I don't own these characters; Disney does. I don't own this concept. The concept comes from Bubblegum Crisis 2040.
The chapter title comes from a song by Sisqo.
21: "Unleash the Dragon"
"You can't be serious!" Mego shouted into the phone. He and the twins were in the Bermuda Triangle, which was devoid of life, not counting the band.
"I'm very serious! I want you three to get your asses out of town right now!" Shego hollered from the other end.
"Why? Sure, things look bad outside, but we can take care of ourselves," Mego objected, speaking just as loudly as his sister. His face was tight and his mouth drawn into a tense frown.
"There is no arguing about this! If you make me come there, I will be kicking your ass three times! Once for you and twice for the twins because they're following you! Now, pack your shit and make sure you get out of here now!" Shego screamed so loudly that Mego had to move the phone away from his ear.
The noise caught the attention of the twins, who were not too far from their purple brother. Mego noticed and turned away from them, hoping they would not hear the argument; well, what he wanted to be an argument. Shego was not having it and by the end of the conversation, her brothers were going to be getting the hell out of the city even if she had to drag them out by the ears.
Mego growled and paced as he moved away from the twins, so they could not hear. The twins turned their attention back to the television, hoping to finish watching some videos. Suddenly, the broadcast was interrupted.
"Hey!" the twins huffed simultaneously.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is emergency news bulletin for all of those in the Go City area. There was a power line accident late last night that might cause trouble with any and all electronics—" A newswoman started to report, but her broadcast was interrupted by flashes of current pictures from around the city.
Mega-Go City looked like the skeleton of its former self. The streets were empty and deathly silent, except for the occasional clank from roaming Bebes. The Bebes were all in various states of evolution, some much more grotesque than others. There were some that merged with other electronics and metal bits, twisting to form what looked like new beings altogether.
Ron's face suddenly appeared on television. "Citizens of Go City, no citizens of the world! The pictures you're seeing now are of various parts of Go City and the creatures wandering around are Bebes. Soon all of Go City will look like this. The Bebes are all going berserk and it's possible for them to transfer this virus to any other Bebe or electronic and infect those devices. This has nothing to do with power lines or power shortages. The Gemini Corporation is just trying to cover their tracks because Bebes aren't just any robots—" His report was cut off as stations all posted that they were experiencing technical difficulties.
"Think that's what's got sis in such a commotion?" one twin asked the other.
"Guys, we've gotta go. Sis says she's arranged for us to say some place out in the sticks and we've got to stay there until she calls back," Mego explained to his brothers as he disconnected the call with Shego, who had pulled out some of the scariest threats he had ever heard in his life. What kind of sick shit goes on in her head? He needed to get them to safety before he found out what she was actually willing to do.
Before one of the twins could answer, the television picture came back up with Ron's face appearing again. "People get out of the city as quickly as possible! The Gemini Corporation—" The picture buzzed off again.
-8-8-8-8-
Inside of the aforementioned corporation, the building was empty. The building was covered in metallic vines and veins, creeping and throbbing over almost every surface. There were human bodies littering some spaces. On the top floor in a completely silent office lay the body of the former chairman. There were veins coming from his robotic hand, connecting him into the phenomenon that had taken over the building and the city.
Below all of that, Drakken chuckled from his secret bunker inside of the Gemini Corporation main office building. There were bodies down there, just like upstairs. Even Drakken's right hand man, Hank Perkins, had met his demise, lying not too far from where Drakken stood. The onyx-eyed scientist continued to laugh as he studied the large monitor in front of him. It was as if the bodies meant nothing to him and the destruction of even his own lair was of no consequence. Only one thing mattered to him.
"They can broadcast warnings all they want. The virus is spreading quickly and the Bebes are all going to be under my control. Soon the whole world will be mine!" Drakken declared. He felt like it was about time for everything to come together after all he went through. "The Bebes are mine, my creation, my idea, my genius!" he shouted with glee. Just then Ron broke in with another broadcast.
"People, Bebes started out as simple robots, but the Gemini Corporation wanted to go beyond that since other companies were developing robots. They brought together some of the greatest minds of our era…" Pictures flashed of many of those scientists, including Vivian Porter, her sister Rebecca Renton, Doctor Freeman, and even Doctor Drakken.
