Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The process of Multiversal travel was slowly starting to become a familiar one to Riku and Vanitas. With their eyes closed for protection against the immense light, they did nothing but listen as the magical sounds of surging energy continued to ring out to signify their travel between universes.

Vanitas was starting to think about buying some hefty duty sunglasses specifically for Multiversal travel. The sounds of the magical energy surging between the two universes had him incredibly curious for what sights he could be facing, so he wanted to see what exactly it looked like between universes. Letting out a small sigh in resignation, the ravenette just kept his eyes closed as he and Riku continued their trek through the Multiverse.

Eventually, the light slowly began to calm down a bit as the end of their Multiversal trip started. Riku and Vanitas were both inwardly curious, since it felt like their bodies had changed slightly due to this latest trip between universes. For some reason, it felt like they were wearing a few less clothes, though their bodies didn't feel any less exposed. A light breeze and the sound of winds blowing also gave off the impression that they were somewhere outside, which made them both feel incredibly curious.

Opening their eyes in curiosity, Riku and Vanitas both gasped and jumped backwards from each other.

As they expected, their bodies had indeed changed during their trip between the Multiverse, which they both suspected was due to help keep the Order a bit. Both of their bodies had changed to give them the appearance of anthropomorphic animals, though they both looked a bit different from Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. Vanitas actually had flashbacks to his time on Monstropolis, as his body had black fur all along his skin, and he wore nothing but a red shirt and his red and black jacket, and some sneakers. Riku had dark gray fur along his taller body, and he wore his own v-neck shirt and jacket.

Somehow, they both still had their haircuts even with these changes into animals. Based on the tails they had, it appeared that Vanitas had been changed into a raccoon, while Riku looked like a wolf standing on his hind legs, but with opposable thumbs.

"Riku..." Vanitas slowly said. "Why exactly do we look like we should be vacationing somewhere in Disney Town?"

"I'm not completely sure," Riku admitted, turning his arms to look at the fur along his skin. "But it probably has to do with trying to keep the World Order safe. I mean, even with these different dimensions being a grander scale than different worlds, it's still the same principles, right?"

"More or less, yeah," Vanitas admitted. "Still not sure why the disguises suddenly started now after the last two universes."

"Well, the last two, we did fit in by also being humans," Riku remarked with a shrug of his shoulders. "Besides, we were a little loose with sharing the truth about the Multiverse to the people in the last two dimensions."

"Okay, the ones in Stranger Things were used to other dimensions," Vanitas remarked to his friend. "Plus, we only told variants of our friends in the other universe since there was literally no other way to explain it. Besides, you're the one who screwed up and told Xehanort in that hellish universe."

"All right, you've got a point there," Riku admitted with a nod of his head.

In the end, Vanitas just shrugged his shoulders in understanding, knowing that they still needed to be more careful with keeping the order. *1*

Looking around to try and take in their new surroundings, Riku and Vanitas furrowed their eyebrows in surprise. They appeared to be standing on one component of a gigantic, flying fortress. There were hundreds of walkways that spread along the fortress to various areas, which included multiple towers, a few energy station areas, gigantic components that looked like lightbulbs, aerial blimps with many mechanisms on them, gigantic wind turbines that reminded Vanitas of the original SHIELD helicarrier, and a large battery mechanism underneath a gigantic crane system.

Looking around, Riku and Vanitas furrowed their eyebrows in curiosity as they tried to take in more of their new location. They could see lots of purple flags spread out through the area with the letter A on them, and people mulled around at random. Those people ended up being anthropomorphic birds that were around Vanitas's height. Some wore jetpacks on their backs, while others wore exosuits that made them taller, with attached weapons systems on their backs.

Over the edge, they could see the tops of a city far below them as they traveled through the sky, making it clear that this large, flying fortress was moving at a brisk pace across the world. The winds continued to whistle within their ears, though they were somehow protected from the full force of their flying speed despite the fact they were possibly miles in the air.

Riku let out a small huff before looking around again, seeing that they were standing on the roof of another one of the giant stations, with a weather balloon attached nearby and a different giant blimp flying through the air floating next to their station in the sky.

"Where the hell are we?" Riku softly asked.

Vanitas furrowed his eyebrows in thought.

"I think I actually recognize this place a bit," Vanitas admitted.

He never got a chance to elaborate, because the front of the closest blimp suddenly exploded, which got the two heroes to jump in surprise.

Turning towards the blimp in preparation, Riku and Vanitas watched as giant shards of glass and other pieces of construction fell through the air, falling from the blimp and over the edge far below them. Of course, the main attraction was what caused this destruction. The two heroes' eyes widened once again as they watched a gigantic, robotic owl fly through the air, flapping its wings in a loudly metallic manner as it kept itself afloat. The yellow eyes of the owl matched the large, mechanical systems underneath the two wings, which also matched with the spotlights on the talons to show that this giant robot was ready for some form of battle.

"... What the fuck?" Riku asked.

"First time someone's said that before me," Vanitas muttered.

He shook his head before looking at the owl again.

"Oh, yeah..." Vanitas said, frowning in a thoughtful manner. "Clockwerk."

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, Clock-la, but still," Vanitas said. He frowned. "Man, that was not a good redesign for this owl." *2*

Riku frowned in curiosity as he looked at the ravenette.

All of a sudden, the giant owl, Clock-la, turned towards the two heroes, which got their eyes to widen in realization. The spotlight had been pointed right at them, which illuminated their location to the giant, mechanical menace. Clock-la screeched in a form of mechanical anger before turning and flying down right towards the two heroes.

Riku and Vanitas didn't hesitate, jumping backwards and narrowly evading the attack from the giant owl. The two of them only shared a small look before they summoned their Keyblades. Riku grunted as he blasted Dark Firaga at Clock-la, but the fire barely fazed the mechanical owl. Vanitas jumped up and performed an aerial combo against the owl's body, but one of the wings hit the ravenette in the chest and sent him flying with a surprised yell. Vanitas grunted as he landed on the ground, then yelled out in surprise as he rolled out of the way, narrowly dodging a strike from one of Clock-la's talons.

Riku tried to retaliate for his friend with a blast of Thundaga, but that appeared to barely phase Clock-la. The mechanical owl just screeched once again before swinging her head at Riku, hitting him in the chest and knocking him off the roof of the engine. Vanitas yelled out in worry before lunging forward, moving over another attempted strike from Clock-la swinging another wing at him. The ravenette left behind the owl as he jumped off the roof, moving down on the ground after Riku.

Riku grunted as he hit the ground, but Vanitas landed on his feet next to his friend. The ravenette reached down and grasped Riku's hand with his own, pulling his taller friend to his feet. Riku voiced his thanks before the sound of Clock-la screeching rang out once again. The two heroes yelled out in surprise before they turned and started running, yelling out as they dodged another attack from Clock-la.

Moving together as fast as they could, Riku and Vanitas were suddenly grateful for their frequent cardio practice as they ran as fast as they could down the one walkway of the air fortress. The two heroes moved around the engine room before moving down a simple walkway that led to a different, higher walkway. One of the spinning turbines moved into a place so it was easy for them to walk along, so the two heroes didn't hesitate to use that as their way of running to get towards the other walkway. Riku and Vanitas both yelled out as they ran together along the provided pathway, and the sound of Clock-la screeching a bit more behind them made it clear that the robotic owl was still following them.

Eventually, as they progressed on the walkway, Riku and Vanitas stumbled across one of the guards dressed in an exosuit, and the guard screeched in anger before pointing its blaster at them. It fired a missile towards them, and the two heroes quickly moved out of the way to dodge it. Vanitas then jumped to his feet as the guard fired another missile. Using his telekinesis, Vanitas caught the missile, then turned on his feet while waving his arms. Under his direction, the missile flew back towards the guard, hitting him right in the chest and blowing up.

"I felt like I was in The Matrix," Vanitas admitted. He frowned. "And not the first, one of the worse sequels."

He didn't get to focus on this for too long, because he and Riku watched as the guard landed on the ground, then basically exploded. The guard's body vanished, and was replaced by a collection of coins that landed on the ground.

"Um, what?" Riku asked, clearly confused.

"Nothing makes sense in the Multiverse," Vanitas reminded his friend.

They didn't get to focus on this for too long, because the sound of Clock-la's screeching rang out again, which got Riku to jump back to his feet. The two heroes yelled out in surprise before they started running down the pathway once again.

This specific pathway led above one of the giant turbines once again, onto a different platform. Riku and Vanitas jogged as fast as they could along the pathway before going into a small area with a roof under one of the giant towers. Clock-la screeched loudly in anger once again over the fact that they were out of her reach, which did get the two heroes to let out a small sigh of relief. They looked through the small slot between the floor and the ceiling, watching the giant, robotic owl glaring at them with hatred in her mechanical eyes.

"First we go to a world where everything is basically hell compared to our world," Riku said with a huff. "Then we end up with a group of kids dealing with a bunch of Russians and a monster from another dimension. Now we're animals and a robot owl is trying to kill us."

"Our lives have never been normal, man," Vanitas reminded his friend.

As if trying to confirm this point, a missile with a yellow trail suddenly flew out of Clock-la and moved through the air towards the two heroes. Riku and Vanitas yelled out in surprise as they quickly lunged out of the small shack they were in, narrowly dodging the explosion when the missile hit the floor behind them. The two heroes grunted as they hit the ground of one of the walkways, then let out small groans of pain.

"Case in point, the giant owl can shoot missiles out of its asshole," Vanitas remarked. He shook his head. "I'm hating the Multiverse more and more with each universe we land in."

Luckily, it appeared that Clock-la was too full of rage to pay attention to their words. Instead, she just screeched once again before flying towards the two heroes. Riku and Vanitas quickly jumped to their feet and both moved out of the way, dodging her attack again before summoning their Keyblades. Riku grunted as he threw his Keyblade in Strike Raid when Clock-la got close enough, but the magical blade just deflected off of her mechanical body before falling far below.

"The hell's that thing made out of?" Riku remarked with shock in his voice.

"No idea; they never clarified that part," Vanitas informed his friend.

Clock-la turned towards them once again in preparation to attack. Riku summoned his Keyblade once again, and he and Vanitas both raised their weapons in front of themselves to block it. Clock-la ended up surprising them by moving her wings close to her own body and spinning as she moved towards them. She struck both the heroes in their Keyblades, hitting them with enough force to knock them backwards. Riku and Vanitas both yelled out in surprise as they fell backwards, slipping off the walkway and falling towards the ground.

The two heroes both yelled out once again, but they were both a little relieved to find that the ground was just a little bit below them, which was a single, giant, circular walkway that went all around the turbine in the center of the air fortress. Riku and Vanitas both grunted as they landed on different parts of the walkway, but they were relieved that they had just landed on the platform instead of on the turbine.

Of course, they didn't get to relish in this relief for too long, as the sound of Clock-la screeching once again got Riku and Vanitas to both look up once again. They yelled out as they jumped to their feet once again and jumped backwards, watching as the robotic owl lunged down towards them, landing on her talons on the walkway right in front of the two heroes once again. Riku and Vanitas huffed again before lifting their arms up to stand in their battle stances again.

Clock-la lunged at Riku and Vanitas once again, swinging either her head or her wings in an attempt to attack. Riku blocked with his Keyblade while Vanitas cast a barrier around himself before blasting her with a bit of magic from his Keyblade. Clock-la barely appeared to be fazed by this attack, and just swung her wing again, hitting Vanitas in the chest and knocking him back again. Riku charged forward, slashing through Clock-la with his Keyblade to perform an attack known as Sacrifice. This did successfully strike Clock-la and knock her back a bit, though Riku grit his teeth over how much this also hurt himself.

Clock-la quickly recovered from Riku's attack, then spun on her talons, swinging her wings in an attempt to attack both the heroes. Riku quickly slid out of the way and cast Curaga on himself, while Vanitas tried the attack Ars Arcanum, repeatedly swinging and striking with his Keyblade to attack her. Luckily, a majority of the strikes and swings hit the mechanical owl's body, though they still barely appeared to faze her. Clock-la screeched once again and swung her wings again, hitting the two heroes in their chests and knocking them back once again.

Landing on the ground again, Riku and Vanitas huffed once again before looking up, their eyes widening in fear as they watched Clock-la get closer to them. She screeched loudly in anger once again, preparing to attack them again.

All of a sudden, a figure jumped out of nowhere, using what looked like a parachute to glide through the air and drop in front of Riku and Vanitas. The two heroes frowned when they saw that this figure was a raccoon dressed in a blue shirt, a matching hat and boots, a red pouch on his leg, and a large cane in his hand with a curved point at the top. The raccoon landed right in front of Riku and Vanitas before lifting up his cane and pressing it into the ground. This released a smoke bomb, which caused both heroes to be covered in smoke with the raccoon.

Clock-la screeched in anger once again when the smoke cleared up, showing that the objects of her anger had disappeared. She screeched angrily once again, upset that she hasn't gotten the opportunity to kill anyone in this new body of hers, just yet. At least those two people proved themselves to be worthy opponents.

After the smoke bomb went off, Riku and Vanitas didn't hesitate to follow their new ally, whom Vanitas mentally told Riku was named Sly Cooper. The new trio quickly made their way through the blimp fortress once again, with Sly guiding the way for the two Keyblade Masters since they didn't know the way around. He led them back towards the front of the blimp fortress, where the battery station was waiting. Sly promised them that it was safe, and it was a hideout that he and his gang were using. Riku and Vanitas shared a look before following him inside the small room into the battery.

Luckily, the battery included a giant, hollowed out chamber the right size for a hideout, which Vanitas nodded in appreciation of. Sly quickly got to work introducing himself, along with Bentley, a turtle in glasses, a hat, and a small jumpsuit, and Murry, a large, muscled hippo dressed in a vest, mask, and a large belt buckle. Sly quickly went to work explaining to his friends what he had seen in the blimp, while Vanitas looked at them all with his eyebrows raised.

'Now I know where this all seemed so familiar,' Vanitas thought into Riku's head. 'This is part of the Sly Cooper video game series. They came out when my brother was a real little kid, and he tried to get Eliza and I into the games.'

'Oh, so you know what'll happen here?' Riku thought back.

'No, I ignored these games completely,' Vanitas mentally replied with a frown. 'These games didn't seem that great to me, even as a kid. The giant, anthropomorphic animals just seemed too hokey for me, especially considering these guys are a gang of thieves.'

'They're thieves?' Riku thought back.

'Well, yeah, but it was a weird form of thievery,' Vanitas thought into his friend's head. 'They only steal from other thieves, willingly giving them up to the law. So, they're basically vigilante anti-heroes. That's another thing that just seemed really stupid to me. According to my brother, they're apparently "good bad guys," whatever the hell that means.' *3*

The sound of someone clearing their throat rang out, which got Riku and Vanitas to perk up. They looked up and looked at where Sly, Bentley, and Murray were standing gathered around the table, looking at the two heroes in an expectant manner.

"Who exactly are you guys?" Sly asked with his arms crossed. "We never exactly got a chance to share backstories back when we were running from the giant owl."

"Uh, right, yeah," Riku said, quickly thinking on the spot. "V and I are..."

"We were prisoners," Vanitas quickly said, using his abilities to figure out some extra details. He gritted his teeth and wiped his nose to hide the blood from using his abilities too much too fast. "Yeah, we're our own little group of vigilantes, sort of like you guys."

"Vigilantes?" Murray asked with a frown. "We're not vigilantes."

"Yeah, we kind of are," Bentley pointed out.

"We really are, yeah," Sly agreed, frowning in thought.

"Well, anyway," Vanitas said as Murray frowned in thought. "We were researching the situation with Arpeggio. We learned about the situation of him putting together the Clockwerk parts, so we came here to try and help. It took weeks of research, but we managed to sneak onboard. Of course, we weren't really expecting him to finish putting Clockwerk together so fast."

"Yeah, we, uh... Unfortunately had a hand in doing that," Sly admitted, an embarrassed expression appearing on his and Bentley's faces. "We tried to reverse a set of magnets in an attempt to take him apart. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect."

"Wow," Riku commented with his eyebrows furrowed. "Never thought magnets could make such a big mistake."

"We were rushed," Bentley admitted with a sigh.

"The worst part, a different enemy of ours bonded herself with the Clockwerk frame," Sly informed the group. "She's merged herself with Clockwerk's body and is going to use Arpeggio's system to gain the immortality he craved with Clockwerk's body."

"Wait, what the hell are you talking about?" Vanitas asked, he and Riku frowning in curiosity.

Sly quickly started to explain to everyone what he had learned in that one blimp from Arpeggio and Neyla. Arpeggio sought after immortality in Clockwerk's body through hatred, the same way that Clockwerk figured it out with his metal body and a deep hatred for Sly's family. Because of that, Arpeggio developed a system with some assistance from his other Klaww gang members. The Contessa figured out a way to hypnotize people into rage through the use of Rajan's spice, but they needed a form of light to do so. Jean Bison provided these through the Northern Lights, and Dimitri made sure to feed people in Paris food covered in the spice they needed to be hypnotized.

"They're going to release an oversized light-show of hatred on Paris, just to get the Clockwerk body the immortality he desired," Sly informed the group with a grim tone in his voice. "That's outlandishly cruel."

"It's terrifying," Bentley agreed.

"It's horrifying," Murray said with fear in his voice.

'This was a kid's game?' Riku thought, looking at Vanitas with an eyebrow raised.

