//------------------------------//
// Time: Medieval England 
// Story: Sly Cooper: Family of Thieves 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

It didn't take the gang long to make their way to their destination, Medieval England, where Sir Galleth Cooper, a gallant knight that had founded the Cooper Order, lived and worked, doing exactly what Coopers did best while also showing that he fought for the king. Upon their arrival, however, they discovered that whoever was attacking this time period had reduced the regal knight to a local circus jester, complete was a ridiculous costume if the poster was to be believed, though they all agreed that it really didn't matter what sort of villain had been sent here, as it was all Le Paradox's fault in the end. While they were setting up shop in the spacious interior of a large tree, one that Diz hadn't worked his magic on and swore that there was some hint of magic in the air, the gang also noticed that Bentley didn't seem as into the actions of setting up their newest safe house. It wasn't hard for the others to figure out that he was missing Penelope, who he hadn't heard from since her disappearance and they were all wondering if she had been abducted by Le Paradox as well, forced to help him in his insane plans against her will, but for now anything they thought of was just their theories.

Once the safe house was ready for them, for as long as they were in this time period, Sly and Carmelita headed out into the field, as it was time for them to see just what they were up against and maybe figure out who they were going to need to take down before Le Paradox got his hand on another Cooper Cane. As they made their way towards the marker that Bentley was projecting, however, the duo noticed that there were some normal guards, owls that walked on two legs instead of what Clockwerk's form showed and porcupines that held maces, and the more unusual guards, mechs that were designed to look like wolves. That immediately told them that whoever had been sent here, to take out Galleth and retrieve his cane, had to be an engineer or mechanic of some kind, to which they shelved that thought as they moved through the area, only pausing to swipe something from one of the pockets they walked by. The area that Bentley was sending them to, as they soon discovered, was one of the high sections of the wall that rested between the part of town they had set up shop in and the other half of town that was right before the castle, protecting part of the town in case the place was attacked by some invading force.

"Okay Bentley, we're in position." Carmelita said, to which she and Sly pulled out their binocucoms and pointed them in the direction of the circus tent that was off in the distance, where Galleth was currently doing whatever it was that he was being forced to do, "What's our mission?"

"First off, the two of you will need a more appropriate outfit to infiltrate the circus." Bentley informed them, revealing that this was one of the few times that the two of them would be able to wear the same disguise, despite the fact that there would be some differences between the two, "But in order to do that, I'm going to need some raw materials. The trick is going to be finding some quality wood, leather, and metal."

"Sure. Anything else you want me to pick up while we're out?" Sly asked, because he figured that as long as they were running around they might as well gather whatever else they might need for their brief stay in this time period, while at the same time Carmelita sensed that he was about to joke around a little, "Eggs, milk... maybe some wax for your shell?"

"Just get going, Sly." Bentley replied, to which he cut off the connection and let the two of them move on, where they guessed that he wasn't in the mood for jokes and Sly knew that he'd have to do something to make Bentley feel better, even if the only thing that would really do that was figuring out what happened to Penelope.

Fortunately for them Carmelita had the bright idea to find a pair of guards and sneak up to a point where neither of them would see them, allowing the pair to listen in on the conversations that were going on around them, and she struck gold when the first group mentioned that the 'Tavern' had a new metal alloy. The Tavern, as it turned out, was on the outside of the main village, close to their safe house as they discovered, and soon enough the two of them slipped in through the hatch on the roof, allowing them to drop down into the area and begin their search for the metal that Bentley needed for their new costumes. When they entered the building the duo found that the only way forward was by jumping over some obstacles near the ceiling and then crawling under some tables, something that both of them started to do while they ignored the smell of fuel and the fact that there were open flames in some parts of the building. What was interesting was that the metal they were after happened to be in the form of a few metal gears that were hidden behind a large spinning gear, far from the tables they had crawled under, to which both Sly and Carmelita grinned as they claimed their prize and made their way out of the tavern.

