Among the stars in the darkness of the Christmas eve's sky, Bedlam looks down on his subjects with hatred for life in his heart. From the bottom of his ink-pumping heart, he bellows:

"I WILL KILL AAAAALL OF YOU!"

Being too busy overacting, the tattooed tyrant fails to see a whale aimed right for his face. It crashes into him, knocking him a few steps off-balance.

Among the stars, the bright blue Price-Field-Fricepield butterfly swoops over Bedlam and yells back with a hearty tone:

"NO, YOU WOOOON'T!"

And yet, beneath this combat of the gods, the fighters on the ground watch. Finn tells his friends amusedly, "Did you ever think you'd get the chance to see this?"

Stepping over zombie corpses, Hannah adds bluntly, "Jacob's missing out on so much shit. If 'future music' blew his mind, then…" She chuckles to herself.

Finn adds, while shooting at several approaching zombies, "At least him, Sean and the rest of his family are safe down in Mexico."

Suddenly, a helicopter descends slowly over the two young drifters and their busier allies. Out steps several men in black, here to escort the Robo-President into town. Mechanically, he waves his hand and adds, "Indeed. Beep bop boop, blorp bleep."

"Robo-Prez! What are you doing here?"

"I have come on behalf of the United States Government to assist you all on your mission to defeat this Bedlam menace."

"Oh, we're not in charge. We're just the guys with the guns."

"Any of you got ammo?"

"Sure! Here ya go, Flower-Lady." "Now, we're the guys without guns."

Taking time out of their battle, the Price-Field-Fricepield butterfly flutters down to earth and gleefully says:

"ROBO-PRESIDENT! IT IS AN HONOR TO MEET YOOOOOU!"

"As it should beep." Looking around, the Robo-President sees the soldiers of the living gather around him. "As of this time - December 24th, 2014 at 7:35 PM Pacific Standard Time - evacuations are being staged in Beaver Creek and Culmination as blackened roots of ink have emerged through the ground. Bop boop beep."

The crowd murmurs amongst each other, discussing plans. Corralling the crowd, the Price-Field-Fricepield Butterfly makes their proposal:

"WE MUST ATTACK THESE ROOTS! TO CRIPPLE BEDLAM!"

"Yes. Boop." Looking around as the zombies are still approaching, their forces shrunken in number by the good work of the soldiers of the living, the Robo-President adds, "Attack."

And so, they do.


Glaring at the forcefield generator as it lies out in the open, Elmer asks his clothing compatriot, "What do you think will happen if we hit it?" Lord Laundry shrugs his leather shoulders (courtesy of Elmer's jacket) and Elmer adds, "Yeah, you're right. It'd probably be a mess."

The two look up from the device to see Victoria, Kate, Doctor Court and the Jumper standing before them. With a sneer, Victoria waves to them tauntingly, "Hey, boys."

"You gonna shoot me now?"

Looking away, Victoria tells Elmer, "Nah. Dolly took my gun. Plus we're all on the same team. We know about Dolly."

"Maybe you can get a gun from that guy." Elmer points to the hooded Merchant as he stands inside a ramshackle gun shop based outside of the Main Building the four left from a few minutes prior.

The Merchant jovially waves to the group: "Welcome, stranger!"

Victoria raises an eyebrow at this strange man and adds, "I think I'm good." The Merchant shrugs his shoulders, and Victoria jumps back to conversing with Elmer. "So what's the plan here?"

The Doctor steps forward and says, unsurely, "We can try shutting it down." She gives the crew a lengthy technobabble rundown: Something about tachyon particles, light-based energy, and how the forcefield has the density of the Great Wall of China. "Dismantling it could take some time."

Elmer puts his best foot forward and adds, "Let's just break this thing apart, or step on it, crush it."

"No. If we do that or tamper with it without the proper resources, tools, insight, the forcefield could collapse in on itself and crush everything inside of it. Us included, obviously."

Elmer states, "Well, there's also that army of SWAT guys outside."

Looking around, Victoria asks, "Can we try talking to them? Ask for help, perhaps?"

"They're really far away. Plus, uh, Dolly kinda already talked to them."

Victoria shrugs her shoulders. "Okay. So?"

"As you."

Her eyes dart and she says, a bit unnerved, "Oooookay."

"And boy, did she say some shit."

Victoria plants her hands on her hips and asks, "Liiiiike?"

