//------------------------------//
// Band: Destructive Rage 
// Story: Sly Cooper: Family of Thieves 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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When Sly was ready to go, and the others had calmed down from the excitement of having him back, Bentley started to explain the situation to them, revealing that he had done some deep database crunching and studied the information their powerful ally had given them. From those two sources he was able to determine that Murray was doing time in Cell  Block D, though getting him out of that area was going to be tough, especially since he wasn't very light on his feet. Of course he had a plan to save him, where they needed Sly to head back into the prison, by an access pipe, to convince Murray to get himself into an isolation cell and away from the other inmates. The second task he had for them was for Sly and the others to get a sample of the Contessa's encryption algorithm, while at the same time stating that he'd explain what he was talking about later. The third task was for someone to pickpocket a few keys from the Contessa when she was making her rounds around the prison and her house, why he'd explain later as well, while also warning them to watch out for her pack of bodyguards.

The fourth, and final, task he had planned was for Gilda and Derpy to channel their powers into the brewing storm and call down their wrath to destroy the giant attack robot that's inside the prison... and then he went out of his way to say that he wasn't kidding, as some of the reports he had browsed through earlier claimed that the Contessa definitely had something like that in the prison.

With their missions revealed to them, however, the first thing that Sly, Gilda, Derpy, and Diz did was explore the streets and the prison for the clue bottles that rested around the area, so they could use whatever was in the Contessa's vault against her and her forces. Since three of them could fly, and reach some areas faster, Sly divided the area around the prison up and said that they should meet by the bridge outside the Contessa's house, so when they had all the bottles Bentley could tell them where the vault was located. Bentley, who was staying behind at the hideout for the moment, stated that Sly's plan was a good one, as with all four of them moving they'd be able to grab every bottle in record time and not cut into the time they had for the operation. What surprised Sly, however, was that Bentley was able to determine that the vault in question was hidden somewhere inside the Contessa's house, so while he finished his area he studied the house and found a small passage that would allow someone to head under the wall and enter the hidden area that the vault had to be inside.

When all the bottles had been recovered, and the others regrouped with him, Sly slipped into the opening for a moment, found the room that the vault was located inside, and input the code that Bentley had sent him, 2-4-8 as it turned out, and soon he was walking away with some notes on how to increase one's ability to throw things... meaning that he and Bentley, and maybe the others, could throw things further than normal.

With the treasure of the vault in hand, and he returned to the others, the four of them headed back towards the hideout, though as they headed down the street they all picked the pockets of the guards, adding whatever coins and loot they had on them at the moment. Of course Derpy and Gilda revealed that, during their hunt for the clue bottles, they had also stolen all of the more expensive treasures that the Contessa had scattered around her base of operations, adding to their stash of treasures and the coins that they had, to which Sly grinned the moment he heard that. He was impressed that they had been able to do that, while searching for the clue bottles, and he was amazed that Diz had gotten the twenty pieces of loot he had gotten. Once he got over his amazement he focused on the mission at hand, to which they walked over to a boat that was near the pipe, which would allow one of them to enter the prison, before all of them pulled out their binocucoms so they could hear the instructions, even though Sly was the one that was going to be infiltrating the prison in the next few moments.

"Okay Sly, in order to get Murray out we'll need him to get thrown into solitary confinement." Bentley explained, though while he knew that the others were listening in to the conversation, to hear what Sly would be doing, he focused on who he needed to talk to at the moment, "That pipe will lead you to his cell block. Try to locate him and relate the plan... after that, it's all up to Murray."

"You know, it's strange to be sneaking into prison to tell someone to get themselves thrown into solitary confinement, only to bust them out later," Sly commented, to which he could tell that the others were nodding their heads, as it was a strange plan alright, but then he focused on what he was going to do, "but I'll head inside and tell Murray the plan."

Sly glanced at the others for a moment, seeing that they were okay with him heading into the pipe, and watched as they dispersed to several locations so they could view the area he was in, that way when he made his exit they would be waiting for him. As such he used the hooks that were in front of him and jumped on some debris to reach the pipe that Bentley wanted him to enter, to which he found that the lever to open the grate was already in the open position and smiled as he crawled inside so he could begin the search for Murray. It took him a few moments of crawling to reach the first end of the vent he had found his way into, though once he was in position he braced himself, because if this was someone else and not Murray he might set of an alarm or something and ruin this part of the plan.