Then there were images flashed of them blueprinting and mapping out what they wanted to create. Detailed pictures of the construction of Bebes went by, showing the many failures. The scientists pressed on, though.
"The Corporation promised to give them free reign and let their imaginations run wild. They went beyond creating a robot, or even a robot that mimics a human. They actually created a new type of organism…" A picture of young Bonnie lying on a table and a scan running over her was flashed. "This being was made from metal and human flesh with human brain cells. It's basically the tops of a bio-machine. It's living metal with the ability to learn and form intelligence and gain independence. It operates on frequencies its creators didn't even understand. This bio-machine is a Bebe. The company tried to override what they call a 'glitch' in the system, but there is no overriding it. Once the Bebe's intelligence awakens, there's no stopping it—" Ron's broadcast was interrupted yet again by a "technical difficulties" announcement.
-8-8-8-8-
"I can't believe sis just kicked us out of the town like that," Mego grumbled as he shouldered the one bag that he was able to pack, which basically just held whatever was in his locker from the club.
Shego wanted them out now, which meant they were not even allowed to go home to get their things. Of course, they did not have much at home anyway. They had gotten very used to living sparsely.
"If things are as crazy as the TV is making it out to be, maybe it's for the best," one twin said with a shrug. He had a bag too, which had what he had in his locker too. He also had his guitar with him. He turned off the television.
"Did sis say she'd meet us at this place she wants us to go to?" the other twin asked as they marched out of the club. They hoped not for the last time. Their band was popular and they hoped one day to hit it big.
"She just gave me the address," Mego answered, glancing down at his phone. Shego texted him all of the information he needed to get him and the twins to safety. "We're going to stay with some people called the Possibles in Middleton," he told them. The twins shrugged, figuring their sister would be all right even if she did not join them. She was tough.
Outside, they got a feel for just how deserted the city was. It was like being in a ghost town and it was so creepy since they lived in a city with at least fifteen million other people. It was like all fifteen million folks vanished… along with every other living creature. They would have thought it was like a movie, if only they were not experiencing it and it was not bone chilling. The sound of the wind whistled through the giant, empty skyscrapers and they passed several that had notices on them that the buildings were closed. Included in those skyscrapers was Kim's job, which posted a notice the building was closed and that was that. As far as Kim knew, she was out of a job… and maybe out of a city if they did not do something about the Bebes.
Kim's parents were not totally clear on her situation, mostly because she was not giving them complete information. The news stations were not revealing what was happening in Go City because the Gemini Corporation controlled most of the media in the city. Kim was able to get her parents to agree to take in Shego's brothers basically by saying there were some problems affecting parts of the city, and a part where the brothers' lived was affected. Of course, when her parents asked about where Kim lived, she played it off like her neighborhood was totally fine without actually saying so. She guessed that lie by omission would hold until they caught up with Monique, who was on her way home thanks to Kim's urging.
Little did Kim know, but her parents had been calling her apartment, trying to get in touch with her. The only thing saving her from having to worry about them was the fact that there was no incoming traffic into the city anymore. James was freaking out, though because the news outside of Go City was not reporting anything on what was happening inside of the city, as if everything was totally fine and he knew that was not true. He hoped these friends coming in would be able to tell him something.
"Man, this thing is just crazy," a Wego said as they climbed into Mego's car. Mego sped off, as his sister instructed him. He was instructed to not stop of anything until he made it into Middleton. The twins tried to get more of the pirated news cast on their phones.
Ron was back on. "Gemini didn't realize what the scientists created. The business people didn't even ask what the scientists were hoping to create and didn't bother to ask much after the first accident, which involved their creation going wild. Bebes don't have the same brains as humans and when they gain consciousness, they don't think like us. The company didn't get a chance to correct this flaw and just dumped Bebes into a pleasing shape for people to look at and be at ease with. They hoped to force Bebes to do what people wanted. But, it turns out that Bebes don't want to be slaves or pets or controlled by humans.
