A Fan-Based Crossover By Frozarburst

Based on Sly Cooper by Sucker Punch Productions

"Penelope!"

No rest for the weary. Penelope's head feels like it was struck by a cinder block. She opens her eyes before Bentley, leaning from his wheelchair to her face amidst a burning, crumbling altar. An old one made out of stone and glass material quickly coming apart at the seams.

"You ok?!"

"Mm…Bentley," she wondered. "W-where are we...?"

"That's what I was wondering. But first we gotta get ya outta here! Com'on! This place could give way at any moment!"

The mechanical arms from the tortoise's chair assist Penelope back on her feet and straightens her hair, unkept without her braid. She examines the place collapsing around her and turns to find Bentley already atop a mound of debris blocking the entrance. Together, they climb out; Penelope struggling to keep up from a crack in her round glasses. As she steps out the darkness into the main hallway, Bentley again picks up the pace, already sat in front of one of the exits near a support beam ready to give way. The light of the outside shines behind him like a heavenly sunshine.

"Hurry honey," he said darting around. "I think we're out of time!"

"Going as fast as I can, but it's like you're teleporting!"

And she's right. Once she gets close, a small explosion bursts beside her and Bentley is long gone. Vanished into thin air. Luckily, he was at the exit and Penelope knows her vision isn't too hot right now. He's probably gone forward. Outside in the old courtyard, the blood red ponds boil and flames shoot from the cups to the sides, along with an orange sky. The clocks along the exterior walls dissipate into a fine powder as the building gives way, imploding until it is nothing but a gaseous crater in a s field. Yet over the horizon, there's virtually nothing else left but where the mouse is standing. Like a video game, the only area loaded in is an empty flat-grassed wilderness. After the demolition, Bentley returns to Penelope as predicted.

"For someone who hasn't gone a heist in forever, your wheeling speed's still top-notch," she complimented.

"What're ya talkin' about," Bentley asked. "I just came from a heist not long ago."

"...You did…?"

"Yeah. In fact, it was to do with you, wasn't it? You were abducted by that armored knight in medieval times and I was just coming to rescue you and find out who was behind the mask.

While trying to recall, Penelope's overalls shift from a naval blue to a slight yellow tint. "I…don't remember any of that. Then again…"

"It was you in the suit, was it?"

"I built our prototype. Not a knight suit."

"But'cha did. I should've known it was you with the whole Black Baron/Black Knight persona again!"

Either Bentley and his chair are getting physically larger, or Penelope's beginning to shrink as the pressure builds. She doesn't even realize her clothes are shifting from what she was previously wearing to a jumpsuit that has yet to be resized. As her vision fades and she loses consciousness, her husband looks down upon her and calls her, "Traitor…"

Tales of the Gameverse

DRIVEN TO MADNESS

She sleeps a dreamless sleep. Penelope feels the grass she laid on, but still no recollection of events. It seems as if the world was rapidly changing along with herself and her husband. So many questions yet the one that overwhelms the others is, "Why did Bentley call me a traitor? What have I done?" She struggles to come up with an answer until she hears a feminine voice announce…

"Mornin' dudette!"

Penelope snaps awake before two familiar faces foreign to her world. She's greeted by the soft smile of a wolf-like anthro in gray. A Warmblood named Dust leaning close to her, partnered with an oddly towering Blinx, a Cat-Sith in blue and red. Apart from their height, something isn't quite right. Automatically, Penelope knows even Dust wouldn't say "Dudette" even if he was relaxed. Nor are he and Blinx a woman.

"Yeah… I get that a lot back home," she smirked.

"Dust," said Penelope. "Is that you? And since when did you get a sex change?"

"I'm not Dust. I'm special. I mean…I'm Sarah."

The Time Sweeper steps forward, "Special is what I called her, if you believe it."

"BLINX," Penelope sat back! "Wait, no. You're taller and you have a French accent. So you're like, uuuuuuuh…?"

"I am Brigitte. Commander of the late 24th Brigade. A Sweeper squad lost to time…"

She doesn't know how to respond. Penelope shakes her head trying to work out an explanation. "I've gotta be dreaming… Where the heck are we?"

"This is your world. Or rather a dreamy imitation of it clashing with another before a cosmic disturbance."

"But I don't remember what I was doing here before!"

"But you know who Dust and the Time Sweeper are," the Cat-Sith nodded. "How is that?"

"We worked with each other in a resistance against some corporate dictatorship," the mouse explained as she rose from the ground, brushing herself off. "The timeline got reset and I was rescued by a stupidly powerful mage. Some goat person I think. But that's all I can recall."

"Did you have a camera on you and hit flash," asked Sarah.

"Forgive her. She has a habit of asking silly questions like that," said Brigitte.

The Warmblood barked, "It's not silly! It's totally reasonable!"

"It's not like that," Penelope shook. "I think something must've gone wrong with reality. After all, if it's being rebooted, there's no telling what might've changed or if any of this is supposed to happen in the first place. Which means…you're not actually real."

Jumping to conclusions, she reaches for Brigitte's breasts and instantly realizes she exists.

"Careful. They're delicate."

The mouse freaks out, "Wha…?! Oh no…" She feels another breast then the woman's face. "Oooooh no…! Oh no! You exist!"

Sarah cheered, "Yeah! Isn't it awesome?!"

"So you two did come from the Time Factory! Or, I mean Brigitte did. I dunno about you, Sarah."

"I'm from Blackmoor."

"Then how come you look like Dust? Are you related?"

Sarah rocks, "No way! Dust is my idol! I wanted to be just like him ever since what he did with General Garry!"

"Gaius," Penelope corrected.

"That's what I said."

Brigette explains, "We've met sometime ago when I finally made it to Falana. Once I found her, she would not leave my sight. My intention was to regroup with the Time Sweepers toward the Advanced Regions per protocol. But this disturbance in reality called my attention to this very location."

"If this is just a copy of my world sitting on top another, what was it beforehand," asked Penelope.

"That I don't know. But I have a hunch this was where it all began. Whatever took place here has altered the entire universe. And you're the only one we could find."

The mouse shrugged, "At least we know it's not completely a timey whimey thing."

"I wouldn't say that. There are many worlds out there that have been put on pause so to speak because of this anomaly. It's my theory that this Toriel person can help us given her affinity for magic. Her world was one of the first I've visited before arriving here. But she has fled to a different location not far from where we're standing. A ship I borrowed is just over to the right."

Sarah winked, "That's cute for stolen."

It'd just better not be my van or Murray's gonna hold another funeral over it!

Bentley's voice chimed in on what seems to be a Binocucomm in Penelope's pocket. Strange that it seems to have magically appeared for her to use to speak to her husband.

"What the heck Bentley," she questioned him. "You kept jumping around earlier like you're running away from me!"

"Why not," he asked. "I thought you were trying to kill me!"

"What…?!"

"Who're you talkin' to," Sarah tilted.

"Oh! Sorry, it's my husband Bentley. He made these binoculars that double as communications."

As the Warmblood leaned close to the device to hear from him, nothing comes out.

"I don't hear anything."

"Probably just hung up. He said I was trying to kill him."

Sarah smirked, "I know we've known each other for about 2 minutes, but you don't sound like a serial killer."

Brigitte steps up, "Alternate histories, universes, mind control… There are all sorts of possible avenues for why your husband distrusts you. We'll figure it out as we go."

"If you say so," Penelope shrugged. "I'd just hate to slow you gals down."

"Your problem is our problem, Penelope. We will fix it."