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In the dead of night, in a medium sized apartment in some alien dimension, the famous Cooper gang gets to work. The night before, they were sucked through a wormhole along with many others by a robot entity calling itself "the Mastermind", who explained he was going to make them fight for the amusement of others. They got a good night's sleep previously (they had slept with bigger issues on their minds in the past) and the world class master thieves were hard at work. Bentley, the box turtle who served as the team's brains, looked through his coke-bottle glasses at the computer screen in his wheelchair. Being the master hacker that he was, Bentley had broken into the Mastermind's computer systems, giving him access to the blueprints of the building that they were being held prisoner in. Murray, the large pink hippo who served as the team's muscle, looked over Bentley's shoulder while leaning on one of the bunk-beds that they had slept in the night before. On the screen was some sort of map of the air vents, with a red dot representing team leader Sly Cooper. In the right corner of the screen was a counter that showed there was one about two minutes left.

Bentley spoke to Sly into a headset, "Sly, you're almost at the Mastermind's control center, but hurry up! In two minutes, the security systems will come back online and who knows what will happen if they find out you escaped the room?!?"

Sly answered back "Don't worry Bentley, I will have this bug placed in no-time, you can count on it." Sly slithered through the air vents in his raccoon way, but he couldn't help but feel something was...off about these vents. He had climbed into a lot of vents in his time, but he had never seen one so clean. No dust, no mold, no vermin, nothing. Something just felt wrong about the vents. But before Sly could ponder that some more, he came to a grate.

"OK Bentley, I made it, what now?" asked Sly, looking through the air grate. He could see a bunch of henchmen in bright orange jumpsuits with helmets on and rifles slung over their backs. The helmets covered the faces of the guards like motorcycle helmets. The room appeared to be a large white laboratory, filled with computer monitors and control panels.

Bentley responded "Just place the bug on the grate, we don't have the time to put it in a better spot." Sly took the small metal device and placed it as instructed before quickly turning back the way he came. He crawled as fast as he could, passing many air vents that led all over the building, before seeing the light of his destination, with the grate already open. Sly jumped out, rolled along the floor in a ball before getting up to an upright position, grinning and leaning on his trademark cane. The timer counted down the last few seconds before it beeped, pointing out that the security systems were back online, starting off hundreds of criss-crossing lasers inside the air vent.

As Bentley used the robot arms in his wheelchair to reattach the grate to the air vent, Murray gave Sly two thumbs up and told him "Alright Sly, you did it, and beat your old record too!"

"The Mastermind should have known not to kidnap a Cooper." smirked Sly. Just as Bentley had made it look like the grate had not moved from where it once was, someone pounded on the door. It opened, revealing two of the henchmen that Sly had seen from the air vent. One had a mostly round face helmet while the other had one that seemed to protrude forward, suggesting he had a muzzle underneath.

"Hey, it's time to fight." the one with the snout ordered. The gang, knowing they had no other choice, went with them, carrying their gear to the arena. Sly looked over his shoulder and noticed that behind them in the carpeted hallway were the Road Rovers, who they met the day before, also walking under armed guard.

Sly asked one of the guards "Hey, where are the others?".

"They are already at the viewing box." replied the guard as they got to a white door at the end of the hallway marked 'arena'. Bentley noticed that it seemed pretty small for an arena entrance. The guards opened the door, with an empty white space on the other side with the roar of a very large crowd echoing from it. The round faced guard explained "OK, so before you go in, you want any allies to be called in for you?"

The gang of three looked at each other and could tell from the looks on their faces what the answer was. "No." Sly answered sternly. They stepped over to the door and saw that the ground dropped many feet down.

"OK", said the guard, holding back a giggle. "I would watch out. It's a long way down. SPARTAN KICK!" The guard gave the trio a sharp kick out the door, sending them falling. The two guards started laughing hysterically, the one with the muzzle slapping his knees.

"You did it! Ha-ha!" laughed the round-head guard. "Guess I owe you a beer!" They walked off past the two round-head guards that were escorting the Road Rovers, with Shag the sheepdog trembling in fear. Exile the husky turned his head to one of the guards.

"Hey weird orange boy." he snapped, "If you try any funny stuff on us, I'll freeze you like mammoth in glacier."

"OK, OK, jeez. Touchy." responded the guard. They walked over to the doorway that was still open from before. The other guard also asked the Rovers if they wanted an ally to join in their battle. Their team leader Hunter thought about it for a few seconds.

