Slytunkahmen II's hut, Cairo, Egypt. 3:39am 1298 B.C.
The gang move back to the Egyptian's hut. They could become targets of the pharaoh if they don't hide. Murray drives the van beside the hut and covers it with an awning. They all head inside to discuss this revelation.
"This card belongs to her, Sly." Bentley explains. Sly looks at Carmelita, being really confused about the situation.
"Not her, her." Bentley says. Sly doesn't know who this 'her' is.
"It's Penelope, Sly." Carmelita clearly explains. Bentley doesn't want to mention her name after the incident.
"It can't be, I've seen no giant mechanical beasts or robots around here." Sly explains. Slytunkahmen just hears these words like it's a different language to him. "Besides, she couldn't pull a heist by herself, let alone 6."
"That's what we need to talk about." Bentley reaffirms. "This card is her symbol. In the present, she has gotten out of prison, stolen from 2 top-secret labs, one of them being mine, and the museum of history in Paris. No one has been able to find any trace of her since her breakout. I think she's gone back in time to get you."
"But why?" Sly asks.
"She's going to blackmail me to get me to work for her making weapons." Bentley explains with more urgency.
"Hold that Bentley, I have one question." Sly says as he turns to his ancestor. "How am I invisible?"
"That's simple, a combination of drinks and the dark environment make you turn invisible. Bentley is curious to see how this works.
"Do you know how?" Bentley asks.
"I have no clue, I discovered it by accident." Slytunkahmen replies like he is surprised that it even worked. "I was testing herbal remedies for a pain in my head, next thing I know, I'm invisible." As he says this, Bentley thinks over to the Thievius Raccoonus, remembering if there was any mention of how he became invisible. It was known that he had the ability called the 'shadow power'. But how he did it was a mystery.
"In fact, Sly was my test subject." Slytunkahmen continues. Sly is slightly angry that he did it without his consent. But he's happy. He can turn invisible and that's definitely a good trade off. "I can only control it by drinking the mixture, the more I drink, the longer I'm invisible. But with your friend, he should be able to control it whenever he wants, but only by focusing hard on being invisible." Bentley understands this means, the legendary Cooper focus that all Coopers have, making them able to perform feats of thievery unmatched by any other. Sly tests it out, he can in fact turn invisible when he wants.
"Woah!" Sly says as he jumps in and out of their vision.
"I'm tired, I'm gonna go to sleep." Murray blurts out; he barely makes it two steps before a loud thud signifies 'The Murray' is asleep. Everyone thinks the same way after this, it's almost 4 in the morning and they are all very tired. The gang goes into the basement to sleep, it becomes their hideout for the night.
Or maybe not so hidden for one pink mouse hearing everything they have said from an expertly placed bug. It's so clever it must be Bentley's idea. No, Penelope completely rejects that thought, he may have defeated her once but this is now a marathon, not a sprint. It may be 3 weeks since her breakout but she has been making herself very busy over the past few weeks. While Sly was busy living life on the other side law, Penelope was doing the reverse. Breaking out of prison was a cinch, stealing everything was easy. This may even test her new abilities slightly. They key to it all was of course the master thieves handbook resting in Bentley's lab. The book suspended in position, it was hard for her not to ignore it and the possibilities that could open up. So while Bentley had gone to find some advanced composites for their 'secret project', she got busy reading the book, which revealed many secrets: How to steal things properly, how to move silently, how to stand on points, how to walk on wires. A treasure trove of things that drove her to one conclusion. She had ignored one of the most important machines that everyone has, themselves. No mechanical beast was silent or stealthy; they were always clunky and expensive. So every time Bentley went out of the lab for some reason, she would practice. It didn't take long before she was wall jumping off the elevator shaft and climbing the various machines they had built.
It helped her breakout of prison too, the building was easy to scale and climb out of without leaving any evidence. Apart from the tag she spray painted and photographed, all using stolen items obtained from the guards room. This was to signify one of the biggest manhunts in history. Interpol was flat out trying to figure out what happened but nothing ever came up. Her other heists got her the necessary parts to re-built a time machine from scratch. From the plans she gave to Le Paradox, she suspected that after the incident Sly would be in Ancient Egypt. The time displacement measurements she did confirmed this. So she began dropping the line to Bentley, subtly as to not provoke a reaction. She has been planning this since her defeat and it will not go wrong, she will not allow it to. The time has come; the obvious snoring from the bug tells her that they are asleep. The snoring is so loud it hurts her ears; someone must be right next to the bug. She enters through the door and silently she begins her plan.
Slytunkahmen II's Hut, Cairo, Egypt. 7:43am 1298 B.C.
The gang are still asleep in the den, the light, streaking through the hole in the roof goes onto Sly's face, the warmth of the sun wakes him up. It's like Carmelita giving him a kiss; instead it's a ball of fusing hydrogen 150 million kilometres away. Sly is the first up, it's been a long night for the others and they are still fast asleep. Sly gets up and a feeling of dread and shock pulsates through him like has been hit with Carmelita's shock pistol, not like he has, but this is probably what it feels like. His cane, his only reminder of his father is gone. It was there, sitting up against the wall and now it isn't. Sly wants to shout as loud as he can, so loud it will shake to roof from the earth. He covers his mouth and shouts into his gloved hands. He is in two minds, one wants to just flare up and break that mouse in two and get the cane back, the other half is trying to restrain himself. Impulse versus training. In the end, he lies back down to make sense of what has just happened. He pinches himself several times.
