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// Band: Prague 
// Story: Sly Cooper: Family of Thieves 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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It took Bentley and Diz some time to learn how to properly learn how to drive a stick shift, using the information that was on the internet and what they remembered Murray doing whenever he was driving the van around, before they were able to get the van out of the jungle. Once they were able to do that they headed back towards civilization and found a nice quiet place for them to wait in while Bentley sent Secretary Sen what he knew on the situation and started searching for whatever information he could find on the Contessa. While he was doing that he asked the others to try and help him out, since he didn't want them to become angry to the point where they were willing to unleash their magical energies at a moment's notice and damage something. Fortunately Gilda and Derpy attempted to help him out by using the spare computer that was in the van, but since they weren't as skilled with a computer as he was, since they had spent their time practicing their magic and thieving skills, it eventually came down to them making sure Diz didn't do something he would regret with his more potent magical powers.

After a week of searching for information, and getting some pieces from Secretary Sen as well, Bentley was able to determine that Sly and Murray were currently locked away in the mysterious towers of Prague, as the unwilling guests of the Contessa at the moment. From what Bentley was able to determine the Contessa, when she was still a criminal psychology student, entered into a whirlwind romance and married a wealthy aristocrat, though the union was short-lived, as the reports said that the general 'suspiciously' died a few weeks after the ceremony. The widowed Contessa then put her education and newly acquired estate to work by opening a criminal rehabilitation center, where, according to some of the other reports, her pioneering use of hypnotherapy had produced some good results and subsequently earned her a prominent position within Interpol. Based on the reports that Bentely found, and those that were sent over from Secretary Sen, it was easy to determine that if Sly and Murray weren't rescued sometime before the end of the week they would be lost to the gang forever... and then it was only a matter of time until the Contessa moved onto breaking Carmelita, who was likely going to be turned into a scapegoat for everything that's happened so far.

Bentley was also pleased to find that the Secretary was on their side, as he told them to move forward with whatever they had planned, because the fact that the Contessa was willing to ignore the deal that he had with the Cooper Gang, and arrest what was essentially three members of their group, had caused him to dig up some information that might actually damage the Contessa's reputation... though he stated at it would be a few days before he could announce anything, giving the four of them time to get Sly and Murray back. As such Bentley set a course for the part of Prague that the prison was located in, where the Contessa lived as it turned out, while at the same time Gilda, Derpy, and Diz flew ahead to scout out the path ahead of them, so they didn't drive into a trap. Since the Contessa had gone out of her way to go behind the orders of a Secretary, damaging her reputation if anyone was paying attention to her and Neyla at this point, they had to wonder what if the rest of Carmelita's coworkers were as corrupt as Neyla and the Contessa were, or if they didn't care about their missing coworkers and were continuing their lives as if nothing was wrong.

One other thing that Bentley and the others had noticed was that, in the brief messages that Secretary Sen had sent them, there was what appeared to be some anger in his words, indicating that he was pissed at what was happening to all of them and to Carmelita... and, based on the contents of the messages, he was digging into Interpol to see if there was anyone else that needed to be looked at more carefully.

The group put those thoughts at the back of their minds when they arrived outside the prison, where Bentley immediately found an abandoned building that they could set up shop in with an area for the van to rest while they didn't need it, though the boarded up windows would allow them to look out through the gaps and observe what was around them without revealing themselves on accident.

"So, what's our first objective?" Gilda asked, as they were all sitting around the round table that had been inside the building when they arrived, one that was large enough to sit the four of them with some room for a fifth and a sixth person, but she had the feeling that they'd be gone once Sly and Murray were free.

"One of you will join me as I make my way over to the Contessa's house," Bentley explained, to which he noticed that all three of them were raising their eyebrows at him, but it was a look of curiosity and interest, which was what he was hoping for when he revealed what the first steps of their operation was, "I'm hoping to pick up some information on where the Contessa has locked away Sly and Murray, so I can plan a proper course of action for us to take."

Gilda, Derpy, and Diz stared at each other for a few seconds, to see what the others were thinking at the moment, before they came to the decision that Derpy would be the one to follow Bentley for now, leaving Gilda and Diz to remain at the hideout. It was better in the long run, because Gilda was the one that was able to calm Diz down when he was angry and prevent him from using his powers to exact his revenge against the guards in the area, but the moment the decision was reached  Bentley started to head out to begin his mission. As he and Derpy walked out onto the street that was outside their hideout, however, they noticed that the Contessa's guards consisted of bats guards, whose wings replaced most of their arms and hands while making it impossible for them to fly through the air, wolf guards, and vulture guards, which didn't have hands and were larger than the other two types of guards in the area. Derpy guarded Bentley as he made his way over to where the Contessa's house was located, knocking out the guards that happened to be around them so they wouldn't be spotted, while at the same time making note of where several clue bottles were located so they could rob the Contessa's vault before they left the area.

