The next episode begins, and the team begins to uncover the full scale of this scheme, not to mention a few especially notorious foes will make their grand return. Simply put, things are about to get crazy. Let's go!

"Carmelita took the criminal Duncan to Interpol for interrogation." Sly Cooper narrated. "Seeing as cooperation would mildly reduce his hefty prison sentence, the thug spilled the info. He said he was hired to mess with Cooper history, and he wasn't acting alone. He said he didn't know everyone who was in on this job, but he knew the idea was to bring together everyone I'd ever beaten and disgraced during my career. That didn't sound good, and Bentley confirmed that the Thievius Raccoonus was deteriorating again; this time, instead of a few sections turning blank, the entire book was going out of whack! It was clear we were in for one of the biggest missions of our lives, and we all needed to be prepared. The section on Thaddeus Winslow Cooper III seemed to have the most problems, so Bentley provided a coin from that era for our time machine. So, off we went to Victorian times! Hopefully the people here aren't too uptight…"

Sly Cooper and the Gang in: The Don of Aristocrats

1850, London, England

The van appeared out of a portal, skidding to a halt in the middle of a quiet street. Men in fancy suits and women in big dresses all stared at the sight in shock. The most advanced form of travel at the time was the horse and carriage, so this neon blue vehicle was incredibly bizarre. Several odd men wearing dark clothes and theater masks noticed the commotion and walked over, pointing their rifles at the van. "Heya, youse weirdos! The boss told us to keep an eye out for this van, and here it is! Come out with your-a hands up!" One of the men said. Since there were several armed guns pointed directly at them, the members of the Cooper Gang followed these orders, exiting the van with their hands raised. "Who do you work for?" Sly asked, annoyed. The thugs laughed as they escorted the team away. "Heh, you may have met him before. We can't say much more than that. Enjoy your time in jail, Cooper!" The goons tossed the Cooper Gang into the local brig, in a fairly big jail cell. "Well, that could've gone better. I suppose while we're in here, we can formulate a means of escape." Bentley said, looking around the cell for weak points. The team immediately noticed they weren't the only ones locked up in here; sitting on the other side of the cell was a fancy looking raccoon with a monocle and top hat. Next to him was a strong, red colored bison man currently whittling away at a big wooden stick. Sly's eyes widened as he inspected them. "Hey, Thaddeus! Are you doing okay? And… is that Jean Bison next to you?" Sly asked, getting the duo's attention. "Hmm? Who are you, young lad, and how do you know my name?" The sophisticated raccoon asked. "I'm from the future, you see. In fact, I think I'm your great great grandson, or something along those lines!" Sly said, chuckling. Thaddeus took a close look at his descendant's face, adjusting his monocle in disbelief. "By jove, you are a Cooper! Have you come to set us free?" He asked, and Sly nodded. "Me and all my friends here. Who got you two imprisoned?" Sly asked; Thaddeus grumbled in annoyance. "Some pompous thespian calling himself Octavio arrested me for no good reason and took my cane!" He said; everyone else gasped. "Octavio?! That's the jerk who took over Venice and polluted its water with oil!" Bentley shouted. "Heh, a fellow man who seeks to control nature, eh?" The young Jean Bison asked. Everyone else looked at him in annoyance. "That's not a good thing, Jean. Say, why are you here anyway?" Bentley asked; Jean Bison was a Canadian strong man of the outdoors from this general time period, but he was frozen solid during the Gold Rush of 1852 only to unthaw over a century later. After a brief stint as one of the members of the villainous Klaww Gang, Bison turned good and worked for the EPA… then got frozen again on a rescue mission in the Arctic. He'd been rescued since, at least. This Jean Bison was clearly from this time, not a traveler from the future. "Ah, well I've been traveling abroad to train my skills so I can tame the wild north! Unfortunately, the locals didn't take kindly to me trying to cut down the trees in their park. Thaddeus here's been teaching me to make this big wooden cane of my own!" Jean Bison boasted, holding up his stick with pride. "I hear there's gold out there in the U.S. and my homeland! When I get back, I'm gonna make it big!" He said excitedly. Sly rubbed the back of his head, not wanting to tell the oblivious bison how that would turn out. "Um, yeah…" He sighed. "Everybody, if Octavio has taken over the town in this time period, then that means our opponents have access to time travel once again! All of our biggest enemies can go anywhere in the timeline that they please!" Bentley said in fear. "… Huh?" Jean Bison bluntly asked, scratching his head. "I tell you, all this talk of time travel is utterly confounding…" Thaddeus sighed; Bentley groaned. "Look, the point is all our lives are in terrible danger, and we've gotta set things right!" He said. Murray put his fists together and smiled. "Sounds good! The Murray hates being caged up!" He said. "I can see a weak point in the prison walls right about… here." Bentley said, pointing to a heavily cracked portion of the wall. "Now this is more my style! Pink hippo, hit the wall on my mark!" Jean Bison said, getting up from his seat and winding up to punch the wall. Murray nodded, standing beside him; they both hit the wall at the same time, busting it down, allowing everyone to escape outside. Jean Bison immediately took the opportunity and ran off, cheering in celebration the whole way. "Yes! Nobody's gonna stop the legendary Jean Bison from taming the wilderness!" He said as he sprinted away. "Let's not worry about what that hooligan gets himself into. The last I heard, this Octavio fellow is about to perform the starring role in a musical play, right there at the grand ball." Thaddeus explained, pointing to a big operahouse across the street. "I'll make some disguises for all of us that should allow us to pass. Be wary, though, there's a big dance scheduled before the play, so we'll need to blend in perfectly." Thaddeus whipped up some elaborate costumes for everybody to wear, so they looked just like the masquerade dancers at the ball. The guards didn't suspect them in the least, and they were all allowed inside.

