ears. They divided the pages amongst themselves and left. Broke and alone, Sly was sent to an orphanage, where he met Bentley, which became the brains of his gang, and Murray, who became the diver and the brawn. Still, ever since that day, one thought echoed in Sly’s head. I have to get them back.

Later on in Sly’s life he found out the ones who killed his father and stole his family’s most sacred treasure went by the Fiendish Five, and were led by a man named Clockwerk. Sly and the cooper gang were now in pursuit of a lead on his location, however they have had many false leads in the past and Sly wasn’t too enthusiastic about the chances of this one being real.

“This better not be another false le…” Sly started to complain before trailing off at the sight of the town they were trying to get to, “d.” The town was completely demolished and any signs of life were long gone. It seemed like their lead was real, but even if it was, Clockwerk was long gone.

“Should we just leave?” Murray asked confused.

As much as Sly wanted to leave this horrible scene behind, he need to know if they could find any other leads. There was a possibility that, if it was Clockwerk that did this, he might of accidentally left them a clue that Bentley could analyze. “Sorry Murray, but we should see if we can find anything first,” Sly finally responded.

“There’s no need to apologize,” Murray let Sly know. “This is no trouble for The Murray!”
Murray parked the van and the gang got out. After a few hours of searching and finding nothing, Murray said, “Can we go now? This place is starting to freak me out.”

“Sly I think it’s safe to say there’s nothing here but rubble,” Bentley analyzed. “Don’t get me wrong, if I thought was chance that we would find something, I’d stay. It’s a tragedy what happened here.”

“I suppose you're right,” Sly told Bentley, “as you usually are when your nerves aren’t doing the talking. Let’s get back to the van.”

As they walked back, Sly thought he heard something in the distance that sounded like someone crying softly. Sly bolted off in the direction as Bentley called out, “Sly, what are you doing?”

Sly quickly found that the sound was coming from a the inside of one of the destroyed houses. The house he came to was in absolute ruin and didn’t have a single wall left standing. Even so, the roof was tall and still intact, depending on the amount of rubble under it, there would be plenty of room, and easy for someone to survive under. Sly found a weak point on the side of the roof and broke it open with his cane. As he suspected, the sound came from inside.

Even so, nothing could have prepared Sly for the scene in front of him. There was a small pony with a navy blue coat, a silver mane and tail and a pair of feathered wings, which was unusual but not really all that outrageous, Sly’s was a raccoon after all. What was outrageous was that this small colt was whimpering and sitting next to a unicorn mare with a blue coat and silver mane and tail, as well as a pegasus stallion with a navy blue coat and black mane and tail. Both the mare and stallion laid on their side, unmoving.

Sly look at the scene in horror. He saw himself as a child looking down at his father and just couldn’t bear it. Sly slowly walked over to the colt and collapsed onto knees before embracing the child with a hug.

“I know how you must feel,” Sly said through a stream of tears, both the colt’s and his.

“How could you?” the boy shouted back. “There’s no way you can know what I’m going through!”

“I know,” Sly said again. “I know what it’s like to lose your family, to need someone to turn to only to find yourself completely alone."

“Sly!” Bentley called over as he got close. Sly backed away from the hug just bit leaving his hands on the child’s shoulders as Bentley and Murray came in, looking almost as shocked as Sly had.

“Who are you?” the child sniffed.

“My name’s Sly,” Sly told him in a reassuring tone of voice, “and this is Bentley and Murray. They aren’t just my friends, they’re the closest thing to family I have.” Sly leaned down a little more till he was at the same level the colt’s giant yellow eyes. “Listen, we can’t stay here, and you will need someone to help you through this. I don’t want to leave you alone.”

The colt started to cry harder as he dove into Sly’s chest. “There, there, let it all out,” Sly said as he picked up the colt and stood up to leave.

“Sly, what are you thinking? We can’t raise a child,” Bentley said, trying to be the voice of reason. “We don’t even come close to qualified, not to mention the wrench it will throw into your plains…”

“I’m not leaving him,” Sly shot back. “And besides,” he looked down at the colt crying in his arms. “I think he’s a wrench worth keeping.”

“Okay,” Bentley sighed. Despite having lost the argument he seemed relieved. “I’ll run some numbers to see how to feed the new mouth.” Bentley looked over to Murray. “Even if Sly works over time, we may need to cut back on your snack budget Murray.”

At first Murray looked appalled, but then he looked at the young colt in Sly’s arms, then to the colt’s deceased parents, and finally back to Bentley. “You know, I think I can deal with that, even if it takes a bit of adjusting.” This didn’t surprise Sly or Bentley too much. If there was one thing stronger than Murray’s stomach, it was his heart of gold.

As the three left, carrying the colt, only one thought echoed in Sly’s mind. I have to help him. Nothing else seemed to matter.

To Be Continued...

Chapter 1: When the Dust Settles

When the Dust Settles

Inspector Carmelita Fox was not pleased. She sat at her desk at Interpol wearing blue top and pants, yellow jacket, boots, and gloves, and her badge on a necklace. She sat there thinking with her new red and gold shock pistol to the side. It had been over a month since Cooper's last appearance. Even worse was that the head detectives, Clue and Print Dust, have not contacted headquarters for weeks. This wasn’t only a setback, this was relatively out of character for the ace detectives and Carmelita was beginning to fear the worst.

To calm her nerves she decided to ask the director, James Barkley, for information. It was an odd procedure, but no one spoke directly with the Dusts. Any and all communication went through Director Barkley, and he only let the most difficult cases reach the Dusts. In all honestly, Carmelita was surprised that finding Sly got through, but not as surprised as the difficulty they had completing it. Almost every case sent to them was solved in only a few weeks. As long as they were sent pictures of the crime and the evidence on hand, there wasn’t a case they couldn’t solve. When it came to locating someone, using past sightings and the suspect's personality, the Dusts could pinpoint a location almost every time. Even so, they have never been able to give them a location on the Cooper gang’s hideout, and even when a location was sent by the time Interpol reaches it, Sly always gives them the slip.

Inspector Fox reached Director Barkley’s office and knocked on the door. “Come on in,” James Barkley called out and Carmelita walked in.

“Oh, It's good to see you Inspector. Is something wrong?” the director asked from behind his desk, wearing a white colored shirt and a red tie. Despite his calm tone of voice and demeanor, Carmelita could tell he was stressed about something from his appearance. His tie was loosened, his white hair and mustache were a mess, and his most recently smoked cigar laid in the his ash tray, only half smoked.

“Director Barkley, I can tell something’s bothering you,” Carmelita admitted. “If I had to guess, it’s the Dusts, isn’t it?”

Barkley smiled slightly. “I suppose I didn’t promote you to Inspector for nothing,” he commented. “Yes, I haven’t heard from them in weeks, and they haven’t been responding to my emails either. I’m beginning to fear the worst.”

“That’s actually why I’m here,” Inspector Fox responded. “I’d like permission to check their place of residence to see if everything's okay.”

The director seemed to think this over for a bit. “I think I can permit it on a few conditions,” he started. “One, I will be going with you. Two, it can only be the two of us. Three we must go in disguise, we can’t give away their position.”

“Why all the secrets, I mean, what if we need back up?”

“The location’s not all that far away from a police station. They could have officers there in say, half an hour.”

“Half an hour, that’s ridiculous! Sir, you can’t be seri…”

“You must understand, the Dust’s have been investigating some extremely dangerous people. In order to keep them safe only I know their location, any and all communication goes through me and I take many measures to make sure it can’t be traced.”

Carmelita stood there in shock for a few seconds. “Well that explains alot. Also you must really trust me if you're not only telling me this, but inviting me to their location. Thank you sir, and sorry, I was out of line.”

“Don’t worry. It’s that attitude that makes me trust you. Go home and change, then we will meet at the Eiffel Tower. From there we’ll take my car to the Dusts. It’s a few hours away so prepare yourself.”

“Yes sir,” Carmelita said before turning to leave.

Carmelita sat in the passenger seat wearing a cheap yellow dress, and Director Barkley drove, wearing a blue collared shirt and brown dress pants. As they drove to the Dusts’ house Barkley went over the procedures of meeting them in person, such as the fact that the Dusts would be referred to as Patrick and Caroline Smith and that they would never speak about cases directly.

“Sir, if I may ask,” Carmelita interrupted, “who on earth are they investigating to need so many precautions.”

“The Fiendish Five, most importantly, the whereabouts of Clockwerk,” Barkley answered. “By the way, when we get there, refer to me as John.”

“If you have an alias, then I assume I will need one too,” Carmelita observed.

“Yes,” Barkley confirmed. “Although this has been such short notice, I haven’t thought of one yet,”

“Cathy.”

“What?”

“My alias, Cathy.”

“That should do nicely.”

As they still had a ways to go Carmelita took out her laptop and looked over her files on the Fiendish Five, a criminal group Interpol has been hunting for almost fourteen years. Of the five members the name suggests, only four had been identified, and of that four, only two were located, Sir Raleigh Frog, and the Panda King. However the only two they had any hard evidence on were Miss Ruby and the leader, Clockwerk, and they had both gone into hiding. Carmelita could see way the director took so many precautions now. Clockwerk was extremely dangerous, according to his file he had unnatural strength and speed. On the few occasions Interpol tracked him down their fire arms didn’t even slow him down as he escaped. And as even as Clockwerk fled the scene of the crime, flying high in the sky he launched a barrage of missiles down at the officers.

