Role Swap AU, in which Sly is the Brains, Murray the Thief, and you know what that makes Bentley?
Of course he's still a genius, it's just that his genius is focused on a mechanized suit
We've got another AU where the swaps are the other direction, and this one is as equally as fun to imagine.
Sly finally plan singular missions, but Murray can barely stay on track if he sees something shiny.
He prefers to get on the field immediately (unlike canon!Bentley) and get a feel of what's around him. Which means he's piggybacking Murray until the real mission occurs.
He's a more hands on worker, mapping and drawing up blueprints. When he was in the orphanage, his comfort was to meticulously jot down every hiding spot the gang could use to hide from Miss Puffin.
Murray is much bigger in size, but he still pees himself when Bentley runs in to a crowd of goons with the metal knuckles and baseball bat.
He's a hippo of deceit, he plays the stupid card to evade suspicion at first. But when his cover is blown, he'll easily cut his hair, change his contacts, swap some clothes. Murray can change identities much easier than Sly.
The cane in this AU could be a hammer of maybe even a fan! Get in some Sly4 stuff and make it a fan.
Murray trained his hands to maneuver a blade tipped fan to cut down enemies. The inclusion of abilities could be: air manipulation, scent pushing, face/voice masking, and the blades can be light aflame to burn items or rope!
Bentley is willing to break everything, but Sly gets a full read of enemies which makes the fights end too quickly to his liking.
Bentley was always interpreted to be the first of the gang to be orphaned (like literally before he even hatched). So his tough persona shines through from his early years protecting himself and others from bullies.
Being a small fighter, he doesn't utilize an honor system and bites and claws when desperate. It's caused issues where a fight got too bloody, but as long as it's not Bentley's blood, Murray and Sly will be okay.
His arsenal isn't anything fancy, a toolbox in the van consisting of average items like: razor blades, bats, golf clubs, metal knuckles, steel toe boots, crowbars, and knitting needles.
Murray, as the Thief in this AU, was part of a mixed criminal clan that used 1v1 to decide matters, killing was frowned upon. But that didn't stop a rival clan (with this universe's Clockwerk, would it be Raleigh or Muggshot?) from using a 1v1 to get their best fighters into the Hippo's home and storming it.
The fight killed a majority of his family, and Murray was taken by a family friend to the border of France and left for Interpol to find.
It was on this 8th birthday did a family member anonymously send him the family fan for his training to begin.
Sly was a kid of no known origin, only thing he came to the orphanage with as a baby was a note saying what his name was, a crumpled hat, and a soaked pipe.
He had a bit of a heavy smoking habit from his teen years, but Bentley got him to curb it. He still enjoys a small smoke from the pipe time to time.
The gang came together after a fight broke out at school, Sly and Murray witnessed Bentley getting over powered and tried to step in. Turns out Bentley was being meek for play and kicked everyone's butts.
He got in trouble, but Murray was intrigued with Bentley's fighting and asked if he could spar with him. The two still do it despite the massive size difference.
Sly got to be better buddies with Murray through their loss of parental figures, as the older he got, Sly started remembering little snips of his father. Nothing too firm, but the fact that he could at least hear one word in his dad's voice brought him to tears.
The three split the orphanage at 15, and their means of getting money was small jobs. And pickpocketing. Lots of pickpocketing.