*Sly POV*
It had been a year since the Cooper Vault Job and life was pretty good for me and my gang. After Murray returned to the Outback to complete his Dreamtime Training with Guru, he returned to us with amazing news; He and Jing King had gotten married, complete with Panda King's blessing.
Murray was now living his dream on the pro driving circuit, where his van had become famous...or rather infamous for all the crashes he'd caused. Eventually, he was unable to find a sponsor due to his high insurance premiums, and he moved into Demolition Derby, where he remained undefeated.
Bentley had been enjoying his time off too, building a new lab from scratch with Penelope. Apparently, they just finished work on a top-secret project but they were keeping it as a surprise for the rest of us. They had also given birth to a healthy happy baby girl named Brie, who had clearly inherited her parent's intelligence even though she was still an infant.
As for me and Carmelita, it was great to finally enjoy each other's company without a shock pistol being involved, and we quickly put the past behind us. Though just because we were married now didn't mean that I still wasn't gonna give her the slip with my gang when we pulled off our heists. Then again, she always loves the thrill of it, just like me.
Finally, Ben and Neyla had been going pretty steady since they got married. Ben had even been learning Dreamtime Magic from Murray and Guru.
Even when we were separate, we still kept in touch with each other. But then, events would happen that would bring us in for one last big adventure...
As Bentley and Penelope were prepared to show us what they had been working on, a shocking discovery was made; The pages of the Thievius Raccoonus were slowly evaporating into thin air, the text on them disappearing bit by bit. This immediately had him bring the whole gang together to get to the bottom of what was going on and we saw the whole scary picture; Someone or something was literally erasing Cooper History.
Then, to our amazement, Bentley and Penelope revealed that they already had the solution: TIME TRAVEL. It turns out their top-secret project was constructing a time machine, and now they modified the design to fit into our team van. We were going to travel back in time, stop those responsible, and fix the damage they'd done.
Bentley and Penelope explained the only catch was that in order to travel to a particular time, the machine required an object from that era. We knew from the changes to the Thievius Raccoonus that our first stop was Feudal Japan. When I explained the situation to Carmelita, she revealed that she was currently on the case of an upstart art mogul who just so happened to have a 17th Century samurai dagger on display.
Funny how things work out sometimes, huh?
As night fell over Paris, the Cooper Gang proceeded to the museum that Carmelita had been casing. Sly, Ben, and Neyla were in charge of getting to the dagger itself via the sunroof. Bentley and Penelope would be the ones doing the computer support to take down any security. And Murray and Jing King were in charge of getting to the main control room to make sure that the cameras would be turned off.
Carmelita was making sure that the police of Interpol didn't interfere with the mission while still keeping an eye on the art mogul, Cyrille Le Paradox. She'd also be joining the gang later as soon as they got the dagger.
"Okay, you all remember the plan, right?" Bentley asked as the gang sneaked
"Of course! My mind is like a steel cap!" Murray proudly said.
"Darling, it's 'Trap'." Jing King giggled. Ever since she and Murray got married, he had been training her in self-defense and martial arts. Panda King was happy to know his daughter had married someone who could not only defend her but who she could fight alongside as well.
"Alright, we've all got our assignments," Ben said as he checked some holographic statistics on his new upgraded bionic arm. "Bentley, Penelope, is Brie okay?"
"She's all buckled up!" Bentley affirmed as he showed his and Penelope's daughter, Brie, safely strapped to the back of his brand new wheelchair with a high-tech booster seat harness.
Brie was a little Mouse Beastkin Girl with blonde hair like her mother. She also had small freckles and had quite the brain for someone who wasn't even fully a year old. The reason she was with the gang was that they didn't want to risk anything happening to her while they were on their mission.
"Alright, people. We've only got one shot at this, so no messing up." Neyla said.
"All right, no messing up allowed. Ben, Neyla, and I will see you all inside. Now let's get going!" Sly said as the gang all split up to do what they were assigned. Sly, Ben, and Neyla climbed to the rooftops, sneaking past while avoiding being seen by the police choppers.
As they were moving along some wires, the trio noticed Murray and Jing King riding on the back of one of the trucks for Le Paradox's security force. Deciding not to question their approach, the three continued on their way.
"Looks like the perfect night for a heist," Ben said as he looked at the moon. "The moon is really beautiful tonight, but not as beautiful as my wife."
Neyla chuckled and pecked her husband on the cheek as Sly smirked at the two lovebirds as they made it to a flagpole that would lead up to the roof, but it broke as they all tried to climb it. Thankfully, they avoided alerting the guards patrolling underneath them.
"Guess I'm a little out of practice," Sly said as Ben chuckled before firing a grappling hook from his bionic arm's wrist and pulling himself across as he grabbed Neyla and they made it to the nearby ledge to sneak across.
"Nobody likes a show-off, brother!" Sly called as he used his cane to swing from the flagpole and land beside his brother and sister-in-law.
"Unless what they're showing off is dope AF!" Ben shot back as Neyla giggled while Sly pouted and looked away.
"Crud, that's true."
The three managed to sneak across the ledge and made their way up to the rooftop and began heading to the skylights.
"It sure looks like someone spent a fortune on this place. I wonder what kind of surprises they have inside." Sly commented.
