Chapter 10 – Operation Overlord
Medieval England. 1301.
It was all going so swimmingly. It was less that 2 days before they would be finished and she could return home to her own time. All aspects were proceeding as they were planned. Galleth's cane was secure, steel production was working, projects were at the finishing stages, the population were performing their duties without question. She was so close to reaching autonomy for the city, where they could have a place that could produce ancient goods for them to bring into the present to sell for ridiculous prices.
But it never reached that stage. One by one the pieces of her labour had been destroyed. The surveillance balloons lost, the moat monster destroyed, raw material production had ceased and worst of all, Galleth's cane is no longer in her possession.
However she still had one last trick up her sleeve to get back at the gang she knows to have done this. She cursed when they turned up without her knowledge, they must have arrived a long way from her position as they never appeared on her temporal flux scanner. But here they were, the only thing stopping their path being a steel gate that she had used to separate the group, leaving the main miscreant inside to be squashed like the pest he was. That was after she had tricked the overly headstrong Galleth into going too early. She always knew that in any fight he'd be the one itching to make the first blow, so when he thought that he could make contact with his unique sword, he was wrong. He got flung off so easily for the handoff to keep the cane secure until Le Paradox would covertly arrive in the blimp once they had gone, thinking that they had finished the job. It was a clever backup plan in that it played off their thinking that once the leader was gone, the job was done.
But until he would arrive, she would have to deal with the raccoon now hundreds of times smaller then the mech she was now in. It was like her suit of armour, except with lasers and guided missiles, and of course much, much bigger. She had to use special cameras to even see the Cooper running like a headless chicken around the castle floor to avoid the gallium nitride laser beams and barrages of missile attacks. This machine would deter any army from ever attacking this castle, it could send entire battalions of infantry to the grave in an explosion and could render even the sturdiest trebuchets sliced in half, but it could destroy this one raccoon. Much to her frustration, he managed to exploit the only weakness of the machine being the lack of power to adequately power all systems. She could make a nuclear reactor in this time so the suit was powered using coal, an abundant resource in this time, at a rate of kilograms per second. And of course, it had to be the protective force field that had to use the most power out of any system. It left holes in the shield that he managed to shoot arrows through, arrows that he could steer!
Only one other person could make such a modification using 14th century materials, it was that turtle she'd manufactured hate and contempt for. From the point of view of the scheme, there was one problem, the hate was running out. Without it, she'd never be able to fight him; no one who is sane would fight violently against someone they really loved. The memory transfer had given her most of the needs and wants from the control system, but not everything was transferred as cleanly. Emotions only transferred in residual amounts, they would wear away over time until she had returned to her normal emotional state.
As he kept on exploiting the same weakness over and over again, she tried to re route more power to the shields. It meant that the holes were less numerous and smaller, but there were still holes. Reflectively, basing shields right on the weakest part of the structure was not a good design choice, having no arms is not a good design choice either. It was at that point she needed to abandon the gigantic mech, before they destroyed the highly pressurized steam pipes that transferred the steam to the electric generator. The steam would instantly rip the body into pieces if it was released. So when she saw that her shields were still not at full power, it was her time to get out of there. As the explosive arrow hurtled towards destruction, the helmet of the mech blasted away with explosive bolts, allowing the smaller suit of armour to jump away to safety before it would be destroyed as well.
"Do you know how much that suit was worth? It was one of a kind! You've cost me too much already Cooper! It's time to pay the fiddler." Penelope taunts, ready to thrust her steel fist at the trapped raccoon, stuck under the remnants of the body and unable to move. His face was ready to be turned inside out, he couldn't dodge this, he couldn't escape certain death. She had not remembered to keep the gang alive for mental conversion purposes.
"That's enough Penelope!" A voice shouts from distance. The raccoon turned his head first, realizing where it had come from first, allowing Penelope to find the origin of this disturbance.
"Huh?" She exclaims, confused at what that thing is on the castle walls.
