Part 2: Head in the Clouds
Author Note: For the remainder of this chapter, Sly will have the form of Clockwerk.
Sly's POV
I expected that merging with my hated nemesis would meet with some resistance, anti-Virus programs, firewalls or something to reject me from the frame. But it seemed that Arpeggio had taken care of all of that to allow a smooth fusion between the Clockwerk frame and its user. Lucky me. At first I was surrounded by darkness, but I quickly realized that my eyes, sorry, I mean Clockwerk's eyes were closed. As soon as I opened them though, I wish I hadn't. Everything in view was given a reddish, bloody tinge as if I were wearing a pair of red shades. It was almost as if Clockwerk added this shade to further prove his departure from normalcy and his submission to his hatred. Always seeing red…always seeing red…always hating.
I looked down at Neyla and Arpeggio. Neyla was slowly getting up from that whack I gave her when I threw my cane and Arpeggio is staring at me with disbelief. Neither one took their eyes off of me. It was then that I felt it, power. Incredible power. Some strange device in Clockwerk's frame was converting their fear and hatred into power. All of a sudden, every dormant system within my new body was activating. It's wings flapped viciously, eager to take flight. It's black heart started beating, releasing great electric charges. The accursed guts churned and bubbled, adding to the rising power. I…enjoyed it. I hated myself to, but I enjoyed it. I felt so powerful, so incredible. But the boundless energy was soon overpowered by my guilt. Who knows how many of my ancestors met their untimely ends at the talons of this body? Who knows how many of them looked upon these colossal wings with despair when they realized it was too late? Who knows how many of their children watched in horror as their parents were taken away from them? All of a sudden, I want to throw myself in front of a truck. But that wouldn't destroy this thing. I don't think anything can destroy it. Clockwerk got his power from the rage and hatred produced by himself and all those around him. Can anything equal to that?
Speaking of Clockwerk, it's been awfully quiet in here, his head I mean. I thought he'd be here, laughing at me for my pointless heroism. There's not a shred of his soul in this mechanical head. It's as if the frame has lost its…mind? I felt as if I had failed, the only reason I had merged with Clockwerk was to get rid of him once and for all. But he isn't. No one's here Then I felt it. My new body was suddenly aching, crying out for something. Something missing, something important. Then it hit me. I looked down at Arpeggio and Neyla with a hate-filled stare. More hate than I thought I had ever felt before. They had tricked me! Clockwerk wasn't here! But I would find that mechanical monster! No matter what it takes!
"WHERE IS IT?" my voice had been altered and sounded metallic and vengeful. That suited me just fine.
"Where's wh-what?" Arpeggio asked fearfully.
"DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH ME! HE'S NOT IN HERE! WHERE IS IT?" my anger seemed to multiply tenfold. "WHERE IS THE CLOCKWERK BRAIN?"
"The…Brain?" Arpeggio stuttered, his confidence from earlier had all but dissipated. "I, um, removed it."
I jumped towards Arpeggio and gracefully landed in front of him. "WHAT?" I screeched.
"Well, I intended to fuse myself with the Clockwerk frame. I didn't need a backseat driver, heckling me." Arpeggio explained.
"TELL ME WHERE THAT HUNK OF CYBERNETIC PROTEIN IS OR…." I scratch my metal chin, thinking of a good threat. Even without Clockwerk's brain there seems to be an entire thesaurus worth of comebacks in the CPU. But if years of experience have taught me one thing, it's that actions speak louder than words. I give a roar and raise my talons and swipe down, very, very hard.
End Sly's POV
Ever since Arpeggio had been a child he had dreamed of this moment. Where after years of ridicule he would finally be able to fly amongst the clouds and touch the stars themselves. But now that dream had turned from the vehicle of his resurrection to the device of his destruction. As the Sly/Clockwerk hybrid lifted it's talons, Arpeggio knew this would be the end. He just wished he hadn't dragged Neyla into this. The claw came down in a fluid motion no other machine could possible duplicate. Arpeggio braced for the impact and shut his eyes tight, hoping that death would be swift and painless. But he felt nothing, no pain, no cold hand gripping him, just a slight breeze. Arpeggio slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Sly, and a wave of shock filled the Klaww gang member. Sly hadn't grabbed him, he had grabbed Neyla!