“Were almost there,” Barkley informed Carmelita. “I must ask you to close the computer and store it under your seat.”

“So what do the Dusts look like?” Carmelita asked as she did as the director requested. “It would be helpful to avoid any surprises.”

However, director never answered. “Uh, sir did you... “Carmelita started again before trailing off at the sight of the destroyed town. “What happened here?”

“If I had to guess, I’d say Clockwerk.” Barkley answered as they pulled the car up to the town’s entrance and parked.

“But I thought only you knew where the Dusts live,” Carmelita countered.

“Well it’s apparent someone found out… somehow,” Barkley said as he parked the car and got out. “Inspector Fox, follow me.”

Carmelita did so and she was lead to a house with a tall roof, which was good because there wasn’t one wall left standing. As they walked around they found a hole smashed into the side of the roof. When Carmelita looked inside, she saw a unicorn mare and a pegasus station lying dead on the ground. Well Carmelita was shocked and upset about what happened here, she was a professional and didn’t let it’s get to her.

“I was afraid of this, we're too late.” Barkley observed.

“So these are the Dusts,” Carmelita commented. “I’ve never seen anyone like them.”

“Their ponies, this is top secret but they actually come from another dimension.”

“What?” Carmelita said, breaking her professional attitude.

“Yes, well, a portal opened up on a small island about ten years ago and Interpol was quick to set up a headquarters there. There hasn't really been much contact between us, but we let a few of them move here, and of those that did were the Dusts. ...Quite a shame,” Barkley explained. “Well inspector, you start looking for clues, I’ll call in some back up. With a little luck this tragedy will be the spark we need to put the Fiendish Five away for good.

As Director Barkley walked away, Inspector Fox took a flashlight out of her purse and went over to inspect the bodies. They each had a deep cut wound, and well as scratches and bruises that suggested a struggle. Judging by the state of the wounds the time of death was at the soonest five hours ago. She moved over to the rubble the ballistic markings would need further testing, but on first inspection, it seemed the house was destroyed after the death of the Dusts. Surprised Carmelita move over to the entrance that was broken into the side of the roof. The hole was created not by explosives and from what she could tell, it was made really recently. It was at the most one hour old. The inspector then notice a picture frame on the floor and picked it up. The frame contained a photo of Clue and Print Dust, but the bottom left corner of the photo had been removed for some reason. Carmelita shined her light on the bodies once more and noticed a small puddle. She walked over to it and realized it was a puddle of tears. Considering the size, it couldn’t be more the twenty minutes old.

“Have you found anything?” Barkley asked as he came in.

“Nothing substantial yet, but I think I’ve found a few places to start,” Carmelita said as she took a camera out of her purse and took a picture of the puddle of tears.

As Murray drove the gang back to their hideout in the outskirts of Paris, Sly sat in the back with the little colt, who had cried himself to sleep. Bentley sat behind them, crunching numbers on his computer to figure out the new budget. He would have sat in the front passenger seat, but it was too cramped for his equipment.

As Sly slid his hand through the child's silver mane, the colt’s eyes began to twitch slightly before opening. “So you're awake,” Sly greeted the boy. “Feeling any better.”

The colt looked up at Sly with sad eyes. “Not really,” he sniffed. “I don’t think I’ll ever feel better, even if I can’t cry anymore.”

“You can cry all you need,” Sly reassured, “we won’t judge. Bottling up those feelings will only hurt you in the end.”

“It’s okay, I meant it more literally,” the boy told him in a depressed voice. “I don’t think I have any tears left.”

“Oh, sorry…” Sly paused. “I don’t think you ever told us your name.”

“Silver,” he sniffed. “Silver Dust.”

“Silver Dust,” Sly repeated. “That's a nice name. Be proud of that name, especially your last name. Through you your family will live on and while you may never feel the same, you will feel better. You will carry this hurt around for life, but this hurt is a part of you now and to loss it would be to loss your family again. It may not be the best thing to carry around, but it’s better than forgetting. The pain well weaken as you enjoy your life, and sometimes something will tear the wounds open and remind you of how painful it is but that pain can do wonderful things.”

"Like what?" Silver choked.

“Well my pain lead me to you in your darkest hour. Seeing you there, I relived my own father’s death, but unlike you no one was there to tell me it was okay to cry. I saw you there and knew I had to help you any way I could. It may hurt, but you need to accept that it’s part of you now and move along."

“Don’t you mean move on,” Silver asked still depressed.

“No. To move on is to forget or at least put behind you. We must move along with the past alongside us, because to forget or leave our past behind is to abandon our families.”

Silver looked at Sly once again with still teary eyes but a small, somewhat forced, and somewhat natural smile. “I glad that you found me.”

“So am I. If there’s anything you want to talk about, I will always listen.”

Silver looked Sly in the eyes for almost a minute before busting into tears once again. “I know who did it. Some guy named Clockwerk.” he said through his tears.

Sly was shocked. “How do you know?”

“From the panic room I heard my father say his name.”

“He’s the one responsible for father too. Why don’t you tell me about you parents? I may hurt, but telling us who they were and what happened will relieve the strain in the long run.”

“My parents were the top detectives for Interpol and were researching the whereabouts of Clockwerk. They were getting close, so he came after them and well, you know the rest.”

Sly and the gang were speechless. “What?” Silver asked after wiping away his tears as his eyes went dry once more.

“Sly, maybe we shouldn’t do this,” Bentley said, sounding upset. “Thieves raising a child of Interpol detectives, it would just be insulting to his parents’ memory.”

“Wait, you guys are thieves?” Silver asked in shock.

“I realize I didn’t tell you my full name,” Sly explained. “It’s Sly Cooper. I assume you parents told you about me.”

“Yeah, they said you seem to only steal from criminals for some reason.”

“That’s a Cooper family tradition. To withhold a sense of honor we only steal from criminals and corrupt governments.”

“So my parents were right you,” Silver said joyfully for the first time. “They said you had a sense of justice. Every documented case of theft you committed was from a criminal that got arrested soon after you got away and they said that it was probably you that made it happen.”

“True,” Bentley started, “but it doesn’t change the fact that we are criminals and you are the child of Interpol. I don’t want to harm your parents’ memory. Don’t worry though, we know a good orphanage. You’ll be safe ther…”

“No!” Silver yelled. “I… I want to say with you.” He said looking at Sly with giant puppy dog eyes, once again beginning to well up with tears.

Sly looked at Bentley and turned Silver’s face towards him as well. “I can’t say no to a face like that. Can you?”

Bentley sighed, with a sigh that it sounded like sigh of relief. “No, I can’t,” he replied. “In all honestly I thought he wouldn’t want to stay.”

“Are you kidding?” Silver asked calmly. “If my parents respected you, why shouldn’t I. After meeting you all, your even better than what I’ve heard about you.”

“Thanks,” Sly said.

“By the way, how old are you?” Bentley asked

“Seven,” Silver answered and Bentley got back to running the numbers.

“Were almost home,” Murray announced.

They arrived at the gang's hideout and Murray parked the van a platform that blended in with the ground. The four got out of the van and Bentley pushed a button. The van lowered down and another platform slid out and covered it up. The four then turned to the abandoned train boxcar that was their hideout. “Come on, it looks better on the inside," Sly reassured.

They walked in and there was many rooms set up, small but there. Four rooms to the sides and one slightly bigger room in the middle that they walked into, with a TV and game system in it. “That room over there,” Sly said as he pointed to the room in the far back right of the the boxcar, “we’re currently using it for storage, but I can have it fixed up for you in few minutes.” He pointed to the room in the front right “that there is my room.” He then pointed to the room in the front left. “that’s Murry’s room.” Sly pointed at the room in the back left next. “and that’s Bentley room.” he finally gestured to the bigger room. “And this is obviously the living room. It’s not much, but it’s home.”

To Be Continued...

Chapter 2: Life Goes On

Life Goes On

Sly normally slept in the day because it was easier to steal at night. However he decided to go to bed early this time, after all that happened he was pretty exhausted. Sly laid down and right on cue, there was a knock on his door. “Of course,” he mumbled to himself as he got up and walked over to the door. Sly opened it to see Silver standing there with his blanket over his head.

He quickly assessed the situation and tried to guess why the little colt was still up. “Is the bed I made you no good?” he asked.

“No, it’s fine, but I just can’t sleep, and I was wondering, well can I sleep in here… with you?” Silver asked hesitantly.

“Sure, just keep your blanket. One isn’t big enough for the two of us,” Sly explained with a smile as he stepped aside to let Silver in. Once Silver got onto the bed Sly tucked him in. “Good night Silver.”

“Good night,” Silver said with a yawn, “Dad.”

This caught Sly off guard, although it didn’t take long for Sly to figure out that the kid was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow what he said was most likely a slip of the tongue. Even so, it felt good to hear him say that. Sly may only have been nineteen years old, but he decided to be the best guardian he could be to this child.

Silver awoke at noon and noticed that Sly was still asleep, and decided not to wake him. He left Sly’s room by pushing the door open, which was possible because it had not been not completely closed. He then noticed that it was rather quiet in the house. After checking Murray’s room, it turned out he was asleep as well. Silver moved on to Bentley’s room and knocked on his door.

“Come in,” Bentley called out and Silver was glad someone else was awake. As he stood up on his hind legs to reach the door knob it and jiggled it but couldn't turn it. “Sly is something wrong?” Bentley called out once more as his footsteps could be heard coming towards the door. “You know I’m rather busy with the budg…” Bentley stopped short when he realized he was talking to Silver.

