Chapter 100: Carl
The week had passed and it was now Saturday. Rad, Ko, and Enid were preparing to go on a secret mission. "You sure you don't want to join us?" Rad asked after he went through a checklist. "It's Saturday and I have to spend it with Professor Venomous" Nebula responded as she leaned against the driver's side of his van. "Since you're not coming, how about a kiss for good luck?" he requested and Nebula let out a laugh. "Kiss for good luck" Rad said after they shared a quick kiss "Check, I guess. But do you guys really need the constant PDA?" Enid responded. "Yes and one of these days you and Red will understand. Right honey?" Nebula replied and Rad nodded.
"Last chance if you wanna change your mind, we're hittin' The Danger Zone today" Enid said. "Yeah! We're gonna punch some flame clouds, punch some volcanoes... punch some flame cloud" Rad said and Nebula let out a laugh. "It's gonna be a lot of fun!" Enid said. "Also, my dad installed this sweet new horn!" Rad said excitedly and when he honked the horn, it played 'La Cucaracha'. "Sorry guys. Maybe next time" she then kissed Rad's cheek. "Punch them all extra had for me okay?" she requested. "You got it babe!" Rad responded as he started his van. "Love you!" Nebula called as he drove off and she could hear him yelling "Love you too" as the van slowly disappeared from her site.
She then took a deep breath as she walked into the Voxmore building. "At least Shadowy Figure is gone… at least I hope so...Mom did tell me to be cautious of Professor Venomous, so who knows if that part of him is gone" Nebula said to herself as she rang the doorbell. The door slowly opened to reveal Professor Venomous. "Ah, Nebula! You're here!" he greeted and he reached a hand out to her head. She instinctively backed away and he returned his hand to his side. "Still don't trust me?" he asked. "A bit. I'm a hero and you're a villain" she reminded. "I know, but can't we at least forget about that so we can spend today not as hero and villain, but as father and daughter?" he asked. "Alright, I'll give it a shot" Nebula responded and Professor Venomous slowly reached a hand out and pet her head.
"Come on in! We have a whole day of father-daughter bonding ahead of us! Just the two of us, boy am I glad we took care of all that business with Shadowy Figure. What a creep right?" he then did an impression of Shadowy Figure and Nebula couldn't help but get a video of it and laugh. "So, where's you're little minion?" she asked. "You mean Fink? She's busy with her videos game tournament and she is not to be disturbed" Professor Venomous responded as they walked past Fink who was intensely playing a video game. "So it'll just be you and me today" he stated. "Oh, cool?" Nebula responded and Professor Venomous looked at her curiously.
"Sorry, I'm not used to having an actual dad to spend time with" she said sheepishly. "It's fine. I suppose that this is something that we'll have to get used to. Tell ya what, how about we take things nice and slow until you're comfortable enough? Deal?" he offered and he held out a hand. "Deal!" Nebula said as she shook his hand. "So uh, Pop? What are we gonna do today?" Nebula asked
"Same thing we do every day Nebula, try to take over the plaza!" He said with a laugh and Nebula stared at him with her jaw dropped. "I'm kidding" Professor Venomous said with a small laugh and Nebula rolled her eyes playfully. "I gotta admit, this is actually kinda nice" she admitted as they continued their walk. "I'm glad you think so" he responded as he ruffled her hair.
"So, for real, what are we doing today?" she asked. "Well, I assumed that villainous activities are still out of the question" he said and Nebula nodded her head. "Isn't there something we can do that isn't evil?" she asked. "Well, what did you have in mind?" he responded. "Well, Mr. Gar took Ko to a sports game once..." Nebula responded as she tried to think of other activities. "Sports game eh? I think we can manage that" he said and moments later they were in the back of Voxmore watching the robots play their version of Mega Football. Thoughts of the P.O.I.N.T Prep versus Lakewood Mega Football game appeared in her head and she glanced over at Professor Venomous. "That's right, that Laserblast was a fake" she thought as she continued to watch the game.
Professor Venomous noticed that Nebula went silent. "Let me guess, you want a certain robot?" he asked and she nodded happily
Professor Venomous whistled and Mikayla climbed onto Nebula's lap "You girls sure do like each other huh?" he commented. "Yeah! I went my whole life knowing that I was created while everyone was born and Mikayla was the only animal robot here. I guess with that in common, we formed some sort of bond" she responded as she pet Mikayla and laughed at the chaos that the robots were getting into.
"See? We're really getting along, aren't we?" Professor Venomous asked as Nebula laughed. "Yeah. And it is kinda nice to be able to hang out with my actual dad since I have one" she mentioned. She then howled with laughter when Raymond got blown up. "Do Shannon next!" Nebula cheered and Professor Venomous looked at her in surprise. "You know, I still have a little something else up my sleeve that's sure to wow you" Professor Venomous said as he stood up. "What is it?" Nebula asked as Mikayla jumped off her lap and scurried off. "Follow me" he said and he led her to his lab.
He pulled away the cloth on a small pedestal to reveal a small, green, slime creature. "You inspired me to engineer something fun and friendly instead of scary and evil. What do you think?" he asked. "It's so cute! Awh, what's your name little guy?" Nebula gushed. "Carl" it gurgled. "That's so adorable! It's nice to meet you Carl, I'm Nebula" she said and the slime creature gurgled happily. "Do you like getting pets?" she asked as she reached a hand out and Carl looked at her in confusion. "Like this, see?" Nebula then pet the creature. "See, isn't this nice you little cutie? There's a good little goo ball" she gushed as she continued to pet and fawn over the small creature. "Uh Carl?" Nebula called as the slime creature wiggled out of control. "Professor Venomous, what's going on?" she asked as she backed up.
Carl got larger and he shot slime on everything. "Oh no! He's getting away!" Nebula exclaimed as Carl slithered out the doors. "Maybe we can use this stuff to trace him" Nebula said. "Wait! Be careful!" Professor Venomous warned as Nebula was about to touch the slime. "That goo is so sticky, it could trap you for days" he warned. "Trap me? But I was just petting him, how come I didn't get stuck on him then?" she asked.
"Wait a minute…" flashbacks to when her friends were separated and trapped with goo clones appeared in her mind. "This is just like last time! How could you do this to me again?! Was all of this just to mentally torment me again?!" she yelled. "No! Nebula, I was trying to make something nice for you. Trust me, I didn't think it would turn out this way" Professor Venomous explained and he sighed. "I guess changing yourself isn't that easy. I just wanted to try and be a good father to you to make up for all the time that we lost" he pleaded and Nebula's gaze lowered. "O-oh. I-I didn't know…" she then raised her gaze to him. "I guess as long as we stop him from hurting anyone with that goo of his, everything will be okay!" she said optimistically. She then surprised Professor Venomous by taking his hand and leading him out of the building. "Let's go get Carl" she said and Professor Venomous pulled her back. He then opened the garage and led Nebula to his car.