Dressed to Steal

by Tatsurou

Time Out: We Do Routines And Chorus Scenes

When Uncle Bentley heard Uncle Razor's report, he was enraged. It took everything we could all bring to muster to keep him from charging out to hunt down Seft and 'introduce him to industrial strength Raid'. Even as he kept trying to charge past us with his wheelchair he was trying to mix the incredibly toxic spray. Eventually, we managed to get him to slow down and calm down, telling him that trying to confront Seft himself was suicide...at the very least because, given Seft's track record, he probably knew Razor was listening and expected just that tactic and would be ready for him, and what good would that do Penelope?

That managed to snap him out of it and calm him down, or at least that's the way it seemed. We immediately settled down to plan how we'd fix the present situation...and that meant finding a way to draw Seft out so we could attack him directly. Unfortunately, all we knew for sure of his motives was that he was working for Le Paradox, who seemed to want to collect the Cooper Canes for some reason. At least, that's all we knew of his motivations at the moment. We did our best to plan...and in the process took our eyes off Uncle Bentley...

---

Bentley wheeled himself into the center of town, where he knew he'd be spotted sooner or later by the guards. That was okay. That was exactly his plan. It just needed to happen before the others noticed he was gone and came looking for him, and without making a ruckus that would draw their attention. It was a matter of luck now...especially as far as which guards he encountered-

"Halt!" a robotic voice barked out. One of the robotic wolf-men had caught sight of him. "You are violating curfew, and you will be-"

Bentley spun to face it. "Take me to Penelope," he ordered flatly. "I'm sure she'll want to see me."

The guard hesitated, and Bentley smirked. That confirmed it, Penelope programmed these guards herself. He'd noticed it while they were working together. She always programmed the drones that operated independently with limited free will and specific programmed directives...and always included a few voice commands that would shift them to a different behavior pattern. And apparently, the one coded into these guards was a request to see her in his voice.

"This way," the guard instructed, pointing towards the castle. Bentley turned his chair in that direction, letting the guard harry him along as though he were a prisoner. Other guards ignored the small procession, keeping the entire trip rather quiet. The only noise was the drawbridge lowering to let him in.

It didn't take long to find the Black Knight, and seeing the robotic armor visibly double-take would have been amusing in just about any other situation. "B-Bentley?" Penelope gasped, her voice distorted by the armor. "What are you doing here?"

"Surrendering," Bentley responded immediately.

The Black Knight, having been somewhat off balance by the double-take, slowly teetered over until it crashed to the ground. "What?" Penelope gasped out as the armor unfolded to make her visible.

"I'm surrendering," Bentley explained simply. "I won't fight you. I care too much about you to do that."

Penelope lowered her gaze, unable to meet Bentley's eyes. "Bentley...how can you still? I...I stole the time machine plans for Le Paradox...I created this whole situation...I...I got into it of my own will when I thought I was doing the right thing...and now I can't get out! I just keep going deeper-"

"Sounds like you need a friend to help you out, then," Bentley offered warmly, wheeling himself forward to be closer to her. "We need to-" "-that remote from Seft, right?"

Penelope's eyes widened in terror and sorrow as she saw Bentley briefly flicker in and out of existence. "Yes...yes we do," she agreed firmly. "And...sooner rather than later. But...but the only way to do that-"

"Get Galleth's cane, smash the van, kill Sly," Bentley interrupted. "Yeah, I know. So let me help you."

Penelope's jaw dropped. "You'd...you'd really help me...kill Sly?" she managed to get out. She didn't even want to kill Sly, not really. She just didn't have a choice in the matter, not with what Seft was holding over her.

"I'm going to help you get out from under Seft's tail," Bentley responded readily. "Each of us has our own strengths with tech, and each of us is quite brilliant...so let's see what weapons come out when we put our heads together." His grin turned a trifle wicked. "Whichever way they're pointing. Let's see what the two of us can make of Operation Overlord."

Penelope managed a sad smile. She understood what Bentley was suggesting...but she didn't know if they'd be able to pull it off. "Alright. Let's go." The armor closed up...and wiggled. "Uh...little help?"

