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// Band: Bison's Lumber Camp 
// Story: Sly Cooper: Family of Thieves 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Once the gang got back together at the van, and stashed away the Clockwerk Lungs and Stomach, Murray got them underway as they followed the Northern Lights, as both Sly and Carmelita had overheard Jean Bison's conversation with Arpeggio when they entered his cabin. The man from the past was doing something to the Northern Lights, that was was certain considering the fact that sometimes the Lights were brighter than ever and other times they were just gone, and that meant that the gang needed to stop him before he did something that was irreversible. It actually didn't take them long to find an area where they might find Jean Bison, as they eventually came to an area where an immense lumber camp had been set up, though as they stopped at one point, to survey the damage, Derpy approached one of the cut down trees and ran her hand along the edge, while at the same time shivering as she touched where her eye had been. None of them, upon seeing that action, needed to be told what was happening around here, as Jean Bison was in possession of the Clockwerk Talons, which would allow him to clear an entire forest in mere hours while he had those powerful artifacts... and they were, of course, the very Talons that Clockwerk himself had used to wound Derpy and ruin her eye, to the point were she had to wear the eyepatch that she wore all the time.

Sure, the pain of losing her eye and having three permanent scars etched into her face were something she had come to live with and had mostly forgotten about, but the memory of that day, where Clockwerk wounded her in such a way, was forever burned into her memory... and Sly was sure that she'd never be able to forget that day.

When they arrived at their destination a few days later, however, they discovered that there weren't many places for them to set up their safe house, as there was only one circular building that was near the water, and the place where they hid the van was even closer to the water. None of them were happy with the arrangement, since that meant that they were a little exposed in some areas, but at the same time it was all they were able to do at the moment, though another thing none of them were happy with was the fact that the safe house had a large glass window that exposed themselves. Sly and Carmelita, on the other hand, were worried about the fact that the three Clockwerk parts that were in the van were also exposed, as there was the chance that Jean Bison's guards would discover the van and ransack it, but Bentley did his best to disguise the area that the van was in, to keep the parts safe. Once he and the others were done with that, and he was sure that they could keep their van hidden for some time, they gathered around the round table that was inside the safe house and Bentley went over the first steps of their plan.

"Okay, so here's what we know." Bentley said, to which he showed them a few pictures that he had, some of which were their own and some were pieces of information given to them by Secretary Sen, "One, we know that Arpeggio's blimp is on its way to pick up a battery from Jean Bison. And two, the only way we'll get a crack at Arpeggio's Clockwerk Brain is by finding a way to sneak aboard that very blimp."

"But, before we do that we'll need to snag the Clockwerk Talons off Jean Bison." Sly commented, thinking about what was going on and everything that the gang needed to accomplish, as now it felt like they were literally racing the clock this time around, "Time is short and we've got a lot to accomplish."

"True, true... but first things first, this lumber camp isn't on any of my maps." Bentley stated, showing them a large map of the areas they had driven through earlier, while at the same time pointing to the circled question mark, "Sly, I need you and Carmelita to poke around and take some recon photos, they'll help to get my sensors oriented."

"That shouldn't be a problem." Carmelita said, though while she wanted to get in on the action, and tackle the area around them, she knew that heading into the situation blind wasn't a good idea, which was why she was agreeing with Bentley's plan, "Sly and I can get you all the recon photos that you might need on the area."

"Sly, in anticipation of the icy climate, I took the liberty of modifying your cane." Bentley added, to which Sly glanced at his cane for a moment, remembering when Bentley asked to see it for a moment and that he had returned it some time later, which meant that he'd be finding out what his friend did to the cane, "It can now separate into two smaller canes... useful for ice climbing. It'll be useful for ascending to the top of the various sheets of ice around the area, just hit the button I've installed on the cane to separate it before you jump and you'll dig into the ice. This was also inspired by the fact that you, Carmelita, are carrying a pair of smaller canes, so you'll be able to do the same thing that Sly can and you won't fall behind when he starts to climb."

Carmelita nodded and headed outside the safe house, though when she and Sly were outside the building they walked towards the lighthouse a little and dropped down to the ledge that was below them, before Sly approached the ice sheet that was in front of them and tapped the button that Bentley had installed. Just like Bentley had said the cane separated into two smaller canes, which resembled the ones that Carmelita was carrying, and the tips dug into the ice as he started to climb, finding that this was working exactly like he had been told. When he reached the top of the ice sheet, and stopped climbing as he stood up, he turned back and found that Carmelita was following after him, to which he smiled and turned the two small canes into his original cane, before standing to the side as Carmelita reached the top as well, where she smiled at him as they headed towards the beacon that Bentley had set earlier.

