//------------------------------//
// Thievius: Flame Fu 
// Story: Sly Cooper: Family of Thieves 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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When Sly, Derpy, and Gilda walked through the part of the building that the hatch had been blocking, after having collected the Treasure Keys in the first part of the Panda King's stronghold, they discovered three more areas for them to explore, which wasn't a surprise, and another set of fireworks that were locked down by seven locks. The three paths that were open to them included a tunnel that a gorilla guard happened to be standing in front of, a small building that seemed to lead to another section of the stronghold that they hadn't been in yet, and the third contained another blasting vehicle that was identical to the one that Derpy had used in Mz. Ruby's lair. Gilda didn't have to be told how this was going through Derpy and Sly's minds at the moment, as she already knew that Derpy was eager to use the vehicle and tackle whatever was on the other side of the iron door that was in front of it, while she knew that same was true for Sly and the other part of the stronghold. Before she could say anything, however, the three of them pulled out their binocucoms and looked at the fireworks that were locked down, knowing that Bentley would have something to tell them.

"So Bentley," Sly said, remembering how he and his sisters had to get into the various areas that the members of the Fiendish Five had been located in, as in shooting himself out of a cannon or riding a cauldron lid to a temple, "am I correct in assuming that those fireworks will take us to the top of the Panda King's statue?"

"That's correct." Bentley told them, though there was something in his voice that made all three of them wonder if there was something he was concerned about, in regards to that plan, "In fact it's labeled that way on the blueprints that you discovered earlier... and, from what I've read so far, there's just enough information here to reveal the general location of the Treasure Keys."

"You know, that makes me think the Panda King intended for this to happen," Gilda commented, thinking back to what she had thought about in the previous part of the stronghold that she had taken on her own, as this seemed to match her earlier observations, "Call me crazy, but what if the Panda King built this stronghold to test us, for our eventual confrontation with the final member of the Fiendish Five? I ask this because the area I went through seemed to test certain techniques we had picked up during our training, making me worry that he knew more about us than what we knew about him."

"You mean he's waiting to meet us in battle?" Derpy asked, as that was the one thing she knew her sister wasn't saying, because they were fine with Raleigh and Muggshot not being prepared for them and with Mz. Ruby being ready for their arrival, but this time it appeared to be different.

"Well, regardless of what he's waiting for, we had best get underway," Sly said, to which he put away his binocucom and turned towards his siblings, where he noticed that the two of them did the same thing, "Derpy, you should take the vehicle and blast your way through whatever obstacles that are between you and the Treasure Key, and Gilda, I think you can tackle whatever is on the other side of that tunnel. I'll scout out the other part of the stronghold and see where the seventh and final Treasure Key for this area is located, before we get back together and take on our target."

The sisters nodded as the three of them separated from each other, as while Derpy sneaked through the shadows and took out the gorilla guard that was blocking the path in front of her she noticed that Gilda did the same thing with her opponent and Sly bypassed another mandrill guard. Derpy smiled as her siblings headed into their areas and disappeared, to which she climbed onto the blasting vehicle and set her cane into the area she had put it into when they were in Mz. Ruby's lair. A few moments later she turned the blaster on the iron door and blasted her way through it, before she rode the vehicle through the wrecked doorway and started to follow the path that was in front of her as she began the search for her Treasure Key. It didn't take her long to discover a path that belonged on the inside of a building and rode over it, where she fired at the door that was blocking her way, iron like the last one, and smiled when she tore through it as well.

That was when Derpy noticed that the area she was in seemed to be the firework production facility, though she shelved that thought for the moment as she blasted her way through the barricades that were in front of her, took out the monkeys that were climbing out of the openings in the floor along her path, and then closed said openings so she could move forward. She then turned around the corner that was in front of her and opened fire on the group of monkey guards that were climbing out of the second opening, where she blasted her way through the obstacles and found another iron door, this one larger than the last two, blocking her way. Derpy stared at the door for a few seconds before blasting through the door, though as she entered the building, and tore her way through the barricades that were laying in her path, the intercom came on for a few seconds.

