Well, this was not what Carmelita, or the boys, were expecting. Sly was captured! Whoever was behind his capture must be smart; Sly is not one for getting caught so easily. But this also served to make the mission that much more important. There is no telling how long Sly has been captured, but to the team, that did not matter. What mattered was finding and freeing Sly. No matter what the cost may be.

Fortunately, since the team learned that Sly was captured by those night-patrol birds, all they had to do now was find out where they return to each night when the dawn returns. And Bentley already formulated a plan to figure that out. But in order to do so, it would have to wait until night, when they would be out and about.

At sundown, Bentley gathered the team to explain their next course of action. "Ok gang. Here's the situation. We know Sly has been captured by those night-patrol birds, but not where they took him. So, all we need to do is plant a tracking device on just ONE of them. Once we do that, we'll know where they took him, and we'll go on from there."
"But how are you going to do that?" Slytunkhamen asked.
"I'll shoot a special tracking device on one of them with one of my darts." Bentley said. "I've done this many times before. It's pretty easy and straight-forward."
"...Well… I guess so..." Slytunkhamen said, still feeling a bit uncertain.
"I understand that this may confuse you, but don't worry; it will work." Bentley assured Sly's Egyptian ancestor. "So, at night, when they're out and about, I'll shoot one, and we'll go from there."
"Good idea. Those guards will be on high alert, now that they know I have escaped." Slytunkhamen said.

So now, all that was left to do was to wait for night to come, so they could carry out their plan.

* Time skip...*

Finally, it was night time, and the patrol birds were now out and flying. Given that he was in a wheelchair, Bentley had to make sure to make as little sound as he could, and be quick. For if a falcon spotted him, he would be in a very bad position to flee. But Bentley also knew he had to find a good spot to lie and wait for a good shot. He decided against going on the rooftops, as it would leave him far more vulnerable and easier to be spotted by the birds. So he decided to stay on the ground and in the shadows. This presented Bentley with another problem; sticking to the shadows often left him with a lack of good spots to shoot from. "This is gonna be tougher than I thought..."

So Bentley made his way through the city to find a good spot to shoot at a bird. But there were so many birds in the air, and so many spotlights to dodge, AND too few spots to get a good shot from, it was next to impossible. Bentley hid in between some nearby pots and took out his binocucom, hoping to call for someone to help him out with his sticky situation.

"Carmelita… we have a problem..." Bentley whispered.
"What is it?" Carmelita asked.
"I can't get a good shot. There's too little to work with, and there are patrol birds everywhere!" Bentley whispered harshly.
"Well… sit tight. I'm sure we can come up with something..." Carmelita said.
"I hope so..." Bentley said with uncertainty before closing communications.

At the base, Carmelita was starting to pace the room. Neither her or Bentley were expecting this type of road-block. What could they do?

"Is something wrong?" Slytunkhamen asked, showing concern for Carmelita.
"Oh… we just encountered a new roadblock." Carmelita replied. Slytunkhamen raised an eyebrow in confusion at her statement. Carmelita realized that Slytunkhamen may not know what "roadblock" means, so she properly explained what she meant. "Things got a bit more difficult."
"Oh, I see." Slytunkhamen said, now understanding her. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Unless you know how to shoot a gun, I don't think so." Carmelita admitted with a sigh. She dropped down on a chair with a huff, resting her head on her hands and sighing.

The room was silent now.

However, the silence was broken when Carmelita heard someone rummaging through someone's stuff. Carmelita turned her head and saw Layla digging around in her bag, taking stuff out. Carmelita bolted up in anger. "Hey! Get out of my stuff!" she yelled. Layla shot her head up and saw a very mad Carmelita storming over to her. Layla knew she was mad and dashed away. "Yeah, you better run." Carmelita said before picking up her stuff and putting it back in her bag.

"You have such strange things." Layla said. Carmlita looked at her with an annoyed expression.
"Anything from my time would seem weird to you." she said.
"I would believe that. Especially this cuff." Layla said. Carmelita walked over to see what she was talking about. The cuff was a bit small, it was dark gray and had a red and green bulb, and it was unclipped.
"That's a special cuff I use on certain criminals if they get probation. I put this on them so I can keep track of them and make sure they're behaving." Carmelita explained.
"What's probation?" Layla asked.
"Basically, they're set free if they're good, but they still need supervision." Carmelita said, trying to make it as simple as she can for Layla.

And like lightning, it hit her; the cuff!
The team could use the cuff to find where the birds retreat to every morning!

"Hang on… that's it!" Carmelita exclaimed excitedly. "We'll use the cuff! I gotta call Bentley!"

* Meanwhile *

Bentley was STILL struggling to get a good location. At this point, he was growing more and more frustrated. "Grr… this is getting hopeless..."

"Bentley! Good news!" Carmelita chimed in on his communicator. "I know how we can track one of the birds!"
"Really? How so?" Bentley asked. "Is it any better than what I'M trying?"
"FAR better." Carmelita said. Though he could not see her, Bentley could tell she was happy about it. "Layla was rummaging through my stuff, and I accidentally left a special cuff in my bag. With it, we can place it on a bird, and we can use your computer to track it."
"Perfect!" Bentley said, louder than he intended. He locked up and retreated into his shell, fearing he alerted a patrol bird. After a few seconds, nothing happened and he got out of his shell. "But, how are we gonna put it on one?"
"We'll have Slytunkhamen do it." Carmelita said. "He can go invisible, right?"
"Yes he can." Bentley replied.
"So, we'll have him sneak around the city, find a bird, and slap the cuff on it." Carmelita said.
"That sounds like a really good plan. Luck must be on our side, huh?" Bentley stated.
"It would seem so." Carmelita replied. "So return to base, and we'll have Slytunkhamen handle things from here."
"Got it." Bentley said before closing communications.