"The first thing they do when they gain consciousness is change their form because they hate the human form that was forced on them by Gemini. This is one of the things that make them so dangerous to humans. Instead of letting people know just how dangerous the Bebes are, Gemini brought up all of the television news stations and kept them from broadcasting anything about these berserker Bebes." Images flashed of all sorts of Bebes morphing and changing form and then going crazy, tearing up property and endangering lives. "They even went so far as to pour money into what was supposed to be an anti-terrorist and SWAT branch of the police force, GJ. They told GJ what to do, who would work there, and who wouldn't, making GJ fight any and all Bebe-related crimes. Unfortunately, even GJ is gone now." There was a picture of the GJ HQ, which was still covered in Bebes, including the top part with the head of a Bebe. "The city might not be too far behind. The reason everything's spreading now is because of the Dragon Line. Thanks to Gemini's latest project, involving the Sky Hook and space mining, the Dragon Line is being fed solar power by the space umbrella to keep everything going. At the rate everything is spreading—" The broadcast was interrupted again.
-8-8-8-8-
"Damn it, they scrambled me direct!" Kim huffed, glaring down at her computer as if it was the one that wronged her. She then glared up at the array of satellite dishes a few feet from her. She was parked on a roof with a laptop open, along with Tara, Barkin, and Ron.
"Does it even matter? Nobody's watching this!" Barkin roared, kicking up dust that was not there. "We should be out there doing something about this instead of just talking about it!" he proclaimed, throwing his arms out in frustration.
"The people deserve to be informed and know what's going on in the city. People are watching enough to know that they need to get out!" Kim argued, motioning off of the roof. While most of the streets were deserted, they had a good view of lines of vehicles getting out of the city. She was happy people were smart enough to flee.
"You're right about that. Thanks for the help again, Tara, Kim," Ron said with a yawn. He stretched and moved away from the camera.
"No need to thank me. I work for GJ just like you guys," Tara pointed out.
"And I like helping. Not like Tara could've set all of this up on her own with so little time and all of this information that Vivian gave us," Kim replied.
"I definitely couldn't," Tara agreed.
Ron shrugged and smiled a bit before he turned his attention to the satellites that were near them. "I never thought how embarrassing it is for a company to own all of the news stations. We basically have to trust them to tell us what's news."
"And they betrayed that pretty well," Kim commented as she popped up to her feet. She yawned and stretched, too, having been sitting for longer than she liked. "Well, I've got other places to be. See you later, Tara," she said, waving and already walking away.
"Bye, Kim!" her teammate bid her farewell, waving, too.
"Hey, wait, is it all right for you to be walking around out there on your own?" Ron asked.
Tara giggled. "Trust me, Ron, you should pity the Bebe that runs into Kim."
He looked skeptical, but he did not say anything as the petite redhead continued on her way, exiting the roof that they were on. She seemed nonchalant enough, so Ron figured she would probably be all right. He turned his attention back to Tara.
"I hope somebody heard all of that. I can't believe you dug up all of that information," Ron said to Tara.
Tara only smiled. She had not dug up any of that information. Vivian had given her all of that information and those video feds, telling her to get it out to the public because Vivian wanted to make sure Bonnie's body count did not get any larger. Thankfully, many people had evacuated the city already since the Bebes seemed to be taking over.
"So, what're you going to do now, Tara?" Ron inquired with an arched eyebrow.
"Me? Or do you mean the Knight Sabers?" Tara countered, packing up her computer equipment.
"The annoying pests looking to right the wrongs of the Bebes, but then again, even you guys can't handle this mess," Barkin huffed, motioning around them.
"Well, we don't have hard suits anymore…" Tara conceded. Before she could elaborate on that, her cell phone chimed. She thought it might be Vivian or Kim, but she was surprised to find she got a text message. Her face scrunched up as she opened her phone. "This is a GJ code."
Ron's phone went off and Rufus popped out of his pocket to hand it to him. "I got the same one." And then he blinked as he realized what it meant. "Whoa! Barkin, officers are waiting for instructions! They want to do something about this Bebe thing!"
Barkin smiled and nodded. "If we've got enough guys and guns, we can go down there and seal off the Dragon Line. We'll put an end to all of this crap."
"Do we have weapons to take on Bebes?" Tara asked and then she started hooking her computer things back up to run a search.
"We should have everything we need down at the armory," Ron commented without thinking. Oh, god, he was hyped up, he realized. He was ready to run off and fight Bebes with his insane colleagues. I guess I just feel like I belong with them and belong here. I won't be run off by some overgrown robo-pet.
