Sly Cooper: Family of Thieves

by Blackdrag-rose

Thievius: Swamp's Dark Center

The first thing that the siblings did, before walking out into the open area that was sure to trigger Mz. Ruby's message to her guards, was carefully study the areas that they needed to progress through, for the Treasure Keys and any vaults that might have been hidden away inside those areas. From what Gilda could see they had three places to pick from, which made sense considering that each of the Fiendish Five seemed to have seven Treasure Keys on hand, though from what she could determine at a glance one area lead to a lake or river, the second seemed to go off into an area the locked gate was attached to, and the third only had some stones around it, so it was hard to tell what that one was. She then wondered how best they could divide the labor in this area, as she knew it was best to split up and tackle them at the same time, but with their limited experience in dealing with magical enemies, which was going to be normal in this area, it was hard to say what they should do and what they shouldn't do.

"This is going to be interesting and difficult at the same time," Gilda commented, causing Sly and Derpy to glance over at her, as they were trying to figure out a good way to divide the tasks between them, especially since they had no idea what each of the areas actually contained, "So, do either of you have an idea of how we should tackle this area?"

"Well, I think you should take on the area to our right," Derpy replied, beckoning to the area in question, which meant that Gilda was likely going to come into contact with whatever was on the other side of the locked gate, "Personally, I'd like to take the area that the one voodoo guard in guarding, the one with the wooden fence near him..."

"...and that leaves me to take on whatever the bone pipe leads to," Sly finished, though at the same time he shuddered, because so far Mz. Ruby wasn't presenting herself as a likeable person, not when all of her guards were voodoo practitioners and she had things made out of bone.

Before they dispersed, however, Gilda looked at Derpy and knew what her sister was thinking about, that the area she was going to go through was likely going to have the blueprints for Mz. Ruby's base and it was going to annoy her a little that she was always finding them... to which she sighed and rested her hand on Derpy's shoulder, knowing that if she was right her sister would be happy and if she was wrong Derpy would be more annoyed.

"Actually, why don't I take on the area you were looking at and you can have the one I was planning on tackling?" Gilda asked, as she knew that it didn't matter as long as they got all the Treasure Keys, though if the blueprints were in the area Derpy wanted to tackle she was doing her a favor by heading there instead.

"It's fine, I can tackle whatever is waiting in that area," Derpy replied, as she knew that Gilda wanted to prevent her from finding the blueprints for the third base of operations, but at this point in time she honestly didn't care, as she was a thief and she would take whatever was inside the vault.

Gilda was a little surprised by Derpy's decision, but she knew that her sister must have guessed why she was offering to change targets, to which she chuckled for a moment before the three of them used the Rail Slide technique to make their way over to the strange fountain that was in the middle of the first area... though as they arrived, however, the intercom came on and Mz. Ruby started talking, causing them to remain silent as they listened to her plans.

Wake up, you lazy bags of swamp gas! Mz. Ruby declared, revealing that she had seen some of her guards sleeping and was waking them up, meaning that part of their mission here had become slightly more difficult, before they listened to the rest of her message, The voodoo vibe is thick tonight. Let's take advantage of this powerful mojo and step up production. Keep piling those shiny bones into the soup. We'll have an army of ghosts by morning and take over Mexico by the end of the week. Hear that voodoo, children? Our family is about to grow, grow, grow!

"Okay, she's gone off the deep end." Sly commented, as it was one thing to set up a storm machine and sink ships or take over a city with an army of gangsters, but conquering an entire country was another thing all on it's own, which meant they needed to work fast, "We need to move fast and efficiently from this point forward, because we cannot allow Mz. Ruby to succeed with her plans of conquering Mexico."

Gilda and Derpy nodded, as it appeared that their new target had come unglued and was now using her powers for something truly devastating, to which the siblings separated from each other and headed to the areas that they would be working their way through. Gilda easily made her way to the gated area that Derpy had picked out for her, ignoring the bounce pad on the lower level and used her wings to reach her destination, though as she landed she turned around and observed her siblings for a few seconds. Sly carefully made his way along the bone pole that would take him to the area he was left to explore, where she saw him knock out the guard that was guarding the entrance, before he disappeared into the area and started exploring whatever was on the other side. Derpy, on the other hand, followed Gilda's example and used her wings to get up to the area she wanted to explore, where she knocked out the guard that was guarding the fence and waved at Gilda for a few seconds... before she turned around and headed into the area she wanted to explore.

Gilda waited a few seconds, to see if either of her siblings said anything to her over the binocucom, before she sighed and headed into the area that was behind her, though as she delved into the tunnel that was before her she could only wonder what sort of horrors she was going to find on the other side.

