*SLY POV*
After Ben recovered from his experience, we headed to the Kun-Lun Mountains in China to face the fourth member of the Fiendish Five; The Panda King.
Born penniless, he was amazed by the fireworks shows that the noblemen set off every New Year. He spent a decade mastering the art but when he tried to sell his fireworks to the noblemen, they couldn't see past his shabby clothes and drove him off.
Indignified and enraged, he turned his pyrotechnic skills to crime and was soon recruited into the Fiendish Five as their demolition expert. His explosive touch becoming feared worldwide.
Still, I was worried about Ben. There had to be a reason he had that vision of seeing the night of my parent's murder. I had a feeling there was something about my longtime friend that I had been missing and I had no idea what it was...
The van pulled to a halt at the end of a paved road up into the mountaintops as Sly and Ben jumped out. Ben had mostly recovered from the vision of the past that he had witnessed but he was still a little on edge.
After making their way past some of Panda King's guards while trekking up the slopes, they caught sight of a giant statue on a mountaintop. A firework was launched from the top of it into a nearby mountaintop, causing an avalanche to fall on a village below, burying it in freezing snow.
"That's despicable!" Sly said with a shake of his head.
"No, I think I see tracks leaving the village. Guess the Panda King evicted them beforehand." Ben said as he pointed toward the village and Sly indeed saw tracks that were leading away from the village.
The two thieves made their way through the area further, using Slytunkahmuen's Invisibility Technique to sneak past the guards before blasting them away with fireworks. Soon, they found a safe which Ben opened up, revealing another page of the Thievius Racconus.
"Success! This is Huckleberry Cooper's improved version of Slytunkahmuen's Invisibility Technique. With it, we can move even more freely while invisible!"
"And look at this, we'll even be able to detect invisible people. Guess Great-Grandpa Huck really knew what he was doing there, huh?" Sly chuckled as Ben nodded. The duo then decided to cover more ground by once more splitting up into different areas.
Ben easily snuck his way past the area he chose, eluding security thanks in no small part to the Invisibility Technique as well as a mix of the Rail Walk and Ninja Spire Jump. He soon collected the Treasure Key and made his way out.
"I still don't know why we need these. I can just pick the damn locks."
Suddenly, the Panda King's voice came on the intercom. "Attention, Panda employees...sadly, village to West of my stronghold could not pay for avalanche protection service, so I had to bury village in snow. Keep sharp and defend stronghold from hostile invasion. Thank you, that is all."
"Well, he's certainly polite to his goons..." Ben muttered to himself. He then waited for Sly to return and smiled when his friend came back with a few Treasure Keys as well as a few new pages of the Thievius Raccoonus.
"What did you get?"
"Well, first I got the page telling about Sir Augustine of Cooper's technique to briefly defy gravity."
"Awesome!" Ben cheered before noticing Sly's face become melancholic.
"And...well, I also found these."
Sly handed Ben the pages and he read through them, his eyes widening in surprise when he saw the names of Sly's parents on them; Connor Cooper and Winnie Cooper!
"Whoa...there are a lot of stories about them...but no techniques." Ben's eyes then sofetened. "They talk a lot about you too, Sly..."
Sly smiled sadly. "Yeah, they were really proud of me and expected great things of me to come."
Ben gave his friend a comforting pat on the shoulder as they used the keys to unlock the ceiling hatch to proceed before finding a large set of fireworks with a couple of hook attachments but it needed seven keys to unlock.
"Well, ain't this ducky?" Ben sarcastically quipped. "The only other way I see us getting to Panda King's stronghold is by growing wings and flying!"
"We gotta split up again."
Ben and Sly did so, as Ben made his way to one area, he perked up when he heard a familiar voice.
"Freeze, thief!"
Ben twirled around to see none other than Carmelita Fox there. He chuckled as he adjusted his mask.
"Miss Fox, please, I don't want to end up stealing you away from Sly...but I will!"
"Don't try to confuse the issue, criminal!"
Making the signature Zoidberg whooping sound, Ben ran through the area as Carmelita chased after him, firing multiple blasts from her shock pistol. Ben then found the safe and, channeling the inner strength of Sleigh MacCooper, punched open the lock before taking the Thievius Raccoonus page inside.
"See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya!" Ben laughed as he escaped Carmelita's sight, the fox cursing his name angrily. As Ben took a moment to catch his breath, he checked over the page he had gotten and smirked when it read up on Colonel Reid Cooper's Time Stopper Technique, which could freeze time around the user for up to ten seconds. The drawback was that it had an hour-long cooldown.
