//------------------------------//
// Thievius: A Strange Reunion 
// Story: Sly Cooper: Family of Thieves 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Sly, Gilda, and Derpy stared at the large death ray the moment they finished walking up the path that had been near the area the robotic falcon had dropped Sly's cane, after Carmelita shot it, and knew that this thing had to be destroyed, but based on what they were seeing it didn't appear that they could break it from where they were standing. Fortunately Sly was able to find the exact location of Carmelita's jetpack, which was where she said it would be, though the route he needed to take involved climbing up the side of the death ray. He knew that Gilda and Derpy could easily fly up there, and take him with them if he so desired, but at the moment he felt like climbing, especially after his sisters had carried him up to his cane and prevented him from being covered by Carmelita. They also had no idea how much damage destroying the power area, which by the sounds of it Carmelita was still tearing to pieces with her shock pistol, would cause to the tower, but he was hoping that nothing disastrous happened.

"I'm going to make a break for the jetpack," Sly said, causing his sisters to look at him for a moment, though while Derpy looked concerned for his safety Gilda seemed shocked that he wanted to take the hard way this time, "I know, it's the hard way, but constantly taking the easy way is going to make me a lazy thief."

"Then we'll follow close behind you and make sure you don't fall into the lava," Gilda replied, because she knew that when her brother wanted to run and stretch his legs, and not fly with her and Derpy, it was safer to let him have his way and simply watch over him.

"You'd better hurry Sly," Bentley spoke up, causing the siblings to raise their binocucoms for a moment, as this sounded important based on their friend's tone, while at the same time they were thankful he had quickly hacked into Clockwerk's defenses and shut off the gas chamber, "Carmelita's shots have destroyed the magnatronic support field for the death ray, which means that it's going to start falling apart soon."

"Right." Sly said, though that was when he put away his binocucom and used the power line that was in front of him, which was no longer powered thanks to what Carmelita had been doing, and slide down to the next one in line, while at the same time Gilda and Derpy took to the air.

Gilda and Derpy watched as Sly made his way down the second power line, jumped onto the rock that it brought him to, and then transferred himself to a third power line that connected to the base of the death ray, though as he touched the rock the entire structure shook and the two of them moved close so they could keep a better eye on their brother. Sly, instead of being worried about the lava that the death ray was sinking into, hopped onto the power line that was nearby and started walking along it, though he had to pause when he reached a device that channeled electricity between two points and created a wall that blocked his path. Fortunately that only happened for a few seconds and he was able to move on without much of a delay, though the next obstacle he had to overcome was jumping onto a small platform and then using the trio of hooks that were in front of him to cross over to the other side of the death ray... where his luck continued, as a section of the death ray broke off and fell in front of him, creating a small platform for him to walk on as he found the next power line that would allow him to move forward.

After bypassing a second power conduit, where he waited for the electric wall to go away, he continued over the open area and smashed his way through the gears that fell in his way, surprising him by the fact that they were so brittle when he considered what machine they were in. From there he had to jump onto a moving gear, using the Ninja Spire Jump, and rode the point to his next destination, which happened to be a short power line that brought him to a platform with a power conduit. He waited for a few seconds before the wall was down and then jumped onto the power line that was in front of him, where he had to jump and use his momentum a few times to reach the other side of the death ray again, where he found it odd that he was constantly going back and forth between the two sides, but he wasn't about to complain at the moment. At the other end of the power line another piece of the death ray snapped off and fell into place, creating another platform for him, though as he used that to latch onto the metal pipe that was in front of him, and bypassed the power conduit that was in his way, he wondered if Clockwerk purposely designed the death ray to be like this, or if this was just random chance.

The thought of Clockwerk building a death ray, so that when it started to fall apart the pieces would form a number of platforms for him to take so he could continue forward, seemed strange and unlikely, but then he had to remember what he had seen in Mz. Ruby's place and the Panda King's stronghold... to which he sighed as he continued forward, as there would be a time and a place for such thoughts after he and his sisters completed their mission.

The next part of his obstacle course involved him using the Ninja Spire Jump to cross over some spires that were spinning in front of him, and happened to be attached to some electrical circuit of some kind, but he managed to get over them quickly and started climbing the pipe on the other side. After bypassing the power conduit that was in his way another part of the death ray came undone and revealed another platform he could stand on, one that allowed him to patiently wait for a second or two before jumping towards the device that was in front of him. He had to do that three more times, as he had to wait for the two heads of each device to connect, and pass electricity between them, before he could make his jump to the next one in line, though he was pleased when he came to another fallen metal platform. From there he latched onto the pipe that was in front of him and carefully bypassed the three power conduits that were in his way, reaching the top of the death ray as Gilda and Derpy circled overhead... to which he rushed over to the jetpack, strapped himself into it, and took to the skies, while at the same time noticing that Carmelita's toy came equipped with some guns that he could fire.