"So, now we just have to figure out what part of the Dragon Line to attack," Barkin mused aloud.
"I've got that already. If we hit this part…" Tara pointed on the screen. "We might actually be able to save the north part of the city and contain the phenomena in the city, thus saving the freaking country!" she cheered.
"Sounds as good as anything else we have," Ron agreed and Rufus let out a squeak, going along with the crowd.
"Okay, so, let's gather the guys!" Barkin ordered. The two blonds saluted him. It was time for GJ to get one last hurrah!
-8-8-8-8-
Shego walked into the Silk Android and looked around, only to find scantly clad mannequins looking back at her. She doubted she had ever seen the place so deserted and she waited for some tumbleweed to blow by. She walked to the back where the wall was what most customers assumed to be a large fish tank. She watched the exotic fish swim by for a few seconds until the person she wanted to see dropped into view. Vivian swam up to the glass and pointed up. Shego nodded.
Vivian swam to the top of her pool. She had only just put the fish in it, thinking it would be aesthetically pleasing. What a waste of money. She stepped out of the pool into her den. Will came up to her with a towel and she used it to dry her hair. She turned her attention to Will.
"You know, if you want to leave, it's fine," Vivian said in a gentle tone.
"I made a vow to protect you and stay by your side," Will replied. He would keep his word, no matter what the city threw at him.
Vivian smiled. "I knew you'd say that." She then turned her attention to the body at the other end of the room. Shego sat at the bar, playing with a can of beer rather than drinking it. Vivian chuckled as she walked over to the biker. "It's easier to drink away sorrow than to wallow in it," she commented.
"I was under the impression that drinking it away actually meant you were drowning in it," Shego replied, cutting the older woman a glance.
Vivian scratched her forehead a little. "You might have me there. So, what're you doing here? I figured you'd be rushing to get your brothers out of here. You don't need any more mental scars, right?"
Shego's face ticked, ready to frown, but she held it off. "No more than you do. My brothers are on their way to Middleton."
Vivian nodded, but the smile on her face and the twinkle in her eye told that she knew more than what Shego said. "You and Kim are so close now," she pointed out, knowing Kim's hometown was Middleton. She could guess where Shego's brothers would be staying.
Emerald eyes rolled. "She's just a pest. So, I see you're staying around. I'm guessing this place is safe."
"Yeah. Pretty much you could hit this place with a tactical nuclear weapon and I'm pretty sure all it would do is shake the foundation. You do know there will be new hard suits soon. They're still Bebes, but you can control the core. It's basically a Bebe who does like you, so it'll get along with you."
The rocker chuckled a bit. "Funny, for the longest, I was sure you hated Bebes most of all."
"I'm sure I would feel much better if I did only hate them. But, I love them and I hate them. I know their potential and I also know what they're capable of. If only you knew the dreams we had in Bonnie. When we used the technology to save Felix…" Vivian smiled, but looked like she wanted to cry.
Shego shook her head. "I'm over blaming you. You should get over it, too." She then actually reached out and patted Vivian on the shoulder.
Vivian chuckled again. "The problem is I never truly understood Bonnie. We thought she would do what we wanted, but as a Bebe — as the Bebe — she has her own agenda, her mind. A Bebe is its own and once it changes shape, it shows that it's its own. It rebels against humans that it so dislikes and becomes itself. It changes shape and reaches its potential." She looked Shego in the eye and smiled cunningly. "I was stupid not to take that into account before."
An ebony eyebrow arched high. "Eh?"
And Vivian's usual smile showed up. "You'll see when you see Betty and Felix's handiwork."
Shego sighed. "New hard suits, huh? They can still go nuts, though, can't they?"
"Well, that depends on if their will is stronger than yours. So far, do you think that's true?" Vivian countered.
The singer snorted and took a sip of her beer while Vivian's usual smug look transformed into one of pain. She grimaced and grabbed her chest. The biker turned and noticed Vivian's crouched over form.
"Damn it, Bonnie, I won't let you torment me or humans like this anymore!" Vivian growled from deep in her throat. She then screamed as if she was in extreme pain.
"Damn it! Will!" Shego hollered, hoping the butler would be able to help.