Attention, valued employee. the Panda King said, confirming Derpy's suspicions on who was going to be talking, to which she paused the vehicle for a moment to listen to what their foe had to say, It has come to my attention that a thief is loose somewhere inside the firework production facility. Please do your part to pitch in by capturing this intruder on sight. Thank you, that is all.

That confirmed many things for Derpy, more specifically the fact that the Panda King was interested in them, as he said 'capture' and not 'kill' or anything like that, though as she came to that realization she continued along the path that was in front of her and continued blasting her way through the barricades and the monkey guards that were coming towards her. Soon she reached an area where there were two openings and pairs of guards emerged from the area below her, revealing that they were trying to take her out in mass, but she focused her fire on her targets and carefully closed the pair of openings that were blocking the way. As she descended to the lowest level of the facility she noticed that there was a third opening, meaning that she had to weave back and forth from the left side of the conveyor belt to the right side of the conveyor belt, allowing the blasts to take out the guards in a calculated manner as she moved closer and closer to where the openings were located.

Eventually she was able to take out the openings and close them so more monkey guards didn't come at her, to which she breathed a sigh of relief as she headed up to the iron door in front of her, blasted her way through it, and exited the facility at long last. From there she found that she had to follow a snowy area, with the large ape guards positioned along the way, and that she had to use the vehicle to tear through the mounds that were in front of her, so that way she could get through the path and avoid the large snowballs that were being rolled in her direction, as they would be extremely painful if she got hit by one of them. After the first group of enemies she descended into a lower area and had to repeat that same thing twice more, heading up an area with the ape guards, blasting through the mounds that had been set up to slow down her progress, and blasted her way through the guards themselves before moving onward.

In no time at all she finished off the last of the ape guards and rode the vehicle to the pillar the Treasure Key was resting on the top of, where she blasted the pillar to bits until the key was hers... though once she had the key she grabbed her cane, opened her wings, and departed from the area, all while curious as to what Sly and Gilda were doing.





Gilda sighed as she stared down at the obvious race track that was resting around a building that specialized in selling snow cones, where she found Murray and the van lined up with some monkeys that were likely trying to pressure him into racing them. She didn't mind getting missions where she had to do nothing, as it allowed her to relax and unwind a little, but at the moment all she could do was think about what she had seen her sister do back in Mz. Ruby's temple, as she and Sly had never seen anything like that. Mz. Ruby claimed that she and Derpy had magical powers, ones that weren't of this world based on what she said, and that they needed a catalyst to harness the powers that they had, which she feared happening for some reason. The voodoo priestess was a strange one, as it appeared that she had originally been hoping to see their power for herself, though when they reached the end of their fight she said she hoped they never experienced a catalyst for their 'powers'.

Gilda paused in her train of thought as the race started and Murray started his battle against the monkeys, though she paid him no mind as she lifted her left hand and stared at it, wondering what sort of catalyst they needed to unlock the powers that Mz. Ruby had seen inside them... if she and Derpy were willing to listen to what she had said.

Sly, from what she had seen, was convinced that Mz. Ruby had been pulling their legs, but even then she couldn't fault what she had seen and knew that Derpy had never moved that fast in her life before that point, as even Derpy had been confused when she snapped out of whatever state she had been in. Despite her thoughts she knew that there had to be some truth to what Mz. Ruby had told them, as Derpy had held one of the magical spheres in her hand and used it against the person that had thrown it, and that included her increased speed to keep up with Mz. Ruby's teleporting spell. That only made her wonder what power Mz. Ruby had seen in them and what it would take to unlock the abilities that she didn't want them to discover, but before she could actually get too deep into her thoughts her binocucom went off and she discovered that Murray was done with the race, and he had won them the key that was being offered.

Gilda sighed as she opened her wings and flew down to where Murray was standing, where she congratulated him on winning the race and told him that he did a good job, before heading back to the area that the second cluster of fireworks were located, so she could wait for Sly and Derpy to arrive... and hoped that they were having a blast with their areas.





