Penelope groaned in discomfort as she tried to force her eyes open.
She was sore and sluggish all over.
And her head felt funny.
"Ugh…"
Penelope finally managed to open her eyes, just a quarter inch, which was tiring enough.
Must've been a science project binge.
The RC prodigy gagged and felt like she was about to vomit.
She coughed and coughed but nothing came out.
Or maybe something I ate.
Her vision started to sharpen and Penelope attempted to sit up, only to find to her increasing puzzlement that she couldn't.
Wha…what?!
Penelope was wide awake now.
She was upright at a certain angle, strapped to a wooden table with buckled leather straps.
Even her head was held in place, a leather strap across forehead, holding her in place, thus she couldn't even turn her head.
All she could do was avert her eyes and use her peripheral vision.
But seeing that most everything was blurred, Penelope realized that her glasses were gone.
All she could see was the table and straps, as she was nearsighted at least.
And everything else was the bright electric bulb of the lamp hanging above her head.
Everything else was just darkness.
Feeling cold fingers of fear grab her heart, Penelope squirmed or tried to.
The straps were so tight, her limbs were starting to go numb.
She never felt so scared in her life, not even when LeFwee had her as her prisoner.
But she mustered as much courage as she could to not show it.
And then, out of nowhere, almost without warning, and seeming to come from everywhere around the room, a voice, deep and menacing, spoke.
"Ah…you're finally awake. Now we can begin."
Penelope flinched.
She didn't recognize the voice, couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman.
But it was sickeningly deep and it made her skin crawl.
And the speaker had an accent, Eastern European or something.
"What do you want?" Penelope demanded, trying very hard to sound strong.
"Why you and your magnificent brain of course, my dear."
Penelope gulped, feeling beads of cold sweat trickling down her forehead and face.
"Wha-what are you going to do to me?"
"Nothing dear, nothing at all…in fact, I'm going to let you go."
No way, not a chance. Whoever this is, they wouldn't go through all that trouble of capturing unless they intended to get all that they can get out of me. I just hope Bentley isn't far behind.
"And before you waste my time and yours denying everything, I know who you are and what you're doing," said the voice of the captor.
Penelope balled her fists, the wrists strapped down.
"Do tell."
A deep laugh, more of a hollow titter echoed, which chilled Penelope to the bone.
"A bold one aren't you, Penelope Amelia Earhart, daughter of Phineas and Cordelia of the Earhart Estate in Kensington, London. And former RC specialist of the Cooper gang and now laboratory assistant to one Bentley Sheldonheimer."
Penelope gasped and then choked as she realized her reaction gave away everything.
A deep and mean chortle was heard.
"Yes my dear, I know everything. I make it my business to know my criminals. To know what they're into and what they're not. And who they're seeing."
Penelope bit back another gasp.
Bentley!
"Oh, don't worry my dear. Bentley is not who I'm after. Not directly anyway."
"If you hurt him-!"
"Oh, I'm not going to do anything to him…you are."
Penelope heard a sound of someone blowing some air and then some strange powdery substance blew into her face.
"Aghhh!"
Penelope was temporarily blinded as she accidentally inhaled the powder.
She coughed and hacked, trying to get it out of her mouth, nose and eyes.
It tasted strange.
But then all of Penelope's senses felt a tad strange.
And then the room lit up.
A strange noise, like a high-pitched humming building and decreasing, building and decreasing.
Penelope looked about the room, trying to determine what that noise was and where it was coming from.
Strange beams of light were being directed at her.
It was burning into her mind.
Penelope understood what was happening.
Brainwashing.
She couldn't look away, all she could do was shut her eyes.
But it didn't make a difference because whoever was here was forcing open her eyelids with their fingers.
"No! No! No! No!"
"Don't fight it, Penelope. Submit to it."
Penelope tried with her will to fight the hypnosis, but she could feel her mind slipping away.
"They…will…stop you," Penelope said, her voice starting to slur from the daze of the brainwashing.
"Who? The Cooper gang? I'm sure they will. But by that time, your mind will already be too far gone. I may lose another battle but your Bentley will have lost you forever."
Penelope's heart shattered as her memories began to go too.
No…please…no…where…who…? Bentley…please…help…
"SLY! You gotta help me!"
Sly's teeth bared at the scream in his antique commlink.
Despite the pain in his ear, Sly Cooper was deeply troubled by the alarm and fear in his friend's voice.
"Ow, Bentley, whoa, slow down. What's wrong?"
"It's…it's…terrible! So terrible! What am I going to do?!"
Bentley was crying now.
Crying his eyes out by the sounds of it.
