Bentley's Lab. 6:21am 28th July 2013.
"My keys!" Bentley shouts across the room. "They were right..." Bentley says as he realises who the culprit is. Bentley turns on the lockdown doors again to prevent their escape. The sirens blurt out warnings that wake up the remainder of the occupants of this lab, not knowing of the situation that shall rock them.
"It's just a bit further." Penelope says to Sly as she leads Sly out of the vent system. Closely following behind is Otto. They are trying to beat the sirens and countdown clock before their plan is doomed. One by one they reach the rooftop of the shoe shop. The heavy blast doors close in on the vent system only 10 seconds after they get out.
"Where did you put it?" Penelope asks.
"It's hidden in a hangar." Sly explains. Penelope knows where it is.
"Come on, let's go, the door will open in 5 minutes so we don't have much time." Penelope says as they make their way across the rooftops of the attached apartments that join together making for an easier way across town. Their destination is Schiphol. The distance would be easy by van or even by public transport but they have no disguises to get them through everyone, also it doesn't help when you have a worldwide manhunt going on at the same time. They make their way to the canals of the city and try to find a boat; it is the quickest way to get to the airport. They spot their target from the rooftops. It is a small boat with a small motor, it won't attract anyone's attention but they still need someplace to hide. That is where the small tarpaulin covering on the front of the boat will serve as. Penelope jumps down to get the boat. She hotwires the engines and breaks the moorings to move it from the dock. Sly and Otto watch from the roof as Penelope moves the boat to the point closest to them so that they can jump aboard. Luckily for them there is a small channel running between two houses that she can sneak into. She does just that and it allows a secretive entrance for Sly and Otto. They cover themselves in the tarpaulin as Penelope pulls away at top speed, which is only 15km/h. Not fast but it will do.
The outboard motor is noisy and whines constantly under the strain it has been put under. For 20 straight minutes it has operated at full power and now it has it's chance to breathe as they have reached their destination. The river does right behind the hangars so they can go straight inside. They abandon the boat and rush along the river as they follow Otto to where he last left the plane. He has parked it inside the hangar of another commercial plane under repairs. They will remove it before the workers come in for their shift. The wide door hangars open and reveal the tiny WW1 plane parked beside the front wheel of the huge passenger jet, one of it's engines are bigger than the entire of Otto's plane. Otto's knows that this is not the time for admiration as he jumps in the plane and starts it's engine. Sly gets in the back and Penelope decides to do some wing walking. Sly doesn't know whether she is trying to impress Otto or himself with her newfound skills. But it does allow for a 2-seater plane to fit three. The discretely take off on a taxi way outside of the hangars to avoid being spotted by air traffic control. Something that Otto doesn't think is necessary when pilots can fly the planes themselves. Who needs to be controlled?
Bentley's Lab, 6:58am 28th July 2013.
"Our plan is to Kinderdijk before they do. From my scanning of the air traffic control cameras, it seems they are about to take off. That means we will only have about 25 minutes to travel to Kinderdijk before the execute whatever plan they are doing." Bentley explains quickly.
"Bentley, why are we going after Sly?" Murray asks. He doesn't know why they need to go after Sly. He is their friend not their enemy.
"Because we have to get him. That's why." Bentley snaps backs at Murray. He wants revenge and wants it bad. The others see that he is in a bad way but Bentley has a very tight grip on the situation.
"It will quantify our objective by deriving benefits from this methodical undertaking." Bentley says in a deliberate attempt to nerd everyone out. It works especially well on Murray, who is completely convinced.
"Let's go guys." Murray says as he revs up the van for a very, very fast sprint to Kinderdijk. 95 kilometres in 25 minutes, it will be tough but if anyone could do it in this van, it would be Murray.
Kinderdijk, The Netherlands, 7:22am July 2013
Sly is still confused, why does Penelope need to walk across the winds like it's some stunt that is supposed to prove something? Otto doesn't seem fazed by it. In fact he looks like he's rather enjoying himself. As they approach the airfield, Sly gets on his parachute, ready to leap down into the hangar to change planes. Penelope will do the same. This is all part of Penelope's plan which she only reveals as they go along. So far, their task is to send back Otto to his own time by getting him to fly through the time machine in the back of the plane. It will be tricky but it goes like this.
"10 seconds to drop zone!" Penelope shouts while holding onto one of the bi-plane's struts that separate the two wings. Sly stands up in the seat and jumps off to land on the runway, Penelope close behind. Their tails are blown around in the wind as the air buffets around them. They only free-fall for a second before opening the parachutes, ready to glide inside. As he does this simple task, Sly thinks about how Bentley might be reacting to all this, given that his keys to the safe are no longer in his hands. He feels bad that he had to do that to his best friend. But it was clear to him that whatever he was going to do to Penelope wasn't good. Sometimes he can be very devious with his plans, but this is just cruel. He only got to see some of the brief sketches that sprawled all over the floor in Bentley's room. Most of them with big, pointy objects going through the body of the mouse.