“Oh, sorry, I thought were Sly,” Bentley said as he looked at his watch. “I’ve been up later that I though.”

“What do you mean?” Silver asked.

“Well we tend to sleep during the day, being thieves and all. Still as the brains of the team, I need to balance the budget so we can care for you. It looks like I’ll be pulling an all nighter… or dayer in my case I suppose.”

Silver giggled a bit. It wasn’t funny, but it was nice to see Bentley try to help. “I’m sorry I’m casing so much trouble,” Silver apologized.

“Oh don’t worry about it,” Bentley commented. “To tell the truth, even though it defies every once of my intellect, I wanted to help you too. I was actually relieved that Sly stubbornness beat out my common sense. But... if you want to help me out, I could use the company to help stay awake.”

Silver’s eyes beamed at the chance. “Can I?”

“Come on in,” Bentley said stepping to the side. “I need to know more about you anyway.”

Carmelita Fox arrived at Interpol exhausted, but this case was serious and one or two all nighters was to be expected. Besides, after casing Sly for so long, she found herself much more active at night, so she should be able to handle this.

Every available officer was put onto the Dusts’ murder case. Carmelita got back the results of the evidence she brought in and a theory of what happened. It turned out she was right on the order of events. The theory stated that the killer, which the cause of death identified as Clockwerk as the most likely suspect, broke in and did the deed. Afterwards he blow up the building and tried to bury the evidence in the ruble. A friend of the Dusts, seeing as they had no relatives on record, somehow survived the assault and cried at the scene of the crime before breaking a hole in the wall and running away.

Carmelita decided to present the evidence to the director and see what he thought. “Director Barkley, I have an update on the Dust case,” she called into his office after knocking.

“Good, come in,” Barkley called out. Carmelita walked in and handed the file to Barkley. Barkley read it over and seemed somewhat disappointed. “Well I suppose it was a long shot. Still this theory leaves one thing unanswered,” He commented. “Why did Clockwerk destroy the whole town? As powerful as he is, he never took such extremes before.”

“Well,” Carmelita thought, “if you were really the only one that knew the Dusts’ location, maybe he only found out what town they lived in.”

James Barkley’s eyes shot open. “That’s it!” he shouted. “Still, for him to find out anything he would have had to have found a way to trace the communications, that would explain the radio silence the Dusts’ gave use. Even so, he must have been pretty desperate to take such measures, meaning the Dusts’ were close to figuring out his location! Inspector, have the tech department pull whatever they can off their laptop. With a little luck we may just catch him this time.”

“On it sir!” Carmelita replied.

It was late, approaching ten o’clock at night, and Silver still couldn’t sleep. He went to see Sly again, but even though his door was open, his room was empty. He looked out into the living room and saw Murray and Bentley talking about the budget that Silver helped with. Silver let out a loud and long yawn as his vision went a little blurry. “Where’s dad?” he asked sleepily while rubbing his eyes.

As his vision reconstituted, Silver noticed Bentley and Murray looked absolutely shocked. However, Murray’s eye seemed to light up in a moment of understanding. “I think he means Sly,” he told Bentley.

It was at this moment that Silver realized what he said. It definitely bothered and embarrassed him a little bit, Sly wasn’t his father after all. Still, it didn’t bother him as much as he thought it would, Sly did was trying to be a father figure and Silver quickly connected to him. Sly said what he needed to hear, not what he wanted to hear, and never sugar coated anything. Silver thought, maybe with time, he could see Sly as a father, but, as Sly would say, not a replacement to his real father, but just a different father.

“Oh yes,” Bentley realized what Murray said was right and turned to Silver. “Sly is.. well he’s working.” Despite Bentley avoiding saying it, Silver remembered quite well that that meant stealing.

“How many master criminals are around here?” Silver asked confused, remembering that the coopers only stole from one of those or corrupt politicians.

“Well not all that many,” Bentley sighed, “but there are quite a few gangs and small time criminals to prey upon. It may be below Sly’s usual standards, but we need the money to eat. Try not to think about it too much, just go to sleep. He’ll be back soon.”

“But what about you two?” Silver asked.

“Well we tend to sleep in the day,” Bentley explained, “helps with our line of work, although, I do suppose that will complicate things, but I’m working on that tonight.”

“No need,” Silver yawned, “I can’t sleep.”

“What do you mean, you sure sound t…” Murray said before Bentley cut him off.

“I see,” Bentley started. “Well, I suppose if you stay up all night and go to sleep first thing in the morning, you’ll be on the same sleep schedule as us. I guess I have some free time then. You want to play some games with me and Murray?”

“I’m not sure I’m able,” Silver replied, lifting up one of his hooves.

“We have a few turn based RPG’s. With a little help, I’m sure you can handle them,” Bentley suggested.

“Thanks,” Silver said as he walked over to the sofa in front of the TV.

“Don’t mention it. By the way, you said you birthday was in four days, right?

“Yes,”

“Well, we have an extra controller and with a little work I’m sure I can make it work for you. I’ll have it ready for a your birthday.”

“Really?’

“As long as you don’t object to me making a few teaching programs. A young man, such as yourself should not be without an education.”

Silver giggled a bit. “What’s so funny?” Bentley asked.

“It’s just,” Silver let out a heavy sigh. “You sounded just like my parents.” Silver smiled slightly, feeling like his parents were still with him.

“Okay I accept your terms... Uncle Bentley.”

“Uncle?” both Bentley and Murray said in shock.

“We’re family now,” Silver explained with a tear running down the side of his face, “and… well you may not the same as my original, you deserve the titles.”

“Are you sure?” Bentley asked.

“Yes, I may not have known you all that long, but your still my new family. I may have to make a conscious effort to do it, but you all deserve it. I think this is how my parents would want it. Some day maybe, the word will come out easier.”

James Barkley recently received the information of what was on the laptop. Finally, they had a lead and he called Inspector Fox into his office to explain the situation and how to proceed forward.

“Yes sir,” Carmelita said as she came in.

“We have the information that was on the laptop,” Barkley began. “There was a hidden file to the that states the Dusts were in the process of analyzing a rare alloy, acquired from the site of a Fiendish Five attack. If the alloy is as rare as they anticipated, not only will it link the Fiendish Five together, but it will lead us straight to Clockwerk.”

“So what is this alloy?” Carmelita asked.

“That’s the one issue. The Dusts never finished analyzing it so we don’t know what it was and the specimen they had couldn’t be found. We did a thorough search of the ruble and never found it. It is presumed to have been taken in the attack.”

“So it’s another dead end,” Carmelita sighed.

“Not at all. It’s actually the first lead we’ve had in ages,” Barkley countered. “You see there is a very good chance that the other members of the Fiendish Five have this alloy in their vicinity. As we do have both Raleigh’s resort and Panda King’s fireworks factory under constant watch we can be sure that there was no construction as of late. If they had it before they still have it now.”

“Well, that does sound promising.”

“Yes, well, here’s the plan. I will take over as head investigator on the surface. You will go undercover as Cathy Montoya, and find this alloy.”

“Okay, but how will I identify it?”

“Well the plan still a work in progress, but I have time to think that over.”

“How?”

“You see, I have come to the conclusion that we must tell the other dimension what happened to the the Dusts. Both of us will go and we will be gone about a day, if there’s no change in plains. That should be plenty of time to think over how to give you the ability to identify the alloy. We leave first thing in the morning, it's a long plane ride.”

Sly came in holding a large bag of loot and saw Silver sleepily laughing with Bentley and Murray. Seeing as the sun was beginning to rise, this was surprising. "What are you still doing up?" Sly asked Silver.

"I couldn't sleep," Silver replied.

"By the way Sly, why were you out so late?" Bentley asked.

Sly dropped the bag of loot in front of him. "I went around and took as much as I could from all the gangs without drawing suspicion. We may need to use them again. ...Silver you really should go to sleep. You can sleep in my room again if it will help.”

“Okay,” Silver yawned. “Thanks… dad.”

Sly stopped for a moment and kneeled down to Silvers level. “You can’t just replace your family Silver,” he said.

“I know, and I’m not trying to,” Silver explained. “You can’t replace my real dad, but as far as I can see, your still a dad to me, and deserve the respect.”

Sly smiled. It seem the little colt took what Sly had told him to heart. “You're a weird kid, you know that, I don’t think many children would to respect their new family so quickly.”

“Your right. Still, my parents would want me to accept and respect you.”

“You're going to fit in here just fine. Still you don’t have to do this.”

“Well, I want to, it may seem weird, but if you guys are going to act like parents, then I’m going to treat you like ones.”

“Sly it’s best to just let him have his way,” Bentley interrupted. “He’s got his heart set on it.”

“Okay,” Sly gave in. “Let's get some shut eye. I really overworked myself today."

After a five hour plane ride and a two hour helicopter ride, Inspector Carmelita and Director Barkley arrived at Interpol’s top secret facility, code named Rift, after the inter-dimensional rift hidden within. The first thing Carmelita noticed was that the facility looked more like a resort. However even stranger was the fact that when they approached the entrance, the guard just opened the doors without any ID.

As they walked through the halls of this so called top secret headquarters, Carmelita decided to voice these concerns. “Why does this place look like a resort?” she asked.

