Once Coco made certain all of the guards were actually unconscious and not faking it, the group got ready to move forward, Murray and T-Bone pulling the door open. As they did so, however, Salim spoke up. "Sly," he began carefully, "I am thinking Ca and I should not go any further with your group."
"Why's that?" Sly asked curiously.
"I have already passed my greatest wisdom onto you," he explained calmly, "the last of my friends are all retired, and I've had enough snakes, scorpions and climbing for three lifetimes." He noticed the odd tension that crossed the entire group at the mention of scorpions, but didn't comment on it. "Besides, Ca has been badgering me since La-di's birth that I should stop my romping and settle down to actually be a father, spending less time thieving and more time teaching him the family secrets...and I am thinking she is right." Wincing, he reached down to rub his knees gingerly. "Your daughter's tonic may be making my scepter younger, but it isn't doing much for the rest of me. Beyond that, I somehow doubt your two ladies will be comfortable wearing outfits like this into battle, and battle is certainly what you will be walking into."
"You've got a point there," Sly allowed, glancing at everyone else before getting nods of agreement. The way Carmelita kept trying to shift her outfit to be more concealing and the way Penelope was now hugging hers as tight to herself as she could manage while blushing as red as her veil told him how they felt about it. "Alright Salim, we couldn't have made it this far without you, but we can handle it from here." He patted Salim companionably on the shoulder. "You enjoy your retirement, and parenthood. Trust me, it's nearly as stressful and exhausting as thieving..." He glanced towards Coco with a smile. "But far more rewarding."
"I shall be looking forward to it," Salim agreed happily as Coco blushed happily.
"We'll rejoin you once we're more presentable," Carmelita promised, "either on foot or via Overlord. Penelope can pilot it at least as well as Bentley or Razor."
"Want one of us to come back with you?" T-Bone asked curiously as he held one side of the door. "Just to make sure you all stay safe?"
"Pfeh!" Salim countered, waving it off. "I am not that old yet, and I am still a Cooper! I will keep the ladies safe if they need it. Besides, it is not like they are dainty hothouse flowers themselves. Between the three of them, they could probably run circles around me, let alone whatever we end up facing."
Sly chuckled knowingly at that, as he couldn't really argue. Still, he couldn't let the group go just like that. "You be careful, okay Carmelita?"
"Don't worry so much, ringtail," she countered playfully. "I've got everything under control."
"And I'll be fine too, Bentley," Penelope called out before the turtle could speak. "...just as soon as I get this top wrapped back up properly..." She started to struggle with the fabric until Ca came over to assist her.
Leaving them to it - after one last hug from Carmelita for Coco - Sly, Murray, Bentley, Coco, Deik-Beck, Razor, and T-Bone ducked through the door before letting it close.
In the distance, they could see Le Paradox's blimp docked and refueling as massive energy cells glowed green with electricity across all the interior walls of the structure. Laser security doors separated the path they were on from a walkway, and the walkway from the path to the actual dock itself.
"An underground docking bay for the time-travelling blimp," Bentley marveled as he looked around. "No wonder we didn't see it floating around like we did in Japan."
"Just how long has he had to do all this?" Coco asked wonderingly.
"Considering he has controlled time travel available, as much as he wanted," Razor pointed out. "He could have easily dropped his agents off in each time period with money and modern resources, then come back a couple years - or even decades - later for the results he wanted. We're the ones stuck following around behind him Epoch style to try and clean up the mess."
"So what's the plan now?" Sly asked of Bentley and Razor.
"The control room for the laser grids is over there," Razor pointed out, gesturing to the far right. "However, there are two guards there. We need to get them out of there, and this security grid dropped so we can manipulate the controls to drop the other one."
"Or we could send someone who could duck under this laser grid, take out the guards, and hack the controls," Bentley suggested, gesturing to Deik-Beck.
"Oh yeah," Razor agreed sheepishly. "It's been a while since T-Bone and I worked with robotic AI. I forgot how useful they can be."
