Author's Notes
Holy crud, you people. As of a couple hours ago-I just checked my e-mail and saw the alert-this story has 100 favorites.
100.
I didn't even realize there were 100 people still IN the Sly fandom, reading fanfic, this long after Sly 4. I am completely, totally, perpetually surprised that more people show up to read and enjoy and just BE here for this. I mean, this is chapter 90. 90! This is a RIDICULOUS length for any story, including fanfiction, and if you include both favorites and follows, I have well over 100 people reading it.
Thank you all so, so, so much.
Now then... let's get on with this, shall we?
PROGRAMS OF BETRAYAL
Operation: Pop That Weasel
Murray leaves the hotel room on tiptoe, sneaking his way down the stairs and through the door to the kitchens. Sly's already there, the guard nowhere in sight; they meet up at the dumbwaiter. "You ready for this, pal?"
"Totally!" Murray does a small dance in place. "This is gonna be worth cramming into that little dumbwaiter again."
"Just give me a minute to get in position."
Sly goes into the dumbwaiter and closes the door; Murray waits a few moments, then opens it. Sly is gone. Murray has to bend almost in half to squeeze in, groaning and grunting the whole while, and tugs the door closed with one finger.
As it closes, the ceiling opens, letting Murray uncurl. Sly is perched on one corner of the former 'ceiling', though as Murray stands up, he leaps to stand next to him. "This is kinda nice. I bet it's how Penelope got to the castle when she was 'The Black Baron'."
"I wonder if we can get one at home," Murray says. "It'd be way cool to go between our permanent safe-houses like this. Just bigger."
Sly grins and leans against the side. "We'll ask Bentley. Ready to roll?"
"The Murray is always ready."
Sly leans over the edge and hits a button. The dumbwaiter moves away, fading into a LOADING screen.
Play resumes on a rooftop in view of the guard's building. Sly twirls his cane and contacts Bentley. "All right Bentley, we're in position."
"This is gonna be awesome!" Murray shouts, pounding his fists together.
The camera switches to Otto and Carmelita, Carmelita on shore, Otto scouring the decks of his ship. "Our boat is in ship-shape," says Otto, getting to his feet after inspecting some minutia.
"And my shock-pistol's fully charged," Carmelita adds.
The camera cuts to Bentley, in the security room, looking from screen to screen. "And I'm in position here. Let's get things rolling."
The camera moves back to Sly and Murray. "You two are up first," says Bentley. "Once Murray has the tank, the rest of us will start. And remember, you can check the passwords in the gadget menu."
With that, actual playing starts. Sly changes into his guard's outfit and, as the first pale pinks of dawn streak the sky, knocks on the door. The fox on door duty slides it open. What's the doctor's password?
"Square triangle square triangle," Sly replies. And with that, he's in.
Unlike last time, the area on this floor is deserted. The dance floor is empty, there's no band. A rat trooper sweeps the room, stopping often to push up her goggles and rub her eyes. Best of all, there's a clear path to the doors at the far side of the room. One of them must be the tank depot.
Unfortunately, the first door he opens appears to be the kitchens, where three foxes seem to be brewing coffee so strong it might eat the cup. One turns to Sly with a frown. "What's the robot password?"
"Triangle x triangle x." Sly leans against the door. "Just going for your shift?"
"Soon. You look more alert than most of the all-nighter's." A blue-furred fox inhales the coffee fumes like they're his last hope. "You must've had a lot of caffeine earlier."
"It was certainly enough," Sly agrees. "I'm having a hard time getting to sleep now."
The black-furred fox who demanded the password thrusts a bowl of cereal at Sly. "Try the next room over."
"Oh come on, the TV room isn't—"
"It is with the garbage movies they're showing. Ugh!"
Sly glances around the kitchen and slips the (dry) cereal into a small bag for later, which he stores in his pack. Then he leaves. And deliberately avoids the next door over.