"GIVE ME THE BRAIN OR I SWEAR ON THE THIEVIUS RACCOONUS, THAT I WILL CRUSH THIS TRAITOROUS FELINE IN TWO!" the mechanical owl threatened and to emphasize his point, he lifted Neyla ten feet from the ground.
Neyla struggled in the claw's vice-like grip. "But you're a Cooper. You can't kill…Aargh" Neyla yelped as Sly tightened his grip on her.
"I assure you it will be quite easy. Like breaking a toothpick." Sly snapped. His voice had calmed down a bit, but it did nothing to conceal the hatred within it. Sly turned his hypnotic glare on Arpeggio. "So what's your answer? Because I really want to crush this witch."
"I…I…" Arpeggio thought of his dreams and all the years of work to make those dreams a near reality. But another pained gasp from Neyla snapped him out of it. Despite her turncoat faults, Arpeggio had taken a liking to Neyla and viewed her as his favorite student, or a surrogate daughter…or something…more. In any case it was enough for the prideful Arpeggio to blurt out. "Alright, it's in the middle of the mechanical egg nest." Arpeggio pointed towards the holding area that held the mech eggs. "Just let her go!"
Sly turned to face the nest. But remembering Bentley's comment about them earlier, Sly hesitated. "Hrrr…what about the radiation? It won't destroy me, not now. But I doubt Neyla is made of metal."
"The radiation? It's not coming from the eggs at all. It's the Clockwerk brain that's letting off the radiation! It's been doing that since I removed it." Arpeggio explained.
"Good." Sly pounced on the mech egg nest, destroying the glass barrier. Even with one of his claws holding Neyla, the owl pawned through the eggs until he found it. At first he wasn't sure but the beating of his black heart told him this was it…The Clockwerk brain. A mechanized mind that had concocted every scheme of the mastermind's for the thousands of years. In Sly's claw, the radiation died down as if it were an aggressive pet relaxing in it's master's hand. He was unsure how to implant it but the frame seemed to know automatically. It used it's wing to swipe the Brain and gobbled it up in one fell swoop. Suddenly, certain objects in Sly's red-tinted vision shone with such brilliance and clarity that the thief was in awe. He probably would have stood there, admiring the auras if Arpeggio's shouts hadn't interrupted.
"Alright, I gave you the brain! Now release Neyla, this instant!" the parent yelled.
"Hm, oh…yes." Sly snapped out of his little trance and shook his head. "Sorry about that. Let me just…wait." Sly tried to open the claw that held Neyla but the claw resisted his commands and held it's grip on the tigress. "The claw, something's happening to my…" Then the claw's already vice-like grip tightened even more and a loud cracking sound could be heard along with a cry of agony. Finally the claw loosened and Neyla dropped to the floor, motionless. Sly backed away in fear. "No, no…I didn't mean for that to happen. I didn't. He can't have recovered this fast. Gotta get out of here, too strong…must find place!" Sly screeched in panic, quickly grabbed his cane and flew out of the blimp's cockpit window, leaving a severely wounded Neyla and a grief-stricken Arpeggio in his wake.
Sly's POV
What did I just do? I mean, I know what I did but I can't believe I did it! I realy hated what Neyla had done to me and my team but I would never do that.
"I would." A deep, metallic voice questioned from the recessions of my mind.
Yes you would, but I wouldn't. I answered. I can't believe that Clockwerk regained control so fast. The second the Brain was reattached, he took over and crushed Neyla.
"We, crushed her." The voice said. "You know you wanted to do it."
Uh, I…yeah…maybe a little. But I would never do that! You didn't even know her, why did you do it?
