After defeating the Panda King, and learning what he knew about the mysterious Clockwerk, Sly and his sisters landed by the van and climbed into the back, allowing Murray to drive off while Sly let Bentley look at the plans that Otto van Cooper had created, so they could modify the van in the future. Fortunately it appeared that the modifications were easy to make, provided they had the necessary components to make the battering ram and turret that were the focus of the pages, but Bentley informed them that they could make the items in no time. Of course that meant they had to go somewhere to find the pieces, though oddly enough Hong Kong, where Sly had been planning on visiting for their time to relax after they dealt with the Panda King's forces, was the exact place where they could gather the components necessary for them to make the new battering ram and the turret.
Upon arriving in Hong Kong, and parking the van in yet another abandoned building they happened to find, complete with some decent tools for their needs, Bentley gave Sly a list of components and sent him out to get them, while at the same time offering nothing to Gilda and Derpy. There was a reason for that, as when he heard the tale of their fight with the Panda King, and how they had managed to do something to turn the tide of battle against him, he remembered Derpy's fight with Mz. Ruby. Despite the fact that his mind told him that neither of the sisters had powers, regardless of what the last two members of the Fiendish Five said, he wanted to see if either of them could do anything that proved him wrong, even if he had to rethink his understanding of the world to do so. Unfortunately both of the sisters discovered that whatever power they had used to defeat Mz. Ruby and the Panda King either didn't want to come out, despite the various tests that Bentley wanted to do, or it was simply triggered on demand... like if their lives were being threatened or something, and since Bentley was their friend none of his small tests worked.
Eventually Sly returned with the components and they all got to work building the new battering ram, which they carefully installed when it was completed, and hooked in the turret, which would replace the dish on the roof of the van when they wanted to use the turret.
In order to test these new toys out Murray had to drive the van further away from civilization, allowing him the chance to use the battering ram to smash boulders and the stray bits of metal apart, while at the same time Sly climbed onto the turret and used it on some larger rocks nearby, breaking one apart before he determined that the weapon worked as it was supposed to. As they practiced with the new items Sly realized that the Panda King must have known something about Clockwerk's base, specifically why he had taken the part of the Thievius Raccoonus containing Otto van Cooper's plans and deeds. It still seemed odd that each member of the Fiendish Five had the pages that would help them with the next member in the group, but right now he wasn't about to complain about the situation, not when it had worked in their favor and would do so again. Sly also let Gilda and Derpy practice with the turret for a few minutes, just so they got a feeling for the new toy they had acquired, before they decided that it was time for them to leave, where he converted the turret back to the dish that was usually in it's place... though once that was done they headed out on the road and started the long journey to their final destination; the Krack-Karov Volcano.
Of course they had to stop multiple times over their journey, but during one of their stops Sly claimed a newspaper that revealed that Carmelita had captured the Panda King, which wasn't a surprise considering what happened between them, and that she had an idea where the final member of the Fiendish Five was located. That wasn't good news, because if Clockwerk was as smart as the Panda King said he was, and had done his homework, Carmelita was the perfect bait to lure Sly into a trap when they reached his lair. There was one other thing that Sly determined along the way to the Krack-Karov Volcano, as he had looked at the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus, to see if his ancestors had written anything about the ancient owl, and found that several of the pictures had the silhouette of a large owl in the background. He quickly determined that the silhouettes had to be Clockwerk, confirming the Panda King's story that the leader of the Fiendish Five was an ancient owl who had been hunting his family throughout the entirety of their existence, or at least since the days of Slytunkhamen Cooper I.
This confirmation did nothing for Sly, his sisters, Bentley, or even Murray, as they all knew that they were going to be facing a creature of unspeakable evil, a being that survived for thousands of years on nothing but hatred... to which they prepared themselves for their arrival at his base, and whatever he had in store for them.