The next door he tries is, in fact, the tank zone. A single sleeping fox guards a keypad; Sly takes him out, then pushes the button. A giant door, like a garage, opens.
"Thanks, Sly." Murray runs in and hoists himself into a tank. "This is going to be awesome."
"Have fun, big guy. I'm going to get into position for the next stage."
Now, I could write all about Murray's awesome time taking out tanks and an entire building with his tank, and the various amusements and complications that spawned from that, but it isn't really that interesting. Instead, let's REWIND a bit and jump back to Carmelita.
"Murray's got a tank, guys," says Sly over the headset. The camera zooms down from the ceiling to focus on Otto and Carmelita in the boat, Carmelita ready by the window, Otto dozing in the driver's seat.
Otto shakes himself awake with a sigh. "And here we go."
"You don't have to sound that excited," Carmelita says, checking her aim.
Otto laughs. "So you have a sense of humor after all. I was starting to doubt it."
With that, Carmelita and Otto start through the sewer. It's the exact same route they took earlier, just in reverse. Same obstacles, too. Only this time, instead of avoiding any and all of the cracks and faults in the wall and ceiling, and not hitting any of them for fear of being buried alive... they do.
It is great fun, even if Carmelita learns quickly to hit things only after they've gotten through the nearby obstacles, for fear of, you know, cave-in. As it stands, the second half of the trip involves copious amounts of dodging falling rocks.
They've just made it to the end and are climbing out of the sewer, lugging the boat behind them, when the entire thing—and the street above it, to make things even more ridiculous—collapse. Murray pokes his head out of his tank nearby and waves; just past him, the guard's barracks looks like a failed house of cards.
"It looks like Murray's finished," Carmelita says. Otto reaches a hand down to her, and she lets him help her up the last rungs out of the sewer. "Otto and I are headed to the plane now. How are we doing for time?"
REWIND
Bentley cracks his knuckles and starts hacking. "You have never been taught by a true master, grasshopper," he says to the computer as the hack loads.
By this point, Bentley's hacked enough systems to be familiar with Winthorp's rather... unique style. The joysticks still do the opposite of what they should, but Bentley's good enough to compensate for it under most circumstances.
Short laser sections moving up and down, cordoning off small sections of the digital hallway it's safe to pass through, and rarely syncing up so that he can get through them, are a little bit more difficult. Not to mention that there's a personal defense avatar at the end of it this time, guarding an encryption key he needs to get, and a firewall to deal with. Ugh.
Still, it all falls before his hacking mastery. It takes time, yes, but it's not difficult.
As he finishes, he hears Carmelita in his ear. "It looks like Murray's finished. Otto and I are headed to the plane now. How are we doing for time?"
"Looks like there's a few hours to spare." Bentley checks all the cameras, then nods; no one's in range. "Stay away from the hotel entrance; this is going to get messy."
With a loud series of RATA TATA TATA TATA TATA TAT TAT-s, Bentley uses the machine guns in the spotlights to utterly annihilate the front doors and balconies around the hotel, rendering them useless. He even uses some well-aimed shots to damage the balcony outside the safe-house window... though not enough to close it off, as all the others are, just enough that it appears that way on casual observation. Best not to attract attention.
With the flash of a LOADING screen, time passes. Bentley can be heard over the binoc-u-com. "There's movement on the cameras. Winthorp has Penelope and two foxes, and they're getting in the planes. Everyone ready?"
"I'm on the castle, paraglider at the ready," Sly says, standing by the trapdoor.
"I'm in a tank by the old safe-house! Er, the barn one. Not the first safe-house we had which... yeah." Murray drives his tank in a slow circle.
"And we are in the air," Otto says, flying into view. "This'll be as simple as catching a bird on the wing."
"Cute," Bentley says. "Soon as they take off, I'll head for the tower. They're in the planes; Penelope's in the black one. Engines starting, door opening, take-off in five... four... three... two..."