'Standards were a bit lower for kid's games back in the early 2000's,' Vanitas mentally informed his friend.

'Well, you were right about these guys being the "good bad guys",' Riku thought back. 'They look appropriately horrified at the idea of what's planned to happen.'

'Doesn't mean the concept isn't still stupid,' Vanitas mentally remarked.

"If you guys are really vigilantes, then do you think you could help us out?" Sly asked the two heroes with his arms crossed.

"Yeah, sure," Riku assured them.

"I sense that we can be a big help here," Vanitas added.

"'Sense'?" Bentley asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, uh..." Vanitas slowly said. "I'm a psychic."

There was a moment of silence before Sly and Bentley shrugged their shoulders.

"Okay," Sly said with indifference in his voice.

"All right," Bentley said with equal indifference.

"Cool!" Murray excitedly said. "What am I thinking about right now?"

"Burgers," Vanitas said, not even using his powers.

"I was!" Murray said, still excited.

Riku and Vanitas shared a look of raised eyebrows, not having expected that level of acceptance from the team.

Within minutes, Bentley started setting things up to start a slideshow presentation for the team, one of the things that Vanitas also found annoying about the game. It took a few minutes before everything had been set up with Bentley preparing his laptop to show the presentation to the group. Knowing they didn't have anything else to do, Riku and Vanitas joined Sly and Murray at the table to join them in watching the presentation.

The first image was of Neyla running towards the Clockwerk body, which had its wings folded, its mouth wide open, and one of its eyes red.

"As we all know, things are looking grim," Bentley announced.

The image changed to one of Clock-la rising up in the blimp Sly had been in earlier.

"Neyla has joined herself to the Clockwerk frame..." Bentley slowly explained, the image changing to show Clock-la flying out of the blimp. "And the union has produced... Clock-la."

The image changed again, to one showing Clock-la's face as she flew through the air around the blimp fortress.

"She's out, and free to terrorize the world," Bentley urgently told the group.

The image changed to an image of the fortress they were hidden within.

"This blimp is still in motion to Paris," Bentley explained. It changed to a different image of the fortress. "I can only assume Arpeggio's autopilot will activate the hate hypnosis lightshow."

The image changed to Clock-la again, and Bentley started using a yellow marker on his laptop to start giving an image to surround Clock-la.

"If that happens... there'll be no stopping Clock-la," Bentley told them, adding more of an outline to Clock-la. "She'll be immortal."

The image then changed to an extremely close up of Clock-la's face, showing her frowning angrily.

"But we still have a chance," Bentley admitted. The images then started changing to show the different engines spread throughout the blimp. "In her new form, she'll need to draw a lot of energy from this blimp's engines to stay strong."

"Especially strong enough to whoop our asses, like she did just out there," Vanitas added.

Riku grimaced and nodded his head in agreement.

"Precisely," Bentley confirmed.

The image then changed to show a large picture of the blimp, one that showed all four engines in view, and Clock-la flying in the air in the middle of them all.

"If we could disable the engines..." Bentley said, using his website to write an X over all four engines. "That should be enough to weaken her to a state in which we can attack."

He circled Clock-la in the center of the picture to emphasize his point. He then changed the image to one of a guard in an exosuit.

"Getting at these engines will require five of us to work together in perfect harmony," Bentley explained as the images changed, showing the inside of one engine, then a courtyard on the blimp. It changed to the inside of another engine room. "We've pulled off some tough jobs in the past..."

The images then changed to separate ones showing Clock-la flying through the air again.

"But they were just the warm-up round for what we'll be going through tonight," Bentley remarked as the final image showed another closeup of Clock-la's face.

Sly, Murray, Riku, and Vanitas all nodded in understanding, with the other two thieves knowing the truth in their teammate's words, while the two Keyblade Masters could relate to this kind of situation.

Vanitas then frowned.

"Before we do anything, I just need to ask," he said. He gestured to the laptop. "Where the hell did you get some of those images?"

"... Yeah, that doesn't exactly make sense," Riku remarked. "Some of those images of Clock-la seem pretty impossible to get considering she's only been around for a couple of hours."

"Yeah, that doesn't make a lot of sense," Sly admitted, frowning in similar thought.

"Huh," Murray said, frowning in similar thought. "I'm curious about that, too."

"It's, uh..." Bentley slowly said. "It's a long story. Look, are we going to work on stopping Clock-la, or not?" *4*

Sly, Murray, Riku, and Vanitas all shared some looks before shrugging their shoulders in agreement. The four of them and Bentley then started moving around the hideout together, preparing everything that they would need for going about on the airship base and stopping Clock-la before she could gain the immortality she desired...

Chapter Text

The team gathered together in the battery hideout continued to prepare themselves in their own means to go out onto the blimp fortress to follow through with the plan of taking out the engines. Given that they all had their own specific sets of skills, they had to start preparing their own tools and weapons through their individual means of combat.

Sly's weapon of his cane was pretty easy to prepare, so he started grabbing various tools in preparation, between smoke bombs, rage bombs, and even a little gadget called TOM (which Riku and Vanitas raised an eyebrow at). Bentley made sure his crossbow was ready to fire sleep darts, and all the bombs he needed would be ready for action. Murray made sure his gloves and mask were tight enough before he started improvising lifting weights by picking up a large barrel. Vanitas helped the hippo by arm wrestling with him for a few moments, which impressed Sly and Bentley. Since Vanitas still had his enhanced strength, he was able to keep even with Murray's large fist, so they both struggled in this "battle." Even Riku had to laugh when Murray finally won, pressing Vanitas's hand to the table and getting the ravenette to wince.

Vanitas rotated his shoulder slightly as he walked back towards Riku. The two Keyblade Masters just made sure they had the right kinds of magical items at their disposal for battle before turning and watching the rest of the team prepare. Though, they were also given earpieces so they could stay in contact with each other when necessary, which reminded Riku and Vanitas of the missions they did with the Avengers.

'Hey, you think if we kill anyone here, we'd be charged for murder or animal cruelty?' Vanitas mentally asked Riku as they slipped on the earpieces.

'Only you would think of something like that,' Riku thought back with a sigh. He frowned thoughtfully. 'Though, that is a good point. But, can people here even die? That one guard just exploded when you hit him with one of his missiles.'

'I don't know, man,' Vanitas mentally said with a shrug of his shoulders. 'Honestly, that's just another dumb thing about this game universe. Somehow, there are villains that have been criminals for years and even killed lots of people, but they get out of prison after, like, two or three years. It, uh... It never made the most sense.'

'When does anything in our lives make sense?' Riku thought back to his friend.

'All right, you've got a point there,' Vanitas mentally agreed with another shrug of his shoulders.

"All right," Bentley said. "It's time for us to start shutting down those engines. Anyone want to go first?"

"I might as well," Sly said, lifting his cane up.

"I can tag along with him," Vanitas offered. "Give him a bit of extra cover and backup."

"I'll accept it," Sly said. He pointed at Vanitas. "As long as you don't slow me down or get me caught."

"You got nothing to worry about there," Vanitas promised, waving a hand at him in assurance. *1*

Bentley, Murray, and Riku all nodded at the two of them in assurance. Sly and Vanitas then turned and opened the hatch, climbing out of the battery and onto the small platform just outside.

Both of them grimaced over the sound of metallic wings flapping and a loud screeching ringing out every couple of seconds, signifying Clock-la's flight around the air of the immense, flying fortress.

'Not gonna lie, that's actually pretty good for endgame area ambiance,' Vanitas thought with a raised eyebrow.

Brushing that aside, Vanitas started to follow Sly as he turned and started sprinting down the other end of the pathway. The two of them jumped onto the roof of a lower station, before jumping off of it and onto a different platform that led towards another station. They jumped onto a red barrel (that Vanitas immediately put together was explosive), and used it as leverage onto the roof of the station attached to another walkway. Of course, a guard noticed them quickly, but Sly pressed his cane to the ground, releasing a smoke bomb that they used to run around the other side of the roof, stumping the guard as they escaped.

In the process of escaping, Sly crept up behind the guard with his cane in his hand. Vanitas furrowed his eyebrows at the sight before Sly got close enough. The raccoon then swung upwards with his cane, knocking the bird up into the air. Sly then quickly went around the guard, forming a small tornado that made the guard vanish.

"How does that work, by the way?" Vanitas asked. He waved a hand. "Actually, never mind. Better question, how the hell do so many of these guards just vanish when you defeat them?"

"I don't really know," Sly admitted with a shrug of his shoulders. "I've never really understood it, either. But I knock them out and get them out of the way, so whatever."

The two new partners shrugged their shoulders in indifference.

The sound of a bird squawking quickly got their attention. Sly and Vanitas turned towards the noise, and their eyes widened when they saw two guards in exosuits charging at them. One of them fired a missile towards them, but they both leaped out of the way, dodging the blast as it hit the floor they had just been standing at moments prior. One of the guards fired another missile, but Vanitas jumped to his feet and used his telekinetic abilities again. He caught the missile with one hand, spun his hands in a circle to turn the missile around, then thrust forward with his other hand. The missile flew back towards the guard, hitting the bird in the chest and exploding, knocking him to the ground before he vanished.

Sly ignored this, sprinting towards the second guard. He dodged a missile from this guard before lunging at the guard with his Dive attack, spinning his cane in front of himself and knocking the guard out as he fell to the ground. With the guard unconscious, Sly knocked him up with his cane, then spun around as he once again performed Silent Obliteration, making the second guard disappear, as well.

With the guards out of the way, Sly and Vanitas hurried together up the raised walkway that led across the top of the airship towards the engine rooms. Of course, once they reached the small shack that had been partly destroyed by a missile from Clock-la, Sly went through the shack and started running down the pathway that led to the left, since it led towards a starting job point. Vanitas continued to follow the raccoon until he jumped off the edge under one of the spinning turbines to a lower courtyard. Vanitas frowned in confusion before shrugging his shoulders and jumping off after him.

Once they landed in the courtyard, Sly then led the way towards another raised platform, one next to another turbine that had the appearance of a large piece of green metal. Vanitas followed the raccoon across the courtyard and up onto the structure, since it was supposed to be the starting point of this job they were about to begin against one of the engines. Sly then took out his binocucom and pointed it up into the air, zooming in to view one of the four engines that they needed to destroy.

"This engine room is locked down tight," Bentley informed Sly through the binocucom. "Since we can't get in, I figure we have to destroy it from the outside."

Vanitas paused, wondering if he should mention that the weapons that he and Riku had could open any lock imaginable. But he shrugged his shoulders, deciding to go along with the plan since Bentley mentioned destroying the engine room.

"I hope you're carrying some heavy explosives, Bentley," Sly commented. "Because that engine isn't small."

"Still smaller than my bitch aunt," Vanitas quipped with a chuckle.

No one laughed, which made sense considering the serious nature of the mission.

"It just so happens that there's a ready supply of explosives already available on the blimp," Bentley informed them. Sly turned to point the binocucom at a barrel of TNT not far from them. "Walk one of these TNT barrels up to that engine room to destroy it. And V, you take care of any guards that might come across either of you on the way."

"I can do that," Vanitas remarked with a nod of his head.

"Sounds easy enough," Sly remarked. "But what's the catch?"

Vanitas grit his teeth, knowing with Sly that there was always a catch.

"The initial payload in the barrel won't be powerful enough to do the job," Bentley informed them. Sly raised his binocucom to look at a pole with a small, red gear attached to it. "If you pick up three magnetic chargers, you should achieve the necessary blast force to destroy the engine. It's simple really; just get close to the chargers, and they'll automatically attach to your barrel."

"Alright... Let's blow stuff up!" Sly announced with determination in his voice.

"Hell, yeah," Vanitas said with an excited smile.

With that, Sly put away his binocucom before he and Vanitas jumped off of the structure. They jogged together across the walkway and down a short platform to a small station where the TNT barrel was set up. Sly jumped inside, and Vanitas summoned his Keyblade in preparation.

Just in time, apparently, because the second that Sly stood up in the barrel, a guard in an exosuit rounded the corner and noticed them. The guard tried firing a missile at them, but Vanitas took it out with a swing of his Keyblade. The ravenette then surged forward with Sliding Dash, striking the guard in the chest and knocking him back. The guard was knocked right over the edge of the platform, causing him to fall off the blimp completely, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

The sound of more guards yelling out and charging towards them suddenly rang out, which got Vanitas and Sly to perk up in surprise.

"What, one guard notices us and all of a sudden, all of them do?" Vanitas asked Sly with surprise in his voice.

"I don't know," Sly admitted, shrugging his shoulders within the barrel. "I've never understood it, either." *2*

"Just get down," Vanitas instructed, gesturing with his free hand. "You're the one wearing the explosive!"

"Good point," Sly quickly said.

The raccoon quickly crouched down, moving down so that it appeared that the barrel was pressed against the ground, hiding him within it.

At least three guards ended up coming from different areas of the blimp walkways, with one coming from Vanitas's left while two came from his right. The two from his right were ones with jetpacks on their backs, while the one from the left had an exosuit. Vanitas let out a small sigh before he quickly leaned backwards to dodge a missile blast from the exosuited guard. Once one of the guards in jetpacks got close enough, he threw a small device up that looked like a tiny helicopter. It shot out a laser that hit the ground as it closed in on Vanitas.

The ravenette yelled out in surprise before he dodged the laser, then charged in, performing a combo attack against one of the guards. He performed the finishing attack, and the guard fell backwards, dropping to the ground before vanishing like the previous ones. This left one remaining guard in an exosuit and the other one in a jetpack. Jetpack one suddenly floated into the air, turning the device to blow fire in Vanitas's direction. The ravenette dodged the flame before throwing his Keyblade at the exosuit guard in Blizzard Raid, striking him with ice before the armored bird fell off the edge, just like the previous one.

The last guard tried charging at Vanitas, but he easily twirled on his feet and spun around, tricking the bird into barreling right past him. The ravenette grunted as he swung his Keyblade into the guard's back, hitting him with enough force to make him disappear, as well. Vanitas sighed out as he stood up straight.

"You know, a part of me is starting to think some of these guards are just holograms," the ravenette commented.

"That wouldn't surprise me," Sly remarked, sticking his head out of the TNT barrel.

With the guards out of the way, Sly and Vanitas started their trek across the airship. Sly led the way, following the waypoints in his binocucom to find the three chargers needed for the TNT barrel. Vanitas followed behind him with his Keyblade in hand for if they came across any guards along the way. They moved together across a small platform, then up a walkway that led into another courtyard with a turbine attached to it. Here, a number of guards in exosuits were gathered around, so Sly crouched down to hide again while Vanitas cleared the way.

He started by blasting Fission Firaga at one of the guards, hitting the bird in the back and exploding, which caused him to vanish. The other two guards noticed and started charging at Vanitas, firing blasts from their suits in an attempt to attack. Vanitas dodged the blasts before jumping up into the air, while also throwing his Keyblade at one of the guards, taking him out. The ravenette then disappeared in a teleport and reappeared behind the guard. The guard squawked in confusion before Vanitas grabbed him by the back, then used his enhanced strength to throw the guard over the edge. The guard squawked once again loudly before disappearing.

With the way clear, Sly stood up and started moving around the turbine to find where they needed to go. Vanitas brushed his nose with his thumb before he started jogging after Sly to keep up with the raccoon. He did a double take when he saw Clock-la flying underneath the entirety of the airship, but he brushed it to the side when he realized the bird hadn't noticed them. Vanitas felt a small bout of relief flow through him before he and Sly started together up a short set of stairs.

These stairs led up onto the raised platform that had a pole attached, the one with the magnetic charge they needed attached to it. As Clock-la's screeches echoed across the entire airship, Sly and Vanitas hurried up the stairs onto the platform with the pole, and the magnetic charge flew off of it and onto the TNT barrel.

"One down," Sly informed Vanitas as they continued up the walkway. "Two to go."

'I'm not even gonna ask how that thing attached itself to a wooden barrel,' Vanitas thought to himself. 'Things stopped making sense a long time ago in this universe.'

Sly and Vanitas continued up the walkway until they reached the gigantic, circular part that was around the biggest turbine in the center of the airship. The two of them then moved around the path in a clock-like position towards the front of the airship, near where the hideout was hidden. Vanitas brushed aside his confusion when Sly informed him that the next magnetic charge was in that direction. They both ignored Clock-la flying underneath them, letting out another loud squawk that also sounded like a clock. The two of them just continued along the pathway provided to them towards the magnetic charge.

Eventually, they reached the center part of the walkway, which included a small ledge that overlooked one that was below them, where a guard in an exosuit was slowly walking along in their way. Vanitas just took care of him with his telekinesis, waving a hand and making the guard fall off the edge before disappearing.

'Even if they are holograms, I'm a little concerned about the fact that I'm just so casually taking out so many of these guys,' Vanitas thought with his eyebrows furrowed in contemplation.

Nonetheless, with the guard out of the way, Sly and Vanitas walked over the edge, falling through the air and landing on the platform below them once again. They then started across the walkways, going up a set of stairs before moving across a different platform, another set of stairs, another platform, and another set of stairs. Vanitas was starting to notice a bit of repetition to their movements before he used his telekinesis to knock another guard over the edge of the ship. He brushed this aside as Sly collected the second explosive, which was attached to a wall next to a large dumpster.