-8-8-8-8-
Bonnie smiled while a blue orb of light grew between her hands. She disbursed the energy as the door to her room was opened. Drakken burst in, grinning like maniac, and chuckling under his breath.
"Bonnie, you're doing a wonderful job! Your phenomenon's spreading throughout the whole city! Soon we'll take on the country and then the world, all through the Dragon Line. If only that idiot Gemini knew what he was setting up!" Drakken cackled. "Soon I'll rule the world!"
Bonnie turned to Drakken, bewilderment in her young, blue eyes. "You'll rule the world? Why would you want that?" she asked. Her aunties had never mentioned such a thing as far as using her power, so she could only wonder why he — another human like her aunts — would want that.
"What do you mean why would I want that? Because I deserve it!" Drakken pressed his hands to his chest. "Everyone should bow down to me and revere me! The whole reason I made you and brought you here was for everyone to find out what a genius I am!" Drakken clapped his hands together and threw them over his head in a grand fashion.
Bonnie tilted her head and continued looking on, totally baffled by what the man was telling her if the look in her eyes meant anything. She did not understand this man. He was nothing like her aunties… not she understood them anymore. But, there was just something about this man that was beyond her comprehension and she was not too sure if she was willing to try to understand for much longer. He was just too different from her aunties for her to even want to bother.
"I'm still learning much, Doctor Drakken. There's still so much out of my grasp," Bonnie said. There was something she wanted, something the Bebes wanted, but she could not pinpoint it yet. She felt like she needed to mature and learn more before coming to figure out what it was she desired. Maybe her aunties were right and she was not old enough yet.
"There's nothing that you need to learn. You're just a machine and you follow my orders," Drakken informed her in a harsh tone.
Bonnie blinked and stared hard at the blue-skinned doctor. No, she did not understand this man at all. But, then again, she did not understand humans, and she really did not want to.
-8-8-8-8-
Shego sighed as she pulled her bike into Betty's rundown garage. Vivian had urged her to go there when the pains in her chest started to subside. She was all too aware that it was to see the new hard suits. The garage reminded her of the city around them, deserted and ghostly. She strolled through the building to the back and going into a sealed room.
In the room, Betty stood behind a console, focusing on the screen while Felix inspected one of four Bebes. The Bebes were more shells and skeletons than complete robots. Shego glanced at those and Felix noticed her, acknowledging her with a smile before pulling out a small welding torch.
"Are these for the new suits?" Shego asked.
"Well, they're for one of the new suits," Felix answered with a slight laugh.
"One?" Shego echoed incredulously. "Just one suit needs all of this?"
"Yeah! Incredibly enough, Betty and Aunt Vivian came up with this new, brilliant suit design! The new suit actually will enhance the metal formation and style with your own thoughts. The one thing is that new design makes everything heavier, but it's got way more power, more defense, and everything!" Felix beamed as he spoke and then his face lit up even more. "Oh, does this mean you'll wear a suit since you're here? You'll love it! The design is just brilliant!"
"So you've said," Shego commented dryly and then she turned to Betty. A cocky grin over took the pale face. "So, you think better sober or did you come up with this in a drunken fog?"
Before Betty could do more than glare at the biker, Kim called out Shego's name. The biker turned to where the voice came from and Kim stepped out of another room. She had on her new hard suit, which was extremely sleek, fitting like a white and blue metal glove. Her arms and legs were in cased in the most metal, not counting the helmet. The suit certainly did not leave a lot to the imagination when it came to Kim's midsection, though.
"This is spanking! It was tricky to put on, but it's just ridiculous once you get into it! The other suits don't even compare to this! I feel like I could run around the world in under a minute!" Kim declared with a grin. She was tempted to do some flips, but the area was nowhere near as big as the Pit. She knew she would face-plant into a wall if she did any somersaults.
"I doubt you could do that, but these suits are ten times better than the old ones as far as everything goes. I think you'll have fun finding out all of the little goodies in these suits," Betty commented with an amused, somewhat proud smirk.
"You're smiling? I'm almost sure you're either drunk off your ass in a way that I've never seen before or really sober," Shego remarked. Betty grunted, but Felix came in to save the conversation.
"Betty and Vivian really came up with something amazing here… even if the suits still have Bebe parts…" Felix commented, a grim look in his eyes. He knew what those Bebe parts could mean. They all did. Still, Kim was willing to take the risk. Shego did not look quite as eager.
