Shadow Joestar- Oh they are going to bring them down
Gamelover41592- It's fine and glad to know you like the changes
So it's time for the final chapter and oh boy, this is going to be doozy. Strap in for a bumpy ride!
Before the gang finally reached the blimp, they had made sure to study up on the Klaww Gang's leader, Arpeggio. He was a brilliant and bright young student at a prestigious boarding school. However, he was never able to keep up with the other boys physically. Instead of just building himself a pair of wings to fly like he wanted, he instead formed the Klaww Gang and masterminded where all the Clockwerk parts went for a big criminal scheme. And now he had all of them. In spite of all the confusion, it was clear to all the gang's members that they couldn't let him rebuild Clockwerk.
"That Arpeggio really knew his encryption algorithms. As it stands I'm only 86.5 percent convinced the code to the vault is 7-2-5," Bentley said as Duncan knelt down at the vault to open it. It was a little hard to see the numbers from the bandages covering his cuts. Mom said that he could take them off when they took him to see a real doctor. This also meant he had to pull his cap down further because he wasn't wearing his mask.
"What's this?" Duncan asked as he looked over the blueprints.
"Power shadow?" Scruffy asked. (Shadow Power?)
"Impossible! According to those blueprints, you can trap any guard you hit in a shadowy mist, blinding them!" Bentley marveled. Duncan decided to test that out. He hit an unsuspecting guard and sure enough, shadows formed around his eyes. He started stumbling around blind. Duncan started laughing only stopping when his cuts started hurting again.
"It does hurt still?" Scruffy asked. (Does it still hurt?)
"A little, but I'll be fine," Duncan replied. He was a fighter and there was no way he was going to let Neyla win.
Job 1: Blimp HQ Recon
"My instruments have picked up large magnetic fields radiating from inside that blimp. If Arpeggio's already started re-assembling Clockwerk, that's where you'll find him," Bentley explained.
"Sounds good, we're on my way," Sly said as he and Duncan started making their way over.
"Don't waste any time here, get to the blimp and take some recon photos. To build a plan, we need to know how close they are to reviving Clockwerk," Bentley explained.
"Relax Uncle Bentley. We've got it under control," Duncan replied cockily.
Inside the blimp, Duncan and Sly were in for a nasty shock. Clockwerk was nearly rebuilt! As soon as he saw that, Scruffy rushed back under Duncan's cap and Duncan could feel the little spider near the back of his head.
"I... I had no idea they could re-assemble Clockwerk so fast!" Bentley panicked.
"Calm down Bentley…..he might be in one piece but he doesn't appear to be, you know, "alive." Let's stick to the format here, how about some recon photos?" Sly said, although it was clear he was also trying to calm himself down.
"Agreed, what should we take a picture of?" Duncan asked as he pulled out his binocucom, clearly also trying to keep himself calm.
"You're right, we need to be informed to create a plan of action. Try to get a shot of Clockwerk's head, a mech egg and one of those spinning magnetic inducers, they seem important to the process. But stay away from the guards. If you get detected we won't have time for a second chance," Bentley explained. Like any normal recon mission, Sly and Duncan would take pictures and Bentley would give commentary.
"These magnetic inducers seem to be holding the Clockwerk parts together,"
"Clockwerk appears completely inanimate. We might still have a chance," That made everyone sigh in relief.
"I'm sensing radioactivity from inside those mech eggs. I wouldn't get too close,"
"Please tell me that Clockwerk didn't lay those!" Duncan begged. Sly started gagging.
"I'm going to need brain bleach later," Bentley groaned. "Hang on, I'm detecting voices from the front of the blimp. I think it's Arpeggio and Neyla!"
"You want pictures?" Duncan asked.
"Yes, and hurry before they come out!" Bentley said. Once they were in a good spot, they duo took the last two pictures.
"There he(Arpeggio) is. The mastermind behind this blimp and the source of all our problems," Duncan snickered a little and how not threatening Arpeggio looked. He was wearing all fancy clothes, smaller then a toddler and riding in what Duncan could only call a mobile birdcage.
"Neyla must have been working with him in order to gain more power for herself. She probably is going to backstab him too!"
Sly had heard and since enough at this point. "Look Bentley, I know it's not your style, but we need a quick plan of attack. Try to think of a way, anyway to stop Clockwerk from getting reassembled,"
"Yeah, I don't like what I think they have planned," Duncan shuddered.