Now Sly was starting to get scared himself.
"Bentley, please, breathe, now tell me what happened."
"PENELOPE'S BEEN KIDNAPPED!"
Sly's blood ran cold and his mind seemed to turn off.
But then he took hold of himself.
"Do you know who took her?" He asked calmly.
"No! All I got was this photo of Penelope! She was strapped down to a table and unconscious! No ransom note! Just a message on the back of the photo that says 'One ill turn deserves another'! Sly, I'm so scared! What are we going to do?!"
"Bentley! You need to breathe! We'll find her! I promise!"
Bentley, very carefully, stepped into the next room, readjusting his automatic walkers so they wouldn't make a sound.
AFTER DISCOVERY
Bentley threw one blow after another, tears streaming down his face.
"It can't be true!" He cried. "It can't have been a lie!"
Penelope just continued to grin cruelly.
"Like I've already told you, Bentley dear, it was an act, nothing more! A performance on a stage!"
"No. NO! All the time we've shared, the laughs we've had together! You can't make me believe that all of it was a lie!"
Bentley, with a screaming cry, threw a mighty right hook that connected with the plexiglass shield of Penelope's cockpit.
The glass shattered.
The impact was so devastating that Penelope's head threw back and her head connected with the wall of her suit behind her.
Her visor was knocked off.
She was discombobulated for a moment.
Bentley gasped, fearing that he had really hurt her.
Penelope's head was still lifted back from the hit, but her mouth was visible as it stretched into a manic snarl.
Penelope lowered her head back as she stared at Bentley with raging, hateful eyes.
They were blood red and wild.
Almost as though they were glowing red.
Bentley's mind froze.
"What the..?"
He knew those eyes.
The infamous side effects of spice-induced hypnosis.
The smell of Cajun spice in Penelope's workshop.
The strange humming in the castle.
Sheer unbridled aggression that he had never seen, not even from Clockwerk.
And then it hit him.
The illegal spice.
The bright lights.
The Contessa.
Bentley understood at once.
And a great weight was lifted from his heart.
Bentley could cry of joy now.
It was all lies, but not all.
That was not Penelope at all.
She was simply brainwashed all along.
Enraged beyond reason, Penelope roared as her hands came free and she reached through the cockpit and her hands wrapped around Bentley's throat.
Bentley, exhausted already from sleep deprivation as well as the fight, couldn't put up much of a fight.
But he had enough strength and breath, just for this.
With one hand, Bentley activated his commlink.
"Sly…" He choked. "…hypno rings…castle…find…destroy them…hurry…"
"What? Why-? Bentley? What's wrong? Bentley? Bentley!"
Penelope clenched her eyes, as though a great struggle was going on in her mind.
Then she opened them, but only one eye was glowing red and filled with murder, while the other was clear and light-brown.
It was filled with terrible sadness and shame.
A tear streamed out and down her cheek.
"Bent…ley…" she choked as though she were in great pain.
"Yes! Yes! Penelope! Fight it! Help me!"
The turtle felt Penelope's grip loosen.
And then one hand wrenched free as it took hold of the other wrist as though the hand was at war with the other.
But she couldn't wrench it free, no matter how hard she tried.
But she fought like the devil anyway.
"You?!"
The Contessa smiled cruelly. "Me."
"So…it was you all along!" Carmelita snarled.
"Indeed. How I longed for this reunion, dear."
More furious than he has ever been, Sly tightened his grip on his cane, so much so it might've snapped in two if it weren't made of such durable ironwood.
"Why? Just why?! What did Penelope ever do to you?!"
"What did she do to me?" Contessa threw back her head and cackled.
A chilling sound that was so unsettling, even the valiant exterior of Carmelita Fox was shaken.
"Sly, I think she's snapped."
"No kidding."
It was almost a full minute before the Contessa ceased her manic laughter.
"Come now, Cooper. You must've guessed by now that she was never the target."
Sly's eyes blazed with murderous hatred.
"Bentley, because he sprung me and Murray in Prague, snatched your flawless reputation as a prison warden and mental health specialist right out from under you."
"Yes!" Contessa snapped. "He destroyed me! Ruined my life! Took everything! So I took everything from him! I planned this for years! But nothing I could do would be enough! I wanted it to hurt! And when she joined your little gang and she took up with that cripple, I've never been happier because now I could destroy him by attacking his heart! That is the most painful way you can kill a man and leave them alive!"
Carmelita exploded. "YOU HEARTLESS WITCH! YOU'RE GOING TO BURN FOR THIS!"
Contessa chuckled. "No Inspector, it is you who will burn today."
