Chapter 96: Let's Get Shadowy Part 1
"Rad honey, I'm sure I'll be fine" Nebula said as she packed a bag. "Are you really so sure about that? You are spending the weekend with Professor Venomous for some reason, and he's, oh you know, the bad guy!" Rad retorted as he followed her into the living room. She sighed and she sat on the couch. She then motioned for Rad to do the same.
"Rad look, before I leave, you need to know something" Nebula confessed as she took his hands into her own. "It's about the other day. Remember when I was at P.O.I.N.T. for a night?" she asked and he nodded. "Well, I found out that the woman who I thought was my creator, was my actual mother" she began. She took a deep breath and Rad gently squeezed her hands for her to continue her explanation. "You know how she is married to Laserblast? Well, it turns out that the Laserblast we all knew was actually a goo clone and the real one is…" she then went silent. "What?" Rad urged and he heard her mumble a response. "What did you say?" he asked gently and she took a deep breath. "I said Professor Venomous!" she revealed and Rad gasped.
Nebula then explained everything that Professor Venomous had told her and the others on that day and Rad held her close once she had finished. After a while, Nebula looked at her phone and she sighed.
"Are you sure you want to go through with this today? You could always stay here with me" Rad asked as he wrapped his arms around her. "Rad, like it or not, Professor Venomous is my birth father and I could learn about controlling Negula. I know she will appear again! You know how I can lose control of my emotions" she explained. "You know, you don't have to go if you don't want to, no one's forcing you" he stated. Before she could respond, the sound of a motorcycle pulling up to Rad's home was heard. "As much as I really don't want to go, this is something I need to do" she said. The sound of the motorcycle's engine revving was then heard.
"That's Mama Bianca. I better go" she then stood up and kissed Rad's cheek. Rad followed her to the door and he gave her one final hug before she went through the door. She then paused and turned to him. "How about a kiss for good luck?" she asked and Rad was more than happy to kiss her. Once they pulled away, Nebula went to the 'IceCycle' where Bianca was waiting with a helmet in her hand.
She got on behind her and she looked at Rad one last time. "I love you" she said as she levitated her bag onto the 'IceCycle' and Rad walked over to her. "I love you too. Stay safe, okay?" he asked and she nodded. They shared a quick kiss before Nebula put on the helmet. Bianca took a deep breath as they drove off.
Moments later, they arrived at Voxmore where Lord Boxman was waiting for them. "Are you ready?" Bianca asked as Nebula got off the bike. "Ready as I'll ever be" she responded as she took her luggage. "Hey Bianca" Lord Boxman greeted awkwardly. "Hey Boxy" Nebula greeted. "Hello Nebula" he responded and he cleared his throat.
"Look, I'm really sorry about how all his went down, I told P.V that we should have taken the reveal slowly, but when he wants to do something, he just does it. I'm sure you know how he is" Lord Boxman said casually. "Boxman, if anything happens to her then I swear to the heavens that you and him will pay! Got it?" Bianca threatened. Lord Boxman gulped and nodded. "Good luck and have fun! Oh, and call me if you decide that you want to come back early" Bianca said as she turned her attention to Nebula. "I'll be fine" Nebula said. The females shared a hug and Bianca kissed Nebula's head. "Love you" she said as she started her motorcycle. "I… I love you too" Nebula responded and Bianca drove off. "Love you" Lord Boxman called as Bianca's figure disappeared into the horizon. "Dude, that's my mom and technically the wife of your business partner" Nebula stated and Lord Boxman motioned for her to follow him inside.
He then led her to the familiar white door that had a 'V' on it in purple. The door opened and a cloud of purple smoke came out of the room. Professor Venomous then appeared in the doorway. "Ah Nebulana, good to see that you're here!" he greeted and he motioned for her to follow him into his lab. "It's Nebula!" she spat as he took off his lab coat and placed it on a nearby hook as she entered his lab.
"I have so much planned for our first day together! What would you like to do first?" he asked. "I thought you said that you had so much planned for us. So why are you asking me?" Nebula asked smugly. "Yes...but, I want to know what you would like to do first. We could blackmail a congresswoman, infect the Lakewood water supply with flesh eating nanites, or maybe… attack the plaza" he responded.
"Really? You want to spend your first day with your oldest daughter doing evil stuff? Really?! Wouldn't you rather spend this time doing something that not just you would enjoy? And fyi, you know for a fact that I work at the plaza with my friends and boyfriend, so why do you think that I would voluntarily attack the plaza?!" she asked rhetorically and Professor Venomous let out a nervous laugh.