Thaddeus studied the large ballroom, noticing the many citizens inside. His cane was in a glass case at the highest part of the room, on a balcony. "You two, distract the crowd with your dance while the turtle, hippo, and I find a way to retrieve my cane." He said, beckoning for Bentley and Murray to follow him. Sly and Carmelita held each other's hands, and began to dance elegantly in the center of the crowd. "Feels like we're back in India again, doesn't it?" Sly jokingly asked. He'd once disguised himself and danced with the fox in India as part of a heist, and while they'd gone to events of that sort a few times after on more friendly terms, it had been a long time since they'd done something like this. "This is… weirdly nostalgic." Carmelita said as she twirled around Sly. "I still don't get how you could see me trying to catch you as just a fun diversion." She said; Sly smiled. "Stealing without opposition would be boring. Besides, I know you'd probably never hurt me. Well, not too much anyway." He said, dipping Carmelita with a pirouette. She smiled back. "You're probably right. Just don't push your luck, ringtail." She said; Thaddeus, Bentley, and Murray crept their way towards the balcony, walking up some stairs and through the crowds with minimal suspicion. "We can't be too obvious here. I'll hack this control panel and open the case." Bentley said, already typing away at his computer. Before long, the glass box opened, and Thaddeus grabbed his cane. Immediately, alarms began to go off. Guests looked around in a panic; Sly and Carmelita stopped dancing. "Oh, that's not good…" Sly said quietly. The guards stationed throughout the area quickly surrounded the guys on the top floor. "Halt! You are-a stealing the personal property of the glorious Don Octavio!" Said one guard. However, these goons had no guns, since toting weapons like that around inside a public ball probably wouldn't go over well. So, Bentley turned to Murray as the hippo cracked his knuckles. "Well, that backfired. Subtlety is out the window now, so would you care to do the honors?" Bentley asked with a smug grin. "Absolutely! I'm gonna knock these guys into next week!" Murray shouted, punching several thugs. This prompted the guests to begin to run screaming from the building, before a gunshot was fired into the air; everyone froze. Octavio revealed himself, the only one in the building with a firearm. He looked absolutely furious. "First, give me that." He said, snatching Thaddeus' cane from his hands. "Second, nobody moves," Octavio said before setting his eyes on Sly. "You guys stink! First, you kick me out of-a Venice and get me locked away in prison. Now, I travel-a back in time to a place where my talents can finally be appreciated, and you crash my big party!" He said. "You're an old fogey who couldn't get with the times and lashed out for being unpopular! You deserve to be forgotten!" Sly said in anger. "I don't care what you-a think! Everybody, into the theater, or else! We're making a few changes to the script, and this time, you'll all be-a begging me for an encore!" Octavio ordered, and his men forced the guests into the theater attached to the ballroom. Carmelita aimed her shock pistol at Octavio, but Sly stopped her from firing. "Not yet, Carmelita. We play by his rules first, so these other people don't get hurt. We'll deal with whatever he's got planned for us." He said. Carmelita took a breath and lowered her gun. "Right. This guy was never too bright to begin with…" She sighed. Once everyone was inside the theater, Octavio walked onto the stage, and several thugs got to work controlling the spotlights and musical instruments. