Sly, Gilda, and Derpy quickly made their way down to the building that was in front of where the first lightning rod was located, as the last mission beacon was on the lower section of the roof that was below them, but fortunately the guards didn't seem to mind the fact that a powerful looking bolt of lightning struck someplace in the prison. That was something that always surprised Sly, that the guards assumed that anything that was associated with lightning came from the storms and not from something, or rather someone, else. Even the Contessa knew that both Gilda and Derpy had elemental powers, especially since Carmelita had told her superiors about their powers, but right now it appeared that she had completely forgotten that fact and was blaming the actual weather, which was perfectly fine with them at the moment. If their foe wanted to be ignorant and ignore what was going on in the area around her prison, then Sly was sure that Bentley would use that to their advantage.
Thinking of Bentley caused Sly to chuckle and pull out his binocucom, to which both he and his sisters stared at the area around them, though a few seconds later they zeroed in one a rectangular screen that was across the road and the lock that was attached to it.
"Sly, before you, Gilda, and Derpy return to the hideout I need your help getting a handle on the Contessa's encryption algorithm." Bentley stated, reminding them of the one mission he very briefly talked about and said that he would explain it to them when it came time for them to do this one.
"We'd love to Bentley," Sly said, where he pulled down his binocucom for a moment and noticed that both Gilda and Derpy were as confused as he was, to which he sighed before he glanced back at the rectangular screen, "but we have no idea what you're talking about."
"Alright, I'll explain it to you one piece at a time. See that security station?" Bentley inquired, making sure that all three of them were staring at the screen in question, meaning it was important and that they should know about it for this particular mission, "The guard nearby is responsible for its upkeep."
"Okay, that sounds reasonable." Derpy spoke up, to which she glanced over at the guard in question, who happened to have his back turned towards the security station and he happened to have a blue glowing pocket, the same one that they would pickpocket key items from.
"First, I'll need one of you to pickpocket his key to the terminal." Bentley stated, where he changed their binocucoms to look over at the guard, in the off chance that some of them weren't actually looking at the guard that Derpy had her eye on at the moment.
"That shouldn't be a problem." Gilda replied, because she knew that, as thieves, the three of them had the skills to pick pockets without getting caught, so being told that they needed to take a key that the nearby guard was carrying was something they could easily do.
"Then I need you to use it on the security station to set off the alarm." Bentley said, though he knew that this particular statement would cause them to think he was mad or something, but at the same time he would explain himself so that they would understand why he wanted them to do this.
"Hold up, you want us to set off the alarm?" Sly asked, because while he knew that there had to be a reason for them doing this, and he was sure that Bentley would explain everything, he still found the act of setting off an alarm on purpose to be against what thieves were supposed to do.
"Yeah, set it off then clear out as the guard's sure to come running." Bentley answered, which made sense to the siblings when they thought about it, but this time they said nothing as they waited to see what else Bentley had to tell them about this mission, "Once he sees that it's a false alarm, he'll input the code to turn it off."
"So you want us to take a picture of the code?" Derpy asked, because now she was starting to see the bigger picture of the mission, though part of her wondered why Bentley didn't just spend a few minutes explaining this before they left the hideout earlier.
"One of you should stay in a safe place, so you can get a clean shot of that digital readout." Bentley said, revealing that two of them were going to have to deal with the guards, or at least pick their pockets for the keys, while the other watched over the security station so they got the code the moment it was entered.
"Should we hit all the security stations out here?" Sly asked, because if Bentley wanted only one then they would be able to do this mission in record time, especially since Derpy was more tired than Gilda was, but at the same time he knew what Bentley's response was going to be.
"That's right," Bentley said, confirming Sly's thoughts on what they needed to do, even though he had been about to say the same thing himself, which made him happy that they were learning what needed to be done on the missions that he was sending them on, "once I've got a large enough sample of the Contessa's codes I should be able to crack her encryption algorithm."