"Psst! Murray!" Sly called out, keeping his voice low so that only the person that was inside the cell could hear him, though if it wasn't who he was looking for he was planning on moving along and trying out one of the other ends of the vents, "Hey Murray!"

"Huh?" a voice said, to which Murray got up off the bed he slept on and walked into the middle of the cell, where he started looking around for the source of Sly's voice, indicating that he was both curious and confused at the same time, which Sly was planning on fixing, "Sly? Where are you?"

"Over here, in the back wall!" Sly answered, keeping his voice low still, even though he was glad to see that his friend was alright, as he needed to tell him the plan and he was sure that Murray would be able to come up with an idea on how to get to the area of the prison that Bentley needed him to be inside.

"Sly! I'm so glad to see you." Murray said, moving to the vent for a moment so he could see Sly, even though it wasn't the best view in the world, but it was still better than not knowing if Sly was okay or not, "They've been forcing me to eat meals covered in spice... and I'm feeling kind of strange. You and the others gotta get me outta here!"

"No problem. Bentley seems to have found a weakness in the solitary confinement cell." Sly replied, where he was thankful that Secretary Sen seemed to believe whatever Bentley had sent him after he, Murray, and Carmelita had been captured with Rajan, which reminded him to ask Bentley something when they were together again, "If you can get in a big  enough fight the guards will throw you in there... trust me, I'm speaking from experience."

"Well if you say so." Murray said, to which he raised a hand to his head and appeared to think about something for a moment, as if he was actually determining the number of guards he needed to fight, "I suppose a powerful force like 'The Murray' can take down fifty foes... if I had to."

"That's an excellent idea!" Sly stated, as he had done something similar and had been thrown into the area that the Contessa trapped him inside, though he still wasn't sure if that was because he forced her hand or if she had been planning that from the beginning, "You beat the snot out of fifty of those guys and get thrown into solitary confinement... and Bentley, the others, and I will take care of the rest."

Murray smiled as he beat his fists together and walked outside the cell that he was staying in, where the door just so happened to be wide open, and threw a fist through the air as he approached the first guard, knocking him to the side and causing him to call for backup. Wolf guards started to drop down into the area that Murray was in and charged at him, where he smashed guards against the ground, hurled them at the walls until they crumbled into heaps, used one of them as a weapon to beat up several others before knocking his weapon out, and even used the exercise equipment to hurt his opponents. Sly, who was watching from the wall still, had his binocucom out and was transmitting the fight to the others, who were silently watching Murray beat the stuffing out of the guards with nothing more than his fists, proving that numbers meant nothing to 'The Murray', especially when he eagerly fought the crowd of enemies that were all around him with a smile on his face and a look of joy in his eyes as he got to fight something again.

Eventually the fight came to an end as Murray lifted the final guard, the fiftieth guard as it turned out, and hurled him into the pile of guards that were resting near him, though the force of the throw knocked the pile apart and the guards crumpled to the ground, revealing that they couldn't take Murray's beating at all.

"50! Eat that you incarcerating suckas! Is that anti-social enough for ya?" Murray declared, beating his fists together, as if he was challenging them to sent out more guards to take care of him, to which he turned towards the ramp that was above him and spotted a vulture guard, who just so happened to lower a cage on top of him, "Oh, what? You gonna throw me in solitary?! Bring it on!"

Sly chuckled as he cut the binocucom connection off and retreated through the path he had taken to reach the cell that Murray had been forced into, as now that Murray was in solitary confinement they could really begin their work on getting everything ready to spring him. Once he was back outside the prison he regrouped with the others and inquired as to which mission they should do next, while at the same time noting that the storm that Bentley had told them about hadn't arrived yet.

"Sly, you and Diz should head to the bridge near the Contessa's house," Gilda replied, to which she jerked her thumb towards their sister, who was now staring up at the clouds, as if she was trying to summon the storm earlier than what Bentley wanted them to, "It'll give Derpy and I some time to channel our power into the storm, though once we're almost ready I'll let you know, so that way you can hear the mission briefing from Bentley."

