Master of Thieves
Chapter 13: Battle at the Pyramid
Terry, Sly and Slytunkhmen climbed for what felt like an hour, when they saw rays of light seeping through a trap door; anticipating a fight, Terry peeked through the trap door by raising the right panel by an inch to see that it was a large, tidied up throne room. Even though it seemed clear, he told his cousin and Slytunkhamen to be vigilant, before they proceeded into the throne room.
As Terry expected, he saw Pharaoh Ramses emerged from behind the throne, with his Advisor emerged from behind a Sandstone-made pillar. Pharaoh Ramses then chuckled before saying "You Coopers are so predictable… Did you really think you'd get away scot-free? No… I don't think so." Sly and Slytunkhamen leered at Ramses venomously as Terry perked his ears up to listen for so much as a grain of sand to move. The Pharaoh's Advisor then exclaimed "Get them, men!" Like clockwork, 2 dozens of guards jumped out of their hiding places and rushed towards the thieves.
As a guard charged towards Terry, he countered by catching the arm with his cane-head, before throwing him towards 2 incoming guards, while Sly and Slytunkahmen held off 6 guards simultaneously. A guard wielding a scimitar charged towards an unaware Sly, which Terry made a leg-sweep and kicked him in the air with a backflip kick, before shouting to Sly "Take him out, pal!" Sly then forced back the 3 guards, before jumping towards the airborne guard and slammed him onto the ground as Terry air-kicked a charging guard out cold before landing with his back towards Slytunkhamen.
After taking out half of the guards, the rest surrounded the Coopers with their scimitars raised; Terry readied his cane, prepared to go down fighting, when he noticed that his cane-head had some miniature hinges at the angled corners. Out of instinct, he flicked his cane and saw its head suddenly went straight, resulting it to be a Cane/Staff hybrid. As the guards closed in on them, Terry swept them off their feet while Sly and Slytunkhamen jumped to avoid the attack, before the latter two turned to Terry and saw his Cane had somehow transformed into a Staff.
The guards then got back up while Terry made a casual aside to Sly and Slytunkhamen about something; as the guards readied their weapons, they were suddenly knocked out in one full 360 degree attack. Pharaoh Ramses and his Advisor were surprised to witness the three Coopers taking down 3 dozen guards swiftly, as well as their synchronised teamwork; Slytunkhamen then let go of Sly's ankles as the latter let go of Terry's, who had flicked his Staff back into a Cane.
They then stood firmly as they looked hostile at Pharaoh Ramses and his Advisor, before the former said "I must admit… what you did there was rather impressive. But know this: I will end your pitiful lives, no matter what!" The Advisor then enigmatically responded "Not if someone else beats you to the punch…" Surprisingly, the Pharaoh's Advisor knocked out Ramses at the back of his head, before stepping forward and adding to the thieves "He gives great speeches, I'll give him that. But trust me, he wasn't the one who gave the orders around here… I was."
Sly, Slytunkhamen and Terry synchromatically gripped their Canes in fury, before Sly asked the Advisor "Who are you? How do you know my name?" The Advisor took a moment to think, before he responded calmly "I suppose you should know… after all, my master is hell-bent on ending your life… or he WAS, before you ended his own." Sly looked a little startled, before the Advisor removed his black hood, revealing himself to be a deep-brown scaled bipedal drake, with black slits in his yellow eyes. Sly, Slytunkhamen and Terry looked astonished at the Drake, when he tore off his robe to reveal a chest harness connected to a pair of black jeans and cream webbing on his wings.
The Drake then continued, taking advantage of the Cooper's astonishment "I… am a loyal follower of Clockwerk named Drake; obviously due to me being a dragon and all." Terry nodded and pointed out in response "Yeah… that, we can figure." Drake shrugged at Terry, as Sly was still processing that a loyal servant to his family's worst foe was stubbornly-bent on ending the Cooper Family Tree. Drake then made a malicious smirk, before he spread his wings and flew into the air while saying "Like my master, I will not stop until your body is limp and lifeless. THAT… is your legacy."
Drake then made a swoop towards Sly, who was tackled out of the way by Terry and brung back to his senses. Terry then said to Sly "Sly, sorry about that, but we've got a serious situation right now." Sly looked up at Terry, before he nodded; as he was being helped up by Terry, they were forced back by Drake's wings. Drake then swooped Sly into his feet and dived towards Slytunkhamen next, when Terry jumped onto his back and pulled him upwards towards the ceiling, smashing through the top of the pyramid. Sly, who has both his arms grasped by Drake's feet, turned up and saw Terry pulling Drake upwards, before boosting off the latter's shoulders and dove towards him with his cane at the ready.