As Sly rose up to where his sisters were waiting, and watched as the death ray was nearly fully consumed by the lava around them, something else rose up with him, as a large mechanical owl, riding the thermal vents in the area, appeared before them in all his sinister glory... allowing the three of them to see that the Panda King's tale was true, every part of Clockwerk's body appeared to have been replaced by metal.

Sly Cooper, Clockwerk said, his voice echoing from the metallic frame that was his body, while at the same time his golden eyes flashed red as he talked, which had to represent his hate, you have escaped my gas chamber and destroyed my death ray. Remarkable. You Coopers always find a way to beat me!

"So I was right, that was you in all those pictures of the Thievius Raccoonus," Sly replied, though at the same time he prepared himself as both of his sisters flew up beside him, their canes at the ready, even though they knew that such weapons would have no effect on their opponent's body, if the robotic falcon Sly attacked earlier was any indication, "How old are you?"

Perfection has no age. Clockwerk answered immediately, almost as if he had been asked the question many times in the past and knew the answer by heart, or rather had it programmed into whatever was left of his brain, My hatred for your entire clan has allowed me to transcend the ravages of time, and has put me firmly beyond death's grasp. Revenge is the prime ingredient in the fountain of youth. I've kept myself alive for hundreds of years with a steady diet of jealousy and hate, awaiting the day when I would finally eclipse your family's thieving reputation.

"And then what?" Derpy asked, as she was curious was to what sort of diabolical plans the robotic owl could have for after he destroyed the Cooper Clan, which meant he was going to try and kill all three of them, "What will you do after you have defeated us?"

I shall ravage this world and leave behind a legacy that will never be forgotten. Clockwerk stated, indicating that, once he had beaten them and had no more Coopers to hate, he'd lose what was powering his body and likely attack the world as a whole, which only made the siblings want to defeat him even more than they already did.

"Sly!" Carmelita called out over their communications, where Gilda and Derpy spotted her standing near the edge of the heart of the volcano, where she was aiming at Clockwerk and not at them, "The guns on the jetpack aren't strong enough to do anything to his armor, and the blasts from my shock pistol can't damage his insides... but they do create small holes in his armor."

Sly nodded his head, as he understood what Carmelita was saying, and he moved away from Clockwerk, who gave chase and started firing purple energy balls from certain points of his body, which were no doubt fueled by the hate that coursed through his metallic body. Since he had to wait for Carmelita to line up a shot, and reveal a weak point, he kept his fingers off the triggers and simply dodged the incoming balls that Clockwerk was firing at him, while at the same time Gilda and Derpy attempted to scratch his back and wings with their canes. As they were able to determine, with just a glance at the metallic body, their canes were useless in this situation and, since they hadn't actually unlocked any of the powers that Mz. Ruby had told them about, they were next to worthless in this fight. Still, they did the best that they could and tried to distract Clockwerk, which wasn't hard considering that they were Coopers as well and he wanted all of them to be destroyed, even if they weren't raccoons like Sly was. Eventually Carmelita lined up her shot and blasted Clockwerk in the face, allowing Sly to open fire on his target and dealt some damage to him, though even then it was hard to tell how much he had done.

Naturally since they assumed that Clockwerk was only interested in firing purple balls at them, which all of them knew to avoid since they looked like they would hurt a lot if they were hit, but they failed to account for the other weapons that owls were naturally born with and had been upgraded when Clockwerk forged this new body. They were given a reminder of that fact when Derpy, who flew a little too close to their foe at one point while she was looking for a weakness she and Gilda could take advantage of, was attacked by Clockwerk, who reached out with his talons as she started to pull herself away from him. Unfortunately she wasn't fast enough, as Clockwerk's talons managed to make contact with her face, or more accurately her right eye, as she felt three sharp talons cut into her skin as one of her eyes went dark, while at the same time she screamed. Fortunately the feeling of the talons didn't last too long, as Carmelita and Sly blasted Clockwerk backwards with another opening they had exploited, though as she started to fall Gilda flew over to her and caught her, before touching down near where Carmelita was standing... which also happened to be where Murray had parked the van, while keeping him and Bentley out of Clockwerk's sight.