An embarrassed chuckle escapes Elmer's throat as he scratches at the back of his neck and tells her, "Ehhhh, I'd REALLY rather not say."

Victoria sighs and rubs her eyes in shame. "Oh god." Confused at the idea, she asks, "Why?"

The Jumper jumps in and posits, "Your wife did kill her, it's likely revenge."

The Doctor adds, "Also, uh, speaking of Dolly's motivations, might I add one more thing?"

Crossing her arms at Dolly's absolute malalignment of her, Victoria bluntly asks, "Sure, what is it?"

"Dolly has her mental powers: the ability to read minds, control bodies, send mental projections. She can do all that. But we have another problem. You see, her powers, from when we first picked her up from Arizona, have been damaging her brain and psyche on a cellular level. As a result, her actions have been becoming more unhinged and incomprehensible, comparable to Alzheimers Disease or something of the like."

Victoria groans, not out of anger but out of sympathy, "Jesus."

"She's been changing, getting worse ever since they would've first manifested, and ever since we picked her up. Surely, you remember her back in March."

Looking at Kate, Victoria says, "How could I forget?"

Kate hops in and asks, "Well, we can save her, right? Maybe not from her brain, but we don't have to kill her."

Victoria adds, "That's true. Besides, she might know where Montrose is."

Knowing where (or rather, who) he currently is, Elmer chimes in, "About that…"

The thumping of combat boots heading towards their location prompts Victoria to yell, "Get inside!" The six dash back into the Main Building, only barely catching glimpses of their adversary: a royally pissed Tangi leading several dozen Agents behind him.

Once inside, Victoria shuts the door behind them all and lets out a deep sigh. "Everyone's alright?" That they are.

Over a megaphone, Tangi screams, "Dolly's told me all about you traitors! Time to get what you deserve!"

Enraged, Victoria yells back, "Get out of his head, Dolly! It's me you want, isn't it?" She asks herself in a whisper, "Dunno why…"

A sinister giggle escapes Tangi's mouth as he responds, "Oh, she's not in my head." The giggle grows into maniacal laughter and he instructs the controlled Agents, "Keep them in there, wouldn't want any uninvited guests to tonight's show- Oh, why am I telling you this already? Y'already know! HAH AHAHAHAHA!"

Her hands balled up into fists, Victoria grumbles, "I hate that fucking clown."

Elmer shrugs and tells her, "At least you've never heard his stand-up."

The Doctor asks, "Now what?"

From outside, just barely, the group hears the Merchant. He says to them, "Oy, stranger! Got somethin' that might interest ya!" He talks from a small open grate, unphased by any of the danger surrounding him.

Victoria kneels down to the grate and asks, "Who are you?"

"I'm the Merchant lookin' to sell!"

"Are you with Dolly?"

Sitting on the grass outside, the Merchant tells her, "No. I'm just here to sell. Are you here to buy?"

"Buy what?"

"Guns, ammo, medical herbs, first aid. All on sale, stranger!"

Victoria raises an eyebrow and chuckles to herself. "You're all stocked up, aren't you?"

"That's the job. So, stranger, what are ya buyin'?"

"Uh… A rifle?"

"Non-lethal!" Victoria looks at Kate, who continues, "We can't kill the people out there. They're victims too."

She nods her head and adds, "Good point. A non-lethal rifle please?"

"That'll be ten dollars!"

The Doctor jolts at the sound of that deal and exclaims in shock, "Ten dollars for an assault rifle?! Can I get your number, sir?"

Teasingly, the Merchant tells her, "You won't find me, stranger, I'll find you!" He slides the gun over to Victoria and asks, "Is that all?"

"Got anything non-lethal and explodey?"

Sliding a grenade launcher through the grate, the Merchant explains, "You're gonna need guts for this, stranger. Guts, and a good sense of distance if you don't want a splitting headache!" Victoria picks it up and looks at it, intrigued. "I sell ammo for it, twenty five bucks for ten rounds!"

"You can sell for more!"

"I sell to the worthy buyer, for the worthy buyer, stranger. That, and I have to convert the funds from dollars to pesetas." Victoria gives the Merchant his owed money and he happily beams, "Hehehe, thank you! Come back anytime."

Victoria smirks and asks Kate, "What a guy, huh? Now, step two. We need numbers. We're not gonna cut it against those guys outside. We need people who can really fuck shit up!"

Silence befalls the group as they have no people readily available for assistance. But the Doctor knows that there are people who can help, even if they hate her. After all, they have a common enemy: "We have the Dawgs."