I hear a raspy chuckling. "Do I need a reason? I sensed your hatred for that woman and acted upon your more…immediate instincts." More laughter. The laughter continues and I can't stop it. As I…we…soared through the air, the laughter kept going on and on. "I told you a year…or was it two? That you would never be rid of me. And I was right. Admit it, admit it." The challenge echoed in my head, over and over like an endless record. I want to scream, I want to crash myself into the blimp, I want to…
Suddenly another voice, static and unclear, rises. "Sly, Sly can you hear m…?
"Shut up!" I cried out. "Get out of my head!"
"Sly, what's wrong?" the voice is getting clearer. It's nasally and frantic. Bentley!
"Bentley! Is that really you?" I ask, happy to hear a familiar voice in what seemed like years.
"Yes, it is. What happened? Clockwerk just flew right past us and Arpeggio's raised the alarm. Every guard on this thing is looking for us. You've got to get back to our new safehouse! We seriously need to get a plan together. Use your binocucom to find it."
My binocucom? Wait, that's how Bentley's contacting me! I still had it on me when I fused with Clockwerk. It must have been connected to the computer in the process. I need to get back to the safehouse. I need to see Bentley and Murray again. But then I realize that I'm no longer the raccoon thief I used to be…I'm no longer their friend. I'm a mechanical abomination fueled by hate and anger. "Bentley, I…I can't go."
Murray must've pushed Bentley aside because it was his voice I heard next. "What do you mean? Did the guards catch you? We could bust you out…"
"No, there's no escaping this prison…no escape." I take a deep breath, this isn't going to be pleasant. "Bentley...I am Clockwerk."
Bentley was talking on the radio again. "Sly are you feeling alright…hold on a sec…oh my gosh I just remembered. The last I heard from your binocucom was that the frame was open and Arpeggio was planning to fuse himself…then. You didn't." The truth dawned on Bentley. "You…couldn't have."
"I did Bentley." I hate myself for telling them this.
"Well, maybe we can reverse the process and get your body back." He sounds nervous now, maybe even scared.
"You don't get it. I can't let Clockwerk fall into anyone's hands. He's too dangerous. The data streams that are coming into my brain are showing me that this thing has enough firepower to wipe out a small country. But you should see this Bentley; he doesn't even need to use them. There are master thief auras everywhere I look. Clockwerk really is a master thief. I need to find somewhere so secluded and secure that he can never hurt anyone ever again. I don't know where yet. But I'll find a place." I swooped down onto a blimp and rip of a large piece of the hull fabric. The blimp explodes soon afterwards. I glide until I'm only 4 feet from the top of the safe house, then I dropped the piece of fabric onto the safehouse."Here, This fabric should be strong enough fro you to make a parachute out of. As soon as you're above Paris, jump off the blimp with Murray and float down to the city. I hope this helps. This is the last time you or Murray will ever hear my voice. I'm sorry. I'm going to miss you guys. No matter what happened, you two were there to back me up. You were the closest thing I had to a family. Scratch that, you are my family. Goodbye…forever." I turn off the binocucom and fly out towards the northwest.
End Sly's POV
(a few minutes later)
With almost lightning speed, but with heavy hearts, Murray and Bentley had managed to construct a deluxe, super-strength parachute that could glide them to safety once they got to Paris. They hadn't talked to each other since their last contact with Sly and as Murray put on the harnesses and straps, Bentley was strapping himself to Murray's backpack.
"Do you think we'll ever…see him again?" Murray broke the silence.
"No, I don't think so." Bentley was in no mood to butter up the truth.
"Oh, okay." Murray tightened his makeshift harness and put on the parachute. Suddenly he began to sob and ferociously.
"Murray what's wrong?" Bentley asked urgently, even when he knew the answer.