Sly, deciding not to annoy Bentley by asking about the encryption algorithm again, simply lowered his binocucom and had both Gilda and Derpy stay on the roof that they were all standing on, since it had the best view of the first security station, before he jumped down to the road below them. Fortunately it only took him a few seconds to approach the vulture guard and pick his pocket, as the key was the only thing he had been carrying on him, before Sly headed back towards the security station. The moment he reached his target, and had avoided the spotlights at the same time, he slipped the key into the lock and got rid of it, before he tapped a button and the alarm started to sound, to which e retreated to the roof that his sisters were on and watched as the guard he had taken the key from started to make his way over to the security station. A few seconds later the guard input the code and the alarm was silenced, though that was when Derpy, who had her binocucom resting on the security station, snapped a picture of the first code and smiled as they pocketed the information Bentley needed.
Once that was done Gilda grabbed into Sly and took off into the sky, heading towards a beacon that was near the bridge they had damaged earlier, with Derpy following after them, where they found another vulture guard patrolling the area near the security station he was supposed to be tending to. Derpy, of course, landed somewhere that gave her a good view of the screen the code would be shown on, allowing Sly and Gilda to carefully pick the key from the guard's pocket before setting off the alarm. Just like the last time the guard made his way to the security station and seemed annoyed when he noticed that it was a false alarm, to which he input the code and turned the alarm off, allowing Derpy to snap a picture of the second code. The third security station was located on the backside of the Contessa's house, where Sly and Gilda hunted down the guard that had the key while Derpy set herself up where she could take the best picture of the code... though not a minute later they were heading away from the house with the code in hand, with an annoyed guard left to patrol the building.
The final security station happened to be located near the hideout, though this time around the three of them had to distract the guard that was standing right in front of the terminal they needed to use, which in turn allowed Sly to pick the key from his pocket before activating the alarm... though that allowed Derpy to take the picture of the final code, before the three of them headed back to the hideout to see what Bentley had planned for their operation.
Once Sly, Gilda, and Derpy returned to the hideout, and head rested a little, Bentley stated that they were ready to rescue Murray from the area of the prison that Sly had told him he needed to be thrown into, which he did with some joy as he knocked out the guards around him. Bentley informed them that the first step of the plan was simple, that they use the Contessa's keys to steal one of her tanks, at which point he would jump in and drive it towards the gate while Sly kept out of sight by crawling underneath it, leaving Gilda, Derpy, and Diz to wait for the signal. He was hoping that the guards won't notice anything out of the ordinary and open the prison gates for him, which would allow him to casually roll into the prison and blast open the security doors to Murray's cell block. Once that was done they would all head inside the cell block, where Sly and the others would need to improvise their way up to the guard control center and open the doors leading down to solitary confinement. Bentley was also hoping that Murray hadn't cracked under the Contessa's hypnosis, even though he had faith in Murray's abilities, but he did have something in mind for when they reached that part of the prison... which he planned on revealing once they reached that part of the prison.
The moment he was finished explaining the operation, and the group was ready to move forward, Bentley headed out with Diz as his backup, even if he knew that the guards wouldn't be able to get at him until he was already in the tank and they were moving towards the prison's front door.
"Okay Sly, Diz and I are heading out for the tank." Bentley said, letting Sly know that they were moving out, so that way he, Gilda, and Derpy could get into position for when they had to move as well, before nodding to Diz and started the short journey towards the tank.
Sure enough Bentley's prediction that there were guards in their way came true, as Diz moved forward and knocked out the vulture guard that was in Bentley's way, before finding the tank in question and carefully did the same thing to the wolf guards that were in front of it... allowing Bentley to climb into the tank, where he immediately started to fiddle with the controls for a few moments.
"I'm inside the tank..." Bentley commented, to which Diz and the others, who were standing on a nearby roof, watched as the tank shifted a little and raised up a little, creating an area for someone to crawl under the vehicle, "increasing the ride height on the treads. There, that should give you enough room Sly. Crawl underneath this thing and let's get moving."