“Well when we first founded this location we didn’t know how long the officers we sent here would be stuck here,” Barkley explained. “So to make the job more appealing, we gave the place the comfort of a resort.”

“Okay,” Carmelita accepted the answer, “but why is the security so low for a top secret facility like this.”

“That one is a bit more complicated,” Barkley began. “Put simply though, after a few years, we found that trade between us and the other world wouldn’t be profitable. Even though we still keep in contact with the other world, however the need for secrecy died after a few years. The only reason this place is still considered top secret is that the process of officially declassifying it would take too much time and money. There are more reasons to keep it classified but that's the big one.”

“I do suppose that makes sense,” Carmelita replied.

The director and Carmelita walked into a room with a large monitor. "Patch us through to Equestria," Barkley commanded and the a few officers began to type on computers.

Soon a image if a white unicorn with a blue, green, and purple mane popped up on screen. The video only showed the mare form the neck up, but there was still a very noticeable crown on her head.

"Hello, my name is James Barkley,," the director introduced himself. "I am the current director of Interpol. May I ask who I am speaking with?"

"Of course. I am Princess Celestia, the ruler of Equestria," the pony introduced herself. “This is unexpected, I’m not used to hearing from Interpol other than the monthly update. Is something wrong?”

“Unfortunately there is,” Barkley informed. “We regret to inform you that Print Dust and his wife, Clue Dust, are... dead.”

“What?” Celestia whispered in shock. “How?”

“They were killed,” Barkley explained. “We are currently searching for the culprit.”

“I see, I know it’s your jurisdiction, but if possible I’d like you to keep me up to date on any and all developments in this case.”

“I understand, and I have some information for you right now. We actually know who did it. His name is Clockwerk, and he has been evading us for years. Clue and Print were in charge of locating him. And even though we took every precaution to keep their location secret, Clockwerk found them.” The was a moment of silence. “As it turns out the Dusts were on the verge of finding out the location of Clockwerk through a rare alloy recovered from an attack from his gang, the Fiendish Five. Unfortunately Clockwerk must have taken the alloy, so we lost the sample we had.”

“That is quite the lead, but you still seemed to hit a dead end.”

“Not quite. The women with me is Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox. She is one of our best officers. She will be going undercover to try and find this alloy. With a little luck this should work.”

Celestia stood there absorbing the information as it was presented. “Well, if that’s what you have planned, there may be a way for me to help, or rather I think I know somepony who can help. She’s a fast learner and knows many spells, which may come in handy with your search.”

“That would be helpful, but I wouldn’t want to impose. Besides we don’t necessarily have much time to wait.”

“It’s okay, she’s actually here helping clean up one of our latest celebrations. I could send her over so you can speak with her directly.”

“I supposes we can put aside some time to see what she can do.”

“Good, I’ll call you back in a few minutes before sending her over.”

The screen shut down and the director and Carmelita waited. After a half an hour a phone ringing sound echoed in the room. “Please answer that,” Barkley told the officers as they patched the the call through once more.

"Hello," Celestia started, "she's ready to go through. However, I thought it may help to send her assistant as well."

"Very well," Barkley agreed, "send them over. I’ll call you back with my decision.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Celestia said before the screen shut off.

“Sir,” one of the offices started, “they're here.”

“Inspector,” Barkley began, “since you will be working with her you should be the one to interview her.”

“Makes sense,” Carmelita agreed, not only because it made sense, but also because she was tired of just standing on the side lines.

When the doors opened, Director Barkley left the room and a lavender mare with both wings and a horn came into the room. As interesting as that was Carmelita’s attention was first drawn to the slight glimpse of the rift she saw. It seemed to be a literal tear in the fabric of reality.

However when the doors closed she turned her attention back the the pony. Aside for the horn and wings, she had purple eyes and her mane and tail were navy blue with pink and dark purple highlights going through them. She also had a tattoo on her flank of a pink star on top of a white star with five little white stars surrounding it. This actually reminded Carmelita that the Dusts also had a tattoo in that location, Clue had one of a magnifying glass, and Print had one of of a fingerprint duster. She decided she would have to ask this pony about them, after all their flank was an odd place to get a tattoo to most, even if they were from a different dimension.

Carmelita also noticed a lizard creature sitting on her back that looked more like a small dragon the more she looked at it. The dragon had purple scales and green spikes as well as green eyes.

As a professional, Carmelita started judging her potential partner as soon as she came in. Anyone can do in interview with practice, but you can tell a lot more about someone from the way they act. This pony was looking all over the place with the bright eyed wonder of a child. Perhaps that's what she should be doing, being in a different dimension. Even so Carmelita couldn't work with someone so easily distracted on such a delicate case. That is, unless the benefit outweighs the risk.

“Twilight, snap out of it, they're right there.” the dragon said waving a hand in front of her face.

“Oh! Thanks Spike,” the pony responded and walked over to Carmelita. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, and I assume, you are Carmelita.”

“Yes,” Carmelita replied, noting her formal introduction and probable deductive reasoning.

“Celestia informed me that you were in charge of the case,” Twilight explained. “She also filled me in on most of the details.”

“Good, that means that we can get down to business,” Carmelita started. “However, I’d like to ask you a few questions about you and your dimension. Still we don’t have much time, so answer in only a few sentences if possible. If it’s a long story that you can’t explain shortly, let me know and we’ll skip it.”

“Okay,” Twilight agreed the the request.

“First off, what’s with the tattoo on your flank?” Carmelita asked.

“Oh, that’s called a cutie mark. Everypony either has one or will have one where I come from. They’re completely natural.”

“Everypony… I think you mean everybody.”

“Oops, sorry, that’s what we say back in Equestria.” This made Carmelita realize the cultural differences as a risk to the mission as well. Either Twilight will give them away, or she’ll have to risk wasting time on teaching her not only the geography and rules of this world, but how to act in order to fit in as well.

“Okay,” Carmelita picked up, “you have both wings and a horn, I know what unicorns and a pegasi are, but I’ve never seen anything like you.”

“I’m called an alicorn, and for the record, I’ve never seen anthropomorphic animals before either, and I’m not too surprised, intrigued, but not surprised.” Carmelita made a mental note on how Twilight added that last part as her intrigue would make it a little easier to train her and the informal side to her personality would make her a great to fit in on the undercover scene.

Now that Carmelita indulged her curiosity, and even found out some unintentional information, she had an idea of the risk and benefits. As it is, easy to train or not, they really didn’t have the time to train a new officer, not to mention her intrigue of this dimension would probably get in the way more than it would help. Even so there was one possible benefit that would make or break this deal.

“Well, that about covers my curiosity, for now,” Carmelita anconced. “To be honest, to allow you on the case is very risky, so I’ll just cut to the chase. Can you use a...spell… to find and analyze a certain rare metal ore? And if so can you do it from a distance?”

“I do know a spell that can analyze the makeup of any object,” Twilight answered, “and it can cover a decent radius of about thirty feet. However, because I’m not familiar with your world I’d need multiple samples to verify the ore and relay it to you.”

“If you had to guess, how many samples would you need?” Carmelita continued.

“At least two,” Twilight told her. “and I should definitely be able to make do with four.”

“Perfect,” the Inspector smiled. “You're hired.”

“I see you came to a decision,” the director said as he came back over. “I’ll call back headquarters and let them know it will be about another two weeks before we get back. We need to get your partners up to speed on our world.”

“Of course sir,” Carmelita acknowledged, “but may I recommend three weeks. There also a cultural behaviour difference to work out.”

“Very well,” Barkley agreed.

Silver got up rather early, at just four o’clock in the afternoon. While Sly, Bentley, and Murray nomaly got up at six at night, Silver was still having trouble adjusting to the new sleep schedule he was given. Sleeping during the day just wasn’t natural to him. Still he was recently able to move into his own room when he slept, which probably wasn't helping the situation. But what could he do, he couldn't sleep in Sly's room forever.

Silver got out of his bed and pushed open his door, which Bentley had removed the locking mechanism from in order to kept it from snapping shut. Bentley said that one day he'd install a door that Silver could use, but for now this would have to do.

When Silver left his room, he was surprised to see Sly, Bentley, and Murray were all already up, and huddled around the table. "What are you doing up?" Silver asked with a yawn.

All three of them turned around in shock before quickly regaining their composure. "Good morning," Sly greeted Silver. "We got up early so we could prepare for this."

All three of them stepped to the side of the table to reveal a cake. “Happy Birthday Silver!” they all shouted at once and Silver looked around the room in shock to see a few minor decorations and a four presents one floor in the corner by Bentley's door.

“Thanks,” Sliver said, beginning to tear up a bit in the eyes.

“You didn’t think that we’d forget you birthday,” Murray asked sarcastically.

As the tears slowly began to roll down Silver's face, he looked up to the three with a smile, all of his emotions swirling together. “To be honest, I forgot about it,” he said.

Silver pulled himself together and gave Sly a hug. Afterwards he did the same for both Bentley and Murray before sitting down on the couch.

“Okay, Bentley can you start breakfast while Silver opens his presents?” Sly asked.

“On it,” Bentley said as he press a button on the wall and a small kitchen rose out of the floor, a kitchen that Silver had gotten all too used to seeing.

“But we have a cake,” Silver said.

“Yeah, why can’t we eat that?” Murray asked.

“We can’t eat cake first thing in the morning, you both know that,” Sly said.

“And you're supposed to be one of the adults here Murray,” Bentley added.