"I'm a failure Bentley!" Murray sobbed, his ego broken. "Two years ago I wanted to be just like Sly. I tried to look cool getting the treasure keys like he did but I got scared when the guards came. Now I'm actually brave and strong and cool and look what's happened!" Murray banged his fists on the hideout table. "I couldn't save myself from the Contessa, I couldn't save the van from Jean-Bison and I couldn't even save one of my best friends!" Murray cried loudly in his hands.
"Murray, you got to snap out of it!" Murray looked up at Bentley with tear-stained eyes. "I know your van and Sly are gone but Sly sacrifice himself for us. Do you really want his sacrifice to mean nothing?" the hippo shook his head. "No, we can't!" the turtle announced, holding back his own tears "I'm just saying that as soon as we get back to Paris we can figure out what to do with our lives. We can figure out what to do to be happy. I think Sly would have like that." Thinking of the raccoon thief, Bentley raised his hand out to Murray and flashed an encouraging smile. "So what do you say?"
Murray looked at the hand, then at Bentley. Murray sniffed one big sniff and shook the hand of Bentley. "I say it's go time!"
Bentley and Murray sneaked towards the front of the blimp and hid behind some rusty barrels. Bentley checked if the coast was clear and then turned to Murray. "Okay, the coast looks clear. We should be close to Paris." Bentley climbed into Murray's newly-reinforced backpack. "All we have to do is to wait a few more…" Bentley stopped when he felt the ground shake. The entire structure lurched and was seemingly turning.
Murray was holding onto a nearby pillar for dear life. "What's going on?" he asked shakily.
"The blimp must be changing direction!" Bentley said from within Murray's Backpack. "With Sly and Clockwerk gone, Arpeggio seems to think there's no point in going to Paris…or he might just want to strand us on this blimp!" Bentley quivered at the thought of being trapped thousands of feet above ground when he remembered something. He started going through Murray's backpack. "It's got to be here somewhere." He thought. Finally, after seconds of frantic searching, Bentley found it. "Murray, take this!" Bneltey's arm came out of the backpack, holding a strange device. Murray reached over and took the device from Bentley's outstretched hand and examined it.
"What is this thing?"
"It's a Mega-Jump Pack!" Bentley explained. "It's an invention I made that will allow you to jump to tremendous heights. I originally made it for Sly, but it should work for you. But given your weight, I think it's only good for one jump."
"Well…" Murray put the Mega Jump Pack on his back. "Here goes nothing!" Murray jumped 20 feet in the air. The hippo was so taken aback by this that he almost forgot to release the parachute. Murray quickly pulled the ripcord and activated the paraglider. He held fast on the steering lines and slowly steered himself towards Paris. At first the descent was uneventful with Murray wondering how much damage he could do if he thunderflopped from that height. Then he started to feel the cold winds lick his face and his body started to ache. Bentley could not feel the cold as he being in Murray's backpack was near an ideal source of body heat. The winds were colder than the temperatures he had endured in Canada and Murray found himself slowly passing out. But he stood awake with one thought in mind. He had lost one friend today, he would not lose another. For 40 agonizing minutes, he floated slowly towards the ground and wondered if he was even heading in the right direction. But the glowing lights from a nearby tall, structure encouraged him on. Murray steered himself to the direction of the lights. He kept this up for a few more minutes until his feet touched a small platform. The muscle of the Cooper gang collapsed onto the ground and panted. "Hey, Bentley." He said weakly. "You okay?" Murray was answered, not with words, but by snores. "I guess that's a…yes." Murray finished before he himself went to sleep.
When they were children, Sly, Murray and Bentley had visited the Eiffel Tower on a field trip and were upset when they weren't allowed to reach the tippy-top of the tower. They promised that someday, when they were all grown up, they would go to the top of the tower themselves and see the view. Though Sly was no longer with them and they were both knocked out, Murray and Bentley would have been happy to know that hey had come…close. As they were currently sleeping on the roof of the highest observation deck in the Eiffel Tower.
To be continued…
Author Note: Sorry if the whole "Sly is now Clockwerk" thing confused you.