"Of course! I just thought you'd want to see a bit of what your old man likes to get up to" he said quickly as he went over to Nebula. He reached out a hand to touch her hair and Nebula hissed at him. "So, a mink huh?" he asked nervously as he recoiled his hand. Nebula took out her phone and used the camera as a mirror. When she noticed her animal form, she cleared her throat and smoothed down her tail. "You know, your mom animal is a wolf" he said as she made her animal form disappear. "Is that so?" she asked coldly as she put her phone back into her pocket.
"You can ruffle my hair boss!" Fink said as she appeared upside down from out of nowhere. "You know, a part of me thought that his could work, but I don't think we like any of the same things. All you do is destroy" Nebula sighed. "That's not so bad" Professor Venomous replied as he carefully put a hand on her shoulder, only for her to swat his hand off of her shoulder.
"There has to be something you'd like to destroy. Maybe a villain that you've fought" he suggested and Nebula shook her head. "Don't lie to me kid" he said getting angry as he got close to her face. "I am not a kid! And if I destroy them, I will do it on my own terms. Not because my so called daddy thinks that destroying them will be a good bonding activity" Nebula said venomously as she glared at him.
"What about the night Boxman and I had Raymond go get you from the security room? There must have been someone that you were looking to destroy" he asked and Nebula's eyes widened when she knew what he was talking about. "Well, who were you after?" he asked.
"His name is Shadowy Figure. He is a creepy glorb dealer that wears a hood to disguise his face. I thought we got rid of him in New York, but seeing as how the goo clone of Laserblast, aka you, was under mind control when he was Shadowy Figure, I guess that the real one is out there somewhere. He helped Ko become TKo and from what I could hear when he hid in the sewer while Ko was fighting Fink, he wanted him to unleash TKo" Nebula explained.
Professor Venomous thought for a moment and Nebula saw Fink looking at him weirdly. "Never heard of him" Professor Venomous said after a moment and Fink sighed in relief. "I think we found something in common Nebula. Let's team up to destroy this Shadowy Figure" he suggested darkly. "That's a bad idea" Fink commented.
"Fink, there's no need to be jealous" Professor Venomous said. "That's not what I mean!" Fink yelled. "Look, I don't want to destroy Shadowy. I just want to find out who he is. He would be someone under mind control that needs my help. I don't want to destroy him unless I absolutely need to" Nebula explained. "We'll see when we get there" Professor Venomous said and he went over to his computer. "Let's see if we can dig up any information on this Shadowy Figure" he said. "Capital S and F" Nebula commented as she watched him type. Professor Venomous' computer then broke and showed that there was an error. "Fink! Were you downloading crime scene photos again?!" Professor Venomous accused angrily. "I haven't done that all week!" Fink responded and Professor Venomous sighed. "You said this guy is a glorb dealer right?" he asked. "Oh so you were listening" Nebula retorted snarkily and Professor Venomous huffed. "Well, he must have a source then" he said. Nebula sighed and walked across the street with them to the Plaza. She then lead them through a secret entrance. "Where are you leading us?" Fink asked. "You'll see" Nebula responded as she lead them through the secret path.
"Well, here we are… The Lakewood Tree. It's where glorbs come from. Usually Shadowy Figure hangs out here and gets glorbs" she explained as they walked down the steps. Nebula then slapped FInk hand when she greedily reached for a glorb. "Don't even think about it! Same goes for you Venomous" she warned as Professor Venomous was looking at a glorb. "Wouldn't dream of it" he responded as he continued to examine the glorb. "Maybe bringing you guys here was a mistake" Nebula groaned. "Duh!" Fink commented. "That's weird. Shadowy usually slithers in as soon as the doors open" Nebula pointed out as the three of them looked around the tree. "He could be using a different supply these days" Professor Venomous remarked. "Do you know any glorb dealers, maybe the one you and Boxman were going to sell glorbs to on the day I found out that you were my father?" Nebula pointed out. They all exited the secret tunnel and got into Professor Venomous' car. Nebula sat in the front passenger seat while Fink sat in the back.
Nebula let out a long whistle when she saw a large yacht. Two muscular, silver humanoid statues with black bow-ties, white cuffs on their wrists, black briefs, and magenta shoes with heels and small black ribbons on them stood guarding a ramp that lead up the ship. Once they saw Professor Venomous, they moved out of the way and allowed the three of them to climb aboard the ship.