Gilda looked at her wounded and crying sister for a moment, seeing the three perfectly straight slashes that ran from above her right eye to below her right eye, and knew what had to have happened, Clockwerk had taken one of Derpy's eyes from her... and the fact that Clockwerk had wounded two of her siblings, one mentally and one physically, made something inside her snap, to which little strands of red energy started to gather around her as her inner power finally found an outlet.

"Gilda, you should sit this out," Bentley said, though he had carefully walked over to where Derpy was resting, but he tried not to puke when he saw what happened to her face, and used what little tools they had to cover up the right side of her head and stop the bleeding, "Sly's got this... and then we'll need to take Derpy to a hospital or something."

That was followed by the sound of Sly blasting Clockwerk out of the air, as the fourth attack Carmelita lined up tore of the plating off of one of his wings and caused him to crash into the magma, though before anyone could celebrate the ancient owl surged back out into the open and focused on his target.

"I don't get it. You're so familiar with my family, you must have known my father had a son." Sly commented, directing his statement to his opponent, while at the same time everyone else, those that were paying attention, merely listened in for a few seconds, "If you hated the Coopers so much, why did you let me live when you killed my father? You must have known that I was somewhere inside the house when you and your 'gang' attacked."

I knew you were there. Clockwerk stated, revealing that he knew about Sly's existence, despite what the Panda King thought when the events of that night played out, I intentionally left you alive, because I wanted to show the world that without your precious book, the Cooper line was nothing.

"And that's the mistake that the vast majority of our foes have made," Sly said, as he, Derpy, and Gilda knew the truth of the matter, and he was sure that, if Clockwerk was as smart as he was supposed to be, he had likely figured that out by now and was still trying to reject the reality of the situation, "The Thievius Raccoonus doesn't create great thieves, rather the great thieves of the Cooper Clan made the book what it is."

Enough, Sly Cooper! Clockwerk stated, indicating that he was growing tired of this conversation, as he happened to be preparing some new attacks to use against him when the next round of combat started, It ends here. I'll finish you, and your siblings, like I finished your father. Then the Cooper line will be erased...

Before Clockwerk could finish his statement, and proclaim that he would be the only surviving master thief once the Coopers were destroyed, he noticed something odd, the entire area around the heart of the volcano was starting to shake, but that was impossible since he had determined an earthquake wouldn't happen here for many years. A few seconds ticked by before he turned his gaze over towards the griffin that had grabbed the wounded pegasus, where bits of rock seemed to be floating in the air around her as a faint red aura surrounded her body. What was even stranger was that the pegasus was now sporting a similar aura as well, though her's appeared to be a faint light blue color that seemed to dance about like electricity or lightning, while the griffin's moved like the wind itself. Based on what he had seen in the gas chamber he knew that these two had powers, even if they were untapped by their lack of familiarity with them, but that didn't mean he should underestimate them.

The was, of course, until the griffin turned around and swung her wing in Clockwerk's direction, though since she was so far away he didn't even consider moving, but that turned out to be a bad idea as the wind itself turned against him and cut several small gashes into his plating, surprising him and everyone that was watching.

"CLOCKWERK!" Gilda shouted, her voice full of rage and anger at the moment, while at the same time Sly and the others flinched when they heard her, as they had never seen Gilda like this before, though she was focusing on one individual at the moment, "I WON'T FORGIVE YOU FOR HURTING MY SISTER!"

The red aura around Gilda intensified as she burst into the air and raced towards where Clockwerk was flapping his wings, to which Sly and Carmelita's eyes widened as Gilda slammed her right fist into the side of the mechanical owl's head, staggering him in the process while leaving a small imprint of her fist in the side of his head. Before Clockwerk even had a chance to recover Gilda went on the offensive, slamming her fists, which Sly could see were covered in the same strange aura that was wrapped around the rest of her body, into Clockwerk's body with the intent to hurt him. After that it became a contest of sorts, as Gilda flew around the heart of the volcano, chasing down Clockwerk, who fired at her every now and then, only to watch as she avoided the attacks he sent at her before Gilda crossed the distance and struck her target again. While all of that was happening Carmelita tried to get another blast off, so she might open a weakness that would severely damage the mechanical owl, but for the most part it appeared that Gilda either got in the way or moved her target, making it impossible to hit Clockwerk again.

