The Big O and all of its settings and characters are owned by Bandai Visual, Sunrise, and Cartoon Network.
THE BIG O:
ACT 33
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR
Chapter Ten: Dirty Pool
A shot rang out. Jenny screamed as her wide brimmed hat was torn from her head.
"Roger, they've got a sniper!" Dorothy shouted as she body slammed Jenny and knocked her to the ground.
"Trigger, you idiot!" Crater yelled. "You missed!"
"Sorry boss!" a gangster hiding in the control cab of the cargo crane shouted back. He cocked his rifle, but didn't have a target. Dorothy had not only knocked Roger down, but had knocked him back behind his car. Dorothy and Jenny were on the ground too, and they were still visible, but Trigger wasn't aiming at them.
The three gunmen standing beside Crater pulled out their automatic pistols and pointed them at Roger, Dorothy, and Jenny.
Roger sat up and reached into his pocket to extract what appeared to be a black joystick lever and pulled a telescoping antenna out of the end that didn't have a red button. "Now-now," he scolded as he stood up and walked back to Dorothy and Jenny. "Don't do anything hasty. Let's all calm down. You don't want this to blow up in your face, Mister Crater."
"What's that supposed to be?" the mutated crime lord asked.
"A dead man's switch," Roger smirked as he pulled Jenny Grant to her feet.
"You gonna tell me you got a bomb in your car?" the gang boss asked skeptically.
"Nope," Roger shook his head. "You know that men like us love our cars far too much for that." He opened Jenny's green jacket to reveal red sticks of dynamite strapped to her bodice. Curly spaghetti thin wires attached to a flat circuit board that was placed in the center. "I got a bomb on your girlfriend."
"Don't try anything Zeke!" Jenny screeched. "He's crazy! He'll do it!"
"Shaddap Jenny!" Crater shouted back.
"Miss Grant is holding the only sample of the cure for your condition Mister Crater," Roger announced as he held out the joystick and pressed the red button with his thumb. "If I take my thumb off this button you lose both the serum and the only scientist in the world who can manufacture it. What's it going to be, Mister Crater?"
"You idiot!" Crater growled. "You'll kill yourself too!"
"I was a dead man the moment I got out of my car and we both know it," Roger said. "I didn't want to do this but you're playing dirty pool Crater. The way I figure it, this is the only way I'm walking out of here."
Crater's masklike face gave nothing away but his underneath his suit and cape his unnatural body was trembling with rage.
"What do we do boss?" the gangster known as 'Knuckles' McGee asked.
"Shaddap Knuckles!" Crater snapped. "Can't you see I'm thinkin'?"
"This isn't the first time I've had to negotiate with someone who wasn't entirely trustworthy," Roger smirked. "Don't forget, I do this for a living. What's it going to be, Crater? Are you willing to negotiate like a reasonable man, or do I blow us all to kingdom come?"
"What do you propose?" the crime lord asked.
"Well Crater, my first proposal is that we both fulfill our sides of the original bargain," Roger purred. "Dorothy Wayneright goes with me, Jenny Grant and her serum goes with you, and we both try to forget that we ever met each other."
"Nothin' doin'!" the gangster growled. "As soon as you and the android are safe you'd blow me and Jenny straight to Hades!"
"I had a feeling you'd see it that way, so I have an alternate proposal," Roger continued. "Jenny Grant administers the antidote for your condition and leaves with Miss Wayneright and me. That way you get your cure and the ladies and I get our lives."
"Really?" a trembling Jenny Grant smiled hesitantly. "Is it true? You're not going to blow me up or leave me with Zeke?"
Roger's grin was actually warm. "Miss Grant, I may be a cad enough to risk your life but I'm too much of a gentleman to sacrifice it on purpose. You didn't really think I was going to leave you with Zeke Crater did you?"
"Oh thank you! Thank you!" she grinned nervously.
"Roger, who's she?" Dorothy asked as she sat on the floor.
Roger used his spare hand to help the darling android to her feet. "Dorothy, I'd like to introduce you to Jenny Grant, Eugene Grant's kid sister."
"Eugene Grant did you say?" Dorothy's cool expression seemed even colder.
"That's right. And she's just as dangerous as her brother was," the negotiator said as used his other hand to reach into his jacket and extract a switchblade knife. "Now turn around so I can cut your bonds."
"You better pay more attention to your other hand Roger," Dorothy calmly warned.
Roger glanced at the dead man's switch in his hand as if he had forgotten about it. "What? Oh yes! Perhaps I should just hand you the knife. Once you get your bonds started you should be able to break free without having to cut all the way. Here you go, Dorothy."
Dorothy turned her back to Roger and he placed the switchblade in her hand.