Sly knew that they were planning on loosing a powerful lightning bolt from the sky, if what he had seen at Rajan's ruins was anything to go by, and nodded his head, to which his sisters opened their wings and took off, leaving him and Diz to start moving to the underside of the bridge, which was where the mission beacon was located. He wasn't sure why they needed to head to the bridge, as that wasn't one of the missions Bentley had told them about earlier, which told him that Bentley must have discovered something and added an additional mission to their list. Fortunately it didn't take them long to reach the beacon for the new mission, to which both Sly and Diz pulled out their binocucoms and prepared to hear what sort of mission Bentley had in mind for them.

"Sly, Diz, those giant pipes under the bridge feed power to the prison security systems." Bentley said, changing their view so they could look up at the pipes in question, which were right above their heads, before continuing what he needed to tell them, "I'll need to cut the connection to free Murray."

"Sounds like a plan, what do you need the two of us for?" Sly asked, as he could see why Bentley would need someone to watch his back, since guards were patrolling the area, he didn't see why he needed two of them for this particular mission, other than the fact that he didn't want to leave anyone out.

"You guys may not be aware of his, but the bridge is heavily guarded." Bentley replied, as if expecting that question to come up during the briefing, meaning that he already had a response to give them before the mission started, "I need the two of you to watch my back and stop any guards that they might send out to stop me."

"How about we smash some of those statues and take their place?" Sly inquired, as he could see that there were some statues of the wolf guards, lifelike yet made of solid stone, resting on both sides of the bridge, "We could pose as a statue, let the guards walk on by us, and then hit them from behind."

"Actually, there's something I want to try before we do that." Diz said, though as he spoke he flew up to the bridge and knelt in the middle of it, where he placed his hands on the stone beneath his feet and started to channel his power into the bridge as he reached for the statues.

Sly and Bentley, who had come out to do the job with his bombs, stood in the middle of the bridge and watched Diz for a few seconds, where they noticed that there appeared to be cracks forming on all of the statues that were on both sides of the bridge. Together they watched as the eyes of the statues actually snapped open, like they were alive, and slowly pulled themselves off of the pedestals they had been standing on, causing their jaws to drop as the now living statues touched the ground and walked up to Diz, where they stood and watched him. Diz silently stared at them and divided their numbers in half, where the ones that had been positioned near the Contessa's house stood guard over the entrance of that area while the others stood on the other side of the bridge. Once the living statues were in the positions he had ordered them to stand in, however, Diz also gave them a final order for when the mission was over, where the statues nodded their heads for a few seconds before he finally stopped touching the ground and swayed for a moment... causing Sly to rush forward and catch him before he hit the ground.

"Diz... what did you do?" Sly asked, as this wasn't something that he had seen Diz or his sisters do, though at the same time his sisters only seemed to have one elemental power while Diz had a more chaotic power, which was why he was curious as to what just happened.

"He gave the statues some sort of life," Bentley stated, as he realized that the energies that Diz possessed had turned ordinary statues into living constructs, ones that were no doubt fueled by his anger towards his family being taken from him, but they were also under his control, "he... he created golems!"

"And I won't be able to keep them all active for too long," Diz replied, to which she moaned for a moment, as the energy required for such a thing had been more than she was expecting and had allowed her chaotic power to flip her gender while she wasn't paying attention, though instead of getting annoyed she on the fact that there were five guarding each entrance to the bridge, meaning Bentley could work without being interrupted.

Bentley, now realizing that they were wasting time talking, jumped back down to the lower level with Sly for a few moments, where he attached a few bombs to the proper positions that they needed to be in, before they both used the bouncy spider web pad to get back to the top. When he and Sly got to the top of the bridge again they found that the Contessa's guards were already coming out to stop the assault, though at the same time they found that they were fighting the statues and were knocked out in the process. Sly, seeing that he had next to nothing to do, made himself useful by carrying the bombs that Bentley needed to plant and handed them over when he needed them, all while asking the question that had been bothering him since he escaped from his own cell.

