The boat slows to a stop in the Interpol driveway. The watching parties do not know how to react to such a bizarre attempt at escape. The gang leaps out of the boat as fast as possible. Joey returns to his beloved TT1000 and in the passenger seat goes Penelope, wanting to not be in the same vehicle as Bentley as that could cause some issues. The rest of them cram into the van. Murray takes the helm as Joey quickly reverses out of the driveway and J turns onto the main road, putting the gear into drive and flooring it as hard as possible to accelerate away from the crowds. Penelope doesn't want to try the stealthy approach again, not with everyone watch and because of the previous results. Murray also drives the van out of the slipway and race towards the airport, taking the same route as Sly did previously.
"Dad, this is it. We're finally going to get you out." Sly says, relieved that they are heading in the right direction.
"I never doubted you." He replies back. It touches Sly, he feels now that he has earned the full respect and praise of his father.
"GPS lock is on." Bentley notes as he opens up a window that shows the position of Joey and Penelope in the hypercar via the walkie-talkie. Yes, he did put a GPS transmitter in it; he doesn't like his things to go missing.
"We need a more direct approach to this Bentley, can you hack into the police helicopters and 'dispose' of them." Sly asks.
"It'll be dangerous but I can do it." Bentley says, unsure of where Sly got the destructive streak in him. Such comments would be reserved for Murray. But Bentley gets to work in the passenger seat on his computer. First he gets into the transmitter of the helicopter flying over the river and inputs some malicious code to make the engine cut out. They can see the helicopter plunge into the river and the occupants jumping into the cold waters. Murray glances to the side to look at the carnage then turns back to focus on the driving. They weave through the late afternoon traffic at high speed. This gets the attention of the police who just resort to the usual futile attempts of roadblocks and spike strips. Carmelita knows this too well; they don't have any other powers that they can assert on high-speed chases due to outcries form the number of car crashes resulting from high-speed pursuits like the one happening right now. Only these are top getaway drivers. Two of the best on the planet racing against the police to the airport and the plane where they can escape Interpol and bring Connor back to his own time.
Penelope picks up the walkie-talkie that was left in the car from the previous pursuit and shows it to Joey.
"That's what we used to talk to Bentley in the van." Joey says as he speeds down the motorway. Penelope looks at it and puts it back where she found it.
"Whatever that's between you two must be pretty big if you're just going to do that." Joey notes, not even taking his eyes off the road as he sees it in his peripheral vision. Of course, he doesn't know the back-story of their relationship. He is the perfect person to talk to about this, being the most objective out of all of the gang considering that he has been with them for only a few days. All this while weaving through traffic at more than 150km/h.
"If you don't say anything then what's inside is going to boil and when it boils it goes over the top and dangerous things can happen as a consequence." Joey says, Penelope can only relate too well with that statement. "Like there was this one time, back when I was a kid running the streets I met this guy who absolutely hated by guts out because I was faster and superior in everyway. He wasn't showing that much but I could tell just at the way he looked at me whenever I was there waiting at the destination before him. As far as I know, that guy never talked about it to anyone else, he just gave this look of passive anger and hatred at me that I laughed off. The cruel lesson here is that when that is not released in a controlled way. Knives can come too close to your throat while you are sleeping and you have to fight of that crazy guy off your bed until he stops moving. That's what happened but my point is you have to find an outlet and let it out and if you and him haven't done that already then Bentley is going to give you the worst time possible as he takes it out on you, slowly twisting screws into your hands and stretching your back until the joints separate in agony."
What he says makes a lot of sense in some way, in both ways in fact. She now has no hate for Bentley having found an outlet in the form of two failed plots to dismantle the gang. Bentley will have to find a way to let out his anger somehow, hopefully not in the way that he displayed earlier in the evidence room.
"Thanks, I don't know what to say." Penelope says, taking the advice and thanking him for suggesting it. She is unsure about how she wants to follow this up with.
"A bit of an oxymoron don't you think?" Joey replies. He has got her stumped this time and she knows it. She doesn't replies and looks back at the walkie-talkie, picking it up, she hovers her index finger over the call button. She waits, daring herself to try, daring herself to take the risk. In this regard, she has nothing to loose. A crackle is heard as the button is pressed down.
"Bentley." Penelope says.
"Penelope." Bentley replies back, surprised as if he had the same intention.
"Look, i…"Penelope says as she pauses to fill the gap with words.
"Want to apologise? Me too." Bentley replies. His tone is more forgiving this time like a mirrored perfection of Penelope's conveyed tone. There is pause as their simultaneous action takes the words out of their mouth. Each struggling to start.