"You heard me!" Bentley shouts to make his presence known.
"Bentley? Your suit?... Is that… my moat monster?" She asks, realizing where all of the parts had come from. Was that a proud feeling she felt?
"Yeah, what's left of it anyway. The design was adequate… I made some adjustments." Bentley taunts before jumping down to her level in order to confront her. You were much better anyway.
"It was just a prototype anyway!" Penelope refutes, an outward effort to maintain her technological superiority. It's not good enough.
"Why did you do it Penelope? You owe me that much at least." Bentley asks in a complete change of tone from angry to disbelief.
"Why? For you of course." She explains, her eyes already moistening. "I had to make you see how things could be." Too much time spent with the Grizz had made her subconsciously remember a few rhyming patterns.
"I'm not going to be one of the bad guys, Penelope!" Bentley explains.
"Ha! 'Bad guys'. That's kinda funny considering you work for a thief." She counters. "But the most valuable thing Sly ever stole from you was, was your… potential." Tears start to roll down her cheeks, but she doesn't cry, in fact it's the opposite.
"Together, we… we could have changed the world, but you're still chasing honour for chump change. When are you going to wake up?" She rants, in the excruciating and simultaneous process of waking up, herself.
"So you sold out to Le Paradox for the money?" Bentley asks angrily. Penelope face palms at such short sightedness, but then again they both wear glasses.
"No! You're not listening. He's just a means to an end." Penelope answers. The conflict inside is becoming increasingly harder to contain.
"Wow, and I thought you were smart. Did you really think he would just let you go? He owns you now, you're his puppet. And when you have served your purpose, he's going to..." Bentley rants. But he is stopped by something that has happened right in front of him. He had not been paying direct attention to Penelope, she was giving an indifferent look on her face. But now, she is slumped forward in her seat, the only thing saving her from falling out is her seatbelt around her waist.
"No, No!" Bentley begins to panic, her stings had seemingly been cut just before he would say the same thing. This is the worst thing that could have happened. Of course he was mad that she had betrayed him like this, but to appear to be dead right in front of him like this? It wasn't worthy of more berating or spite. Bentley moves straight away to Sly, still trapped underneath chunk of steel, to free him.
"Help Penelope, I'm getting everyone else inside." Bentley explains, sounding as if he can't do everything fast enough, lifting the steel chunk up to let sly out.
"Are you crazy?" Sly asks, why should he save her after she tried to kill him. Sly had not seen her collapse from his position.
"She did say all of that, but I won't let her die." Bentley says as he rushes over to the gate that traps the rest of the gang. Sly gets up and walks around the mech, with a slight limp, to see Penelope collapsed in her seat. Sly hears the metal gate being raised up from behind him and thinks of how much she meant for Bentley before, and what may happen if she wakes up. Swallowing his pride, Sly reaches up to the compact cabin of the suit of armour and releases the seatbelt. The mouse begins to slowly fall forward, Sly jumps off quickly to try and catch her on the ground. He catches her but it brings a terrific pain to his left ankle, which cause him to fall backwards and makes Penelope land on top of him. Sly doesn't scream, he holds it in as tightly as he can. The rest of the gang run back to the two of them as Sly rolls Penelope off of him to inspect her.
"Is she alive?" Bentley asks quickly and worriedly.
"Is it a good thing if she isn't?" Sly asks.
"No!" Bentley answers.
"Someone do CPR!" Carmelita shouts.
"On it." Sly says, pressing against her chest quickly. But after 6 compressions, he realizes her heart is still beating, rather quickly as well. Bentley was beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable with Sly getting this intimately close to her.
"She's not dead, but she's not conscious." Sly reports.
"What should we do?" Murray asks.
"Let her lie there, you don't save your worst enemy." Galleth answers. But Sly and Bentley give him that look, the one where you know you have really offended someone.
"I'm going." Sir Galleth says as he runs off from the castle to find his cane.
"We have to take her back to the present, to a hospital." Sly says.