"Hey Bentley, there's a plan for rescuing Carmelita as well, right?" Sly asked, because so far it seemed that Bentley was focused on him and Murray, which was understandable considering that they were life long friends, but Carmelita was special to him and he hadn't heard a single thing about rescuing her at all.

"Of course there's a plan to rescue Carmelita," Bentley replied, not even bothering to call her an Inspector at the moment, not when he had some unpleasant news to tell Sly in regards to what Barkley had done since they had been captured with Rajan, but decided to tell him later, when they freed Carmelita as well, "unfortunately she's not being held in this prison. According to my information she's supposed to have been shipped out to the Contessa's castle, sent out at the same time you and Murray were sent here, though I have no idea why the Contessa decided to do things this way. Once we free Murray, and we've outrun the guards, we're packing our things up and heading out for the castle, so don't you worry about her."

Of course that only made Sly worry that the Contessa had something sinister in mind for Carmelita, because since Bentley explained that the Contessa was going to try and turn both him and Murray into ordinary citizens, after stealing all the wealth the gang had collected over the years, it only made him wonder what she could do to the person he loved. Bentley seemed to sense this and said nothing else while he worked, planting the charges at the areas they needed to be in for later, while at the same time Diz's statues beat up the guards that there trying to investigate the bridge, even if one of them lost an arm in the process. When Bentley placed the final charge, and made sure that it was set up right, he called for everyone to get away from the bridge, which was followed by Diz snatching him and Sly the moment he said that and dropped them off on the area Bentley had used his RC-Chopper to help Sly escape... to which they watched as the explosives went off and damaged the bridge, destroying the object that Bentley had sought to destroy, while also taking care of Diz's statues as well, reducing them to broken piles of stone as he regained some of his energy.

"That takes care of the power to the security system." Bentley commented, though he was happy with what they had accomplished so far, even though the storm that was above their heads was really coming together, indicating that Derpy was getting closer to being ready for the mission he wanted her to take on.

"I guess it's time we head inside the prison for the next mission?" Sly asked, though at the same time he knew that Diz needed some rest from what she had done, especially since she had used a good portion of his magical energy to control ten statues like that.

"No. It appears the commotion from the fighting near the bridge has drawn the Contessa out of her house," Bentley stated, to which he pointed over to the other side of the bridge, where they spotted the warden in question investigating what had caused the noise, before he turned toward Sly for a moment, "Sly, this is a good opportunity for you to steal two tank keys and the tank control schedule, before she disappears to a location we can't get to."

"Just pickpocketing this time around?" Sly inquired, though the smile that graced his face told Bentley that he was happy for something normal, especially after they witnessed Diz give life to the statues and since it was only a matter of time until Derpy was ready to call upon the power of the storm above them, "Sure, I can get that done in no time... and Diz, if you feel up to it you can assist me if you want to."

Diz, deciding that she had spent a little too much energy, and had to get over the gender switch once more, shook her head and declined, indicating that she wanted to have some energy for the final part of the operation, to which Sly nodded and headed off towards the area that the Contessa was walking in, while Bentley helped Diz back to the hideout. What Sly quickly determined what that, since his target happened to have bodyguards with her, that he needed noise to pull the vulture guards away from the Contessa, which was all too easy for him to do. He was very careful about making any sort of noise, as he only wanted to draw the last guard in the line away from the Contessa, who was talking about things like the stormy weather, like it was actually normal and not caused by someone else, and his escape. Fortunately the first pair of guards didn't even attempt to check out the noise he made in a pair, as the first one came around and he knocked it out, before repeating that with the second bodyguard... which allowed him to sneak up on the Contessa and pick the first tank key from her pouch.

The downside to removing an item from her pouch was that she seemed to sense it and moved to a new area around the prison, though Bentley and Gilda, who was flying around the area, sent him the exact coordinates of his target and her new set of guards. Once he came upon his target again, who happened to be on the other side of the walls of the prison, he repeated the process from before, using noise to draw the guards away from the Contessa, before knocking them out and approaching the warden, allowing him to walk away with the second tank key. With the key removed the Contessa moved once more, traveling to an area right outside the hideout, though that didn't stop Sly from carefully pulling her guards away, one by one like usual, knocking them out when he got them alone, and then continuing until it was only him and her left... though when he got the third item Bentley needed, the tank patrol schedule, which prompted the Contessa to leave once she noticed it was missing, and declared that her guards were going to be fired soon enough.

