Bentley's lab, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 8:02am 24 July 2013.
The gang safely returns to the confines of Bentley's lab. But everyone was focused on Sly, the great thief that they had seen breakdown right in front of them. For someone who is so controlled, so calm; he can really pour out his emotions. But while Sly was looking fine on the outside, he feels like a piece of him is missing. The cane had become an extension of his arm. Bentley gets straight to work on a replacement cane, Sly isn't as good if doesn't have one, no matter if it is his actual cane or not. Using the dimensions from the Thievius Raccoonus, Bentley crafts a new cane from carbon fibre, he gives it to Sly but he can already tell that it doesn't fix his problems. Sly accepts out of good gesture but inside he knows that this isn't his cane, no matter how correct the shape or size. Meanwhile, Murray tests out that pizza oven and gets his fill of food and Dimitri just sits in the back of the van, not thinking about anything, but just sitting there. Carmelita is more concerned about Sly. She has seen him bawl his eyes out, while Sly is a criminal, it doesn't mean that he has no emotion or compassion. But in her eyes, Sly has all of those things and more.
Bentley then gets on the search for the cane and it doesn't take long before a hit comes up. It's already been sold on ThiefNet for a measly $100. Bentley thought that such an item would command millions. But speed is what she wants, to get rid of the cane to some far away place, leading them away from her. Bentley hacks into the buyers account and it turns out to be in Melbourne. Just about as far away as you get from the lab. So immediately, they all head off to Australia.
Melbourne, Australia. 9:21pm 25 July 2013.
The gang arrives in this city still figuring out where exactly this mysterious buyer was. Bentley knew he was in this city, but the profile doesn't say much else. He scans the IP Address that made the purchase and tracks it to one building.
"The club?" Bentley asks himself. Dimitri overhears this. A club, this was his time to shine.
"First of all, you guys can't go in looking like that. Luckily the Di-mi-tri is going to turn my homies from drab dorks into super fly guys." Dimitri announces. They park the van nearby and they head off to the nearest fashion outlet. Sly isn't a fan of his fashion critiques. But what does a master thief know about clubbing. In no time, Dimitri takes a load of clothes off the racks and they try them all on.
"Are you sure about this?" Bentley asks Dimitri while in the changing rooms.
"Trust me, I'm a counterfeit artist, clubbing legend and wardrobe master, I know what my bros need." Dimitri replies. Bentley is the first to get changed. He wears a snapback cap with aviator glasses and a green shirt that reads 'wheeling and dealing' on front.
"Absolutely fabulous, don't you think?" Dimitri asks Bentley
"It is a little…" Bentley starts, he was going to try to let Dimitri down easy about his poor fashion choices but Dimitri interrupts.
"Chic, hip, avant-garde?" Dimitri asks.
"No, it's..." Bentley tries to say.
"All three." Dimitri says like he's trying to shovel words into Bentley's mouth. The others step out of changing rooms. Murray is wearing a denim jacket that won't button up for obvious reasons and tight denim jeans. Sly feels slightly insecure with what he has on, tight black pants with a blue stripe running up the length of them with a tight long sleeve shirt like the one he normally wears. In place of his mask is a pair of matte black sunglasses.
"Sunglasses inside?" Sly asks Dimitri.
"You are just totally fabulous, you're super fly Sly." Dimitri says like he's prepared that one for a while. However one of the gang has not come out, it's Carmelita. They all surround her booth as they wait for her appearance.
"I can't believe you want me to wear this." Carmelita shouts out of the booth to the crowd that has gathered around her booth. Reluctantly she goes out, everyone is stunned. None more so than Sly whose jaw has fallen as low as it can go. She wears a short skirt with a short tank top and jacket covering it.
"You look amazing." Sly says in awe. Dimitri nods in agreement.
"You don't look so bad yourself." Carmelita replies back.
"Shall we?" Sly asks as he puts an arm around his girlfriend. They reach the cash register and the total reads $3423.45. Dimitri hands out a wad of cash on the counter and they all walk out. His counterfeit money will never get detected, the clockwerk tail feathers produced a perfect replica. They walk back down the street with people looking at this gang's style. Dimitri takes this all as a complement to his fashion sense, he's happy to take all the credit for his work. As they approach the club, they see an obvious problem; the line goes around the block. They'll have to wait hours to get inside. But why wait when you have the best master thief in the world. His new carbon cane fits in with his outfit perfectly and he waits around for the right opportunity. Soon enough, a group of VIP's come walking past, flashing their passes at the waiting patrons in a show of superiority. Sly goes up to them and relives all 5 of them of their passes, making for an awkward situation when they arrive at the door.
"This cane isn't half bad." Sly tells Bentley while handing out the passes.