Sly and Vanitas then started making their way across the airship once again, moving in the direction towards a different section of the blimp that involved rooftops. Since Sly couldn't jump while in the barrel, they had to use an extending machine nearby that would allow him to reach the rooftop. Vanitas ended up covering him with his Keyblade when a guard started to get close enough. Sly and Vanitas used the extender to get on the rooftop, then they started moving together along the raised platform walkway that led over the biggest wind turbine.

Once they reached the small, partly destroyed shack again, they turned and started going down the walkway to the left, which led towards one of the engine rooms. Vanitas took out a couple of guards in exosuits along the way since they would have caused trouble. Eventually, they reached one of the engines, where the last electronic charge was attached to the wall. A guard got close enough, but Vanitas used his telekinesis to throw an explosive barrel at the guard, taking him out before he could cause trouble. Somehow, this got no attention, because Sly was easily able to get the final charge to attach to his barrel.

"With the TNT barrel all charged up, it's time to deliver the payload to that engine," Bentley informed them through the communicators.

Vanitas didn't even question how the turtle knew they got all the charges.

Instead, Sly and Vanitas just turned together and started moving together across the airship together once again. Vanitas kept his Keyblade raised in preparation to attack in case any guards came close enough. They passed by the partly destroyed shack that was over the central turbine of the ship, then continued down the walkway towards the engines on the other side of the blimp. They passed by one of the other engines before the rotating turbine reached the right level to be able to walk along. Once it was, Sly and Vanitas started moving across the turbine towards the engine they needed to destroy, soon coming to a stop on the other side of the turbine.

Another couple of guards in exosuits were strolling along near the engine, but Vanitas easily took out one with Blizzard Raid again. When the second one came to investigate, the ravenette followed it up with a blast of Thundaga Shot. The ravenette then helped Sly along the platform of the ship, towards another extender that would help them reach the roof of the engine room. Once they were on the roof, Vanitas inwardly wished he had brought C4 with him, since it probably would have helped add some punch to the explosive. He brushed this thought to the side as he watched Sly walk to a circular plot on the roof of the engine room, then he jumped out of the barrel.

The TNT barrel started to flash on and off with light, and Sly quickly sprinted to move next to Vanitas. The two of them turned and watched as the barrel blew up, lighting the circular plot on fire and sending bits of shrapnel flying, signifying the destruction of the engine.

"That should be the last time anyone puts that engine to use," Sly remarked.

Vanitas let out a small chuckle at the raccoon's words. *3*

Due to the importance of the mission stopping Clock-la, Sly and Vanitas quickly started moving together to the starting point of the next job they needed to do. They jumped off the roof of the engine room, then jogged together on the small platform towards the rotating turbine. When that took too long, Sly just jumped off the platform and took out a paraglider, using it to glide down to the circular walkway around the biggest turbine. Vanitas just shrugged his shoulders and summoned his boots, jumping off after him and using the thrusters attached to float after the raccoon.

Once they reached the circular platform, Sly and Vanitas both dropped together onto the walkway, getting rid of the paraglider and the boots before they started sprinting together along the walkway. They started running back towards the front of the front of the blimp, since according to Bentley, the starting point for the job was on top of a weather balloon above one roof. Once they got close to that shack, Sly jumped off of the walkway and used his paraglider to glide through the air towards the building. Vanitas used his boots to follow him once again, and the two of them landed on the shack quick enough.

Sly then started climbing the rope attached up onto the top of the weather balloon. Since he was still wearing his boots, Vanitas just willed the thrusters to work once again, floating up into the air after the raccoon. Once they were on top of the weather balloon, Sly took out his binocucom once again, while he and Vanitas both ignored the sight of Clock-la out in the distance in front of them.

Vanitas turned with Sly to look towards one of the engines out in the distance, though the raccoon had the advantage of having his binocucom to help him see it much better.

"Riku and I will work on disabling that engine room," Bentley informed them through the communicators. "But to do so, then all four of us are going to have to work together."

"Happy to have you along, Bentley," Sly informed him. "Plus, V has been a bit of fun. What do you need us to do?"

"Pickpocket the guards' keys to the engine room," Bentley instructed, so Sly turned to look at one guard out in the distance. "Once you've got the door open, Riku and I will take over."

"Sounds easy enough," Vanitas remarked.

"Right?" Riku asked over the intercom.

"Okay, you guys should take your position," Sly suggested. "It's not gonna take me long to lighten these guys of their keys."

"I have mixed feelings over the fact you speak so easily about stealing from people," Riku commented.

"Moral ambiguity, man," Vanitas remarked to his friend.

Sly just shrugged his shoulders in indifference before he and Vanitas jumped off of the weather balloon.

Sly used his paraglider to control his descent towards the ground, and Vanitas went "Hup!" before following him. The first of the guards with keys (dressed in an exosuit) was patrolling on a walkway that went around the crane, a few shacks, the dumpsters, and the battery hideout. They moved up a set of stairs towards the walkway, right out of the guard's line of sight. They moved behind the guard, and Sly crept up behind the guard with his cane in hand. He used said cane to dig in the guard's back pocket, pulling out some coins before getting one of the engine room keys they needed.

Vanitas frowned, once again wondering if he should share that the Keyblade could open any lock imaginable. He eventually shrugged his shoulders, deciding that that would probably be too much unexplained magic for the group. So, Vanitas just stood to the side as Sly stole the key, then used Silent Obliteration to take out the guard. *4*

With one key obtained, that left only four more. Sly checked his binocucom to figure out the locations of all the remaining guards carrying keys, then started leading the way across the blimp once again. Vanitas followed him down the walkways and stairs provided to them towards one of the guards. This specific one was walking along on the lowest platform of the ship, which was underneath the biggest turbine on the blimp. After dodging a couple of spotlights that shot machine guns, they moved together down the central walkway towards this platform. Once the guard moved along on the platform again, Sly snuck behind him and dug into his back pocket, stealing the key with just a few hooks.

After taking that guard out with Silent Obliteration, Sly led Vanitas up the side of the blimp once again, this time onto the upper walkway that was around the biggest turbine. Vanitas distracted the guard, getting the bird to squawk and fire missiles at the ravenette, which he dodged pretty easily. With the guard distracted, Sly snuck up behind him and stole the key within his pocket. Once he had the key, Sly nodded at Vanitas, so the ravenette blasted the guard with Thundaga Shot, knocking him into the turbine and making him disappear.

Vanitas once again frowned at this, wondering just how twisted this universe was starting to make him.

With that guard and key out of the way, Sly and Vanitas started jogging down the circular walkway around the turbine again towards another guard that had a key. This one was near the station where they had stolen that TNT barrel earlier. They jumped off of the circular walkway and used their own means (paraglider for Sly and boots for Vanitas) to control their descent, landing on the top of a collection of barrels just above the guard. Vanitas prepared to distract the guard again, but Sly was ahead of him by pulling out TOM.

Vanitas frowned when Sly threw TOM, which turned out to be a small, circular robot. TOM landed on the ground a short distance from the guard, jumping up and down.

"Hey! Hey!" TOM shouted, lifting up his arms. "Peanut!"

Vanitas frowned in confusion and pointed at TOM just as the small robot disappeared. He shrugged his shoulders in resignation as the guard moved towards where TOM had been standing to investigate it. Sly then jumped onto the ground and moved behind the guard, using his cane to steal the coins and the key from the bird's back pocket before taking him out with Silent Obliteration.

"I've seriously just stopped asking questions," Vanitas admitted to himself with a shrug of his shoulders. *5*

Sly then checked his binocucom to check out where the final guard with a key was, and soon learned that the guard was near the engine they blew up. So, he led the way through the courtyard once again, and Vanitas followed behind him. They briskly moved through the courtyards and the walkways, occasionally taking out guards they passed by (Sly with Dive and Silent Obliteration, and Vanitas with strikes of his Keyblade), before they reached a ladder that led to the upper levels of the ship. Sly went first, climbing up the ladder while Vanitas watched their six. The ravenette then followed his example, moving up the ladder to the higher levels.

Once they were on the higher level, Sly led the way once again, guiding Vanitas around one of the engines before they reached the rotating turbine that led towards the other engine. Moving around the engine, Sly and Vanitas quickly found the final guard carrying a key, and Vanitas used his telekinesis to his advantage since the guard had his back to the wall. Standing on the roof of the engine above the guard, Sly watched as Vanitas closed his eyes in concentration, before the key floated out of the guard's back pocket. Sly let out a soft gasp at the sight before the key floated in front of them, and he grasped it in his hand.

"I should have discovered telekinesis," Sly commented.

"Yes, you should have," Vanitas remarked with a smirk.

"Okay, Sly, Riku and I are waiting by the engine room door," Bentley informed them over the intercom.

"This does not look like it'll be a pleasant way into the engine room," Riku commented.

"You've been in worse situations," Vanitas reminded his friend. "Remember when the compound blew up?"

"Fair," Riku admitted.

Sly and Bentley decided not to ask what "the compound" was.

Instead, Sly decided to get creative with his climbing since the engine room was on the opposite side of the ship. There were giant, flapping wings in the center of the ship between the two back engines, so the acrobatic raccoon made his way up onto one of the higher levels. Vanitas watched with his eyebrows furrowed as Sly started running along small wires on the wings, then jumping onto another one that helped him get closer to the other engine. The ravenette just shrugged his shoulders before summoning his boots and flying after him. Sly jumped off of the wings and landed on the roof of the second engine, and Vanitas floated down next to him before dismissing his armor.

"You know, if you ever feel like retiring from thieving, you could probably make beaucoup bucks as a trapeze artist," Vanitas commented to Sly.

"I did consider becoming one in high school," Sly admitted with a smile.

"Cute, Sly," Bentley commented nearby.

Standing on the roof, Sly and Vanitas glanced down to see Bentley and Riku standing together next to the entrance of the engine room, which was a vent that was sealed shut with a metal cover. Sly and Vanitas nodded at their friends before jumping off the roof and walking over to a console set up with at least five padlocks.

"Not a very effective locking mechanism," Vanitas commented.

He shrugged his shoulders.

'But, hey, video game logic,' Vanitas thought to himself.

The ravenette just stood to the side and watched as Sly used all five of the keys to undo the padlocks before grabbing the nearby lever and pulling it down. This caused the metal cover to slide up, opening the way for Bentley and Riku to enter the engine room.

"Okay, Bentley, you and Riku are on," Sly informed them.

"Good luck, guys," Vanitas told them.

"Thanks," Riku said, nodding in appreciation.

With the pathway open, Bentley and Riku moved forward to enter the engine room through the vent. Due to Bentley's short height, he was able to walk in pretty easily, though Riku had to start crawling after him due to his greater height. Nonetheless, the two of them slowly made their way into the engine room.

Moving together through the vents, Bentley and Riku ended up going through some... unique circumstances to actually enter the engine room. There were a few strange twists and turns, with a few parts making them go up and down, but eventually they managed to reach a stable enough part. There, the two of them continued down the pathway provided for a few moments until they finally came out into the chamber.

Riku pushed himself to his feet and fought back the crick in his neck as he and Bentley stood in the small entrance of the engine room. They were on a grated floor that led out into a large, circular chamber with a large, glass dome in the center that reached to the ceiling. On the opposite side of the room, Bentley and Riku could see large mechanisms that were shut, signifying that it was where they were supposed to go. Of course, the thing that quickly caught their attention was a collection of lightbulbs that were attached to the floor and the ceiling, all of which spun around in different directions and speeds around the circular room.

The floor in front of them was also covered in a wave of blue energy that formed a grid line within the light, no doubt some form of electricity from all the light bulbs.

Feeling curious, Riku reached into his pocket and pulled out an energy bar that Bentley had given him in the hideout. Opening the bar and breaking off a piece, Riku tossed it into the blue light. The piece of bar suddenly exploded in a small surge of electric energy, sending bits of singed food flying in different directions.

"Yep," Riku remarked with a nod of his head. "I figured it was something like that."

"This provides a unique challenge," Bentley commented with a thoughtful hand on his chin.

"Hey, Bentley," Murray suddenly said over the intercom. "I'm looking at these, uh, blueprints, and I think you've gotta shoot all the bulbs with your dart gun to get up to the second level."

"Sounds easy enough," Riku commented.

Bentley prepared his crossbow to emphasize this point.

"Here's the hard part," Murray then told them. "Once you shoot a bulb, you'll need to then take out the bulb the electricity is going into. If you miss, and break the wrong bulb, there'll be a big power surge, and KABLAM!!!"

"He has such a way with words," Riku commented to Bentley.

"You should read his restaurant reviews," Bentley remarked.

Nonetheless, Riku summoned his Keyblade, already getting an idea on how to help Bentley with shooting out the bulbs.

Looking around the circular room, Bentley and Riku quickly counted up the number of bulb pairings spread out across six conveyor lines around the room, putting together that there were twelve bulb pairings with a total of 24 bulbs. Bentley went first, shooting a bulb that was in the second line closest to them on the ground. This sent electricity into the bulb above it as the brace points rotated around the room. Bentley lined up his shot again before shooting the bulb on the ceiling that the electricity was going into, taking out the connection.

Riku nodded at him before shooting a small orb of Dark Barrage towards another ceiling bulb, which broke and sent the electricity into the floor bulb. The silver haired Master paused as the bulb went around the dome in the center. Then, once the bulb came out, he shot another orb from Dark Barrage, taking out the adjacent floor bulb. Bentley then lined up his crossbow and fired at another floor bulb, then followed it up with the adjacent ceiling bulb.

Riku inwardly started to find the video game aspects of the situation fun before shooting another orb of Dark Barrage towards a floor bulb across the room. Once the procession came out from behind the glass dome, he shot another orb towards the ceiling bulb. Bentley shot a dart at a ceiling bulb right before it went around the glass dome. Once it came back around, he quickly took it out with another dart. Riku then decided to get creative with the next two bulbs, firing two orbs of Dark Barrage at once. He inwardly started to wonder if that would doom them before the orbs hit the bulbs, breaking them both.

Bentley and Riku worked together in tandem as they worked on breaking the remaining bulbs throughout the room. Bentley took out two more bulbs with his dart gun, before Riku took out another two with Dark Barrage. When another set of bulbs went around the dome, Bentley instead turned towards a separate set and shot them both with his dart gun. Riku decided to help the turtle by shooting the set of bulbs he had to miss because it went around the dome with Dark Barrage. Lining up his shots once again, Bentley was able to break two more bulbs, before Riku blasted two final orbs of Dark Barrage, breaking the last two bulbs at once.

With all the bulbs destroyed, the electricity surging over the floor quickly disappeared, meaning it was safe to walk across. The panel across the room even opened up, revealing extenders that would allow them to reach the second floor.

"Okay, pals," Murray told them. "You're all set to bounce up to the next level."

"Right on," Riku said, testing a saying he had heard on TV.

He grimaced, inwardly deciding to never say that again.

Bentley and Riku then started sprinting forward together, moving across the circular room to the small alcove with the extenders that would help them reach the second level. Once they got close enough, Bentley jumped on the extender, which bounced him up to the higher level. Riku just jumped up and used Doubleflight to follow the turtle.

The second level was about what they expected. There was a grated platform that led out onto a glass floor, which allowed people to see down into the lower level. There were dozens of small, yellow power nodes spread out onto the floor, surrounding a circular, domed, glass center that had electricity surging within. Opposite of them, they could see a shut, metal door that led into the control room for the engine.

"If I'm reading this right, it looks like you need to bomb those power nodes to get into the control room," Murray informed them. "Once that door's open, you guys'll be able to shut this engine down for good."

"What do you think the catch is?" Riku asked, frowning as he turned to look at Bentley.

The "catch" appeared quickly.

Small helicopters that were close to Bentley in height suddenly started popping out of circular vents in the walls, floating towards them with little gears on the sides. Those gears appeared to be small blasters that fired electricity towards Bentley and Riku. Bentley quickly started running forward to dodge the electricity while Riku cast a barrier around himself with Braveheart. When the electricity hit the barrier, Riku retaliated with a blast of magic, smashing the closest of the helicopters with the magic from his weapon.

Knowing they needed to move quickly to take out the power nodes, Bentley started sprinting forward, and Riku decided to cover him with his Keyblade. Riku swung Braveheart when a helicopter got close enough, while Bentley moved towards the closest of the twelve power nodes. The turtle dropped a bomb on one of the power nodes, then ran away to get out of the blast radius before it exploded. The bomb exploded and quickly took out the power node, clearing part of the way for them to enter the control room.

Bentley and Riku started to work in tandem once again as they moved together through the second level of the engine room. Riku used a combo attack to take out two of the helicopters at once, then blasted Firaga at a different helicopter to take it out. Dodging the small, electric blasts, Bentley sprinted all around the room, dropping bombs onto the power nodes and blowing them up quickly. Riku was surprised at how the bombs only affected the power nodes and other helicopters, but did nothing against the glass floor they were running across.

'Video game logic,' Riku thought with a shrug of his shoulders.

He paused to wonder why that felt ironic to think, which caused a helicopter to blast him in the back with electricity. Riku grit his teeth to fight through the pain before slashing through the helicopter with his Keyblade.

Bentley continued to sprint around the second level of the engine room, dropping bombs whenever he came across the power nodes while also dodging the small helicopters. Within a few seconds, he had taken out a number of the power nodes with his bombs, and the number only continued to grow. Riku kept slashing through the helicopters with his Keyblade, taking them out incredibly easily with his magic weapon. Bentley ended up unintentionally aiding him when he blew up the power nodes, as a number of the helicopters ended up in range of the bombs and getting caught up in the blasts.