Sly nodded his head, even though Bentley couldn't see him do so, and left his sisters behind on the roof of the building they were standing on, to which he headed over to where the tank was located and crawled underneath it, where he tapped his communicator to let Bentley know that he was ready. A few seconds later Bentley started moving the tank towards the ramp that would take him right to the entrance of the prison, though at the same time Sly moved at the same time and keep up with the tank's movements. It didn't take them long to reach the main entrance, where the guards simply opened the gate for them and let them head inside the prison, causing Bentley to chuckle a little as he maneuvered the vehicle into position in front of the door to Murray's cell block. Once the tank was positioned in the right spot, and he was sure that it was, Bentley had Sly move out from under the tank and move to a safe distance, where he loosed a shot at the door the moment Sly indicated that he was clear... blowing open the door and allowing them to enter the part of the prison that Murray was in.
The moment the door was open Gilda, Derpy, and Diz quickly flew over to where they were standing and followed Sly inside the cell block, as Bentley insisted on remaining behind to sabotage the tank, that way no one would be able to use it against them when they made their escape... to which they entered the hallway that would take them right to an elevator, one that brought them down into the area that Murray had been sentenced to before he got into the massive fight earlier.
"Okay Bentley, we're inside," Sly commented, though as the four of them gathered in front of the elevator door, after having rode it down to the level they were on, he wondered what they were going to do next, as that part of the operation hadn't been explained, "what's next?"
"Well, that should be the guards' control center," Bentley said, to which he stepped out of the elevator and stopped when he was behind them, while at the same time he was staring up at their target, "but to be honest I'm not sure how you're going to get up there... not without flying anyway."
"Then that's what we'll do." Diz said, to which she flapped her wings for a moment, though even as she did so she was a little annoyed that the chaotic energies hadn't let her revert back to her original form yet, where she simply sighed and focused on the mission.
Despite the fact that there were a few spotlights that were still operational, something that hadn't been in all of the blueprints that they had received from Secretary Sen, indicating that the Contessa also withheld information from those she was pretending to work with, Gilda, Derpy, and Diz flew up to the top of the control center and dropped Sly off. From there it was a simple matter for Sly to drop down into the room and knock out the lone guard before he could do anything to him, allowing him to input Bentley's algorithmic code decryptor. At the same time, however, Gilda, Derpy, and Diz flew around the area of the prison that they had access to and knocked out all of the guards that were in the area, as the last thing they wanted was for someone to discover their plans and ruin them before they could free Murray or even make their escape... especially since there was no telling when the Contessa would arrive to check up on their friend, or the other inmates that were in the other cell blocks.
"Hey Bentley, do you see anything happening down there?" Sly asked, because while it was a good thing that the others were knocking the guards out, thus making the departure easier for them, he wanted to get the show on the road before the Contessa arrived, as he wanted to scare her into fleeing to where Carmelita was being held against her will.
"Success!" Bentley declared, to which the gate that he was standing in front of opened before his eyes, causing him to smile as he ran up the stairs and took a new position on the other side, where he could wait for the others to join him before they made a move for Murray, "We've got access to solitary confinement!"
"Hot stuff, I'm heading down." Sly said, though as he made his way down to the floor he spotted the others knocking out the rest of the guards, before they joined him and headed through the raised gate that Bentley had been standing near, who was happy to see all of them.
When the five of them entered the area that Murray was supposed to be located in they discovered a strange sight, Murray was standing in the middle of an unusual chamber and seemed to be twitching and swatting at the air for some reason, causing them all to worry about their friend for a few moments.
"Hmm, that looks bad. I've never seen Murray like this." Bentley commented, though this wasn't a good thing for them, as now they had to find a way to get their friend out of this state and fast, before the Contessa arrived and ruined everything they had planned.
"He's all twitchy and bug-eyed." Diz said, as it hurt to see their friend acting so weird, especially since there was no telling whether or not the Contessa had started her hypnosis sessions with him, but it only made her want to beat the stuffing out of the spider for what she had done so far.