"Glad you like it." Bentley answers.
"But it still isn't the same." Sly says. This lowers Bentley's feeling slightly as from a scientific perspective, the new cane is indisputably superior. It's stronger, lighter and tougher. But the sentimental value for Sly is too great; it's what he knows. The gang walk up to the bouncers and hand over the passes and they enter into a world filled with bass, drink and girls. If this were underwater, Dimitri would be in heaven. Sly spots the entrance for the upper level but it is heavily guarded. Bentley already has a plan that he has been dying to try out since their trip to Ancient Arabia.
"You know those hypnotic tones?" Bentley starts.
"You didn't?" Sly starts, he could see Bentley's fascination with the sounds as soon as he saw it for himself.
"I did" Bentley says as he pulls out a device. "You plug this into the DJ set and it will create music no one can stop dancing to. Just make sure you wear these headphones while it's on otherwise you won't be able to stop yourself." Bentley hands out a pair to each of the gang members before wheeling himself up to the stage. He sneaks on without the DJ noticing and plugs in the device, to the casual observer, the music hasn't changed, but it's at the sub audible frequency that makes the patrons get down. Bentley give a thumbs up and they proceed to the open stairwell, which the guards have departed from to dance to the fresh new beat. Bentley remains behind to literally control the dance floor as the gang make their way up the stairs. Once on the top floor they remove the headphones and they hear the sound of a gangster, but not just any gangster, the same on that Sly stole from on that night.
"How do you like my cane girls?" The gangster shouts to his escorts, the smell of champagne is overpowering for the gang waiting at the top of the stairs. He must be as drunk as a skunk.
"I can't believe I got such a cane for 100 bucks. This is it, you know what I mean? I've finally got it. Now it's my cane, no, even better idea. It's my pimp cane. Heh, how do you like that?" He asks his girls. A pimp cane? The very mention of such denigration towards his cane is outright filthy like the bass being pumped out by Bentley downstairs. This causes Sly to act; he sneaks around the room and up to the heavily intoxicated wombat where he relieves him of his 'pimp cane' and returns back to the gang. This theft was about as easy as the first time they met.
"I'm glad to have you back." Sly says to his old cane as they start to walk down the stairs.
"Don't get too attached to that cane." Carmelita warns Sly.
"There's always room for you Carm." Sly answers back. However their conversation is cut short by an angry wombat staring down at them from the top of the stairs.
"Give me back my cane!" He shouts down the stairs. Murray, sensing the danger, rushes in front of Sly.
"You'll have to go through me first." Murray boldly states.
"No problem." The gangster says with a hint of drunkenness to his voice. He reaches into his jacket pocket and fumbles for his gun, but he barely grabs the gun out of the jacket before a shock pulsates through his body, rendering him unconscious. Carmelita's marksmanship has saved Murray's life.
"Thanks Carmelita, you saved my life." Murray thanks his saviour.
"I wasn't going to let some low life scum get the better of us." She replies. By now the unconscious body of the gangster has fallen down the stairs at Murray's knees. In a display of strength, he picks up the body and throws it back up the stairs where the bag of bones slams against the wall. They decide at this point that it is a good time to leave.
"Bentley, we are coming down." Sly radios to Bentley who is having great time being at the head of the party. He sees the gang come back down and removes the device from the DJ set. The crowd is taken out of their trance like state and return to being normal except for the screams shouting "Bentley! Bentley! Bentley!" Coming from the patrons as they rush out of the club and into the van. Where they rush back to Europe, needing to make up for lost time on Penelope.
International Waters, 10400m above sea level. Night-time 26 July 2013.
Not many people would think a van is capable of sustaining flight, but then again, not many people have decided to fit a jet engine and wings to a van. Its one of Bentley's great traits, being able to think of something to build and then build it. Most people can dream it, but not many can build it. The time machine is a classic example. The idea has been around in science fiction for ages yet no one has built one until Bentley made one. But in this van right now the gang plans their next move. They have ditched their clothes from the night much to Dimitri's discontent and now they talk quietly in the van, Bentley has engineered a device in the van's sound system that act like noise cancelling headphones.
"Who else knows about Penelope?" Sly asks the group of them. Bentley is doing intensive research to find out who his ex girlfriend really is, anything at all would help him but nothing comes up.
"She flies planes, she makes gadgets. Do you know of any other labs she may have worked at?" Sly asks Bentley as he tries to think out loud the situation.
"She's a ghost, no details, no apparent family history." Bentley explains. Suddenly an idea so preposterous comes into his head, it just might work. Sly will never agree to it. So he decides to go for it anyway. He inputs the coordinates into the flight computer so now they are going to the place that they have been trying to avoid during their entire career as thieves.