"Well... those magnetic inducers seem to be holding the parts together. If you reversed their polarity it should pull Clockwerk apart. Unfortunately, the inducer speed control station is locked down tight. Pickpocket keys from the four patrolling guards to get at it. Then... you'll need to manually reverse the polarity of each inducer deck at the top of their rotation," Bentley said quickly.
"Consider it done," Both Coopers said at the same time. Naturally, it didn't take very long for the duo to have all four keys safely pickpocketed.
"Now get to the speed control station to slow down the spinning inducers," Bentley said.
"Got it," Sly said as this was quickly finished.
"Now that the inducer decks are spinning slower, get up there and reverse the polarity of each deck!" Bentley said.
"Great and then we can all go home," Duncan said. However after reversing the polarity, something went horribly wrong.
Clockwerk was reassembled completely!
"Merde," Was all the Cooper Gang could say. As if that wasn't bad enough, the noise brought Neyla and Arpeggio out.
"What's all this then? The magnets have been reversed?! But? By Jove, it seems to have locked the Clockwerk parts into place! Excellent!" Arpeggio cheered. Sly and Duncan jumped down the polarity control panel.
"Sly Cooper!? Of course this'd be your doing? I thought you would have just given up," Neyla said as smugly as she could.
"If anything, you made us want to take you down more," Sly replied.
"Ah, Mr. Cooper. No doubt you believed a reversal would pull the old bird apart, eh? But it seems to have the opposite effect. I'm truly grateful... when fully powered up I'll join myself to its circuits and be born anew," Arpeggio said, regaining everyone's attention.
"All this... because you can't fly," Sly said.
"You're pathetic," Duncan said as he blew a raspberry at Arpeggio.
"Immortality! Immortality is what I seek. The other Klaww Gang members were much too short-sighted. They were happy using the Clockwerk parts to drive their various trivial schemes. But not me! No, I saw them for what they truly were- the keys to life eternal!" Arpeggio revealed.
"So...you wanted us to steal the parts from the other Klaww Gang members?" Sly asked.
"You make it sound easy, Cooper. I had to carry your pathetic gang through that first set of heists. I was overjoyed when Arpeggio let me toss you in jail, I could finally go after the parts by myself. But then your little son had to screw up everything!" Neyla explained, glaring at Duncan. Sly stepped in front of his son with a glare back.
"Ah! But acquiring all the parts was only half the equation. Think Cooper... what kept Clockwerk alive for thousands of years?" Arpeggio asked. Duncan could tell that he was getting annoyed with being ignored.
"Hate?" Duncan offered.
"He was fueled by his hatred for my family," Sly clarified.
"Splendid, that's right! Hatred! Putting his gears and wires together was child's play compared with accumulating that much hatred," Arpeggio said.
"You can't make people hate," Sly said.
"Oh my poor naive boy... my meticulous mind has found a way. As your fox love interest will attest, spice consumption makes you both angry and susceptible to hypnosis. The Contessa, hypnotist extraordinaire, devised a way to command people through the use of flashing lights. I've created this blimp to be a massive transmitter of those precise light frequencies. The only problem I faced was finding a suitable source of light waves," Arpeggio revealed. Duncan and Sly both began to connect the dots.
"The Northern Lights! You've been collecting Northern Light Energy so you could brainwash everyone under the blimp!" Duncan realized.
"Ahh, hypnotize those who'd eaten food covered in illegal spice. Thank goodness for Dimitri, through his nightclub he got the whole city to consume the spice," Arpeggio revealed. Internally, Duncan started to freak out. Hunter had mentioned having to eat some of the leftovers from the nightclub!
"You're going to Paris to unleash a hypnotic light show of hate... That's outlandishly cruel," Sly said as he and Duncan pulled their canes out.
"Cruel, perhaps, but necessary to give Clockwerk his spark of immortality! Ah... well, my new body awaits me. Be a dear, Neyla and keep him covered. Ta-ta!" Arpeggio said as he started to move towards Clockwerk. Much to Arpeggio's shock, Neyla knocked his birdcage over.
"Stupid Arpeggio. I double crossed the Cooper Gang, Interpol, and Carmelita... what made you think I wouldn't do the same to you?" Neyla pointed out as she jumped into Clockwerk's body. It started to move around.
"This is preposterous. You're my protege, not the next candidate for my immortality. I demand you exit the Clockwerk frame or... or!" Arpeggio threatened, only for Neyla to slam the beak down, crushing Arpeggio. His monocle rolled out and Duncan picked it up and slipped it into
his pocket.
