Sly Cooper: Family of Thieves

by Blackdrag-rose

Time: Assaulting the Dragon Gates

While Murray was distracting El Jefe inside the geisha house, and apparently some of the other guards that had come to see 'Madame Geisha' dance, Bentley had one more objective that they needed to complete before they could move forward with his plan to take out the person that was messing with this time period. For this he enlisted Rioichi, Derpy, and Gilda, because the item he needed was inside the cave that he and Murray had gone fishing in and they were the only ones that could climb the walls, mostly since Diz was keeping an eye on the guards and Sly had gone to where Clockwerk was to see if he noticed anything odd, or if the Past Clockwerk had come back. Since Rioichi was nearby when that part of the conversation had been said, however, Bentley noticed something odd, just like the others noticed, and that was the fact that the Cooper Ancestor didn't seem to care or seem phased by the fact that they were working with someone that had hunted down him and his family, not to mention the ancestors that came before him.

"You're sure taking this well." Bentley said, as he honestly wasn't expecting Riioichi to be so calm when he learned that the mechanical owl was actually the one that had been the bane of the Cooper Clan, even though the Coopers had always beaten him every step of the way, according to what the ancient owl told him and the others.

"Bentley-san, this is a time of magic and monsters." Rioichi replied, speaking of his own time period for a moment, which those that had read the Thievius Raccoonus realized that some of the stories that he had penned into the tome must have been real, even if they hadn't necessarily believed them when they first read them, "There are god-born among both the nobles and the peasants of the land, and go on to do good for the land, while others use their talents for evil. El Jefe has brought metal monsters to this village, ones that have long since disappeared since his arrival, so it is not hard to imagine that you would have some as well... and that one might be the ancient foe of the Cooper Clan."

Bentley stared at Rioichi for a moment, trying to figure out if he was being serious or if he was just messing with them, but since time was of the essence right now, as there was no telling when El Jefe would be done at the geisha house, he let the trio leave the safe house as he returned to his preparations for the final battle with El Jefe. The trio, on the other hand, made their way through the village and headed for the cave where Murray and Bentley had gone fishing, though as they did that they, true to their nature as thieves, made sure to pocket the treasure that the guards had in their pockets before even drawing close to their destination. When they arrived at the cave, however, they found some rats in yellow suits patrolling the area, ones that Gilda and Derpy recognized as Le Paradox's men from the museum Sly and Carmelita stole the dagger from, meaning that someone knew that they were here and were trying to stop them. At the same time the three of them remained back and both Gilda and Derpy pulled out their binocucoms, before beckoning Rioichi to do the same with the one that he had been given earlier, even though this was the first time he actually needed to use the device that Bentley had given him.

As the three of them connected to the safe house, and established a connection with Bentley, they found their gazes being drawn to a sinister looking plant that was high up on the wall above the area that they were in, meaning that it was going to be their job to grab something from it before the mission started.

"Okay guys, we need to collect some samples from those strange plants growing high on the cave walls." Bentley informed them, confirming what Gilda and Derpy had been thinking since they entered the cave, while at the same time Rioichi just stared at the target like he was charting his path up to where it rested, "Commonly known as the Spiky Wall Climber, it secretes a mild toxin we can use to make sushi rolls that will put any guard to sleep instantly. Just be careful not to be overcome yourselves..."

"Bentley-san, did I not explain..." Rioichi started to say, but at the same time both Gilda and Derpy brought their palms to their faces, because while Bentley was used to telling them and the rest of the gang to be careful about something, as he didn't want anything to happen to them, Rioichi seemed to have a pretty high opinion of himself and continued to repeat a certain phrase that was growing old real fast.

"I know, I know. You're a Ninja Master." Bentley stated, though at the same time he guessed that he might as well just give up even attempting to tell his friends to be careful when Rioichi was around, especially when the mission involved him and that would only prompt him to repeat himself, making him realize something about Sly.

"Hai! Now, allow me to show you how it's done." Rioichi said, to which he put away the binocucom that he had been given and sneaked forward, slipping into the shadows while he moved around the guards, who seemed to have no idea that he was even there as he started to make his way up to the first of the two plants that Bentley had identified.

"Well, now at least we know where Sly gets it from." Gilda commented, to which both Derpy and Bentley nodded their heads, as they both understood what she was talking about and confirmed that they had been thinking the same thing as Rioichi moved forward, though that was before she and Derpy put their binocucoms away and headed out for the remaining plant that Bentley had spotted earlier.

While Rioichi silently climbed the wall that the first plant was located on, without alerting the guards to his presence, both Gilda and Derpy used a technique that they had learned over the last couple of years, one that allowed them to fly without making a single noise, meaning they could flap their wings as much as they wanted and no one would hear them as they made their way towards the second plant. Thanks to their ability to fly the sisters were able to bypass the wooden spike traps that erupted from part of the ground, didn't need to jump on the large lily pads that were floating in the water, or mess around with the electrifying insects that Murray and Bentley had dealt with the last time they were in. As such they were able to reach the plant in no time, where Derpy struck it with her cane and caused it to expel the seed that they had come here for, where Gilda formed a Wind Blade and severed the connection between the plant and the purple seed, allowing them to gather what they came for, backtrack the same way they moved forward, and rejoined Rioichi as he made his way out of the cave and headed back towards the safe house... as now that they had all the ingredients that he needed, and his restaurant was open again, he'd be able to make sushi and get the show on the road.

