"You know, there's not many people I hate in this world, but Neyla's at the top of the list." Penelope said, though at the same time she rubbed her arms for a moment, since she had been tied down with ropes rubbing against her arms for some time, before she turned towards Sly and Clockwerk, "So, what's the plan?"
"Bentley and the others are coming here with my Ancestors, to let them take their canes back," Sly explained, to which he made sure that both Carmelita and Penelope were okay, since they were his biggest concern at the moment, before he slipped out the device that he had been given and put it some distance behind where they were gathered, giving the others enough room for what Bentley had in mind, "I guess the canes might have been installed in some sort of security or puzzle system that requires my Ancestors to retrieve their canes themselves, which is why Bentley decided to call them in, despite the fact that we don't actually need their assistance. Once we get to where Neyla is putting my cane, which has to be the front of the blimp, we're going to stand back and let the big guy take care of business, especially since it seems that Arpeggio might have did his best to replicate what he knew about Clockwerk's body when he built Neyla's new body."
Penelope nodded her head, as Bentley's plan seemed like the correct path they could take at the moment and she didn't see any problems with what Sly had told her, before she turned her gaze towards Clockwerk, who was standing nearby in his larger, and more terrifying, form. She knew that she didn't have very many occasions to watch him use this form, since he preferred to be in his miniature form for scouting and other things, but at the same time she was still amazed by what he had been able to do, to forge a lasting body that would stand the test of time, and still be the only one that held the secret to doing just that. At the same time she had to admit that his body, despite being only one animal, was still more terrifying than the chimera creature that Neyla had become, which might have been a reason that he had been hiding it for a long time, in addition to not wanting to scare Daniel and Elizabeth, in case they ever spotted him. Despite the fact that they were just standing around, and studying the structures that were around them, she also knew that Carmelita was itching to get into the action as well, which made sense considering that Neyla had threatened her entire family when she was talking to Sly a few moments ago... and she felt sorry for Neyla, because there was no way that she was going to win the battle that was coming her way, regardless of what the metallic chimera believed.
Before she could consider what else she needed to think about, especially since she had helped build this blimp against her will, she and the others heard the sound of something slipping through the time stream, to which she turned around with the others and watched as the van came to a stop behind them. Not a few seconds later Murray climbed out of the van and opened the door, to which Rioichi, Tennessee, Bob, Galleth, and Salim stepped onto the floor and looked at the group that was in front of them, before Derpy, Gilda, Diz, and Bentley did the same thing. Despite the situation both Penelope and Bentley embraced for a moment, since they had been worried about each other after Neyla had knocked both her and Carmelita out, before they stood side by side as they turned towards the door that was their ticket to locating Neyla and the stolen canes that Le Paradox had been collecting.
"Okay, you all know why you're here." Bentley said, talking to the five Coopers that he and the others had gone through the effort to collect, while at the same time his gang and friends stood there and waited for he to finish talking before they moved forward, "We have to find your canes and then get you back to where each of you belong. If we don't get those canes back we won't be able to repair the damage that Le Paradox and his allies have caused to the time periods that you come from. Rioichi, it seems that your cane is in this room."
"It should be in this room, considering that it's needed to stabilize the changes to this time period," Penelope said, as she had put some time and effort into making sure that the blimp was everything that Le Paradox asked for, while at the same time making sure that there was a way to safely collapse the Time Tunnel that had been formed when she was installing the larger time machine into the blimp, "but if we took out the canes from where they're resting, and send them back with their owners, we should be able to undo the changes that happened to their time periods and weaken the changes on our future. Of course there's always the chance that some of the changes might not disappear when the canes are sent back to their time period, but I figured that I might as well tell you what the chances are before we moved forward and removed one of the stolen canes."
Clockwerk, despite not being in the mood to do anything other than tear Neyla apart, turned his head slightly as Rioichi moved forward and used both his Ninja Spire Jump and his special technique to move through the obstacles that were in front of him, allowing him to reach his cane and remove it from it's case. As that happened the door that they had to go through opened and the rat guards started to move into the room that they were in, but then they stopped when they noticed that Clockwerk was blocking their way, where the ancient owl swung his right wing and knocked them out of his way, allowing him to march towards the next room as the Coopers followed right behind him. Once they were in the next room Rioichi jumped onto the obstacle that was in front of him and ascended towards the point where Bob and Salim's canes were located, though Bentley determined that they needed to get Bob's cane first, before moving onto the cane that Salim had been carrying earlier. Rioichi found that the obstacles that were in front of him were rather easy for someone like him, as he was able to get up to where the first cane was located, though when he returned Bob's cane to him Bentley found that the temporal anomaly was correcting itself, exactly what he and Penelope had been expecting the moment they came to this area, and Rioichi bowed his head before disappearing, heading back to his time period.