Deik-Beck beeped smugly before skittering under the laser grid and racing to the right. He didn't bother to be stealthy as he charged into the control room, catching the two guards off-guard. He saw one was a large male gorilla, while the other was a much smaller female felinoid of some sort he didn't immediately recognize. Acting quickly, he lunged for the male guard's face, grasping his head like a face-hugger as he flailed his arms wildly. The female raced forward to help...and Deik-Beck injected the male with a needle to knock him out at just the right moment to cause him to fall forward and pin the female face-up underneath him. He then quickly jabbed the female with a smaller dose to leave her unconscious...then tugged her rather skimpy top down to ensure anyone who stumbled across them would get the wrong idea, thus ensuring very little investigation into how would be given, nor would any of their words about what actually happened be believed.
Deik-Beck then leapt onto the control panel and hacked in, plugging himself directly into the controls and shutting down both security grids. Leaping free, he then rushed to rejoin the group...only for both laser grids to go back up - along with an alarm - as soon as they were through it.
"Did Deik-Beck miss a trap?" Bentley asked worriedly as two laser devices lifted out of the abyss to either side of the dock and focus a deadly field into the center of the path to the blimp.
"No," Sly spoke up angrily as he readied his cane, the area they were on slowly swarming with Le Paradox's hazmat suited rodent troops. "The timing of that was too good. Someone knew we were, is watching us, and had backup controls to the security here and set off the alarm just as we got here."
"How very clever of you," Le Paradox spoke up from the blimp as he showed himself in the large window. He was dark-grey and white, with a large white handlebar mustache, and wearing a green jumpsuit. "Seft seemed to be of the opinion your amnesia would slow you down somewhat. It's a good thing I've never been one to take anything for granted. But you are...slightly ahead of my timetable. Let's see if you can get to me before it's too late, hmm? Tick-tock, tick-tock..."
I reaaaaaly dislike that skunk
8604863
At this point I'm not surprised that groups that police the time-streams haven't discovered what he has been doing and 'rained on his parade' as it were. With lethal force.
... particularly my Singularity!CoDominium.
8604863
Yeah, he really stinks as a villain doesn't he?
Little did Deik-beck know they were already happily married and gave in to the rumours rather than admit the got their asses kicked by a robotic crab
I can smell Boss Battle coming soon.
Ooof, this has gotten a bit funky... I'm sure the Cooper gang has it in the bag though!
Crossovers suck!!! Booo!!!!!!
8605042
..............if this is sarcasm....
8604863 Word. To quote from How the Grinch Stole Christmas...
Well, looks like this arabian night is coming to an end soon.
And fortune seem to favor that no black cats whit white strips painted on befollowd by this cassanova.
oh, and nice refrens by the way.
8605160
Works so well since he really is a nasty-wasty skunk.
8605042
Um, that was rather unnecessary, and not to mention extremely rude. If you don't like crossovers, you didn't have to click the link to view this story. Making a negative comment that doesn't pertain to the story is just a waste of time to everyone. Not to mention that not all crossover stories suck. Tatsurou's crossovers are probably, if not most definitely some of the best on this side of the internet. The point I'm trying to get across here is that you had no real reason to drop by, and say negative things about a story that I'm sure you've not taken any time to read through. If you have nothing nice to say, then you shouldn't say it at all because all it does is make other people who do read this story, and see your comment stay away from you and any stories you might possibly write.
Paradox gives skunks a bad name. I can't wait to see the final battle with him. Of course, there's still the musical elephant to deal with.
8605247
This part also fits him.
8605042
If you don't like crossovers, then don't read them. It is that simple.
That right there is incredibly sweet and cute. Can we please have more of this and less of those sex jokes? I get that some people find it funny, but others don't, and for people like me, it can utterly murder one's enjoyment of the story. Coco making basically Viagra and how it pretty much fixed Salim's attitude instantly nearly made me give up on this story, though Deik-Beck and Clockwork's conversation saved my interest and I want to stress that I am and have been enjoying this story. I loved how you handled Sly 1, and the chapters pertaining to Coco's training were great, not to mention how excellent the family dynamic of the Cooper Gang is.
I'll explain my issue better on A Rock in the Gulch next time you update that, because I'll be able to explain why it bugs me here and not there much better and much more calmly. I'm afraid speaking here will inevitably result in me ranting, and that would unpleasant for everyone.
Genius
8605097
Just being a troll.
8605398
Damn you swallowed bait hook and line.
8608894
Please do not be a troll. It's not something I appreciate or enjoy in the comments section of my stories.
8608901
Block me.
8608905
Alright then.
8608909
Lol.
8608909
You can actually block people? Neat.
8620061
I guess that was a bit of a be careful what you wish for