Carmelita shivered as she carefully stood on the nose of the dragon statue that she had discovered, because she had been following the Coopers and the last member of the Fiendish Five they had taken out, the voodoo priestess Mz. Ruby, had told her exactly where they were going, after remaining silent for a few days. She had no idea why one of the Fiendish Five, the sworn enemies of the Cooper Gang, would willingly withhold information on them, but there wasn't much she could do to Mz. Ruby, since her actions had earned her a life sentence behind bars. Fortunately on the third day, when she actually realized where Sly and his sisters were going on her own, Mz. Ruby had confirmed her suspicions by revealing that they were heading after the Panda King. As such she set out to cut them off and capture them, and the Panda King, so she could finally put her main targets behind bars, though at the same time she hadn't seen hide or hair of Sly and his sisters since she arrived in the stronghold, which required her sneaking up from another direction to avoid detection by the Panda King's guards... a lesson she learned after Mesa City, as the guards there had discovered her presence quickly and she adapted accordingly this time around.

The sound of some bottles breaking and the sound of a firework being used caught her attention, to which she smiled as she pointed at the nearby rooftop as the Cooper sibling she was after, Sly himself, walked out of the area that was being covered by the building and walked right out into her crosshairs once more.

"Freeze, raccoon!" Carmelita declared, where she immediately pointed her shock pistol at the rooftop that Sly was standing on, where she was pleased to find that he had paused the moment he spotted her, even if it was more because of her presence and less because she ordered him to stop.

"How can I freeze when my heart warms at the very sight of you?" Sly asked, once more falling into his flirting nature, which was what he did each and every time they crossed paths, though even as he spoke he crossed his arms and stared at her for a few seconds.

"Shut up, ringtail!" Carmelita said, as she knew what Sly was up to, and this time around her mind was focused on him and him alone at the moment, because if she took Sly down she could force his siblings to surrender, "I know why you came here; you came to take out the Panda King, just like you and your sisters did with the other members of the Fiendish Five that you've encountered so far."

"I'd love to stick around and chat, but we've got a meeting with the Panda King soon," Sly replied, knowing that since Carmelita knew why he and his sisters were here there was no reason for him to beat around the bush and explain things to her, as she could likely figure everything else out at this point.

Carmelita opened fire the moment Sly spoke, causing him to latch onto the hook that was near him and rode the line down to the area that was to the left of the dragon statue, to which she jumped to a more appropriate angle and carefully aimed at her target. As Sly moved along the path that was in front of him, smashing bottles along the way, Carmelita fired at him with the intent to knock him out, though she noticed that she was missing more than she would have liked, until she noticed something that would even the odds. She turned towards the stone path that Sly was heading towards and loosed a shock blast that broke the structure apart, effectively trapping Sly, but then he surprised her by using the same move he had displayed back in Mesa City, the one where he jumped on spires, and soon enough he had gotten over her attempt to keep him in one place... to which she growled as she moved into the next area that would allow her a better shot and continued to fire at Sly as he moved around.

She noticed Sly climb up some icicles and struck a firework, one that struck a nearby gate and caused it to fall over, creating a path for him to take in the process, though the act of the gate falling caused Carmelita to stop firing for a moment, as she was shocked by the sheer power of a single firework... though that only gave her more fuel to capture and imprison the Panda King, as she was sure these fireworks were illegal.

After that they arrived in an area where Sly had to hit three fireworks to take out the next gate, where one part of it fell backwards and the other fell forwards, creating a path for him to take as Carmelita tired, still in vain, to strike him down and capture him. As Sly moved into the ruined building that was along the path, and became slightly obscured from her sight, Carmelita focused on where she could see him and fired at the weak windows that were in her way, effectively making him reveal himself in the process, before doing the same thing on the second area that was identical to that one. When the two of them reached the end of the area that Sly had been heading towards, however, he used one of the shield like elevators to get to the roofs he had walked under, to which Carmelita growled as she continued to open fire on him while he made his way back across the roofs. She eventually caught him at an area where he used two more fireworks that struck the ceiling of the area he would have to pass through, where he forced some icicles to drop and created a path that he could take, though as he did so Carmelita opened fire on him and eventually moved further up the dragon statue until she was back where she started.