Their feet touch down on the black tarmac but there is no time to waste. No doubt Bentley is coming after her. Penelope rushes to open the hangar door and get the plane ready for an immediate take-off. Sly can only watch as she gets to work on removes in the various pipes and hoses that supply the winged beast with fuel, water, hydraulics, and electricity. Everything required to supply a fortress in the air. Sly can only unhook the pipes with his cane and in his tired haste, sprays fluids of all types over the floor. Another thing for the drain to take away. After 5 minutes of unplugging, Penelope opens up the plane itself so that they can board, Otto is circling above for the precise moment to pull off his part of the plan. Despite having already seen the inside of the plane, the amount of displays and buttons still overwhelms Sly. But this is all a blur to him; the effects of staying up for more than 24 hours are getting to him. Penelope is becoming even blurrier to him as well, her hands press and turn so many buttons it becomes a single movement to him. He plonks himself in the co pilots seat, desperate to go to sleep.
"Don't worry, we'll be up in 1 minute." Penelope advises, noticing the very tired Sly who is slumped into the chair, already gone to sleep. She goes over to him and does his seat belt up. She takes a longer look at him, thinking of the feelings she once felt for him. She was young, much has changed since then. There is little time to reminisce; there is a plane to take off. She thrusts the levers forward and the 4 propeller engines spin up, slowly they creep out of the hangar, being careful not to damage the back of the hangar. The force generated from the air could easily blow the back out and collapse the hangar. Otto sees the plane as the signal to begin his move. He readies to dive. Once the tail is clear of the hangar, the engines go to full power, accelerating them both back into their chairs. Penelope lowers the rear hatch for Otto to land into, the sparks that this generates on the ground is a sight to behold. This amount of sparks is not usually seen until Chinese New Year. The bi plane comes into land behind all of the sparks and plows through them all as if they weren't there. The momentum of the plane allows him to get inside, Penelope sees this from a camera and closes the back hatch so the plane doesn't fall out when they take off.
On the motorway approaching the airfield, Murray is still driving at top speed, weaving around all the rush hour traffic, he wasn't fast enough, They can already see the plane taking off from the runway as they drive nearby.
"Drats! They were quicker than I thought, and my calculations are never wrong." Bentley announces to everyone in the van.
"You can't say that. I'm not there yet." Murray counters, not allowing himself to say he is slower.
"Just look." Bentley says. They see the black underbody of the plane swallowing up the landing gear as it passes overhead.
"Well, I can't drive faster than a plane." Murray admits.
"I'll hack into the flight computer, I'll find out where they are going." Bentley says as he types into his computer, trying to find any trace of the path that the plane will take. "There's nothing." Bentley concludes while venting his rage, "That mouse was too smart for her own good."
"Just calm down Bentley" Joey says, he hasn't done much so far; he doubts he will have to.
"Murray, we need to stop for gas." Bentley says.
"But we're…" Murray says but Bentley cuts him out.
"We need to stop for gas." Bentley says slowly to Murray, forcing the issue. Murray stops his furious pace to pull into a service station off the motorway. The two in back see this turtle is in a bad way; he is blinded by what the Coopers have done to him. They have taken away his prize; he still has a lot of 'questions' to ask her.
"Feel free to go outside and have a break while I try to get another plan formulated." Bentley casually states.
Carmelita opens the back door and Joey follows her out, she goes into the store to go into the bathroom and Joey tries on some gas station paraphernalia like cheap sunglasses and weird knick-knacks that you want then but don't need later. Joey turns to see out of the window that the van is pulling away without them. It is no use trying to chase after him, he can't run that fast. He only turns back to see Carmelita getting her hair back in order as she walks out of the bathroom. He rushes over to her.
"They ditched us here." He says to her, Carmelita is not fazed at all.
"I let them, it was best for me." She replies back.
"You let him do that?" Joey asks, confused at what she just said.
"Sure, he won't suspect a thing when I arrive first." Carmelita announces.
"Look, I'm going to get a car and you're going to explain how you know all this to me as I do it." Joey says as he walks through the automatic glass doors of the station.
"From what have know, all the Coopers have broken out and are going somewhere together. Bentley is angry about her escape as he wanted retribution for what he had done to him in terms of a break up." Carmelita explains as Joey jams down the thin metal rod down the window of the car door to unpick the lock.
"Yeah, but that still doesn't tell where we need to go." Joey points out as he opens up the door. He gets inside and opens the other door for Carmelita.
"She's trying to stop this operation that they started. She's going after the director." Carmelita explains.
"Of Interpol?"
"In Lyon." Carmelita finishes.
"But that still doesn't explain how she convinced Sly to get her out or why he is going with her in the first place." Joey says as he hotwires the ignition.
"I don't have an answer for that until we find Sly Cooper. Just drive south, I have to make a phone call." Carmelita announces as she gets out her phone and dials her number for Interpol.
"No, don't do that!" Joey shouts as he clutches at the wires beneath the steering column. "They'll find out where we are and we'll both be screwed."
"This phone is 100% secure." Carmelita assures him as she presses the green call button. A dial tone ensues. Joey gives up as he gets the car in motion.