"This has to be a nightmare," he thinks to himself as he tries to transfer himself out of this world. But no relief is imminent. He has to face the reality that his signature cane is stolen. Wherever Le Paradox was, he would be both shocked and pleased. Pleased that someone had beaten Sly but shocked as it also means that he would the 3rd best thief in the world and one can't really be a thief in a cell. The emotions clear from Sly's head to go and wake his gang up frantically one by one.
"My cane's gone, someone's been in here." Sly frantically says to everyone in the room, worried that every passing second his cane gets slightly further out of reach. As he gets to Murray, he sees a note resting atop his huge belly. Sly picks it up careful not to disturb his sleep. It reads.
"Sly, You know who I am, you have lost something very dear to you. I have lost something as well, you see, it's green surrounded by various bits of metal with two wheels attached to it. I would like to have it back; in return I'll give you back what I have. It's fair right? You'll know where to find me."
On the back is another card, Sly just stands over the motionless Murray and tears up the note into tiny pieces and then tears those pieces into tiny pieces. Sly is in a battle with himself, confused about what to do. As he tears up the note, the other members of the gang see what he is doing.
"Sly? Are you ok?" Carmelita asks in a calm and concerned way.
"It's just happened, you see. The ancestors, now me." Sly explains coming to terms with his own failings. His head hung low.
"It's okay Sly, we have these lows." Bentley starts.
"Not like this." Sly finishes, he has fallen into a mood that is no good for him, this leads only to self destruction to a life unheard of by Sly. It's called the normal world.
"But it's not how we handle the success, it's about rising up from the failures. We will get your cane back." Bentley says like he's addressing a team when they are down at half time. Sly stands up straight and takes a deep breath; he pauses to think to himself. He has been through a lot in the last 2 minutes. Sly makes the realisation that clears his mind which puts him back in touch with reality.
"Thanks Bentley, Let's go." Sly quietly says to the group watching him from the stairs. The gang slowly walks outside; Bentley tickles Murray to wake him up, the laughing is felt through the ground. As they walk outside, a banging noise is coming from the van.
"Get me out of here." A muffled Dimitri shouts as he bangs against the door.
Murray opens up his van and Dimitri falls out of the van, he no longer is stoned but now has some ropes tied around him.
"Dimitri?" Bentley says.
"Untie me." Dimitri shouts back at them. Sly gets to work untying the ropes, usually he's on the other side of the ropes. It makes it much easier to untie if you're not tied up yourself.
"She got me, I hear her outside and I was like breaking out of here to lay it down on her. But before I knew, I was tied up." Dimitri says.
"Look, I'm sorry I left you in there." Sly apologies.
"It's cool." Dimitri says accepting his apology. In the distance a flash of light catches Sly's eye, it looks like his cane, the golden light brings hope and promise to Sly. He starts to walk towards it. The others follow behind him, thinking that he's in some kind of trance, unable to look away. Sly moves quicker and quicker until he is at full pace and leaping across the rooftops. The gang can't catch up with his pace and can only glimpse him as he leaps across the narrow alleyways. Sly is in his own mind, focused on the spot where the shining is. The spot moves down through the roof of one particular house. Sly jumps up and breaks through the roof, the pain he doesn't feel as the mud brick crumbles from the force of Sly. The dust settles around this house, and sly sees one thing, no cane, no Penelope, no cards, just a single note. Another note.
"Too slow Sly, I guess this will make me lots of money at auction."
At auction? How could she do something like this? Sly just can't make sense of it all, but in his body, a tear rolls down his eye, one becomes two, two becomes a burst dam. He collapses beside the collapsed rubble. The gang see this breakdown right in front of their eyes; no one dares make a sound. Sly is in his own universe now. Inadvertently he turns invisible, trying to hide himself from this world and anyone who may be around him. Bentley courageously breaks the invisible barrier between the invisible Sly and himself.
"Sly." Bentley caringly says to his best friend. The sobbing doesn't stop, but his invisibly does at the sound of Bentley's voice. Bentley even more courageously puts an arm around him. Sly doesn't try to fight the touch on his back.
"Cheer up Sly, so she got away, but we will bounce back." Bentley says in the same tone.
"Don't you see, that cane was my fathers cane, the only thing I have of his is now gone." Sly despairingly says as he tries to fight back the tears.
"You need to see the guru, he helped me out heaps after what happened with Bentley." Murray adds.
"I don't need some guru, I need my cane." Sly replies angrily although he is not angry towards Murray, it's more towards himself.
"Sly, Let's go back to the present and we can sort this out. We will get your cane back." Bentley instructs Sly.
"I hope so." Sly says as he dries his eyes. This has been just about his lowest point of his career. Sobbing uncontrollably in a half demolished building in ancient Egypt after having one of his most prized possessions taken away from him is what has just happened. He has to face that reality. He gets up and looks at the group surrounding him. They have seen it all. The expression on Sly's face says sorry to his gang for what they have just witnessed. But he is really sorry with himself. He walks towards them and walks past them, wanting to return to the van. The gang walks just behind Sly to give him the space he needs. It seems to be working because Sly is having a rethink; going over the things he's seen and done. This needs to be done quickly, no one can be anything without the right attitude and what Sly has done is about as far away as you can get. He can't get his cane back if he is in this state. He wipes the last remainder of tears from his face and stands straight and is now determined to get it back. The gang senses he is getting himself back in order. Sly turns to face them.
"Let's go." He says, eager to get started. Slytunkahmen is now satisfied that he will go back to his own time in the right way. He knows this is the end of their journey here. He's going to write this down on the few sheets of papyrus entrusted to him by his dad. Murray gets the van going and they all enter to return to the present. The hunt for the cane is on.