Chapter Three
-Searching-
I was in my lab researching a way to travel forward in time, but my research was useless. I finally gave up on the theory of traveling to the future. I was tired so I hung up my lab coat and got into my elevator and pressed the up button. I pulled out my new tablet that has replaced my old laptop. I saw I had no new emails or even messages. When the door opened I could see shelves full of books. I rolled over to the history section and grabbed a book on ancient Africa. I flipped it open to where my bookmark was and started to read about the ancient tribes that were scattered throughout the jungles. I rolled over to the fireplace where I could read my book peacefully. Everything was calm as I grabbed my tablet and called Edward to come to the library. The door opened as Edward, my robot butler, slid in with a hot cup of cocoa.
"Here you are Sir Bentley." He handed me the mug and turned to leave the library.
"Hold on Edward, could you grab my glasses off the table by the Sci-Fi section. Thank you."
Edward slid over to the table and grabbed my glasses; he turned and moved toward me. He set the glasses on the table next to me.
"Thank you, that will be all for now Edward."
"Yes Sir Bentley. Have a wonderful read." He quickly slid out of the room.
I reached over and grabbed the glasses; I slid them on my face and looked down at the history book. I took a sip of cocoa and turned the page. I set down my mug and sat up straight to inspect the page better. A large picture was placed on the page of a crater.
I started to read the caption out loud, "This is the mysterious crater of Mount Kilimanjaro. In a year still unknown it was reported missing. According to legend the great mountain vanished completely along with the area around it. No one knows how it disappeared but research is still under way. The mountain has been gone since ancient times."
I set down the book and pulled out my tablet, I quickly searched the mountain and seen the same thing. The mountain was gone, something is going on. I rolled around the center table and headed over to the Africa book section. I pulled down one of my favorite books on Mount Kilimanjaro and seen the cover had changed from The Great Mountain of Kilimanjaro to The Vanishing Mounting. I slid the book back into the shelf and slowly turned to the door. I started to roll myself over while thinking this whole thing over.
I opened the door to my lab to see the time machine pieces scattered on the floor. I had never gotten around picking them up since there hasn't been a need for them. I realized what was going on, someone or something is changing time itself. I rolled over to my desk and pressed a small button on my main computer. A door in the wall opened and a large tube slid out with my newest invention, my wheelchair. This wheelchair could was automated and could reach speeds of fifty miles per hour. It had four robot hands instead of two and even had a new setting, the spider mode. Spider mode has six steel legs that look like spider legs come out allowing me to climb certain objects.
I jumped from my old green wheelchair into the new black wheelchair. It actually felt more natural than the other one did. I grabbed my tablet and slid it into the slot built for it. I drove over to my bomb collection and loaded my small machine into the empty little slot on the back of my wheelchair. This machine creates any kind of bomb I program it to.
I was ready to leave, I was going to gather a new gang to find out what is going on and see if we can find Sly in the process. First I needed to find my old friend Murray, a member of our original gang. What I know of he is currently in professional wrestling somewhere in America.
I gathered some food and drove over to my docking station which held my new vehicle, the Cooper Jet. I pressed a button on my wheelchair, the hatch opened and a large claw crawled out, grabbed the wheelchair and pulled me up and into the jet. I was locked into place as the jet started up; I put in the coordinates for New York City.
The ride was shorter than expected and in no time I was hovering over the wrestling stadium on the outskirts of the city. I put the jet in low hover mode as the hatch opened. The large claw unlocked me and set me on the sidewalk. I looked up to see the jet go into invisible mode. I locked the jet on my tablet and headed to the door.
The large bulldog at the door looked at me and said, "Do you have a ticket pipsqueak?"
"Well…" I started.
"If you don't have a ticket you don't get in! Now get out of here!"
This was the perfect time to use a new invention of mine, I call it Fake Paper. The look of the paper changes into whatever the person looking at it wants it to. I pulled the small slip out and said, "Do you really want to talk to the owner of the company you work for like that?" I smiled as I seen his facial expression. He looked at me in awe and just stared. "Let me in now."
He stood up straight and opened the door, "Yes sir, I am utterly sorry for my mistake sir."
I slid on through into a long hallway full of portraits of the champions. I rolled down hall but stopped at the end and looked to my right. A large gold portrait of Murray standing on a pile of knocked out wrestlers was staring me in the face. I opened the door in front of me and instantly it was twenty times louder. I could see over two thousand fans screaming in the stadium.
At the bottom of the stands was a large arena, in the arena was a large pink hippo hitting multiple dogs away from the center. I rolled down the ramp in the middle of the stairs. When I reached the bottom I rolled up to the arena and yelled, "Murray!"
Murray looked over, when he seen me he grew the largest smile. He quickly started to kick his foes out of the arena. He ran over and jumped over the ropes. He squeezed me tightly, "Bentley! I missed you so much!"
"Missed you to Murray but could you not cut off my air!"
He quickly let go, "Oh, sorry bud. What are you doing here? Is it about Sly, did you find him?" He seemed to almost miss Sly as much as I did, but in a different way.
"No… but something very strange is going on; and I need your help. I am putting together a new gang in hopes to fix it and possibly find Sly along the way. What do you say, will you come with me?"
He looked at me for a bit then looked at the arena, "Of course." He didn't say anything else but I could tell he was going to miss wrestling.
"Don't worry it's not forever, you'll be back here before you know it."
"That's what I am afraid of Bentley. All of our adventures seem to end with us splitting up; I don't want it to happen again." The sadness in his eyes hurt me inside.