"Behold, Clock-la is born!" Neyla announced as she flew off.
"Why am I not surprised?" Duncan deadpanned.
"Did how not Arpeggio that see coming?" Scruffy asked. (How did Arpeggio not see that coming?)
Back in the empty battery/hideout, Bentley had a slideshow prepared.
"As we all know, things are looking grim. Neyla has joined herself to the Clockwerk frame and the union has produced Clock-la. She's out and free to terrorize the world. This blimp is still in motion to Paris. I can only assume Arpeggio's autopilot will activate the hate hypnosis light show. If that happens, there'll be no stopping Clock-la. She'll be immortal. But we still have a chance. In her new form, she'll need to draw a lot of energy from this blimp's engines to stay strong. If we can disable the engines, that should be enough to weaken her to a state in which we can attack. Getting at these engines will require all six of us to work together in perfect harmony. We've pulled off some tough jobs in the past, but they were just a warm up job for what we'll be going through tonight," Bentley explained.
"The Murray is ready to destroy that monster!" Murray said as he flexed.
"We don't need another Clockwerk," Sly said grimly.
"You said it dad," Duncan told his father.
"Will I my destroy master old!" Scruffy said. (I will destroy my old master)
"Seeing as I've gone this far, I am going to finish this with you all," Carmelita said.
"Seeing as we all agree, it's time to move!" Bentley said as he put his hand in the middle. Following that was Sly, Duncan, Carmelita, Murray(who slammed his hand down) and finally Scruffy.
Job 1: Duncan/Murray Tag Team
After Sly had blown open the engine room with some help from Carmelita(He couldn't get out of the TNT barrel he was without making it blow up, so she had offered to protect him while he made the run), it was time from Duncan and Murray to destroy one of them.
"Uncle Murray, I think I'm going to need some help getting into the engine place," Duncan requested
"Happy to help, little buddy," Murray said.
"Uncle Bentley told me that the door to the first engine is locked down by wall mounted power stations located all over the blimp. I'll need you to destroy all of the power stations and then open the door by hand," Duncan said.
"No sweat, Duncan," Murray said. With that, Duncan headed for the engine room while Murray went looking for the power stations. It didn't take him very long.
"Awesome work, Uncle Murray! Now help me get inside," Duncan congratulated his uncle. Murray was back quickly and lifted up the door for Duncan.
"Your turn, little buddy," Murray said as Duncan slipped inside. Once inside, Scruffy poked his head out.
"It is turn my yet?" Scruffy asked. (Is it my turn yet?)
"Yes it is," Duncan said. Scruffy crawled off of Duncan and started across. There were lasers, but he was too small for them to touch him. He was also able to scale the walls with no problem, letting him reach and hack the panel with ease.
"Nice work, bud!" Duncan said as he scooped his pet up. He would have done it himself, but he didn't fully trust his sight right now. Besides, Scruffy had been begging to help with a job for a while now.
Job Complete
Job 2: Mega Jump-Job
"What the heck is this thing?" Duncan asked as he readjusted what he could only call a metal backpack, which was thankfully light. Behind him, Carmelita and Sly were wearing similar ones.
"Thanks to Carmelita, we've hit a stroke of good luck! Interpol is going to send us a helicopter in order to shoot Clock-La down. However, they can't lock on to the blimp with the copter's autopilot. In order to send a signal out, I'll need you three to get on top of four very tall towers and place beacons, but they're too big to climb and too tall to jump up normally," Bentley explained.
"What's this all got to do with this thing you've got us wearing?" Sly asked.
"It's an experimental Mega-Jump pack. After charging for a few seconds, you'll perform a huge jump... so be careful," Bentley explained.
"THIS IS AWESOME!" Duncan screamed as he launched himself in the air. When he landed a few seconds later, Scruffy was clinging to his head.
"Not fun that's!" Scruffy whined. (That's not fun!)
"Can I keep this after we finish?" Duncan asked, causing Scruffy to whimper.
"Go nuts," Bentley said.
"Only if you promise to be careful!" Carmelita said quickly, reminding Duncan who his parents were.
"Fine!" Duncan replied grumpily. Between the three of them, it took about three minutes to place all the beacons.
"Aha, it looks like they have picked up on our signal. The helicopter is now headed on an intercept course directly for us," Bentley announced.
