Sly's P.O.V.
Sly: There we were, inside our hideout plotting how to take down Clockwerk… again. Most of the gang still had doubts about Penelope sticking around, but Bentley somehow saw past all that. They're not dating again, but he thinks he can get through to her like he did before.
Sly: Grizz and Dimitri began to realize that they had more in common than they thought, like art and style, and immediately became the best of friends.
Sly: Carmelita was constantly watching the window in case Clockwerk decided to pay another surprise visit to me, and Panda King kept on muttering to himself on how he was going to blow Clockwerk up for even recruiting him into the Fiendish 5.
Sly: We were almost at the answer to the location of Clockwerk's hideout when I actually figured it out first. Where else but the very place he was first ended? The gang and I decided for it, packed our things, and headed out to the molten Krackarov Volcano.
Sly Cooper (and the Gang) in: Exodus of the Cold Heart
Main Story
Murray's van, with everyone in it, began driving on the road to Clockwerk's old hideout. "That's strange; didn't Clockwerk have this road rigged before? If he came back here then he would surely have booby-trapped it again." said Bentley. The van kept moving forward and reached the cavern where the computers were once hung. Bentley then continued, "And weren't there supposed to be computers chock full of data? Something isn't right, especially since the doorway is wide open." Murray's van progressed into what was once the death ray control room, now just a well-lit bridge over lava. Bentley then said, "Well this place is as teched out as ever, but still no security? Something is up, guys." The van reached the end of its path when it drove all the way through the used-to-be gas chamber. It then stopped, and when they were viewing the dam that Sly ran for his cane on, the gang was shocked at what they saw. Murray asked, "Is that…?"
Sly said, "But how?"
Bentley finished, "It… just can't be!" Visible to them, over the dam, was a newly-built death ray in the shape of Clockwerk if he were standing on the tips of his wings. "How could he have rebuilt it so quickly?" asked Bentley.
Panda King replied, "But you must remember that he has many servants at his aid." Penelope was still silent, especially since she was the one who recreated the monster who built the structure. Bentley then said, "If I remove the main time machine component, we should be able to fly directly across this fiery chasm, and on top of that dam."
"Right!" Murray said, backing up all the way until they were half-way across the control room. "BUCKLE UP!" he shouted, shifting into drive and flying straight across the lava below, landing safely onto their destination. From that height they got a better view of the death ray's new features. There were 3 large, orbiting, metal rings around the machine, 2 going clockwise and the other counterclockwise. The rings gave off electric currents, stretching inward until it made contact with the death ray. "Well that's new." said Sly.
"These must be the new power source for Clockwerk's death ray, Sly. Murray, drive us down the base of it all. If I can find a terminal or two to hack, I may be able to shut this entire operation down." explained Bentley. Murray did as he was told, flew the gang down, and hid the van inside an opening in one of the wing tips. After not even a minute of stationing themselves, the entire structure began to rumble. Lava began splashing and gears began grinding as Grizz said, "W-w-what's th-the deal-l-l?!"
Carmelita looked out the window and said, "Uh-uh guys? I th-think we're-re flying!" The death ray, as well as its rings, began to rise right out of the lava, ascending to the heavens swiftly as the Cooper Gang tumbled around the inside of the van. At about 10,000 feet in the air, the machine had stopped rising and remained idle. "Is everyone alright?" asked Sly, fetching his hat off of Dimitri.
"Just fine, Sly." replied Bentley, straightening his glasses, "Just fine." They then began mapping the locations on the vessel.
Bentley Tech
Bentley: Okay guys, Clockwerk converted his death ray into a giant airship. The obvious now being out of the way, let's end him once and for all. Sly, it's only a hunch, but I'm willing bet that Clockwerk is on top of the main part, the ray itself. Our mission is to get you up there, and here's how we'll do it. Carmelita, your job is to obtain a signal from a police chopper. All I have to do is sync it with my remote control and I should be able to bring it up here. Just hand me your walky-talky and we'll be good to go. We'll definately be needing that chopper for backup against Clockwerk.
Bentley: Dimitri, your job is to use your harpoon to launch a few signal jammers to the eyes of the death ray. That way, there will be no harm done to anyone. If our luck holds out, Clockwerk won't notice a thing.
Bentley: Murray, I need access to a hidden control panel inside one of the death ray's wing's walls. You'll need to pry away for me to hack it so that I can shift the parts of the ray in a way that Sly can use to get to the top.
Bentley: Penelope, now I know you're depressed, but this is a chance to redeem yourself for all the wrongs you caused. I need you to cover me from any of the tower's defense systems that might want to dispose of me. Your RC chopper should be the perfect dogfighter for the job.
