The moment that Sly, Gilda, and Derpy were through the first locked gate of the Panda King's stronghold they walked out of the tunnel they had been in and noticed that, in order to get a good view of their foe's base, that they needed to use the hook in front of them and bypass the gorilla guard that was patrolling the area. As such the three of them carefully made their way to the location that the guard was standing in and used their new improved invisibility to sneak up beside him, though once his back was turned they revealed themselves and knocked him out. That, in turn, allowed them to climb up to the upper area that was above them, where they noticed three immediate paths, all bearing one of Bentley's markers, a cluster of fireworks that had three Treasure Key locks attached to it, and an iron grate that blocked the way forward. The siblings glanced at each other for a few seconds, as they already knew what they needed to do here, but at the same time they figured they might as well see if Bentley had anything to say to them.
As such the three of them withdrew their binocucoms and stared at the area around them, allowing them to hook back up with Bentley, who was currently smiling at the moment, which had to be a good sign considering that Mz. Ruby's base had really freaked him out.
"Nice job breaking into the Panda King's compound." Bentley told them, confirming what they were thinking at the moment, before they locked onto the grate that was nearby, revealing that he was thinking the same thing that had been going through their minds, "I think I've figured out a way to get to the top of that giant statue, but unfortunately, it's obstructed by this reinforced ceiling hatch."
"That's not much of a problem." Sly said, to which his sisters nodded their heads in agreement as they all looked at the three objectives that were around them, as they already knew what they needed to do next, "They seem to have plenty of firepower around here. We'll just have to find a few more Treasure Keys to get at it."
"Well I'll leave the three of you to do what you do best," Bentley replied, revealing that he had faith in their abilities, since they had overcome a lot of odds to reach this point in time, and smiled at them before he switched off his side of the binocucom for the moment.
Sly, Gilda, and Derpy did the same thing, though as they started to take in the various areas around them, and thought about what they might face in the near future, the three of them were interrupted when they heard an intercom come on, the sign that the Panda King was going to relay a message to his guards... those that were paying attention, as Sly saw one that seemed like he was dozing off.
Attention, valued employee. the Panda King said, sounding like he actually respected his guards and that they must have been treated better than those in the other bases they had visited so far, Suddenly, Hinkau village elect not to pay for avalanche protection service, and so I am forced to bury alive under many ton of snow. Please be on guard for any surviving villager that come looking for revenge. Thank you, that is all.
"Well, at least the Panda King is more respectful than the others were," Gilda commented, even though the Panda King had buried an entire village earlier, which only made all three of them even more annoyed with him, "Well, I'm taking the path to the right of where we came from, if that's fine with the two of you."
"Sure, I'm fine with you tackling that area," Sly said, to which he turned and pointed over at the path that required that he jump over some lights of some description, before he turned towards his sisters, "I'm feeling that this particular path is more for me... which means that Derpy gets the path on the left side of the stronghold."
That seemed to make Derpy happy, meaning that it had likely been what she was going to go for if she had a chance to speak up, but instead of saying anything the three of them decided to get to work and started moving towards the areas that they had agreed to take... where Sly paused for a moment to see Gilda and Derpy use the modified invisibility to sneak up to the guards in front of their areas, knowing them out in the process, before they disappeared. Sly chuckled as he headed into the path that was in front of him, knowing that soon enough all three of them would be back together and they would be able to progress into the second half of the Panda King's stronghold.
As Derpy emerged from the path that she had chosen, and discovered that it was a either a set of buildings the Panda King had taken over or a temple of some kind, she listened to Bentley as he said that this might be a good place for her to get some additional practice with the invisibility technique. She followed the walkway that was in front of her and found two clue bottles off to the left of the first building's entrance, which she collected, before finding out that the front door was barred with a piece of wood. Since the windows seemed to be open, with no glass planes to worry about, Derpy jumped into the window frame that she was near and entered the building, where she discovered a conveyor belt that would allow her to get behind the gorilla guard in front of her, provided she use the invisibility technique. As such she focused her mind for a moment and turned invisible as she hid in the side area of the room, where she slowly walked onto the conveyor belt and let it carry her to the end of it's track... where she revealed herself and knocked out the guard, before gathering two clues from the safe behind the wall and headed out into the open area in front of her.
