Kinderdijk Airfield, The Netherlands. 1:57pm 27 July 2013
They are behind the hangar; the entrance was via a local barge across the channel, easy enough to be undetected. Sly is on the roof with Carmelita and Bentley who is getting a good aerial view of things from his vantage point, Murray and Joey are on the side waiting for the doors to open. Bentley is on the top as well with Carmelita. Dimitri is in the drain in scuba gear monitoring things from the inside.
"They're getting into the plane now. There are lot of bodies on the plane." Dimitri says from his view from below through the grate into the hangar.
"All the more challenging." Sly says.
"The doors are opening and the engines are starting up." Dimitri announces.
The plane starts to move out of the hangar, getting ready for an immediate takeoff. Joey and Murray run behind the plane, as they do this, some liquid nitrogen is sprayed their way, giving them the chills, but they reach the rear opening, Sly and Carmelita get onto the top of the plane, Sly jumps onto the tail fin and slides down whereas Carmelita uses a borrowed parachute from Sly. Joey jumps on top of Murray to get high enough to reach the lever, the rear door starts to lower, They see the guards ready to get them and they all wait on the one side of the plane. Meanwhile Sly and Carmelita get in from the wing entrance, they open the hatch, and the guards are distracted at one end, so they get an easy passage through the front end. That's not to say they don't encounter any resistance. But they get to the cockpit and are ready to burst through. Back in the back, Murray's fists get a workout defeating the guards at the rear, leaving their bodies bouncing on the ground outside. Sly opens the door to the cockpit to find no one inside; it is the world's largest RC plane.
"There's no one flying it." Sly radios to Bentley.
"It's an RC plane?" Bentley asks, he knew that Penelope's talents with remote controlled devices were extraordinary but on this scale, it is an achievement in itself.
"Yes, Bentley, can you hack the planes instruments so it doesn't take off?" Sly asks quickly, not wanting to be taken away.
"If you have the remote hacking device." Bentley adds.
"Maybe not then." Sly says.
"I'll do it." Murray chimes in, he's good at driving a car but flying a plane? Sure, the van can fly but this is an actual plane with hundreds of buttons and switches which confound Sly and Carmelita. Murray rushes to the front and takes charge into the pilots seat. "I'll fly the plane, it's just like the van right?" Murray adds as he puts the headphones on.
"Juts do it big guy." Sly says as he sees the plane pick up speed as the engines go to full thrust. Murray is already onto it, he turns the plane to manual override and powers down the engines and they roll to a stop a third of the way along the runway. The hippo just flew it like he's been doing it all his life. The two onlookers are completely stunned.
"Murray, you're a natural." Bentley says from his vantage point.
"Just like on the van, you don't use most of the buttons. Only the important ones." Murray explains.
"Just like your team. You only ever use the important ones." Another voice adds as it hacks into their radio frequency. It is Penelope, who else would know what they were going to do and set it up with fake things said over the bug about the plane. It played right into her hands.
"Penelope!" Bentley says angrily into the earpiece.
"Just turn around." Penelope says, standing a few metres behind Bentley. As Bentley turns around he sees her new friend. Another raccoon with a set of handheld controls supported around his shoulders. He is wearing a brown leather jacket with cotton pants and goggles that are resting above his eyes. It can't be.
"You." Bentley says towards the raccoon.
"Who else did you think it was?" Penelope asks as if it's bleedingly obvious.
"Is that?" Bentley asks in disbelief. Penelope acts as if he should believe it.
"Otto? Yes." Penelope confirms. Otto looks back at her as if he enjoys being with her.
"Your time machine is working well." Bentley adds.
"Perfectly in fact, how's yours? Oh wait, its not here." Penelope states.
"Everyone come back here now." Bentley shouts into his radio but it is of no use.
"Your communications don't work anymore, so now I'm going to turn one more thing into an RC vehicle." Penelope says. This cues Otto with the control set. The control set is not for the plane but for Bentley's wheelchair. Otto tests out the buttons first to see if they actually work. Doing this with no wires is such a joy to him, they get tangled everywhere. The chair moves around the top of the hangar, firing bombs, jumping around and spins him around. Bentley has no control over it.
"It's so delightful" Otto says in a high-pitched voice like he's a kid in an aeroplane parts store.
"There's more where that came from." Penelope says, promising him more of the same technology.
"He just goes round and round so fast." Otto says in the same voice. He stops the chair to see how dizzy Bentley has become; his head can't stand up straight. Penelope walks up to the disoriented Bentley to give him a message.
"If you can still hear me. I will be recruiting another technologically adept Cooper if you don't leave Sly and his gang. I hope you know what I mean by this." After Penelope speaks to him, he resumes the fairground ride in his chair.
Meanwhile, the gang aboard the plane are checking out the instruments on board. It is clear from what they see that this plane has everything needed to command from the skies.
"How many guns do you need on a plane?" Sly asks.
"30 give or take." Joey replies back casually.
"All no match for the Murray." Murray states, after what he did, he thinks he can take on everyone. The confidence is high in him.
"Don't get ahead of yourself." Sly warns as he tries to get some perspective into Murray's mind. They walk past the wings where banks of computers sit; complete with everything that is needed to be done at 11000m above sea level. But that is not what interests Sly.
"They could run an entire country from here with all of this technology." Joey remarks. But Sly is staring at something at the back.
"They don't need to." Sly says, in shock of the machine in front of him.
"What is it Sly?" Murray asks, sounding about as concerned as Sly is. Sly sees the huge machine at the back of the plane. From the digital readouts that are around the entrance, showing time and date, this must be her time machine.