Bob, on the other hand, happily made his way through the climbable obstacles that were in front of him and avoided the icy vents that were in his way, impressing the ancestors that were standing beside Bentley and the others, before he reached where Salim's cane was resting and tossed it to it's owner, before bowing his head as he was taken back to his prehistoric time period that he had come from.
When the second door opened, and allowed them to move forward once more, Clockwerk was the first one to move and smashed his way through the rat guards that happened to be on the other side of the door, just like he did with the first group of guards, before he and the others came to a room containing the remaining two canes that they had come to retrieve so they could correct the time periods. Salim, being the only one that had his cane at the moment, moaned as he moved forward and climbed his way through the obstacles that were in front of him, while at the same time Sly and his family realized that Penelope had built the rooms with the ancestors in mind, to ensure that the canes could be recovered and restore the damage that Le Paradox had done. When Salim recovered Galleth's cane, and dropped it down to them, he looked tired and bowed his head as he was taken back to his time period, allowing them to shift their gaze towards the area that Galleth was moving towards, so he could get up to where Tennessee's cane was located. As Galleth made his way towards his destination he smashed through the power sources that were powering the lasers that were blocking his advancement, turning them off once their generators were taken out, before reaching the cane that he had come to retrieve, where a smile returned to his face as he tossed Tennessee his cane and returned to his time period.
As the third door opened, and more rat guards poured out of it, Clockwerk glared at them and his sheer gaze forced them all out of the way, showing that Le Paradox's minions understood that he was dangerous and that they didn't stand a chance against him, before they arrived at a chamber that was designed for Tennessee to get through, who happily stepped forward and started shooting his way through the obstacles that were in his way. When they reached the end of the line, however, Tennessee opened the trio of metallic doors that were in their way and then stood to the side, where he nodded his head as the ancient owl moved forward and entered the chamber that Neyla was in, before Tennessee returned to his time period as well.
"It was too easy to get this final cane and stabilize the changes to this time period," Neyla commented, her new tail tapping the floor that she was standing on as she slipped Sly's cane into the slot that had been provided for it, though her tone revealed that she was actually pleased by what had happened, "From this point forward I will be the Queen of this world and no one will be able to stand against me..."
That is where you are wrong, Neyla. Clockwerk replied, to which he stepped out of the shadows and stood near the controls for the massive time tunnel that was near the other metallic creature, where he watched as Neyla turned and looked at him the moment she heard his voice, You might think no one would dare to face the ruler of the world, but you seem to have forgotten that I have always existed in the shadows of the Cooper Clan, always watching their moves and moving against them when I deemed the time to be right. You just declared that you were going to kill both Sly and Carmelita, as well as their innocent kids, and then exterminate their entire family history, all because you're angry that they beat you and tossed you in jail, yet you never stopped to consider that someone might be watching your movements and growing angry with you.
"Arpeggio told me you died many years ago, when I was arrested." Neyla stated, though she couldn't believe that the ancient owl was still alive, because that meant that there was someone that would stand in her way and try to stop her plans from being fully fulfilled.
He's wrong. Clockwerk said, though at the same time he spread his wings and readied himself, because he knew that talking with someone that wanted to destroy the Cooper Legacy was never going to work, as Neyla seemed dead set on trying to eradicate every Cooper and their history, Come, Neyla, it's time I showed you why I, Clockwerk, am the only metallic being that belongs to the Cooper Legacy, so prepare yourself for the greatest battle of your life.