What she didn't expect, however, was for the tail end of the statue to have multiple fireworks attached to it, as when Sly arrived he whacked them all and they struck the neck of the statue, causing the head to snap off and bury itself in the snow below it... and unfortunately Carmelita soon found herself buried in the freezing snow, and she knew that, by the time she got herself out of the snow, Sly and his sisters would be long gone.





Sly felt bad for Carmelita, he really did, but he was sure that she would forgive him the next time they saw each other, which was why he happily carried his Treasure Key back to where the cluster of fireworks were resting, where he found both Gila and Derpy waiting for him.

"It seems that we have all seven of the Panda King's Treasure Keys," Sly said, where he collected the keys from his sisters and unlocked the locks that were on the cluster in front of them, while at the same time he knew that he would be the only one to ride this thing to their destination, "So, whose up for facing the Panda King?"

"That sounds like a plan," Gilda replied, though as she spoke she noticed something odd, something that needed to be addressed before they moved onto their foe and recovered his section of the Thievius Raccoonus, "Didn't the area you explore have a page of the family tome?"

"I would think it did... if we could have opened the safe," Sly admitted, causing his sisters to look at him for a few seconds, as they were curious as to what he meant by that, and he was going to explain it to them anyway, "According to Bentley, after he looked at the clues, the final page of the Thievius Raccoonus is secured by a number of clues that were written in owl dialect... meaning that, in order to complete the family tome, we'll have to defeat the final member of the Fiendish Five and then come back before the entire thing is complete."

"That's... odd." Derpy said, as it sounded weird for them to have to backtrack in such a way, especially since they had no idea where the final member of the Fiendish Five was located, but at the same time they all knew that the Panda King likely held that information.

"Yeah, you're telling me," Sly said, to which he shook his head and stared at the fireworks for a moment, as he could tell that his sisters were getting anxious for their battle with the Panda King, "Come on, we've got an hour or two before Carmelita climbs out of the snow she was buried in and comes searching for us, so we might as well make the most of our time... and yes, I'll tell you the details when we're back in the van."

Gilda and Derpy nodded as they opened their wings once more, to which Sly prepared himself as he ignited the cluster and latched onto it, where not a few seconds later he flew through the air and headed towards the Panda King's statue, with his sisters flying nearby so they could be sure nothing happened to him. Fortunately nothing happened along the way and he was able to reach his destination swiftly, though as he jumped off the cluster and landed on the ground, along with his sisters joining him, he found that the Panda King seemed to be meditating. Or at least that was what he had been doing, as the moment they all stood up and faced the middle of the area something changed, the Panda King opened his eyes and stopped meditating. He stared down at them for a few seconds, while they stared up at him, and the siblings could see that there was some sorrow that lingered in his eyes for a few seconds, before it disappeared, but they knew what they had seen and realized that, despite his earlier attitude towards the village, he might not be as bad as the three of them originally believed.

"Greetings Sly Cooper, Derpy Cooper, and Gilda Cooper." the Panda King said, to which he carefully picked himself up and stretched for a few seconds, revealing that he must have spent quite some time in his meditation before they had arrived, making them wonder if the messages they had heard were recordings or the real thing.

"Panda King." Sly replied, though as he said the name both he and his sisters readied themselves, as they suspected a trap of some kind, especially since none of the other members they had taken out seemed to have acted like the Panda King, save for Mz. Ruby and her interest in his sisters.

"You are here for the pages of your family tome, and for revenge." the Panda Kind stated, already guessing why they had come here, to which he gestured to the wall behind him, where he had stored his personal vault and the pages he had taken from the book, "They are there."

Sly, Gilda, and Derpy stared at the wall in question and found that the vault was there, though they were shocked to find out that the vault was open and that the pages were definitely there, which caused them to worry that this might be a trap that their foe had cooked up during his time before their arrival.

