An abandoned warehouse, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. 1:23pm 27 July 2013
"Lasers check, motion detectors check, spotlights check, an obscenely valuable diamond necklace, check." Bentley says, ticking off all of the ingredients needed for a heist.
"This looks like a lousy setup Bentley, I could get through it with my eyes closed." Sly arrogantly states.
"It just means it will take less time for us to trap them." Bentley explains as they enter their makeshift base for this mission, a shipping container, which contains the van and its occupants who have a clear view of everything via security cameras, mounted around the warehouse.
"I'll just post an anonymous tip on ThiefNet and they'll come running." Bentley says as the invitation is sent. He can see where they are by hacking into the GPS trackers that Penelope alluded to earlier. It seems they are working in a group nearing the warehouse at walking pace.
"Carmelita, this is like having a front row seat to a robbery." Sly explains, itching to breakout the proverbial popcorn.
"If only it was like this for all of your thefts." Carmelita replies.
"If only." Sly smugly states, she won't be offered this pleasure to one of Sly's heists once she is back at Interpol. They hear the creaky doors of the warehouse open, straining under their rusting wheels and joints.
"They're not meant to go in that way. The roof entrance was set up…"Bentley worries.
"Sly Cooper, we know you are here, if you can hear this then take note. We didn't come for your diamond necklace, we came because we didn't want to work for that pink mouse any longer. So now, come out and let us talk." The Brazilian shouts at them, not knowing exactly where they are.
The Brazilian thief is a greenish yellow lizard who wears a dark blue shirt which together represents the national colours of brazil. The Chinese thief is a Komodo dragon who has a long tail and is the shortest out of them all, and a little bit overweight. He wears a red robe. The Mexican thief is a fox with darker orange skin than Carmelita's. She looks similar to Carmelita with the clothing, the only obvious difference is her dark brown hair. The South African thief is a gazelle with tan fur with a black and white stripe running down one side. He wears a striped shirt that is almost the same colour as his fur but slightly lighter.
"Should we show ourselves? It could be a trap." Bentley asks Sly as he looks at his computer, but the absence of his best friend beside him tells him that he's taking control of this one.
"Yes, I'm here. Now you come over here and we can talk." Sly shouts back at them.
"Turn off the lasers first." The Chinese thief shouts.
"Not a chance." Sly replies back as he waits for them atop a container. They start at the traps; the lasers are not a problem for the Mexican thief who looks the most in shape out of them all. The others, however, get burnt and keep falling over as they try to negotiate this 'relatively easy' course. Sly can't stand to see them get hurt for much longer, all the screaming and shouting from the singes the lasers dish out to them is too much to bare for Sly.
"Shut it off Bentley." Sly says into his earpiece. The lasers turn off and he sees the full extent of their failings. He really expected them to be better than this, he is disappointed at them, not even capable of performing an easy heist. The four thieves walk up to where Sly is and hoist themselves up onto the top of the container. Sly hides his disappointment at them; it might help with their confrontation.
"So let's discuss this, you want to work with me, to help defeat Penelope?" Sly explains.
"That was her name?" The South African asks.
"You seem surprised." Sly says, slightly suspicious of his knowledge.
"We didn't know her name." The Chinese thief explains, hoping to be a clear as possible.
"Okay then, well come meet my gang." Sly says as he takes them over to the van inside the container. The gang walk out of the van to meet them. The 4 thieves see Joey sitting in the room and react with a mixture of hope and intrigue. The Mexican thief sees Carmelita and reacts with an unsureness and confusion as to what to do next.
"So this is Bentley, Murray, Carmelita and Joey who I presume you already know." Sly introduces them to his gang. It seems like they never get the credit for anything they do. The newspapers are always emblazoned with something along the lines of 'Cooper strikes again', no mention ever of the team behind the thief.
"So you survived the fall." The Chinese thief states to Joey.
"What, I thought you already knew." Joey replies back.
"You're sense of humour is…"
"The best."
"More like mediocre." The Mexican thief adds.
"Double humour I see" Joey replies as he tries to win back the humour.
"Nobodies sense of humour is going to help us defeat Penelope." Carmelita says as she tries to get them focused.
"You were always no nonsense after that day." She starts, going into her prepared speech.
"Listen here." She shouts angrily as she points her shock pistol at her face, the finger itching to pull the trigger. No one shall talk about that day when she is in the same room. It is the quickest way to make her angry.