Of course as she tried that she noticed that the clouds above them seemed to be darkening, as if a storm was coming, but that was before she noticed that Derpy was standing once more and her lone eye was fixed on Clockwerk, though even she had to back up when she saw the intense anger that was inside Derpy's eye, as it wasn't something that anyone had ever seen before today. Lightning danced around her right hand, which she raised into the air, and Carmelita watched as the clouds responded by rumbling a few times while she noticed flashes of lightning appear inside the darkened clouds, but Derpy's eye was focused on the ancient owl. A few moments later, when Gilda was pushed away from Clockwerk at long last, Derpy swung her hand towards Clockwerk and a bolt of lightning, easily the width of one of the owl's plating on his wings, tore out of the sky before barreling into Clockwerk's body... where all of the weaknesses Carmelita had seen earlier, when she was captured, appeared in all their glory as the lightning stunned the owl.

"Sly! Tear him apart!" Derpy shouted, though she remained in the position she was in, indicating that she had to be channeling the power of the storm into Clockwerk's body, keeping him stunned.

Sly, seeing this happen, nodded his head as he started to open fire on Clockwerk, allowing the rockets from the jetpacks guns to punch new holes in Clockwerk's plating and dealt an incredible amount of damage to the owl's insides, as he was sure that parts were flying off of him. While he did that Gilda came to a stop near him and started loosing balls, much like the ones Mz. Ruby and the Panda King used against them, that raced through the air and slammed into Clockwerk's body. A few moments later their combined attacks tore the robotic owl apart, as the pieces of his body went flying as they dropped into the magma around them, though before Sly left he and Gilda, accompanied by an angry Derpy who flew in once her lightning wasn't needed, found Clockwerk's head and smashed it as well, to stop him from regenerating his body. As that happened Clockwerk promised them that they hadn't seen the last of him, which was followed by them breaking him apart until his eyes stopped glowing, indicating that he was either dead... and no one wanted to think about there being a second possibility.

Sly opened his mouth to say something, but before he could do so he noticed that the auras that Gilda and Derpy had faded as quickly as they had arrived, though as they started to stagger Gilda caught herself and grabbed onto her sister, who weakly smiled at her as the three of them returned to the van... though as they landed, and Bentley tended to Derpy's wound as best he could, Derpy spotted a small computer chip, about the size of her pointer finger, resting nearby. Oddly enough it had a glowing blue light in it, though she smiled as she picked it up and slipped it into her pocket, knowing that Clockwerk didn't need it anymore. At the same time Sly found the page that Clockwerk had stolen, taken from the fragment of the owl's body that hadn't landed in the magma, but this time he didn't bother to read it, not where there were more pressing matters on his mind... the final missing page, back in the Panda King's stronghold, and his sister's wound, which he was more interested in tending to at the moment.

Of course as his friends helped Derpy into the van, so they could get ready for their departure, there was someone else he needed to finish his business with, to which he turned away from Clockwerk's body, which didn't appear to be in the process of melting, and turned towards Carmelita... who looked unsure of what to do at the moment.

"Something wrong Inspector?" Sly asked, though at the same time he slipped Clockwerk's section of the Thievius Raccoonus into the binding, keeping them with the other pages they had recovered, before focusing his entire attention on Carmelita, who had her shock pistol pointed his way.

"I'm conflicted between duty and what is right," Carmelita said, where she glanced at the van for a moment, recalling the wound that Clockwerk had inflicted on Derpy before both she and Gilda snapped, before she turned her attention back towards Sly, "Duty says that I should try and attempt to capture you, since you and the rest of your gang are criminals... and yet doing the right thing would mean letting you leave without doing that, since one of you is injured."

"I think I can help with that decision," Sly commented, though as he said that he stepped forward and caused Carmelita to really focus on him, but that didn't stop him from approaching her anyway, where he eventually pulled her into a passionate kiss that caused Carmelita to melt for a few seconds.

Sly would have loved to stay longer, though the moment Carmelita was more focused on what she was feeling he disengaged from her, ran over to the van and climbed in, before they departed from the area, where the sound of the tires caused Carmelita to snap out of her confusion for a moment and realized what he had meant... though by the time she turned around Murray was already taking them away from the volcano and back to civilization, where they would disappear like they did after every heist.

"I'll get you next time, ringtail." Carmelita said, though at the same time she noticed that Sly had never even once considered using her own cuffs against her, as they were still in her back pocket, because he was so worried about his sister and the fact that her right eye was gone.

Maybe there might actually be something between her and Sly, a relationship that the raccoon had been trying to coax into existence since they first encountered each other, though Carmelita sighed as she figured out what to write in her report... and then it was back to hunting the Coopers once more.