As Drake turned to an incoming Terry, Sly swung his legs to distract Drake, who looked down at him and shouted "Knock it off, or I swear I'll drop you right now!" Sly then looked up and made an amused smile, which Drake looked puzzled at him; when he looked up again, Terry tackled Drake down towards the pyramid and repeatedly whack him with his cane as they fell down. Terry then shouted furiously while repeatedly hitting Drake "STAY… AWAY… FROM… MY… COUSIN!"
After he made a strong horizontal swing onto Drake's head, the latter lost his grip on Sly and fell above Terry and Drake with little consciousness. Terry looked up at Sly in panic, before he looked down at the pyramid and had an idea: He boosted off a disoriented Drake to grasp Sly's right arm and dove towards Drake again. Sly then widened his eyes and turned his head to see them diving towards the pyramid; he then turned to Terry and shouted through the fall "Terry, what are you doing?!" Terry replied to Sly, focusing on Drake "Something I like to call 'Sandboarding'."
Sly raised a brow, before they landed on Drake just feet before they landed on the pyramid; they slid on him all the way down to the Sphinx, before they jumped off and used their canes to ride down a rope down to the Sphinx's left paw. When they landed on their feet cat-like, they saw Drake crashing onto the Sphinx's head and bounced off it to land face-first in front the entrance; they then saw the Sphinx's nose cracking before it fell off, leaving the well-known Sphinx landmark they're aware of back in the present.
It took them a few moments to catch their breath, before Terry said "Yeah… a Sphinx without the nose looks better for me, personally." Sly looked at Terry in confusion, considering what they had just went through, before he looked up at the Sphinx head and replied "Actually, now that you pointed it out, it actually looks better without it." Terry shook his head neutrally, when they heard Drake stir awake in a painful grunt; they then looked at him and saw him painfully got up, spitting out a tooth, before turning his head at them. He then made an amused grin and said "Seems I underestimated you, like my master. I assure you, however, we will meet again." Drake then pressed the sphere on where his chest harness intersects, before disappearing in a white light.
Sly and Terry then eased their shoulders, when they heard footsteps behind them and readied their canes, to see it was only Slytunkhamen. Sly and Terry then put away their canes, before the latter asked Slytunkhamen "Where's Ramses?" Slytunkhamen replied "Well… I got him locked in a steel cage inside the throne room; once I get the freed slaves, he'll face their wrath as a karmic punishment." Sly and Terry smiled at the former's ancestor, when Sly began to glow white; Terry saw this and tried to grab Sly's hand, but it mysteriously went through it. Sly and Terry looked up in shock and the latter screamed as the former was dragged into a Time Rift "SLY!" Sly was then sucked into the Time Rift, before it vanished as sudden as it appeared.
Terry was devastated to witness this, looking down in complete shock, before Slytunkhamen gently placed his arm on Terry's right shoulder in order to comfort him. Terry looked over his shoulder and smiled a little from Slytunkhamen's consoling, before he turned around and shook Slytunkhamen's paw with a warm smile. He then excused himself and radioed Bentley on the Binocu-Com "Bentley… You want to good news or the bad news?" Bentley replied through the transceiver "Let's go with the bad news first…" Terry sighed, knowing that Bentley would ask him the bad news first.
He then swallowed and explain "Sly got sucked into a Time Rift and he and I found out that a loyal follower to Clockwerk named Drake is hell-bent on ending his life." There was moments of pause, which Terry knew that Bentley and most likely Murray and Carmelita were astonished at what Terry explained. Terry then said "The good news is that Ramses is locked up in a steel cage and Sly and I held back Drake, forcing him to flee… for now." There was some silence still from the transceiver, before Bentley said in a blank tone "Okay… At least you helped Sly… Come back now, we need to think this through." Terry nodded, before he cut off the call and used the Time Warp to travel back to the present, speeding through a white tunnel for a minute before he landed on the Modern Cooper Hideout floor hard.
Terry staggered on the spot as Bentley, Murray and Carmelita witness him coming back, before noting "I still need to get used to travel through time… I'm not queasy or anything, it's just how fast you go through time itself." Bentley pursed his lips and nodded a little, recalling that Time Jump from the Wild West to the Stone Age moments after defeating Sheriff Toothpick, before replying "Tell us what happened before Sly went into the Time Rift… As much detail as you can give."