Four planes rise into the sky as though shot from a launcher—which, to be fair, three of them probably were. One white biplane, one orange biplane, one black biplane, and an orange jet with white wingtips soar through the clouds.
Carmelita and Otto are waiting for them.
"Try to take out Penelope first," Bentley says. "Then we can take care of her down here, and you can handle the rest."
"I could figure that out myself, Bentley," Carmelita mutters. Shooting at the planes is a bit difficult: they zigzag left and right, up and down, and sometimes open fire on her, making her shoot down the missiles they've got aimed. Otto may be an excellent pilot, but he also has to do a fair bit of weaving and diving, and no amount of Carmelita's cries of 'Hold still!' or 'I can't aim when you're changing my trajectory!' will stop that.
But she's still the best shot in Interpol. Penelope's plane has smoke pouring out of it, and starts a downward spiral as she ejects. Her parachute catches the wind and fills, and she lands in the remains of the airfield.
REWIND
"Engines starting, door opening, take-off in five... four... three... two... one." Bentley watches the planes leave, then turns in his chair and heads for the door. With Penelope in the air and everything important with Winthorp, the area is deserted; there isn't even a guard patrolling around the outside of the tower. Bentley plants a bomb smack on the front door, backs to a safe distance, and sets it off.
It goes off with a muted whumpf! of air. Bentley wheels himself through the now-open door, looking around. He could go up the tower, bomb it open there, but he's been in three others at this point; he knows he can't get to the top of this one that way, and besides, the dimensional anchor is always underground. And the staircase downward is just an explosion away.
Only, Bentley sees as the dust settles, it isn't exactly a... staircase.
Sly Cooper veterans will remember a mission early in Sly 2, the one where they were officially introduced to pickpocketing, that involved walking on fans. The fans were moving far too fast to walk on, so he had to slow them down.
Bentley now has his own version of those fans. Except they're, well, slanted, so they could be used as a ramp. And each fan blade is about... eight feet long, give or take a little.
Sure, there are slivers of solid ground between them, just big enough to stand on, but that isn't really reassuring thing.
"Hmmm. This looks like a job for my trap sabotage gadget," Bentley says.
...I can't believe that thing is actually required on a heist. It seems ridiculously over-powered, given that it stops mechanical traps for a brief period of time, but I guess it doesn't work on lasers, just... giant mechanical fans. And maybe it'd work on spike traps or swinging axes or something, I don't know, I just write the thing.
It still requires timing, though. Bentley has to time when he throws it into the trap so that it goes off when the fan blades are positioned properly. Since there are only two blades, if they're too far away, he can't jump between them and solid ground.
At least, as he goes further down, it gets... well, not easier. There are four blades now, not two, so it's a lot more difficult to get the timing wrong. But there's also laser security. And more than one fan in a row. Bentley doesn't have time to hesitate or try to time things, if he's on one fan he has to throw another sabotager and get off it fast.
He hasn't had this much fun in years.
With one last leap, Bentley's reached the anchor room.
And what a room it is.
For a second, Bentley just stands, er, sits there. Staring. Eyes wide, mouth open ever-so-slightly. Four ropes, tied in a rough X, two near the ceiling and two near the floor, as most of them have been. The anti-glowing black dimensional anchor ball in the center of it all. That's normal; that's expected.
But the statues.
Those are not.
There are eight of them, two on either side of each rope, life-sized, detailed as real creatures, for all they're made of stone. Bentley swallows, a convulsive gulp. A massive moose stands guard by a petite tigress, looking bored. A massive owl perches on a 'branch' directly below one of the higher ropes; a bat nearby watches the rope as though it plans to steal it. A mandrill sits by the other upper rope, fists clenched, a penguin balanced nearby with wings spread. The final statues are a fox and a snake, as angry as they are watchful.
Bentley's a genius, but it doesn't take a genius to know that something will go very, very wrong when he takes out one of those ropes. As an experiment, he retreats as far away as he possibly can, brings up his binoc-u-com, and fires a sleep dart at one.