---

As Gilda emerged from the other side of the tunnel, however, she gazed up at the metal gate that was in front of her and noticed that it was attached to some walls like an enclosure of some kind, almost as if Mz. Ruby had actually gone out of her way to move something that was native to this swamp and trap in inside a holding cell. The only reason she even considered that fact was that she could see some sort of seal on the door in front of her, one that almost seemed magical in nature, that was directing the power inward. Even though she wondered how she could see the magical seal on the gate, as neither she, Sly, or Derpy had any powers like Mz. Ruby did, she still pulled out her binocucom and studied the area that she could see at the moment, as it would be better than going in blind and she could get a second opinion from Bentley, since he knew more about this than the siblings did.

"What's with this industrial-strength voodoo gate?" Bentley asked, though his tone indicated that he might not know anything about the situation, meaning that Gilda was on her own this time around, "Mz. Ruby must really be trying to keep something out."

"No, it's designed to keep something in." Gilda replied, though even as she said that she knew that Bentley was going to question her on how she knew that, something that she wasn't completely sure about since she had no idea what the rules of magic even were.

"How can you be sure?" Bentley inquired, indicating that he was interested in what Gilda had to say, even if she didn't have a good explanation for why she was able to be so sure in her thoughts.

"Well, this is going to sound strange, but I can see the seal on the gate," Gilda said, as she stared up at the glowing seal and wondered how she could even see it, but at the same time she decided that she would think about it after she got the vault and the Treasure Key, "and I can tell that the magic is being directed inward. This is a cell... and I'm going to have to head in there for the vault and the Treasure Key."

As Gilda lowered her binocucom she knew that the easiest and safest route to take was to open her wings, fly over the top of the gate, and search for the clue bottles and the location of the Treasure Key, though while she knew that Sly would frown at her for taking the easy way out she would rather risk him being upset than dealing with whatever was inside this cage. Still, since she needed all the clue bottles to unlock the vault, she guessed that she could follow the path to the best of her ability, collecting bottles as she went, so she would be able to open the vault at the very end, to which she smashed the trio of bottles on her left and sent Bentley the contents before she really got moving. She followed the path that the vines created and soon came to a side area that contained seven clue bottles, rivaling what Derpy found in one area of that roof area she explored on her own, and made sure she sent Bentley everything that was in front of her. She then carefully flew along the path and smashed through three more bottles as she came to a tree that several spiders dropped down from... which she simply avoided by flying to the backside of the small island that the large tree was growing on.

She soon found the path heading upward and took the bottle that was hanging on a rope, before she flew over the hook points that were in front of her and neared the water for a few seconds, where she watched the reeds move as she reached a second small island with another large tree. That confirmed that there was something inside the cage, making her wonder what that something was as she moved around the the other side of the island and collected the trio of bottles that were there. From that point she headed up the side of the tree and collected the bottle that was along the path, though when she reached the branch at the top she found another trio of bottles and made sure Bentley had all the new clues she had found. After that she followed the vine and gathered another pair of bottles, before she landed in front of the root system for a large overturned tree, where two bottles were resting, though as she hovered over the path that she would have to fly along, however, she heard a roar behind her and turned around... where she found a rather large snake, looking like it wanted to eat her whole, coming her way, to which she turned in the opposite direction and flew away from the large serpent.

Gilda had known that there was something inside this cage, and Bentley had even confirmed it, but she was not interested in becoming a snack and flew away from the serpent as it tried to eat her... before she reached the area the Treasure Key was in, where the snake gave up and returned to the water. From there she found the vault and got the code from Bentley, which happened to be 4-4-4, and discovered Bruce O'Coop's Computer Hacking technique, meaning that Bentley could hack into the roster of each hideout and give them data on each guard. She wasn't sure how useful that was going to be in the long run, but it was a good thing to have, so she put the calling card in place and grabbed the Treasure Key, before flying out of the area and leaving the large serpent to it's business.

"I hope Sly and Derpy are having better luck than I did." Gilda commented, though at the same time she made sure that the Treasure Key and the page from the Thievius Raccoonus were tucked away safely inside her pack, though once she confirmed that they were she landed in front of the cage and headed out to where her siblings would be waiting for her once they finished their areas.

---

Derpy found herself in the truck of a fallen tree, which appeared to have been turned into smaller pieces by the looks of things, and carefully removed the roots that were in front of her, revealing a vine she could Rail Slide down to reach the area below her. As she thought about that, however, a ghostly panther materialized in the air before she and rushed at her, to which she swung her cane and knocked the ghost to the side where it promptly disappeared, but she had the feeling that it would be back soon enough. That didn't stop her from shivering for a moment, because it was one thing to know that Mz. Ruby called the dead back to this world and another thing to see the ghosts with her own eyes, but she braced herself and put on a brave face, because if she and the others could overcome things together, like Muggshot, then surely she could get through an area that might be infested by ghosts and other things.

