//------------------------------// // VII - Unexpected Guest // Story: My Little Sly Cooper: Thievery is Magic // by Deyeaz //------------------------------// My Little Sly Cooper: Thievery is Magic VII - Unexpected Guest Earth; Cooper Hideout Murray and Bentley couldn't sleep. Bentley, in his desperation and belief of Sly possibly existing in a multiverse, was creating a machine that would help them travel across the cosmic ocean to where their deceased friend could be, with the help of some old Sly DNA to pinpoint his location. Murray looked at the portrait the first time he, Sly, and Bentley met at the orphanage. Sly had his arms around the hippopotamus and the turtle, the trio smiling widely at the camera. Murray smiled as tears trickled down his face. He remembered that day like had just happened two hours ago.... "Ha-ha!" A kid, a wolf by the look of him, had pushed Murray and Bentley down into the sand as the cronies, a rhino and a tiger, held their arms behind their backs. Bentley was shaking in his shell, and Murray was already on the precipice of crying. "Not so tough now, are ya?!" the wolf taunted. "P-p-please... leave us alone!" Bentley stammered. "'P-p-please!' Bah!" The wolf mocked before repeatedly swinging his foot in Murray's stomach while the rhino and tiger stripped Bentley of his shell and started tossing it back and forth between themselves like some sick game of monkey in the middle. "Hey!" a voice shouted behind them. "Leave them alone!" The trio of bullies looked around to see a small raccoon child with a large cane in his hands, with a mask over his eyes and a cap to block them from the shadows. "Or what?" The rhino threatened. "Or I'll knock your block off!" the raccoon retorted, holding the cane like a trusty sword. "We'll see about that!" The wolf said. "Get 'im!" The rhino and tiger charged at the raccoon boy. With a flick of the wrist, the raccoon had swung the cane at the rhino's legs, causing him to fall over. The tiger pounced, yet the raccoon swung upwards, sending the tiger into the air and landing in a heap a few feet away. The raccoon boy brought the cane's convex side into the stomachs of the rhino and tiger for good measure. The wolf, agitated at his companions' defeat, charged in to take the raccoon down. The boy with the cane had other plans, though. He jumped into the air, cane gripped tightly in his hands, as he front-flipped over the wolf and swung the cane into his back, sending him flying several inches. When the raccoon lands, the wolf turns around quickly and charges again with a cocked-back fist. The raccoon rapidly jabbed the cane into the wolf's belly as quickly and roughly as possible. Sensing that his battles would be in vain, the wolf hastily picked up his cronies and urged them to run away from the boy with the cane. "L-L-Let's get outta here!" the wolf cried as he and his two goons fled the scene. The boy lowered his cane as he walked over to Bentley and Murray and gave them his hand, hoisting them up from off of the floor. "Th... thanks!" Murray squealed. "Don't mention it," the boy reassured them. "Say, what're your names?" "I'm Bentley," the turtle in question answered. "And this is Murray." "W-who are you?" Murray asked the savior. In retaliation, the boy tilted his cap up to relinquish the shadows it cast. Underneath the hat was a masked face, with kind brown eyes poking out of the mask's holes. "Sly. Sly Cooper." Murray sighed morosely at the reminiscence. Bentley, seeing his friend in a state of melancholy, rolled over to Murray and placed a hand on his mammalian friend's shoulder. "Don't worry, Murray," he assured the hippo. "We'll find him. I promise." "But how?" Murray asked. "Well, with the exquisite assistance of both reincarnation and the multiverse theory, we can pinpoint Sly's exact location with this device anywhere in this universe." The turtle pointed a finger at the mechanism he was creating. "As a matter of fact, I'm almost finished with this bad boy. Once I'm done with adding the deoxyribonucleic acid to the device, we should be able to reach Sly in his exact location." Despite Bentley's extensive vocabulary, Murray understood what his companion said. "Alright. So how long will it take before this thing really is finished?" "Only a few more minutes. Once it's recalibrated and the DNA is scanned, we'll be off like that!" Bentley snapped his fingers to emphasize the last word as he returned to the machine to recalibrate it. The minutes flew by as the two worked on whatever was needed. Even Murray got up from off of his bed to do something, despite the stormy black clouds that basked above his head: he couldn't just sit around all night doing nothing. "Aaaaaand done!" Bentley cheered in delight as the mechanism he was crafted was finally finished. Murray went over to his friend's side and whistled low at the sight before him. It was a ten-foot tall hollow cylinder. The floor and the ceiling were glowing a bright blue light. Beeping sounds came from the cylinder, and a small slide-in tray with the words 'DNA sample' written above it was out, ready to receive the item it requires. "Whoa... this is incredible!" Murray exclaimed. "Now all we need to do is just get the Multiverse Transporter to scan Sly's DNA, and we can see him again!" Bentley held up a strand of grey hair that was streaked with black. "How long did it take you to make it?" Murray asked. In order to relieve the pain caused by Sly's passing, the hippo spent most of his time driving throughout France. "Took me about a few days of non-stop work. Thank goodness for energy drinks, eh, Murray?" Bentley chuckled. Murray nodded fervently. *Knock-knock-knock!* "Murray, could you get that?" Bentley requested. Murray nodded and made his way to the door of the hideout. He opened the door ajar, and devastating fury flowed through him, turning his blood to a temperature that would make lava seem like cold water. Standing before him was a saddened and incredibly nervous Carmelita Fox.