Within a few moments, the power nodes were all destroyed, and the helicopters had been shattered, as well. With the power nodes destroyed and the helicopters smashed, the glass door to the control room suddenly opened up, revealing the control room to Bentley and Riku.

"Take it all the way, guys!" Murray encouraged them. "Flip the override switch and this engine is toast!"

Bentley and Riku shared a look before they started jogging through the second level, going around the glass dome in the center and moving into the control room. It was simple with a couple of simple panels involving levers and buttons. Bentley just walked up to one of the panels and pulled down a lever, which had the engine let out a short, whining sound.

"Nice," Murray complimented. "That's one less engine for that... creepy Clock-la thing to draw power from."

Bentley sneezed, then wiped his nose with the back of his hand, which got Riku to raise an eyebrow.

"I say you guys go the extra mile to make sure it's out of the way," Vanitas suggested. "Riku... take a page out of Sora and Roxas's books."

Riku raised an eyebrow in contemplation.

"What does he mean by that?" Bentley asked.

"Well, we've got two friends that... really enjoy smashing machines with their Keyblades," Riku answered.

"That actually might be a good idea," Bentley admitted. "They could just as easily send in another guard to power the engine back up. If the console is destroyed, then they won't be able to do it."

Riku raised an eyebrow, then shrugged his shoulders in indifference.

Gripping his Keyblade with both hands, Riku lifted the weapon up before swinging it into the console, which immediately broke a couple of buttons. Swinging it like a baseball bat, Riku grit his teeth as he repeatedly swung his Keyblade into the console, breaking it even more with each strike until it reached a point where it was clearly unusable. Once he was sure the console was broken enough, Riku took a step back and observed it with Bentley, watching as sparks popped out of the various little areas in the console, particularly through the broken screen.

"Why was that fun?" Riku asked with a huff. *6*

"Worry about that later," Bentley remarked. "Come on, we've gotta move to the next job."

Riku nodded in understanding. He and Bentley then moved back through the second level of the engine room, moving around the glass dome in the center before they reached the slot to jump back down to the bottom level. Bentley and Riku moved through the lower level and back towards the vent entrance they had used to sneak into the engine room, sneaking back outside and moving outside to move onto the next job they needed to complete.

Chapter Text

After the right amount of crawling through the air ducts of the engine room, Bentley and Riku soon came out on the other side, finding themselves outside on the blimp once again. Cramping a bit from the tight confines of the air vents, Riku didn't hesitate to jump on the roof of the engine just above them, and Bentley followed behind him. The two of them turned around to look at the blimp as a whole, trying to observe where the start of their next job was.

Bentley even took out his binococum, and he let out a small sigh when he realized that the job start location was on the other side of the blimp, incredibly far away from them.

"Why'd I have to place the start locations so close to the safehouse?" he asked himself in a reprimanding manner.

"Don't worry," Riku told the turtle. "We can make it."

With determination coursing through their veins, Bentley and Riku stood on the roof for a few moments, watching in preparation before a guard in an exosuit below them soon moved out of the way. Once the guard was out of eyesight, the two of them jumped off of the roof and landed on the floor. They then moved across the platform in front of the engine, moving towards the rotating turbine in preparation. Once it had rotated down to the appropriate level, Bentley started sprinting across it towards the other engine, and Riku followed behind him, ready to summon his Keyblade again at any moment.

Moving together through the airship, Bentley and Riku skirted around another locked engine, then started together across the raised walkways that led to the small shack above the biggest turbine. The sound of Clock-la screeching unnerved them both slightly, but Bentley and Riku both found solace in the fact that she was incredibly far away. Though, they ended up distracted enough by the sound of Clock-la that they missed when they came across a guard in an exosuit. The guard squawked angrily at them, but Bentley quickly shot him with a sleep dart, which quickly took effect and put the guard to sleep. The turtle then ran up to the guard, dropped a bomb next to him, then ran out of the way and let it explode.

"That was... very effective," Riku commented, looking at where the guard had just blown up.

"I designed my bombs with that in mind," Bentley informed Riku.

Brushing that to the side, Bentley and Riku then turned and started across the rest of the airship, moving down one of the walkways towards the front, where the battery hideout, the shacks, the weather balloons, and the crane were. Bentley briefly had to shoot a dart at a guard in a jet pack along the way, and Riku took out the guard with a slash of Braveheart. The two of them then made their way across the walkways and paths provided to them to move towards a different structure in the ship, one that looked like a giant jet engine turbine, the kind used for traveling through the air.

This turbine was large enough for people to stand on, which was most likely why a guard in a jet pack was walking around on it. Riku took the guard out with a blast of Dark Barrage, then he and Bentley climbed up onto the turbine in preparation. Riku huffed from the run across the airship while Bentley took out his binocucom once again. He used it to look at one of the engines out in the distance, one of the remaining ones still working.

"That's one of the engines that needs to be disabled," Bentley instructed into the intercom. "I won't lie to you, Murray... This is going to be a tough job that requires both our skills, including the skills of Riku and Vanitas."

"Cool," Vanitas said over the intercom.

"My skills?" Murray asked, a little surprised. He just shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, Bentley. If you say so."

"First, I'll need to hack into the stations controlling each engine room," Bentley explained, turning to look at a computer in the distance. "Riku will have to cover me in case any guards notice us."

"I can take care of that," Riku said with a nod of his head.

"Then, Murray, you and Vanitas will need to head inside and use your muscles to finish the job," Bentley added.

"'The Murray' and his partner, 'the Vanitas' will be ready to go," Murray promised.

"Please don't call me that again," Vanitas requested. "It's worse than anything they could call me back home."

Riku let out a small chuckle, now wondering if his pyrokinetic friend was wishing he had come up with his own superhero moniker all the other times they had been on Earth 616. *1*

Nonetheless, Bentley and Riku both turned and prepared to climb off the turbine to go towards one of the terminals that the former needed to hack into. Riku then held out a hand to stop Bentley when he glanced up and saw that Clock-la was right above them in the air. Luckily, the giant, robotic owl didn't appear to notice them, as she just flew high overhead while shining a spotlight below her. That spotlight ended up passing right in front of Bentley and Riku, and they both stepped back a bit to stay away from it. They both felt a bit of relief when the spotlight passed by harmlessly, ensuring their safety from Clock-la's anger.

With Clock-la out of the way, Bentley and Riku climbed off of the turbine and started making their way across the length of the ship once again. They moved across a long, central platform towards one of the shacks on a platform, right where the terminal was set up in front of. Bentley looked around for a moment in preparation before he stepped in front of the terminal and started pressing buttons, clacking keys with his right hand as he started hacking into the terminal.

"All right," Riku said with a nod of his head. "Guess I just keep watch."

The sound of a bird squawking quickly got his attention. Riku turned around, then yelled out and immediately cast a barrier around himself in defense as a missile shot at him. Once the barrier absorbed the attack, it faded, and he watched as two guards in exosuits and two in jet packs started charging towards him. Riku sighed out slightly before he summoned his Keyblade and charged forward to meet the guards in battle.

One of the guards in jet packs threw up a tiny device that had a laser fly into the ground towards him, but Riku easily dodged the laser. The silver haired Keyblade Master grunted as he charged forward, slashing with his Keyblade and knocking that guard over the edge, making him disappear as he died. A guard in an exosuit tried to ram the top of his suit into Riku, but Riku backed up to dodge it. He then grunted as he blasted the guard with Dark Firaga, taking him out quickly with the strong blast of fire. This left behind a single guard in a jet back and one in an exosuit. Riku grunted as he cast Thundaga, causing lightning to crash into both of the guards and taking them both out at once.

With those guards defeated, Riku huffed as he ran back down the walkway towards where Bentley was still hacking into the terminal. Riku frowned when he saw another guard in an exosuit slowly approaching from around the side of the shack, somehow completely oblivious to the fighting that had just happened. Before the guard could get close enough to see them, Riku quickly took him out with another blast of Firaga, ending his threat before it even began.

With that guard defeated, Riku let out another small huff before looking at Bentley. The turtle stopped working at the terminal, and the screen suddenly turned black, signifying that he was done.

"One down," Bentley informed him. "Two to go."

"Jeez, I hope they're all this easy to handle," Riku sarcastically commented.

Bentley let out a small huff before he started leading the way towards the next terminal. Riku brushed his nose with his thumb and glanced to the side before he started following throughout the blimp. They moved around one of the shacks, then used an extender to launch themselves onto the roof of this shack. The shack had a weather balloon above it, and one of the walkways that led towards the engines on the upper levels of the blimp. Bentley started running down the provided walkway provided to them once again, and Riku started following him.

Luckily, they didn't come across any other guards on their trek this time. Bentley and Riku made their way across the highest walkways, moving through the shack above the biggest turbine in the center of the ship before moving down the right walkway, one that led to the other engines. Moving next to one of the engines, they moved into position next to one of the rotating turbines, waiting for it to reach a low enough level to walk across. Another guard in an exosuit suddenly noticed them, but Riku took him out with Sliding Dash before he could alert any other guards.

Once the rotating turbine was at a low enough level, Bentley jumped on and quickly started running towards the engine room, the one that Sly and Vanitas had blown up earlier. Riku followed the turtle across the turbine once again, then moved onto the large platform where the engine was. They skirted around the engine and found a hidden alcove where the latest terminal was stationed within. Bentley nodded at Riku before he stepped towards the terminal and started working on it.

Riku nodded back before he stepped out of the alcove, letting out a small sigh as he looked around in preparation for danger.

He didn't have to look for too long, as a couple of guards were charging at him from either direction, some of them ones in exosuits and others wearing jet packs. A guard in an exosuit fired a blast at Riku, but he blocked with a barrier from his Keyblade before retaliating with a blast of magic that knocked the guard aside. One in a jet pack floated up with flames around him before trying to blast Riku with that fire. The silver haired Master dodged the fire before going for irony and blasting the guard with Blizzaga, knocking him to the floor where he disappeared.

Another guard in a jet pack got close enough to Riku and threw a laser component up into the air. Riku gasped in surprise before Sliding out of the way, making the laser fly into a red, explosive barrel. The barrel blew up, taking the guard with it and making him disappear. The wounded guard in an exosuit tried charging at Riku, but he got out of the way before striking it twice with Braveheart. The guard squawked before it disappeared, as well, ending its momentary threat. Riku let out a huff of exertion before a blast hit him in the back, making him grit his teeth in pain.

Turning around, Riku saw one remaining guard in an exosuit standing just a few feet away. Riku grit his teeth before charging forward with his Keyblade in hand. The guard charged forward to try and meet him in battle, but Riku went with Sacrifice once again, lunging through the guard with a particularly strong slash that was enough to take it out. Huffing in a bit of pain, Riku cast Curaga on himself again before turning towards where Bentley was finishing up with the latest terminal.

"Two down," Bentley announced. "One to go."

"I don't enjoy doing this job," Riku informed the turtle.

"Yeah, I can understand that," Bentley admitted with a sigh.

Nonetheless, Bentley turned and started leading the way out of the alcove. Riku followed behind him, moving across the destroyed engine and towards the rotating turbine that allowed them to move across the upper levels of the "blimp." The two of them waited a moment for the turbine to reach an appropriate level before they started running across it towards another engine. Moving around the engine, Bentley and Riku then turned and started towards the aerial walkway that led over the central turbine once again, and the two of them started running across it once again.

The sound of Clock-la screeching in the distance had started to become a familiar sound to the two team members as they made their way across the partly destroyed shack and towards the other engine, the one that Murray and Vanitas were going to be entering. Bentley and Riku jogged together across the walkways and around the engine. Once they made their way around the engine, they found the remaining terminal they needed next to a closed, metal door, so Bentley quickly moved towards it and went to work. Riku summoned his Keyblade once again and once again stood at attention for battle.

It only took a few moments for danger to appear. Two more guards in exosuits charged towards them from the aerial walkway, while two in jetpacks ran from the other side of the engine. Riku twirled his Keyblade in preparation before blasting Thundaga up into the air. This hit two of the exosuit guards, but it wasn't enough to destroy them. The two in jet packs charged at Riku, but he easily sidestepped their attacks before striking them both with his Keyblade, taking them out. The silver haired Master then turned towards the approaching exosuit guards and raised his Keyblade in preparation.

However, he never had to, as they were both struck in the back with enough force to knock them to the ground and make them disappear. Riku let out a small huff of relief when he saw Murray and Vanitas standing where the guards had, with Vanitas dismissing his Keyblade before he and Murray started jogging towards him.

"You guys are a sight for sore eyes," Riku remarked as he dismissed his Keyblade.

"Likewise," Vanitas said with a nod of his head. "How you feeling?"

"Tired," Riku admitted.

"I can imagine," Murray said. "Even 'The Murray' needs to take a break from fighting every once in a while."

"Right," Riku said with a huff before they turned towards the metal door in preparation. "Well, I'll be looking forward to taking that break soon enough."

"Might not be that long of one," Vanitas informed his friend.

"I'm aware of that," Riku replied. *2*

Whatever the case, Bentley finished working on the terminal within a few moments. Riku stepped to the side and nodded at Murray and Vanitas as the metal door slid open for them.

"Make way for 'The Murray'," Bentley announced with a grand tone in his voice.

Vanitas inwardly rolled his eyes before he and Murray started jogging forward. Bentley and Riku watched as their friends entered the engine through the open metal door, moving at a brisk pace through the short halls of the engine room towards their task within it.

Murray and Vanitas went through similarly strange circumstances as Bentley and Riku had as they made their way through the short halls and corridors of the engine room. They were a little surprised at how unique the hallways were, but they brushed it to the side as they eventually came through another large doorway. This one led Murray and Vanitas out into the engine room, where they frowned in surprise at the sight that met them.

The room was similar to the one that Bentley and Riku had seen with a circular chamber that had a large glass dome in the center, and a small section in the back that had extenders that led up to the second level. The difference was that this one included a collection of eight, giant power cylinders that had the appearance of giant plugs, complete with slots on the sides for them to slide up to the higher level in a smooth manner. Though, there was also a force field in front of their way out, something that they would have to take care of before moving on.

Luckily, there didn't appear to be any floor traps in this one, which was already a positive for the two team members. Murray and Vanitas looked around to take in their surroundings.

"Hey, guys," Sly greeted them over the intercom. "Looks like you'll need to lift all those giant cylinders. Once they're locked in the up position, you'll be able to take them out in the top level."

"Sounds like a job for 'The Murray'," Murray announced, pumping a fist in preparation.

Vanitas inwardly rolled his eyes once again.

Nonetheless, Murray and Vanitas stepped off of the short entrance of the engine room, and they each ran towards a cylinder. Vanitas raised an eyebrow at a table that had a set of cards on it, but he brushed it to the side quickly. Murray and Vanitas each ran to the closest cylinders they could find, then they grabbed a hold of the handles on the bottom, then started pushing. Murray and Vanitas both grunted a couple of times as they strained, pushing upwards slowly but surely to move the cylinders. It took a few moments, but eventually the cylinders were in place on the ceiling.

Once the cylinders were in place, two guards in jet packs suddenly ran into the room.

"Heads up, guys," Sly remarked. "You've got company!"

"We can see that, Sly," Vanitas replied.

The guards flew forward with their jet packs, and Vanitas quickly summoned his Keyblade in preparation to fight. One of the guards flew towards Murray and landed right in front of him. Murray just punched the guard in the face, knocking him into a state of semi-consciousness. While Vanitas started attacking the other guard with a combo attack, Murray knocked the half conscious guard in the air with an uppercut, then flipped around and kicked the bird, taking him out.

With those guards defeated, Murray and Vanitas moved towards the next two cylinders, which they grasped and started pushing upwards, just like the previous two. It only took them a few moments, but the cylinders were soon in place attached to the ceiling. Two more guards appeared in the room in response, but Vanitas took one out by using telekinesis to launch the guard into a barrel that exploded, while Murray knocked out the other with a punch, picked him up, then threw him into the ground hard enough for him to disappear.

Murray and Vanitas then started to move in tandem as they hurried around the engine room together, pushing up cylinders so that they attached to the ceiling, then taking out the guards that appeared when the cylinders were up. They pushed two of the cylinders up to the ceiling, then took out the guards almost as soon as they appeared. Then they pushed up the remaining two cylinders, then took out the last two guards that appeared. Of course, with all eight of the cylinders in the roof and the guards defeated, the force field in front of their way up had disappeared, clearing the way for them to get up to the second level of the engine.

"Nice work," Sly complimented on the intercom. "Head up to the second level, and Thunderflop on the giant cylinders. That should finish them off."

Vanitas momentarily frowned in confusion before he and Murray sprinted across the room towards the small section that had the extenders that would help them to the ceiling. Once they were close enough, they jumped on the extenders, which launched them up to the second level of the engine room.

This second level was about as they expected, with a glass floor that allowed them to see below them, along with a large, circular dome with electricity surging within in the center, and a shut, metal door across from them. There were slots in the floor for all eight of the power cylinders, which was holding them in place after Murray and Vanitas's earlier actions. Some more small helicopters popped out of the slots in the walls, all of them moving towards Murray and Vanitas in an attempt to stop them.