"What about Le Paradox?" Carmelita asks.
"I believe this situation is like trying to cook a frypan of bacon and a bolognaise sauce at the same time. One's always going to be more important to someone else, but each parts needs attention at the right time. And right now, Penelope is at that point where the bacon is about to burn where the sauce is not quite there." Murray philosophically explains.
"That is one of the deepest and most meaningful things you have ever said big guy." Sly complements.
"If we get her back quickly, we still can still arrive in time to stop Le Paradox from terrorizing somewhere else." Bentley theorizes.
"But where exactly will that be?" Carmelita asks.
"I'll contact Dmitri back in the van and figure out a way to quickly steal the required artifact in Paris." Sly schemes. Bentley picks up the motionless Penelope with his robotic arms from his mech and begins to slowly walk back to the van so that he doesn't injure Penelope. The others race through the town, as quickly as possible, back to the hideout where the van is. Sly arrives first and locates the communicator in the front of the van. He dials it up while the other frantically pack their items into the van.
"What's cracking dude?" Dimitri asks.
"Where do we go next?" Sly asks hurriedly.
"Hold on a sec." He replies.
"Dimitri, we don't have a second, where do we need to go?" Sly raises his voice.
"Arabia." Dimitri answers, but he pronounces it Ararb-ia to sound hip. It annoys Sly who wants understandable answers.
"Which ancestor am I going to be with?" Sly asks hurriedly, wanting a quick answer.
"Salim al Kupar, there it is." Dimitri answers before Sly hangs up the communicator.
"We're almost done Sly." Carmelita announces.
"We need to find a Arabian artifact somewhere in Paris when we get back." Sly announces.
"There's no need." Carmelita answers as she pulls out a coin from her pocket.
"Is that?" Sly asks.
"Evidence, Ringtail. Don't ever think I'm going to end up like you." She says.
"What? Wealthy, handsome, athletic…" Sly lists.
"A thief." She answers.
"Hey, we're about to go!" Bentley shouts now back in his wheelchair in the van having discarded his quickly built mech. The two of them rush inside the van and head back to the present where they end up in Bentley's lab.
Bentley's Lab, Amsterdam. 1:04am, 30th March 2013.
"I thought we were going to Paris?" Sly wonders, but realizes what's in the receptacle. Bentley's computer.
"Doesn't matter, a hospital is a hospital." Bentley answers. "Murray, drive us out of here."
Murray drives up to the lift and it silently raises the van up to ground level.
"Someone raise the garage door." Bentley commands and Sly races out of the van to lift it up, he's surprised that it's not already locked. But he pushes it up anyway has hard as he can to let the van out. Sly rushes back inside and Murray accelerates down the narrow laneway and onto the street, moving straight into the traffic.
"Where do I go Bentley?" Murray asks.
"I'm putting the direction on the windshield." Bentley answers. Using a tiny onboard projector in his wheelchair he displays the directions for Murray, A 1.5 kilometre blast through Amsterdam. It takes less than two minutes for them to do it thanks to a small blue police light and siren being placed on top of the van to clear the traffic.
"Carmelita, you have to take her inside." Bentley asks, he didn't want to have leave Penelope. "You know why."
"Okay Bentley." She answers as she gets out of the van to get some paramedics to help. She would have said that he would need to owe her one for this, but it's not good to bargain with someone so emotionally distraught. She runs into the emergency department.
"Inspector Carmelita Fox, Interpol. We have an unconscious victim I need treated." She tells the receptionist whilst showing her badge. Two paramedics overhear this and rush to her aid as they bring a stretcher on wheels out to the front. The side door of the van is open with Penelope sitting asleep next to Bentley.
"Come on Bentley." Carmelita says as she undoes her seatbelt and carries her up from by her back onto the stretcher. The two paramedics help shuffle her on as Carmelita carries her legs safely onto the stretcher. They strap her to the stretcher so she doesn't roll off and they rush inside to treat her.