The fox and snake come to snarling, angry wakefulness. Bentley immediately uses his trap sabotage gadget to retreat over four fans, almost too slow; the fox makes it across three of the fans after him before they start up again and it... well, it dents the giant industrial metal fan that couldn't be scratched by Bentley's bombs. The snake gets bored of watching for him and wanders out of sight.
Bentley pulls out his binoc-u-com again. "How you doing, everyone?"
"Can't talk," Carmelita says, the hiss-smack of her shock pistol sharp in the background. "Otto's surrounded."
"They brought in more tanks," says Murray, "but nothing The Murray can't handle. Stay out of town, Sly."
"Penelope wasn't... so fast... last time," Sly pants. "I'll get her, but... sheesh! You?"
"Things may get a bit... difficult," Bentley amends. "I'll have to take some extra time to deal with this. If I don't contact you back, I'm in the basement of the tower; someone check on me when you've dealt with your objectives?"
They all chorus their agreement, and Bentley puts his binoc-u-com away, then makes his slow, careful way back over. The snake is back in position, the rope untouched from his sleep dart problem. Staying near the fans, he throws his most high-powered explosives at the snake
It doesn't react.
But it does go explodey when they're set off, becoming cracked and unstable. A second explosive leaves nothing but a rattle. GOOD.
Statue by stone statue, Bentley plants and explodes his explosives. Some of them—the penguin and bat—come alive when the explosives touch them, but go down with one bomb; Bentley's reactions are good enough to keep from being hurt. Others, such as the tigress and moose, take many, many more bombs; Bentley retreats over the fans before setting them off, even though it's probably not necessary, just in case.
With that done, Bentley destroys three of the four ropes and sets the last one up with enough explosives to destroy a bridge. "Okay, I'm starting my way out of the tower now," Bentley says.
REWIND
Sly stands on top of the castle, watching the aerial fight, trying his hardest not to pace. The first plane to crash is the white one, spiraling into oblivion somewhere around the safe-house, and Sly ignores it; Penelope isn't in that one.
As Sly waits, another vehicle appears in the air. It... could be called a blimp. It could be called a blimp if Clockwerk could be called a songbird. It looks like a mad scientist's lair attached to balloons. And the jet's heading straight for it.
Carmelita shoots down the next plane, Penelope's black plane, before it can enter the blimp. Her parachute billows out and she floats stark against the sky, mouse in yellow with a white parachute, floating down above the airfield.
Sly uses the catapult remaining on the roof to get some more air, then paraglides closer, getting across the river and landing on one of the windmills just as Penelope lands. "She's in the airbase, Murray," he says. "I think I can grab her."
"Okay, I'll stay in the tank. Give me a shout if you need me."
"I will, buddy," Sly says, running down the short incline to the paved area. Penelope's still tangled in her parachute, knee-deep in the wreckage from when Otto and Carmelita destroyed it last night. Sly vaults over what remains of one wall and lands behind her. "Penelope!"
Penelope whirls on the spot, her hands clenching into fists. Her jumpsuit is torn at the sleeves,exposing her arms to the elbow; jewels glint there, bracelets, the ones glimpsed earlier when Sly tailed her and when she argued with Winthorp. They're designed like handcuffs, bands of some unknown metal about as wide as Penelope's tail, too tight to be pulled over her hands. "Sly? Is—is that—"
"It's me," Sly says, coming closer. "We need to talk, Penelope."
Penelope's tail lashes the ground and she looks around in a panic, backing away from him and tripping over some rubble. She grabs a chunk of metal that survived the fire and scrambles to her feet, wielding it like a sword—which, given how it's shaped, it very well may be. "Didn't you forget, Cooper? We're enemies."
"Believe me, I remember." Sly crouches down into his own fighter's stance. "But we've done a bunch of thinking over the past few months, and, well, Bentley isn't going to believe it until we've talked to you without those bracelets."
