Return: Chapter 2

Return
Chapter: 2



 After Le Paradox was put behind bars, one would have thought the museum he owned would have been torn down, or at least repurposed. Just goes to show how lazy some people can be. Still, it was good news to see that no changes were made to it yet. Bentley was roaming the vast hallways, browsing through the exhibits for something that dated back 3,000 years. The orange light from the afternoon sun shown through the windows, mixing in with the interior lights that were just starting to turn on. It wouldn't be too long before the museum would close, merely 3 hours. Bentley rolled into the Egyptian exhibit, trying to look through the objects both swiftly and thoroughly. Roughly halfway through the massive room, Bentley found something, a display case holding two short canes. Simply by first glance, Bentley knew these just had to belong to a Cooper. This was confirmed as he read the short description on the case. It read 'These were the canes of the first Cooper thief: Slytunkhamen.' This was it. The Cooper Gang now had a target. Bentley exited the exhibit, already thinking through what was going to happen. Tonight, he and the gang would come back here after the museum closed, they would retrieve the canes and then they'd travel to Ancient Egypt to get Sly and bring him back to the present.


...


 The sun disappeared behind the horizon, leaving only the bewitching transition from orange to blue in the sky as a means of natural illumination. But sadly, it didn't seem to be bewitching enough to gain Penelope's attention. The mouse had perched herself on the roof to a building just across the block from the museum. Having read from the Thievious Racoonus through her little spider-bot not long ago, she knew what Bentley was up to this night. He was going to pull off a heist on the museum and try and return Sly to the present. "Oh Bentley, what is Sly to you" she asked, knowing he wasn't there to answer her? "You could hold the entire world in the palm of your hand, yet you remain at Sly's side, doing so much work for far less than you deserve." So many times, Penelope had cycled this through her head. With all the potential things Bentley could do with his intelligence, he could have forged a far better life, become one of, if not the richest man on Earth. Instead, he chose a life of infamy, of a thief. Try as she might, Penelope could never find the answer to why Bentley would choose this life. But she decided that maybe he could be nudged in the right direction to the better life, if Sly Cooper were removed from the equation.


 As Penelope sat down in her fold-up chair, she pulled out a duffle bag and unzipped it open. She thought about how her remote control gadgets have improved since her defect from the Cooper Gang as she pulled out her what seemed like a helicopter with four spider-like legs and possible turrets on it's sides. Looking around, she saw no signs of the Cooper Gang. Because of this, she hooked her helicopter to a charger and sat in wait.


 At one point in her waiting, Penelope notices something going through the sky. It looked like a massive bird, and as it flew over the museum, something detached from it, landing on the roof. Penelope couldn't tell what it was, but it was moving toward a window to enter. Suddenly, she saw the Cooper Van driving up to the museum, parking in a nearby ally. It was time. Penelope unplugged the helicopter from the charger and turned it on. As it took to the air, Penelope pulled out her labtop computer and connected to it, sending it flying toward the building. Looking through the camera, she saw Bentley hovering up to the roof. "Bentley, you're gonna try and get the canes" she quietly asked? Bentley was often the one solving puzzles, hacking computers, and simple stuff like that. Not once had Penelope think that he would get into the more dangerous position of swiping the artifact. As he drew closer to the sky light, Penelope saw the figure from earlier making an escape already out the window. Did it take the canes? Penelope simply returned her attention to Bentley who was already lowering himself through the sky light. She flew her helicopter down through it as well.


 Bentley could hear the helicopter hovering down and perching on the wall. He already had a strong idea who was operating it. "Penelope" he guessed? He was a little surprised when he heard a vocal response from the helicopter. "That's right Bentley" Penelope answered. "I know all about Sly and where he is. And you don't need to retrieve him. You can step out of his shadow and become what you were always meant to be." Bentley gave a look of disapproval as he shook his head. "That's just out of the question, Penelope" he said as he continued to lower himself to the canes. "I'm not leaving Sly." The helicopter leapt off the wall onto the display case. "Why, Bentley? Why is Sly so important to you" Penelope demanded!? "What is it about him that's worth throwing away what you could become!?" "It's something deeper than partnership" Bentley replied. "It's brotherhood." "Brotherhood" the mouse repeated in confusion? Bentley grew a look, like he was thinking back on old memories. "I never did tell you my history with Sly" he said, a bit of guilt in his voice. "Maybe if I did, things would be different now.... Well you need to know. Maybe that way you'll know why..." He was cut off when he saw something walking toward him. Penelope looked to see what Bentley was looking at. What they saw looked like some kind of bird, possibly a chicken, but it had scales, and was glowing. "What on Earth..." Penelope said as she used a scanner to examine this creature. A list of elements were displayed on her screen, and what she saw horrified her. The creature had a lot of nitroglycerin within it, and a small device in it's stomach that was beeping repeatedly, and quickly increasing. That creature was a bomb. "Bentley, get out of there" Penelope yelled!! "It's a bomb!! It's about to..." Suddenly, the bomb went off, a vast explosion erupting out of every window, door and sky light. Time seemed to have stopped completely as Penelope watched in absolute horror. As the explosion died down, Penelope looked back to her computer screen, seeing only Bentley's empty wheelchair before the screen completely went static. Penelope stared at the screen in speechless shock, her breathing quickly becoming unsteady. The turtle that she fell so deeply in love with was gone in a fiery explosion. She looked to the burning building in front of her, and cried out with all lung power. "BEENNTLEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"