Once they were back outside the two of them searched for another pair of guards, as Sly had to admit that Carmelita's plan had worked like a charm, and sure enough they found two more mech wolves talking to each other, on a part of the stone wall, causing the two of them to sneak into the area below their targets and wait for a few moments. The two mech wolves talked about a poor guard by the name of 'Kraemer' who had been injured recently due to his 'rebigulator' being demagnetized, and one of the guards mentioned that there was some good wood inside the bakery, where they wouldn't have the same fate befall them if they wanted to transfer over there. When they arrived at their new destination, which was on the other side of town, the duo discovered that a computer terminal blocked their way, to which Sly placed a little contraption on the top of the terminal and backed away, allowing him and Carmelita to watch from the shadows as Bentley hacked into the terminal from afar. It did take Bentley a few minutes to crack through the terminal, showing them that whoever was here was good with computers as well, before they were allowed inside the bakery, to which Sly collected the device he set on the terminal and then followed Carmelita inside the building.

What Sly and Carmelita discovered was that it was very easy to get what they had come for, as all they had to do was knock a furnace lid down into position, walk by it, and wait for some flames to get out of their way before claiming the bundle of wood that was located in the machine, allowing them to make their exit and begin the search for a pair of guards that knew where they might find the last component Bentley needed them to find.

The final pair of guards that they found were walking near the clock tower, talking about a company picnic when they arrived, but soon the conversation turned to what they were really after, as it appeared that the local shoemakers had the leather that they were after. What was interesting, and slightly diabolical, was when they made their way through the shoemakers shop they found some machines that seemed to be fabricating metallic hands for something, making them wonder what the person attacking this time period was up to. They used the machine in front of them to get over to where the second hand was being fabricated, where a vent allowed them to moved to the area that the leather they needed was being held in, and once they claimed their prize the two of them headed back to the entrance of the shop and made their way back to the safe house. As they carefully made their way through the village, however, they knew that something was up, that there had to be some reason behind all the mysterious readings that Bentley had gotten at each of the three areas they had been in, but for now they needed to rescue Sir Galleth and hear what happened to him.

Bentley, with Diz working beside him, managed to use the items they had obtained and the other pieces that they already had on hand to do exactly what he had in mind, crafting two Robin Hood inspired costumes for them to use in the field, and when the two costumes were ready they claimed them and headed back out into the field, so they could head into the circus tent and get this mission underway.

The first thing they did was climb the nearby tower and ascended to the top, allowing them to have a good vantage point over the part of the village that they were in, while at the same time they noticed that there was a bucket of arrows nearby, to which they switched into their new costumes and looked like a pair of archers. Sly noticed that the bows that they were holding were purely for firing at targets, meaning that this costume was a navigation type and not a combat type, before he drew an arrow from the bucket and readied it as he aimed at the target that was in front of them. A few seconds later he loosed the arrow he had been preparing and they watched as it struck the middle of the bulls-eye that he had been aiming at, and since there was a rope tied to it he had given them a rope to walk across the gap between them and one of the circus structures. Once they reached the other platform the two of them used the ropes that were in front of them to cross over to which they discovered an entrance in the ceiling of the main tent, allowing them to drop into the interior of the tent so they could begin the search for Galleth.

When they reached the interior of the tent the duo found that they couldn't reach the floor, which Bentley warned them had a sea of motion sensors that would ruin the operation, so Carmelita approached the next bucket and loosed the arrow that she plucked from it, opening the way for them to move forward. The two of them nodded to each other, silently determining that they'd switch turns using the buckets, and the next one had them go through a modern fire trap, one that had three rings of fire that they had to occasionally move through before they were able to reach the other side and move forward. On the way to the third bucket they accidentally made some noise by jumping on the horns that the three inanimate frogs that were hanging in the air, or more accurately the heads that the horns were attached to, though it appeared that no one seemed to care and they moved forward to the best of their ability, all while keeping their eyes open for Sir Galleth... and ignored the various, including numerous, posters that were hanging around the area, all showing something unfortunate happening to the Cooper knight, while encouraging the audience to laugh at him.

There were a few instances where they had to loose an arrow at a moving target, including two moments when they had to be careful of the cannonballs that were being fired up near where they were walking, where Carmelita noted that it was simply because of their programing since no one was near them and that was Bentley's conclusion. They also had to jump on the horns of four more inanimate frogs and ride a rope through a second fire trap, where both Sly and Carmelita agreed that this was all designed to keep Galleth trapped in this area, since he didn't have a bow and some of the more modern parts would only confuse him to no end. At the same time, however, they noticed that some of the areas the two of them had gone through looked like obstacles that only a modern Cooper would have been able to bypass, meaning that whoever was attacking this time period had to know about the Cooper Clan and some of their techniques, like this was a test or a way to keep non Coopers away from Galleth. So far they had no idea what was going on and who their foe was, but at the same time they were hoping that the ancestor that was being harassed would be able to tell them exactly what was going on, which was why they were climbing the side of the post that Galleth was stationed on... though when they found him it appeared that he was completely unhappy, which was natural given what had happened to him, and he wore the jester hat while looking like he was ready to snap his jester stick in half.