After she steeled herself Derpy jumped onto the vine and started to slide along it, where she paused halfway through it to grab a clue, before she reached the bottom area and engaged one of those wooden creatures that she and her siblings had encountered when they were approaching Mz. Ruby's base. Fortunately the ones inside the base seemed to be just as brittle and as easy to destroy as the ones outside the base, as a few wacks of her cane was enough to dismantle the creature and reduce it to a pile of wooden parts. From there she made her way through some more roots and fought off the trio of ghosts that were in front of her, until she eventually smashed a headstone that happened to be in front of her, silencing the ghosts in the process. She then realized that the ghosts in the area had to be tied to these headstones, like a ghost generator of some kind, and knew what she had to do next, she had to smash all of the generators she came across and free the spirits that were no doubt trapped in this state against their will... as she was sure that none of them had willingly joined Mz. Ruby's plan to conquer Mexico, and whatever else she had planned after that.

Once she reached that decision she moved forward and engaged a second wooden creature that was guarding a trio of clues, which she collected and sent to Bentley as she use the hook in front of her to cross the gap and bypassed the roots that were blocking her way. She then had to contend with a mosquito that was guarding a safe, and grabbed the two bottles inside it, before having to deal with yet another wooden creature in front of what appeared to be an entrance to a large area. Along the way she smashed two more bottles and approached the structure, though as she smashed her way through the two root walls in front of her she happened to find one more clue before she smashed the headstone generator that was in front of her... before she laid eyes on the structure that was apparently the heart of this entire area, though what it was used for she had absolutely no idea, especially since magic was a foreign thing to her.

She noticed the spires that she could use the Ninja Spire Jump on, to get down into the area below her, and knew that her wings could do the same thing in a quicker manner since she wouldn't have to worry about flames, but she simply used the technique she had learned and soon enough she was on the platform that would allow her to move onward.

Had she noticed the three headstone generators ahead of time she would have spread her wings and smashed them from the skies, like Gilda might have done, but since she was already on the ground she braced herself as waves of ghosts started to emerge from the headstones and came at her. Derpy, of course, decided to ignore any possible clues in the immediate area and focused solely on demolishing the cursed headstones, though as one fell the other two seemed to be empowered a little, increasing the number of ghosts they churned out. She then smashed through the second headstone and turned towards the third one, where she outmaneuvered the ghosts and demolished the stone, allowing the ghosts to depart for whatever realm they had been snatched from. Once that was done she carefully collected the trio of clues she had ignored and then broke the candles that were powering the force field in front of her, allowing her to explore the rest of the structure as she made her way to the top of the area.

On the left of where the force field had been located she found that she had to crawl around the edge of a spire to reach the four clues and the two in a safe that were hiding over there, though that was when she decided to change things up and used her wings to move around the area. Once those six clues were collected, and their contents sent to Bentley, Derpy returned to the middle of the structure and headed in the other direction, carefully avoiding the alarm lasers that had been installed in the area before heading to the upper area and disabling the alarm itself. After that she landed on the wooden chandelier that was hanging above the area and gathered two more clues before heading towards the hole in the wall that a wooden creature was guarding, before she smashed through it and appeared on the area above the entrance to the structure she had finished off.

To the right of the end of the short tunnel she found a mosquito guarding a clue bottle, which she recovered after beating the insect over the head, before she carefully crossed the three spires in front of her and collected two more clues on the other walkway. She then spotted a headstone generator in the area between her and the route she needed to take so she could reach the Treasure Key, so she opened her wings and bypassed the ghosts entirely, freeing them from Mz. Ruby's control. After that she smashed three more clues that were near the headstone and spotted three resting above the entrance she had walked through earlier, before landing on an area where three mosquitoes were patrolling, which she easily removed before collecting the pair of bottles in the nearby safe. As she used the Rail Walk to get to the next walkway, however, she spotted a clue hanging near the routes behind her, though she focused on smashing the headstone in front of her before heading back and collecting the bottle.

After that she continued the path up to a mosquito, also guarding a clue bottle, and Derpy took care of it with ease as she grabbed the bottle, before turning towards the vine in front of her and carefully grabbed the two bottles to her right before she crossed over the vine, where she had to smash her way through some ghosts to get at the pair of headstones at the other end of the vine. Once she was on the other side of the vine she spotted a bottle behind where the Treasure Key was located and noticed two more safes behind a root wall, where she collected all of them and made sure Bentley had a few moments to decipher the clues she had sent him. After a few minutes had passed she knelt in front of the tumblers and input the code, this time being 1-2-8, and discovered the blueprints for Mz. Ruby's base, though instead of being upset Derpy simply stashed the page away, left the calling card, and collected the Treasure Key from where it was resting.