It took them some time to reach the front part of Clockwerk's base of operations, just like it did with the last four members of the Fiendish Five, but this time around things were different, as they were able to approach the large gate that served as the entrance without having to fight through anything or collect any keys. It would have been a nice change of pace had they been up against someone like Muggshot or Mz. Ruby, but with their foe being the mysterious Clockwerk, who had a vendetta against the Cooper Clan, it was like he was challenging them. Sly, knowing that they had to get by the gate, pressed the button that switched the dish for the turret and let the turret move into position, though once that was done he climbed up to it and took his place in the seat that would allow him to move and fire at whatever was waiting for them on the other side of the gate. While he did that Murray made sure that they were well prepared for the trek ahead, Bentley prepared his computer in case he needed to hack into something, and both Gilda and Derpy stood beside him as he prepared himself.
"One more member and we're done." Gilda commented, causing everyone to look at her for a moment, though Derpy was the first one to understand what she was talking about, as she nodded her head in agreement, "One more member and we will have defeated the Fiendish Five, claimed nearly all the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus, and avenged the life that Clockwerk took all those years ago."
"Yeah..." Sly said, where he let out a sigh as he remembered why they, why he, was going through all of this for a few seconds, before he steeled himself and tapped the turret, "Murray, is the van ready to go?"
"We're all set Sly," Murray replied, though while the fact that they were going up against an ancient owl, who lived off a diet of hatred, was running through his mind he knew that Sly and his sisters would be more than enough to take out their target, just like the other members of the Fiendish Five.
"Okay, then let's get this show on the road," Sly stated, to which his sisters nodded their heads and headed into the van, as if they flew around the area they would be moving targets and might get hit in the process, though they were sure that they would be able to assist Sly in some manner in the future.
Once everyone was in place, and Sly was absolutely sure about that, he fired up the turret and aimed at the lock on the large gate that was in front of them, where he loosed a bullet at it and tore the lock apart, which opened the entire gate and allowed Murray to start driving forward. As the gate fully opened Murray found an alarming number of mines lining the path in front of them, to which Sly directed his turret fire on the mines and caused them all to detonate before the van reached any of them. As they rounded the corner a few seconds later Gilda and Derpy, as well as Sly, Murray, and Bentley, got a good view of an owl-shaped tower, one that Bentley claimed that Clockwerk happened to be waiting on, meaning they knew where their target was. That was followed by Murray moving the van onto a narrow path that put them above a large pool of lava, meaning that if they fell off the edge they would all die before they were able to react, and, as if that wasn't enough, hostile robo-falcons flew through the air and demanded their attention. Sly, seeing them coming, turned the turret on the flying robots and shot them out of the sky, making sure that they did nothing to the van while Murray carefully drove along the path.
The instant that Sly was done with the group of robotic falcons the tower powered up and revealed that it wasn't just a tower, rather it was a death ray that tore into the nearby hill and loosed a group of boulders that were threatening to knock the van off the path and into the lava... where Sly fired at all of them and tore them apart as fast as he could, preserving the safety of his friends and family in the process.
Once the boulders were taken care of Murray turned to the left and more robotic falcons swooped in to attack them, where Sly opened fire and tore them to pieces, letting the fragments fall into the lava around them while he made sure that none of them reached the van. After that came two smaller areas of mines, with a little separation between them, though as Sly tore the first group apart he noticed that Clockwerk had fired the death beam at the boulders that were behind the second set of mines. Murray, seeing them coming, stopped the van and let Sly tear both the mines and the boulders to pieces, making sure that the van was safe, before he started moving forward again, though that was when Sly had to target yet another group of robotic falcons. Fortunately Sly was a great shot and tore the third group of robotic falcons to pieces, all of them, and soon enough the group was taken care of, though as he noticed that they were heading towards a cave, which the turret wouldn't fit in, he jumped back into the van and lowered the turret back into the place where it was kept... though he waited for them to get to an area with a higher roof before allowing the dish to take it's rightful place once more.