Bentley managed to throw Penelope off of himself.
Her eyes seemed to glow hotter from the effects of the spice.
And then Penelope gripped her skull and screamed.
"Penelope!" Bentley cried in distress as he reached out to his love.
But he was held back as mech fighters seized him from behind.
"Hey! Let go of me!"
Two held his arms while a third brandished a massive circular saw and prepared to cut Bentley in two, Moat Monster and all.
Bentley screamed in panic. "Ahhh! Help!"
Penelope, still writhing in agony, opened one eye.
It was totally clear and free of any spice-induced madness.
"Bent…ley…" she groaned.
Terrified beyond belief, Bentley tried desperately to lean back to avoid the saw.
But it was no use, the mech fighters were too strong.
Not even the weaponized and upgraded Moat Monster was a match.
Bentley couldn't move, he was trapped.
He was going to die.
Bentley screamed.
Penelope's writhing became less violent as both eyes trained on the horrific scene.
"Bent…Bent…Bentley…"
Baring her teeth, clenching her eyes, Penelope instinctively grabbed the controls of her mech suit.
It took everything in her just to do that.
Must save Bentley. Must save Bentley. MUST SAVE BENTLEY!
Her suit, seemingly on overdrive, reached behind its back, took hold of a metallic block blinking a glowing green light.
And Penelope, with an impossible struggle, ripped it off, wires loose and sparking as she tossed it into a nearby sewer drain.
The built-in mind shuffler had been disabled.
Penelope's eyes shot open and a hideous visage of rage stretched across her face, only this time, the red eyes were gone, only her natural brown.
Penelope, in full control, leapt forward with a great cry from the bottom of her heart.
"BENTLEY!"
She seized the mech fighter with the saw from behind, lifted over her head and threw it down on the cobblestone.
She took hold of its saw arm and ripped it off.
Then she used the still active saw to cut off its remaining arm.
Lifting a mighty foot, she crushed its head underfoot.
Bentley watched in tearful awe.
The two mechs who had him paused, watching the scene with blank comprehension, their CPU's unable to process this illogical turn of events.
A subject that has broken free of their mistress' mind shuffler.
A fatal mistake.
Penelope grabbed one by its head, drove it to its knees and tore the head off from its shoulders.
The other mech fighter, snapping out of its stupor, let go of Bentley and charged at Penelope.
With the grace and dexterity of a Major Leaguer, Penelope threw the severed mech head and it connected with the force of a missile with the charging mech's face, caving it in.
It dropped like a puppet with its strings suddenly cut.
Bentley smiled happily, tears running down his face.
"…Penelope."
Dropping from the towers above like a bomb, two more mech fighters came down on Penelope, particle weapons at the ready.
Bentley, beside himself with a mixture of intense emotions, called out. "Penny!"
"I know!"
Penelope raised her iron fists, standing tall to meet the oncoming foes.
One of the mech fighters rushed her with a massive bayonet, but Penelope skillfully caught it, twisted it until it snapped off and drove it into the mech's head.
She tossed it aside as its lights went out.
The last one attempted to shoot her at point-blank range.
But Penelope raised her shields and the blast deflected, the explosion bounced off and caused the mech fighter to step back. Penelope emerged from the fire of the blast like a vengeful apparition. She delivered a right hook to the mech's face, snapped its blaster arm in half, and bent it in an angle, rigged its wiring, causing it to fire into the mech's face.
Half of its face plating melted away but it was still in the fight.
Penelope brandished her secret weapon.
Four rocket launchers emerged from her shoulders.
Penelope fired and the rockets put the mech fighter through the castle wall.
The fighter was now in smoldering, sparking and oil-leaking pieces among burning and broken wall stones, right before his oil caught fire and he combusted completely.
Penelope turned toward Bentley, who was still sitting up, awestruck and in tears.
"Penelope…" he croaked.
"Bents…are you ok?"
Bentley smiled. "Much better now that you're back."
Penelope smiled tearfully. "My Moat Monster?"
"What's left of it."
"I can see you made adjustments. Can't wait to hear how you did it, honey."
Contessa gawked at her surveillance servers, at her ruined mech army.
And her most valuable asset, now free from her invisible chains.
"NO! That's impossible! No one's will is strong enough to defy my mind shuffler!"
Holding himself up with his cane, Sly grinned smugly. "Guess there are minds that even you can't break, Contessa."
Contessa snarled, her face twisting, her red eyes burning with such a terrible hatred, spittle and a myriad of unspecified curses flying from her mouth, it looked as though she had finally gone over the edge.
Sly knew this was a bad sign.