When they reached the Contessa's house, with was two stories and an attic, they used the exterior ramp to reach the top and then climbed up the other side of the ramp to get to the very top of the building, allowing them to use a bouncy spider web to reach a satellite dish that was above the house... though when they reached the top of the building Bentley nodded for a few seconds, indicating that they were in the correct area, where Derpy spotted the Contessa moving up the exterior of the prison.

"Aha! The Contessa is out making her rounds." Bentley commented, though at the same time he fiddled with his darts for a few seconds, where he seemed to remember something as he touched the feathers and heard a sound from the dish they were standing above, "Wait a second... the feathers on my sleep darts vibrate near sounds!"

"That's interesting," Derpy said, as she had no idea that Bentley's darts even did something like that, because he had actually never explained any potential side effects of the feathers that were attached to his darts, "but how is that going to help us figure out where Sly and Murray are located?"

"If we maintain our position on top of this parabolic dish, we should be able to hear that frequency at a distance." Bentley explained, gesturing to the dish that they were standing on, to which Derpy glanced down at it for a moment, before he raised his crossbow and aimed at the prison, "This is good news! If I tag the Contessa with my darts we should be able to listen in on whatever she says... and we might even learn where she's locked up Sly and Murray!"

Derpy's eyes lit up as she heard that fact, as that was the reason they had come out here in the first place, to which she nodded her head and stood to the side, where Bentley readied himself as he waited for the Contessa to settle down somewhere on the top of the wall she was walking on. When the Contessa finally came to a stop, however, Bentley aimed at a location near the warden and loosed a dart through the air, where they struck the walls around his target without alerting her to their presence, even though she should have been able to see them from where she was standing.

"The Klaww Gang is falling apart." Contessa said, apparently not caring about what she said at the moment, as if she believed that she was actually alone at the moment, while at the same time Bentley made sure to record everything that she said before he decided he had enough information, "Spice shipments have all but stopped... argh! I never would have joined if I'd know it would be this easy to disrupt the plan. At least the Cooper Gang is under lock and key... their lopsided morality flies in the face of man's inherent selfishness. Ah well... they'll see it my way soon enough."

Derpy knew that this was an interesting piece of information, as the Contessa confessed to being a member of the Klaww Gang, giving them another reason to take her out since she likely had a piece of Clockwerk somewhere, before Bentley nocked another dart and prepared himself... to which he fired the dart through the air and struck another part of the prison when his target stopped moving.

"Those fools at Interpol. They keep sending me criminals and I keep making money." Contessa commented, her tone shifting to a mocking one, indicating that she believed everyone at Interpol was either ignorant or outright foolish, while also revealing something to the duo, "How come no one ever thought of this before? Hypnotize criminals and force them to reveal where they've hidden their fortune... I'm a genius! If only I had more spice to help me with the hypnosis!"

This time around Derpy growled, as now that they knew that the Contessa was actually a member of the Klaww Gang, and had been tricking everyone around her, the revelation of what she was doing made her angry, though she had to take a few deep breaths and calm herself down, so she didn't call the lightning to the area... but when she was ready she nodded to Bentley and he loosed another dart through the air, allowing them to hear more of what the Contessa was saying at the moment.

"That blasted Cooper Gang." Contessa exclaimed, her tone once again shifting from what it had been a few seconds ago, becoming a little angry when she thought about the gang that was stopping the Klaww Gang, or more like the members she had caught so far, "The fat one... what's his name? Murray, yes, Murray, he'll be the first to break. I should spend a few sessions probing that feeble mind, I can only imagine the wealth that gang has accumulated over the years."

Derpy and Bentley had to resist the urge to chuckle at that, because while it was true that they had a decent fortune to their names it wasn't something that would easily be revealed to someone like the Contessa, especially after all the techniques that they read from the Thievius Racoonus... though when Bentley was ready he loosed another dart and hoped that the next bit of information was on Sly.

"That Sly Cooper... such a complex and rebellious mind." Contessa commented, her tone shifting to one that revealed that she had an interest in the leader of the Cooper Gang, or more like his mind and not the person that it belonged to, which annoyed them a little more, "A month or two in "the hole" should break his spirit. Let him squat there... week after week... he's already seen the guards along the wall all have motion detectors,... there is no escape. Slowly the reality of his  captivity will set in... and I'll get to work on his mind. And then, once I've broken Sly, I'll head back to the castle and take my time breaking Carmelita until she's nothing more than a shell of her former self... and maybe make Neyla's claims true while I'm at it."