“Can’t blame a guy for trying,” Murray joked and everyone laughed as he got up to get the presents.“Here’s the gifts.”

“Thanks… Uncle Murray,” Silver said, still not used to the sound, but making the gesture anyway. Silver placed his two fore hooves on the package, and used his mouth to unwrap the first gift , a box of some fancy bard of cookies.

“Those are my favorite snack,” Murray told Silver, “hope you like them.”

“Thanks again,” Silver said to Murray once more before opening the next present, A box that contained a laptop and several programs.

“That’s less of a birthday gift and more of your education,” Bentley explained as he cooked. “The laptop is handmade, as are the programs. They are designed so you can use them, even with your hooves. The laptop is still a laptop though, and still capable of anything a normal computer can do.”

"Thanks alot… Uncle Bentley,” Silver said before continuing. The next gift contained a special hand crafted controller made by Bentley. It was shaped like a arcade panel, with a indented analog that was designed to work with Silver’s left fore hoof on the left, and the buttons on the right. There was also eight camera buttons below the main buttons and a D-pad below the analog. However what really made this different was a second panel that contains the L and R buttons, like gas and brake pedals on a car that Silver amused were supposed to be used by his back hooves.

“I did promise, didn’t I?” Bentley said as he put some pancakes on a dish.

“Yes,” Silver started, “and you delivered. Thank you.” After that Silver moved on to the last present, noticeably smaller than the rest, but Silver was surprised that there were more than three to begin with. After unwrapping it carefully to make sure not to brake it, it turned out to be a video game named Jak and Daxter.

“What good is the controller, without something to use it on,” Sly stated. “After Bentley told me that he was making you the controller for today, I told him I’d handle the game.”

“Thanks… Dad,” Silver said. “And well it may not be as fancy as the controller but it is just as important.”

“Now Silver, why even bring that up?” Bentley criticized.

“Because… Dad probably feels guilty that he couldn’t get me as large or fancy of a gift,” Silver explained, “and I want him to know it is just as appreciated.

Bentley and Murray looked over to Sly. “Well,” Sly stated sheepishly, “he got me there.”

“It’s remarkable how quickly you two connected with each other,” Bentley sighed and shut off the stove, put plates on the table, and pressed the button again to make the kitchen sink back into the floor. “Well, breakfast is ready.”

"It's only been about six days," Carmelita told Twilight as they walked down the hall, "and you already got down basic knowledge of the world and how to act."

"Well," Twilight blushed, "I did have a lot of resources to use. That ... computer really made things alot easier."

"Even so you're moving along much faster than I anticipated,” Carmelita complemented. “At this rate we’ll finish preparing you by the end of the week.”

While Sly was working, namely spying on a local drug dealer, he was also testing out Bentley’s newest invention, the Binocucom. The first function he tested was the basic binocular and zooming functions and Sly was actually surprised by how far it could zoom. Form his vantage point, the dealer was no more than a spec, but with the Binocucom he could zoom in far enough to read the words on the money he was carrying. It was at this moment that Bentley popped up on a small screen inside the Binocucom.

“I see you're already using it,” Bentley started. “How does it work?”

“It amazing,” Sly complemented. “You’ve truly outdone yourself this time. I came even see the numbers on the safe with perfect accuracy.”

“Yeah I know, There’s a built in camera that allows me to see everything you are seeing.”

“Nice,” Sly said intrigued. “Can it do anything else?”

“Yes, it can take pictures,” Bentley began. “There is a small button on the side that does it, try and take a picture of the code for the safe as that guy puts the money in,”

“Okay,” Sly said softly, and as the dealer typed in the code to his safe, Sly took a picture each time it he press a button.

“Looks like it works," Bentley confirmed. “All the picture are here on my computer. I’ll get started on making a few more of these for the rest of us.”

“Before you go,” Sly said, switching communications to an ear piece he had, “I wanted to ask about something.”

“Okay, what is it?”

“Well, Silver just turned eight a few days ago, right?” Sly asked as he headed down to the safe to take the loot.

“Oh no! Sly he‘s not a Cooper. Heck, he’s not even a raccoon!”

“I know, but I still feel guilty. I thought by the time I had a child, I'd have the Thievius Raccoonus back. And I think that there are a few techniques in there he can learn.”

“Okay, but I’m not sure we’re going to have any better luck.”

“About that, I think it time we stop solely relying on your sources and rumors. As good as your sources are, the Fiendish Five are extremely elusive. There is only one group with any one hundred percent accurate information on them.”

“You don’t mean…”

“Yes, Interpol, we’ll have to take it.”

“Sly are you sure? You’ve only made it a point to only steal from criminals.”

“Yeah, well lets think of it more like borrowing, we’ll give the file back right when we are done with it.”

“Okay I suppose. If you're sure about this the we should act soon. My sources tell me that both Inspector Fox and Director Barkley are out and will be out for another twelve days.”

“With your sources, we can hit the place tomorrow,” Sly said as he grabbed the cash from the safe and replaced it with a calling card designed like the cooper emblem, a simplistic raccoon face that’s top of the face and noise were black, the bottom was white, and the eye’s were blue.

Carmelita, Twilight, and Spike were almost back to the Interpol headquarters in Paris. Carmelita was definitely shocked that it only took Twilight nine days to learn everything she needed. It may have been only the basics, but she still was putting every other officer the inspector knew to shame. With less than a month of training, she could master everything. Even so, there wasn’t that kind of time. As soon as Twilight finished they started their flight back, they slept on most of the flight, but Carmelita decided to go over what they’d do when the landed now that they were only a few minutes away.

“Okay,” Carmelita began, “When we get off I’ll be taking you to the forensics lab to analyze different elements of the periodic table. It may not help with finding rare ore faster, but when you do find it, we will already know it’s makeup and our scientists can locate the score, which is most likely where Clockwerk is hiding.”

“Got it,” Twilight agreed.

“So is that your headquarters?” Spike asked.

Carmelita and Twilight both looked out the window. “Yes,” Carmelita confirmed before noticing something coming down the fire escape. “Sly!”

“What?” both Twilight and Spike asked in shock.

Carmelita turned to the pilot. “Take them to the landing site,” she ordered, “I’ve got someone to catch up with.” Carmelita opened the helicopter door. “Stop criminal!” she shouted as she jumped out.

To Be Continued...

Chapter 3: Let the Hunt Begin

Let the Hunt Begin

“Criminal!” Sly heard a familiar voice call out right after he started down the fire escape. Sly looked in the direction of the voice and saw Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox fall out of the sky and land on the roof of a neighboring building. “Stop right there Ringtail, I caught you red handed.”

“Carmelita,” Sly greeted the inspector, “long time no see. That a new blaster? Really brings out the color of your eyes.”

“This shock pistol packs a paralyzing punch,” Inspector Fox informed. “You should try it, it might knock you out of your crime spree.”

“And give up a our little rendezvou?” Sly joked.

“Plenty of time for that when you're safely behind bars.” Carmelita joked back.

“Sorry but I can’t stick around. I just came to borrow a little something. See you around,” Sly said and jumped off the side of the fire escape as Carmelita shot at him. He used his cane to hook onto the side before hitting the ground to slow his descent and then swung off on to the ground. Carmelita wasn’t about to give up and began blasting at Sly again. Sly weaved in and out of the police cars to avoid the blasts and as he drew close to the exit Murray pulled up with the van and the doors swang open. Sly jumped in and shut the doors as the van began to pull away.

“Not this time!” Carmelita yelled as she quickly began to charge a stronger blast with her shock pistol and took aim it at the van. As she pulled the trigger something fell on top of the barrel of the gun, throwing off her aim so that she hit the ground. Once the dust cloud from the blast settled, Sly and the van were gone.

“Cooper!” Carmelita screamed. After a few deep breaths she looked for what hit her gun. She found the object on the ground rather quickly. “A rock?” she observed aloud and looked up at the sky where it fell from. There was nothing except for two small silver clouds shimmering in the night sky, about to fade into the horizon.

“Carmelita, are you hurt?” Twilight asked, coming over to her.

“Just my pride,” Carmelita responded. “Although something is bugging me.” She took out her walkie talkie and spoke into it. “Do we know what he stole?”

“Not yet mam,” said a voice on the other side.

“Well, find out and report it to me on the double, and if you find one of his calling cards bring directly it to me. I will be waiting in Director’s Barkley’s office,” Carmelita ordered. “Is that understood?”

“Yes mam!” The voice replied and Carmelita hooked the walkie talkie back onto her belt.

“Twilight, follow me,” Carmelita commanded.

“Oh, okay,” Twilight quickly responded. “Uh, if I may ask, what was bothering you?”

“IS, it is still is bothering me,” Carmelita answered. “This heist is seriously out of Sly’s M.O. But not only did I catch him here in the act, but he confessed right to me.”

“I’m not sure I follow you,” Twilight replied.

“In every known case, Sly has only stolen from either confirmed or suspected criminals or corrupt politicians,” Carmelita explained. “I seriously doubt he would steal from anyone else. He thinks there’s some kind of honor about how he acts.”

“So you think he’s being framed?” Twilight asked.

“Well, either that, or he had no other option.” Carmelita answered as they reached the director’s office.

“Inspector!” an officer called out. “We found this in the archives.” He handed Carmelita a calling card.

“Good work, have you figured out what he stole yet?

“Not yet, but we we should know soon,” he responded.

“Okay, notify me as soon as you know,” Carmelita ordered.