The moment they returned to the safe house Bentley told them that it was time for them to put their operation in motion, to which Rioichi headed back to his restaurant and prepared some special sushi rolls for the guards that were on duty at the Dragon Gates. With those special rolls given to the guards, who suspected nothing when they chowed into them and were knocked out within moments after devouring them, the gang was able to move into position and get the show on the road, especially since they needed to take out El Jefe. The first order of business was picking the pocket of the only remaining guard and take the key that he was holding onto, which was given to Sly since it would take some time for the others to get into position, and he was more than happy to relieve the guard of the key he was carrying, including knocking him out. Once that was done Sly tossed the key into the air and Derpy grabbed it, where she dropped down in front of one of the locks and undid it, opening the dragon mouth that was in front of Gilda, before doing the same thing to the one that Sly was standing in front of... and while Gilda used her power over wind to throw the fireball back into the mouth it came from, opening her section of the gate in the process, Sly donned the samurai armor and used it's shield to do the same thing.

A few moments later, with both of the dragon mouths defeated, the two locks on the gate came undone and the actual gate opened before their eyes, though as that happened the rest of the gang caught up, with Clockwerk in his smaller form, and together they stormed the palace that El Jefe had to be hiding in... and Murray also took off the ring that Diz gave him, so he could fight their enemies as 'The Murray' and not as 'Madame Geisha'. When they reached the palace, however, they came to a stop when they noticed a large statue of El Jefe in the palace area, meaning that his ego was as large as they had assumed it was, but then all of them stopped when they noticed a blimp rise out of the area between the road they were walking on and the palace. Bentley's eyes widened as he noticed the mechanical components on the exterior, as it was impossible to not recognize the time machine that looked like the one that they had used to come back to this point, and both Sly and Carmelita noticed Le Paradox's marking on the blimp as well, something that they snapped a picture of for when they got back to the present, as this was more evidence against the museum owner that Secretary Sen could use against him... how they weren't entirely sure, but there were sure that he'd find a way to use the picture, and any others like it, to his advantage.

A few moments later they stepped onto the bridge that would allow them to cross over to the palace, just like they had figured out earlier, and standing at the other side of it was El Jefe, puffing away on one of his cigars, but at the same time that raised some red flags for the group, as he shouldn't have known that they were coming just yet, not unless the two dragon mouths had a modern alarm hidden inside them.

"End of the line, Cooper!" El Jefe stated, though it was unclear if he was talking to Sly or Rioichi, as he wasn't looking at either of them and seemed to be focused on the group as a whole, before pulling on his cigar and loosed a puff of smoke into the air as he turned towards the sky for a few seconds, "Get them you fools!"

As the rat soldiers dropped into the air, and an iron gate fell over the entrance that would take them to the palace as El Jefe walked away from them, the majority of the gang stood their ground as the rats came at them, while at the same time Rioichi climbed over the edge and headed for the controls that would allow them to raise the object that was now blocking their path. While most of the gang focused on the rats that were currently in front of them, and knocked them out accordingly, Gilda, Derpy, and Diz used a small bit of their power to knock out the soldiers that were dropping into the area from the blimp, making sure not to hit the blimp since damaging it might actually damage something instead of fixing what was going on at the moment. It wasn't long before the part of the gate that El Jefe had lowered to prevent them from following after him raised back into position, where they watched as Rioichi joined them as the last of the rat soldiers fell into the pile that Murray had created, just to show the others aboard the blimp that it was a bad idea to mess with the Cooper Gang, before they resumed walking forward and continued towards the palace.

On the other side of the gate El Jefe surprised them by falling on Rioichi, who had been at the head of the pack, and removed his cane from his possession, before tossing the Cooper Ancestor at them, put the cane behind his back, and drew his swords, where he put them against the wooden bridge and ran away from them, where flames danced on the bridge as he retreated... until he reached the other side and the majority of the bridge collapsed, even though something like this wouldn't actually stop them from following after him. Despite the fact that Diz could manipulate the bridge and change it into a better walkway for them, as it was well within his power at this point, Bentley had him, Sly, Carmelita, Gilda, and Derpy go after El Jefe, allowing them to search for additional clues before they headed back to the Dragon Gates and watched the battle that was going to happen. As such the five of them crossed over the destroyed bridge, which was easy for three of them thanks to the fact that they had wings, while Sly and Carmelita used the Ninja Spire Jump to get across the burning gap, before the five of them approached the palace that was in front of them and started to walk towards the base of the large El Jefe statue... where they spotted the real El Jefe sitting on a throne at the base of the statue, and for some reason he was petting a pigeon that looked spooked by what was going on.