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present-a to you my new breakout sensation of a musical: The Tale of the Glorious Octavio and How He Defeated That-a Stinking Raccoon Sly Cooper!" The mafia don boasted as the instruments began to play. He gestured for his enemy to walk onstage, so Sly did just that, hardly phased. "Yeesh, excessive title, don't you think?" He joked. "Quiet! You're gonna play along, or else these-a people are gonna see a bloodbath!" Octavio shouted, jabbing Sly's chest with one of his fingers. Sly decided he'd toy with Octavio for a moment and try to get his temper to betray him. "Yeah, but you don't have beef with them like you do with me. You just couldn't cope when opera became a thing of the past, could you? Maybe if you just adapted to modern tastes or accepted the small crowd you had, you wouldn't have gotten in trouble in the first place!" Sly taunted. Octavio grimaced in anger. "Then again, opera's so lame there's probably no way you'd find an audience now-" Before Sly could even finish speaking, Octavio roared in frustration. He discarded his gun, putting up both fists as he prepared to fight. "You're dead, Cooper! I'm-a gonna make sure you never speak such foul words again!" He said; Sly smiled and pulled out his cane. "Now you're talking." He said. "Last time, you had your-a pink friend fight me. This time, you're gonna do the job yourself!" Octavio said, attaching a small device to Thaddeus' cane that caused it to teleport away. Sly glared at Octavio and readied his cane. "Fine by me. Let's see what you've got after all this time." Sly said, and the battle began. The orchestra picked up in intensity as blows were exchanged, the crowd gasping as this mysterious raccoon man was hit a few times by the mobster. Sly jumped back to avoid Octavio's punches before clocking him in the head several times with his cane, ultimately knocking off his mask. "Oh, now-a you're asking for it!" Octavio's attacks increased significantly in their ferocity, and he began to sing in such a way that the soundwaves could cause physical damage. Pieces of wood splintered from the stage as Octavio tried to hit Sly with the soundwaves and missed, while Sly's friends cheered him on from the audience seats. "Come on, you geezer, you couldn't beat Murray, you can't even beat me!" Sly said, jumping over Octavio and hitting him from behind. "You young people are all-a unknowledgeable and pathetic! My way will remain absolute!" Octavio said, trying to hurt Sly with his singing again. "Somehow, I don't think so." Sly said, baiting his opponent to hit the support structures for the backdrop and lighting system. After being hit with the soundwaves, the background set and overhead lights began to deteriorate before coming loose from their place. "Uh oh." Octavio said, looking up in fear as his defeat came plummeting towards him. Sly jumped out of the way at the last moment before the debris crashed down. Sly winced a bit as he saw Octavio pinned beneath the rubble, but it was clear he was mostly unharmed. The opera singer groaned in sadness, his magnum opus eclipsed by Cooper once again. The crowd cheered, and Octavio's men tried to quickly flee the scene before Carmelita pulled out her shock pistol. "All of you lowdown thugs, get on the ground! You have no power anymore!" She shouted, and so the henchmen obliged. Sly approached the beaten Octavio, who was still awake despite his predicament. "Take me. You've already-a wounded my pride anyhow." He sighed. Sly pulled the criminal loose, and Octavio smiled as Carmelita slapped handcuffs on him. "You may have-a gotten me, but there's plenty more of us! You Coopers are gonna take your-a final bow soon enough!" He said, cackling to himself as he and his men were escorted outside. The villains were tightly crammed into the van before the Cooper Gang got in. "Good luck on your ventures, chaps! Stop… whoever these odd miscreants are and get my goods back!" Thaddeus said as he waved them off. "I'll do my best." Sly said, and the van picked up speed before traveling forward in time.