The Jumper swallows in fear and claims, "But those are… them! To use them is to court death itself, I mean, the Dawgs are dangerous beasts who'll SURELY be pissed off, they're just-"

"The perfect plan. I agree." Victoria looks to Kate with a smile and asks her, "Katie, you've seen them before."

She chuckles to herself, still wrapping her head around the idea of a Hawt Dawg Man army. "Yeah."

"Then, let's get them out. And step three: you know, Katie."

Kate smirks and explains to the others, "The prisoners. Oh, you know me well." She looks at the others and tells them, "Stay here and stay safe. We'll be right back." They run off into the building where their help awaits.

The Chase parents are led into a darkened theater where many of the other unfortunate partygoers have been brought. With their shoulders gripped by cold unfeeling hands, Dolly advises her Agents, "Not so tight, boys."

The Chases are brusquely pushed into their seats and Zara speaks to the villainess as she starts to flutter onto the stage where a video camera awaits, "Dolly… Dolly? We heard about who you are under the mask. We're with you here, not your enemy, we don't want you to get hurt. Just let Montrose go. Him and Victoria, please."

Dolly giggles and looks back at her coldly. "No. Not yet." She continues, "Sorry about what'll happen to you. It's just business."

Colin stands up and asks her, with desperation in his voice, "What are you-"

An Agent aims his gun at him and Colin slowly sits back down as Dolly checks up on the camera. "Stay seated. It's almost showtime."


"Are these things really dangerous?"

Kate shrugs her shoulders and tells her wife, "I believe so. And I also believe in us reaching out to them. Somehow." She leads Victoria back down the hallway of offices before approaching that vault door that contains the Dawgs. "Let's get this thing open." Motioning for her to stand back, Kate aims a bright-light fist at the door and cuts it straight out of the frame and right off the hinges.

From the darkness, two wide eyes glimmer and growl. Victoria shakes, afraid of whatever these dangerous Dawgs are capable of. She extends an open hand and tells them gently, "Hey, hey, easy. We're not here to hurt you." She looks at Kate, nervous now more than ever before, and asks, "Friends. Right? Friends?"

Kate shoots a smirk her way and gets down on her knees before whistling at the Dawgs, "Here." She makes kissy noises at the beasts and they stomp out with their purple boots. They're small, the Dawgs, no more than three feet tall. "Here, boy." A Dawg leading the pack hobbles over to Kate and hugs her gently. Patting it on the head, Kate tells the Dawg with a smile, "Good boy!"

Another Dawg marches over to Victoria and waves at her with his purple gloves. She smiles at the creature, lifts it up in her arms, and tells it softly, "Aw. Good Dawggy."

Swiftly, with no time to lose, the two lovers lead their Dawgs downstairs. Downstairs into the Agency Dungeons, where prisoners are held unconstitutionally, metahumans (and the unlucky people with a weird skill who may or may not actually be metahumans) await freedom.

A prisoner, with blood, bone and skin frosted in ice, asks his neighbor, "So what're you in for?"

The spiky haired electromagnetic madam sitting in the cell next to him says, rather annoyed, "Bro. We've been here for eight months, how are you asking me this NOW?"

A hole forms in the ceiling and out comes Kate, Victoria and a Dawg clutched close to her. Kate happily tells the prisoners, "I'm back, and I brought my wife!"

Victoria looks around and asks loudly, "Are you all in to beat down Dolly?"

"Who?"

"Then let's go save the world! Kate, do the honors." Kate illuminates her body and explodes into light; the protective light against Dolly's mental attacks. Victoria opens the doors with the pull of a lever, freeing the prisoners and unleashing them back out onto the world.


Tangi whistles, confused at why everything's gotten so quiet. After all, that's never a good sign. He looks to the Merchant and asks him, "Hey, Lefty! Are they still inside there?"

"That depends. What are ya sellin' in exchange?"

Tangi raises a rifle in his direction, aiming it at his face. "I won't shoot you if you talk."

The Merchant shrugs and tells him, "Doesn't really matter either way."

"No, it does-"

The doors burst open and out step the metahuman prisoners, the Hawt Dawg Monsters, the Jumper, the Doctor, Elmer, Lord Laundry, Kate and Victoria. They charge, with the two lovers leading the strike. Victoria yells, with a triumphant smile on her face and a pointed finger aimed at the criminal clown leading Dolly's Agents, "CHAAAAAAAARGE!"