"Hey, what the hell is a Thunderflop?" Vanitas asked.

Murray answered this by running towards the closest of the cylinder tops, jumping up into the air, then repositioning himself in the air. He dropped towards the ground in a belly flop, landing on the cylinder with his large stomach, which pushed the cylinder back down with a great amount of force. Vanitas watched through the glass floor as the cylinder dropped back down towards the floor, blowing up as soon as it touched the ground from the force it was hit with.

"Ah, I get it now," Vanitas said, nodding his head in understanding.

Knowing that he would probably have to cover Murray from these helicopters, Vanitas summoned his Keyblade and raised it in preparation. The ravenette grunted as he started using Sonic Blade, sliding around and repeatedly striking at the small helicopters to take them out one at a time. This allowed Murray enough of a distraction to move towards the other cylinders, jump up into the air, and Thunderflop on them all. Vanitas started to wonder if he even needed to be here as Murray quickly slammed into four of the cylinders, causing them all to drop to the ground and explode.

Of course, one of the helicopters soon got close enough to Murray, and blasted him with a small amount of electricity. Small, but still enough to make him yell out in surprise and pain. Vanitas retaliated for the hippo by using his telekinesis to grab the helicopter then throw it into a wall, where it shattered on impact. Murray nodded gratefully at Vanitas before Thunderflopping on two more cylinders, causing them to crash into the ground and shatter. Vanitas huffed before looking to the side, seeing that the last cylinder was next to him. Wanting to get this over with, Vanitas rammed his foot on top of the last cylinder with his enhanced strength, causing it to fall to the ground below and shatter.

Once the cylinders were all destroyed, the door slid open for them, allowing them to be able to enter the control room.

"Perfect," Sly complimented. "Now, head into the control room and pull the plug on this thing."

Murray and Vanitas both nodded in understanding. They started jogging across the room, moving around the cylinder slots and the pieces of broken robots before they made their way into the control room, where they found another set of controls. Murray immediately reached forward and grabbed the lever, pulling it down and causing the system to let out a small whine as it powered down.

Vanitas then followed through with his own earlier suggestion and gripped his Keyblade with both hands. He grunted as he started swinging it like a baseball bat, causing the system to break apart and crack repeatedly, reminding him of what he did to those metal cabinets in Hayward's office at SWORD. Vanitas brushed that to the side before he finally stopped smashing the controls with his Keyblade, deciding that they had been broken enough since all the screens were broken and unusable.

"Another engine bites the dust," Sly praised.

"I like the way he talks about stuff like this," Vanitas admitted to Murray.

"He does have a fun sense of humor," Murray admitted with a smile.

Brushing this aside for the moment, Murray and Vanitas then turned and started making their way back through the engine room. They moved together through the second level, going over the parts of broken helicopters before dropping back down to the ground level. There, Murray and Vanitas moved around the broken remains of the power cylinders and back towards the doorway that led out of the engine room. The two of them hurried through the halls that led out of the engine and back outside, knowing they needed to hurry to take care of the next job. *3*

Walking out of the penultimate engine room, Murray and Vanitas took a moment to look around. Thankful that there were no guards closeby, Murray took out his binocucom to look around the blimp and try to locate the start location of their next job. It took a few seconds, but he soon narrowed it down to another large airplane turbine near the front of the blimp, close to where their hideout was.

When Murray pointed out the location where they needed to start this next job, Vanitas let out a small sigh.

"He couldn't have made the start locations of these jobs closer to the engines?" Vanitas asked.

"Well, Bentley has a reason for doing stuff like this," Murray said in defense of his friend.

"Still," Vanitas replied.

Whatever the case, Murray and Vanitas turned and started jogging together around the current engine room, the one they had smashed. Moving away from the engine room, they started running along the raised walkway that led towards the small shacks above the biggest turbine. Once again, they ignored the sound of Clock-la screeching as they ran along the raised walkway until they reached the shack. Then they went down the pathways that led toward the front of the blimp, turning and going left to move towards the start location of this latest job.

Once they started along the small part of the walkway that led towards the turbine, they did end up getting caught by two guards in jetpacks. Murray made quick work of one by knocking him out, then uppercutting him into the air, and finishing him off with a spinning kick. Vanitas just used his telekinesis to break the other guard's neck, making him disappear and once again concerning the ravenette over how easily he was killing people.

Brushing that to the side, Murray and Vanitas used an extender to bounce up onto the large airplane turbine, since that's where they needed to be to start the job. Once they were ready, Murray took out his binocucom to look out into the distance at the final engine room they needed to shut down.

"Murray, it looks like Riku and I are going to need some help getting into that engine room," Sly explained over the intercom.

"Happy to help," Murray said with a happy nod of his head.

"What do you guys need?" Vanitas asked.

"Bentley tells me that that room is locked down by wall-mounted power stations located throughout this blimp," Sly explained. Murray turned to look at one of the closest of the power stations, attached to the side of a flagpole. "We'll need you and V to take out all the power stations and then pry open the door by hand."

"No sweat, Sly," Murray promised.

"You guys get into position near the engine room," Vanitas instructed. "It's not gonna take us too long to smash these power stations."

"You are exceptionally good at breaking things," Riku commented.

Vanitas wasn't sure whether he should take that as a compliment or an insult.

Whatever the case, Murray put away his binocucom and jumped off the airplane turbine. Vanitas quickly shook his head and jumped off of the turbine, following Murray along the walkways towards the pole where the first of the power stations was mounted. Once they were close enough, they looked at the power station with contemplative expressions on their faces.

"How exactly are we supposed to break these things?" Vanitas asked with a curious expression on his face.

"Simple," Murray said. "We throw stuff at it!"

With that, Murray turned and started running down the other side of the walkway. Vanitas turned and watched him run, then his eyes widened when he saw Murray return while carrying a red, explosive barrel over his head.

"... I like the way you think, Murray," Vanitas remarked.

Murray let out an excited laugh before he threw the barrel at the power station, which exploded on impact with the device and immediately set off an alarm. Vanitas looked to the side, knowing that danger had to be coming soon, so he summoned his Keyblade and threw it at the station, damaging it a bit more. A guard in an exosuit suddenly appeared and squawked angrily, but Murray hurried forward and knocked the man out with a punch. While Vanitas looked from side to side, Murray picked up the unconscious guard and carried him over before throwing him into the power station, shattering it to pieces.

"One down," Murray said. "Four to go."

"Where are the other ones?" Vanitas asked.

Murray took out his binocucom and turned to look around the blimp as a whole. He nodded in understanding before putting the device away again.

"They're all near the back, over there," Murray said, gesturing towards the back half of the blimp.

"Of course they are," Vanitas commented with a small sigh. *4*

Brushing aside whatever feelings of annoyance they had, Murray and Vanitas started their trek across the blimp once again. Turning around from the flagpole, they turned and started jogging together down the extended pathway in front of them, briefly dodging spotlights with machine guns before they reached the bottom platform underneath the biggest turbine. Then they went around the platform before going to the right, moving through another platform and along some other stations until they eventually came across a set of stairs that led to the biggest circular walkway that went around the central turbine.

With another power station attached to the side of the staircase, Murray turned and picked up another explosive barrel. He grunted as he threw the barrel at the box, which blew up and made the alarm go off. Guards in jetpacks suddenly appeared, and Vanitas lunged towards them with his Keyblade. Vanitas used Ars Arcanum, repeatedly swinging and striking them with his Keyblade to keep them from being able to attack. With the extended nature of this attack, Vanitas was able to hold off all the guards, allowing Murray to pick up more explosive barrels and throw them at the power station with little difficulty.

Once that power station was destroyed, Murray and Vanitas turned and started jogging across the courtyard towards the next station. They were surprised that it was only about thirty feet away, but they brushed that to the side.

With no explosive barrels around, Murray moved towards a table with plates of food and chairs nearby. Vanitas watched as Murray picked up the table with a stomp, then threw it at the power station, breaking it and making it set off the alarm. The ravenette shrugged his shoulders, accepting that it worked before more guards in jet packs appeared. Vanitas took out one guard with Thundaga Shot, then the other with Sliding Dash. However, Murray picked up the third guard and threw him at the power station, breaking it some more. Murray then finished off the power station by throwing a chair at it, shattering it to pieces.

The last two power stations weren't too far away, so Murray and Vanitas started jogging towards it. They ended up having to take out a guard in an exosuit along the way (Murray punched him, then Vanitas took him out with Blitz), before they continued their trek across the back half of the blimp towards the other courtyard with the power stations.

Once they reached the next power station, Murray picked up a barrel with the Klaww Gang logo on it, then grunted as he threw it at the power station, once again breaking it and making the alarm go off. Guards in jet packs appeared, but Murray knocked one out before lifting him up and throwing him at the power station. Vanitas used a combo attack against the other two guards to fight them off and take them out before Murray threw another dinner table at the power station, destroying it quickly.

Once that was over, Murray and Vanitas hurried across the courtyard once again to move around the side of another staircase that led up to the circular walkway around the biggest turbine, where the final power station was hidden. A guard in an exosuit was nearby, so Murray picked him up and threw him at the power station, breaking it and making the alarm go off. More guards appeared, but Vanitas took them out with the Finish attack, Explosion. While Vanitas took out the guards, Murray picked up some explosive barrels and threw them at the power station, destroying it and finishing this part of the job.

"Looks like the power locks are offline," Sly informed them over the intercom. "Come on back and pry it open for Riku and I."

'I might not have liked this video game, but I certainly did enjoy the way Sly talked,' Vanitas thought, raising an eyebrow. *5*

Looking around, Murray and Vanitas turned to observe the blimp around them and try to figure out the quickest way to get up to the remaining engine room. They quickly figured out that the best way to do that was through the short platforms near the front of the blimp, so they turned and started down the walkway that led down to below the largest turbine. They went around the platform before going up the central walkway that led to the front of the blimp. Along the way, Murray and Vanitas both felt their hearts stop when Clock-la ended up flying right next to them, but she appeared to be so focused in her flight that she didn't even notice them.

Brushing that to the side, Murray and Vanitas continued their trek up the walkway, before turning to the side and climbing on top of one of the shacks on the side. After using an extender to bounce up onto the roof, Murray and Vanitas started jogging up the raised walkways towards the raised shack over the largest turbine. Once they reached that partly destroyed shack, Murray and Vanitas turned right to run towards the remaining engine room that they needed to shut down. Once they reached the engine room, they went around it and moved towards the closed metal door.

Murray jogged up to the door and grasped the handle with both hands while Vanitas summoned his Keyblade and stood guard. Of course, he didn't need to, due to the fact that no guards appeared to try and attack them. Riku and Sly then appeared after a few moments and nodded at the ravenette, who nodded back. After a few minutes of Murray grunting and pushing, the door opened up, so he and Vanitas moved out of the way.

"Your turn, guys!" Murray encouraged them.

"Good luck," Vanitas said, nodding his head at Riku and Sly.

Riku and Sly nodded back at him before they turned and ran through the open door together. The metal door slid shut behind them, eclipsing them partly in darkness. Riku and Sly then started jogging together through the short halls and corridors of the engine room, wanting to move to their next task as quickly as possible.

Moving through the halls and corridors that served as the entrance of the engine room, Riku and Sly ended up going through the strange form of odds and ends that Bentley and Murray had gone through in the last two. It took them quite a few minutes before they finally came out of the halls and into the entrance of the engine room, but eventually they managed to find their way.

This new engine room appeared to be the simplest one any of them had come across. The lower level had the usual circular dome in the center and the glass ceiling above them, though their way of actually getting to the other end of the room was much more easily seen. Of course, the object that stood in their way was obvious, due to the lasers that moved about on the floor, and a wave of red energy that slowly rotated around as a form of extra security. Strangely enough, the sound of something metallic whirring also rang out, much to Riku and Sly's confusion, but they brushed that aside.

"Do you guys experience problems like this often?" Riku asked Sly.

"I get into problems with lasers more than the others tend to do," Sly admitted.

"Riku, Sly, be careful," Bentley told them over the intercom. "This place is packed with laser security."

"You don't say?" Sly asked, raising an eyebrow at the lasers and waves of red energy rotating around.

"First, you guys will need to make your way to the far end of the room," Bentley explained. "Then, jump onto the second level to get to the engine room control center."

Riku and Sly shared a look and nodded their heads in agreement. The two of them waited until the floor in front of them was clear enough from lasers, so they jogged onto the ground. They moved at a slow enough pace, allowing the red wave in front of them to continue to rotate, though Riku and Sly both had to jump over the lasers when they got close enough. The way the red wave of energy moved so slowly forced Riku and Sam to move just as slowly to move towards the doorway, and they had to repeatedly jump over the lasers on the ground when they got close enough.

After a couple of minutes, the wave of red energy finally reached the small alcove with the extenders that would bounce Riku and Sly up to the second level. They didn't hesitate to jump within the alcove, then jumped on the alcove to be bounced to the second level.

Landing on a small slot on the second level, Riku and Sly looked around to take in the full image of the second level. The glass floor was covered in a wave of electric energy, reminding Riku of the engine room he had broken into with Bentley. The waves of red energy were still slowly rotating around, while a collection of buzzsaws were placed within the ground. Those buzzsaws activated at a random rate along the floor, which finally answered their question about the sound of gears. Through the wave of red energy and the electricity, they could see the doorway that led to the control center on the opposite side of the room.

Riku raised an eyebrow at the obvious challenge they needed to take, while Sly nodded in understanding at the sight that met him.

"All right; the control center is opposite of your position in the room," Bentley informed them over the intercom. "With some well timed spire jumping, you should be able to get access."

"Can you spire jump?" Sly asked, turning to look at Riku.

"I sure hope so," Riku remarked.

Just like when they were in the lower level, Riku and Sly moved at a brisk enough pace to move through the room. Sly jumped onto the first of the unpowered buzz saws, then jumped onto a second one before the one he stood on powered up. Riku breathed in a couple of times in preparation before he followed Sly, jumping onto the top of one of the buzz saws, finding himself surprised over the fact that he could do it. He brushed aside that surprise as he followed Sly at a brisk pace through the room together once again.

Once again, the slow rate of the wave of red energy rotating through the room forced Riku and Sly to move at a slow pace through the room so they could get to the control center. Jumping along the powered down buzz saws, Riku and Sly moved slowly through the second level, waiting until more buzz saws were available to them, jumping between other saws to make sure they didn't hurt them. Riku was a little surprised at how well he and Sly worked at moving through this room so well, though he chalked it up to beginner's luck for himself, and experience for Sly.

It took what felt like an eternity, but eventually they managed to jump along the buzz saws and finally reach the engine control room. Once it was available, Riku and Sly didn't hesitate to jump off the latest buzz saws and enter the control room. Riku let out a small huff while Sly moved forward and pulled down the lever, which immediately powered down the traps outside and caused the engine to let out a small whine.

Looking at Riku, Sly then nodded his head in an encouraging manner. Riku nodded back and summoned Braveheart once again. Gripping his Keyblade with both hands, the silver haired Master grunted as he repeatedly swung his Keyblade against the console, striking and breaking it horribly until it was clear that it wouldn't be able to work anymore. Riku let out a small huff, once again wondering why the process of destroying something was fun. *6*

"That's light's out for this engine," Bentley announced over the intercom. "Come on back to the hideout. There's something we've gotta discuss."

Riku and Sly shared a nod of their heads before they made their way back through the engine room. Luckily, the traps having powered down meant the electric wave over the floor, the lasers, and the wave of red energy were all powered down. Riku and Sly made their way through both levels of the engine room, moving back towards the doorway they used to enter and leaving behind the final engine, ready to learn the next stage they needed to go through to defeat Clock-la.

Chapter Text

After leaving behind the final engine room, Riku and Sly moved as quickly as they could back through the blimp fortress back towards the battery hideout, where the rest of the team was waiting for them. They navigated around the large swarms of guards in between the engine room and the safehouse, moving across the giant walkways and to their hidden base. It only took a few minutes of traveling, but eventually they managed to reach the deactivated battery they had taken shop in.

Once there, the group gathered together around the table once again in preparation for another slideshow presentation. Murray reluctantly shared some of the food stash he had brought with the rest of the team, which mostly consisted of candy bars of varying sizes and shapes. Sly leaned back in his chair slightly and took simple bites, while Riku and Vanitas sat in their own chairs and took more modest bites, since they were pretty hungry. Murray took large bites, while Bentley finished his own bar before starting the slideshow. Murray, Riku, Sly, and Vanitas watched as the turtle powered up his laptop in preparation.

The first of the images that popped up was a picture of the night sky with a helicopter flying slowly out in the distance. Riku and Sly both furrowed their eyebrows, joining Vanitas in starting to wonder just how Bentley got so many of these images.

"In an unexpected windfall..." Bentley slowly explained. He changed the image to a closer one of the helicopter. "I've been contacted by Inspector Fox over the shortwave radio."

"Inspector Fox?" Riku asked, frowning in confusion.

"Carmelita Fox," Sly informed him.

A small smile appeared on the raccoon's face.

'You know how much I'm into Elizabeth Olsen?' Vanitas thought into Riku's head. 'Well, this guy is like that towards this Carmelita. The only thing is, it's a lot weirder considering she's the Interpol officer that's trying to put these guys in prison. She's actually made it her life's mission to put them in jail, particularly Sly.'

'Huh,' Riku thought back with a frown. 'Well, that's a weird flex.'