"Alright, we'll call in an ally." he said "Can you get Muzzle?"

"I don't know who that is, but I'm going to say yes." answered the henchman, punching something into a device on his wrist.

"Cool, thanks" approved Hunter with a smile. He walked over to the doorway and jumped, followed by Exile and team martial artist Colleen. Shag whimpered, too scared to leap.

The German doberman Blitz told him "Oh, come on, Shag. It's just a little jump." Shag grabbed a hold of his team mate, preparing to leap. "Wait, what are you doing!?!?" objected Blitz. Shag jumped, causing Blitz to shriek all the way down. The guards slammed the door behind them.

...

Meanwhile, all the rest of the captives were waiting in a special viewing box built into the arena's wall. It was some what large, but still too small for everyone inside to have their personal space. Some sat and thought about what they were going to do once they escaped. Others were helping themselves to the various foods made available to them. Brian Griffin was looking out the large viewing window, drinking a beer. On his right stood a large dog in a grey suit and hat with no shoes. It was freelance police officer Sam, eating a large hoagie.

They both looked at the arena. It was mostly a white empty space, with a large glass dome on top, where they could see a large crowd made up of many species.

"So, pal. Who do you think is going to win?" asked Sam with a mouth full of hoagie.

"You aren't betting on this are you?" Brian asked in response.

"Well, not so much betting as made a deal with my partner that if the dogs loose, he gets to drive the police car." commented Sam, pointing over to his short, rabbit(ish) partner behind him, playing poker with Buck the weasel.

"You two don't have many morals, do you?" questioned Brian, taking a swig of beer.

"Not as far as we know." answered Sam nonchalantly, "Say, the fight is starting." With that, almost everyone dropped what they were doing minus the more stone faced captives to see what would happen.

The crowd roared as fanfare played and the Mastermind started talking over a speaker. "Welcome ladies and gentlemen, to the event I'm sure you've all been waiting for. Welcome to 'Battle Fur Freedom'! And now, for our first event, we have a capture the flag match against two teams known for doing the almost impossible. On the left, the latest generation in a family that's been pulling off heists since ancient times, the trio of life-long friends who always have each other's backs, it's the Cooper gang!" Half of the crowd roared with joy. Bentley and Sly just waved, not knowing what to think about this many strangers knowing who they were, while Murray was giving the people what they wanted, flexing his muscles in a showy way. "And on the right, they are the pets of world leaders, who save the world with superpowers given to them by the transdogmafier. They are the Road Rovers!" Suddenly, the other half of the crowd who hadn't cheered before were cheering their hearts out. Hunter waved at them.

"Hunter, don't you think it's a little suspicious that all these people know who we are?" observed Colleen.

"What's that Colleen? I couldn't hear you over all the nice people." asked Hunter. Colleen rolled her eyes.

"Alright, let's get this fight started!" the Mastermind shouted, causing the entire crowd to scream with anticipation. Suddenly, the white walls of the arena started to glow brightly with a loud buzzing sound. Both teams covered their eyes to avoid the flash.

When Sly and the gang opened their eyes, they were back in Paris, moon shining down on them as they stood atop the roof of their hideout.

"Hey guys, it looks like we're back home!" shouted Murray.

"I wouldn't speak too soon Murray." Bentley stated in a slightly nervous voice, pointing up. Sly and Murray looked up to see the same glass viewing dome for the audience way up in the sky. Sly looked over his shoulder to see a flagpole that was flying a blue flag with the Cooper Gang logo, a blue raccoon face, on it. Using his binocucom, Sly could see the Road Rovers. Bentley asked "What do you see, Sly?"

"It's those dogs, they are based at the INTERPOL HQ." answered Sly. He noticed the Road Rovers had an orange flag with a red circle on it. Inside said circle was a mad dog symbol. He also noticed something materialize alongside them. "Now some other dog in a straight jacket just appeared on the roof."

"Ha,they expect to use crazy dogs against 'the Murray'?!?!? They have another thing coming!" boasted Murray, jabbing the air with his fists.

"Hold on Murray. We need a plan first." Bentley told him, pulling out a high power laser pointer. "Now, this isn't one of my masterpieces, but we don't have time to plan this out like a normal heist. Lucky for us, we have the hometown advantage." Bentley circled a man-hole cover in the street in front of their hideout with the laser pointer. "Sly, you go through the sewers, sneak onto the roof and then move as fast as you can back here." Bentley started to trace an arrow in the street pointed towards INTERPOL HQ. "Murray, you try to distract some of them while Sly sneaks under the streets, and I'll keep watch over the flag here." Bentley put the laser pointer away and told his friends "OK, now go."