"This is what she used." Sly says as the others take a look at the machine which takes up most of the room, the opening is about as wide as the fuselage, leaving only a tiny gap to sneak past. It looks like a huge portal where you can walk through into another time.
"A new time machine." Sly says to himself, in awe of what he sees.
"A time machine? Are you sure you didn't sniff some of Dimitri's joints?" Joey asks in complete disbelief that a time machine exists.
"Look at it." Sly says, trying to prove to him that it is, in fact, a time machine.
"So it's not the smoke." Joey says in order to make sense of it all.
"I've already had enough time travel, I'm not going in there." Carmelita says. All the time travel wasn't good for her. But what can she do about it?
"Looks simple enough, in fact, I should be able to find out where she's gone." Joey says, his tech knowledge is good but nowhere near Bentley's genius. He thinks there is a 'history' feature like on a computer Internet browser. Sure enough it exists, it even has cup holders.
"Okay, in the past few weeks, she's been to 1914, 1298BC and 1914 again." Joey says, reading out the display on the computer.
"1298BC was when she came to try and get me. But I don't know anything about the others." Sly says as he ponders what they could mean.
"In 1914 she went to Germany both times." He says, adding more detail. Sly goes into a state of panic.
"Oh god. She got Otto." Sly says, he feels sick inside.
"Who is Otto?" Carmelita asks.
"Otto van Cooper."
"Another ancestor." Carmelita says, it's one the last things she wants to have right now. It depends on whether Otto is like Tennessee or like Salim, secretly she likes Tennessee, he was such a gentleman to her.
"I see it now, the German accent, flying planes. It makes sense." Sly says as he connects the dots.
"We better get out here. Before they come after us again." Joey says, realising they are sitting ducks in the middle of the runway.
They exit out of the plane. As they run back to the hangar, Sly spots something moving on the top of the hangar where Bentley was. Sly takes out the binocucom and tries to contact Bentley, but it doesn't work and he can see why, he can only see Bentley being spun around and around. Sly runs as fast as he can to the hangar and climbs a drainage pipe on the side of the hangar, it's a high climb. Penelope, meanwhile, is having a fun time seeing her ex-boyfriend getting very close to empting his insides out.
"He goes around so fast." Otto gleefully remarks again.
"You'll get your weapons as soon as you…" Penelope explains as she is interrupted by another raccoon on the roof. "Well, you just made it easier." She says to Sly.
"Otto, Why do you do this?" Sly pleas to Otto
"How do you know my name?" Otto asks quickly but no answer is given as Penelope issues an order.
"Enough, If you want the weapons, you get me Sly."
"I'm Sly Coo…" Sly starts.
"Stop talking." Penelope shouts aggressively at Sly, and then turns to Otto. "Get him." Otto takes the controls and throws the heavily disoriented Bentley out of the chair, leaving him to dizzy to get up. The chair now becomes Sly's next enemy, the only thing separating them.
"I'm Sly Cooper." Sly says, tyring to convince Otto of his Cooper genetics. There is no time to do that as Sly dodges the bombs thrown out by the robotic arms of the wheelchair.
"Ha, you're pathetic trying to hide behind my great family name." Otto retorts back as he launches the extendable arms at Sly's body.
"But I am a Cooper." Sly insists.
"Prove it then." Otto challenges. It seems combat is not going to prove Otto anything, as Otto isn't what you would call an athlete. Sly delves into the information he has read about him in the Thievius Raccoonus. All those times he has flicked through its pages is going to pay off now.
"You attached the family cane as a propeller because you couldn't wield it like normal. You weren't physically impressive so you use gadgets to perform your thefts. You always loved to fly and fettle with your plane, I guess that's why you are here, to get new parts in exchange for flying skills and Cooper knowledge." Sly quickly says to Otto as he dodges the various attacks that a souped up wheelchair can give. Otto reacts as if Sly has read his mind. The control set drops to the ground and the wheelchair stops. The motionless Otto just stares blankly into the distance, contemplating why he is fighting against his future ancestor on top of a hanger near Rotterdam. It causes Otto to fall down to his knees, still with his back straight as it hits the ground. His body has gone into a state of shock. Penelope is angry at his complete reversal of sides. But she was expecting this, and in her plans, everyone is expendable except herself.
"That's it, no parts for you. You can forget about that fighter you wanted." Penelope says in a fit of anger. The motionless Otto doesn't react.
"You sick, cruel mouse. Who turns their own family against their own?" Sly asks angrily at Penelope.
"Me, goodbye." Penelope says as she jumps off the edge of the hangar with no parachute. It's at least a 30-metre drop, there's no way she'd survive that. Sly rushes to the edge to try to find her but there is not sign, no mouse hanging onto the edge underneath, no body bounce at the bottom, just nothing. He turns his attention to Otto and Bentley who is getting back up but still is a bit woozy.
"Bentley!" Sly shouts, he is going to fall. Sly runs at full pace then slides as he gets down to reach with his cane at Bentley who in turn reaches with an arm as he dangles over the edge. Murray is ready down below to catch him but that is not necessary as Sly pulls him back up.
"I've got you buddy." Sly says to Bentley who is grateful to saving him. They both look at Otto who is trying to hide his face from the rest of the world. He is too ashamed to admit it even to himself that he has done what he has done. In the end they can't sit on the roof of the hangar forever. Sly puts Bentley back in his wheelchair, its not demeaning to Bentley, everyone needs help sometimes. Bentley would rather that Otto be helped first, Bentley can always crawl to his chair. There is no issue with dignity when only your best friends can see. Bentley lifts up Otto of the ground with the arms of his chair, he is still conscious, but unwilling to move or talk. He doesn't want to face it, nor does he want to relive that feeling. But while Penelope can hate, Sly can relate.