"I... I don't believe it!" Bentley said, his voice filled with anger, as he couldn't believe what he had heard the Contessa say, though at the same time he was happy to have recorded everything so he could send it to Secretary Sen so he would know that Carmelita had been set up, "She's no health care professional. Why, that's the most heinous crime I've ever heard of! Putting inmates into hypnosis so they'll tell her where they've stashed their loot."

"It dishonors both law enforcement and thieves at the same time!" Gilda growled, her voice echoing over their binocucoms for a few seconds, revealing that she and Diz had likely been listening in to what the Contessa had said while Bentley was gaining the information they received, "Bentley, can you figure out a way to break Sly out of 'The Hole'?"

"Yeah, I think I have a few ideas to get Sly free," Bentley replied, to which he glanced down at the train tracks that were nearby and spotted the single car train as it moved through the area, before focusing on the terminal that was at the end of the line, "Derpy, I'm fairly sure that the computer that is near us is the last in the line for the train, so do you mind following the track for a few minutes and count how many of them there actually are?"

Derpy raised an eyebrow for a moment before nodding her head, to which she flapped her wings and took off, leaving Bentley to pull out the small computer that he carried with him and tapped it a few times, studying the tracks that were around the area as he thought about what he could do to save Sly. At the same time he accessed the information on the area that Secretary Sen had sent him, to assist him and the gang in their mission, and discovered that the guards the Contessa had been talking about, the motion sensor ones, had only seven members, though they appeared to be standing in areas where he could use his RC-Chopper to take care of them. Based on what he was seeing at the moment, and what he could figure out by staring at the train and it's tracks, he knew what the next step they needed to do was, though he patiently waited for Derpy to get back before he started moving... and, at the same thing, he noticed a tank patrolling the area and made a note of it for later.

"I spotted six terminals." Derpy said, to which she landed beside Bentley and folded her wings back into where she kept them when she was just sneaking around the area, before she turned towards her friend, "So, what's the plan or freeing Sly and Murray?"

Bentley, instead of saying anything, beckoned for Derpy to follow as he packed his stuff up and started moving, to which they retraced their steps back towards the hideout, where Derpy spotted what was apparently the first computer terminal in the sequence that he needed to fiddle with... and, as they arrived at the terminal, the two of them found Gilda and Diz waiting for them by the computer.

"That computer is part of a control system for the electromagnetic train." Bentley stated, deciding to answer Derpy's question while also explaining the next task to the others, before pointing at the train as it moved by where the four of them were standing, "By hacking all the terminals around the train tracks I should be able to reverse their polarity, thereby turning the train into a giant projectile. Without question, its impact on the prison walls should create a hole large enough for Sly to escape through."

"And you want the three of us to take out any guards that might get near you?" Diz asked, as he was sure that once Bentley started hacking into the terminal it was going to set off an alarm, if the ones they had spotted in Rajan's palace were anything to go by.

"I would appreciate not being interrupted." Bentley said, confirming what he wanted the three of them to do, despite the fact that he originally thought that only one of them would be here to assist him, but he felt better with everyone assisting him on this mission.

Gilda, Derpy, and Diz found that the Contessa was smarter than Rajan and Dimitri, as the moment Bentley started hacking into the first computer terminal a few guards charged at them, in an attempt to shut them down, but fortunately the three of them were ready for an attack and knocked out the guards that decided to come their way. The unfortunate thing about this scenario was that their enemy was going to know that they were present and likely plan something to take them all out, so she could lock the entire gang up. The good news was that the first terminal was easy, meant to lure him into a false sense of security, though once he had finished hacking into it the group followed the train tracks as they started to head back to the Contessa's house, before Bentley stopped and crossed the tracks as he spotted the second of the six terminals. Like the last time several guards started moving towards the area that the four of them were in, to which Gilda, Derpy, and Diz engaged them and prevented them from hurting Bentley, who was engrossed with his hacking session at the moment.

Once the second terminal was taken down the group headed towards the tunnel that was nearby and found the third computer waiting for them, where the larger group of enemies engaged them when he accessed the controls, which the trio was than willing to take on, especially since all of them were annoyed in one form or another. The instant Bentley was finished with the terminal they waited for the train, which was moving faster than it had originally been when they started this mission, to pass by before heading down the tracks, where they arrived at the next terminal. Gilda, Derpy, and Diz used their wings to fly up to the area above the terminal, to which all three of them kept watch for enemies that might come for Bentley, though this time they found that the guards didn't want to bother with stopping him this time, allowing them to rest for a minute or two before Bentley started to move. The fifth and sixth terminals were right outside the Contessa's house, which happened to be guarded by the same tank Bentley had spotted earlier, though Diz surprised them by applying the invisibility trick he pulled back when Secretary Sen first revealed his existence to them... shielding them from the tank's searchlights while Bentley hacked into the fifth terminal, and then into the sixth one.