"Sir Galleth?" Sly asked, though at the same time he and Carmelita had taken a moment to switch back into their normal attire before approaching the knight, as they didn't want to upset him with their archer costumes, if such a thing could upset him anyway, and he was happy to see the knight look at them, instead of ignore them, "My name is Sly, and this is Carmelita. We've come to rescue you."

"Greetings, friends." Galleth replied, taking a moment to bring his right fist above his chest, a sign of a warrior or knight the duo guessed, before he thought about what they said and seemed to have an answer for that, "But I require no rescue. I am merely... biding my time until the... um, proper strategic moment. Yes. That!"

"So, how long have you been 'biding your time'?" Carmelita inquired, though even as she said that, and her voice revealed something that Galleth might have been trying to ignore, she noticed that he, much like Tennessee, stared at her with shock and interest, something that she could do without.

"Well, I suppose it has been about a fortnight." Galleth said, to which he scratched the back of his head for a moment, a sign that showed the duo that something was definitely up in this time period, though at the same time it was clear that there was only one thing they needed to do.

"If you want to stay here, with the cannonballs and the flaming rings, be our guest." Sly said, as he was beginning to suspect that Bob might have been the easiest member of his family line, since the prehistoric raccoon had easily listened and escaped without any fuss, "We're heading back to our gang's hideout, so we can plan our next move."

Just like Sly suspected, since most of his ancestors seemed to act like him, with the exception of Rioichi, Galleth sprung off of where he had been sitting and proclaimed that now was the time to strike at their foe, a 'black tyrant' as he called their unknown enemy, and both he and Carmelita helped Galleth back to the safe house. When Galleth finally calmed down he told them that the area was currently in control of a fearsome warrior known as the Black Knight, whose origin was a complete mystery and he possessed a stunning technological advantage over him, including the power to know the very moves that Galleth was going to use, like he had read them either from his mind or from the Thievius Raccoonus. An interesting fact was that he had tried to take this Black Knight on, to save the area and whatnot, and while he was able to take out the mechanical wolves on his own he found that he was no match for the Black Knight, who had captured him and seized his cane as his prime prize. The downside was that his description of the person who beat him didn't match any of the criminals from the future, meaning that Le Paradox might have given someone from this time period the keys to defeating Galleth, but that didn't explain the rest of the operation that was going on, meaning that whoever Le Paradox had recruited for this time period had to be from their time, though who it was they had no idea.

Despite declaring that they needed to 'restore the Cooper honor', showing that Galleth was still annoyed about being shown up in such a manner, he was still somewhat calm as he stared at Derpy, Gilda, and Diz for a few moments, causing the rest of the gang to wonder if something was wrong with the ancestor.

"Is... is something wrong, Sir Galleth?" Bentley asked, because this was the first time that any of the ancestors had reacted in such a way to the trio of magic users, and right now he wanted to know if there was something going on with them that they needed to know about.

"Pardon me, they merely reminded me of someone else." Galleth replied, though at the same time he removed the jester hat that he had been wearing, as he forgot to remove it in the heat of leaving the circus tent, and picked up the blade that he had hidden inside this tree some time ago, a spare in case something happened to his main sword and his cane, "In one of the towers of this land, sometimes the castle and sometimes out in the wild, lives a sorcerer who has a light gray coat, dark violet colored eyes, and both his hair, tail, and beard are all light gray colored, though he also walks on two hooves like your sister does. If I'm remembering his appearance right he also wears a light blue robe, with some stars here and there on the fabric and some bells near the edge, that covers his ordinary clothing, and a light blue hat that he says only true magic users can wear, even though part of it rests behind a long unicorn's horn. He was once called Star, um, something... I can't really remember his old name, but these days everyone calls him Merlin."

Sly and the others weren't really sure why Galleth felt that it was necessary to tell them that information, since it was going to be impossible to find Merlin, since he had next to no friends and those that knew his routine never found him where he was supposed to be, so they turned their minds towards the Black Knight and how they were going to deal with him, so they could restore peace to this time period and, hopefully, stop Le Paradox's plans before it was too late.