"What makes you think you can get away with this?" Crater growled.
"Mister Crater, you're angry now but after you get back to normal I have a feeling you'll see the world a whole new way," Roger grinned. "Believe me; the last thing I want is for you to hold a grudge against me. It's in both my and Miss Grant's best interest that we restore you to normal. I don't expect you to feel gratitude toward me but I suspect a vendetta won't be a priority. Miss Grant here will probably have to go into hiding for the rest of her life but at least Miss Wayneright and I should be able to show our faces in public. Come on Mister Crater, we can both win. I found Jenny Grant and retrieved the serum just like you asked me to. I fulfilled my end of the bargain. The question is can you fulfill yours?"
Crater's large dark eyes narrowed under his stiff masklike face and the warehouse was quiet for a moment. Then his body shook with laughter. "You got 'em so big, it's a wonder you can get your pants on in the morning, Smith!" the crime boss laughed. "I gotta hand it to you. Once you start a job you always see it through. Okay, we'll try it your way. If this is a double cross, there won't be any place in Paradigm City that you can hide. Send Jenny over."
"With pleasure Mister Crater," Roger nodded. He leaned over to Jenny. "That's your cue Miss Grant. Administer the proper dosage so we can all go home."
"Oh… kay…" she sang nervously. She walked timidly over to Crater. "Hello Zeke, you look good. How's life treating you?"
Crater raised his hand to strike her.
"Careful Zeke!" Roger shouted in warning. "Try to remember that she's carrying explosives! You don't want to set it off do you?"
Crater looked over Jenny's shoulder at Roger. Despite the neutral expression on his face his eyes were still human enough to convey utter hatred. He slowly lowered his hand and cleared his throat. "Hiya Jenny. Dynamite looks good on ya. Where do you get off stealin' from me and turnin' me into a freak, anyway?"
"That's fine talk coming from you," Jenny pouted. "You play around with every girl in town and expect me to just take it! I didn't expect you to be loyal but you couldn't expect me to tolerate you doing it right in front of me like that!"
"What did you expect after givin' me those super steroids?" Crater snapped. "They increased my appetite three times over, for cryin' out loud! Pretty soon I was goin' through women because I had to an' not 'cause I wanted to!"
"Don't give me that; you enjoyed it," Jenny frowned. "You know darn well you loved being stronger and faster and being more virile than everybody else, and I can't help it if there were a few side effects. I didn't have it ready for the general public yet and you didn't care. You just had to have everything you wanted right now." She snapped her fingers for emphasis. "Boom! Right when you wanted it with no waiting. Honestly you're like a child Zeke. If you didn't make me feel so young I would have never…"
"You should be happy I took you in when Paradigm threw you out or you'd be sellin' pencils you wacky little tart!"
"You broke my heart, Zeke!" Jenny shrieked. "Don't you understand? You broke my heart! It's always about you isn't it? You-you-you! That's all you think about!"
"You turned me into a monster, you crazy witch!"
"Don't be silly," Jenny said in a reasonable voice. "You already were a monster Zeke, but I loved you anyway. I loved you and you walked all over me. If it weren't for my treatments you could have never satisfied all the women you cheated on me with."
"I ought'a kill you right now!" Crater seized Jenny by her neck.
"The antidote Crater!" Roger called. "She hasn't given you the antidote yet!"
Crater glanced over at Roger and Dorothy and released Jenny, who clutched at her throat. "He your new boy-toy, Jenny?"
"I wish," she coughed as she straightened her jacket. "He may have knocked me out, tied me up, and taken me prisoner but he's still more of a gentleman than you'll ever be Zeke. Plus unlike you he'll do anything for the girl he loves."
"And he brought you here to me," Zeke grunted. "Some gentleman."
Jenny turned to glare at Roger. "That's right! I was perfectly safe before you abducted me! What did I ever do to you?"
"You tried to kill me by putting fungus in my brain and then you held me captive," Roger shrugged.
"I mean before that?" Jenny demanded. "What gives you the right to take me from my house and deliver me to certain death?"
"Don't look at me," Roger shook his head. "This is between you and him. Now get this over with. My thumb is getting tired."
"You… you... beast!" Jenny exclaimed. "Are all men this heartless?" She turned back to the crime boss. "What happened to us Zeke? How did you become the loathsome underhanded brute who forsook me? What happened to the loathsome underhanded brute I fell in love with?"
"Roger let go of the button," a now free Dorothy said as she handed his switchblade back to him.
"This close to them?" Roger asked her as he pocketed the knife. "Dorothy we're barely fifteen feet away! We'd be caught in the explosion too."
"That would be acceptable," the little android said.