The Contessa, seeing her ultimate defeat, would more than likely do something drastic.
She pulled out her communicator.
"Klaus! Are you still operating?!"
"Yes mistress! What is your command?"
"Contact the tower turret on the east wing. Order them to fire on Penelope and the turtle!"
Sly's eyes grew huge. He attempted to pull himself to his feet but he was still too weak.
"No…" He croaked.
"Penelope? Mistress, I thought-
Contessa screamed into the speaker. "I GAVE YOU AN ORDER! OPEN FIRE NOW!"
The door exploded and an orange blur flashed into the room.
Carmelita crashed into the Contessa, but it was already too late.
Through the window, it could be seen that the tower turret opened fire and a guided missile jettisoned toward the courtyard where Penelope and Bentley were.
Sly and Carmelita screamed in unison.
"NOOOO!"
Bentley and Penelope watched in horror as the fiery projectile closed in on them.
At that, desperation and terror overriding her movement, Penelope acted.
In a split second, she pushed Bentley away.
She rerouted the remaining power in her suit and activated the ray shields.
And she took a stance as she pulled a robotic fist back.
Horrified, Bentley reached out. "Penelope! NO!"
With a roar of unmitigated rage, straight from the depths of her soul as her impact absorption technology in her gauntlets activated, Penelope delivered a powerful right hook right into the nose of the missile.
The result was astounding.
And terrifying.
Penelope's suit seemed to contain and absorb most of the blast and the sound.
But her suit was severely damaged in the ferocity of the battle.
Penelope's absorption technology overloaded, her ray shields cracked and shattered like glass, and the power of the blast sent her flying across the courtyard and into the castle wall.
Bentley's mouth was open in a silent scream.
The limbless suit, now embedded in the wall, a blackened form slipped out and fell out of the cockpit.
Penelope, every inch of her singed, smoking and blackened, did not move an inch.
Contessa threw her head back and cackled wildly.
A distraught Sly grit his teeth and slammed a fist on the stone floor over and over and over again.
"Penelope," Carmelita whispered in a broken voice.
"No! No! No! No!"
Sly cried out as he continued to slam his fist on the floor, sobbing, his voice tinged with anger and grief.
Contessa looked at her enemies and their misery and smiled. "If you're concerned about your little friend being lonely in the next world, you'll join her soon enough."
Sly raised his head, tears staining his grey cheeks, lips peeled off his teeth, eyes filled with a burning hatred.
He tried to get up but he was still too weak.
Carmelita on the other hand was not.
She took aim with her shock pistol.
But the Contessa had already fled down the hall.
Carmelita gave chase.
"Nice shot, Hans!"
The firing crew in the turret tower were laughing as they saw the results of their evil works.
"That turtle still made it. And now that stupid hippo is in there too. One more mortar will do it."
"Look at them, crying over that stupid girl! It's priceless!"
"Whatever, prepare to fire."
"Say, what's that in the distance?"
"Huh? It kinda looks like a…"
BOOM!
In the distance, up on a hill overlooking the castle, Panda King crossed his arms, a severe, unforgiving look on his face.
He watched with grim satisfaction as one of the towers burst into flames.
"Cowardly animals."
"Penelope, answer me!"
A hysterical Bentley cradled the girl, calling out to her, praying for any sign of life in her.
Penelope's lavender fur was blackened and singed.
Patches of hair were burned away, leaving second degree burns.
Murray stood over them, stockstill, seemingly in shock.
"She's not breathing!" Bentley screamed. "Someone help me! PLEASE!"
An aged voice spoke gently in Bentley's ear.
The turtle turned to see the Guru, his staff in one hand and a bag in the other.
Speaking his usual incomprehensible Aboriginal language, Guru relayed that he had the means to save Penelope's life.
"You can do that?" Bentley asked, face wet with tears.
Murray put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Master's not only a meditation expert, he comes from a long line of medicine men."
Guru nodded as he instructed Bentley to lift Penelope's head.
"Open her mouth," Guru said in his native tongue.
Bentley did so and Guru squeezed a mixture of nectar and herb into Penelope's throat.
Then he cracked open a strange fruit.
"This is to help the burns for her eyes."
Guru applied the creamy nectar of the strange fruit like some sort of medicinal balm and put it on Penelope's eyelids.
"Did that help?" Bentley asked anxiously. "Is she going to make it?"
Guru placed his hands gently on Penelope's chest and head.
He closed his eyes and listened.
After one agonizing minute, he opened his eyes, tinged with sadness but some hope.
"We'll know in the morning."
"Start the plane, Reginald."