"Let's go and finish this skunk off." Carmelita says as she shuts the door.
"Right you are." Sly concurs as they drive off to find a suitable place to disappear from existence.
Meanwhile in the hospital, they are pushing Penelope at a brisk walk down the white aisles of the hospital, trying to get her to the appropriate ward.
"Diagnosis?" One of the paramedics asks.
"Still breathing but unconscious. Possible brain damage, we need an CT as soon as possible to get a better picture." The doctor explains before he dials up the imaging ward.
"Wait here for confirmation." He commands as he waits for the phone to pick up.
"Radiology."
"Is your CT scanner available for immediate use?"
"15 minutes, I'll slot you in." She says.
"15 minutes everyone." The doctor tells his two paramedics before they rush her over to an empty bay where they hook up an ECG machine to measure heart rate and blood pressure, which are now at stable levels. They rush of to treat another patient before they return back to Penelope to move her into the radiology ward for an CT scanner.
"Situation?" The radiologist asks.
"Possible brain damage, unconscious." He answers.
"Okay, onto the bench." She asks as they transfer her onto the thin bench that will slot her inside the large donut of the CT scanner.
"Thank you." She says as they run off to get another patient treated.
"Okay, let's look inside." She says to herself before Penelope is slowly pushed inside so her head is inside the imager. It takes less than 30 seconds for the scan to be completed and the body removed from the scanner. The mouse lies stationary as the results are uploaded to a computer in black and white. What she receives is a very unusual scan, shapes she has never seen before in working here. The rectangular shape at the back of the skull and the weird lines at the bottom make her more confused as to what it is. She quickly calls the head neurologist for advice, he comes rushing over as fast as he can to marvel at these images.
"Hold on a second." He says, looking in more detail. "These weird lines, I've seen them only a few days ago."
"I've never seen anything like it."
"It was a male, came in unconscious and had the same exact lines and details at the back as this one." He explains.
"We have to measure her brain activity, is the MRI room available?" She asks.
"If it isn't, I'll make it available." He replies with determination, he thinks he's on the verge of a major scientific discovery.
"What's the other patient's condition?" She asks.
"He's awake and stable but under police guard." He explains.
"Why?" She asks.
"He was poisoned, maybe he can help them." He says before rushing off to the MRI scanner just as a team of nurses helps Penelope onto a wheeled stretcher.
"Everyone we are moving her to MRI room 1." The head neurologist instructs to the nurses having just ran back from the MRI room. They push her through the artificially lit corridors in these basement levels of the hospital to the MRI room where several other specialists are waiting to see the results of the scan. They know that something unusual has come up and that perhaps the visualization of her brain activity can yield some answers. She is once again, has her head inserted inside a giant donut ring to be scanned. They watch and listen as the loud whirring of the MRI rings through the scanning room, when the machine is working, images of the brain activity come up on a computer screen.
"The central area of the brain is hyperactive in activity." A neurologist notes.
"Everything else is consistent with normal levels of activity." Another one adds.
"Can we rotate the scan?" One of them asks.
"Rotating scan." The operator concurs as they scan from side on instead of from the top.
"She is hyperactive in the limbic system, which means she must be in emotional overload." The head neurologist theorises.
"But what could have caused it?" One of them asks. "No one becomes unconscious for this long because they fainted from shock or surprise."
"Hang on." The neurologist who did the earlier scans interrupts. "Something doesn't add up." She says before rushing out to get a copy of the earlier CT scans. She returns, looking at them intently.
"These scans, they are not identical. The first one has a characteristic rectangular section as the back whereas these current ones don't show anything like that." She explains. "And also, what do you think about these extra lines at the bottom? I don't think they are nerves."
"They look like… wires."
A/N: The dialogue when Penelope faces off against Bentley before she collapses is a direct copy for Thieves in Time. This is property of Sanzaru Games Inc. and was used in order to show how this particular story line can be weaved in to existing material seamlessly.