"These things?" Penelope asks, holding out her empty hand; the bracelet gleams in the light of the sun, the gems shimmering, making Sly's eyes water. "They don't come off, Cooper. You're wasting your time."
"You're wasting yours," Sly replies. "We've fought before, Penelope, and I've won."
"But that was with fists, Sly," Penelope says, swinging her sword in a fast circle and setting a fighter's stance. "This time, we fight with swords."
With that, Penelope attacks. The uneven ground and rolling stones make for a tough fighting surface; the controller shakes to indicate when Sly is on unsteady ground, and if Penelope pushes her attack then, he could fall over just as quickly as guard. She's fast, too, more than she should be, to the best of Sly's knowledge. But the fight stays fair even as they leave the destroyed remains of a building and start fighting their way through the airfield, with less debris to worry about.
Sly's taken more than a few hits by the time he manages to corner her between a few pieces of rubble and knock away her sword. Using his cane to hold her down, he grabs one of her wrists and feels the bracelet. Just touching it makes spots dance before his eyes, but there doesn't seem to be a clasp.
"I'm going to kill you, Cooper!" Penelope yells, struggling beneath him, but he ignores her. Out comes the portable laser emitter (remember that?) used to deal with those gems before. He burns the bracelet off of her, melting down one side so it falls to the ground.
She wiggles free before he can do the other one and takes off at a run, heading for the river. Sly follows, the remains of the bracelet left on the ground, forgotten and smoking.
"How you doing, everyone?" asks Bentley in his ear.
"Can't talk," Carmelita says, the hiss-smack of her shock pistol sharp in the background. "Otto's surrounded."
"They brought in more tanks," says Murray, "but nothing The Murray can't handle. Stay out of town, Sly."
"Penelope wasn't... so fast... last time," Sly pants, running over the bridge into the wooded area and hoping he'll be able to avoid town. "I'll get her, but... sheesh! You?"
"Things may get a bit... difficult," Bentley says. "I'll have to take some extra time to deal with this. If I don't contact you back, I'm in the basement of the tower; someone check on me when you've dealt with your objectives?"
"Of course," Sly says, dodging around the wolf-pack and wall-hooking his way up to the castle.
Penelope waits for him there, having found a new sword or maybe just made one appear from the abyss; Sly stops between her and escape. The wreckage of fallen planes litters the ground around them. "This is it, Cooper," Penelope says. "I'm going to destroy you, for what you did to me and Bentley."
Sly raises an eyebrow. "To you and Bentley? I thought you broke up."
"Only until he can be removed from your poisonous influence," she spits, running at him.
Sly blocks her strike with his cane. "Then why send the post-cards? Sure, they may have found me someday, but not by now. I'd still be in Egypt if you didn't help."
Penelope disengages and jumps back, circling him. "That was just some... pointless sentimentality. It doesn't mean anything."
The two of them exchange more blows, neither managing to land a hit. "Stop it, Cooper. Go back when you belong," Penelope says. "And stay away from Bentley, or I'll be forced to kill you."
"Forced?" Sly asks, pressing his attack; Penelope retreats towards a wrecked plane.
"I would rather not kill you, Sly," Penelope says, and for just that one sentence, her voice is a quiet statement of fact, not a yell. "But you leave me no choice, Cooper!" Neeeever mind.
Sly traps her between two fallen planes and knocks her sword out of her hand. The bracelet removal goes faster this time, which is good, because Penelope's struggling a lot more. But when it falls to the ground, she stills.
Sly looks at her warily, side still sore from where she was kicking him. "Penelope? You okay?"
With a single quick shove, she knocks Sly away and runs again, this time heading towards town.
REWIND
The Murray waits in the tank, drumming his fingers on the wheel and wishing he had some potato chips. Or a hot dog. Or a chili cheese dog with french fries and gravy. Oohhhhh yeah, that'd hit the spot.