"Oh, Professor Venomous! Darling!" a golden skinned and haired man greeted. "Hey Billiam" Professor Venomous responded. "Are you here for business…" the golden man said. "Or pleasure" he said suggestively.
"Actually, we're looking for a glorb dealer. He goes by the name Shadowy Figure" Professor Venomous responded. The golden man that was now identified as Billiam sat in thought for a moment, searching through his brain for any memories of Shadowy Figure. "Doesn't ring a bell" he said after a moment and Fink let out a laugh. "But you know as well as I that villains aren't the only ones who use glorbs" Billiam stated and Nebula slapped her forehead.
"Of course! Why didn't I think of her sooner? I know where we need to go now! But you guys might not like it" Nebula said. "Lead the way" Professor Venomous said and they got back into his beloved car.
Nebula had him drive to the nearest shuttle stop and the trio waited for a shuttle to arrive. Moments later, it arrived and the trio got on board with the other passengers. After telling the driver where they needed to stop, she paid the fee and sat with Professor Venomous and Fink.
"Can I play on your phone?" Fink asked as she noticed that Nebula was on her phone. "Why not? I'm bored! Just what are you doing that's so important anyway?" Fink asked. She then looked over Nebula's shoulder and she saw that she was texting with Rad. "Yuck! Do you always have to be so mushy?" she asked as Nebula sent him a text. "Yes, it's called being in love and it's something that you won't understand right now" Nebula retorted. Fink fake gagged and Nebula pretended to call Rad.
"Hi honey! What's that? Awh, I miss you too. No I miss you more. Awh and your my sweet cuddly bug" she then continued to fake a sickeningly sweet conversation with her boyfriend. Professor Venomous let out a chuckle as he noticed Fink being disgusted by Nebula's fake conversation.
Minutes later they arrived at P.O.I.N.T headquarters. "I bet this brings back old memories. You should smile so you don't give off the wrong idea" Nebula commented to Professor Venomous. "How's this?" he asked as he smiled awkwardly. "I don't know what she ever saw in you" she responded as the trio walked into the building.
Nebula lead them through the hallways and they heard soft cooing from around the corner. "My my my, what brings you three here? Are you already done with your day with them Nebula?" they heard a familiar voice ask. The figure turned the corner into their hallway to reveal Bianca holding Solana. "No. Actually… Do you know where Foxtail is?" Nebula asked. "I do. I'm just not sure that she'll want to see him" she responded coldly as she glared at Professor Venomous. "Please, it's really important" Nebula begged and Bianca sighed. "Oh alright…. Follow me" she responded. "So, does she know about what happened to me?" Professor Venomous asked as they followed Bianca. "No. All she knows is that you are on a mission and you haven't returned yet. I didn't tell her about what really happened" she responded spitefully. She then lead them to the gym where Foxtail was lifting a sack of dodgeballs. "Hey Foxtail" Bianca called and Solana tilted her head at Professor Venomous. Foxtail noticed them and she happily walked over. "Hey there honeydew! Long time no see! How've ya been?" she asked as she playfully ruffled Nebula's hair. "Foxtail, they have something to ask you" Bianca P.O.I.N.T-ed out.
"Miss Foxtail, when you were a misguided anti-hero using special glorbs, to make P.O.I.N.T students stronger,were you getting those glorbs from the real Shadowy Figure?" Nebula asked and Foxtail went stiff. "I don't associate with him anymore… not after New York when he had me use Laserblast to throw anyone and everyone off his trail. I learned to put all that behind me when I stepped down as head of P.O.I.N.T" Foxtail responded regretfully. "Please, we need to find Shadowy Figure so we can find out who he is and possibly help him if he needs it" Nebula pleaded. "She definitely takes after you" Professor Venomous remarked to Bianca.
"Aw shucks, guess she's not gonna talk. We may as well head home I suppose" Fink said as she tried to lead Professor Venomous out of the gymnasium. "Please Miss Foxtail" Nebula pleaded and Foxtail sighed and handed her a small piece of paper.
"These are the coordinates for Shadowy Figure's secret lair. That's where I picked up all my glorb shipments from him" she explained. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Nebula said happily as she hugged her. "Just promise me you'll keep your wits about you. Alright?" Foxtail requested. "I'm not sure what that means, but sure!" Nebula. "By the way, is there a reason why you brought Professor Venomous and that rat kid with you?" Foxtail asked. "It's a long story and I'm not sure if I have enough time to tell you. I'll tell you one day thought. I promise! Thanks again Miss Foxtail" She then hugged her one last time and lead Professor Venomous and Fink out of the gymnasium.