"Might come in handy with the Time Slow Technique..." Ben chuckled as he made his way back to the meet-up point and saw Sly with quite a few keys.
"I saw Carmelita again. If I didn't know any better, God must be wanting me to hook up with her instead of you."
Sly smirked and slugged Ben's shoulder. "Don't count your luck, Benny-Boy."
"So, where did you get the keys?"
"I got them while surfing on this cool high-tech hoverboard and the other two were from Murray helping out."
"That Murray, always on hand to lend a...hand."
Sly rolled his eyes at Ben's bad joke and even the human boy himself cringed at just how bad that quip was. They then used the keys they collected to unlock the fireworks and latch on as Ben used his heel to light the fuse.
"Let's ROLL!"
Ben and Sly cheered as they flew all the way to the Panda King's stronghold before dismounting just in time for the fireworks to go off in a magnificent display of fiery colors. Sly landed on his feet in front of the stronghold while Ben let out the infamous Goofy holler and crashed face-first into the snow.
"You okay, Ben?"
"Yeah, never better! Plot Armor and all that..." Ben reassured while letting out a whimpering laugh. After Sly helped his friend up, the two approached the Panda King, who appeared to have been expecting them.
"I see you carry the cane of the notorious Cooper thief clan. Have you come here for revenge and to steal back the Thievius Raccoonus?"
"Well, that was part of the plan, but we also want to put an end to your little Fireworks extortion racket that's going on."
"Even if you made the villagers leave beforehand, we don't exactly appreciate you making them homeless."
"I have committed many crimes. However, now is not the time to reminisce on past mistakes, it is time to face the present and future." Panda King then took a stance, fire billowing in his hands.
"Cooper! Show me your strength, your HEART! The child hiding in the closet, he cannot face him. Show me that child has become a man!"
"I'll tell you two things, big guy! Not only has the child become a man...he's got people in his corner!" Ben shot back as he and Sly split up and then rushed towards Panda King, dodging his fireballs as he took a stance.
"FIERY WHEEL!"
The thieving duo jumped as they dodged a spinning headstand spin that was coated in flames. He then raised his hand up in a chopping motion.
"BOOMING CHOP!"
He slammed his hand down, creating a mighty blast of fire in front of him on impact. Ben and Sly jumped away from it before Ben delivered a knee to Panda King's jaw, sending him stumbling back slightly. As Sly rushed in with his cane in hand, Panda King raised his hands up.
"PALMS OF THUNDER!"
Sly quickly straightened himself out to dodge the double palm slap before smacking Panda King across the face with his cane. Ben then rushed in and jumped off his friend's shoulders, hooking his arm around Panda King's neck to deliver a clothesline slam to knock him down before jumping back.
As they both moved back, The Panda King got to his feet...only to see Sly spinning his cane with the hook part up, Ben grabbing onto the hook and clinging to it, spinning faster and faster before releasing. As he spun towards Panda King, he burst into flames that seemed to take the shape of a Chinese Dragonhead.
"NIGHT GUY!"
Panda King gazed in amazement as time seemed to stop in his perception as he processed what Ben was doing.
"I see...you are their child, aren't you? The one born from a bond between families..."
Closing his eyes, Panda King took the impact, falling on his side as he coughed weakly. Ben spun through the air before landing beside Sly, both of them standing tall together.
"Your skills are unparalleled...you are both strong, but it does not come from personal strength...it comes from the most powerful force of all...the bond of family."
With those words, Panda King lost consciousness as Ben and Sly made their way over to the safe, realizing that it was already open. Sly took the pages and saw they detailed the exploits of his technically-minded ancestor, Otto van Cooper. In order to make up for his physical weaknesses, Otto relied on technology and gadgets to further his thieving endeavors.
"Guys! I did a cross-analysis on that high-tech blasting vehicle Sly brought back! And it turns out it can only be found in one place; The Krak-Karov Volcano in Russia! That's GOT to be where we'll find Clockwerk! So get what you came for and let's get out of here!" Bentley said on the comms.
Sly and Ben nodded as they prepared to leave the mountains, knowing that Carmelita would come by sooner or later to bust Panda King. However, as they left, they gave one last look towards their fallen foe.
"I saw him in the vision. He blocked the closet you were hiding in so...you wouldn't see what Clockwerk did to your dad..." Ben said sadly as Sly placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Well, good to know he had a heart. Despite that whole fireworks extortion racket thing going on, he seemed like a pretty decent guy."
"Who knows, maybe he could have used his skills to help the Cooper Clan...just a thought."
In the next chapter, we make our way to the Big Bad of the series! And Ben and Sly discover the truth behind the connections between their families!