“Yes mam!” the officer said before leaving.

Carmelita examined the calling card and found a small fold on it. It was unknown to most, but Sly enjoyed toying with Carmelita so much that he started to leave her messages in his calling cards. Ironically they actually did come in handy from time to time. He would occasionally inform her on where to look for evidence to convict other criminals. Keeping this in mind only a select few knew about this, so they could prevent these criminals from disposing of the card.

Carmelita peeled up the fold and read the message.

Sorry, but I had to borrow this file. If you want it back sooner, then you’ll just have to track me down. Besides I know you want these five taken down just as much as I do.

Sly

Carmelita thought about that last part, as the officer returned.

“Inspector,” he began, “we’ve searched the entire building and the only thing missing was one case file.”

“Which one?” Carmelita inquired.

“The file detailing Sir Raleigh Frog’s possible connections to the Fiendish Five.”

“Of course!” Carmelita exclaimed shocking both the officer and Twilight. Carmelita cleared her throat and spoke up once again. “Thank you, you are now dismissed.”

“Yes mam,” the officer said and left.

“What was that about?” Twilight asked.

“He trying to avenge his family,” Carmelita explained. “And if we’re lucky we can use this.” Carmelita smiled. “We may be able to take down both Fiendish Five and Sly.”

Murray quickly parked the van and the gang cleared out. Bentley quickly pressed the button to hide the van in the ground. Afterwards the gang quickly ran into the house and Bentley prepared to put the house in lockdown, where it too is is hidden in the ground, when Sly stopped them.

"Where's Silver?" he asked in panic.

Bentley and Murray looked at each other confused. "He's not in his room?" Bentley asked.

"No I just looked.” Sly continued.

“Maybe he’s…” Murray began before the was a loud creak sound. The three immediately turned in the direction of the sound and saw Silver trying to sneak past them.

“Where…” Sly started before being interrupted.

“Hold that thought,” Bentley said and immediately put the house into lockdown. The four waited a few seconds as the house was lowered into the ground and the fake ground closed over them.

“Where did you go!?” Sly yelled at Silver.

“I...I…”Silver started.

“Calm down Sly,” Murray interrupted. “Silver, it okay, just tell us where you went.”

“I followed you guys,” Silver admitted sheepishly.

Both Murray and Sly looked at Silver in shock. “How?” Sly finally asked.

“Well,” Silver quietly said as he diverted eye contact and stretched out his wings.

“So you do know how to fly already!” Bentley called out.

“Already?” Sly repeated, puzzled and looked over to Murray who was as lost as him.

“You may not know that much about pegasi,” Bentley started to explain, “but even you guys should know that they can fly.”

“Oh,” Sly said, feeling like an idiot.

“A bit slow, huh dad?” Silver joked.

Sly gave Silver a stern look. "Sliver, you should have stayed home like we told you," He said firmly.

“I'm sorry," Silver apologized with tears beginning to from in his eyes. "I was just worried about you. I... I just... just can't lose you too."

Sly got onto one knee and crouched down to Silver's level. "No, I'm sorry," Sly started. "I should have thought about that. Just promise you won't sneak out again and I'll make sure that you no longer have to worry."

Silver wiped the water out of his eyes. "O...okay. I promise," He mumbled.

“Okay, do you know why we had to break into the police station today?” Sly asked.

“No really,” Silver admitted. “Just something about tracking down some criminals.”

“Not just any criminals,” Sly responded, “the Fiendish Five. A group of five international criminals at the top of Interpol's most wanted list. Remember about what I said about my parents?” Silver nodded. “Well Clockwerk is their leader. And on top of what they did to my parents, they also stole a book filled with the Cooper techniques of my ancestors. When our children turn eight we help them learn it’s techniques, however, it was stolen before I got the chance, and now your eight too. So I say it’s high time we get it back and put them behind bars.”

Silver nodded, not sure how to feel. He was excited to learn the Cooper techniques, but wasn’t sure that he could. He agreed that these monsters should be behind bars, but wasn’t sure he was ready to face them yet. Sly probably wouldn’t even let him come along anyway, but then he be too worried about them to get any rest.

“Now go pack your things, we leave first thing tomorrow,” Sly interrupted Silvers train of thought.

Silver looked up to Sly in shock. “I’m coming?” he asked.

“Of course,” Sly answered. “We can’t leave you here alone, and don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Silver jumped for joy and ran into his room to pack. “We should do the same,” Sly addressed the others. “Tomorrow we leave for Wales and Sir Raleigh’s Resort.”

To Be Continued...

Chapter 4: Tide of Terror: Checking In

Tide of Terror: Checking In

On the long ride over to Whales Silver read over the report on Sir Raleigh Frog. Apparently he was was born into wealth, but instead of following in his family's footsteps, he not only started his own tech company, but also a resort, right off the edge of the lost triangle. Even though it always rains there, he uses this triangle as a tourist attraction, and the rain never seems to reach the resort either. However, Interpol seems to believe the this resort is only a front for a crime syndicate. Also he is confirmed to be a member of the Fiendish Five, despite a lack of evidence. And according to Bentley's sources, Raleigh is heavily involved in piracy, and is quite successful, even though no one knows how he does it. He is under constant watch from Interpol and is almost always hosting events at his resort.

"That would be the logical assumption," Bentley analyzed.

"Uncle Murray," Silver spoke up, "How much longer?"

"A few more hours," Murray said, diving the van.

Carmelita exited the taxi followed by Twilight and Spike, who was sleeping on Twilight's back, and the two looked at the Lost Triangle Resort. It was a huge, twenty story building right next to it's own amusement park. However, only about a mile away was the shore, and off the shore was the infamous Lost Triangle itself. A never ending storm started there about nineteen years ago and hundreds of ships had been sunk ever since. As far as anyone knew, Raleigh started research in underwater travel in order to take advantage of the storm and opened this resort ten years ago.

The three entered the resort and walked over the the clerk, a fox dressed in a nice blue dress with a black chest piece, and a pair of glasses. On her dress she had a name tag that read, Sara, pinned to her chest. "Hello," Sara said, "and welcome to the Lost Triangle Resort, the only way to visit the triangle and avoid getting lost. How can I help you?"

"Hello," Carmelita greeted. "I'm Cathy Montoya, I have a reservation."

“Of course," Sara responded as she pulled up something on her computer. "for you, one other adult and one child. Your family?"

was it?"

"Something like that," Twilight giggled and the clerk leaned over the counter to look at Twilight and Spike.

"Okay then," Sara said as she returned to her original position. "You are booked in one of the best suites in the resort. Room number 368. It has two balconies, one with a view of the storm, and one with a view of the shows in the theme park." She handed the key cards to Carmelita. "Enjoy your stay."

Carmelita took the key cards and turned towards the center of entrance hall. “Twilight, find anything let.”

“Let me check,” Twilight said as Spike yawned and woke up. Twilight’s horn glowed and then it start to gently sparkle. “Nothing yet as far as I can tell.”

Carmelita sighed and looked over the room. It was a huge and beautiful hall with several lounges, snacks and even toys and games set up of the kids. It was really quite amazing. “First time here?” a voice asked her.

"Yes it’s quite amazing,” she said as she turned to look at the man, a short green frog with a massive blue top hat. Carmelita instantly knew who it was. “Sir Raleigh!” she exclaimed in shock.

"Please, call me Raleigh,” he said and gave a yellowish grin causing Carmelita and Twilight to back up in disgust, and Spike to partially gag.

"“Oh, don’t worry, they’re fake,” Raleigh reassured. “I play a pirate in my own live audience show. I come down every day at this time to sign autographs. The kids love it.”

“If you say so,” Spike said shielding his eyes.

“Spike!” Twilight lectured. “Don’t be rude.”

“It’s alright my dear,” Raleigh intervened. “He’s obviously never seen one of my shows before. The next show is tomorrow, you should attend.”

“Sounds interesting,” Twilight said.

“Not as interesting a you my dear,” Raleigh responded. I believe your race are called ponies, if i’m not mistaken.”

“Um, that’s right,” Twilight said backing up.

“Fascinating,” Raleigh replied. “Quite a rare, but proud race from what I’ve heard. I’ve done some reading on their culture and found it very interesting. Is it true you can lift things with your horn?”

“Yes actually,” Twilight answered, calming down.

“Well it’s a pleasure to meet you, miss…” Raleigh asked for a name.

“Sparkle, Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight introduced herself.

“Well Twilight, I hope you and your friends enjoy your stay,” Raleigh told them before he left.

“Carmelita,” Twilight whispered after Raleigh was out of earshot, “I sensed something weird on him.”

“Do you mean...” Carmelita began.

“I can’t be sure,” Twilight explained. “for all I know it’s just because it was on him, but if we can find more, maybe I can figure out where it’s coming from.”

Murray drove over to the resort’s entrance and parked the car. “Okay,” Sly started, “you all get out and get a room for us. I’ll go park the van.”

“Why can’t I do that?” Murray asked.

“Because there is a chance that Raleigh might recognize Sly,” Bentley explained.

“How?” Silver asked.

“While he’s never seen me before,” Sly started, “he seen my father. He may recognize me as a Cooper.”

“Oh, that explains it,” Murray said as he got out of the van and gathered up their things. Silver and Bentley got out of the back and three walked into the resort as Sly drove the van to the parking garage.