"That's oddly convenient." Derpy observed, though at the same time she began to think about the village again, and wondered if the people had actually gotten away before the firework had been launched at the mountain, causing the avalanche that they had seen.

"They are yours to take, regardless of how our fight goes," the Panda King said, to which he settled into the first stance of his newly perfected technique, which he called Flame Fu, and flames danced around his hands and his feet, causing Sly's eyes to widen in surprise as both Gilda and Derpy seemed interested, "You have questions regarding what happened all those years ago, and I possess the answers. Show me how much you have grown! Show me your strength, and the power of your hearts! Children cannot stand against the monster you hunt, so show me that you have grown into adults with the will to do what is necessary!"

Sly, Derpy, and Gilda separated from each other the moment the Panda King tossed a flame up from his hands and kicked it towards them, where it struck the wall that they had been standing in front of, though as they did that it appeared that their foe was more prepared for them than they originally thought. At first it seemed to be that he was focusing on Sly, counting Gilda and Derpy as unworthy of his attention, though they were proved wrong as he rapidly changed towards one of them and loosed another fireball, if that was what it was, in their direction. Despite his size it was clear that the Panda King had specifically trained himself to fight multiple people at the same time, because at first it appeared that he was testing their reflects with the one type of attack, though at the same time Derpy felt something stir inside her mind once more... and this time around she wasn't the only one, as Gilda was beginning to see something as well, something that felt strange and familiar to her at the same time.

The Panda King, noticing that the two of them had stalled for a moment, used that opportunity to hurl a ball of flames at them, opening himself to Sly's attacks as he managed to reach the center of the pagoda while he was distracted, but that mattered little to the Panda King as he switched from ranged attacks to melee attacks. As such he started off with his 'Fiery Wheel' technique, which involved flames gathering around one of his hands before he spun on his head like a wheel, in an attempt to knock Sly off his feet. Sly, on the other hand, was much smarter and jumped over the attack as it came his way, though as he descended back towards the floor he used his cane to smack the Panda King several times, where he discovered that a few hits only lightly damaged their foe, as he barely seemed affected by the attack. Once the Panda King was back on his feet he gathered more flames, this time around the hand that was opposite the one he used for 'Fiery Wheel', before raising his hand and declaring 'Booming Chop' as he struck the end of his hand on the ground in front of him, intending to hit Sly in the process.

Sly was unharmed, indicating that he had dodged the attack, though standing in his place was none other than Gilda, though to the Panda King's surprise she had caught his hand with her own hands, where his eyes widened as her eyes revealed an inner power that he had heard about, before Gilda pushed his arm back and spun around. Her kick, aided by the innate energies that she had unlocked for the moment, knocked him backwards and pushed him to the edge of the area he was fighting in, though as he straightened himself he gathered his flames and loosed another fireball, this one twice as big as before, towards his opponents. That was when Derpy, who he had forgotten about for a moment, moved herself between him and Gilda, where she held her hand out and the fireball seemed to stop in it's tracks, though just as surprise flashed on the Panda King's face she forced the attack backwards. The Panda King barely had time to move as his own attack struck him in the chest and threw him into one of the support pillars for the pagoda, breaking it with his weight being thrown against it, before he landed on the floor and coughed... and that was followed by him staring up at the Coopers for a moment, where Sly seemed a tad bit bothered by what his sisters had done, but was pleased with what they were able to do.

The Panda King mentally chuckled for a moment as he rubbed the short part of his chest, as he was going to be feeling that one for the next week at least, before he came to the conclusion that a drawn out battle with these three was not in his best interests... and, despite Sly's lack of powers, he saw a powerful light of hope inside the young raccoon, one that caused him to chuckle.

"So this is what Mz. Ruby meant," the Panda King commented, though at the same time he picked himself up and walked over to the middle of the pagoda, where he sat down and stared at the Cooper siblings for a few seconds, "the three of you are strong, each in your own unique way. Perhaps... perhaps you are strong enough to face Him."