Once she had the Treasure Key she headed for the exit and silently hoped that her siblings had managed to get their keys without too much effort, or having to do anything like fight their way through an army of ghosts to get anywhere near the end of their area.

---

Sly sighed as he walked through the end of the tunnel he had gone through, because it appeared that he had gotten what was likely the simplest task this time around, as all he had to do was light some torches and claim the key, or at least he thought that was what he needed to do here. Since he had no idea what he was looking at, as this was the first time lighting something to get at the prize had even come up, he decided to lift his binocucoms and see if Bentley had anything to say before he got to work. Besides, that gave him the opportunity to stare at the voodoo gate that was blocking his way to the Treasure Key for a few seconds before he connected to Bentley once more.

"Sly, the only way to open up that voodoo gate is by lighting all twenty-ive tiki torches in the area," Bently told him, to which he glanced down at the device that was in front of him, which appeared to be the tool he needed to use this time around, "I managed to put this skiff together and outfitted it with a flamethrower, though since I was unable to get an actual fuel source you'll have to run over the piranha you see swimming around to get the fuel. And, not to add some additional pressure to the situation, but since you're close to the cage that Gilda found a large serpent in I would guess that you have only two minutes to get all the torches lit!"

Sly sighed as she jumped onto the skiff and moved out into the open water that was around him, where he carefully selected groups of piranha that hadn't started moving and ran over the fish that he could, though when his systems indicated that he had a full tank he approached the torches and used the flamethrower to light them. Once the tanks were empty he started the process all over again, carefully making sure that he was efficient with his time since the noise from his skiff was likely to draw that large serpent to this area. While he raced through the area he had to wonder if Gilda would be willing to share the story of her encounter with the serpent, though at the same time he made sure to continue lighting all of the torches that he could. As he worked he could hear the sound of the water moving, and not from the piranha, so he gathered the last of the fish that he needed, lit the remaining torches, and shattered the seal on the gate, allowing him to claim the Treasure Key before he vacated the area... though while he was inside the tunnel he had come from he caught a glimpse of the serpent moving under the water and knew how close he had come to being eaten.

He gulped and headed back through the tunnel, returning to the part of the base he had last seen his sisters in and returned to the fountain, where he was joined by Gilda a few seconds later, though she didn't seem too bothered by the giant serpent she had seen earlier.

"So, what did you find?" Sly asked, though at the same time he held out his Treasure Key, indicating that he had completed his task, before he thought of something else to say, "And I mean besides the large serpent that Bentley warned me about when I was in my area."

"Bruce O'Coop's Computer Hacking technique." Gilda replied, to which she handed over the page in question, which Sly added to the others, before adding her Treasure Key to the collection Sly was holding onto, "now we can get guard information when we use our binocucoms and look at a guard."

Sly was sure that such a technique would come in handy in the future, where they were planning operations that didn't revolve around the Fiendish Five, though he also said nothing about the serpent, because he didn't want to bother his sister about it. Fortunately the two of them didn't have to wait too long, as Derpy soon returned to where they were standing and revealed the blueprints of Mz. Ruby's base, along with the fact that she wasn't annoyed about the fact that she found another set for another member of their targets. With the four keys in hand, however, they approached the locked gate and unlocked the locks, where the large serpent from Gilda's area surged out of the opening, smashed through a gate that would have prevented them from moving forward, and circled back to the gate, where it closed the gate behind it and apparently didn't care for any of them.

"Well, I'm happy I didn't take your area," Derpy said, as she was extremely happy with her decision to stick to the area that had been infested by ghosts and not a giant snake that could have eaten her whole, "because that thing freaked me out the moment I laid eyes on it."

"Well, it opened a new area of the swamp for us to explore," Sly commented, though at the same time he and Gilda rested a hand on Derpy's shoulders, letting her know that there was nothing for her to be afraid of, if she was even afraid of the serpent anyway, "Watch out Mz. Ruby, the Cooper Clan is coming for you."

Gilda and Derpy nodded, because soon they would have all of Mz. Ruby's Treasure Keys and the path to her would be open for them, so they could knock her out so Carmelita could arrest her when she arrived, and they knew she was coming after them, before recovering her section of the Thievius Raccoonus... and then see if she knew where the fourth member of the Fiendish Five had his base of operations.