Bentley lead the group over to the clerk, whose name tag read Sara. "Hello," Sara smiled, "and welcome to the Lost Triangle Resort, the only way to visit the triangle and avoid getting lost. How can I help you?"

“We would like a room,” Bentley requested.

“Of course, Sara said and she typed on her computer. “Do you have a reservation?”

“Unfortunately no,” Bentley announced.

“Okay, how many adults and children?” Sara asked.

"Three adults, one child," Bentley informed.

"Okay," Sara said as she typed some more information into her computer, "let's see. Oh dear, we seem to be out of standard rooms that fit your needs. Would you like a suite.

"I'm not sure that can fit in our budget," Bentley sighed.

"Is there a problem?" a man said from the side.

"No Sir Raleigh," Sara answered. "It's just these gentlemen would like a room but we seem to be out of ones that suit their needs at the moment."

"I see, perhaps I may have a word," Raleigh said and smiled at the three with white teeth the seemed unnatural.

"Uncle Bentley," Silver said as he backed away.

"Oh there's no need to fear little one," Raleigh reassured.

"Murray," Bentley intervened, "can you take Silver to the games area."

"Okay Bentley," Murray responded and the two walked over to a lounge with video games set up.

"You'll have to excuse the boy," Bentley told Raleigh. "he's been through a lot.”

"I see," Raleigh said slowly. "He's your nephew?"

"No," Bentley responded, "he's adopted. He lost his parents very recently and I think he's still having trouble adjusting."

"As he should," Raleigh replied.

"Yes, well, that's we came here," Bentley explained. "We don't live all that far away and this resort you made has everything to calm his nerves. Still if we can't get a room I guess we'll have to go somewhere else."

"Well, I can't have that now can I?" Raleigh announced. "Sara."

"Yes Sir Raleigh?" Sara quickly responded.

"Give them a storm suite at a standard room's price," Raleigh ordered.

"Okay," Sara said and typed some things into her computer. "You're in room 366," she told Bentley and handed him the key card.

"How can I thank you?" Bentley said to Raleigh.

"Oh you gratitude is thanks enough," Raleigh answered with a devilish grin. "Have a nice stay.”

Sly waited in the van for quite some time until he felt his binocucom vibrate. Sly picked it up and looked into it.

“Sly we’re in room 366,” Bentley informed. “It has a balcony and is on the side of the building with the storm. I programmed a holographic way finder into your binocucom.”

“Okay, Sly responded. “I’ll call you back when I have a visual.” Sly put the binocucom in his pocket and got out of the van. He then ran over to the side of the building and took out the binocucom again. He looked up to the third floor and over the second balcony from the corner next to the theme park was a yellow S and an arrow pointing down at the balcony. “Wow. it’s awesome Bentley!”

“Thanks,” Bentley replied. “We can even use this function to mark objectives on missions. Still I have no idea how you’re going to get up here.”

“Oh come on, it will be easy. Climb up that pipe, walk across those ledges and I’m there,” Sly gloated as he moved the binocucom’s view around to demonstrate.

“Unless you slip and fall three stories to your doom,” Bentley criticized grimly.

“Come on, I live for this stuff,” Sly countered

“And that’s what worries me,” Bentley responded.

Sly hung up the binocucom, placed it in his pocket, and climbed up the pipe to the third floor. He then placed his back against the wall but once he got close to the balcony he heard something.

“Carmelita,” Sly whispered. “A little early this time.”

“What about you?” asked a second voice.

“We would like a room,” Bentley requested.

“Okay, then,” the other voice said.

“And you seem to have a new partner. Well either way it seems like we’re neighbors.” Sly said before jumping onto the balcony and heading into his room.

To Be Continued...

Chapter 5: Tide of Terror: Scooting

Tide of Terror: Scooting

“She’s what?!” Bentley yelled.

“Quiet or she’ll hear you,” Sly said.

“What’s she even doing here?”

“Probably the same as us,”

“Uh,” Silver interrupted, “who are you talking about?”

“Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox,” Sly answered. “She’s been chasing us for years. “

“If she’s here, we need to be more prepared,” Bentley said. “We’ll do our reconnaissance tomorrow night. I guess we’ll just relax until then.”

“Changing subjects,” Sly said, “you did a really good job getting this room. How’d you do it?”

“Oh I just told Raleigh how we recently adopted Silver.”

“And that worked?”

“Of course. I came here without a reservation on purpose. I knew we needed a balcony and all of the suits had them. I figured that if we came without a reservation all of the normal rooms would be booked and I knew that Raleigh would seize the chance to give us a suit at normal price if given a good enough excuse. If he reports it as being full price it would allow him to smuggle some of his stolen money into his business.”

“You planed all that?”

“Someone had to.”

“Good job Bentley. Okay then let’s take advantage of the room we got and relax. However we should get to bed soon, we have an early day tomorrow.”

Carmelita woke up late and saw Twilight writing something down while Spike was watching something on the computer. “What are you guys doing?” she asked.

“Oh,” Twilight said, “I’m writing a checklist of places we need to check.”

“Okay, but we really don't need a checklist.” Carmelita said.

“Don’t try and stop her,” Spike said. “She makes checklist for everything. I’m just glad she’s not making me do it for a change.”

“Okay then,” Carmelita said. “What are you up to?”

“I’m doing some research on this… computer?” Spike said. “Well, whatever it’s called, I figure that we might want to check out that live show.”

Twilight turned towards Spike in surprise. “Don’t tell me he actually made you interested in his show.”

“No of course not. But after doing some research, I found out that he does two live shows a week, both on the same day, and, although he says there’s a continuous story, he keeps it rather formulaic, which he says is to let newcomers watch without worry. At the end of the first show the crew gets separated from their captain, played by Raleigh, only for him to come back during the climax of the second.

“Okay, what’s your point?”

“My point is that if Raleigh ever wanted to slip away unnoticed, that would be the time.”

Carmelita nodded. “Good work Spike, we’ll make sure to check that out.”

“How’d you figure all this out?” Twilight asked.

“Well,” Spike said, “after you said that you said you sensed something weird on him, I figured it would be best to find out his schedule. He mentioned the live show, and it turns out he records it, sells the episodes. He has them available for free on the hotels computers. So I watched a few episodes.”

“You're really getting into this,” Twilight said.

“Just doing my part,” Spike said, somewhat embarrassed.

“You said you researched his schedule,” Carmelita said. “Did you find out anything else?”

“Yeah,” Spike said. “From six to seven in the morning he checks out certain attractions in the amusement park.He signs autographs from ten to ten-thirty at night. On Tuesdays he has his first live show from three to four in the afternoon and his second live show from eight to nine at night. Every other day of the week he spends those time frames rehearsing. He spends the rest of his time around the hotel. The only time he isn’t with the public or the staff is in between live shows. He supposedly is writing scripts and editing footage for live shows, but he is alone.”

“Good work again.”

“Most of the amusement park is on my list,” Twilight said.

“That list might actually come in handy,” Carmelita said. “Spike help her narrow down the spots we need to check.”

Spike gave a salute. “On it!”

Sly and the gang woke with a start when the alarm went off. “It’s too early,” Sly said.

“You’re kinding right?” Silver asked. “It’s one in the afternoon.”

“Well, that’s early for us. So what's the plan Bentley.”

“Okay I’ve researched Raleigh’s schedule,” Bentley said. “What you need to know is that he visits certain rides in the morning, host one live show on Tuesday afternoons, another in the evening, and on other days he is rehearsing the show at the same time he hosts the shows. He says he’s available at all other times except the time in between live shows when he writes the script for the next show and edits the show’s footage to release it for the public to buy.”

“Okay good job there, what should we do?” Sly asked.

“The first thing we need to do is some recognitions. Murray, you should check out the live show. I made some adjustments to your binocucom to fit in with a show’s environment. Make sure to sit in the back and record it. Sly, while Raleigh is busy with the live show, you should get some souvenirs from the shop to disguise yourself. I’ll support you from here.”

“What about me?” Silver asked.

“Oh, um,” Bentley stumbled, “you should go with Murray. It would be good for you to relax a bit and have some fun while you're here.”

Silver looked a bit disappointed but nodded his head. “Okay.”

Bentley turned to Sly “One more thing Sly. While you get a disguise for yourself, get one for me and Murray as well.”

“Why, Raleigh already saw you?” Sly asked.

“Because Carmelita has also seen us.”

“Fair point. Consider it done.”

Murray and Silver entered the theater and sat in the far back. Murray took out his binocucom which now had a pole attached so it looked like a pair of opera binoculars and waited of the show to start. As the curtains rose he lifted the binocucom to his eyes and watched.

On the stage was a full sized pirate ship, with Raleigh at the helm, and some fake waves. “Ahoy maties,” Raleigh said as a group of people poured out of the ship. “Today be the day we find Blackheart's treasure.”

“You say that before every expedition,” said his first mate, played by Sara.

“Aye, and one day it be true. Blackheart has stolen from innocent people long enough. Soon we will liberate his treasure and, after taking a small fee, we will return it to those in need. Are ye with me?!”

“Aye aye captain!” the crew said as one.

“Then let’s set sail!” Raleigh shouted.

Sly walked up to the souvenir shop only to be met with a metal gate. There was a sign on the gate that read, Closed for show. Will reopen at 4:15 PM. Sly took out his binocucom and looked at the sign. “Bentley, we might have an issue,” he said.

Bentley’s face popped up on the binocucom’s inner screen. “I can see that,” he said. “I knew that most of the staff helped out with the show, but I thought that the gift shop would say open.”