"The last member of the Fiendish Five," Sly said, knowing exactly who the Panda King was referring to, even if they hadn't looked at the part of the police file that pertained to the last member, "Who is he? All Mz. Ruby said was that we'd be facing the true monster of your gang."

"...Clockwerk..." the Panda King replied, though there was something about the way he said the name that caused all three of the siblings to know that the last member was truly evil, and that was all from saying his name.

"C... Clockwerk?" Derpy asked, as while she wasn't afraid of a name, as they had nothing to go on just yet, she couldn't help but feel that they shouldn't underestimate this foe, as he seemed to be the leader of the Fiendish Five, if what they had seen so far was anything to go by.

"An ancient owl, who has replaced nearly his entire body with soulless machinery," the Panda King explained, giving them what he knew about their true enemy, the one he knew that they were prepared to face, even if their battle had been short and sweet, "He has lived for centuries, maybe even thousands of years, with a burning hated for the Cooper Clan, a hatred that has allowed him to live for so long. All those years ago, when we attacked your father, the four of us realized that we had been used as pawns in Clockwerk's game, though he was the only one that truly laid a talon on your father that night. Raleigh and Muggshot buried most of that evening in the depths of their minds, trying to forget what they say, while Mz. Ruby and I knew that one day we would all pay for what Clockwerk had done, and here you three are, standing with the power that might finally destroy him."

"A mechanical owl... that runs on his hatred for a single family," Gilda said, though she sounded disgusted, as she couldn't imagine someone willingly doing such a thing to their body, with the express purpose of wiping out a rival family, or whatever his plans entailed, "I didn't think such a thing was possible."

"Magic and monsters exist in this world," the Panda King commented, referring to the power that Mz. Ruby used all the time, the flames that he had tamed through meditation, the mysterious powers that Gilda and Derpy used against him, and the ancient evil that they stood against, "There isn't much more about Clockwerk that I can tell you, other than the fact that his base is in the Krack-Karov Volcano, which is located in Russia... and, should you go after him, I wish you the best of luck in purge him from this world."

"What did you think would happen when you went after my father?" Sly asked, as that was the one thing that didn't make sense to him, especially since it appeared that four members of the Fiendish Five weren't out to actually kill his father, as only the ancient owl wanted that, and it was the last thing he wanted to ask before they left.

"A few broken bones and the inability to interfere with our plans," the Panda King replied, though he sounded unhappy, which made sense considering what happened next, something that Sly knew all too well, "Like I said, Clockwerk only wanted to kill your father and we were his pawns. Before the police arrived I made sure that you were asleep before gathering a few of your things, including your father's cane, and took you to that orphanage... one where I hoped that you would be able to hide from your family's ancient foe. You found your way to your friends, Murray and Bentley, as well as your sisters, Gilda and Derpy, and learned the skills necessary to assist you on the final leg of your journey, by defeating four members of our group in battle. Perhaps the key to finally beating Clockwerk is inside the three of you."

Sly had the feeling that there was a lot more about what Clockwerk had done to his father that the Panda King didn't want him to know about, but just knowing that this one person, this ancient owl, had hated his family line for so long and turned his body into a soulless machine told him enough. Gilda and Derpy, on the other hand, moved over to the Panda King's vault and claimed the pages stored within, which belonged to their technically minded ancestor Otto van Cooper, who relied on vehicles to aid him in his endeavors. It also came with his plans for some upgrades that they could add to the van, once Bentley went over them anyway, so Sly left the calling card before turning to leave, though ad Derpy and Gilda took to the air he glanced at the Panda King for a few seconds, to see if there was anything else he wanted to tell them before they left. When he remained silent Sly let Gilda lift him up and soon enough the three of them were heading back to the van so they could leave the stronghold before Carmelita showed up.

They all knew that this Clockwerk was going to be the toughest opponent they had ever faced, especially since he had been alive for such a long period of time, though whether they were truly ready to face such a hateful enemy remained to be seen.