With those items dropped off at the hideout, so Bentley could keep track of them for the operation, Sly carefully made his way back into the prison, using the same path he had used earlier when he was following after the Contessa, before he reached the mission beacon and pulled out his bonocucom... where Bentley had him stare at the water tower that was at the heart of this particular mission and was the reason that Derpy was gathering a storm above their heads.

"Okay Sly, that's it!" Bentley stated, indicating that the water tower was what he should be looking at, which Sly was doing while he wondered what sort of plan he had to accomplish, though he also knew that Bentley was going to explain the entire thing to him, "The Contessa's giant attack robot!"

"Look, Bentley, I know that we occasionally deal with people like Gilda and Derpy," Sly said, to which his focus remained on the water tower, while both of his sisters were focusing their efforts on manipulating the storm, "but with all due respect it looks an awful lot like a water tower."

"That's what the Contessa wants you, and everyone else, to think." Bentley replied, though his tone didn't say that he was mad at Sly, rather he understood what he was thinking about and had thought about it himself at one point, "If we try to free Murray while that thing's operational... well, it would interfere with our plans."

"I'll take your word for it." Sly said, to which he looked up at Gilda and Derpy for a moment, as he was curious as to what he could do to assist them in dealing with the 'attack robot' that Bentley wanted them to destroy, "So, what can I do to help Gilda and Derpy out?"

"The lightning rods around the prison are designed to draw lightning strikes away from the target." Bentley answered, where Sly noticed that Bentley didn't say either water tower or giant attack robot, indicating that he didn't want to spend time determining what it was, "By turning the wheels on the rod you should be able to redirect the electrical current away from its ground wire, thus rendering it useless. Diz will get the ones outside the prison, allowing you to focus on the ones around Gilda and Derpy... and then, once they're all turned, you'll have to tell Derpy that it's time."

Sly found that of the five lightning rods, as Bentley stated that there were five of them as he and Diz started moving towards their target, three of them were located around the prison and that one was near his immediate area, allowing him to turn the wheels and cause a stray red bolt of lightning to damage the rod once he was clear. As he moved over the walls of the prison he spotted Diz carefully moving through the air, where Derpy seemed to be keeping the lightning under control until it was needed, before he damaged the second lightning rod. Sly then made his way to the next rod he needed to take care of and a few moments later he was walking away from it, where the lightning damaged it as well and would increase the overall damage Derpy could cause to the target. Diz and Sly then turned the wheels on the fourth and fifth lightning rods at the same time, moving away from them and let the lightning damage them to the point where they wouldn't be able to work anymore... to which Sly headed back to where Gilda and Derpy were floating, near the very first lightning rod that he had taken out.

"Gilda! Derpy!" Sly called out, not knowing if they were even listening to him or anyone else that might come and speak with them, but he continued anyway and waited to see what happened, especially since the lightning was the only thing that would destroy their target, "The lightning rods are down!"

Derpy turned towards him for a moment, indicating that she had heard his statement, before she lifted her hand towards the sky and the storm responded, as the lightning flashed several times in the course of a few seconds and seemed to be gathering in a single point, readying itself for what Derpy wanted to do. A few seconds later Derpy swung her hand towards the target and the red bolt of lightning, whether it was red from her anger or from the storm itself Sly had no idea, surged towards the ground and barreled into the disguised robot. The lightning coursed over the metallic body and the robot revealed itself, as it's eyes opened as it shuddered for a few moments, though that was before it crumbled into a heap and stopped moving, indicating that the damage it suffered meant it wasn't going to be of any use to the Contessa in the near future.

Once the lightning had done it's job, and the attack robot was out of commission, Derpy and Gilda released their grip on the storm that was above them and let the sky slowly return to normal, while at the same time they landed beside Sly, as there was one last mission they had to do and then they could save Murray... and then they could leave this area and head to the Contessa's castle, so they could rescue Carmelita from whatever foul torment she was facing.