Guy snuck down the university's corridors with Maz following close behind. The students had been evacuated and the corridors were all but empty. Except for the big goops of snot at varying intervals. Those gave him a pretty good idea where Tara had gone.

They were just passing a dimly lit lab, when they heard a voice. Tara's, and it didn't sound like she was mucking around. "You'll unlock that damn fridge and give me those vials," she growled, "or I'll feed you to your little pet alligator."

A man's voice, wavering, but trying to be strong, answered. "It's a crocodile, you stupid…" He cut himself short with a yelp.

"Alright, let's do this… Maz?" Guy looked left and right but Maz had disappeared. He let out a huff, blowing a strand of hair away from his face. Probably run off to find himself a costume or something. "Seriously, how old are you?" he muttered. Then, shaking his head, he zipped into the lab and put on his SheZow voice. "Hey, Tara! Why don't you pick on someone your own… whoa… what is this place?"

It was like a house of horrors. And the dim lighting, complete with sickly flickering overhead fluorescents, didn't help. All manner of creatures were displayed along the walls. Most of them were dead, floating in eerily glowing vials and tanks and jars.

A few of the tanks and cages held living specimens. Along a whole half of one wall were caged snakes, hissing and coiling and slithering over one another. A tank on the other side of the room held a red and white spiked fish, the only creature that seemed out of place, strangely beautiful with those spiky fins splayed out around it. And right at the end of the room, Tara, pinning a very scared looking man to the largest tank of all, the one that held the angry crocodile.

"Oh, hey there, SheZow," Tara growled. "I'm afraid you're a bit early to this little party." She slammed the man into the tank again, and the crocodile startled and let out a hiss. "I wasn't expecting you just yet."

"What are you doing? And what are these, your family?" Guy pointed to the crocodile. "That your sister? Hate to say it, but I think she's prettier than you."

Tara snarled, and tossed the man to the ground. "I'll deal with SheZow first. You better give me those vials when I'm done, or I'll tear out your throat." She turned to face SheZow and her razor sharp nails began to extend.

"Oh no you won't, girlfriend. Because I'm taking you down!"

Tara glared at him, then drew in a breath and grinned. "How about I introduce you to my 'sister' first?" She turned and raked her pointed and extended nails across the sheet of glass that separated the disgruntled crocodile from the rest of the room.

Guy clapped his hands over his ears as the horrendous screech rent the air. The glass shattered, and the crocodile burst out in a wash of slimy green water.

"Oh shoot…" The man's eyes widened behind his thick-rimmed glasses, and he scrambled up onto a nearby metal bench, scattering glass jars of God-knew-what onto the floor. They broke with a crash.

The crocodile snarled, then darted over to one side of the room, somehow managing to disappear in a clatter of tables.

"Ugh, stupid creature," Tara rolled her eyes.

"Laser lipstick!" Guy whipped out his weapon and dashed across the room towards Tara. "Oh no…" But his boots lost traction in the slimy water that had spilled out everywhere. He slipped right over, slid clean across the room and smacked into the crocodile cage.

The man looked at him from on top his metal bench, knees drawn up to his chest. "If Stacey goes for you," he said, "whack her on the snout. She'll back off."

Guy hauled himself back to his feet, clinging to the side of the cage to keep himself upright. "Huh… oh, you mean the alligator?"

"It's a crocodile!"

There was a ping beside him; green lasers peppered the damaged cage. Guy ducked, then slipped over again and landed with a splash.

"This is just sherrific. And Dad isn't even here yet!" he huffed. At least his hair wasn't wet.

A low growl sounded to his left, and a big lizard face reared up next to him.

Guy's eyes widened. "Oh hi… Stacey…"

The crocodile snorted, sniffed the air, and then turned and trundled across the lab, knocking over chairs with its great big tail.

"I am sausage boy!" Maz's voice carried from the front of the room.

Guy sighed. "He is seriously running out of material… wait sausages?!" He hauled himself to his feet and onto one of the loose tables, at least then he was off the slimy, slippery floor. "Maz! Get out of the way! There's a crocodile!"