"I'm sorry." They both say at the same time. All the onlookers in the cars watch as this conversation awkwardly pan out. It may be awkward but they would not rather have it anyway. It is better this way than face to face. Doing it that way is not their style, for both of them. Having this microphone and speaker covering their face and hiding themselves from each other and only letting the sound of their voice communicate to each other is what they prefer. To these two individuals, the outside world is not there right now. It is clouded out of their mind. No helicopters, police cars or spike strips take them out of this very important and unstable moment.
"You go first." Bentley says.
"Okay, This will never ever do justice for what I have done, nothing I do will. You've already heard the tapes from the recording I did. I can't add much else to that other than I won't do that again. As long as we are alive I promise." Penelope says. She admits what she has done again, she can't be more emotional than the apologetic tone she has sent through the airwaves to the van. She had done all of the crying and bawling in private in the plane, the one they are driving as fast as possible to reach.
"I think that we can agree that the past is over." Bentley says. "That is if you don't have a time machine." He jokes. Penelope lets a small chuckle. The chemistry is coming back between them, albeit slowly but they can tell it is building from the pile of ashes many times burnt.
"But using time to solve your problems is fraught with dangers in itself and I wouldn't want to change it." Bentley explains. Joey is slightly shocked that he would say this after all of the hate and spite he showed earlier.
"Shhh, don't say anything else Penelope." Bentley hushly says into the speaker, like he is speaking to a sleeping baby. "We can sort this out later. But for now, why not hear the sound of my voice, my low and slow deep voice." Bentley says like he is being obsessed with his own voice. Penelope is weirded out by this premature advance, even some sort of advance at all. It is all happening too fast for her, they haven't even escaped the clutches of the police and Interpol yet. All she can feel is the g-force moving her side to side as Joey moves around all the slow moving traffic, heading towards the airport. Joey is in the zone, not moving his head or his gaze from the task at hand.
"Once we finish this, I'm all yours." Bentley says to Penelope. Sure she wanted him to not like her but she didn't want it to be like this. It is going to fast for her, relationships built on such rocky foundations need to be carefully repaired.
In the van however, the plan has gone off without a hitch. Sly took a risk there but it paid off. Sitting at the back of the van out of reach from Bentley's long robotic arms. The thin sheet of tape on his neck showing the copper wiring allows him to impersonate Bentley much to Bentley's early discontent. But as Sly goes on to talk, Bentley feels the helplessness build up, knowing that this is what must happen if there is any chance of them trying to get back together. Bentley reaches out a robotic arm with palm open to receive the walkie-talkie from Sly who has had his fun/serious relationship building. Sly puts it back in, only hoping good things can come from this. Bentley slowly puts his ear to the speaker.
"It's me now, Penelope." Bentley says.
"But you were just talking before." Penelope argues.
"I'll explain that later but we really need to settle this now before it gets out of hand." Bentley offers.
"It's not out of control enough for you?" Penelope asks.
"I've had worse." Bentley casually says. "The point is that those 8 years we had together were some of the best of my life, and I want to have more years like that. I want to share them… with you." Bentley says as he goes to tears. It is the first time that Sly has seen him cry, even when he found that Penelope had betrayed him. Sly's feeling of happiness for him turns to complete empathy as he recounts his own events. If empathy is his weakness, it's not a bad one to have.
"Bentley, it's all going too fast at the moment right now, I'm sure we will be together someday but once we get everything sorted out, you know." Penelope says, not wanting to offend Bentley pouring out his heart and soul through the air.
"I put my heart on a platter and you chose to put it in the refrigerator?" Bentley asks, feeling deflated that his big gamble has not paid off as he would have liked.
"No… no, I'm not saying that at all." Penelope replies. "We just need some space, time will take care of the rest."
"So… we're good?" Bentley asks the final question. There is no need for hesitation from Penelope's side.
"Yeah." She replies but this slow moment is broken by the fast progress of their journey.
"Hate to ruin your moment but we're almost at the airport." Joey says.
"I'll see you once we are in the air." Penelope says.
"Okay." Bentley replies. Penelope puts the walkie talkie back in the same spot she found it and looks at the fast approaching terminal that shines in the afternoon sun.
"It's in those hangars over there." Penelope says as she points to the right through the window. She takes a look back and tries to spot the van; they are further behind, becoming almost a speck in the distance. As Joey goes over the bridge to get into the airport complex, he says a multitude of police and army vehicle waiting for them with guns drawn. Joey stops and reverses back across the bridge as bullet come flying past them.
"Head down now." Joey shouts and Penelope follows as the glass shatters from the bullets. Holes start to appear in the bodywork of the car. The engine in the back means that they can't shoot at it right now. As joey does the j turn to speed away and find another exit onto the airport, the van arrives at the roundabout and goes in the other direction having heard the gunfire from before. Joey follows on with pieces of bodywork hanging from the car.
