Of course, additional assistance did not mean we had smooth going the rest of the time. Things got especially intense later on. With the explosives complete, the plan was to blast our way into the castle, with the explosion being the signal to Robyn Hood and her troops to start their assault from whichever direction they intended to come from. We were going right in the front gate.
However, things blew up in our faces just when things were blowing up...
Murray floated along the top of the moat, carefully placing the makeshift explosives on the drawbridge locks. Once they went off, the gears would spin freely and the drawbridge would drop, opening the way for the group to charge in. As he set them, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off, though he couldn't think what.
Once the charges were set, he floated back towards shore and set them off. The explosion echoed through the empty town as the drawbridge rapidly descended, opening the gates into the castle itself. Murray quickly raced to join the rest of the group as they charged in.
It was Carmelita who voiced the one thing no one else had put together yet. "Does...does the castle seem...taller than it was before?" she asked wonderingly. "And...where were all the guards in town?"
"A trap?" Sly gasped in shock, trying to skid to a halt.
"Fret not!" Galleth declared, pointing forward. "There is the iron clad maiden!" He started to charge towards the Black Knight, only to yelp as Coco bit down on his tail to haul him back.
"I know it runs in the bloodline, but don't be an idiot!" Coco snapped angrily. "How many generations does it take before the line of the Cooper thieves learns caution?"
"Just look at your father," Penelope said from within the Black Knight as the armor unfolded to reveal her to them. "Plainly, the answer is 'all but one'."
"I don't know whether to be angry about being insulted, or proud of that sick burn," Sly observed jokingly.
"How about we're proud, you're angry?" T-Bone suggested playfully.
"Deal."
Penelope shook her head ruefully. "Enjoy your last laugh, Sly," she murmured softly.
"Lay off, Penelope," Razor countered. "I saw that talk with Seft with my own eyes. We know you don't want to do this."
"And you don't know me at all if you think that means I won't anyway," Penelope countered. "It's time for you to see Operation Overlord...Mark II."
"Mark II?" Murray gasped in surprise...as the upper portions of the castle - the part that made it look taller - slowly lifted.
The stone coating flaked off, revealing pitch black metal with thousands of minuscule gears that shifted every bit around as what had been walls converted into armored limbs, towers hooked together to become a torso, a turret becoming a head, and a second drawbridge a waving tail. What had been disguised as fortifications was revealed to be a massive transforming mecha. One arm leveled out, pointing in an obscure direction as what was obviously a gun popped out the top of the wrist. "Know where it's aiming?" Penelope asked calmly.
Coco gasped as she realized what was in that direction. "The hideout!"
"My van!" Murray screamed out.
"The Turbokat!" Razor and T-Bone added their worries.
A beam of bright blue light shot out, and a blaze of light could be seen in the distance as it impacted. Sly turned in that direction and pulled out his binocucom, zooming in. "They're...they're gone..."
"Sly!" Carmelita screamed out, pushing him out of the way as a massive fist slammed the courtyard, the shockwave scattering the group. "Eyes on combat-ack!" A sticky substance fired out of another barrel, affixing Carmelita to one of the real castle walls.
"I fear no knight of any size!" Sir Galleth declared as he charged, using his cane-lance to swing around a flagpole in an attempt to get a higher angle at the large mech, only to get lightly batted aside by the tail as his cane-lance went flying, caught by a passing Paradox troop on a jetpack, who quickly vanished.
"The bigger they are-" Coco began, only to trip as the flagstones of the courtyard flipped over in a wave to reveal solid steel instead of stone, shaking like an earthquake to send her tumbling into a net trap that held her aloft.
"Coco!" Murray screamed out as he raced towards Coco, only to trip and fall into a pit trap that opened up...over a vat of pudding inset several feet below the ground. "Well, that could have been worse..." he murmured as he floated in the rather tasty goop.
Razor and T-Bone quickly dove behind the nearest cover, drawing their weapons. "If you think we're-" A metal lid dropped down, sealing them inside the cover they'd dived into. T-Bone's curses echoed inside the metal.
Sly stood his ground as he faced off against the metal giant. "You seem to know everything we'd do here," he observed to the mech. "Something that big can't be remote controlled, at least not by anything that'd fit inside your armor along with the controls for the armor itself. So tell me Penelope...who's inside there?" He quickly dove to the side as the giant mech fired another beam of blue light at him...only to land right in Penelope's grasp as a sword was held to his throat.
"Take a wild guess," Penelope growled to him, the blade pressing into his flesh.
A slow clapping could be heard from halfway up the battlements. "Well done, Penelope," Seft observed in wry amusement. "Sly destroyed by two former friends, I never would have expected it. It seems loyalty and devotion are much more potent weapons than I'd anticipated."
"T...two?" Sly managed to gasp out in confusion.
From inside the net she was trapped in, Coco whimpered. "U...Uncle Bentley?"
"And a bonus," Seft murmured as he took in Coco's trapped state. "But you know what you must do, Penelope." He lifted his hand, showing the device with two buttons again. "Finish him."
The Black Knight slowly pressed the blade tighter.
Seft's thumb twitched slightly. "What's taking you so-why would you give the mech a-" Seft turned and tried to lunge out of the way, just too late as the mech's tail erupted out of the castle wall, opening in a net that wrapped around him and bound him tight, the device flying out of his grip.
The Black Knight tossed Sly aside and charged, unfolding to allow Penelope to carefully catch the device as it fell, making sure not to push either button as she grasped it, her face turning into breathless relief. "Got it..."
The torso of the giant mech opened up, revealing Bentley's control center and the van and Turbokat, both completely undamaged. "So you going to tell-" "-what's so important about that now?" he asked Penelope curiously as everyone who saw him and his wheelchair blip briefly out of existence.
As Penelope stared from Bentley to the device in horror, Seft chuckled. "Well, I have to say this is the first time I've been outsmarted in a long time...and never so dramatically. The cane can be recovered, and all else was a very well done trick. A teleportation beam, was it?"
Penelope lunged forward and braced herself in front of Seft. "I'm going to give you one chance to answer honestly Seft, and then I'm getting Coco to read the answer from your entrails!" she snarled out. "Which button calls your assassin off?"
"A-assassin?" Sly gasped in shock.
Seft smirked at Penelope. "All for him after all, hmm? In that case, I have three words for you..." His smirk turned into a vicious grin. "Emergency Temporal Shift."
"NO!" Penelope screamed desperately as she tried to grasp Seft, only for her hands to pass right through him as he faded out.
"Perhaps I'll see you all elsewhere in time," his voice echoed in the air. "Good luck in your guessing game. I wouldn't wait too long if he's already flickering like that, though. Time abhors the unsupported paradox..."
Penelope slumped to the ground, staring at the device in her hands in despair. "Which one...? Which one...?"
After a time, Coco voiced her opinion on the matter. "The fuck just happened?"
"Coco!" Carmelita snapped out angrily. "Language!"
"Sorry Mom, but it was warranted!"