"My goodness Zeke, look at you!" Jenny scolded. "Even now you can't look me in the eye! Instead of looking at my face, you're staring at my chest! You're disgusting!" She closed her jacket protectively but Crater opened it again.
"I'm not lookin' at your chest you silly broad, I'm lookin' at your dynamite!" Crater growled. Jenny screamed as he pulled a stick off her bodice. Crater's unnaturally dark eyes widened as much as his unmoving face would allow. "What the? These aren't sticks of dynamite! These are road flares!"
"Get in the car, Dorothy!" Roger cried.
"Get away from the car, Roger!" the girl retorted.
A huge disk shaped electromagnet slammed down on Roger's car, sending fragments of broken glass in all directions. Roger and Dorothy leapt away and were now rolling on the floor trying to cover themselves.
"God, I hate crane operated electromagnets!" Roger grunted as he brushed broken glass off his neck to keep it from going down his back when he stood up.
"You hate crane operated electromagnets?" Dorothy said.
They got to their feet and stared down the barrels of the gangster's guns.
"Well, well, well, Smith, looks like the shoe's on the other foot now." Even though Zeke Crater's face couldn't smirk, his voice was smug. "Who's going to scrape who off the bottom of his shoe now, tough guy?"
"What do we do now, Roger?" Dorothy asked.
"Give me a minute," Roger hissed.
"You don't have a minute!" Crater snapped. "Nobody lies to me, negotiator! How do I know that syringe you put in Jenny's purse even has the antidote? You tried a double cross and now it's backfired!"
"I never tried to double cross you," Roger insisted. "You wanted me to deliver Jenny Grant and her serum and I've done that. I just wanted to go home when this was over, that's all!"
"This is too important to me for you to pull somethin'!" Crater insisted as he pulled a revolver out of his coat. "You should've delivered service with a smile, Smitty! Nobody disrespects me, and nobody lies to me!"
"That's not true," Dorothy said.
"What?" Crater blinked. "What's not true?"
"That nobody lies to you," Dorothy replied. "That's not true. Knuckles lied to you in his office just today."
"Oh yeah," Crater nodded. "That's right." He pointed his gun at 'Knuckles' McGee and pulled the trigger. The noise of the gunshot and the sound of the henchman hitting the ground drowned out the brief cry that was the last thing Knuckles ever said. Crater pointed his pistol at Roger again. "As I was sayin': Nobody lies to me Negotiator, and nobody tries to cheat me either!"
The cavity in Dorothy's head opened and a blinding light shone in the gangster's faces. It was especially bright for Zeke Crater; in his mutated state, his eyes were nearly all pupil. Crater used his gun hand to shield his eyes and that's when two hundred and eighty pounds of female android tackled him.
While Crater's men were distracted, Roger reached into his pocket and tossed a tiny sphere at their feet. Two holes appeared in the sphere and smoke obscured their vision as they clutched at their faces. "Tear gas!" one of them choked before Roger punched him in the jaw. Roger chopped at a second gunman's wrist, disarming him before pushing him into the third.
Meantime, Crater was on his back, struggling with Dorothy Wayneright. Both of her little hands were clamped around Crater's wrist, and the little android's grip was like a vise. The bulges under Crater's shirt and waistcoat tore free to reveal four jointed whips that ended in sharp deadly hooks. They extended from under his armpits to claw at Dorothy's back, shredding her clothing and her synthetic flesh. In response the android used her knee to pound on Crater's abdomen, but her she didn't let go of his gun hand. "Get off me, you stupid doll!" he cried.
"Let go of your gun," she retorted.
"Well it's about time I was going," Jenny said as she crept to a door. "Eek!" She was knocked down when the door burst open and more of Crater's men entered the warehouse.
"Get off him!" the gangster in front said as he pointed his automatic pistol at Roger. "Let go of him or I drill your boyfriend!"
"No," Dorothy said quietly. "You're going to kill him anyway."
"Looks like we've got a standoff gentlemen," Roger announced to Crater's men. "If you don't lower your guns, I'll command my android to kill your boss. What's it going to be?"
"Don't give me that!" the lead gangster growled. "Everybody knows that androids can't harm humans!"
"Does Zeke Crater look human?" Roger smirked.
The assembled gangsters paused.
That's she when she got off him. No, that's when she rose into the air and clung to Crater's gun arm as the electromagnet hummed above her. Soon she flew up into the air clutching Crater's pistol before slamming into the unyielding surface of the electromagnet with a metallic clang. She squirmed as she tried to move but it was no good. She was held fast.
On a desk filled with hourglasses a phone rings. Roger's hand picks up the receiver and a sinister voice says:
Next: Hell Hath No Fury