She then found another gorilla guard standing in front of her, his light moving over the two clue bottles between them, to which she faded out of sight once more and started slowly walking over to her target's blind spot, where she knocked him out and gathered the clues before moving forward.
After doing that she discovered that the next area in front of her was blocked by several crates and there was a gorilla guard staring at the path that she needed to walk up, so she used the invisibility to walk over the walkway that she needed to cross over, allowing the new technique to keep her hidden. Of course she had to wait for a few seconds, since the light was shining over the crates she needed to jump over, when she wasn't invisible, before she could jump over the crates and entered the next building. From there she moved onto the path that some moving lasers were moving down, along with some searchlights, so she used the invisibility when the lights and the lasers were close to her, finding that none of them could see her, before she eventually reached the top of the path and turned off the alarm that was up there. She found a clue near the alarm and smashed it open, before moving out to the opening that was in front of where she was standing and found that she could use the spires in front of her to reach the building the gorilla guard was stationed in.
She made her way across the pair of spires, found an opening that allowed her to drop down into the area the gorilla guard was in, knocked him out before he even realized that she was there, before collecting the two clues beside her and then climbed back up to the roof so she could access the second story of the first building she had entered.
Derpy found another conveyor belt in the room in front of her, one moving in her direction with a guard at the very end, so she went invisible once more and carefully moved towards the guard when the light was on her, before she eventually reached the end and knocked the surprised guard out. From there she turned to the left of where the guard was stationed and found three more clues waiting for her, though after she grabbed those ones she investigated the right side as well and found two more hiding over there. With all of the clues gathered and sent to Bentley she headed over to the rail that happened to be located near where the guard was laying and found that it would take her right to the structure that was in front of her, which had to be where the Treasure Key was located. She jumped onto the rail and headed down to the area that was below her, where she discovered that the Treasure Key was definitely in the structure in front of her... which meant all she needed to do was find the entrance to the structure and the key was as good as hers.
She headed to the right and followed the path in front of her, where she had to deal with a mandrill guard and a female chimpanzee that dropped down from the tree that she was approaching, though once the two of them were knocked out she continued searching for the clues and the path to the key.
As Derpy opened a safe, and collected the pair of clues inside it, she was assaulted by another mandrill that she was forced to knock out, before she jumped up the branches of the tree next to her and gathered the pair of clues that were resting above the safe. From there she climbed up another set of branches and reached the first ring of the structure, which was the beginning of the path, and carefully knocked out the chimpanzee that tried to attack her, before using her invisibility to bypass the gorilla guard around the corner and collected the pair of clues behind him once she knocked him out. After that she climbed up the pole that she had ignored for a few seconds, jumped over the gap in the floor that was in front of her, and then carefully climbed up a second pole before using the rail to head over to the third story of the first building that rested in this area. A few seconds later, when she arrived at the other end of the rail, she found that the area in front of her had some lasers that were moving above the floor, though instead of gathering the four hanging clues she headed over to the other side of the floor and turned off the alarm.
Once the alarm was taken care of Derpy gathered the four hanging clues that she had ignored, before heading back to the alarm and four three more clues, two resting inside a safe and one more resting outside it, though once all of the clues had been collected she latched onto one of the hooks that were moving between her and the main structure and let it carry her to her destination. The moment she reached the structure she let go of the hook and moved around the corner, where she knocked out the chimpanzee that was waiting and gathered the two clues that she was guarding, before using the nearby pole to climb up to the next level. She then found the entrance of the area that the Treasure Key was located in and ignored it for now, since she was more interested in the vault, and climbed up to the next level, which happened to be the final level of the structure. It was then that she found that the final clue of the area was on the top spire of the structure she had been ascending, where she opened her wings and took to the skies... though after she claimed the clue, and sent it to Bentley, she landed beside the vault and waited.