“Maybe they’re onto us.”

“Don’t even joke about that. Anyway, we can’t wait to four-fifteen to get the disguises. You need to start scouting out the amusement park by then.”

“The I guess we’ll have to do this the old fashioned way.”

“Okay, pulling up the building specs now. Looks like the air vents connect to most of the building. They’re fairly small but with your skills and flexibility I’m sure you can fit. I’ll mark the nearest entrance on you binocucom.”

Sly turned around to find the holo maker. “Thanks pal. I’ll be back in a flash.” He put the binocucom away and headed toward the air vent. Before he opened it up he looked around to make sure no one was looking and put Bentley on his earpiece. “The place is petty empty here.”

“Raleigh’s live show is very popular. It makes sense not many people are around. But it won’t stay that way forever so you better make this quick,” Bentley said as sly opened the air vent, crawled inside, and reclosed it from the inside.

“Please, it’s a gift shop. I could do this in my sleep.”

“Okay, take your next right.”

“So how’s play going?”

“All things considered, pretty well. Raleigh spared no expense on the effects, that’s for sure.”

“You think Silver is enjoying it?”

“Hard to say. He is very afraid of Raleigh, but this is quite entertaining. I’ll have you look at it before the second show. Oh, your exit is on your left. Sly opened the air vent and dropped to the floor before quickly grabbing what he needed. “No calling card this time. We don’t want them knowing we were here.

“Got ya,” Sly said before climbing back into the air vent and closing it behind him.

Murray watched as the play went on. Much of the time was spent sailing and character building but soon the crew announced that they reached shore. The curtains closed and one minute later they reopened to a jungle setting. Murray thought it was impressive that they were able to change sets so quickly. However there was another thing impressive about the set. As the crew pretended to walk forwards, the tall grass, positioned in front of the crew, and trees, positioned behind them, moved across the stage.

"We are almost there," Raleigh said. "The treasure is right past these trees." At that moment a bunch of trees passed over the the stage in front of the crew. "Here it is." Raleigh pointed at the ground in front of him.

Sara took out a shovel and said, "This better not be another trap." Right before before she could start to dig a large group jumped out from behind the trees in the back.

"Haha," one of the new people said. "You've fallen right into my trap."

"Oh come on!" Sara shouted.

"Blackheart," Raleigh said slowly. "This be new trick and a low blow, even for you."

"You've been standing in in my way for too long Raleigh," the actor playing Blackheart said. "I've decided that it was time to remove you personally."

Raleigh’s crew drew their swords, except Raleigh, who took out a weird looking flintlock pistol. “Ye can try! But by the time I be through with you, the location of your treasure be ours!” Raleigh said as the two crews started to clash swords. The sword work was very impressive but the focus stayed on Raleigh and Blackheart.

“One more thing,” Blackheart said. “Stop speaking like that. No one’s impressed.”

“I know not what ye mean,” Raleigh said as he aimed his pistol and fired.

Blackheart blocked what most have been a fake bullet with his sword and charged forwards. “No matter, you’ll stop when you’re dead!” he said and slashed at Raleigh. Raleigh jumped over the attack, landed behind Blackheart, and aimed his pistol once more. “You rely too much on your technology. It will be your downfall!” Blackheart spun around and slashed at Raleigh before he could shoot. Raleigh jumped back behind the tree line and fell through the floor.

“Captain!” Sara shouted.

Blackheart laughed. “It seems you missed the cliff behind the trees! So much for being the smartest pirate!”

Sara charged at Blackheart and swung her sword downward. Blackheart blocked the blow. “You’re too weak!” he said and pushed Sara’s sword back, knocking Sara back in the process.

Blackheart slashed at Sara and she jumped back to avoid the strike. “Darn it!” Sara said. “Everyone we have to regroup! Fall back!”

“You think I’m just going to let you leave?!”

Sara drew a pistol similar to Raleigh’s and loaded it. “You won’t have a choice!” she said and fired the pistol.

Blackheart blocked the bullet with his sword and said, “Have you learned nothing from your captain!” However, on closer inspection, the audience could see that the bullet stuck to the sword.

“Checkmate,” Sara said and pushed a button on her pistol. The bullet emitted an electric blue light and Blackheart began to spaz out while his crew watched in shock. “Now!” Sara shouted and she lead Raleigh’s crew off stage.

Blackheart’s crew continued watching as Blackheart fell to the ground. He got onto one knee and looked at his crew. “What are you waiting for? Get them!” he yelled.

His crew began to run in the direction of Raleigh’s crew when a few small explosions went off, covering the stage in smoke. “I can’t see,” one of Blackhearts man said. A gust of air blew the smoke off stage to a confused crew. “Sorry sir they escaped,”

Blackheart got off the ground and grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt. “Then find them,” he growled, “or else.

The curtains fell and a voice projected over the intercom. “To be continued in tonight’s show. Please come back and witness the epic conclusion,” it said.

“Well that’s all for now,” Murray said as he put away his binocucom and turned on his earpiece. “What now?”

“Sly is about to scoot out the amusement park,” Bentley said through the earpiece, “so why don’t you and Silver go there to and enjoy yourselves, after you come back and pick up your disguises.”

“Sounds good.”

Sly took out his binocucom and looked around. On the side of it’s screen he saw a list of three rides he was supposed to take pictures of. “This could be take awhile,” Sly said.

“Why?” Bentley asked. “There are only three rides to check out.”

“Because they’re on opposite sides of the park.”

“I have a plan to speed things up. The ferris wheel is up first. Go there, take a picture, and get on. From the top you can see the whole park.”

Sly walked over to the ferris wheel and snapped a picture. “Okay.”

“It seems to be completely normal. Maybe he just rides it for the view of the park. Get on and see what you can get.”

“Got ya.” Sly got on and when he was at the top of the ride the power turned off.

“That’s odd. The amount of power going to this ride far exceeds what is necessary.”

“So I take it you’re responsible for this lovely view.”

“Oh, yes, I cut the power to the ferris wheel, that should buy you enough time to take the remaining pictures and any others you think we may need.”

“Got it.” Sly took took out his binocucom again and looked over to a small roller coaster in the distance before taking a picture of it.

“It seems odd that he would only ride one of the roller coasters on each inspection. What’s weirder though is the fact that it’s always that one. We have to find out what makes it special.”

Sly then took a picture of a building housing a 3D pirate adventure ride. “We’re not gonna find anything special there now, but Raleigh checks that out every morning. Maybe there’s something different about than. Either that or this is made as a red herring to throw people like us off. That’s it for now. If there are any other pictures you want to take, do it quickly before they get the power back on.”

Sly looked around and saw something at the base of the ferris wheel. “Well hello there,” he said as he zoomed Carmelita into focus and snapped a picture. “Beautiful as ever I see.”

“You were right, she is here. Good news, she seems to be undercover. As long as we say out of her way, she won’t hunt us down. But who’s that with her? See if you can get me a better pic of them.”

Sly moved the binocucom’s view over to Carmelita’s companions, one pony with both wings and a horn, and one small dragon, and took a picture. “This is bad, I can’t find any ponies in Interpol's database. These two are complete wild cards. Not to mention the weird stuff I’ve read about unicorns. They’re supposed to be really powerful, and she has wings too. I’ve never read anything like this. We need to be careful around her.” The ride’s power came back on and Sly put his binocucom away.

“Well that’s all for now. Why don’t you meet up with Silver and Murray and have some fun. After that we catch the next live show and call it a day.

Sly sat down with Murray and Silver to see the second half of the live show and saw that Silver was much more relaxed than when they first arrived. He took out his binocucom which Bentley gave the same modification that he made to Murray’s, and waited for the curtains to rise. Once the show started Sly lifted up his binocucom and watched.

The curtains rose onto a jungle set and Raleigh’s crew, minus Raleigh. “Okay we escaped,” Sara said. “Now we need to find the captain.”

“But Sara,” one of crew members said, “the captain’s… he’s… he fell off that cliff.”

“Captain Raleigh survived worse. I refuse to believe he’s dead unless I see it with with my own eyes.”

“But…”

“But nothing. Until we find Raleigh I am in charge and I say we search.”

“Aye,” the crew said unenthusiastically.

So the crew traveled through the the jungle so some time before getting ambushed by Blackheart’s crew. “You should have left the island while you had the chance. Now you all will die!” Blackheart said and his crew attacked. The fight raged on for some time before Blackheart knocked Sara to the ground. “Die!” he moved in to make the finishing strike.

“Hands off me first mate!” Raleigh’s voice echoed through the room.

“Captain!” Sara exclaimed.

“Impossible,” Blackheart said.

Raleigh came swinging in on a rope painted to look like a vine and kicked Blackheart away from Sara. “That’s one hell of an entrance,” Bentley said over the binocucom. “And there’s something off about that hat. It should have fallen off after a stunt like that but there it is still attached to his head. Well that’s all I need. When the plays over, meet me back at the safehouse and we’ll come up with a plan.”

“Sounds good,” Sly whispered as not to disrupt the show. “But we’re paying for the room legally, you don’t need to call it the safehouse.”

“Old habits die hard my friend.”

To Be Continued...

Author's Note

Sorry for the incredibly long wait for this chapter. I've been busy working on my YouTube channel and my motivation for this story has been dwindling. However I still fully intend to finish this story, even if it kills me. I know the frustration of an unfinished story.