Bentley: Grizz, the inner ring walls each have 4 bolts that are keeping it afloat, but are too dense for Panda King to destroy them regularly. Panda King will heat them up, and then you need to cool them down. With the molecular structure altered they should shatter with a good-enough explosion. That's all of our jobs; Do this all correctly, and then we can head home with our heads up high.
Main Story
As Carmelita gave Bentley her walky-talky, Dimitri left the hideout. He aimed steadily with his rigged harpoons and fired at the eyes, shutting them down. "The bulls-eye is dinged!" said Dimitri as he made back for the van. "Excellent, and now we have a backup helicopter rigged in case Sly has any trouble. Murray, Penelope and I are headed for that computer terminal as we speak." replied Bentley. When the 3 made it, Murray tore off the plate of metal, giving Bentley access to the computer. "Take 5, Murray, head back to the van. We can't risk having too many people harmed on this mission." commanded the turtle. Murray headed back to the van. As Bentley began hacking, Penelope started up her RC Copter. Before she launched it, she said, "Why?"
"Why what?" asked Bentley.
She continued, "Why did you bring me back into the gang? I betrayed you; I robbed Sly's family; I even revived the one thing Cooper hates most."
Bentley paused his hacking and said, "Penelope, I know le Paradox had gotten to you, convincing you to try and give me my full potential and a dream you didn't know you even had, but the reasons why I help Sly on his missions are the fact that he was one of the very first friends I made, even before he became a master thief, and I enjoy helping him out. If my true potential means that I can't help my best friends, then I don't want my true potential at all."
Penelope responded, "I see your point… look, I'm-"
"Apology accepted, now I need to rework this death ray's configurations. Think you can cover me?" asked Bentley.
Penelope smiled and said, "You bet." She fired up the copter and began shooting plasma bullets at the robo-falcons that attempted for Bentley. After 10 minutes of hacking, the death ray now had a visible path for Sly to use. When Bentley shut down the terminal, the falcons stopped swarming. The turtle beeped in and said, "Sly, the path is clear. Use it to get to that deranged pigeon."
"I'm on it!" replied Sly as he began climbing the tower.
Meanwhile, Grizz and Panda King were working on the bolts. When Panda King heated them up, Grizz cooled them down, and Panda King placed an explosive on each. By the time they were done, Sly was nearing the peak. Grizz and Panda King made it back to the van to find something much unexpected. Dimitri was napping, and Carmelita and Murray were both shocked and freaked out to see that Bentley and Penelope were making out. Panda King made and startled expression and Grizz said, "Yo, you two save it for the bedroom tonight!" The two stopped kissing, turned red, and Bentley said, "Ahem, the chopper is just outside, and with the spare metal we got from that pried metal plate, I should be able to hook it up with the van via welding. Sly should be up there by now, and if he can distract Clockwerk long enough, we can get Sly in our own aircraft and take that bird down down."
Sly had reached the the main control room of the death ray. He was in the back of it as he viewed Clockwerk looking out the front window. Sly approached him and said, "Game over, 'Tweety'."
Without even turning around, Clockwerk said, "I was wondering when you would come out of your van, which I learned is tucked inside the machine's left wing tip."
"So you knew all along? You could've come after us, you know." said Sly.
Clockwerk replied, "Indeed, but I wanted to see if any of you would be clumsy enough to fall over the side of my flying fortress."
"Yeah, we're not careless enough to not know where we're going, but I can tell you this, we know where you're going." said Sly.
Clockwerk turned his head around and responded, "And where might that be?"
Sly pulled out his cane and said, "Straight 6-feet under."
Clockwerk turned around, grabbed Sly, and flew him to the roof of the death ray. He held Sly down to the floor and said, "Not before I-"
"Not before you what?" yelled Carmelita's voice. From in front of Clockwerk came Carmelita's police chopper, bolted to the roof of the van, and lifting it as the van's wheel propellers assisted with the flight as well. "You leave our bro alone!" shouted Dimitri. The iguana held a button down and fired at Clockwerk's face, pushing him off of Sly. Cooper made his way inside of the chopper, next to Carmelita, and said, "Don't think so."
Clockwerk grunted and said, "No matter, even if you attempt to fight me, my death ray still empowers my very being. On the bottom of its base is a familiar device to a few of you. Of course you remember the Northern Lights Generator? With the hate that is given off of random people, condensed into energy for me, my wounds will be healed instantaneously."