Maz stood by the door, completely draped in sausages. "A wha… alligator!" he screamed, as Stacey headed right for him. He jumped up onto one of the metal tables, and hurled a jar at the crocodile.

It shattered on the creature's back, slowing it down a little.

Tara let out a yell, and came dashing at SheZow with her mega mascara out. The glowing purple weapon collided with SheZow's laser lipstick as Guy brought it up. Hero and villain clattered off the table, slid across the floor, weapons locked, and crashed into the cages of snakes.

Nothing broke. But the hisses and slithering noises were way, way too close for comfort. Guy eyed the flicking tongue of one of the nearest serpents warily. "Um, can we take this someplace else?"

Tara drew in a breath, eyes darting up to the snakes, then nodded, taking her weight off him.

Guy flung himself forward, swiped his laser lipstick down hard, and knocked Tara's mega mascara clean from her grasp.

"Hey!" Tara screeched. "You little bitch!" And then the claws came out.

Guy yelped and ducked to the floor as they swiped past his face. He kicked off the cage and slid himself right under Tara; might as well make use of all that slime. "Maz!"

"Yeah…" His friend was okay. He was still perched on a table, but Stacey was snapping at it's base.

"Argh!" Tara was on top of him again. She pushed him down, clawing at his face.

Guy pushed back, but Tara took another swipe, and he was forced to lean back. And felt his super strength leave him. He'd dunked his hair in all the slimy filth on the floor.

"Hey! MDPD!" The door to the lab slammed open once again. Boxter and Officer Wackerman stood there. Sheriffic.

Boxter looked around. "What in the name of…"

"Officer Hamdon!" Guy shouted. "Maz, he's…"

Boxter's eyes widened as he saw the reptile snapping at Maz's heels.

"Why does it want to eat me?!" Maz whimpered. "I'm all bony!"

"Oh, for the love of…" Boxter stepped around the crocodile's head, around the side of the table Maz was on. He grabbed the string of sausages from around Maz's neck and tossed them into the crocodile's jaws.

Stacey snapped the sausages up, rolled herself over, and gobbled up the whole thing. Then she grumbled and fixed her beady eyes back on Maz.

"Snout!" The man had worked up the courage to climb off the metal bench and was shouting from the back of the room. "Hit her in the snout!"

Boxter picked up a chair, and clean smashed it over the crocodile's nose.

Stacey let out a growl, turned tail, and pelted back across the lab.

"Tara!" Guy yelled, eyes wide. Stacey was heading straight for them, and he couldn't move from under the villain's body.

"Oh, don't beg. It's unbecoming. This might be over quicker than I thought," Tara said, claws to his throat. "Pity, I had such a great plan too…"

Tara got no further, as Stacey rumbled past Guy's head like a freight train, missing him by mere inches. Her tail, however, swung up, over Guy's head, and hit Tara smack in the side. It flung her off and into the wall with a heavy thunk. She moaned and sunk down.

Stacey hauled herself back into her cage. She was still too close for comfort for the man Tara had been attacking; he eyed the beast warily and hurried his way to the front of the room, a half-dozen vials hugged to his chest.

"You alright, Maz?" Boxter asked.

Maz nodded.

Boxter helped him off the table.

Guy hauled himself to his feet, shook his head to clear it, and then pulled out some shellac and sprayed it through his hair. His strength instantly returned. "Whew. That's better." He looked up, and found his father glaring right at him, arms folded. "What?"

"I hope you're real proud of yourself, missy."

Guy raised an eyebrow. Why his father had to keep calling him stuff like that, he didn't know. He knew who he was. Certainly not a missy! He put his hands on his hips. "Ah, yeah. I am. I just defeated Tara. And saved this man. Thank you very much."

"I think we all know it was the alligator that defeated Tara," Boxter growled.

The man glared at Boxter, then just sighed. "Well, either way, thanks for rescuing me from… her…" He glanced at Tara. "I'm Professor Dyson. I've been working on cross-species DNA, and…"

"Yeah, what was she here for?" Boxter cut him short, nodding at Tara.

Wackerman knelt down beside the semi-conscious villain, and started putting her in handcuffs.

Tara stirred with a groan and glared at everyone in turn, but wasn't yet with it enough to fight back.