When the final terminal had been hacked into, and Bentley proclaimed his victory, the train was derailed and was launched into the air, where Derpy, Gilda, and Diz flew up into the air once Bentley was safe and discovered that the train had slammed into the side of the area that Sly was supposed to be house in.

"Yes!" Diz exclaimed, making sure to keep his voice loud enough so Gilda and Derpy could hear him, while also keeping it low enough to avoid the guards from hearing him, while at the same time he glanced at the hole in the wall that would allow Sly to escape his cell, "Hey Bentley, there's a hole in the prison wall. Do you have any ideas on how we're going to get rid of the guards so Sly can make his escape?"

"Yes, I'm going to take them out with my RC-Chopper." Bentley replied, revealing that he had created the plan he needed to use to get Sly out of the prison, though at the same time he addressed one of the magic users, "Gilda, while I'm moving through the air those guards are going to start firing at my RC-Chopper, so maybe you can lend me your power over the air for a few seconds and force the guards to constantly move. It'll help prevent them from destroying my RC-Chopper and allow us to get Sly out of his cell all that much faster."

The trio nodded and followed Bentley over the bridge, where he set up shop on the other side of the bridge and prepared himself, while at the same time Diz flew back to the hideout and returned to him with the RC-Chopper, as it was a requirement for this mission. Once the small device was ready to go Bentley engaged the controls and took to the skies, though as he did that Gilda wove her power through the air and focused on moving the guards so they wouldn't be able to focus on Bentley's vehicle. She did, however, stop the guards for a split second two times, as the vulture guards required two powerful hits to be knocked out, and Bentley bombed them, knocking them onto their backs and destroyed the motion tracking devices that the Contessa had mentioned in her rambling earlier. It took them a few minutes to take out the guards that Bentley wanted to take out, as some of them had been hiding under cover and didn't notice what was going on until they moved out... right into the waiting arms of Gilda's wind and Bentley's bombs, where Bentley kept track of how many of them he had knocked out and how many of the motion tracking devices were destroyed.

After another moment or two he knocked out the last guard and smashed the device it was carrying, to which he recalled the RC-Chopper to their location and tapped his binocucom for a moment, as he was eager to see if Sly still had his and if he was paying attention to it.

"Sly! Can you read me!?" Bentley asked, because if Sly didn't respond immediately he knew that the guards would have heard his message and would come running, meaning he'd have to have Gilda or Derpy fly into the prison and free Sly that way.

"Bentley?!" Sly replied, to which Gilda, Derpy, and Diz breathed a sigh of relief, because despite how long the week had been, since he, Murray, and Carmelita had been taken from them, it was nice to hear his voice again, "How I've missed that sensuous voice of yours. How are the others?

"We're fine Sly," Gilda said, though at the same time all of them were smiling, as now that Sly was free they could figure out what they needed to do to save Murray, and then they could leave this area and find out where the Contessa's castle was located to save Carmelita.

"You can save the catching up for later." Bentley stated, knowing that he wanted to do the same thing, but since Sly was still in a dangerous area, and that guards were likely on their way to where the train had struck the prison, he wanted to get things moving before something happened, "Sly, according to the pictures I've seen there should be a hook above your position. Do you it?"

"Yeah, I see it." came Sly's reply, which made things simple for them, as now that Sly knew of it's existence and could simply use one of the earlier techniques he, Gilda, and Derpy had learned when they were tackling the Fiendish Five and recovering the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus.

"Right now, save for sending one of the others in to pick you up, it's your only means of escape." Bentley explained, revealing that he wasn't going to put the others at risk, especially when they didn't know if there were any additional guards coming to investigate the noise, "Just latch onto it with your cane, swing onto the back of the train, and make your way outside the prison. We've already established a safe house and I have downloaded its GPS coordinates into your binocucom... we'll rendezvous there."

Sly said nothing as the connection between them was cut off for a moment, to which Bentley, Derpy, Gilda, and Diz headed back to the hideout, though as they walked through the streets that were in front of them they all spotted Sly as he ran over the back of the train and left the prison behind. From there Sly dropped down to the road that was beneath him and ran over to where they were walking, to which everyone embraced him the moment he caught up with them, as it was good for all of them to be together again. Bentley opened the door to the hideout and ushered everyone inside, just in case the guards decided to investigate the streets outside the prison for Sly, which he assumed the Contessa would order them to do, but for now they got something for Sly to eat, as they were sure that whatever the warden had been giving him was barely enough to keep him going in an attempt to tear his defenses down. Of course when Sly was done Bentley would explain the next stage of their plan, to save Murray from the same fate that the other criminals suffered, once he finished studying the information Secretary Sen had sent them.