'Isn't it?' Vanitas mentally agreed.

Riku and Vanitas's attention was drawn back to the slideshow as it switched between a much closer image of the helicopter, then an image of a flying Clock-la.

"Inspector Fox is well aware of the dire situation we all face if Clock-la becomes immortal," Bentley explained, switching between images of Clock-la. One showed Clock-la with what looked like blue energy hitting her. "And she's agreed to join forces with us, so that we can destroy the robotic bird."

"Wait, did you tell her about Clock-la, or did she figure it out on her own?" Vanitas asked. "And if it was the latter, then how'd she figure out the situation involving Clock-la?"

"That's not important," Bentley quickly said, waving a hand to brush aside the questions.

Vanitas inwardly sighed out, once again wondering why logic went out the window in these video games.

The image on the slideshow then changed to the helicopter flying once again.

"The only catch is that she's unable to locate this blimp on her radar," Bentley explained, switching between images of the helicopter. "To help her hone in on our position..."

The image then changed to one of the blimp as a whole.

"We'll need to boost the strength of four local radio towers," Bentley continued to explain, using his highlighter to circle the four towers in question.

The image then changed to one showing the helicopter flying towards the blimp.

"Once Inspector Fox is in range, she'll take one of us onboard to act as a tail gunner in a dogfight against Clock-la," Bentley explained, changing the image to one of the helicopter flying in front of Clock-la. "And with those boots that Vanitas has, he should be able to keep up and help fight off the robotic bird."

"Now, that, I can do," Vanitas promised.

The image on the slideshow then somehow changed to an image of Clock-la firing missiles at the helicopter. This once again had Riku, Sly, and Vanitas all mentally ask, 'How?'

Murray just took another bite of his energy bar.

"This is it," Bentley told them. "We don't have time for another plan."

The image then changed to one of Paris, France.

"We're almost over Paris..." Bentley slowly said with fear growing in his voice. The image changed to another close-up of Clock-la. "And if that hate-hypnosis light show goes off..."

The image then changed to a really close up image of Clock-la's face.

"Well..." Bentley slowly said. "You know the story."

The screen switched to white as the presentation came to an end.

"Okay, I think I'm also starting to get curious about how you got those images for the slideshow," Murray admitted.

"Thank you!" Vanitas remarked, gesturing to the hippo.

Riku and Sly both nodded in agreement, which had Bentley let out a small, exasperated sigh. *1*

The team then quickly figured out a division of labor for the next remaining jobs they would need to take for the final assault against Clock-la. Given that they couldn't climb, Bentley and Murray would stay in the safehouse, while Sly would work on setting up the towers. Riku would go with the raccoon to help with the towers however he could, while Vanitas would stay behind and start preparing for the actual fight against Clock-la.

"Kinda jealous that you get to fight that thing and I don't," Riku remarked to the ravenette as he stretched his arm in preparation. "All the stuff we've taken care of so far, I kinda wanna help fight off this Clock-la thing."

"Yeah, I know that feeling," Vanitas remarked, moving his arm behind his head to stretch. "I'll say what all I hated about these games any day of the week, but even I've gotta admit that the boss fights could be sweet."

Riku let out a small chuckle before glancing to the side. He watched as Bentley helped attach a strange machine to Sly's back. Murray was still eating and watching his friends, so none of them paid attention to the two Keyblade Masters.

"Just a little bit more that we do in this universe before we move onto the next one, right?" Riku muttered to Vanitas. "We take out this bird, then we can move on?"

"That should be the end of the twelve hour cooldown," Vanitas assured his friend. "I mean, that just makes the most sense. We've been here for a bit already, and helped out with a bunch of crazy shit. We finish off the situation with Clock-la, then we can move on."

"Right," Riku said, nodding in understanding.

Once the device was attached securely to Sly's back, he nodded at Bentley and Murray. Riku then nodded at Vanitas before he turned and joined Sly towards the exit of the safehouse. Riku and Sly opened up the port before climbing out, leaving the hideout and moving on to start their latest job.

Moving away from the battery, Riku and Sly once again ignored the sound of Clock-la screeching out in the distance as they moved along the walkway towards the roof of another building. A guard was strolling around on top of the roof, but Sly easily took him out with Silent Obliteration. Riku let out a small huff, starting to understand Vanitas's sentiment about how easy it was to kill people in this universe, even if they were guards that disappeared when dead. He brushed that to the side as Sly took out his binocucom to look around the blimp.

"Okay, guys," Bentley explained. "We need to send Carmelita a radio pulse so she can home in on the blimp. To do that, I'll need you guys to get on top of four VERY tall towers. They're too big to climb, and too tall to jump up normally."

"Well, then it's a good thing I've got Doubleflight," Riku remarked with a small huff.

"Well, that's good for Riku," Sly said. "But Bentley, what's this all got to do with this... thing you've got me wearing?"

Riku leaned backwards and frowned at Sly's back, seeing the pack attached to the back of the raccoon's shirt. It looked like a metal cube with two antennae on the bottom, yet it also appeared to be attached to Sly's shirt through some form of velcro, which was probably the strangest part about all of this.

"It's an experimental Mega-Jump pack," Bentley explained. "It sends a wave of extra energy into you. If you concentrate a bit, then you should be able to perform a huge jump... So be careful."

"All right," Sly said with a nod of his head. An excited look appeared in his eyes. "Sounds like fun."

With that, Sly put away his binocucom, then closed his eyes to concentrate for a second. He opened his eyes, then huffed in preparation. Sly then jumped up, and Riku's eyes widened in surprise when the raccoon suddenly leaped up way above him, reminding him of those times in the past when he and the other Keyblade wielders leaped over mountains. Riku let out a small chuckle before he leaped up into the air with Doubleflight to follow the raccoon.

Using the Mega-Jump pack, Sly learned that he was able to navigate the blimp much more easily then he had before. Sly was able to leap up to great heights at a moment's notice, and Riku followed him with Doubleflight and Air Slide. They jumped off of the roof, landed on another small shack (one of the ones with a hot air balloon over it), then they used their abilities to jump up onto the roof of one of the shacks. Looking around, Riku and Sly then took a moment to observe that all four of the towers that they needed to get on top of were near the engine rooms, while a single tower was over the shack above the largest turbine.

Huffing in preparation, Riku and Sly turned towards the closest of the engine rooms and leaped towards it in their own ways, with Sly using his Paraglider to move towards it. Once they were on an engine roof, Riku took out a guard with a slash of his Keyblade before they started moving up onto the tower. To get extra air, Sly landed on top of a nearby flag pole, then used it to jump up onto a ledge on one level of the tower. Riku watched as Sly jumped up onto another ledge with his Mega-Jump move, then used it once more to leap up onto the top of the tower, landing on one of the points of the rigged ball on top.

As Clock-la continued to screech and fly nearby (Riku made sure to stay out of the spotlight), the top of the tower suddenly crackled with energy before it was covered in blue light. Sly jumped off of the tower, then landed right next to Riku on the engine room roof.

"One down," Sly said. "Three to go."

"Giant jumps are fun, right?" Riku remarked.

"They are, yeah," Sly said with a chuckle.

They began their trek towards the next tower that they needed to go to. Sly used Mega-Jump to leap up into the air and then followed it up with using his Paraglider to move through the air towards one of the other engine rooms. Riku used Doubleflight to jump up into the air again and then used Air Slide to follow the raccoon. It only took them about a minute to reach the second engine room they needed to be, then Sly jumped up onto another flagpole before using the Mega-Jump to leap up the sides of the tower once again. Within another few seconds, Sly landed on top of the tower, which crackled with energy and activated the tower.

With these first two towers out of the way, that meant that Riku and Sly had to work on activating the last two towers. Sly decided to cheat a bit by using Mega-Jump while still standing on top of the tower, then Paragliding towards it. Riku used Doubleflight to get off of the engine room roof, then Air Slid through the air over the rotating turbine. Moving over the rotating turbine, Riku then used Doubleflight once again, followed by Air Slide to land on a roof near one of the back engine rooms. Riku looked up, and watched as Sly landed right next to him on the engine.

Nodding their heads, Riku and Sly then leaped up into the air, using their skills to land on upper support beams of the strange engines and propellers attached to the back of the blimp. Riku let out a small huff, wondering what exactly was going through this Arpeggio's head when he designed the blimp. He brushed this to the side as Sly once again used the Mega-Jump to leap up the side of the tower once again. Riku then watched as Sly leaped up the sides of the tower once again before he eventually reached the top. Once again, the top of the tower crackled with energy as it was activated.

Moving together across the blimp one more time, Riku and Sly leaped together along the length of the back half of the ship, moving together across the strange, rotating wings towards the final tower they needed to activate. When they landed on the last engine room, the one that Sly had destroyed with the bomb, a number of guards quickly noticed them. Riku easily took them out with Dark Barrage while Sly started leaping up the side of the tower. Once the guards were gone, Riku let out a huff before he looked up and watched as Sly landed on the last tower, which crackled with energy before it was activated. *2*

The four towers continued to crackle with energy before they started launching out energy. Blue beams of energy flew through the air towards the top of the tower in the center of the blimp, the one over the biggest turbine. The energy whirred within that final tower, signifying that it had been activated.

"Aha, it looks like Carmelita has picked up on our signal," Bentley informed them on the intercom. "She's now headed on an intercept course directly for us."

"Awesome," Riku said. "V, are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Vanitas replied. "Come on back to the safehouse. I'll take over your work in the field."

Riku and Sly shared a look and a determined nod of their heads.

The Mega-Jump pack suddenly slipped off of Sly's back and let out a dangerous hum for a moment before it suddenly vanished in blue light. This disappointed Sly a bit, but he shrugged his shoulders in indifference, remembering Bentley's words about it being experimental.

Brushing aside his disappointment, Sly jumped off of the tower and started Paragliding back towards the safehouse, moving through the air across the blimp back towards their hidden base. Riku followed him at a modest rate, using Doubleflight and Air Slide to move across the blimp with him. They moved together over the engines through the air, then jogged together over the raised walkways that led back towards the front of the ship. Riku briefly had to take out a couple of guards in exosuits, while Sly took out one in a jetpack with Silent Obliteration.

It took them a couple of minutes, but Riku and Sly soon managed to reach the front port that led into the safehouse, where Vanitas was waiting for them, dressed in his boots and gauntlets. Riku walked up to Vanitas and shared a small high-five with his friend before opening up the port.

"Good luck against Clock-la," Riku told them.

"Thanks," Vanitas said. "We're gonna need it."

"We definitely are," Sly agreed with a raised eyebrow.

Riku grimaced before he climbed into the safehouse once again.

Once the port door was shut, Sly and Vanitas shared a look and a nod of their heads. Vanitas summoned his Keyblade, then he followed Sly along the short walkway onto the roof of the nearby rooftop, where Bentley said that Carmelita would find them. Vanitas briefly threw a guard in a jet pack off of the roof, before he and the raccoon looked around.

Within a few seconds, a light blue helicopter with lots of glass flew into view, complete with a blaster on the back of the machine. Sly and Vanitas watched as the helicopter flew around the ship and the roof, and Sly and Vanitas moved to the edge of the roof, looking through the glass to see Carmelita flying the helicopter, dressed in her jeans, crop top, leather jacket, and boots.

'You know, I wonder if this game series is part of what led to the creation of furries,' Vanitas said, frowning in thought. *3*

"Look, Sly, for once let's cut the flirty chit-chat and just get down to business," Carmelita requested from the raccoon as she kept the helicopter hovering in the air. "I need an experienced tail gunner. Jump in and grab the gun while your vigilante friend flies around to help. We've got a bird to take down."

"Well, it's a good thing that Bentley has very loose lips," Vanitas remarked with a sigh.

"Wait, that's not flirty chit-chat?" Sly asked, crossing his arms with a smirk.

Vanitas smirked, his mind already working through a way that "jump in and grab the gun" could be taken in a very different manner.

Whatever the case, Sly turned and jogged down the ship roof and climbed into the ship. Carmelita nodded at Sly before looking at Vanitas through the glass.

"I hope you're as experienced as Bentley promised," Carmelita told the ravenette.

"Don't worry, Chell, I've got some moves," Vanitas promised. *4*

Carmelita nodded before she lifted up the handles of the ship, directing the helicopter to rise up into the air. Vanitas followed her example, igniting the thrusters in his boots and rising up into the air. He summoned his Keyblade in preparation.

Clock-la noticed them almost immediately. As Carmelita, Sly, and Vanitas started to fly overhead on the blimp in their own ways, the giant, robotic owl flew towards them, flapping her wings and screeching loudly as she chased after the team. Vanitas looked back at the flying Clock-la and tilted his head to the side in preparation, ready for one hell of an aerial battle.

Clock-la immediately started firing missiles at the helicopter and at Vanitas. Luckily, Sly apparently really did have experience with the tail gun, because he quickly used the blaster to shoot down the missiles before they could get close enough to them. He alternated for a moment between shooting down the missiles and also firing at Clock-la, damaging her slightly. Though, the way that he was with the gun also prevented the missiles from getting anywhere close to the helicopter.

"Don't let up; you're doing great!" Carmelita encouraged Sly as he kept shooting. "Looking good!"

Clock-la continued to fire missiles, which let out trails of yellow smoke as they flew towards the group. Vanitas decided to get creative and use his Keyblade to blast a bit of fire, taking out one of the missiles. The ravenette then flew in and slashed through another missile with his magic weapon, and while it did explode, the blast barely fazed him. Another missile started to close in, but Vanitas caught it with his telekinesis. He then grunted as he pushed the missile backwards, sending it flying back towards Clock-la and hitting her in one of the wings, damaging it and making the metal owl screech slightly.

"Wow," Carmelita and Sly said in simultaneous amazement.

Clock-la quickly recovered and glared at Vanitas with her eyes glowing bright purple. There were a few moments before a wave of purple energy shot out of Clock-la's eyes and flew towards Vanitas. The ravenette yelled out in surprise before he narrowly dodged the blast, then flew next to the helicopter once again.

"Keep flyin' and keep shooting!" Vanitas quickly told Carmelita and Sly.

Carmelita and Sly listened to the ravenette. While Carmelita continued to fly the helicopter over the blimp, Sly continued to fire the tail gun towards the robotic owl chasing after them. He shot down a couple of missiles with yellow trails flying behind them while also shooting down Clock-la. Vanitas managed to help with waves of fire from his Shotlock attack, Flame Salvo. This combination of blasts managed to do quite a bit of damage to one of Clock-la's wings, as black smoke started to rise up off of her body as she continued to fly after them.

"Keep it up!" Carmelita encouraged.

Of course, it was clear that Clock-la was only getting angrier the longer that Carmelita, Sly, and Vanitas lived. She started shooting a different kind of missile, these ones a bit larger and that left behind a pink trail of smoke. Sly shot the gun at the missile, but it took two shots to take out that kind of missile. He had to work to fire a few more missiles as the purple energy started to build up within Clock-la's eyes once again. As Sly kept shooting down the missiles, Vanitas attacked with Flame Salvo again, blasting bits of fire through the air that hit the robotic owl, stopping her from attacking.

"Keep at it; we're winning!" Carmelita encouraged them.

"Hey, I've got an idea!" Vanitas informed them. He looked at Carmelita and Sly. "Just please don't kill me."

Carmelita and Sly were curious for a moment before Vanitas turned in the air and started flying towards Clock-la. Sly was immediately worried about how he would be shooting with the gun, but he was clever enough to shoot down the missiles before they could get close enough.

Clock-la screeched at the approaching Vanitas and immediately shot two missiles towards the ravenette. Vanitas slashed through the missiles, then flew directly towards Clock-la to attack. Clock-la tried to hit him with her wings, but Vanitas dodged those attacks and started using aerial combo attacks to attack the giant owl, damaging her while building up energy. Bits and pieces of Clock-la's armor started to break off, having been damaged a bit by Sly shooting the tail gun on the helicopter. Clock-la even tried to strike Vanitas with her talons, but the ravenette managed to dodge the attacks.

After performing another combo attack, Vanitas had built up enough energy to perform Mega-Flare against Clock-la. The ravenette grunted as he blasted the giant ball of fire into the robotic owl's face, making her screech in displeasure and adjust herself as she flew. Vanitas let out a triumphant laugh, while Clock-la let out a very angry screech. Vanitas frowned in confusion for a second before a missile with a pink trail flew out and hit him right in the chest, exploding and sending him flying. The ravenette yelled out as he was knocked back through the air before he ended up right next to the helicopter.

Carmelita and Sly watched in surprise before Vanitas passed by the helicopter. The ravenette managed to grip onto the side of the helicopter, grasping onto the landing gear and lifting himself up. Vanitas gasped in surprise, now wishing he had slipped on his helmet.

The sound of Clock-la screeching rang out once again, which got Carmelita, Sly, and Vanitas to look back at the robotic owl. Their eyes widened when they saw Clock-la shooting out missiles with a yellow trail, and metal rings that had electricity surging within them.

"Keep fucking shooting!" Vanitas encouraged Sly.

"Shoot straight, or we're all dead!" Carmelita added.

Sly gritted his teeth before he started firing the gun at the approaching projectiles. He shot down the missiles with yellow trails, then fired at the metal ring, which caused the electricity to surge out and shoot on the outside of the rings. This allowed them to pass through the rings without getting damaged, though Vanitas lifted up his feet to stop his legs from being hit. Sly continued to fire the tail gun at the missiles and Clock-la, damaging her while also making sure they didn't get hit.