A few seconds ticked by before Bentley informed her that he had the combination, to which Derpy turned to the tumblers and input the code, which was 6-6-7, before opening the door and found a page from the Thievius Raccoonus, or more accurately Sir Augestine of Cooper's technique to Briefly Defy Gravity. She read over the page for a few seconds and determined that this was more suit for Sly than for her and Gilda, though she memorized the technique, in the off chance that she couldn't use her wings to save herself, and replaced the page with a calling card. Once that was done she headed back down to the entrance of the path that would take her down to the Treasure Key, where she carefully made her way down the various platforms that lined the walls, before she reached the area that the key was located in and turned off the alarm... before she removed the Treasure Key and smiled as she pocketed it.
"Sly's going to want to see this technique," Derpy commented, to which she opened her wings and carefully flew back up to the entrance of the structure, before heading back to the entrance of this entire area while she wondered what sort of challenges her siblings had to overcome.
Gilda couldn't resist smiling as she looked at the temple that was in front of her, as this seemed like an interesting place to explore since the Panda King was supposed to have explosives somewhere, but instead of staying in one place she started moving down the bridge that was in front of her. As she moved she had to take out the mandrill guard that was in front of her, which she approached from behind and knocked out before he could spot her, before she climbed up the pole that was on her left and rode the rail down to the area in front of her. When she reached the lower level she knocked out the mandrill guard off on her left and used the hook in that was right in front of her to bypass the lasers that were blocking the path, where she landed behind an alarm and turned it off. Instead of using the group of hooks to reach the area in front of her, and continue along the proper path, Gilda walked down the slope in front of her and found a trio of clues that she immediately collected, before heading back up and using the hooks to move forward.
When she reached the area that a bounce pad was in, and used it to ambush a gorilla guard that had his back turned towards him, Gilda noticed that she had to carefully sneak over the metallic walkway and avoid the lasers that were moving around certain sections.
Fortunately Gilda was able to overcome that trial without anything happening and found another hook section, but instead of using it she descended the slope in front of her and found a path she could sneak around, which brought her to a pair of clues. With those clues in hand she returned to the area the hooks were in and used them to bypass the lasers that were in front of her, where she turned off the alarm and started moving forward, though that required that she knock out a gorilla guard before she could claim two more clues off on her right. After that she continued down the path in front of her and knocked out the chimpanzee that tried to kick her, before sneaking along a cliff face to reach the underground entrance of the temple. That, in itself, required that she knock out another chimpanzee before she could actually move into the temple, where she discovered that this was actually the training ground for some more guards, along with a safe with a pair of clues hidden nearby.
With the clues acquired Gilda moved over to the large statue that was at the back of the room and noticed that she could walk along the ledge that had been built into the sides of the statue, making her realize that this entire place seemed to have been built to test Cooper techniques... making her wonder if the Panda King knew more about their family, which actually worried her a bit.
Since she was worried by what the Panda King might know, and the fact that he was likely waiting for their arrival, Gilda jumped over the chandelier that was in front of her and sneaked around one of the sides of the gong that she had touched down in front of. On the other side she found a trio of clue bottles waiting for her, which she quickly collected before she climbed up to the top of the structure that the gong was attached to, though as she reached the top she spotted an area that four more clues rested in, one that was designed to force someone to fall to the ground and climb back up if they were able. Since she had wings, however, Gilda simply flew over to where the clues were located and grabbed them, before she smashed the bottles, sent the information to Bentley, and used the nearby rail to leave the building she was in. A few seconds later, when she was on the exterior of the temple again, she found a lower area that contained two more clues, which she eagerly collected, before she found a shield of some kind that had fireworks attached to it, which acted like an elevator that took her back up to the level above her.
From there Gilda used the next to her rail to reach an area above a gorilla guard, which she dropped down and knocked out, before she had to knock out a chimpanzee that was nearby... though after that she found that she could enter a covered area that was being guarded by another gorilla guard.