"C'mon!" Kim hit Shego in the shoulder with the back of her hand. "You know you want one!"
The biker frowned, but then a wicked grin overtook her face. "It's not really that…" she said, knowing Kim would take the bait.
"No? Then what is it?" Kim inquired, her face scrunched up in confusion.
"I'm seeing a lot more of you than I'm used to and I'm not sure if I want to be on display like that," Shego quipped, leering down at Kim's midsection.
Olive eyes followed the biker's gaze and looked down. "Holy crap!" She did not realize that from the bottom of her breasts down to below her navel was very much on display. That was way more skin than she was used to showing. "Did you guys know I showing this much of my body?" she demanded from the two engineers.
Betty coughed and glanced away. "Vivian designed these."
Before Kim could go off about how she was practically naked — honestly, her stomach was covered with a tinted, but transparent layer of protector armor — Felix's phone went off. He quickly retrieved the device from his pocket, recognizing the ring tone. He quickly answered.
"Yes, Tara?" Felix asked.
"Felix, we're in big trouble and I don't know what to do! There's a Bebe the size of a freaking t-rex coming at us!" Tara hollered, loud enough for everyone around Felix to hear the conversation.
"What? Who's we?" Felix inquired, forehead wrinkled as he tried to understand what was going on.
"Oh, crap! Tara went out with the GJ force. They were going to try to cut the Dragon Line!" Kim remembered, eyes wide as she realized the trouble the blond Saber was probably in.
"Sounds like the Dragon Line decided to bite back," Shego remarked, earning glares from Kim and Felix. "What?" the biker had the nerve to ask.
"Kim," Felix said, turning to her while they could all hear a lot of panic and destruction coming through his phone.
Kim smiled and nodded. "One question, where the hell are the batteries on this new suit and how long do I have?"
"The battery runs through out the suit and I've added a new feature that basically makes the thing solar powered. The sun charges the battery, but you have plenty of time if you find yourself stuck in a dark tunnel, which I wouldn't put past any of you," Betty replied dryly.
"Then launch her already before Tara becomes Dragon chow!" Shego ordered and this time earned weird looks for everyone in the room. "What?" the biker asked. No one bothered to answer that one.
-8-8-8-8-
Tara crouched down behind one of the many GJ armored cars parked on the street. She had been quite amazed when the whole force answered Barkin's call to duty, even the chief showed up. They did not get a chance to do much, though. As soon as they were going to spring into action and sever the Dragon Line, a huge Bebe shot out of an underground tunnel, seemingly to protect the power line.
The GJ officers thought things would be all right, even if they had to fight a monster-sized Bebe. They were GJ, after all, and they did these sorts of things all the time. They had all shown up in full gear with weapons galore. They went at the huge, hulking Bebe that looked almost like Godzilla as they always went at Bebes, with a hail of bullets. It worked about as well as it always worked, Tara quietly noted, which made her groan.
"We could really use some help here!" Tara shouted into the phone.
She winced, watching the giant, monster Bebe wipe out a wave of GJ officers with a wave of its massive hand. Barkin and Ron fell back, continuing to fire on the mechanical beast. They both frowned.
"We're wasting time and ammo on this thing," Ron pointed out.
"Well, you got a better idea on how to destroy that thing?" Barkin countered with a typical frown.
"Well, we know the core is in there somewhere, probably the head or something, right? We've got to get up high enough to destroy the head and we need enough fire power to crack the armor," Ron replied.
"And how pray tell are we going to get anywhere near that thing's head?" Barkin huffed, glaring at his partner now because he thought Ron was not helping the situation with fanciful ideas.
Rufus popped out of Ron's pocket, hearing all of the commotion. He ran up Ron's leg and body before settling on his shoulder. He turned Ron's head behind them in order to answer the question.
"You can't be serious, Rufus!" Ron groaned. He stared at their high-powered squad car. He knew immediately what Rufus had in mind.
"Uh-huh," Rufus squeaked.
Ron groaned and whined, but he took off for the car anyway. Barkin hollered after him, but Ron did not turn around. The larger man followed Ron, who hopped into the Barkin's patrol car. Barkin did exactly the same thing, even though he did not know what was going on.