"Ok. So, NOW I have a job for you Slytunkhamen." Carmelita said.
"I heard what you were saying a while ago." Slytunkhamen said. "But, who were you talking to?"
"I have a device in my ear that lets me communicate with Bentley." Carmelita explained. "So you know what to do?"
"Just put the cuff on a bird's ankle?" Slytunkhamen questioned to make sure.
"Yep." Carmelita told him. "And don't worry. After you do that, we'll handle the rest."
"Ok. I'll need to cuff." Slytunkhamen said. "Layla. The cuff, please." he told Layla. Layla got up from her spot and gave it to him. "Thank you. Now, here I go." he said before leaving.

Slytunkhamen made sure to be as quiet and as quick as possible. Unlike Bentley, Slytunkhamen did not have to solely stick to the shadows, as he could go invisible at will. And during the periods of invisibility, he would look up to the sky, watching the patrol birds flying overhead, and trying to figure out a way to slap the cuff on one. "I figure I will wait for one to perch and rest itself. I know they tend to rest on the statue of Anubis at the temple. So I will lie and wait close to it, and once a bird comes to roost, I shall put the cuff on it. This shall also give me the perfect opportunity to use my Shadow Dash technique." he thought. And thankfully, the temple was not too far away from his current location.

While he made his way to the city, Slytunkhamen noticed Bentley rolling past him. "Good luck." Bentley said.
"Thank you." Slytunkhamen said in response.

Finally, Slytunkhamen saw the temple, and to his luck, a lone hawk was beginning to roost on the Anubis statue. He knew he had to act quick, since he knew it would not stay there for very long. So, wasting no time, Slytunkhamen used his Shadow Dash technique, where he dashed forward quickly while still invisible. He clung to the side of the statue so that no bird would see him. "Here we go… I have to be quick..." he thought. So, as quietly as possible, he climbed the statue until he was within arm's reach of the hawk. And as quick as a flash, Slytunkhamen slapped the cuff on its ankle, all without being noticed. And just in time too; the hawk was done roosting and flew away. Slytunkhamen smiled in achievement and went back to the base.

Slytunkhamen eventually returned to the base to tell the team the good news. "It has been done."
"Excellent!" Bentley cheered. "Now, we just need to wait until dawn, when the birds return to their base."
"Sounds like a plan." Murray said.

And so they waited… and waited… and waited…

But in waiting for so long, they all fell asleep, save for Layla, who had been napping beforehand.

And in the end, it paid off; at dawn, Layla was looking at the screen, fascinated at the new technology. And there was a red dot at a spot on the map on the screen. However, since she did not know what any of it all meant. So she went and woke up Bentley. "Bentley. Wake up!" she hissed. Bentley stirred in his shell and woke up.
"What?" he said, slightly annoyed.
"There's a red dot on the screen. While you were asleep, it was moving all around the map, and it has now stopped on one spot." Layla explained.
"That's to signify the cuff." Bentley said, rolling his wheelchair over to the screen. Once he saw where it had stopped at, he was now wide awake.

"It's at the palace?!" Bentley exclaimed.
"They took him to the palace?!" Carmelita exclaimed, bolting up wide awake. And soon, everyone else was awake too. "Why would they take him there?!"
"They must have taken him to the dungeon… or to their master." Slytunkhamen said.
"You mean the giant bird?" Murray questioned.
"Correct." Slytunkhamen confirmed. "And luckily, I know of a safe way to get inside the palace; there is a secret passageway that leads from the temple to the palace. Priests would use it to escape from cutthroats and assassins, to seek refuge with the pharaoh. But once our WONDERFUL pharaoh took over." Slytunkhamen said, his tone getting annoyed and a bit mad. Apparently the current pharaoh is not very liked. "They sealed the passage off. However, Lok'Nah broke it down, and we can safely traverse from the temple to the palace once again."
"However, I fear that the rest of you can not follow us down there." Imhotep said.
"But how will we get inside the palace?" Dimitri asked.

There was a brief moment of silence in the room. While the Cooper Gang was questioning why they could not follow Slytunkhamen and his crew down in the secret passage, it did start to make more sense after a while; the less that use it to get in, the less likely they are to get caught. But with that being said, there was still the issue of getting inside without anyone suspecting anything.

But then Carmelita had a brilliant idea.

"Guys! My belly dancing! I'll pass off that I'm a traveling dancer, here to entertain the pharaoh. The guards loved my performance the last time, so I bet they'd let me in the palace. And while I'm in there, Slytunkhamen can sneak in, go into the dungeon, and find Sly. Also, I'd be providing the team with inside information."

"You know… that could possibly work!" Slytunkhamen said.
"Well, only one way to find out." Bentley said. "We'll have to book Carmelita a gig inside the palace!"
"Greasy sweet, baby!" Dimitri exclaimed, earning a bunch of odd glances from the others, save for the Cooper Gang and Carmelita, who are used to his strange sayings.

This mission just kept getting more and more interesting.

* This chapter is finally out!
I am DEEPLY sorry for the long delays. I've just been real busy with life and crap. I don't know when the next chapter will be released, but don't give up on me. Thank you to those still reading and holding on for new chapters. I will aim to finish this as soon as I can. But I will still put a lot of time and effort into the story.
Anyways, let me know what you thought, and I'll see you next time. God bless, and have a great day!