Before Neyla had a chance to move out of the way Clockwerk crashed into her and knocked her through the glass window that was behind her, forcing them both into the air outside the blimp, which was followed by Clockwerk flapping his wings as he stabilized himself and let Neyla go crashing to the ground. Despite him wishing for a quick end Neyla showed off something else that had been added to her new body, an interior jetpack of sorts that mimicked what was inside Clockwerk's body and came out when he wanted to fly, allowing Neyla to lift back up to where her foe was floating and stared at him for a moment. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, barely moving an inch from where they were currently floating, before Clockwerk snapped open his missile silos and loosed a barrage of small missiles at Neyla, who grinned as she did the same time, allowing their two barrages to collide in the area between them and detonate upon impact. As smoke filled the air the two metallic beings flew through the air and clashed with each other, talons meeting claws as Clockwerk sought out a hold that he could use to break Neyla's defenses, while at the same time Neyla attempted to do the same thing as she tried to dig into his wings.
Clockwerk beat his wings and pushed Neyla away from him, where he loosed a series of rings into the air that were just like the ones he used in the past, where he was battling Sly above a volcano and the siblings in the area around Arpeggio's blimp, but all Neyla did was loose a laser and sliced them in half. Despite that happening, and him avoiding the attack like it was nothing, Clockwerk used the halves of the rings to attack his foe, which exploded when they reached his target, but for the most part the metallic chimera emerged unharmed for the most part. He realized that this was how Neyla's body was supposed to operate, that she was supposed to be mimicking his own body, but at the same time he had more tricks up his sleeves as he started to open another silo and fired some more missiles at his foe, where they exploded as Neyla roared. It was an interesting tactic, one that he hadn't considered when he started this fight with her, but at the same time the two of them rushed back at each other and continued their battle, where Neyla's claws grazed Clockwerk's body and his talons did the same thing to her, forcing them away from each other.
Of course what Neyla wasn't expecting was a lightning bolt to hit the back of her body, knocking her forward a little, but when she glanced back at the blimp and found Derpy frowning at her as lightning danced around her arms, before Gilda floated down with the wind doing the same thing and Diz had his aura gathering around his form.
"YOU!" Neyla shouted, as she hated the Coopers with a passion, maybe on the same level as Clockwerk did, and her hatred extended towards the trio that followed Sly around, the three magic users that could dominate other foes with just a wave of their hand if they so desired, "I despise the three of you!"
"Come and get us, Neyla." Diz called out, to which he and his sisters burst into the air and separated from each other, choosing to flank their target from different angles while making sure to avoid the area that Clockwerk was in, who grinned as he continued the fight as well.
Clockwerk, despite the danger that they were in, found that Neyla's body truly like his own, as she didn't have any resistance to magic based attacks, meaning that the lightning scratched her body, the wind parted sections of her arms and legs, and Diz's chaotic energies blasted her from whatever direction they were coming from. It presented the perfect opportunity for him to act, as the moment the three siblings combined their powers together a hole was punched into her defenses, not to mention that parts of her body were cracked and broken under the weight of their magical attacks, before he flew into the danger zone and swung at Neyla's chest. A few moments later Clockwerk appeared in the air near Derpy, where he was holding a crystal that seemed to glow with a sinister red light inside it, to which he crushed the gem into a thousand pieces and destroyed Neyla's soul, causing the ruined body to fall out of the sky and crash into the ground in front of the museum. With the deed done, and their foe defeated, the four of them flew over to the building that the others were standing on and smiled, despite the fact that the blimp was moving higher into the air, and they even found that the van was on the ground as well, meaning that Bentley and Penelope must have succeeded in their mission and disabled the time machine.
Of course they were wrong to think that this was the end of their battle, as a few moments after the blimp moved into the air Neyla's corpse moved into the air, somehow since it wasn't powered by anything, and flew into the flying vehicle, where the entire blimp exploded not even a few seconds later... and, in the aftermath, a black swirling void appeared in the air where Le Paradox's blimp had been, worrying both Bentley and Penelope as well.
"Neyla must have messed with the time tunnel... this is bad, really bad." Penelope said, because this was something that she had only worked on in theory, meaning that Le Paradox was smart enough to figure out her notes and built one of the most dangerous devices in the world.
"Its much worse than you think it is." a familiar voice said, to which Neyla, in her metallic chimera form, floated down and grinned at them, where they noticed that the hole that Clockwerk had put in the body was no longer there, as if it had never existed in the first place.
"Too true." a second voice added, to which the gang watched as a second metal chimera floated down to where they were standing, joining the first Neyla in the fact that her appearance was exactly the same, "With the time tunnel now open I can generate a number of clones to destroy all of you with, and this time you have no way to end the tide of Neyla's that are coming to destroy you."