"Intellect… refined… experience… greater… skills… superior…" Said a metallic, somewhat garbled voice. Two robotic eyes opened, studying a dark room; four people were crowded around, watching as the machine they'd been working on awakened. There was a pink mouse, a cowardly skunk hiding behind her, a small bird in a strange mobile birdcage, and a crazed looking baboon with some device affixed to his head. The mouse smiled nervously and cleared her throat. "Hello, Clockwerk. My name is Penelope. Can you hear me?" She asked. Clockwerk looked around, inspecting his own body closely. The robotic owl was the ultimate enemy of the Cooper family, spending hundreds upon hundreds of years trying to eradicate their legacy; he'd replaced his organic body with a mechanical one, and obtained immortality through sheer willpower and hatred. The last thing he remembered was fighting the newest in the family lineage, Sly Cooper, in the depths of the Krakarov Volcano, before being destroyed. The mechanical owl could've sworn there was something else that happened since, though. Even when he was nothing but scattered parts, he was still somewhat conscious. And what was this… Neyla Virus that seemed to have been extracted from his mainframe? No matter. The first thing that came to his mind once he was conscious was revenge, and he was going to figure out how to get it. "Where am I? Who are you people?" Clockwerk asked, as he didn't recognize any of these individuals. Eager to please, Le Paradox spoke first. "My name is Cyrille Le Paradox, and I am the greatest nemesis to the Cooper clan of all time!" He said, and Clockwerk immediately glared at him. "That title belongs to me, and no other." The owl said bluntly. The small bird bowed his head with one wing on his chest in a regal manner. "I am Arpeggio. It was my brilliant mind that assembled your broken body back together, before I was killed by my traitorous protegee…" He said. "You pieced me together once? Impressive, for a mortal." Clockwerk said, feeling intrigued. The baboon spoke next. "I am Dr. M, an unparalleled scientist and genetics expert! Even death can't stop me from destroying the Cooper legacy!" He said. "Interesting. Two of you claim to have died in the past, and yet you stand before me now. How is that possible?" Clockwerk asked; Penelope smiled proudly. "Simple! Time travel! I used my time machine to pull these two to the present just before their moment of death, then I filled them in on the plan. That's also how I brought you back; I sucked your body parts through the time portal before your Hate Chip could be destroyed. Then, all four of us put you back together. The process wasn't seamless, but everything seems to have worked!" She explained. Clockwerk began to walk past them. "Do you have a plan in action?" He asked. "Yes. I've assembled all of Sly's past enemies together and sent them back in time to eradicate the Cooper family's notoriety completely." Penelope said. Clockwerk paused and nodded. "A good plan. But it will need some additions. I am in control of this now." He said. Penelope crossed her arms, walking closer to Clockwerk in annoyance. "Now, you hold on! I started this whole thing, I'm the one with all the ideas here! You'd better listen to me, otherwise we're never gonna-" Clockwerk interrupted her by quickly whipping around and knocking her to the floor before clamping one of his talons around her neck. "Listen to me, girl, and listen well. There is no mind in the universe more wise than Clockwerk, and if you wish to disagree with my plans I will not hesitate to punish you for it." He said, slowly but firmly tightening his grip. Penelope's heart accelerated wildly, her eyes going wide as she felt the owl's robotic claws gently brush against her throat. "I do not need subordinates to succeed, but this plan holds promise, and you have earned a place for restoring me, so do not waste the opportunity you have. Everything you've put in place belongs to me now. Understood?" Clockwerk asked, staring menacingly into her eyes. "Y-y-yes." Penelope stuttered. "Good." Clockwerk released her and walked away. The other villains exited the room one at a time, until Penelope was the only one inside. She got up and brushed herself off, still afraid after what just happened. "What have I gotten myself into?" She asked herself aloud. After a short moment, she left the room to follow the others.

Time is being tampered with, and the dark plans are escalating, but even worse the immortal Clockwerk is back! What is he going to do on top of altering the timeline? Where will Sly and the gang end up next? And who else is making a comeback? More will be revealed next time!