"I was getting to that," Dyson huffed. "This…" he held up the half-dozen vials. "My latest experiment. Like I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, it's cross-species DNA. Don't ask me why she wanted it. It's highly experimental and it would take a genius to figure out how to use it…"

"What do you do? Shoot up with it?" Boxter asked, eying the vials warily.

Dyson rolled his eyes. "Well, yes, you could do that, but it's hardly ready for human trials…" He glanced down at Boxter's badge, and held the vials a little tighter to his chest. "Not sure if I should be discussing this with you."

Boxter held out a hand.

"What?"

"If she was trying to steal it, its evidence. Now hand it over."

Dyson glared.

"Don't worry," Guy sighed. "He's always a buzzkill."

"Okay fine. You can shove it in a little sandwich bag, shove it in a box for years, see if I care! You'll be setting science back by years! Bloody cops."

"We don't put them in sandwich bags. We put them in evidence bags," Boxter scowled. His hand remained outstretched, palm up. "Now hand them over."

Dyson huffed, and handed over the vials. "Just don't break them."

"Hey, don't you try and get away!" said Wackerman.

Tara jerked against him, her hands cuffed behind her back.

Guy's hands tensed into fists, just in case she decided to cause any trouble.

Tara glared at SheZow, looking at his hair. Yeah, that's right. SheZow was at full power; Tara had no advantage now. Then her eyes drifted over to the vials in Boxter's hands. Then up at Boxter. She smiled faintly. "Oh. Hey there, big guy."

Boxter flushed a little. "What did you want these for, Tara?"

"Not telling. Unless you ask nicely."

Boxter huffed. "Well, you're not getting them now. They're going in the evidence locker."

Professor Dyson's shoulders slumped, and he groaned.

Tara eyed the vials hungrily. At least, Guy hoped she was looking at the vials, and not his father. Ew.

Tara sighed and her shoulders slumped. "Fine. Whatever."

Guy frowned. "You're awfully compliant."

"Kinda tied up now, sweetheart," Tara scowled, jangling the handcuffs.

"Yeah," Boxter folded his arms. "You're done here, SheZow. This is police business now. Go home and… do your nails or something."

Guy rolled his eyes. Seriously? "Sorry, Officer Hamdon. But she's a super villain. That makes it my business. She's dangerous."

Boxter tensed. "She's in handcuffs, sweetheart. We can handle it."

Goddess, he was really laying it on thick. "That's SheZow to you, sweetheart," Guy snapped, fists tensing.

Boxter drew in a breath.

"And you can stop treating me like I need to be babysat. I'm the one with the powers, I'm the one who caught Tara. You're the ones who need someone to help you fight anything bigger than an… an angry crocodile!"

Maz gulped audibly.

Boxter stared at him for a long moment. "You really want to do this?" he said quietly.

"Yeah! Take Tara!" Guy threw his hands in the air. "I don't care. But don't blame me when she gets away because you suck at your job!"

"Wackerman!" Boxter snapped. "Get Tara out of here." He didn't take his eyes off Guy.

Guy folded his arms and glared back. He was done letting his father push SheZow around.

Wackerman walked Tara out the door.

Boxter took one last look at SheZow, then turned away. "Maz," he growled.

Maz's eyes widened and he took a step back. "Yeah?"

"You stay away from SheZow, alright? She's dangerous. She's going to get you hurt. I see you with her again, and I'll arrest you. Understood?"

Maz swallowed and looked at the floor. "Yes, sir."

Guy's hands shook; he couldn't even speak.

Boxter glared one last time at Guy and then stomped out the door.

"Whoa," said Professor Dyson. "So that was awkward."

"You should check on your alligator," Guy growled. He stormed out of the lab, past Maz, and down the hall. He'd show his dad… when they got home, oh yeah, he'd show him.


A/n: I'm really enjoying writing this one. Hope you guys enjoy reading it. Crocodiles make good weapons, and Boxter's Dad-ing all over the place. What's Guy going to do when he gets home? XD Please leave me a review. :)

Ps: If you haven't had a chance to check out the SheZow forum I started up, go and look. It's on ffnet under forums, cartoons, shezow.