Sly's voice crackles over his binoc-u-com. "She's in the airbase, Murray," Sly says. "I think I can grab her."
"Okay, I'll stay in the tank. Give me a shout if you need me."
"Will do, buddy," Sly says.
Murray settles back in for more waiting without pizza when a scraping, humming noise—a lot like the sound his own tank makes—comes from the town. Being The Murray, he decides to check it out.
Well. It appears the guard's building wasn't the only one being used to store tanks. There was another building. And the guards that aren't pilots are taking over.
"This is gonna be awesome!" Murray yells, taking out the first one before it has a chance to react. One down, seven to go. "TOTAL DESTRUCTION, WORTHY OF THE MURRAY."
...Whatever you say, Murray. Whatever you say. Have fun!
And The Murray does indeed have fun. He gets to destroy tanks LEFT and RIGHT!
"How you doing, everyone?" asks Bentley in his ear.
"Can't talk," Carmelita says, the hiss-smack of her shock pistol sharp in the background. "Otto's surrounded."
"They brought in more tanks," says Murray, taking out another with a fast shot, "but nothing The Murray can't handle. Stay out of town, Sly."
"Penelope wasn't... so fast... last time," Sly pants. "I'll get her, but... sheesh! You?"
"Things may get a bit... difficult," Bentley says. "I'll have to take some extra time to deal with this. If I don't contact you back, I'm in the basement of the tower; someone check on me when you've dealt with your objectives?"
"I'll be there, little buddy," says Murray, driving in fast circles around the well while the two remaining tanks shoot each other by mistake. Clearly, they should've taken driving lessons from The Murray. Not that he would've given them any.
He takes out all the tanks and gets out of his own tank. "You still need a hand, Bentley?"
"I think I'm good," he says. "I'm almost out of the tower; I'll head to our hotel room safe-house from there. How are—"
"This is Otto Van Cooper, repeat, this is Otto Van Cooper, coming in for an emergency landing in the airfield, over. Is the airfield clear?"
"Don't worry, Otto," says Murray. "If it's not, THE MURRAY will clear it!"
You know, what do you say we leave Murray alone to his fantastic fist-fights against dozens of foxes and rat troopers, and check in on someone else?
REWIND
Otto steers the plane in the landing bay hot on Winthorp's heels, Carmelita shooting down the last biplane just before it can follow them. Carmelita doesn't even wait for the propellers to stop; she undoes her harness and jumps out, landing first on the wing, then on the floor, as she races towards the parked jet.
She gets there just as Winthorp steps out. "Hands up, criminal," Carmelita says.
Winthorp stares at her and smiles. "Carmelita! It's wonderful to see you; I didn't know you were in on this, too! It's too bad the bit with the owl fell through, too hard to control, and without that we've lost our main benefactor, since it was based on her design, but the others are nearly as efficient and if this chip is programmed correctly the AI will—"
"I said hands up, Criminal," Carmelita growls. "I am in on nothing, and I'm insulted you even suggested it!"
Winthorp's smile falls, though he tries vainly to continue appearing happy, pushing up the corners of his mouth only to let them fall each time he speaks."You're not? But just—imagine, Carmelita! A world without crime, where every criminal is immediately hunted down and killed the moment a crime occurs. The world would be at peace! How could you not want that?"
"That would mean people like me," says Otto, limping up beside her.
Carmelita growls. "I don't know what you're talking about, Winthorp, and it doesn't matter. Hands up."
"It doesn't?" Winthorp's eyes widen. "But—I don't—how did you get here, then?"
"I go where, and when, I need to put lowlifes like you into prison. Hands. Up. If I have to ask again, I shoot." She bares her teeth. "I know you won't like that."
It is very disconcerting to see Winthorp smile at this; in fact, it seems he looks even happier than when he first saw her. "The doctor was right. You are perfect."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Yes, yes, just a second," Winthorp says, putting one hand in the air. His other hand hovers over his breast pocket. "You're going to want some evidence unharmed, correct? If you give me just a moment, I can hand it to you."