Job Complete
"Let's do this!" Duncan cheered as he and Sly hopped into gunner seats on the helicopter while Carmelita began to fly it. It was time to take down Clock-La.
Job 3: Showdown with Clock-La
"There she is!" Carmelita called from the cockpit. Duncan and Sly instantly began shooting at her. However, Clock-La was quick to notice and began firing back, but either Carmelita would dodge, or Duncan or Sly would shoot the missiles down. Finally, Clock-La went down, but the gang couldn't cheer yet.
"Sly! Sly! We've got a serious problem here. Clock-la is looking mighty upset and I think she's going to take it out on us," Bentley said as Clock-La swooped down and grabbed the battery, with both Bentley and Murray still inside.
"I'm going after them! Give me some air support!" Sly ordered as he jumped out of the helicopter and used the paraglider to go after Clock-La.
"Mom! Follow him!" Duncan begged as he tried to follow his father, but lost him in the clouds.
"There he is!" Carmelita said as she pointed to Sly landing on Clock-La's back. She moved closer, letting Duncan jump onto Clock-La as well.
"You want a piece of me? Don't worry, there's plenty to go around," Neyla bragged as she turned to face them.
"You might have a new body Neyla... but you're still the same low-down backstabbing coward we've beaten time and time again. This won't be any different," Sly said as he and Duncan pulled out their canes.
"And we also were the ones who defeated Clockwerk, so you don't stand a chance," Duncan added.
"Be brave while you can Coopers. I might not have the immortality born of pure hate but I feel something... some power growing within me," Neyla told them. All this did was make Duncan and Sly smack her even more with their canes. Finally, they downed her, with the Clockwerk frame crashing to ground.
"We... we did it!" Duncan cheered as he hugged Sly. When Carmelita landed the helicopter, she was quickly added in.
"Die insects, die! My hate will smash you!" Clock-La yelled out as she activated a laser defense grid.
"Watch out! That thing's still kicking" Sly warned everyone.
"Clock-La mentioned something about a hate chip, it sounded like the source of her power," Bentley theorized.
"If we remove it, she might stop attacking," Carmelita realized.
"They let's do a little open head surgery! I'll pry open the beak so that Bentley can go to town with his bombs," Murray said as everyone started to make their way towards the head. Once Murray got it opened, they were greeting with what they could only guess was Neyla's spirit.
"I hate you Cooper Gang! I will find you in your sleep and I will destroy you. You'll never know a moment's peace for the rest of your short miserable lives. The Clock-La will know revenge... I am revenge... I am the Alpha and the Omega. Clock-La!" Neyla bragged. "I still have my hate chip! You will not defeat me... ever!"
"We beg to differ," Bentley said as he held up the hate chip. Suddenly, the beak slammed down, crushing Bentley!
"BENTLEY/UNCLE BENTLEY!" Everyone else screamed.
"Murray, get the beak open!" Sly ordered. Murray quickly pulled it off.
"Pick me up... I can't walk!" Bentley weakly asked. Murray did so without hesitation. Duncan looked at the Clockwerk parts. No matter what, they still looked as new as ever. The Hate Chip slipped out of Bentley's grip. With an enraged scream, Duncan slammed his cane down on to it several times, only stopping when it was in tiny pieces. With the hate chip destroyed, the parts aged before the gang's eyes. Suddenly, they heard sirens.
"Get out of here!" Carmelita ordered. The rest of the gang listened. Despite the fact the chief felt that the gang wasn't so bad, other cops may not know that. As they made their trek over to a nearby hospital, Duncan looked at the ground. At the start of the heist, Duncan thought that finally ending Clockwerk would be a triumphant moment.
But instead, it was bittersweet.
And game two is finished! This was my second favorite game in the series, with only a few jobs really bugging me and not being able to replay the missions. Anyways, onto my thoughts on the villains.
-Arpeggio was robbed! I really wish this guy had more screen time. He had an interesting backstory and personality, a really good plan, and his level(minus Charged TNT Run and the Boss Fight) were a lot of fun. Plus, who knows? Maybe he did survive…
-Neyla is probably one of the most controversial characters in the series. You either love her or you utterly hate her. Me? I'm in the love to hate category. She was such a skilled manipulator that it was actually kinda fun watching her backstab her way to the top. I will say this, I kinda wanted a proper boss fight with her and NOT the god-awful Clock-La fight. Anyways, next few chapters will kinda just be filler before we get to Sly 3. See ya!