"It seems that Bentley's upgrade worked well in the field," Carmelita commented, as she had seen how Sly had used them to climb up the wall that they had climbed, though as Sly nodded his agreement, however, they both glanced at the area in front of them, "So, where should we start?"

"I'm guessing that big house over there is where Jean Bison lives," Sly said, pointing at the large building that was resting by the cliff wall, where Carmelita stared at it for a few moments once he had shown her where it was, "and I think I see a bear off in the distance, so we might want to make our way to that building and go from there."

Carmelita nodded and together the two of them dropped down to the ground in front of them, where they carefully made their way through the lumber camp that was around them, while stealing the treasures that the guards were carrying in their pockets, before they found something to take a picture of. As it turned out the bear was the first thing that they took a picture of, where Bentley commented that this had to be bear country and that he was emitting an odd radio frequency, something he would look into later on, once they had some more information on the area. Carmelita branched off and headed over the river that was near them, where she spotted a boat and snapped a picture of it, where Bentley found that it had a wi-fi link on it, meaning that it had to be piloted by a computer, before she returned to Sly as they continued their search. From there they headed over to the building that was on the right of where the house, or what they assumed was a house, and snapped a picture of the sawmill that was located in that area, where they agreed with Bentley's assessment that this camp had to have been here for some time without being found on the map. After that it was a simple matter to snap a picture of Jean Bison's house, though once they did that Bentley had a new task for them to accomplish... making their way over to the lighthouse they had seen earlier and try to find a way to sneak into the structure, as Bentley was sure that there was something in there that they needed to see.

As it turned out getting to the lighthouse was rather simple, since there was a path carved in the ice between the land they were on and the area their destination was on, though they were fortunate when Sly spotted a hole that they could crawl through... though on the other side, once they both emerged from the hole, they found themselves in the interior of the structure, with Jean Bison walked around the area in front of them, unaware that they were even there. Once they were sure that their target hadn't seen them Sly and Carmelita snapped some pictures of the spinner that was in front of them, the battery charger that caused Bentley to comment on where the battery had to be located, and the chair that was blocking the door, including the door bar that wasn't in use at the moment. When they snapped another picture of Jean Bison, to add to the pictures they had taken so far, both of them heard the man mumbling to himself, to which they paused for a moment so they could hear whatever he was talking about, as it might give them some insight to where he was hiding the Talons.

"Come on Jean, ya got it in ya." Jean Bison commented, to which he tapped his staff on the floor for a moment when he stopped, indicating that he was thinking about something important to him, before he started walking around the area once more, "Those lumberjack games need some more competition. What would attract the participants, eh? Bullseye! I'll  post the Clockwerk Talons as a trophy... that should bring in the competition. Although, who'm I kidding, eh? I'm-a-gonna win just like every other year. Ha! Oh, it's tough being this tough, it sure is, yeah."

Sly and Carmelita glanced at each other, as they weren't familiar with these lumberjack games that Jean Bison was talking about, but they were sure that Bentley would be able to figure out what the man was talking about, to which they headed back through the hole they had crawled through and headed back to the safe house... so they could get started on figuring out what they were going to do, especially since they were on the clock, as it was only a matter of time until Arpeggio arrived for the missing battery.





When the duo returned to the safe house they found that Bentley had sent out Derpy, Gilda, and Diz to scout out the rest of the area while they were busy, where all three of them had come back with more information, all the clue bottles that were scattered around the camp, all the random treasures that Jean Bison had on display, and some pocket treasure from the various guards. What they found out was that due to frequent avalanches, which this area had suffered for quite some time in the past, a log chopping guide had been preserved in the ice, something that Bentley wanted Sly to acquire, though when Carmelita said that she'd join him Bentley had another task in mind for her. Despite Jean Bison's mind he was keeping taps on the bears in the area, where Carmelita discovered that Bentley wanted her to head into the den that the bears called home, take their trackers, and put them up around the camp, to get some additional information. In addition to all that he needed Murray to infiltrate the moose guards' secret RC combat club, where all he needed to do was beat them in a battle and get the location of the Northern Light Battery that Jean Bison was preparing for Arpeggio... where they discovered that Bentley's plan was to use the battery as a Trojan Horse to get aboard the blimp, so they could take the last part of Clockwerk once they had the Talons.

Derpy, Gilda, and Diz found themselves, once again, without a specific mission to tie themselves to, as Bentley intentionally didn't give them anything since they would go where they felt their talents were the most useful, which was why they were able to do all these missions so successfully... though as they carefully decided what to do, however, Sly, Carmelita, and Murray headed out to their missions, though Carmelita was the first to arrive at her destination.