"Wow, what a sore loser." Penelope commented, though at the same time she glanced over to Diz for a moment, as his power was more than enough to stall something like this while she and Bentley tried to figure out how to close the time tunnel, before it ruined the world, "Diz, I think you and your sisters will need your full power to stall them."
Diz nodded as he slipped into his full powered state, allowing him to manipulate the area around him in a more refined manner and started to build a gate of some kind around the hole, but even as he did that more smaller holes started to form in the air near them as more Neyla's started to pour into the area they were in. Derpy and Gilda used their own powers to blast a number of them out of the air, destroying their metallic bodies in the process, but for every one they destroyed two more took their place, and the same thing held true for Clockwerk, who was flying around the area and attacking a different group of enemies. Sly and Carmelita, who couldn't do much, stood there and watched as their family fought their new foe, while at the same time Bentley worked to figure a solution out to the problem that had happened in the air, because if they could close the time tunnels they could decrease the number of enemies that needed to be taken out and eventually turn the battle in their favor. Penelope, since they had gone back to get Galleth, had something interesting inside the van, as a few moments later she stepped out in her Black Knight armor and tapped one of the buttons inside it, where it became a slimmer version of herself, dressed as a knight and wielding a blade, before she flew into the air and started slicing through the clones that were coming at her, to give Bentley time to close the time tunnels before they got even worse than they already were.
Of course several of the clones noticed Bentley working on finding a solution and decided to attack him, but then they slammed into a magical barrier that was unlike anything that the three magic users he knew could generate, though as he looked at it he realized that it looked similar for a moment.
"It seems that you could use some assistance." a voice said, to which Merlin, who had been wearing a modern suit that melted away to reveal his sorcerer attire, stepped out of the shadows near Bentley and looked at the enemies that were now staring at him, "Especially against an evil that is as great as this one is."
Merlin summoned his staff and waved it, where lances made of magical energy burst out and struck the clones that were coming their way, destroying them in bursts of flames, though instead of questioning what was even happening Bentley worked on finding the solution as the gang worked to stop the clones, even those that were bound to the ground like Sly was. Despite his calculations, however, Bentley was discovering that there wasn't much they could do with the technology they had, meaning that closing the time tunnels was going to be next to impossible at the rate they were going, even though he refused to believe that there wasn't a way to stop them from spreading. He still had no idea how Neyla was able to get her body to react in such a way and cause the original time tunnel to explode in such a way, but at the rate things were going the timeline would collapse and the world would be swallowed in some manner, all because one person tried to hate the Cooper Gang as much as Clockwerk once did. Even with four magic users and Clockwerk tearing into the army of clones that were pouring out of the holes in reality, which were increasing in number as the minutes went by, the tide was turning towards the army of Neyla's that was gathering to overpower and destroy them.
That was, however, until something interesting happened, as the holes in reality started to close on their own, while the Neyla's that came from the started to disappear as suddenly as they had come into this time period, before only the main time tunnel and Neyla remained... and then the final hole closed as suddenly as the rest had, restoring stability to the timeline, and while they were all stunned Clockwerk rushed at the remaining Neyla and destroyed her core as well, dropping her body like the rest of them.
"Um... what just happened?" Sly asked, because part of this was confusing, that the time holes would have opened in such a large number and then suddenly close like something else had been happening to the area they were in, but he was happy to see that Neyla's plans had been stopped.
"Yes! Another tear in the fabric of reality averted!" a voice happily said, to which Sly and the others looked over at the top of the museum and found Le Paradox tied up by what could only be described as a humanoid robot of some kind that had a rather large head piece and looked a little evil, despite his words indicating that he must have done something to all the time holes that had been in the air a few minutes ago.
"I don't know... but I think he does know." Bentley stated, though as he said that Diz and the others returned to where he and the rest of the gang were standing, where Diz reverted to his base state, before they stared at the robotic stranger that was doing some sort of victory pose towards the sky and bragging about something, "This will be interesting."
Derpy, Gilda, and Diz looked at each other for a moment, as they weren't sure if this was going to be what Bentley said it was, but he seemed convinced that this was a good sign for them, and the metallic creature had somehow saved Le Paradox as well, so he could suffer for his crimes, so they guessed they could see what side the being was on... but they were sure that their worlds were about to change, and all of them were eager to see what changes this meeting ended up bringing to their lives.