"Sly, you said that Murray was being forced to eat spice right?" Bentley asked, recalling something that had been said when Murray spoke to Sly when he was inside the prison vents earlier, which could prove to be useful in the situation that they found themselves in.
"Yeah, he said he was feeling 'weird'." Sly answered, though he wasn't sure where Bentley was going with his question, but something told him that his friend had already figured out a way to get Murray out of the state that he was in and also get him out of the cell that he was trapped inside.
"Well, he's weirded out alright. I doubt he even knows we're here." Bentley stated, as the opening of the gate didn't cause Murray to turn towards them, like he usually would have, and their voices didn't seem to have any effect either, which left them with one choice, "Clearly, we're going to have to lure out of that cell the hard way. Those hypno-boxes are designed to heighten the effects of spice... and he's already in an agitated state. So if we were to turn them all on at the same time Murray's sure to become wildly hostile and probably break down the door."
"It looks like the power switches for the hypno-boxes are all defended by laser barriers." Gilda pointed out, though at the same time she smiled for a moment, because when she counted them she spotted three of them, but her smile was more for the fact that Bentley could likely get through the protection with ease, "Bentley, when we get close you'll have to hack the laser system from that terminal... that should give us access to the switches."
Bentley nodded as Sly stood beside him, mostly in case some guards opened the gate they had walked through, leaving Gilda, Derpy, and Diz to fly over to the three guarded power switches and wait for the laser barriers to go down, which was all up to Bentley's hacking. Sly watched as the laser barriers went down in a timely fashion, allowing the others to turn on the hypno-boxes and increase the rage and anger that Murray was feeling at the moment, causing him to shout at the anger in an attempt to drive it away. When the second hypno-box was activated Murray started to sing a very short version of the 'Little Teapot', but that quickly changed as parts of the verse were changed as his rage took over again, making it sound like an angry teapot this time around. When the third was activated Murray went crazy with rage and charged out of the cell he had been kept inside since Sly convinced him to beat up those guards, though as that happened Sly knew exactly what to do... he needed to break the hypno-boxes, which he was sure that his cane couldn't handle, so he used the other weapon at his disposal, Murray's charge attacks.
As such Sly carefully maneuvered himself around the chamber that they were in, making sure that one of the four hypno-boxes were in between him and Murray at all times, where he smiled whenever Murray charged forward and smashed one of the devices to pieces... though when all of the hypno-boxes had been destroyed Murray staggered to the middle of the chamber and the others gathered around him.
"Uhh, my head." Murray complained, indicating that ramming into the hypno-boxes had hurt more than Sly was originally expecting, but he was happy to see that Murray was coming to, and he wasn't the only one that was happy to be reunited with him, "Who? What? Is this heaven?"
"Sorry pal... you're no angel." Sly said, though at the same time he patted Murray on the shoulder, as it was good to have him back, especially now that there was only one member of the gang that they needed to rescue, one who was likely in a more dangerous situation than what he and Murray had been in.
"Murray, just take a few deep breathes and try to center your thoughts." Bentley instructed, remembering what Gilda, Derpy, and Diz had learned how to do back when they were learning magic from Mz. Ruby, back during the first couple of days of their training.
"Okay." Murray said, though as he tried to do that, and found all of his friends standing beside him once more, he noticed something odd that wasn't what he remembered, especially when he considered who the person was and what had happened the first time this happened, "Diz, how did you..."
"Chaos energy." Diz replied, as that was her excuse for when this sort of thing happened to her, because while she could easily snap her fingers and revert back to her male form, which she preferred to be in most the time, her powers tended to make her return to the opposite form a few minutes later... meaning that if she let her powers run their course she'd be back to normal in no time.
"What's with all the racket!? My conscious mind is a wreck. I ...ought to..." a voice said, to which Gilda, Derpy, and Diz turned and looked at the other entrance to the chamber they were in, where they spotted the Contessa standing on the other side of the gate, staring at them with some shock in her eyes, "the weak-minded Hippo is free, and he's got friends! Perhaps it's time to reevaluate some life choices."
