Uncle Bentley's plan took details from everything we'd done and put it together for the final big score. First, Uncle Murray helped Uncle Bentley break into the old water tower to shut down the plaza fountain. When a thug was sent with the keys for the repair truck to fix it, I pickpocketed them to hand them off to Uncle Murray, so they could take the truck while Dad climbed to the top of the Peacock Sign, which had lost many of the rivets holding it in place from the shock of Uncle Bentley dropping the disco ball inside the club. Of course, once the repair truck's winch was hooked to the sign, the guards came to investigate...which was where I came in. Taking a spot atop the truck, I threw my knock-out needles at each guard as they rounded the bends into the plaza, rendering them unconscious. At the same time, Dad hopped down to take them out further back.
By the time the guards stopped coming, the peacock sign had come crashing down beak first into the fountain, smashing through the roof of the counterfeiting operation. Dad and I immediately leapt down to get the Clockwerk tail feathers...and, as it turned out, confront Dimitri. He was...not happy to see us...
Once in the tunnel, it only took a few leaps for Sly and Coco to reach the center of the counterfeiting operation, shut down due to destroying the power supply. Dimitri was waiting for them, his pink-purple skin clashing violently with his puke green suit. He took one look at the pair as they approached and nearly spat. "Ack! So it's true that being a parent harshes all vibes, however old. You're totally crashing my house and bringing me down. Why can't you let birds and bees be free?"
"Because a certain bird needed to stay in the ground where we left him!" Coco snapped out, glaring at where the tail feathers were still hooked into the machine.
"You don't know what you're playing with, Dimitri," Sly warned. "Clockwerk was pure evil, and fed on hate and suffering. We may have killed him...but having already seen the dead walk, I'm not so sure it's permanent, and I'm not about to let you use parts of him in further criminal activities 'for the lulz' if there's a chance they might collect that energy to bring him back."
Dimitri rolled his eyes, a rather overstated facial expression for a lizard. "And if these tail feathers be so evil and dangerous, why do you not come and try and talk me into giving them up mapahce a lagarto, instead of trashing my club and beating up my employees?"
Sly and Coco exchanged a surprised glance. Truthfully, neither of them had thought about trying that even for a moment. "Truth to tell, Dimitri, I didn't think it was worth the attempt. I mean, after our last encounter, I probably wasn't high on your list of guests to give face time, right? If I'd come in as a customer, I'd have probably been shown the door."
Dimitri sighed. "I suppose I can give you that one. A reasonable conclusion, even if until your interruptions my operation had left me feeling quite magnanimous. You probably weren't aware of that, though."
"And even if you did hear me out, would you have listened?" Sly continued.
"Well, we'll never know now," Dimitri pointed out acidly.
"So...is this where we fight, or can we settle this diplomatically?" Coco asked hopefully.
"Ah, so the little one can see the big picture," Dimitri purred. "Look at all this money-"
"You do remember we're only here for the tail feathers, right?" Coco interrupted. "My question was more do we have to beat you up to get them, pay you for them, or are you going to just hand them over?"
"Well I'm not about to give them up with you coppin' that attitude!" Dimitri snapped disdainfully. "And what could you possibly give me that would be worth more than the money I'm printing?"
"Respect?" Coco suggested teasingly.
"You...you would actually respect me?" Dimitri asked hopefully, his eyes almost pleading.
"...honestly, no," Coco admitted apologetically. "Your fashion sense is eye-wateringly terrible, your brush technique on your forged paintings are subpar, your behavior is off-putting, and your 'kinetic aesthetic' is an insult to the nature of painting. It's all about control, patience, and vision. Swinging on ropes and brushing as you go by is little better than throwing paint at the canvas and calling it art-"
"And yet those paintings are accepted!" Dimitri roared in frustration. "At least with my kinetic aesthetic, I'm struggling to create a genuine image as the world itself fights against me! And yet 'paintings' of color flung carelessly at canvas and given clever names sell for thousands, while mine are ignored or derided!"
"If the point is the struggle against the world to create the masterpiece, why not revamp your 'kinetic aesthetic' as performance art?" Sly suggested as he leaned back against the counterfeiting machine. "Make the struggle to create part of the piece?"
"...performance art?" Dimitri asked thoughtfully, the gears almost visibly turning in his mind as he thought that over. "Do...do you think that could work?"
"Certainly!" Coco spoke up eagerly. "There are all sorts of new styles of performance art, and that reaches a much wider audience than just paintings. Beyond that, you could tape the performance, make copies, and sell good quality tapes of the performances with proper special effects for more than the painting would sell for, and it's easy - and legal - to make dozens of copies of the same tape to sell."
"Yes!" Dimitri crowed happily. "Dimitri's art will rise again! And fall, and rise, and swing on a trapeze with wings made of breeze!"
"We'll leave you to it, then," Sly offered as he turned to leave with Coco. "We should give you privacy to work here."
"Thank you friends, thank you!" Dimitri offered exuberantly. "I shall have a true masterpiece before the day was out!"
As Sly and Coco left, they shared a chuckle as Sly pulled out the tail feathers he'd swiped from the counterfeiting machine while they'd distracted Dimitri with talk of his art.
Because of the quiet nature of the confrontation, we made it out of there with the feathers in more than enough time to miss Mom and Neyla busting in to 'investigate the commotion' from our break in. They found Dimitri there surrounded by functional counterfeiting equipment (minus the print plates he was using the tail feathers in place of) with everything covered with his personal logo...while he was recording his attempts at making a true performance piece of his kinetic aesthetic. Would you believe he actually tried to claim it was storage space he was renting to someone else?
With Dimitri safely in jail and one Clockwerk part recovered, Dad decided we deserved a week off, so we drove down to Monaco to relax. I suspect this decision might have had something to do with overhearing Carmelita discussing her own plans for 'time off' with Neyla while taking Dimitri in...though I didn't say anything. Mom and Dad deserve to spend some time together too, after all.