Sly and Bentley jumped into the streets below. "Hey Murray, you mind helping me?" Sly asked. Murray gave him a thumbs up and ripped the man hole cover right off. Sly gave him a silent salute of thanks before he jumped into the sewer.

Meanwhile, the Rovers were making their own plans.

"OK, so Colleen, you and Exile stand guard, and me, Shag, Blitz and Muzzle will go for the flag." explained Hunter.

"I still don't see why you don't use my idea." growled Blitz.

"Well, for one thing, we would all go while you stand here and flex in front of the crowd." pointed out Colleen.

"I know, brilliant right?" asked Blitz with a smile.

Exile crossed his arms and stared at Blitz. "Don't be weird boy." he ordered. Blitz rolled his eyes as he pushed the dolly cart that held Muzzle the rottweiler in place.

A few minutes later, as the four dogs walked down the street, a loud thump came from an alley.

"Beware, Rovers, for you have to face the wrath of.....the Murray!!!!" bellowed Murray, as he flexed to intimidate the Rovers.

Blitz unleashed his sharp claws and teeth and quipped "Oh, a big pink hippo, I'm so scared. Not going to be so tough when I bite you on the toushie!"

"Wait, bite me on my what?!?!" replied Murray. He jumped out of the way of one of Blitz's slashing claws, which ended up slicing a garbage can in half. Murray kept dodging Blitz's attacks, until he stomped on the ground as hard as he could, sending Blitz up into the air and into Murray's hands, held over the hippo's head.

"What are you doing?" asked a nervous Blitz.

"Sending you to a world of pain!!" yelled Murray as he threw Blitz through the air, screaming at the top of his lungs.

He slammed into a brick wall and said "Ouch." before suddenly turning into a bright flash of white light, leaving only his outline on the wall. He ended up in the viewing box with all the rest, slumping down onto the floor.

Shag barked at Hunter, pointing at Muzzle. "Your right Shag," agreed Hunter, undoing the straps on Muzzle, "It's time to Muzzle this guy!"

"Muzzle?" asked Murray, scratching his head, "Why do you guys talk so funny?!?!" Suddenly, Muzzle burst from his confines, snarling and foaming at the mouth. Murray tried to sock Muzzle in the jaw, but Muzzle chopped down on his fist, causing him to scream in pain. Bentley was watching from his binocucom as Muzzle got to work. He kept flinching at the site of what the creature was doing to Murray.

"Oh no! Oh man! This is worse then that 'True Tales of the ER' book Sly got me!" he squealed. Soon, Murray was teleported to the viewing box as well.

"Wow....That was AWESOME!" shouted Murray, much to the surprise of everyone else there.

"Guess you shouldn't have messed with me, huh?" gloated Blitz. Murray held up on of his fists.

"How about I make you a knuckle sandwich?" threatened Murray. Blitz jumped back.

"AAHHH!!! Please don't hurt me!" he screamed.

Back at the battle, Muzzle sighed contently and laid back to relax.

"Come on Shag, lets go get that flag!" said Hunter, enthusiastically. Shag barked something in response.

"Hey, you're right Shag, that does rhyme!" noted Hunter.

Meanwhile, Sly had just reached INTERPOL HQ. Lucky for him, the virtual sewers didn't have the smell. He sneaked out of the sewers, and broke into the air vents to reach the roof. Sly noticed something was oddly...familiar about these vents. Sure, this was not his first time sneaking around INTERPOL, but something was different about the vents this time that reminded him of something. Anyway, soon he reached the air duct at the top of the roof. He could see Colleen and Exile keeping watch.

"That raccoon won't be getting by us." Colleen told her Russian partner.

"Da," agreed Exile. "In fact, I can smell that ring-tail now."

"Thanks, it's my new cologne." teased Sly. The two Rovers turned to see Sly with their flag tied to his back! Colleen jump-kicked in Sly's direction and kept trying to knock him out, but he kept moving out of the way. He jumped onto a telephone wire and ran down it to the nearest rooftop. "Nice form, but you're a little slow!" shouted Sly.

"Oi, he's getting away!" growled Colleen.