"I don't know how I managed it, but I was able to keep this half of the Clockwerk Heart safe." Murray said, to which he carefully extracted the half of the Clockwerk Heart from his own pack, which he couldn't believe the guards didn't search when he and the others were captured, "It was hard to hide from the Con... the Contessa! She's getting away!"
Sly didn't even need to say anything as Murray handed him the half of the Clockwerk Heart that he had been holding onto and charged at the gate in front of them, where he latched onto the crank bar that was in front of him, to which he heaved with all of his might and moved the bar until it was all the way at the top. He then moved to the other side of the gate and did the same thing to the second crank bar, lifting it into position and opening the way for them to move forward, allowing them to charge through the pathway that the Contessa had used. A few moments later they pushed their way out onto the upper walkway of the prison and stood there for a moment, as the Contessa was standing near them, apparently having waited just long enough to see them come outside the cell block.
"You lousy no good head shrinker!" Murray declared, to which he pointed a finger at the Contessa, because right now he wanted nothing more than to hurt her for all the pain she had caused him and Sly, and not to mention Carmelita, wherever she was located, since they were captured earlier.
"Oh come now Murray, we were making such progress during our sessions." Contessa said, as if she was trying to play him or something, which only made the rest of the gang angry, because she should have known that she was losing and should have surrendered because of their sheer numbers.
"The only mental help I need is to forget about you," Murray stated, as he really wanted to put everything that happened lately in the past, where he would never have to remember it, and he was sure that some of the others felt the same way at the moment, "and I'll start by throwing you in jail!"
"Such displaced hostility." Contessa replied, though the way she spoke so far made the gang think that she was talking to a child, which was something that Murray wasn't, "If you insist on getting angry why not be psychologically productive and channel it at your so-called friends?"
"I'm done talking with my mouth!" Murray shouted, because now the Contessa was asking for it, because he wasn't about to turn his back on his friends and beat them up, not after everything they had been through since they met each other all those years ago, "Now I talk with my fists!!"
"Sorry, but our time is up." Contessa stated, to which she turned around and started to flee before their eyes, causing the gang to growl as they gave chase, while at the same time being careful to take out the smaller spiders that their target used against them.
The Contessa attempted to use spiders that were also explosives to stop them in their tracks, but with the six of them following after her it didn't take them long to take out the obstacles that were in front of them, forcing the Contessa to run away from them... before leaping onto the blimp that was near the end of the walkway, out of range for everyone save for Gilda, Derpy, and Diz, who Sly stopped from blasting the blimp since they were still missing a member.
"She's getting away!" Murray said, anger filling his voice for a moment, as he had been hoping to take the Contessa out before she could leave the area, while at the same time they watched as the blimp ascended towards the sky and headed towards her other base of operations.
"Don't worry pal, Bentley has an idea where she might be going next." Sly stated, to which he stared at the blimp and thought about Carmelita, who was likely wondering when they were coming to rescue her from her prison, "With the majority of the gang back together she doesn't stand a chance."
With Murray rescued from the cell block he had been imprisoned inside, and the Clockwerk Heart restored once the two halves were reunited, the gang returned to their hideout and quickly gathered everything they had brought with them, before starting the drive out of town. Murray was glad to be back in the driver seat of his van, even though he knew that the others had been forced to learn how to drive the van thanks to his absence, but he also promised that, when they had the time, he'd give them a proper lesson in case they needed to drive a stick shift vehicle while he wasn't present. While most of them were happy to be back together, and were trying to have a good time while they drove out of the town, only Sly seemed to be lost in thought. The others knew what he was thinking about, he was worried about Carmelita and the fact that they had no idea what the Contessa might be doing to her, which is why Bentley had the route Murray needed to take to get to the castle that was the other property that the Contessa owned.
Gilda and Derpy were sure that they would be able to find Carmelita and rescue her as well, because they weren't about to leave her in the clutches of someone that was as evil as the Contessa... and something told them that if they didn't act fast, and rescue her quickly, they'd never find her again.