Carmelita growls, her eyes flickering between his hands and his face, before jerking a nod in consent. Winthorp slips his hand into that pocket, rummages around...
...and fires his shock-pistol through his clothes, charring a hole in his shirt and making Carmelita throw herself to one side.
We've got a fight on our hands, folks! In one corner, sometimes ably assisted by master criminals throughout history, she's the crackshot of Interpol, the cop with an almost perfect arrest record, it's... Inspector Fox! In the other corner, out of breath before the fight's even started, I'm surprised he even knows how to use that shock pistol, it's... Winthorp!
Winthorp cheats. There's no other way to put it. He's assisted by no less than a dozen rat troopers at all times—take out one and another takes its place within seconds—and coordinates them, organizes them, so Otto and Carmelita are overwhelmed half the time and rescuing the other most of the other half. When they're actually free to attack, Winthorp runs for it, but it's never very long before they have to dodge again.
And he ONLY ATTACKS FROM BEHIND.
Carmelita wants to smack him for that alone.
"How you doing, everyone?" asks Bentley in her ear.
"Can't talk," Carmelita says, firing for her life. "Otto's surrounded."
"They brought in more tanks," says Murray, "but nothing The Murray can't handle."
"Penelope wasn't... so fast... last time," Sly pants. "I'll get her, but... sheesh! You?"
"Things may get a bit... difficult," Bentley says. "I'll have to take some extra time to deal with this. If I don't contact you back, I'm in the basement of the tower; someone check on me when you've dealt with your objectives?"
"Sure, shell-boy," Carmelita says, knocking away three rat-troopers with one roundhouse kick. Otto hits another upside the head with a wrench, then pushes her to one side, out of the way of Winthorp's next shot.
Carmelita growls and throws herself back into the fight. Otto's almost as much hindrance as help, taking out rats whenever she's overwhelmed but getting overwhelmed himself at least as often and never landing a shot on Winthorp. But Winthorp is being hit. And, slowly but surely, he's being worn down.
He's also making his way further and further up the blimp-building. Each new floor doesn't seem to have much on it but obstacles, making for battlefields with new terrain to jump on, hide behind, or get ambushed from, but it's really starting to tick Carmelita off. After the second floor, she sends Otto back to his biplane; better he be ready to get the others, they're probably done by now, and she can handle herself.
With one nice shot on the fourth floor, Winthorp slumps over, unconscious, near the staircase to the next level. Carmelita walks forwards, ready to search him for whatever it is he's delivering to the person here, and kneels beside him.
A canister bounces down the stairs and smacks directly into Carmelita's face, spewing thick white smoke. Her eyes roll up in her head and she collapses.
A figure in a gas mask descends the stairs. His (her?) face is completely obscured, but they lean heavily on a polished wooden cane. They're a fox of some sort, silver streaking the orange of their fur, the tip of their tail white.
Carmelita fights to not to lose consciousness as the figure laboriously kneels, reaches into Winthorp's pocket, retrieving a number of large computer chips, and uses their cane for support to stand once more. Then, with all the ceremony such an action deserves, he presses a hidden switch on the wall, making a wall open into a door to the sky, and shoves them both through it.
It may be good that Carmelita's almost unconscious. It means she doesn't have to hear the puns when Otto catches them, one on each wing, and balances the plane. "This is Otto Van Cooper, repeat, this is Otto Van Cooper, coming in for an emergency landing in the airfield, over. Is the airfield clear?"
"Don't worry, Otto," says Murray. "If it's not, THE MURRAY will clear it!"
Otto has to be content with that, and goes for an emergency landing, bumping to the ground without dropping Carmelita from the wing of his plane. As for Winthorp... well, who cares?