When they entered the next area, one that appeared to be some sort of pit that had lava around the exterior of the central part and didn't touch the ramp in front of them, or the path leading towards the doorway on the other side of the cavern they were in, but Sly smiled as he noticed the computers that were hanging from the ceiling.
"We need to get through that security door," Bentley told them, beckoning to the gate that everyone was interested in, though at the same time Gilda and Derpy glanced up at the computers and wondered what they were going to do about those, "and the only way to unlock it is to analyze at least sixty of those hanging computers."
"Then let's use the turret and blast them to pieces," Derpy said, as she knew that they could overcome the challenge that was in front of them with the tool they gained from Otto van Cooper, thus allowing them to ignore the lava slug creatures that happened to be in the chamber around them.
"I'm afraid that we can't do that," Bentley stated, to which he pointed at the icon that used the battering ram that was installed in the front of the van, or more accurately the Cooper sign that was on the very front of the grill, "the computers are designed to yield their data to someone that either runs them over, like we'll have to, or be consumed by the slugs that happen to be guarding this area."
"Which means that this is up Murray's alley," Gilda commented, as she understood what they needed to do, where Sly nodded his understanding, before she turned towards Murray, who was staring at the computers and the slugs that were crawling along the ground, "Murry, let loose and show those slugs whose boss."
Murray grinned as he put the van in the necessary gear and surged forward, descending into the circular area of the chamber that the slugs were patrolling, though as Bentley hacked into the computers and made them fall he used the battering ram to smash the slugs away and ran into the computers that were in his way. While that happened both Gilda and Derpy wondered if there was anything for them to do other than watch their friend get them closer to Clockwerk, but at the very least Murray proved that he was great behind the wheel and made sure that he scored more of the computers than the slugs could consume. Sly and his sisters watched as Murray smashed the slugs into the lava, knocking them unconscious for a few moments at best, with the battering ram and made sure to grab what Bentley needed, who was keeping track of the number of computers that he was collecting... until the point where Murray claimed the last computer that Bentley needed so he could open the security door that was blocking their path.
The moment that Murray heard that news, and that it was now time for Sly, Gilda, and Derpy to enter the control room for the death ray tower, he headed through the now opened door and found a spot where he could let the siblings off, though while they did that he was determined to find his way to another area so he could be of assistance to them in the near future. Sly and his sisters, however, moved forward and headed into the control room, where they found a few searchlights moving around the area, metallic turrets that would shoot at them the instant they touched the metal floor in front of them, and a number of areas that appeared to involve some of their techniques... and, in the far chamber from where they were standing, was a chamber that contained a captive Carmelita Fox.
"Carmelita!" Sly gasped, as while he and his sisters knew that the Inspector had been closely following them, all the way from Paris and tracked them to each of the hideouts for the four members of the Fiendish Five they had taken out earlier, it was strange for her to beat them to their next target like this.
"She's trapped!" Derpy said, realizing that Carmelita was locked inside some sort of sturdy casing that kept her trapped in the middle of the chamber she was in, though she knew that all three of them realized what they were staring at before they even took a step forward.
"And this is, without a doubt, a trap." Gilda added, as the walls of the chamber looked like video screens of some kind, one that Clockwerk was likely going to use to gloat at whoever triggered the trap, and yet at the same time she knew exactly what was coming next.
"It looks like there's a barrel nearby that one of us can use to get..." Sly started to say, though that was when Gilda and Derpy opened their wings and maneuvered themselves to the other side of the chamber, where Derpy turned off the alarm and Gilda smashed the dart machines, allowing him to walk over to them with ease, "...right... I forgot you two had wings for a moment, and that this sort of thing is easy for you to take care of."
Gilda and Derpy grinned for a moment as the three of them entered the chamber that Carmelita was in, though as they did so the part of the chamber they had walked through raised into place and trapped them all in the same chamber, confirming that this was a trap... and green gas was starting to pour into the chamber.