"Okay Bentley, I'm in position." Carmelita commented, as she had snuck up to the roof of a building that was literally outside the entrance of the bear cave, though at the same time she found that the opening was jammed, no doubt because of Jean Bison, and that there was a small hole for someone to crawl through.

"The wild bears in the area have been tagged with radio tracking devices." Bentley explained, knowing that Sly would kill him for sending Carmelita on a dangerous mission, if she got hurt anyway, but he had faith in her abilities, "If you can snag enough of them we should be able to set up a receiver array around Jean Bison's house."

"You know, I never thought that I would be intentionally bugging someone's home," Carmelita said, to which she sighed as she looked down at the canes she was carrying, as it had been ages since she had done what Bentley was suggesting, "at least without a warrant or permission from a superior."

"Carmelita, I know you're still new to all of this, but you have to understand that sometimes we do things that we're not exactly proud of, though we do it for the good of everyone around us." Bentley replied, as he had known that this might be a problem for her, since she was technically still a cop, despite being on the run from Neyla and Barkley, and he wanted her to see what this life was like for herself, which was why he purposely was making her do this mission on her own, "The first step is crawling into that bear cave and stealing the goods... and, if my sensors are right, the radio transmitters are inside the mouths of the bears that call that cave home." 

"Great... sounds fun." Carmelita stated, though even as she set her binocucom down, however, she understood what Bentley was trying to tell her, there were some freedoms that came with being a thief, rule that they didn't have to follow when they were out in the field... and, at the same time, she found herself being a bit excited about all of this once more, just like she had been when she first followed Sly over the rooftops back in Paris.

Once she was ready to get moving she jumped down to the ground in front of her and crawled into the hole, though a few moments later she found herself inside the cave, where she spotted some thin ice that was sure to wake up all the sleeping bears if she stepped on them. As such she did her absolute best to avoid the ice, jumping over it and touching down in front of the first bear that was in the cave, where she waited until it was yawning and reached in with one of her canes, to which she pried the transmitter from the bear's mouth and pocked it before she headed to the left. The second bear had some ice surrounded it, though she was more than able to jump over the ice and picked the transmitter when her target yawned, before she jumped over to where the third bear was located and did the same thing, though she kept moving since the bears could potentially wake up on their own and see her. Getting to the fourth bear required her to use the Ninja Spire Jump technique a few times, as well as incorporate the use of her canes to make her way across the ice covered wall that was in her path, before she swiped the transmitter and reversed her direction since the fourth bear was at a dead end.

After that the fifth bear was even easier to get to, since it was up the path she was following, and with that transmitter in hand she jumped at the ice wall and made her way over to where the sixth and final bear, as she was back at the area she had crawled out into was located, was located... though when she had that transmitter she headed back to the hole and left the bears alone as she crawled back outside.

Once she was back outside Bentley informed her that he had the locations for her to place the transmitters down at, so they could form an array and listen to whatever Jean Bison was broadcasting, though the very first one happened to be at the top of the silo that was off on her right. To get at it she had to climb to the top of the sawmill that was in front of her and jump down to the top of the silo, which she was able to do without alerting the guards to her presence, though once that was done she continued moving towards the next point that Bentley had sent her. The second one, as it turned out, as to be placed on top of Jean Bison's house, so she climbed back up to the top of the building she had just climbed, jumped onto the claw of ice that was sticking out of the rock wall, and made her way over to the point that she placed the second transmitter down on. The third one was supposed to go on top of a second silo, which was near her location, and the fourth one happened to go on top of a roof that was close to the third one, which surprised her a little when she put them in the locations that Bentley wanted her to place them in, before she moved towards the last to. The last two, as she soon found out, needed to be placed near the sawmill, so she followed the coordinates that Bentley had sent her and placed the last two transmitters in the areas that Bentley wanted... though when her task was completed, however, she heard Jean Bison say something about his teams clearing a large amount of trees.

She sighed as she headed back to the safe house, as she didn't want to listen to Jean Bison talk about 'progress' all the time, and hoped that Sly and the others were having luck on their missions, since none of them had returned to the safe house by the time she got back.