"They'll pay for ruining it." He mutters as he sees the van break open the lowered down boomgate of its hinge with one push of a certain red button. They race along the tarmac and head towards the hangar, hoping that they haven't moved it since they were gone. Sly is worried that if they don't escape in time they could be in for some serious trouble. It is only a worry; he believes in himself, he believes in his gang no matter how long they have been with him. Whether they have been with him since the start or less than a day in Connors case, they will pull through this one and Sly will make sure that they do. In the hypercar as it come to a stop, Penelope isn't worried about the theft of the plane at all.
"What are you looking so smug about?" Joey says as he races out of the car to open the doors to the hangar.
"They don't have the key." Penelope states.
"You need a key to run one of these things? I thought you just walk in a turn it on." Joey asks.
"If it was any other plane you'd be right, not this one though." Penelope explains as the gang arrive with the van. They pile out as fast as possible. Penelope, already in the hangar runs to the door where it opens automatically for her. Joey takes note and runs inside as well. The rest of the gang follow suit except for Murray who needs to perform the one part of this mission that only he could do. He drives the van into the hangar and turns to face the front wheel of the plane. Penelope gives a thumb up, she knows what they are doing despite not hearing this plan. Murray guns it, flooring it as hard as possible to push the plane backwards. It moves but very slowly, the acceleration is very slow as well. The vans wheels are not squealing and howling as they spin but aren't straining at all. All because of a special 'max torque' gear on the van that allows it to increase the torque that it sends to the wheels meaning it can move heavy objects. The tail fin is visible from the outside now and slowly the rest of the plane comes into full view. Police cars surround the plane as it is moving out and shoot at its wheels to try to burst them open, again to no avail.
Once the plane is far back enough, Penelope turns the front wheel to the right, meaning the plane turns left as it reverses out. She turns on the propellers, ready to make a quick exit. Once the force from the van is felt to not be there, she turns up the power and lowers the tailgate to allow Murray to enter. Some police jump out of their cars and try to be the hero and jump aboard the plane but their running speed is not fast enough. The plane just move away from them and the gap it creates allows Murray to sneak inside. From a camera in the cockpit, Penelope sees this and shuts the tailgate just before they make the slight right turn to go to the longest runway at the airport. Murray just pauses in front of them until the sunlight is blocked out by the slowly rising tailgate.
"This is it." Penelope says, ready to take off. She grasps the thrusters but another hand grabs it as well. She looks to her right side, Bentley sitting in the co-pilots seat is unknown to her. They let out a wry smile between each other, as Penelope does a no look turn onto the runway. Once the plane is lined up they know what to do. They push the stick as far forward as possible, together. The gang can see this being the start of something, not new, but different. They can only concentrate on the speed of the plane and the helicopters that fly nearby to watch them go past the window. They feel like they are free, at last from this saga. It has taken them around Europe and some other parts of the world. As the plane tilts back to move into the air. Sly looks at Carmelita, she looks back. They embrace, an only too inevitable occurrence that was going to happen sooner or later. Connor just feels happy for his future son, he knows it will be time for him to depart. Murray arrives from the back of the plane to watch these four individuals become two couples. Murray just looks at Joey and thinks about joining in on the action. He picks up joey from the ground and gives him a huge hug that squeezes all the air out of him.
"Put me down, please." Joey tries to say against the strength of Murray. Murray obliges and follows the instruction as the plane moves further from the ground and further into the air. The plane rises and rises until they level off just above the clouds. It is now the time to say goodbye.
"I guess this is it dad. Time for you to go now." Sly says reluctantly.
"Don't worry about me okay, I'll survive anyway because you are existing right now, meaning I live at least until I have you." Connor says, not concerned with leaving, he has it all worked out. He watches as he walks to the back of the plane, just as he remembered being dragged through time at this spot. Penelope puts it in autopilot
"Someone can jump in if they like." Penelope offers.
"Me, me, me, please." Murray squeals as he jumps into the pilots seat and puts the headphones on and watches the clouds rush past the plane. Sly walks down to the back of the plane to say his final goodbyes. Penelope presses some buttons and the time machine whirrs up and the portal created back to 1981 appears.
"Goodbye my future son." Connor says.
"Goodbye dad." Sly says as the blue raccoon walks into the portal never to be seen again. All those half torn pictures that obscure the true face of Connor can now be filled in. Sly just waves as he walks into the portal and when the portal collapses and disappears, Sly can only feel like his father has been taken away for the second time, only this time it is on his terms and now he can focus on what the future holds.
Sly and Penelope return to the cockpit to sort out the next phase of their plan with the gang.
"So, what next?" Sly asks.