"Well, nobody ever discovered anything by waiting around. Let's go!" Ben said. Soon, the trio found the skylight but a guard was standing watch.
"Stand back, loves. This one is all mine." Neyla smirked as she readied her whip and lashed the cane hook part at the guard's pocket, snagging the key and pulling it towards her hand. Ben then fired a sleep dart from his bionic arm that knocked the guard out, allowing Sly to carefully move him somewhere else.
Neyla tossed Ben the key as he smiled and blew her a case before unlocking the lock on the skylight and opening it up to see the dagger the gang needed to steal, but it was guarded by green security lasers that would not only alert the guards when tripped but also give a nasty shock equivalent to a taser. What's worse, they were also infrared, so using Slytunkhaumen's Invisibility technique wouldn't work on them.
"Okay, Bentley. We're in place. Let us know when you and Penelope shut down the security system." Sly said into the comms.
"Patience, Sly. You can't rush greatness, and I'm about to code a hacking masterpiece!" Bentley smirked as he, Penelope, and Brie headed onward. When they came across a rather large gap, Bentley had his wife sit on his lap as he used his wheelchair's new Hover Pack to fly across. Brie giggled at the brief gliding trip as her parents cooed at her adorableness.
After making it further in, they found where the control room would be found but it was right underneath them. After Bentley blew up a grate leading into the area below, he leaped in before realizing there was a laser grid panel underneath him. Thankfully, the new robot arms in his wheelchair stopped his fall.
"Need any help, Honey?" Penelope asked from above.
"Nope, I'm good here!" Bentley said as he rocked back and forth before leaping across the laser panel, Brie giggling as they landed. "Phew, talk about your close shaves!"
Penelope joined her husband and daughter by riding on a small hover platform of her own design to land above the laser panel and then glide over.
"Next time, let's give Sly the sewer job." Bentley quipped as Penelope giggled. The Wiseturtle-Dharma Family then found the security system. After taking out the guards, Bentley cracked his knuckles as he got to hacking. Soon, he successfully bypassed the security.
"And that's the way the codebase crumbles!"
Penelope then put a finger to her comms. "Murray, Jing King, you're both on!"
"The Murray is always on, Penelope!" Murray exclaimed as he and Jing King leaped into the fray.
"Don't forget your Queen, beloved~!" Jing teasingly said as Murray grinned at his wife.
"The Murray would never forget his Queen!"
After plowing through the guards, the two made their way to the loading dock and looked around before their eyes settled on a lone rat guard.
"Where did you come from, short stuff?"
"Um, dear..." Jing King worriedly said as several guards came out from hiding, all of them chuckling as they surrounded the two.
"I got dibs on the panda!" A human guard said evilly but Jing King huffed and spun around, kicking the sleaze right in the no man's land. The creep wheezed as he puked in his mask before falling over, holding his crown jewels in pain.
"I refuse to let another man like Tsao take advantage of me! My heart belongs to only one man and he is standing beside me!"
Murray grinned at his wife's declaration as he punched his fist into his palm, causing the guards to sweat fearfully.
"Heck yeah! We're not trapped in here with you punks...YOU PUNKS ARE TRAPPED IN HERE WITH US!"
The police keeping patrol over the museum swore they heard girlish screams and cries for help coming from somewhere but couldn't place their finger on it. After taking out all the guards, Murray and Jing King took out the junction boxes. completely disabling the security lasers around the dagger.
"Okay guys, the security system is down. You're all clear!" Penelope said.
"Great! We're going in!" Ben said as he, Sly, and Neyla jumped down and swiped the dagger, placing the signature Cooper calling card on its stand before turning to see Carmelita come in.
"Fancy you joining us, Old Ironside," Neyla smirked as Carmelita huffed before gesturing for the trio to follow her.
"Hurry!"
The now four-man group headed outside into the back garden, where Murray and Jing King drove in the van, Bentley, Penelope, and Brie having gotten on after getting out of the sewers.
"Get in!" Ben cried as he picked up Neyla in a bridal carry while Sly did the same with Carmelita, both of them jumping into the open back of the van as Murray drove around like a maniac.
"LOOK OUT!"
"I think I cracked my shell!"
"WATCH OUT FOR THOSE TREES!"
The van soon stopped at a straight road as Sly took out the dagger.
"Now what?"
"Just put the dagger into the machine," Bentley said, Sly doing so. "Anytime you want to punch it, Murray!"
"With pleasure, chum!" Murray smirked as he then floored the van, which began moving at supersonic speeds as everyone screamed bloody murder before they went through a timewarp, leaving behind the license plate as the only sign they had been there.
After closing his eyes, Ben opened them up to see the warp stream and it was amazing. Brie was giggling and burbling as she looked out the window while sitting in her mother's lap as Carmelita wiped her brow in relief.
"Man, hyperspace always looks so freaky."
Murray couldn't help but notice the image of a certain time-traveling doctor flash across the warp stream for a brief moment but paid it no heed. The gang were now on their way to their first stop in saving the Cooper Clan history; Feudal Japan!
Next Time: Turning Japanese!
As the Cooper Gang mounts their rescue of Rioichi Cooper, Ben comes across an ancestor he had only ever known in passing from his late parents.