"Sentimental fools!" a voice said, to which the siblings watched as a shadowy image appeared on all of the screens around them, confirming that Clockwerk was coming to gloat like they thought he would, "Empathy has always been the downfall of the Cooper Clan. Had your father been willing to focus more on his own safety, than be concerned for your well-being, he could have beaten all five of us all those years ago, but he chose his fate. Had you been willing to leave this woman to her fate, you and your siblings might have been able to stand a chance against me, but now the three of you will... be..."
The only reason Clockwerk was stalling in his gloating was because there was something strange happening inside the gas chamber, as it appeared that the griffin's eyes were glowing for some reason, though as he watched he noticed that a spherical field of some kind was being generated by the griffin. It was as if the wind or the air had been bent to her will, as it was somehow keeping the gas from reaching her and her siblings, causing him to growl as he realized that Mz. Ruby must have done something to the griffin. It ruined his chances to defeat the current Coopers, at least at the moment, though before he could even say anything about his targets having something akin to the Devil's own luck, as all of the members of the Cooper Clan were that way, the vents shut off and the gas stopped pouring into the chamber. As that happened the glow in the griffin's eyes faded and she huffed for a few moments, indicating that she might be weakened from he efforts, but instead of saying anything he disconnected from the screens and vanished.
Sly, on the other hand, turned his cane towards the base of Carmelita's case and smashed it, which caused the entire thing to crack and break, freeing her from her prison and caused her to look at the three of them for a moment, before she turned around and blasted the door to pieces... to which the four of them headed through the opening and headed through the tunnel that was in front of them, where they came out in a large power station of some kind.
"I don't get it, Cooper." Carmelita said, causing all three of the siblings to turn towards her, despite the fact that they knew she was actually talking to Sly and not either Gilda or Derpy, "I've hunted you and your sisters for years, tried to throw the lot of you behind bars... but when you get a chance to leave me in a cage, you set me free... why?"
"Carmelita, we may be on opposite sides of the law but you're not our enemy." Sly replied, though at the same time he pointed at the death ray that was staring down at them, the very one that they were interested in destroying, and the entire group stared at it for a moment, "Now the homicidal robotic owl that built this death ray and tried to gas us to death... that guy's been on our list since we left Paris!
"I see your point." Carmelita commented, as she had read the file and knew the details involving the death of Sly's father, and more importantly who had caused such a terrible event to occur, "Alright, until Clockwerk and his evil schemes are destroyed, I suggest we work together."
"Together at last!" Sly cheered, though before anyone else could say anything he spotted a robotic falcon coming their way and and jumped into the air so he could smack it, but as he did so he found that his cane did absolutely nothing, only for the robotic falcon to snatch his cane and fly off with it, where Carmelita blasted it the moment she locked onto it, "That cane's been in our family for generations!"
"Calm down ringtail, you've got two people that'll help you recover it in seconds," Carmelita said, where she pointed at Gilda and Derpy, who smiled as they spread their wings again, indicating that they could bypass everything and get Sly up to his cane in moments, "While you're doing that I'm going to tear apart some of these machines and see if I can't destroy Clockwerk's death ray from down here. However, once we take out Clockwerk I'm going to be coming after all three of you... though maybe I'll give you a ten second head start. And, if you reach the top of the death ray, be sure to pick up my jetpack that I left behind when I got grabbed earlier... it might help you against your foe."
Sly grinned as he considered what he could do with those ten seconds, though instead of saying anything he let Gilda and Derpy grab onto him before carrying him through the air, where he heard the sounds of Carmelita firing at the various power sources that were in front of her. It didn't take them long to reach the area that his cane had fallen to, though once it was back in his hands, and his sisters were ready, the three of them drew closer to the heart of the volcano, where they would figure out what to do with the death ray, claim Carmelita's jetpack, and then face off with the leader of the Fiendish Five... and then avenge all the people that Clockwerk had killed over the course of his existence, including Sly's father.