REWIND
Sly has to take a second to catch his breath before following Penelope, but he has an advantage: the paraglider. From here, he can leap after her as she runs through the wooded area, and he lands on a rooftop on the edge of town just as she passes the building. No working tanks are in sight, though the ruined remains of several are scattered around the central square.
Penelope ducks under one's turret, hoists herself over the edge of the well, and jumps in.
Sly reaches the edge to see her riding the well's bucket like a pro, and doesn't think; he grabs the rope and slides down after her. The well, it seems, is dry; he comes out at the bottom in a rather smelly area, littered with fallen rocks and broken traps. Torches, lit and hanging there for Guru-knows-how-long, cast flickering light over the area. It seems to be part of the sewer system.
You'd think this would be in Bentley's intel somewhere.
Penelope's scrabbling at a pile of rocks, digging with her hands; part of a boat is visible beneath it. Looks like Otto's and Carmelita's work in the sewers had a point after all. When Sly approaches, she whirls around, yet another sword in hand (where is she getting them all?), and points it at him. "Don't come any closer, Sly."
Sly stops. "Look, Penelope... I know you're not exactly happy with this. You've been trying to escape or send a message or just not do what they want the entire time! If you come with me, then—"
"I can't do that, Sly." Penelope's voice cracks on his name. "Cooper. You're Cooper. And Cooper is my enemy."
Sly groans, his tail waving behind him. "How much time did you spend with The Contessa?"
Penelope's tail goes straight out, and she drops the point of her sword. She doesn't look like a threat now; she looks miserable. "And Mizz Ruby, and Miss Decibel, and—and the Dr. But I don't remember much." She shakes her head, something gleaming in her ear, and recovers, the anger back in her face. "It doesn't have to be this way. Without your corrupting influence in Bentley's life, he'll see it my way soon enough."
"I'm not even sure that is your way," Sly says, his attention on her ear. There's an earring there, a single gold hoop. Now that he thinks of it, she had that same earring in England, when she was the Black Knight. "Tell you what, Penelope. You come with me, and we'll get you away from these creeps. And you'll get to talk to Bentley."
It's only the truth, that's sure enough. But Penelope's looking at him with pure hatred in her eyes again. "Oh, no," she says, advancing on him. "You're not tricking me that easily. I'm going to end you, Cooper, if it's the last thing I do."
Trying to remove an earring from the ear of an enraged mouse while she attacks you with a sword is best accomplished by pickpocketing, of all things. Sly can't hold her down and keep her head still, and he doesn't want to kill her by using the laser emitter and having her squirm at the wrong moment. The best thing to do, it turns out, is to do a cane-sword fight and dodge at just the right moment so she gets her sword stuck in some debris; then, while she pulls it free, pickpocket to loosen the screw-on backing on the thing.
It's on so tight Sly can't imagine she put it on herself... or that she could take it off. At least it's not a solid ring through her ear. Being forced to melt that off, or tear a hole in her head, doesn't sound pleasant.
Sly gets the ring out of her ear at last, and Penelope just... collapses onto the rocks, like a puppet with its strings cut.
The analogy would be funny if it weren't so sad.
"Penelope?" Sly bends over her, turns her onto her back. She's still breathing, but she's unmistakably passed out.
His earpiece buzzes. "Sly?" asks Bentley. "Where are you?"
"Down in the well. It was another sewer entrance. Penelope's unconscious." He checks her for more weapons, removing a few wrenches and other tools, then puts a hand to her wrist. "Her pulse is okay... but without that jewelry, she just collapsed."
"Put the temporal stabilization necklace on her. I want Winthorp gone before she wakes."
Sly pulls the necklace from his pocket and loops it over her neck, snapping it closed. "Done."
HEIST COMPLETE
Sly picks up Penelope and puts her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, then heads for the well to climb the rope out of there.
Author's Notes
Not much here, folks. Please review, since it's the end of the area; I love seeing them.
Look for two updates each of the next two weeks. This area's end, an entire chapter of author's notes, and then... :D