Smiling, Bentley extended the claw arms of his wheelchair to right the fallen armor. Claw in gauntlet, the pair moved deeper into the castle.

---

By the time we realized Bentley was gone, we had no way of tracking him. Since we'd heard no disturbance in the city, we could only assume he'd gone out into the woods for some nature and air, and hope that Robyn Hood found him and looked after him. We were sure he'd turn up at just the right time to help us.

We eventually determined that our only workable plan of action was to get into the castle and confront Penelope. One thing we'd noticed about Seft was that he adored the drama and challenge of a face to face confrontation. Back in our first confrontation with him, he could have easily just turned his 'attrition room' into a death trap specifically designed to be anti-Cooper, but he instead arranged it to let him fight Dad with his own hand-pincers. And when he had the chance to finish him off, he instead chose to withdraw and fight Dad at full strength later. Well, Dad was full strength now. If Seft was going to get that fight, it would need to be now.

We could have blasted our way in with the Turbokat, but the last thing we wanted was to discover when we least expected it that Seft had a counter to it after wasting our ammo. As a result, we made some bombs out of contemporary resources. Sir Galleth collected some fire bulbs, while Dad managed to win a bottle of Merlin's Magic Powder in the carnival at an archery game...from none other than one of Robyn's Merry Mavericks. Looked like we'd be seeing her in the final confrontation, too.

Comments

[alfonso_rd_33]

Oh Tats you spoil us... 2: 25 AM and new Dressed to Steel is out... and Bentley got to do mad science with the bae....!

Edited to add FIRST!

[J-90]

... Kinda hoping when fight with Seft happens they atleast seriously injure him. Like ripping his tail off with some mechanical help...
Just saying...

[Dustchu]

Hmm, veeeeeeery interesting, very interesting... I wonder how this final confrontation will go.
Hmm...

Good show!

[Starcat5]

8437917

1 views

You may have posted first, but I was here first.

On topic now. Can't wait to see what is causing Bentley to approach Zero Sum like this. I'm on the edge of my seat over it.

[Kenshinryuu]

Penelope and Bentley working together are going to make something awesome! And maybe Cocco has learned how to do a good Kawarimi so she can swap a dummy in for Sly that gets killed. Make it out of feral animal parts to supply blood and guts and Seth might fall for it.

8437929 agreed, then they shove it where the sun don't shine!

[Starcat5]

8437963
Good idea, but it won't work. There is time travel involved. Whatever that remote will do to Bentley, it will happen to him at a previous point along his personal time line.

[the other sans]

Even if there's a remote chance of winning, Bentley is gonna take it.

If Bentley and Penelope could weaponise feels, they certainly did in this chapter.

Best way to stock up on MP items is minigames eh SLy?

[the one guy on the left]

8437963
Wow...you guys are seriously tame at this revenge thing.

[cyberlord4444]

8437917
Twilight: Pft, amateurs, let me show you how it's done. Nefarious, pass me the self-sealing stembolts.

[alfonso_rd_33]

8437963
then shove Seft where the sun doesn't do the shining on a kaiju's body please...

[ShogunWriter106]

What species is Seft again? Please remind me. *behind me is a pile of various hunting equipment*

[Kenshinryuu]

8438381 Tats usually comes up with a better long term solution to villains who can't be redeemed. I just have immediate short term punishments.

[Kenshinryuu]

8437987 This is why I shouldn't comment before bed, I meant a dummy of SLY.

[Fareseed]

As I though. With him being pushed to the side so much, Bently would be more inclined to help Penelopy.

8439407
Scorpion.

[Just Defender]

Were this not a mlp crossover, I'd say the harsh critic Sly fans would accept this as canon.

[Jake Witt]

8439407
Hint! Hint! Here's a hint! I said, "Hint! Hint! Here's a hint!"

In Kombat, beware the words...
GET OVER HERE!!!

[ShogunWriter106]

8440298
8440008
Thank you both! *takes out a flyswatter and whacks it in my hoof*

[TheRedButcher]

I hope Seft's end is a painful one.

[the one guy on the left]

8441745
More like taking a page from lionhead studios.