"Take that, Neyla!" Carmelita snapped.

Vanitas huffed before letting go of the landing gear with one hand. Still holding onto the helicopter with one hand, Vanitas summoned his Keyblade again and cast Curaga over himself, healing from getting hit directly with the missile. He huffed as he felt the green energy wave over himself, though for some reason, it appeared that his boots weren't as strong. Looking down, he could see a couple of burn marks on the armor, which made him grit his teeth in worry.

'Uru can shatter Keyblade armor,' Vanitas thought, remembering the battle against Thanos. 'What could missiles like this do against it?'

Without much else to do, Vanitas climbed into the helicopter and decided to content himself to using ranged attacks and telekinesis. Looking up, the ravenette blasted Triple Blizzaga through the air, which hit Clock-la in the eyes and stopped her from blasting the purple energy.

"Neyla's not gonna like that!" Carmelita cheered.

Sly continued to fire the tail gun at their opponent, though the fact that she kept shooting missiles and the rings out to attack them made things a bit more difficult. Vanitas tried to help with his own skills, though the fact that there were so many missiles made things a little difficult. Vanitas was able to throw another missile back at Clock-la while Sly shot down the metal ring, but a missile with a yellow streak hit the side of the helicopter, making it shake slightly.

"It's Clockwerk; get him!" Carmelita encouraged.

Vanitas listened to Carmelita and blasted Thundaga Shot through the air, hitting one of Clock-la's wings.

Sly and Vanitas continued to work together, with Sly shooting the gun at Clock-la while Vanitas blasted various spells and used his telekinesis to send the missiles flying back towards Clock-la. Their attacks started to make a clear effect against Clock-la, as pieces of her wings and tail feathers started to break off, falling down through the air and breaking apart even worse by the second.

Clearly, though, this was also making Clock-la more desperate to attack. Whereas before she alternated between firing missiles and the metal rings, at the moment, all Clock-la fired out to attack were just the metal rings towards them. Sly had to shoot at the rings to keep them from damaging the helicopter before he could even try to attack Clock-la. However, Vanitas managed to keep up his ranged attacks, which stopped Clock-la from being able to shoot the purple energy out of her eyes. Carmelita let out another excited laugh in response to their actions.

Sly continued to fire the gun at Clock-la while also shooting down the projectiles to stop them from damaging the helicopter. Vanitas helped by continuing to blast his elemental spells at the giant bird to continue and damage her. Clock-la tried to get creative once again, firing missiles with pink trails while also firing out the metal rings. Vanitas decided to get creative again against Clock-la, using his telekinesis to snatch the missiles out of the air and throwing them back at Clock-la while Sly continued to shoot the rings.

"You're doing it!" Carmelita encouraged them.

Clock-la was clearly still desperate as she worked to try and shoot at them with the missiles that had a pink trail, and the electric rings. Sly continued to shoot the rings to keep the electricity on the outside and Clock-la to stop her from attacking. Vanitas was smart and continued to use his telekinesis, throwing the missiles back at the giant owl. Clock-la screeched as Sly and Vanitas continued to attack her, slowly making things worse for her by the second as she continued to be damaged. Within a few moments, Clock-la dropped right through the air, having been damaged enough from the attacks to start falling due to the damage she had taken.

"You should have been a cop!" Carmelita praised Sly. "That was some terrific shooting!" *5*

Sly smiled at the praise, while Vanitas watched Clock-la continue to fall. His eyes widened when he saw the giant, robotic owl started to fall towards the largest turbine in the center of the blimp. Carmelita, Sly, and Vanitas's eyes widened when they watched Clock-la smash right into the turbine, blowing it up and causing a number of explosions to spread along the length of the bridge, sending pieces flying in all directions.

"Oh, fuck," Vanitas said with concern in his voice.

He, Carmelita, and Sly watched as the explosions continued to spread out along the blimp, breaking the entirety of the fortress up and sending even more chunks flying. Towers broke apart, the engine rooms flew out in different directions, the walkways broke into pieces that flew in different directions, and fire spread to just about every single part of the blimp, doing nothing but make the destruction even worse.

"Oh, I hope the guys are okay," Sly said.

He reached up and pressed a button on the intercom to turn it on.

"Sly! Sly!" Bentley cried in worry, which got Sly and Vanitas's attention. "We've got a serious problem here!"

Looking through the explosions of the blimp, Sly and Vanitas could see Clock-la emerging from the flames and fly towards the battery safehouse that the team had hidden within.

"Clock-la is looking mighty upset," Bentley informed them. "And I think she's going to take it out on us!"

"V!" Riku called out. "Do something!"

Watching through the windows of the helicopter, Carmelita, Sly, and Vanitas continued to observe as Clock-la flew through the exploding blimp towards where the battery was. They watched as Clock-la snatched it with her talons, breaking the battery out of its place before she flew off with it, moving through the air with the captive Bentley, Murray, and Riku.

"We've gotta go after them!" Sly frantically told Carmelita.

"Hell, yeah, we do!" Vanitas frantically agreed. "We can't just let that stupid bird get away with the boys!"

Though Carmelita was most likely still going to arrest them once this was all over, she agreed with their sentiment that they needed to catch up to Clock-la. With his boots damaged, Vanitas held onto the side of the helicopter with Sly as Carmelita continued to fly them after Clock-la. They moved together through the still exploding blimp, desperately following Clock-la with nothing but the determination to help their friends coursing through their veins.

Chapter Text

Holding onto the sides of the helicopter, Sly and Vanitas both gritted their teeth as Carmelita continued to fly them through the wreckage of Arpeggio's blimp. Due to the explosions still happening, and the many chunks of the blimp being thrown around from the blasts, it was starting to get difficult to actually navigate through the floating bits and pieces of wreckage. Of course, they weren't going to let up in the slightest, considering Clock-la was still carrying the battery with Bentley, Murray, and Riku within.

It took quite some time, but they eventually managed to locate Clock-la through the wreckage that the blimp had been reduced to. Throughout the extensive atmosphere in front of them, Carmelita, Sly, and Vanitas were able to see a veritable line of wreckage spread out in front of them, including a large shack, a circular turbine, one of the engine rooms, random structures, extended walkways, one of the aerial shacks, a burning building, metal eggs, and all other sorts of pieces that used to be part of the blimp. Far out through this path of destruction, they could see Clock-la flying, flapping her damaged wings as she carried the battery in her talons.

Carmelita then let out a loud grimace, which got the attention of both her male companions.

"The terrain in front of me is too bad to fly through," she admitted to Sly and Vanitas. "I won't be able to safely navigate through it."

"Don't worry," Sly told her. "I've got a Paraglider. I can manually catch up to her."

"And I can help however I can," Vanitas added. "Just drop us off on a big enough piece of wreckage nearby."

"I've got you guys," Carmelita promised, nodding her head in assurance.

Carmelita flew through the bits of wreckage of the blimp to try and find a safe enough place for her to float next to, a great place for Sly and Vanitas to climb aboard. It took quite some time, but Carmelita soon found a place, one of the broken shacks that used to be near one of the engine rooms. Carmelita hovered the helicopter next to the structure, and Sly and Vanitas jumped off of the helicopter and onto the structure. They nodded at Carmelita before she lifted up her controls and started flying away once again since she needed to try and find a good way to land.

Left on their own, Sly and Vanitas turned to look at the full wreckage in front of them towards Clock-la flying in the distance.

"We're coming, guys," Sly told their friends over the intercom. "Hold on!"

"Not really much else to do!" Riku replied. "Whoa! Oh, I'm getting nauseous, and we do not have a toilet!"

Vanitas huffed before looking down at his feet, seeing that his boots were still a little burned. He lifted up one foot and looked at the thruster on the bottom, seeing that they were still operative. Of course, it didn't appear that they'd be able to sustain extended flight, so he would certainly have to be careful with how long he flew with them on.

"Will you be able to make it?" Sly asked, looking at Vanitas in curiosity.

"Yeah," Vanitas said, nodding his head in assurance. "I just shouldn't push it too hard. I'll be moving slowly with it, like you."

Sly nodded his head in understanding before he and Vanitas turned to look in front of themselves in preparation. *1*

Huffing in preparation, Sly and Vanitas started their trek through the air, jumping off of the first structure and towards the next. Sly used his Paraglider to float through the air while Vanitas followed him with his damaged boots. It took them a couple of seconds, but they landed on a large, green and white component of the blimp.

"I'm hyperventilating," Bentley frantically said. "I need a paper bag!"

With that urging them on, Sly and Vanitas quickly ran across the structure before they jumped off of the component again. With Sly using his Paraglider and Vanitas using his boots, they moved together through the air and landed on one of the large turbines that rotated between the engine rooms. Vanitas was impressed that the fan within the turbine was still spinning before they jumped off of the turbine. They glided through the air and landed on a circular wood and metal platform with a railing.

"'The Murray' doesn't like being trapped," Murray shouted. "Free... Free 'The Murray'!"

"Keep your pants..." Vanitas started to say. He frowned in remembrance. "Wait, you guys don't wear pants."

Shrugging his shoulders to brush that aside, Vanitas joined Sly in jumping off of the platform and moving through the air once again. With Sly using his Paraglider and Vanitas using his damaged boots, they soon found themselves on top of one of the broken engine rooms. They ran along the top of the engine room before they jumped off of it once again. Using the Paraglider and boots, Sly and Vanitas soon found themselves on top of one of the walkways, one with a tall flagpole near the front. Vanitas blinked in surprise at the explosive barrels, metal eggs, and cylinder shaped power cells that flew past them, but he brushed that all to the side again.

"When's this bird gonna stop!?" Murray frantically exclaimed. His voice grew more hectic by the second. "Just make it stop! I can't take it anymore!"

"Riku, slap some sense into him!" Vanitas replied with annoyance in his voice.

"Gladly," Riku replied.

Sly felt a bit of offense for his friend as he and Vanitas ran down the length of the broken walkway once again. Once they reached the edge, Sly and Vanitas jumped off of it and used the Paraglider and boots to glide through the air towards one of the aerial shacks that were above the largest turbine. They landed on the roof of the shack, ignored a giant metal spike, then moved across the roof and jumped off. They glided through the air towards another structure, this one being one of the giant airplane-like propellers that were at the front of the blimp. They landed on the propeller, and Vanitas frowned at the still-spinning fan.

"I don't know what's more confusing about all of this," Vanitas remarked. He gestured with his hands. "The fact that this fan is somehow still working, or that a ladder and a TV are flying through the air."

Sly joined him in frowning at the sight of the TV and ladder falling through the air with the random crates of explosives, but they all brushed this to the side.

"This is grim!" Bentley shouted. "Grim! Gri~im!!!"

"Riku, slap him next!" Vanitas remarked.

Deciding it was definitely time to leave behind the airplane propeller, Sly and Vanitas jumped off of it and started gliding towards the next structure in their path. This one was another circular, wood and metal platform with railings. Sly and Vanitas didn't even hesitate before they jumped off of this platform, using the Paraglider and damaged boots to glide towards the next structure, this one being another engine room with broken pieces of platform attached underneath it. They landed on this engine room, seeing that they were much, much closer to Clock-la now.

"Oh... I feel sick," Murray admitted. He then let out a couple of loud groans and wretches. "Oh, Riku, Bentley, I'm sorry."

"Now I'm sad I'm not wearing shoes," Riku remarked. "Though, with the situation we're in, I'm not gonna hold this against you, Murray."

"I will," Bentley admitted.

Sly frowned at that, but he shook his head as he and Vanitas continued down their path. The two of them watched Clock-la flapping her wings not too far in front of them as she continued to fly, and moved as fast as they could. Sly and Vanitas jumped off of the engine room and used the Paraglider and boots to land on another green and white component of the blimp. Risking it, they jumped off of the structure and glided towards Clock-la, landing on one of her wings.

Apparently deciding that she wanted to be confrontational, Clock-la stopped flapping her wings and instead started gliding, straightening out her wings so that Sly and Vanitas weren't bouncing around all over the place. She then turned her head to look over her shoulder, looking right at Sly and Vanitas with her yellow eyes that were slowly starting to glow with a purple light.

"You want a piece of me?" Clock-la taunted. "Don't worry, there's plenty to go around."

"Yeah, and a few of them broke off during our initial attack, bitch," Vanitas remarked.

"You might have a new body, Neyla..." Sly slowly said, pointing at her face with one hand. "But you're still the low-down, backstabbing coward we've beaten time and time again. This won't be any different."

"Be brave while you can, Cooper," Clock-la warned them. "I might not have the immortality borne of pure hate... But I feel something. Some power growing within me."

Vanitas then grit his teeth and grabbed the side of his head as information quickly rushed into his head. Sly looked at him in concern as he had a vision, which happened for a few moments. This was long enough for Clock-la to build up energy within her eyes. Sly grabbed Vanitas by the shoulder and pulled him out of the way, both of them barely dodging the electric energy that Clock-la fired at them. Sly let out a huff while Vanitas gasped, coming out of the vision.

"What's wrong?" Sly asked.

"Clockwerk," Vanitas quickly said. "He's coming back. That power growing within her is Clockwerk's consciousness returning."

"What?" Sly quickly demanded, looking at Vanitas with wide eyes.

"Along with replacing his body with metal and robot parts, he also narrowed his personality into one single component," Vanitas said. "It's called a Hate Chip. His basis of immortality with hatred is in that thing, and he also backed up his personality and consciousness in that thing. Neyla powered up his body, but the longer it's on, then soon enough, Clockwerk will overtake her and return." *2*

This immediately got Sly to frown in determination as he looked at Clock-la's face just in front of them.

"And that's not going to happen," he announced.

Sly quickly started jogging forward, and Vanitas summoned his Keyblade to start following the raccoon. Clock-la tried shooting another energy ball towards Sly and Vanitas, but they easily dodged the blast. Jogging together across the wing, they managed to dodge another blast before moving up onto Clock-la's shoulder. After dodging another blast from her eye, Sly started swinging his cane, repeatedly striking and hitting Clock-la in her metallic eye, which got it to glow more and more red. Vanitas grunted as he started doing aerial combo attacks against Clock-la's eye, as well, doing even more damage to the robotic owl.

After they damaged her eye enough, Clock-la then screeched and shook her head for a few moments before turning to look forward again, moving her eye out of their line of attack. Knowing they still needed to fight, Sly and Vanitas looked around Clock-la's body before they jumped over her back. With her tail-feathers in pieces, Sly had to walk across metal wires to climb on the other wing. Vanitas jumped up with his abilities, felt a bit of relief that the surging winds around them hadn't affected him, then they landed together on the wing.

Clock-la lifted up her head to look towards them with her only still-working eye. That suddenly started to glow brightly with energy, and Sly and Vanitas ducked once again to dodge the blast of purple energy fired out. Sly quickly hurried forward and started swinging his cane to attack once again. Vanitas helped him by attacking with Thundaga Shot, hitting her right in the eye. Of course, Sly got the final strike when he swung his cane a few more times, doing even more damage to Clock-la and finishing her off. *3*

With the final strike of Sly's cane, Clock-la let out a pain-filled screech before she dropped and started to fall towards the ground. Standing on her shoulder, Sly and Vanitas looked down to see them right above a small river that was close to the Eiffel Tower. Pieces of the blimp littered the water below them, but there was also a short area of land nearby close to the shore. Clock-la ended up falling down right towards this little patch of land, and Sly and Vanitas started to prepare themselves.

Luckily, they weren't the only ones. Underneath Clock-la, the port of the battery opened up as Bentley, Murray, and Riku also saw how quickly they were falling towards the ground. As they got closer to the little patch of land, the team as a whole started to prepare themselves. Once they reached a good enough height, Bentley, Murray, Riku, Sly, and Vanitas all jumped off Clock-la and the battery, all of them yelling out as they dropped towards the ground. Riku and Vanitas landed in rolls, while Bentley, Murray, and Sly all landed slightly roughly, but not in horrible manners.

The large sound of clattering and crashing nearby obviously caught their attention. Bentley, Murray, Riku, Sly, and Vanitas all turned towards it, seeing that Clock-la had landed at the edge of the island in obvious disarray. Her wings were broken and bent, part of her unibrow had been snapped off, and her eyes were caved in from Sly and Vanitas's attacks. The team looked at her in a small state of shock and triumph, as her body was just the epicenter of the giant wreckage that had been formed from the pieces of the blimp.

"We?" Sly started to say with shock in his voice. "We did it!"

"Right on!" Murray excitedly said, posing with his arms flexed.

"Damn," Riku said with his eyes wide in surprise.

"It's an emotional moment," Bentley said with happiness in his voice, his hand on his chest in relief.

Vanitas frowned, because he sensed some form of life still within the robotic owl.

As if to prove this point, a set of lasers suddenly fired out of the sides of Clock-la's head, shooting out and surrounding the perimeter of the small field they were within.

"Die, insects, die!" Clock-la bellowed angrily, which got everyone to jump in surprise. "My hate will smash you!"

"That's not good," Vanitas said with wide eyes of surprise.

"Watch out," Sly instructed, gesturing with one hand. "That thing's still kicking!"

The team quickly turned to get away from Clock-la. As more lasers appeared on the ground, Bentley, Murray, Riku, Sly, and Vanitas turned and started running away from the giant bird. They dodged the lasers and jumped onto a small platform, which just so happened to be the floor of the battery hideout, as a table and a couple of chairs were still resting on it.