Instead of going through with using the invisibility technique again, as that seemed to be the case with this area, she used her wings to get behind the guard and knocked him out, before collecting the two bottles the gorilla was guarding and another pair of clues that were inside a safe as well. Once she had done that she used the shield in front of her, which the gorilla guard had been watching over, and rode it up to the level that was above her, though when she reached the roof she found another path that brought her to another elevator shield. She was happy to have chosen to take the second shield, as it brought her to three more clues, before she dropped back down to the roof, climbed up a pair of poles, and approached the hook area that was in front of her, which also required taking out a pair of chimpanzee guards before crossing the distance. When she reached the end of the hook area she found a cliff face that she needed to sneak around, but instead of doing that Gilda opened her wings and flew up to the back entrance of the structure that was above her, where she found some lasers moving above the floor... and, at the other side of the chamber, she found the vault and the Treasure Key.
With the prize in sight Gilda flew over the floor and landed in front of the vault, where she entered 9-3-2 and discovered the blueprints for the Panda King's domain, where she chuckled at the thought that she had saved Derpy from taking this area, before she left the calling card behind. Once all of that was in place she headed over to the Treasure Key and retrieved it, where she smiled and flew out of the area entirely, as she was sure that her siblings were either waiting for her or would soon be finishing up the areas they had headed into.
Sly stared down at the blasting station that was in front of him for a few seconds, as he had found it after moving along the carved out path that he had picked out, before he stared out at the part of the stronghold that was further away from the rest of the grounds that he and his sisters had access to. The reason he was staring out at the other part of the stronghold was because he could see Murray standing in an open area as he waited for someone to be the gunner for this mission, to which he said nothing as he pulled out his binocucom and zeroed in on his friend.
"Murray's all fired up to make the run for the key." Bentley said, revealing the reason why Murray was out here, which reminded Sly of what Gilda had mentioned after they had taken out Muggshot, about taking control of a turret and kept Murray safe, "He needs someone to provide cover fire while he does so."
"Don't worry Bentley, I'll keep him covered." Sly replied, though at the same time he put down his binocucom and climbed onto the blasting station, where it zeroed in on the area that Murray was standing in and he nodded his head for a few seconds, hoping Murray got the message.
Fortunately Murray did get the message and started moving immediately, to which Sly followed after him and opened fire on the Panda King's guards that got in his friend's way, which included all the types of guards he and his sisters had encountered and a few new ones at the same time. One thing he had to watch out for was the fact that he had to fire at some of the fireworks that were in the immediate area, which opened the way for Murray to move forward, though he simply stared at the path Murray was following and continued firing at the guards. It didn't appear that there were any real hazardous materials in the area, like the ones that Gilda had to deal with when she protected Murray back in Mesa City, and the only real danger his friend was in happened to be when he reached the end point and an alarm went off. The encouraged a number of gorilla guards to emerge from the sides of the building that the Treasure Key was housed in, where they started aiming at Murray with their weapons, indicating that they were going to throw their swords in an attempt to kill his friend.
Sly, acting fast, zeroed in on the gorilla guards as they emerged and took them out before they could lock onto where Murray was standing, though it took him some time to clear out all of the enemies, since there was a fair number of them, but once that was done, and the alarm silenced itself, Murray claimed the Treasure Key and headed back to the path he took to reach this area.
Since there wasn't anything else to do here Sly made his way back to the main entrance of the stronghold, where he found that neither of his sisters had returned yet, so he headed back down the main path and headed to a meet up point where Murray handed him the Treasure Key. With that in hand he returned to the stronghold and stood beside the cluster of fireworks that they had been staring at when they reached this area, though a few minutes ticked by before both of his sisters returned to him. He then found out that while Gilda had found the blueprints for the Panda King's area, which he thought was interesting since Derpy was the one that usually found them, Derpy had recovered another page from the Thievius Raccoonus, one that he was eager to memorize. Once the three of them were together they used three of the four keys they possessed and unlocked the fireworks, where Derpy hit them and stood back as the cluster flew through the air... slamming into the grate in front of them and opened the way to the second half of the Panda King's base.
The siblings smiled at each other as they descended into the opening in front of them, because soon the fourth member of the Fiendish Five would feel their wrath, and then they could focus on the last member of the group... and not only complete the Thievius Raccoonus, but avenge Sly's father as well.