A Dalmatian nodded obediently from the cockpit as he started the engine of the Contessa's personal luxury plane.
Contessa leapt from the runway and prepared to board the plane through the open passenger door.
But as she was entering the cabin, Carmelita emerged and drop-kicked the mad woman out.
The Inspector had beat the Contessa to her plane and waited for the right moment to strike.
The pilot pulled his gun but the Inspector, without even looking, aimed and fired.
The pilot's back arched as the shock bolt went through his body and slumped forward unconscious.
With the pilot down and out, the steering was unmanned and his face pressing down into the controls caused the plane to very slowly turn in a 360 degree turn.
Carmelita leapt out of the plane and flipped masterfully, landing on her feet.
Picking herself up from the runway, Contessa lifted her head to stare ruefully at the inspector.
"How dare you," she seethed.
"Give yourself up, Contessa. It's over."
"NEVER!"
The Contessa lunged at Carmelita, prepared to fight to the death, for she knew in herself that there was only one future for her.
Surrender was not an option.
Carmelita blocked and dodged the Contessa's terrible blows.
She focused entirely on defense.
Carmelita could see in the Contessa's eyes that she was past crazy.
She was kill-crazy.
She saw it in the eyes of many criminals.
If she let the Contessa get the upper hand, she was as good as dead.
Sly barely managed to get to his feet, even walking was a difficult ordeal for him.
He had almost fallen, until grabbed him.
"Gotcha bro."
"D-Dimitri?"
The purple iguana lifted up Sly and proceeded to carry him in the fireman's lift.
"The…the others?"
"Zip the lip, boss. Put the jabber to a minimum. You're hurt."
"Pen…Pen…is she..?"
Dimitri's eyes were filled with sadness.
"Senorita is hurt bad, bro. For now, we boogie out of here and like lightning. Ya dig?"
Sly groaned.
Carmelita sat up, nursing her jaw.
Some of her teeth felt loose.
A triumphant Contessa stood over her, hands raised, daring the inspector to stand up.
She was completely oblivious to the airplane's propeller blades coming ever closer behind her.
Carmelita's eyes grew huge in horror, seeing what was about to happen.
She curled up and covered her head protectively.
Contessa cocked an eyebrow, finding Carmelita's sudden behavior strange.
But then her blood ran cold as she realized something.
She turned her head.
And then she screamed before she was cut to pieces by the plane's propeller.
Penelope's tired eyes opened gradually.
She was sore all over, as though her body had been through the ringer.
She saw nothing but white light.
Panic seeped into her soul.
No! Not that place again!
She sat up with a terrified cry.
"No, get these things off me!"
"Penelope, it's ok!"
Hands gently grabbed Penelope by the shoulders to keep her steady.
Penelope, still not quite seeing straight, struggled like her life depended on it.
She thrashed and struggled, tears flowing down her cheeks.
"Let go of me! Let go of me!"
"Penelope! Calm down! It's me! It's Carmelita!"
The lavender mouse halted in her hysterics.
And then she felt a large strong and comforting hand on her back and another place what she knew to be her glasses on her head.
Penelope adjusted them and placed them on properly.
"Murray?"
Penelope heard a giggle that clearly didn't belong to Murray.
"Jing King?!"
"The one and only."
Penelope looked up and saw the kind face of the Panda King's daughter, Jing.
"Why are you-?"
Carmelita smiled. "She snuck along when she heard you were in trouble. Turns out, she's very good at preparing medicine. Which is why most to all of the spice should be out of your system by now."
"Thank goodness," Penelope said, her voice barely a whisper.
She looked up at Jing with a tearful smile.
"Thank you Jing, I mean it."
"You're welcome my little friend."
Penelope choked on a laugh. Little? Well, she's not wrong.
Calm for the moment, Penelope examined her surroundings and herself.
She saw that she was wearing a lime-green patient gown.
And she was in a white room, a window showing it was clearly night, and
"Where…where..?"
"In a safehouse in Bad Liebenzell, just outside Stuttgart," Carmelita said. "Penelope, do you remember what happened?"
"Me and Bentley, we were…we were…"
Penelope stopped dead as she began to remember.
"Wait…"
Carm and Jing exchanged quick glances before they knelt by Penelope's bedside.
Horror dawned on Penelope's face as her memories started coming back to her.
"Oh no…oh no…" she squeaked, her voice breaking.
"Penelope…" Jing King said.
"Bentley…he…where's Bentley?!"
"He's fine," Carmelita said.
UNFINISHED…
IMPORTANT NOTE: All credit belongs to tumblr username - theabbystabby
I got the idea from one of her pics.