"Are you running away, you little coward?" Barkin demanded, going so far as to aim his gun at Ron. "All those men died and you're just running away?"
Ron did not respond at first, turning on the car. "You've got a lot of nerve questioning me! I was supposed to be going back to Middleton today to get out of all of this insanity and now you're questioning me? I'm here, aren't I?" Ron thundered at him, not appreciating the accusations when he was about to do just about the stupidest thing possible to try to save the day.
Before Barkin could say anything back, Ron peeled off, driving straight for the roaring Bebe. As expected, the Bebe snatched up the car, holding it tightly in it's crushing grip and dragging the vehicle toward its mouth while merging with the metal. Tara could not believe her eyes.
"Those idiots!" Tara screamed, taking the words right out of the chief's mouth.
"Tara, what's going on?" Felix hollered into the phone, sounding frantic.
Tara was not in the position to answer right away, as she was busy running for cover. Ron and Barkin had heavy artillery, rocket launchers, aimed at the Bebe and they opened fire into its mouth, which was wide open. The entire head exploded and the GJ car was also blown apart. Barkin and Ron were thrown to the ground while entire area was covered in smoke.
"Tara!" Felix yelled into the phone before it went dead.
Tara coughed as she picked herself up from behind a short, cement wall. She watched the smoke clear while Barkin and Ron crawled over to her, near safety. They propped themselves up on the wall, panting for breath and bleeding from various parts of their bodies, as they gazed at the now headless, dinosaur-shaped Bebe.
"That crazy plan worked, Rufus!" Ron cheered despite the pain he felt. Rufus coughed and threw his buddy a thumbs' up.
"Uh… guys, don't celebrate too soon," Tara replied, pointing in horror at what was supposed to be their vanquished foe.
The Bebe pulsed and out of the stump that was its neck, a thick gaggle of wires shot out. The wires fused together and formed a new head, with bigger and sharper teeth. The humans gulped while the Bebe roared so loudly it rumbled in the humans' bones.
"What do we have to do to kill this thing?" Ron shouted, putting his head in his hands. He tried to think of something. "How is it still going without a core?"
Tara leaned forward as the Bebe took a step forward, going for more cars to merge with. Why could the Bebe function without a core? It was the same as a human walking around without a heart and a brain. And then she thought that she saw it.
"Holy crap! The thing has cables hooking it up directly to the Dragon Line!" Tara noticed. It was basically connected to the Bebe version of life support.
"You're kidding?" the guys' said and they took a look. They groaned as they saw it, too.
"If that thing is connected to the Dragon Line, then the Sky Hook is just going to keep feeing it power. We can't do anything if we can't disconnect those cables," Tara sighed and slumped down next to the officers.
"At times like this, I wish I smoked," Ron remarked, leaning his head back against the wall. "If anybody's got any ideas, sharing them now would be good, huh?" he said, reaching up to wipe away sweat and blood.
The Bebe roared again and turned its glowing red eyes to the officers. They all tried to scramble to their feet as the Bebe started reaching out for them. Suddenly, the arm stopped and several projectiles penetrated its neck, blowing apart the wires. Before the officers could figure out what happened, an explosion sounded off right at the Bebe's head. The dark, grey smoke covered the area again.
As the smoke cleared, there stood Kim in her brand new Knight Saber suit, shining like ivory and the ocean in the sun. Tara was about ready to cry when she saw the flashy new hard suit, but she knew there would be time for that later. Right now, she just wanted to get off the street alive.
"Hey, you have to cut the cables down by the tunnel! The thing's connected to the Dragon Line instead of having a normal core!" Tara pointed, just in case Kim needed more direction.
Kim nodded and then she sprung into action so quickly the GJ officers did not see what happened. There was another massive explosion and smoke once again covered the area. They could all hear the Bebe roaring, almost as if screaming in pain; the sound blew out the windows in nearby buildings. The smoke blew in the direction of the roar and Kim walked out of the rubble like a victorious gunslinger while the Bebe dropped behind her.
"How freaking cool was that!" Tara grinned. She could not wait to get her own suit!
-8-8-8-8-
Next time: Bonnie decides to step things up a notch while Kim and Shego go off on their own, leading to Tara and Vivian going off on their own, which leads to trouble.