"It won't this time Murray, we can stay together; I promise." It looked as if he could tell I was serious about this. I smiled and said, "Let's get going we need to find some other friends."
"Like who?" You could hear the excitement in his voice.
"You'll see, let's go." I started up the ramp as Murray ran up the stairs. People cheered and clapped as he ran by, he was famous here while in France he's infamous.
"So are we taking the van?"
"No, I think that old friend is too important to take on this trip. I've got a new vehicle for us to take."
When we reached the front door the guard that seen me before quickly opened the door and said, "Good to see you again sir. Have a nice day; you to Murray."
Murray looked at him with a smile, "Goodnight Billy."
I rolled forward and pulled out my tablet; I pressed the jet loading button. The jet became visible and swooped Murray and I up. I was locked into place and Murray put on the seatbelt. I turned on the engine and put in the coordinates for Paris, France.
"I'd hold on if I were you Murray." I turned and watched him grab the seat. I turned back and pushed the speed lever to full blast. We rocketed out of the city and over the dark ocean.
"So who are we picking up now?" Murray really wanted to know, he probably was hoping it was his old friend the Guru.
"Carmelita, she didn't show it but I think she misses Sly the most. At the moment she is on the case of a man named Burrdent, he's not real but I calculated she will be at the base of the Eiffel tower. I set it all up and all the clues lead there."
"Wow, that's smart thinking," He seemed pleased on our next gang member.
The ride was short as I watched the skies and Murray slept. Before I knew it we were over the tower. I woke Murray up and landed the jet and stood outside it. We saw Carmelita with her very familiar shock pistol walking toward us. He was aiming at us until she seen it was us.
"Bentley, you set this up didn't you? I knew Burrdent sounded familiar; it's what you wanted to name the hideout in Ancient Arabia. I should have known."
Carmelita still seemed sad even though she was smiling. I knew the sight of us reminded her of Sly. I looked at her orange pistol; Sly's calling card was painted on the side.
"Hello Carmelita, I have a question for you. Would you like to help us figure out what is happening to time? I noticed the other day that something is changing history; not Cooper history like last time, all of history. I am not sure but Sly could be involved somehow, we're hoping to find him along the way."
She seemed uninterested; she looked at the mark on her pistol as she whispered a word, "Yes."
She was so quiet I couldn't hear her, "I'm sorry, what?"
"I'll go with you. Just hold on," She pulled out her phone and dialed a number. She put it up to her head, "Hello, Janett. I am going to be out for a few days so could you cover for me… Thanks Janett, I owe you big time." She hung up and put the phone back in the pocket. "Where are we going now Bentley?"
"I believe this is the new gang, so back to my lab to put the time machine together again and set out to Ancient Africa." All of a sudden my tablet started to emit an alarm. I pulled it out and looked at the screen.
"What is it pal?" Murray seemed to be very worried on the matter.
"Apparently there is a major unknown power source growing in Australia. It looks like a serious problem; even my technology can't identify it. I think we'll be taking a short detour if that's all right?"
The word Australia seemed to make Murray excited as he started nodding his head. Carmelita didn't seem to mind at all so we all piled into the jet. I put in the coordinates, the jet flew up, and we sped away.
As if by fate when we arrived we got a call from our friend Dimitri. Before we knew it we were meeting up on a beach just out of Sydney. The waves around us were about four feet tall. The sand was warm as the crabs walked across my path. Dimitri was standing down the beach looking inside of a bucket; he pulled out a clam and opened it. He sees it was empty and through it out.
He turned around and as soon as he seen us he said, "Hey, it's my bland models! Why did the kangaroo hop here?"
"Listen here Lizard! As long as I'm here you will talk like a normal person not whatever you're speaking! Now say it right." Carmelita seemed to really hate the way he talked.
"Sorry Miss Fox; what brings you here?"
Carmelita was pleased by that answer and said, "That's much better."
"Dimitri, we found a large power source here and we are here to figure out what it is. Hey do you think you could watch my lab while we are gone?"
"Sure, since my show Disco Divers is over for a while. I will catch the first flight out."
"Thanks a ton, also I will ask you to look through history books in my library. Edward my robot butler will be there for your use." I wasn't too sure about having Dimitri watch my home but he was my only option.
"Ok Bentley, I better go pack. I will talk to you soon!" He turned around and dashed toward Sydney.
I turned and looked at the gang, "Let's get a move on then."
We hopped into the jet and set off toward our location. Dimitri called on the hologram crystal because he wanted to watch what was going on. Before we knew it we were in the middle of the Outback. The area where the source is was hotter than the rest of the desert. I moved toward the source and seen a faint white light. The light grew larger until it took the shape of a crack. A crack suspended in midair. It seemed too hot to touch so I set a blue electric bomb next to it and set it off. The explosion did nothing but make it brighter.
Murray then yelled, "Try the black bomb, it is stronger!"
Dimitri then yelled over the hologram crystal, "But it got no style B-man!"
I set the black void bomb down and backed away; the explosion was huge but did nothing to the white crack.
Carmelita let out a low sigh and yelled out, "It's not working Bentley. Let's go investigate the other problems, maybe we'll find Sly along the way."
"Alright Carmelita, gang lets go." I was disappointed since I was hoping that Sly would be involved with the crack. We turned toward the jet and started to walk forward. A large light source came from behind us; we all turned to see Sly with a smile on his face and his arms crossed.
He looked at us and said, "Miss me?"
