Chapter 62
Our group moved silently through the streets using invisibility as a cover until we came upon the pirates' hideout. The name of the place was called The Rusty Barnacle, which I thought was cheesy, but didn't say anything. After entering the front door, Sly, Tricky, Henriette and I went through the bar making sure not to bump into any of the pirates. We got to a good vantage point in the rafters before we got to talking with Bentley on our Binocucoms... of course, Henriette had to be told we were talking long distances with them and that she couldn't have one, which she understood, as we were from the future.
"Okay, guys, this place is chock full of pirates, so try not to get noticed by any of them," Bentley said. "According to Penpal's scanners, the most likely area to get to the underwater hideout is through the vent systems. You'll need to be careful when going through, as I'm sure that Le Paradox has security inside."
"Understood, High Roller, making our way to the vents," Tricky said with a soft voice, Henriette smirking at her.
"Is that 'is code name coz of 'im bein' in a chair with wheels?" Henriette smirked.
"Pretty much," I smiled, my voice still in the accent as we went across the rafters to a corner in the tavern that had the vents, our group crawling into them and proceeding on our way to the Underwater Hideout. It actually was quite easy to do, as Bentley somehow got the blueprints to the vents just by doing a few quick scans. And when we popped out on the other side, we saw that we were in a room filled with large cages. And we happened to be in the top part of the room. And when we looked up? Nothing but sea life! It looked beautiful, but we had a job to do.
Henriette and our group kept quiet as we moved through the place to see that her crew were back to their senses and that all of them were actually cats, but the domestic kind. And they were all locked up tight inside of laser-grid cages.
"Okay, this is a bit of a stretch, but this has to rely on a bit of technology to get rid of those security lasers in the pirates' cages. If I'm not mistaken, there's a WiFi link coming from the next room. Be careful, because that's the holding area for Le Paradox's blimp," Bentley warned.
"Mm," I said as I motioned our group forward and we did just that, going through the door by crawling underneath the bottom... weird how we could do that with no security going off, but that's what happened. When we got out of the hole, we smelled the awful stench of Le Paradox nearby. And sure enough, he was tinkering with the nearby blimp via a different computer than the one we needed. I simply placed Bentley's special long-distance hacking machine on our computer and waited patiently for the thing to get going. I then tried to talk to Ruby.
'Ruby? Can you hear me?' I thought to her.
'Yeah, I can. What do you need?' she asked.
'Before Bentley hacks the systems, I need you to talk to Henriette's captive pirates in their minds. Tell them that we're planning a rescue and for them to remain absolutely silent. If they make even one sound after or during the hacking spree, then they'll blow the whole operation'.
'Got it', Ruby smirked as I then felt her influence in the previous room. Yeah, I could actually feel whenever Ruby was nearby. When you live with a voodoo mystic for roughly 10 years, you start to notice the changes in the air whenever her magic is at work. I felt it for a bit, heard some murmuring in the cells, but then heard nothing. Ruby just gave them the message in only a minute's time. And after two more minutes passed, the computer got finished hacking and I heard the lasers shut off in the cell room. Luckily Le Paradox was far enough away so he didn't notice. I grabbed the device and we went through the hole in the floor again to see that Henriette's crew were waiting for us by the air duct. I then had Ruby relay a plan to all of us in our heads.
'Okay, when you guys get back to the Salty Barnacle, you'll be sitting ducks for all the pirates. You'll need to take all of them out in only a few minutes to prevent any alarms being raised. If the fight lasts any longer than five minutes or so, the whole town will probably come out to join in. And that's the last thing we want with the wicked bird always on watch outside. Oh, and Mysteriette? Make some of those replica dummies in the cells before Le Paradox catches onto the plan', Ruby said, our group understanding and nodding to each other before everyone but me got to crawling through the ducts again. I made all the dummies as fast and plausible as I could before exiting the cells and joining the others through the ducts, Bentley pushing a single button and the cells having their lasers appear once more. And after a few more minutes of crawling, I appeared in the tavern to find that literally every single pirate was out cold on the ground... well, almost all of them were knocked out. Some were incapacitated by removing their peg legs and others were tied up and gagged to the chairs.
"Nice job, me Fancy Felines! Now to return home to the Cooper Mistress and do battle with the wicked bird!... But before we do the deed, we'll need each of ye to wear an eye patch like me and me mates. It's the only way to escape the hypnotic glare of the bird's eyes," Henriette said, the cat pirates meowing at that and grabbing all the eye patches they could from the bar patrons until everyone was equipped. We then left the bar with Henriette and our group invisible while one of her crew did the deed and flipped the sign to say 'closed' instead of open before we left, which I thought was devious. Even more so when I recognized the pirate in question was a fox. A male fox. And he looked to be a male version of Carmelita in every way, especially the blue hair and the cutlass having a mark of a lightning bolt on it.
Our way through town was where the problems started to appear, however. The moment the other pirates saw the others of Henriette's crew, they immediately called up Le Paradox and I knew we had to book it back to Henriette's ship. I immediately gathered everyone close to me and made a warp hole for us to return to Henriette's ship, just in time before the whole town went to our previous position. And in the skies, I could see Clockwerk. He was looking all over the place minus our ship to find Henriette's crew. I then looked at Henriette and got all our group into the ship immediately, where Bentley immediately gave us a plan of attack.