Bentley smirked and replied, "Which is why I had Grizz and Panda King do a little errand for me." He took a switch and pressed the button on it. Inside each of the death ray's gravity rings came four explosions, twelve in total, causing the machine to fall right out of the sky and back into the volcano where it shattered into numerous parts. Clockwerk looked at this and said, "You destroyed my only means of global robberies!"
"And there's plenty more where that came from!" shouted Carmelita.
The owl replied, "You will all pay for your misdeeds against the only ounce of perfection this world has to see; me, Clockwerk!" and the fight commenced in the air, high above the ground. Clockwerk fired multiple energy blasts from his shoulder and back turrets, each of them missing, then Carmelita fired a blast from her shock pistol at Clockwerk's head. Dimitri fired the copter's bullets at the head, denting it heavily until the electric field disappeared. The head now being vulnerable, and Clockwerk being dizzy, the Cooper aircraft closed in towards Clockwerk and began ramming his head with the battering ram until the bird backed off. Clockwerk shot more energy blasts, only one of them hitting, and Carmelita shot another blast at the bird's head. Dimitri fired more of his bullets until Clockwerk became dizzy again. The aircraft closed in again and rammed it until Clockwerk flew backwards again. Enraged, Clockwerk fired rockets from his shoulders, each of the shot down by Dimitri. Carmelita shot another shock blast at Clockwerk's noggin and Dimitri went trigger happy again. The aircraft closed in one last time and rammed the head until Clockwerk decided to flee. Murray drove forward to catch up, avoiding every obstacle Clockwerk left behind, like air mines and more missiles. Eventually, the craft caught up with him and Dimitri fired ammo at Clockwerk's backside, causing him to slow down. Eventually, he had slowed to a point where Sly hopped on top of Clockwerk and made for his head. The owl's head turned around and Sly whacked at it numerous times until it almost began a trip to fall to the ground. Clockwerk's head was dangling by a few chords, barely hanging on. As the body was flapping its wings frantically to stay up in the air, Clockwerk said, "C-Coop-per, heeelllp m-me!"
"You helped kill my dad, Clockwerk, you even tried to kill me. Give me one good reason why I should let you live." responded Sly.
"Morality." was all Clockwerk said in reply. Sly shrugged and held out his cane, but then he instantly remembered the situation with le Paradox. Sly's face went serious and his cane slashed through the chords with ease, sending the head tumbling into the lava of the Krackarov Volcano. Right after Sly snagged the Hate Chip out of Clockwerk's lower neck, the body began falling to the ground rapidly. Sly released his parachute and began to slowly drift downwards. After about a minute, the aircraft came in to pick him up. When he climbed inside, he was immediately hugged by Carmelita, eventually leading to her kissing him for about 3 seconds. Grizz then said, "Yo, you two save it for the bedroom tonight!" The gang then left for Paris, knowing that they did well.
Job Complete
Mission Complete!
Sly's P.O.V.
Sly: At long last I was home with no more worries; Clockwerk had been bested again, and his Hate Chip in my possession. Bentley begged for me to destroy it, but me, I had a better solution. One that proves that a thief never destroys what they steal, but rather lock it in a vault. Bentley went along with it and placed the Hate Chip inside the newly-made Cooper Vault he and Penelope had been working on.
Sly: This entire trip really taught me something: If you're in a hurry, you'll miss a lot of the sights. I'm kind of actually happy Murray got the van towed, but in a different kind of way. If it wasn't for that happening, I would've surely been bird food. I couldn't have accomplished all those tasks either without the help of everyone. They all had a part in this, and I couldn't thank them enough.
Sly: Panda King bid us farewell and headed back to China, knowing his duty had been completed. Bentley insisted that he was given a ride, but the big guy replied, "The Journey is only Half-Complete." I would've said something, but I feel this may be good for him and his attitude.
Sly: Eventually, Bentley and Penelope began dating again. Now that their mechanical rivalries are behind them, they're getting back to what they do best, building. However, they may have gone a little too far with the 'making things' if you catch my drift.
Sly: Murray went from WWE wrestling all the way to a reality tv show that demonstrates how many ways things can be broken. It was successful for about a month until people started making memes about him over the internet. This eventually led him back to wrestling, where his popularity grew even further.
Sly: In the end, everything went well. Carmelita attempted to try and get me to work for the Paris police. However, when I declined, I'm surprised she didn't pull out her pistol on me. I guess this whole experience finally made her realize that I'm not that kind of thief.
Sly: With Clockwerk out of the way… again, and me being home, life finally went back to the way it should've, me robbing robbers and living everyday life.
The End!
Author's Note: Stay tuned for the epilogues.