Sly purposely entered the building that was close to Jean Bison's house alone, as he had both Gilda and Derpy standing outside in case someone came along or something else happened, mostly because Bentley had told him that his was going to be a quick mission and that he'd be outside the building in no time. He still had no idea how Bentley was able to find out that Jean Bison had an industrial strength laser, used to cut through petrified logs apparently, but from what he was able to gather it was something that Secretary Sen told him about in the last message they had received from him. The fact that the gang hadn't gotten anything else from the Secretary, since they stole the Clockwerk Lungs and Stomach, meant that he was either busy or something had happened that demanded his immediate attention, to which Sly turned his attention to the mission he was currently on. From what Bentley had told him and his sisters, as he gave them a rundown on their objectives after sending Carmelita on her solo mission, was that they needed to redirect the laser to a point where they could use the special ice crystals that he had inside the van to thaw out the log chopping guide... where Sly, once again, found it oddly convenient that Bentley had the tools for the job at the ready, but at least it saved them some time.

As such he entered the building that the laser saw was in alone, as the moment the laser was bounded outside both Gilda and Derpy would be on the move, though the moment he touched the floor he carefully made his way through the series of hazards that were in his way. That included lasers moving up and down a wall he needed to walk along, spotlights at he was sure were going to fire at him if he walked into the light, several moose guards that were either sleeping or patrolling the area around them, and some floor lasers. In addition to all that he paused by the safe and input the code that Bentley was able to fight out, thanks to Derpy, Gilda, and Diz finding all the bottles while he and Carmelita were taking pictures of the area for Bentley, though after putting in 5-8-3 he pulled out the some notes on a spinning attack that had 'lightning' attached to the user's weapon. Once the safe was open he finished his infiltration by reaching where the lever for the laser was, to which it moved and pointed the laser beam outside, where he crawled through the opening that allowed him to climb the ladder and head outside... though once he was outside he found both Gilda and Derpy already moving through the air as they followed the beam and continued to redirect it.

Since his sisters were able to fly through the air, and were making good time on redirecting the beam, Sly headed to where the log chopper guide was located and stood near it, as there was a mammoth trapped in the ice as well... though when the laser was finally hitting the ice wall, however, the mammoth also broke free and fled from the area, only to, as Bentley told them, to fall into the water and return to being a frozen creature. Sly then sighed, as it would have been nice to rescue the creature, before picking up the log chopping guide and made his way towards the safe house, where his sisters joined him with a triumphant look on both of their faces... and they were sure that Bentley was going to be able to come up with a plan once he took a look at the book they were bringing to him.





Murray found his way to the building that Bentley had pointed out, as there was a rumor of off duty guards having an RC combat club in that building, though at the same time Bentley reminded him that he needed to win a match and figure out where the Northern Light Battery was located. At the same time Diz was walking beside him, still trapped in her female state since she hadn't done anything that would warrant her magic allowing her to snap back to her male state, because Bentley was sure that Murray needed help to get the information he needed. When the two of them entered the building, however, they discovered that all of the members of the club were moose, meaning that Murray, who was a hippo, wouldn't be allowed to join the club or participate. Fortunately they didn't have to worry about anything, as Diz spotted a moose head, a costume one, in the upper area above them, though since Murray couldn't sneak around the area he stood beside the door and let Diz walked into the area in front of her.

Diz smiled as she wove her magic through the air and disappeared as the invisibility spell took affect, though since she was sure that flying would draw attention she headed to the other side of the room and climbed up the railing that allowed her to reach the upper floor. After she reached the area that a guard was standing guard in, and took everything that was in his pockets, she headed through an area that required her to use some hooks to swing her way across the gaps and reach the other side of the building, where the entrance was located. From there she carefully walked over the saw blades that were moving and reached the next side, where she had to crawl under the circular saw blades that were in front of her, before bypassing the sleepy guard that was in her way and used the hanging logs to get to the area that the head was located in... where she used the tables as cover as she reached her target, where she kicked the costume head off the floor and let it hit the area near Murray.

Once the head was in position, and she landed on the floor near the door, Murray claimed the head and slipped it over his own head, to which Diz watched as Murray readied himself and walked forward, as she was interested in figuring out what was going on and where the Northern Light Battery was located.

"Hey fellas, any of you think you can beat 'the Mur... 'the Moose'?" Murray said, where Diz noticed that he had to pause for a moment, since his normal name would likely tip off the guards and alert Jean Bison to what they were doing at the moment, "Maybe put a bet on it?"

"Oh I'm in, eh!" the moose Murray had chosen to talk to said, though at the same time Diz shook her head, grateful that no one could see her at the moment, as it appeared that the guards were too stupid to realize that Murray wasn't a new guard since Jean Bison would have told them about him before this point, "I ain't got a lot of money for this wager... but there's no way I'd lose to a new guy like you."