"Don't do this, you have too much to lose, but you know that Sly can help you. In more ways than one." The Chinese thief warns.
"Who is this guy?" She asks to Joey.
"He can read minds." Joey states simply.
"Don't say that, it ruins the illusion." The Chinese thief says like he's trying to protect a secret that doesn't exist.
"There is no need for an illusion if you can actually do it." Joey explains, dumbfounded at his lack of reality. Bentley and Murray are becoming worried that bringing them together was a bad idea. All this infighting is going to do no good.
"Stop it guys, if we want to stop Penelope, we need to work together." Bentley says as he tries to get them back on track. The bickering continues between them all, the noise rises to a crescendo where Sly comes in like the loud crashing of cymbals to stop them all.
"Just shut up, Look, I don't care if you are thieves or master thieves." Sly says to them in a fit of anger, but still in control of himself.
"He does." The Chinese thief cheekily adds in.
"Ok, but I do care about is stoping Penelope from doing whatever she is going to do. Now Bentley has a plan, if you want in, you follow it. But if not, Murray needs to work out a bit and you guys seem like the perfect weights." Sly warns them, trapping them is out of the equation now.
"Your threats are nothing but empty like your beliefs." The Chinese thief adds, he is really getting on Sly's nerves.
"What beliefs?" Sly says.
"You are a master thief, you believe in stealing only from other criminals. You believe that it is immoral to steal from ordinary people. I believe you are missing out on the wealth of the world begging for the taking." The Chinese thief explains, alluding to a new opportunity. Sly is having none of it though.
"That's how I've always been. There's no fun, no challenge, no honour in stealing from ordinary people." Sly repeats his little mantra to them.
"That's where all the easy money comes from." The Brazilian thief adds.
"Let's get straight into the plan." Bentley says but he is being overwhelmed by the conversations going around him.
"No, no, no, no I need to deal with her first." The Mexican thief insists.
"Stay right there." Murray says as he blocks the path between her and Carmelita.
"No oversized pink hippo tells me where to stand." She replies.
"Except for the Murray." Murray adds his exception. But she still tries to push him aside.
"Out of my way." She shouts at Murray, eager to get to Carmelita. Murray stops her by taking her off the ground with one arm and throwing her down to the ground where she lands perfectly on her feet.
"This was a bad idea. We need to get them out of here." Sly whispers to Bentley.
"Okay guys, now if you want to hear the rest of them plan we need to show you something outside." Bentley shouts, trying to take on Sly's advice.
"It's a trick to get us away because you think that we are bad thieves." The Chinese thief accuses Bentley. His mind reading powers don't seem like they are being put to good use.
"I'm not saying that, its just if you keep fighting like this we will never get anything done. If you really wanted to help you could be a bit more cooperative." Bentley explains to them.
"Come on guys, let's go. We don't need them to help us anymore." The Mexican thief says, as she is ready to walk out of the door. The other thieves follow her out. The gang looks at themselves to see what they have just done. Bickering and arguing goes nowhere. Sure, the Cooper gang have their differences, but they complement each other with their strengths and weaknesses overlapping like the fibres in a cloth, when put together, make a strong team.
"We'll just have to do the plan ourselves." Bentley says, it's not a big obstacle for them; they have all the people they need anyway.
"I'll just grab…" Sly says as he turns around to see the empty pedestal with no necklace on it. You know you are master thief when you rip off a master criminal. And one of them has done just that. Sly decides to make an exception for this; does one theft make a master thief? So it was one necklace, Sly has many more valuables in the Cooper vault and in various safe houses around the world.
"Okay then, we know from the bug that the plane is going to be moving soon, that means it's out of the hangar and easy to target, our job is to shut it down. Murray and Joey, you need to get us into the plane by opening the hatch on the tail of the plane, there is an emergency lever on the outside, which only your combined height could reach, Joey will jump off your back to reach the lever. While this is happening, Sly and Carmelita will get onto the roof of the hangar and glide onto the top of the plane, he can sneak in when all the guards rush to the back of the plane, Once inside, the schematics tell me that if cut a group of wires on the top of the plane, it will cut the electricity, hydraulics and fuel lines. Leaving them no chance to escape." Bentley explains his plan. They make their out of the warehouse, quickly grabbing all the cameras and security items they had placed around the place. Sly's athleticism means that they are removed in no time. They head off to the short drive to Kinderdijk to confront Penelope's plane.