"That was not pleasant," Riku commented.

"V, you mentioned that Clock-la apparently has a hate chip," Bentley pointed out. "From the sounds of it, it's probably the source of her power."

"It's more than that," Vanitas said. He looked between the rest of the group. "Like I said, everything in that chip is basically Clockwerk as a whole. When you destroyed him two years ago, it powered down and went dormant. But when Neyla joined herself with Clockwerk's body, she activated it once again. It's slowly been activating more and more, and Clockwerk's consciousness has been slowly returning. It's why she's suddenly much more pissed at us than usual."

"Well, that's probably also why she tried to kill you guys the first time she saw you," Sly remarked, looking at Riku. "That insane hatred that Clockwerk has must've made her decide to take it out on you two since you were the first two people she saw in her new body."

"None of this makes sense, but I'm just going along with it," Riku commented.

"Join the club," Vanitas said. He shook his head. "Anyway, that hate chip is basically the general core that makes Clockwerk Clockwerk. It's where he made up that whole 'immortality by rage' cocktail. It's also what makes sure the parts stay in one piece after so long. The only way we can actually defeat Clock-la and Clockwerk is to remove that stupid thing."

"So if we remove the hate chip, then she'll stop attacking," Sly assessed, looking over his shoulder at Clock-la's damaged body.

"Exactly," Vanitas said. He gestured with his hands, hoping that the raccoon understood the point he was trying to make. "But, if we destroy the hate chip..."

Sly looked at him as the realization set in.

"If we destroy the hate chip, then we destroy Clockwerk," he assessed. "We can finally end the curse that's plagued my family for generations today if we get that thing."

"Exactly," Vanitas confirmed with a nod of his head.

"Well, then where are we supposed to start with that?" Riku asked.

"From the sounds of it, it's time for a little open-head surgery," Murray said, pumping his fist in his hand in excitement. "I'll pry open that beak so that Bentley can go to town with his bombs."

"Let's do it," Riku said with a nod of his head. "I'll cover you in case she tries to attack again."

Murray nodded gratefully.

The two of them then turned and started walking along the battery floor once again. Watching the lasers on the ground for a moment, Murray and Riku then started jumping along the ground, careful to make sure the lasers didn't hit them. They moved precariously along the grassy ground, jumping over more and more lasers to make their way to Clock-la's damaged body. Once they got close enough to Clock-la, Riku stood to the side and watched as Murray stepped up to her head and grasped it with both hands. Riku had a curious expression on his face as Murray slowly lifted up Clock-la's head, wondering what they would find underneath.

Once Murray lifted the top of Clock-la's head up above the moorings, showing what it was hiding on the other side, both he and Riku wished they could put it back down.

The top of the bird's head had hidden a large, electronic face that clearly used to be that of Neyla. Looking along the holographic image that had formed Neyla's face, Murray and the rest of the Cooper gang were able to recognize the familiar patterns on her face that used to represent her fur design as a bengal tiger. Her eyes had glazed over with the electricity, giving her a lifeless look as she looked at them with rage in her electronic irises. *4*

"I hate you, Cooper gang!" Clock-la shouted. "I will find you in your sleep and I will destroy you. You will never know a moment's peace for the rest of your short, miserable lives. The Clock-la will know revenge... I am revenge... I am the Alpha and the Omega... Clock-la!"

"This is a kid's game..." Vanitas muttered with his eyes narrowed at the electronic face.

"Knowing that Clockwerk is slowly returning kind of explains this a bit," Sly commented. He looked at Bentley. "You're on, Bentley."

Bentley nodded in understanding. Sly and Vanitas watched as the turtle moved forward, jumping off of the battery floor before he started jumping over the lasers to dodge. It took him a couple of moments, but he soon reached Clock-la's head. Bentley then moved around the sides of Clock-la's head, towards where the components shooting out lasers were. He dropped bombs next to the components, and he, Murray, and Riku got out of the way. Bentley's bombs exploded, which destroyed the components shooting out lasers, clearing the field.

"I still have my hate chip!" Clock-la declared defiantly. "You will not defeat me... EVER!"

The holographic image suddenly started shrinking before Neyla's head disappeared completely. This revealed a simple gray wall where it used to be, which also had a large, gray chip with yellow lights attached to it, which was clearly the hate chip.

Sly and Vanitas then rushed into the field to join the rest of the team while Bentley climbed into Clock-la's mouth. They watched with concern as Bentley grabbed the hate chip, then turned around to show it to the rest of the team. The turtle let out a small huff before putting the large chip into his pocket. Clock-la then let out a dangerous hum, which got the group to start and feel concerned.

"Let's get out of here!" Bentley announced. "She's about to explode!"

Vanitas's eyes widened as a sudden desire to use his powers acted up. So, he lifted up his hand and pointed it at Clock-la's head just as it started to fall. Bentley, Murray, Riku, and Sly all jumped in surprise when they saw that Clock-la's top beak was just inches over the turtle's hat, but they calmed down a bit. Bentley even huffed and looked towards Vanitas.

"What are you waiting for?" Vanitas remarked. "Get out of there!"

Bentley huffed in surprise before he climbed out of Clock-la's mouth. He, Murray, and Riku then moved across the field towards where Sly and Vanitas were still standing. Vanitas let out a huff as he let go of Clock-la's head with his powers, letting it all down the rest of the way with a loud clang.

"Thank you," Bentley said with an exhausted huff. "That probably would've broken my back!"

"You have no idea," Vanitas muttered, raising an eyebrow.

He suddenly remembered that the third and fourth games of this series had Bentley in a wheelchair. Vanitas was now glad that he was able to spare this universe's Bentley from that fate.

All of a sudden, an explosion blasted from the side of Clock-la's body, which got the team to all jump in surprise.

"Come on, guys, let's get out of here!" Murray shouted.

They all yelled out as they turned and started running once again. Bentley, Murray, Riku, Sly, and Vanitas ran as fast as they could across the field as Clock-la's body continued to explode. Even more explosions rang out, growing larger by the second before a gigantic, central blast appeared on Clock-la's back. The team climbed onto the battery again, then turned to watch as the explosions continued to spread across Clock-la's body, and they all winced at the sight.

It took a few moments, but eventually the immense fire from the blast started to disperse, which showed the remains of Clock-la. They were now the Clockwerk parts once again, having broken up into pieces that were spread out, floating up to the surface of the top of the water of the river. They stood out against the wreckage of the blimp, from the pieces of wings, the talons, the eyebrows, and various parts of his body.

Bentley, Murray, Riku, Sly, and Vanitas all stood at the edge of the battery, looking throughout the wreckage in front of them at the sight of the Clockwerk parts. Somehow, even with the explosion and the damage they had taken from the earlier fights, they appeared to be pristine and intact, almost like nothing could actually hurt them. Sly let out an exasperated grunt as he looked at the pieces of his oldest family enemy.

"Sly," Bentley said, pulling out the hate chip. "It's like V said..."

Sly quickly turned towards his friend and tried not to snatch it from the turtle's hands. Bentley, Murray, Riku, and Vanitas tried not to grimace as they watched the raccoon look at the hate chip with pure, unadulterated rage slowly but surely growing within his eyes.

Luckily, the sound of a helicopter whirring rang out quickly garnered their attention. The group all turned and watched as Carmelita's chopper slowly descended through the air before touching down on the ground just a short distance away. They watched as Carmelita climbed out of the helicopter, then jogged across the wreckage towards where they stood.

"Oh, man..." Carmelita said with a sigh. "I wish I could've gotten a few shots in on her."

Riku, Sly, and Vanitas all tilted their heads to the side in understanding. Sly then got an idea and stepped towards her.

"Would you settle for this?" he asked, holding up the hate chip.

"What is it?" Carmelita asked, resting her fists on her hips in curiosity.

"The hate chip," Sly said, looking at the device in his hand. "It's what gave Clockwerk his immortality and made him him. This chip is what made him that monster that tormented my family for generations."

Carmelita looked between Sly and the hate chip for a few moments. After a couple of seconds, she slowly took the hate chip from him and grasped it in her hand.

No one was surprised when Carmelita just dropped it onto the ground like she was unimpressed. Bentley, Murray, Riku, Sly, and Vanitas all then watched as Carmelita stomped right onto the hate chip, smashing it into pieces almost immediately.

The sound of something groaning then rang out. Bentley, Carmelita, Murray, Riku, Sly, and Vanitas turned around and looked into the water next to them. They all watched in surprise and amazement as the Clockwerk parts suddenly started to get older, rusting out more by the second and breaking down. Every tiny bit of Clockwerk got weaker, thinner, and more broken as time went on, breaking down even more and signifying the final destruction of the ancient bird.

"What is...?" Murray started to ask.

"It looks like time's finally catching up to Clockwerk," Bentley remarked.

"Alive for several millennium, but he dies only a few years into the twenty-first century," Vanitas remarked. He huffed. "I'm not sure if that says more about him or this century."

The rest of the group let out similar huffs as they watched the rest of Clockwerk slowly continue to break apart. Once the parts were thin enough, they slowly broke down even more and became dust (which did give Riku and Vanitas flashbacks to the Snap, but they brushed it aside). Within moments, Clockwerk had been reduced completely to pieces of dust and ash that floated along the water of the river.

Sly watched it happen with a look of silent satisfaction and relief in his eyes, and the rest of the group understood why he did this. The threat of Clockwerk had plagued his family for thousands of years, and now they would never have to deal with him again. Even Carmelita let out a small smile for the raccoon as they all felt a bit of relief over the fact that the robotic owl was gone for good. The sun slowly rising out in the distance even managed to give them a good backdrop for the situation.

The calm nature of the slowly arriving dawn was shot down quickly when Carmelita took out a large, red gun and pointed it with both hands at the team in front of her. Bentley, Murray, Riku, Sly, and Vanitas all jumped in a bit of surprise as Carmelita frowned right at them.

"You're all under arrest!" Carmelita announced.

Everyone grimaced, having partly expected this.

Sly then turned and looked around at the rest of the gang. Bentley and Murray appeared to be slowly preparing themselves for a heavy escape, he could see that they were clearly really exhausted and spent from the events of the last two days. Riku and Vanitas also appeared to be tired, but they also appeared to be ready to move. Knowing what he had to do, Sly turned and looked at Carmelita.

"Let my friends go," Sly requested, much to everyone's surprise (even Carmelita's). "It's called the Cooper Gang, so I'm clearly the big mastermind behind everything, right? They just helped me whenever I asked them to. I'm the one that your bosses are going to want. If you let my friends walk, then I'll come peacefully. With no hesitation."

Carmelita hesitated for a second as she thought through this, all with her gun still in her hand. She paused for a moment before frowning at Sly once again.

"No double crossing me, Cooper," Carmelita warned him. "But I'll do it."

"Wait..." Bentley started to say.

"But Sly..." Murray started, as well.

Riku and Vanitas both also opened their mouths, but Sly turned towards them and gestured with his hands.

"It's all right, guys," Sly promised them. "You've helped me with so much over the years, more than I could ever figure out how to express. Let me help you by taking the fall for this. Just walk away and let me do this."

Bentley, Murray, Riku, and Vanitas paused for a moment before Bentley and Murray shared looks, seeing that there was no way to reason with the raccoon.

'He figures out a way out of it,' Vanitas mentally promised Riku. 'There are two other video games after this one.'

'Okay, that's good,' Riku thought back with relief in his voice. 'I've kind of grown attached to him.'

With all of this out of the way, Bentley and Murray reluctantly decided to follow through with Sly's instructions. To express to Carmelita that they were going with it, they even took off their gear. Murray took off his mask, goggles, and gloves, while Bentley took off his hat, bomb belt, and placed down his crossbow. All of this equipment was placed on a nearby barrel, and Carmelita allowed them to hug Sly once more. *5*

Riku and Vanitas then stepped up to the raccoon and shook his hand in a farewell manner.

"Thanks for everything, you guys," Sly told them. "You might be the greatest vigilantes I've ever met."

"Can I get that on record?" Vanitas asked. "We've got some friends that I wanna prove a point to."

Riku and Sly shared a small chuckle.

"Good luck, Sly," Riku told the raccoon. He glanced over at Carmelita. "Something tells me you're gonna need it."

The frown on Carmelita's face made it clear that he was right about this.

Sly then moved next to the helicopter and sat down next to Carmelita as she watched him with her gun. Bentley, Murray, Riku, and Vanitas then all reluctantly turned and started walking away from the wreckage of the blimp. They all looked back in concern before turning a corner and moving together down the road, hearing the sounds of police sirens ringing out in the distance.

"Hey, can you do us a favor?" Bentley asked, turning to look at Riku and Vanitas. "Would you guys mind waiting on that rooftop for a bit?"

He pointed at a medium sized building nearby.

"We've got an idea for how to help Sly," Murray admitted with a smile.

Riku and Vanitas shared a look before shrugging their shoulders in resignation.

While Bentley and Murray turned and started walking down a road next to them, Riku and Vanitas climbed onto the rooftop together, with Riku using Doubleflight while Vanitas used some aerobics since his boots were still damaged. They climbed onto the rooftop together and just stood there for a few moments, tapping their feet into the ground to relieve their boredom as they waited for any indication from the others.

Growing bored, Vanitas then took out his Gummiphone, and was immediately impressed once again over how it still had some form of connection on it. He and Riku then spent a few minutes listening to Fall Out Boy, something that Riku could admit to starting to enjoy thanks to the ravenette. They got through Hold Me Like a Grudge and Fake Out before they looked up, seeing that Bentley and Murray had returned. Vanitas put his phone away again as he and Riku watched the turtle and hippo approach them on the rooftop.

"Hey, what'd you guys do?" Vanitas asked.

"We left Sly a little gift," Bentley admitted with a smile.

"The pilot of that helicopter is 'indisposed'," Murray said with a smile.

He pointed to a helicopter that was flying around in the air above them. Riku and Vanitas frowned when they saw that it was slowly flying around in a giant circle.

"Is that safe?" Riku asked, pointing at the helicopter that was flying without a pilot.

"Probably," Bentley said. "I ran the calculations in my head. There's only a 47% chance they'll crash and die in a horrible explosion."

"You're not reassuring us, man," Vanitas commented.

"It's less than 50%, so it's good enough for me," Murray admitted.

Riku and Vanitas shared a look before shrugging their shoulders, accepting that Murray had a point there.

Deciding that they wanted some closure, the group turned and watched the helicopter as it continued to fly around in a giant circle in the air above them. It flew around repeatedly in a loop through the air, moving slowly through the sky. Bentley, Murray, Riku, and Vanitas all kept their eyes on the flying machine as it continued to loop around above them.

After a couple of hours, a figure suddenly jumped out of the helicopter. Of course, that figure then pulled out some form of cloth over their head and started a slow descent through the air. Bentley, Murray, Riku, and Vanitas all smiled when they realized that it was Sly Paragliding out of the helicopter.

"Nice," Riku remarked with a smile.

"Nice to see that he's still got some skills," Vanitas praised.

"He'll probably head back home," Bentley said. He looked at Murray. "Let's go spruce up the place for when he gets back."

"And let's get some pizza to celebrate!" Murray added.

The two of them shared a laugh before looking at Riku and Vanitas.

"You guys wanna join us?" Murray asked.

Riku and Vanitas shared a look before they let out a small, sad sigh.

"As much as we'd like to, we need to head out," Vanitas admitted.

"The life of a vigilante," Riku admitted. "There's very little time for rest."

Bentley and Murray let out small sighs of disappointment, but they nodded their heads in understanding.

The turtle and the hippo then stepped forward and started to say their goodbyes to Riku and Vanitas. Bentley shook their hands and gave them professional goodbyes ("It was an honor to fight alongside you in this massive battle.") While Murray crushed them both with hugs and gave them goodbyes that were way less than professional. ("You guys were so awesome! I love that we got to fight evil together!")

The remaining two members of the Cooper gang turned and started to make their way off the rooftop, leaving Riku and Vanitas alone once again. The both of them shared a small sigh of contentment as they realized their work in this dimension was done.

"This was certainly interesting," Riku remarked. "Not what I expected at all, but certainly interesting."

"You said it, man," Vanitas agreed with his hands on his hips. He raised an eyebrow. "The games might be old as shit now, but now I'm starting to think I should play them again."

Riku let out a small chuckle at that.

After a few moments, Riku and Vanitas then shared a look, and a determined nod of their heads. The two of them summoned their Keyblades and gripped them with both hands. A pink transportation gate appeared in front of them. They pointed their Keyblades at the transport gate, and beams shot out of their Keyblades. Riku and Vanitas closed their eyes as light slowly surrounded them completely. The light then broke up and slowly flew into the transport gate, moving through the pink sphere before disappearing completely. When the light faded, the transport gate faded, as well.

... Leaving behind a wide-eyed and shocked Bentley and Murray. They had returned because Bentley dropped his calculator, and he picked it up just as Riku and Vanitas disappeared into light.

"Uh... Bentley?" Murray slowly asked. "What just happened?"

"I have no idea," Bentley slowly said. "But maybe we shouldn't tell Sly about it."

Bentley and Murray shared a look, then they both nodded their heads in agreement. The two of them then turned and jumped off of the rooftop to start making their way back towards their house, wanting to put this strange day behind them... *6*