"Hey, Cooper Gang, what do you think of my statue?" El Jefe asked, to which the five of them immediately wondered if he was buying time for Le Paradox, who had to own the blimp that was in the air near the palace, while at the same time noticing that he still had Rioichi's cane.

"It looks like a real pigeon magnet." Carmelita commented, as that was true, there were a number of pigeons already gathering around it, including the one that was near El Jefe at the moment, before she considered something else when she noticed the size of the statue, "That, or maybe it's compensating for something."

El Jefe growled as he knocked the pigeon away and jumped into the air, grabbing onto a rope that allowed him to head to the top of the statue, which was still under construction by the looks of it, and the gang easily caught up with him, since three of them could fly and that they could carry the other two up to where their enemy was waiting. When they reached the point where El Jefe wanted to fight them, with both his blades drawn, he surprised them by revealing that he could throw a cluster of fireballs from one of the blades and set the area that they were heading through on fire, just like he had done to the bridge, and they had to be careful as they charged at him. What was interesting was that El Jefe climbed into a flat area and seemed to meditate for a few seconds, giving the five of them time to catch up with him, and he even commented that they were starting to annoy him, which was where Sly revealed that they had that sort of effect on all criminals, regardless of whether their current target was cowardly or not, and despite his words the tiger stood up and drew his swords on them once more.

When the battle started the five of them discovered that the second blade that El Jefe was carrying seemed to call the power of lightning to his side, but that was when the tiger's eyes widened when Derpy grinned and flexed her own power, drawing all of the lightning in the area to her and taking any sort of power that he might attempt to use against them during this battle. Despite that fact he continued to attack them, where they noticed that simply attacking him with their canes wasn't enough and Sly, usually the one that figured things out when his magical siblings didn't realize something, donned the armor to knock the fireballs back towards the tiger, opening his weaknesses so the five of them could beat the daylights out of him to the best of their ability, before he got up and resumed the battle once more. When El Jefe ran to the next platform that he wanted to fight on, and the five of them followed after him, he revealed that he had a few other attacks up his sleeve, as one was a wave of fire that erupted from where he was standing and required that Gilda, Derpy, and Diz using their magic to create barriers to protect them, while Carmelita hid behind Sly while that happened. The lightning based attack that he intended to use against them was drained of it's power as Derpy took it as well, causing him to growl at her in the process as she smiled at him, but that didn't stop him from attacking them... and, just like the last time, Sly's use of the armor allowed him to knock El Jefe back a bit so the five of them could beat him up and force him to move to the next platform.

El Jefe's attempt to smash them with the large crane nearby failed and actually gave them a walkway to follow, which allowed Sly and Carmelita to follow after the tiger like a Cooper would while the three with wings followed after them from the air, causing the tiger to growl as they reached where he wanted to finish their fight... and, since he only had a new lightning based attack that Derpy took the power away from, it was rather easy to beat him into the floor as he swords fell away from him. With El Jefe defeated, and he had collapsed in front of them, Sly moved to grab Rioichi's cane, but as he did that a canister dropped on the platform and both Derpy and Diz grabbed him and Carmelita before pulling them into the air as the thing exploded, covering the platform in some sort of gas as the five of them moved out of the way. A few moments later they watched as a rat soldier dropped into the area and removed Rioichi's cane from El Jefe's body, where he ascended back to the blimp as quickly as he had arrived, and when the pair of them had returned to the blimp, and had dropped a golden sheriff's badge that Gilda grabbed, before the blimp activated it's time machine and vanished to whatever time period they were attacking next.

Before they did anything else Diz bound El Jefe with his magic and the gang, after apologizing to Rioichi for failing to get his cane back, returned to the future, where they turned the mercenary over to Secretary Sen and briefed him on the situation regarding Le Paradox and the fact that he had the might to hire an army to attack the past. Sure, it was a hollow victory for most of them, because they were now fighting a formidable foe that was one step ahead of them, but it gave Interpol enough ammunition to start immediately seizing whatever Le Paradox had in the future, so when he returned he'd have nothing left to his name before his arrest. Once that was done Carmelita opened the line to her parents, who were watching the kids and keeping an eye on the Thievius Raccoonus, and both she and Sly were happy to see that their kids were just fine and that nothing had happened since they went back to feudal Japan, and that was when they were informed that there was another shift to the family tome. They were shocked to hear that the next time period that was being targeted was the Old West, where 'Tennessee Kid' Cooper was based, and to some it appeared that luck was on their side, with the sheriff's badge that had been dropped, but Diz, on the other hand, had to wonder if they were actually being used by their enemy to find the items that he was looking for.

Regardless of what Le Paradox was planning Bentley calibrated the time machine and soon they were heading back to the Old West, so they could figure out how that time period differed from what was recorded in the Thievius Raccoonus, find out who was attacking the area that Tennessee Kid Cooper was living in, and see what they needed to do in order to make things right... all while trying to figure out what sort of game Le Paradox was playing and why he was attacking the time periods that he and his men were targeting.