"Okay, guys, we don't have much time to go over this plan, so let's all get down the brass tacks. The only real way we'll be completely safe from any further issues is by defeating Clockwerk in battle. Now, we have a plan in place, but we'll need to get this boat into open waters before that happens. Once we get out to sea a good bit, we'll start the assault on Clockwerk as he's sure to take the bait. We'll need to assault him with electrical attacks from a distance and then hit his electrified body parts with precisely-aimed cannonballs. We can't afford to take any risks during this fight. It's all or nothing! Henriette, if you'll give the order? You are the captain after all," Bentley said.
"Aye, High Roller! First Mate Cameron, hoist the anchor! Fancy Felines, raise the masts! All you landlubbers minus the shocker ones, get to the cannonballs! Shocker and anyone else with zappy moves, get above deck! Time for a battle worthy of Captain 'One Eye' Cooper!" Henriette exclaimed, all of our group immediately going to these jobs and getting on our way to the boat. The moment we started out to sea, Clockwerk immediately saw our boat and rushed after us. I could hear his wings flapping in the skies as we got out to open sea. He appeared from behind and I saw he was actually the same as he was before, back in the first two games. He then screeched loudly and came in to try and swoop down on Henriette, the captain evading the technique by using Reid's Time Stopper and going to my location. This left Clockwerk confused long enough for me to use Slow Time to jump onto his back and use the electrical roll technique all across his left wing, Clockwerk shocked literally and figuratively as his wing wouldn't flap, giving Henriette the opportunity to aim a cannonball from above deck at him. "FIRE!" she exclaimed as the cannonball shot out and ripped a hole clean through Clockwerk's left wing and being able to go a bit further into his metal body before stopping and falling down with a thud on deck.
"COOPER! You will pay for that!" Clockwerk exclaimed as he then tried to fire missiles from his head that Carmelita shot out of the sky with her shock pistol before then shooting Clockwerk in the head with a charged shot, the blast making him fall back a bit, making it easy for Henriette to aim the cannon and shoot him directly through the skull. The moment that happened, Clockwerk's head was decapitated from his body and I knew we had to do something quick.
"We need to get this thing off the ship! It's gonna self-destruct any second!" I said, Neyla immediately joining me on deck and looking at the bird with a smile.
"I know exactly where to warp it to," Neyla smiled as she used a warp hole move on the giant machine and I was confused about where she just warped Clockwerk's body to... but after only five seconds, we eventually heard a giant explosion as well as a large flume of water and robot parts come from, get this, the Underwater Hideout!
"Aw hell yeah!" I exclaimed, making sure it was still in my accent as Henriette then looked at the sight and smiled.
"Captain Henriette and her Fancy Felines are victorious! Can I get a RRRAAARRR!" Henriette exclaimed at the top of her lungs, the cats below deck all then doing the cheer they had, which sounded not only badass, but adorable as well!
"Hahar! Now time to find that skunk and defeat him for good," Henriette smirked as we then set sail back to the place and we happened to see a couple of bubbles under the water before we saw Le Paradox emerge from the wreckage of not only Clockwerk's body, but also his blimp.
"No... NO! This can't be how it ends!" Le Paradox exclaimed as he then tried to latch onto a floating piece of debris, but it slipped underneath him. Le Paradox then started to flail about as he looked like he was drowning. "Help! I can't swim! Save me!" he exclaimed, wondering if anyone would hear him.
"Hmph... normally I'd be the one to let him drown, but I'm not wanting him to pollute the waters and change the timeline, so, meh, give me a pair of cuffs and some duck tape, Shocker," I smiled at Carmelita, her producing them and me putting them on my person before I jumped in after Le Paradox and grabbed him by the waist under the arms, the skunk looking surprised at what was happening and looking me face-to-face. But since I was in disguise, he didn't get the memo.
"W-Who are you?" Le Paradox asked me.
"If you knew my true identity, mate, you'd not want me to be the one rescuing you," I said as I then placed the cuffs on his wrists behind his back and I lugged us back onto the ship with me taping his mouth shut after we were out of the drink.
"Well, now we have a little skunk to interrogate. Henriette, your gang should gather up those robot parts and hide them in a secret area where only you know of the location," I said to her with my accent.
"Aye, mate. I'll never forget this day. I promise ye that," Henriette smirked, me winking at her and getting Le Paradox into our van and us leaving the place immediately and heading back to Medieval England. Upon arrival, we smiled when we saw all our friends were there waiting for us and they were legitimately shocked that we had captured Le Paradox. As for our Henriette in our timeline? She was just as we remembered her, only she looked at me with a smile happily.
"Thanks, captain," Henriette smiled at me with a hug, me knowing what she meant by that.
"You did remember, didn't you?" I smiled at her.
"Aye. Ye saved me life not just in the present, but also in me past. I felt the different happenings go on in me brain slowly but surely as ye were doin' the deeds. I thank ye from the bottom of me heart, Captain Ella," Henriette smirked at me. I then looked at Le Paradox and immediately knew we'd need to have some nose plugs as his tail started to produce an awful stench.
"Yuck... you smell horrible... I guess only one thing can make this tolerable," I frowned as I decided to make a hazmat suit for a disguise and I put it on him piece by piece, including the gloves on his hands, which we had to un-cuff him for only five seconds at most when doing that so he wouldn't strike back. Luckily, we were too quick for him and he knew he was outnumbered. We got him inside of the suit and only then did we feel the smell go away. It was all for him, which didn't bother him too much, mostly since he was probably immune to his own toxins.
"Okay, you little skunk. You give it to us straight right this minute. Who else did you mess with in the timeline?" I asked him.