Diz watched as Murray took the controller that was offered to him and started controlling the vehicle that was attached to it, where he grinned as he stared at the vehicle that was his opponent while the rest of the guards that weren't participating in the battle gathered around to watch. Apparently these combat drones didn't have any ammunition in them at the moment, as bits were carefully dropped into the area as Murray and his opponent moved around the arena, though the moment Murray picked up some ammunition he targeted his opponent's drone and fired at it. Diz observed the match as Murray showed off the skills that he had used back in Istanbul, as that was the last time he had been able to do something like this, and slowly seized control of the situation that he had found himself in, much to the amazement of the guards that were watching the fight, as they weren't expecting a new guy to dominate what had to be one of their strongest fighters... and, after a few moments, his opponent's drone stopped moving, showing that Murray had won the match as he handed the controller back to the guard that had given it to him.

The guard that he had been battling against, however, stood there in shock for a few seconds, clearly surprised by the fact that he had been beaten so soundly, before setting down his controller and walked over to where Murray was standing, so he could hand over the prize.

"You won, but I ain't got no money." the guard said, though his tone suggested that he was hoping that the new guy would have mercy on him since he actually had nothing to offer him, even though this was one of the guards that Diz didn't steal from when she was moving through the area.

"That might be okay," Murray replied, though at the same time Diz knew what he was going to do, since they had come here for one specific reason and he was going to make sure that Bentley had the information that he needed for the plan he was thinking of, "it all depends."

"Depends on what?" the guard asked, where his tone revealed that he was worried, meaning that when people usually did this it didn't end well for people, which meant that he was fortunate that Murray and Diz were only after one thing and nothing else at the moment.

"On whether or not you know the location of the Northern Light Battery." Murray stated, knowing that, since the guards seemed to think that he was one of them, none of them would report this to Jean Bison, meaning that they would have an opening to exploit in the future.

"Oh... well I guess I owe yah..." the guard said, to which he started telling Murray exactly what he wanted to know, as that would allow him to get rid of the bet and put this shame behind him, while at the same time the defeat would drive him to improve for future matches.

A few moments later Murray and Diz walked out of the building with the location of the Northern Light Battery, just like Bentley requested, and headed back to the safe house, though Murray kept the costume head on and found that the guards paid no attention to him... though when they got back to the safe house he took it off and Diz undid her invisibility spell, where Bentley asked all of them to gather around him once more.

"I've gone over what's inside the log chopping guide," Bentley said, patting the tome that Sly, Gilda, and Derpy had freed from the ice, though the look on his face told the others that he didn't like what he had found, "and, after coming up with a few plans, I've decided on one that might work... we face Jean Bison in the Lumberjack Games and see if we can't convince him to turn against Arpeggio while we're competing against him. I considered cheating and trying our luck, but then I thought about our opponent and knew that trying that, even if he couldn't prove it, would only anger him and cause him to lash out at us... if we do this, and I think it's the most viable option, we'll have to play by the rules."

"Personally, Jean Bison looks like the type of person that gets angry easily," Carmelita commented, staring at the picture that she and Sly had taken, which showed how annoyed the man was that his trains had been stolen from and the parts he had taken had been stolen as well, "We'd have to give him something else to... be... angry at... I can't believe we didn't consider this earlier."

"Consider what?" Derpy asked, because right now they were wasting time, as Arpeggio was on his way here and there was no telling if he was going to arrive earlier, right on time, or a few minutes late, and she didn't like the fact that they were just sitting around doing nothing.

"Jean Bison is stuck in the old ways, that much we know for a fact," Carmelita said, as that seemed to hold true due to what they had seen back in the other camp, as his guards seemed to be old fashioned as well, and yet he was also abiding by old customs here as well, "which means that all he's interested in, if I'm right about this, is running those Iron Horses of his and nothing else. It's possible that Jean Bison has a dream of his own that he's been working towards, by whatever means that are available to him, and maybe Arpeggio is making sure he can't do that... we might be able to drive a wedge between the two of them in the process and get our way aboard the blimp."

"You know, maybe we can talk this out for once," Sly stated, as he was surprised that Carmelita would even think of something like that, but when he took into account what they had discovered back in Nunavut Bay and what they had found out while scouting the area, he knew that her plan had a great deal of success, "and, if that fails, we should be ready for a fight... though I seriously hope it doesn't come to that."

Derpy, Gilda, and Diz stared at each other for a moment as Bentley laid out the plan, or who would tackle each of the three challenges that were in the Lumberjack Games, because something told them that they were missing something important... and they knew that they weren't going to like what was coming next for them and the rest of the gang.