"Not if I can help." snarled Exile, chasing after Sly. "Get back here, pant-less weirdo boy!" he yelled.

Meanwhile, at the gang's hideout, Shag and Hunter just got there. Bentley noticed this and threw a bomb at the Rovers. Shag saw the explosive and pulled a baseball bat out of his fur and hit the bomb back at Bentley. He backed away before the bomb could go off, blowing apart a section of the roof. Bentley pulled out one of his sleeping darts and loaded it into his crossbow. He fired it and hit Shag in the arm. The large canine yawned and feel asleep.

Hunter shook his fist and yelled "OK Buddy, now this is personal!"

"What are you going to do about it?!?" jeered Bentley.

Hunter stretched one leg out behind him and answered "This." Suddenly, he started running at super speed, running up the side of the wall, grabbing the flag and heading back to home base, all while leaving a trail of flame behind.

Bentley radioed Sly "Sly, Sly! Hurry up and get that flag! The team captain has grabbed it and he has super speed!"

"I've got the flag, Bentley." responded Sly, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, dodging laser beams shot by Exile, "But I got my own problems here!" Soon, each of the team captains were near their homebase. They climbed up the side of the buildings and then, a large air horn sound filled the air. Now Paris and it's moon-lit rooftops faded away back to the white arena of before. The crowd was cheering at the top of their lungs and the Mastermind came back onto the speaker.

"Wasn't that something folks?!? And so close, too! I wonder who it could be?" he announced. "Oh, here are the results now. Look at that folks, it's a tie! I can't believe it!"

"A tie?!?!?" shouted, well basically everyone who wasn't the Mastermind.

"Give them a hand folks! That's it for today's 'Battle Fur Freedom'!" added the Mastermind.

Back down in the arena, as Colleen and Exile placed Muzzle back in his straight jacket and dolly cart, Sly walked up to Hunter.

"Hey, no hard feelings?" asked Sly, holding out his hand.

Without hesitation, Hunter shook Sly's hand and assured "Don't worry, I don't hold grudges. I can't even spell 'grudge'."

"That's good." approved Bentley, wheeling over. "We can't let what happens here divide us, less this Mastermind guy us it against us."

"Well, I'm just glad no one got hurt for real." commented Hunter. Suddenly, they could hear pounding on a hard surface comming from high above them. They looked up and saw Murray up in the viewing box.

"Hey, Sly, Bentley!" they could faintly hear him shout, "they got all sorts of great snacks up here! You got to check it out!"

...

Later, the guards moved everyone to a much larger room with more food, arcade games, drinks, a punching bag, and a pool table. It had a felt a lot like a pub, but with no windows and you couldn't just walk out, as two armed guards stood outside. Sly and Bentley drank some soda as they watched Murray talk with Po, the panda Dragon Warrior, although Bentley seemed to have something else on his mind.

"You were so cool out there, man!" congratulated Po. "You were all like 'bam!' 'ka-pow!' 'slam!' and stuff.....up untill that crazy dog thing got you." Po pointed over to the now tied up Muzzle, who bounced up and down in his dolly cart. He looked at Bentley and saw that he was deep in thought. "What's with your friend?" he asked.

Bentley snapped out of it and said "Oh sorry, I can't stop thinking about how strange all of this is."

"I'll say." agreed Po, nodding his head, "I still have no idea what that orange guy in the blue pants or the green duck-thing in the hat are saying."

"No, not that, although that is pretty unusual." replied Bentley. At this point, for one reason or another, all the others started to crowd around and listean to what Bentley was talking about. "It's the little details. The fact that we keep surviving long drops onto solid ground without any broken bones or bruises. The wi-fi that's all around us. How clean everything is. Everything just doesn't feel right." Sly's eyes widened on the word 'clean'.

"Wait, Bentley, what was that about everything being clean?" inquired Sly.

"I said that everything seems so oddly clean. Not even a little bit of dust or dirt." Bentley told him.

Sly explained "Bentley, when I was in the air vents this morning to plant that bug, everything was clean....then later, in the arena, the air vents I went through were exactly like that!"

Bentley snapped his fingers with realization, "And that was clearly some sort of virtual reality arena! That must mean we are all in some sort of grand-scale computer simulation!" he shouted. A large number of the captives gasped at this idea. The others, the ones from less technological worlds, just looked confused.

Po asked "OK, I'm going to ask this. What is a 'calm-pu-tear'?" Bentley took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"This could take a while...." Bentley observed.

To be continued....