Kitty was on patrol around Petropolis and getting pedestrians to safety. Or at least she was trying to, but some people would not come quietly. A little more than she was used to, but still. As she had made her way past the T.V. Store, she caught a special news report by Spitzer.
"This is Wolf Spitzer with an emergency broadcast. Former TUFF agent Dudley Puppy: secret agent turned super villain, has been seen committing extraordinary crimes."
The screen showed a dark gray wolf like dog committing a lot of bad things as Spitzer narrated.
"From, assaulting innocent people, to terrorizing landmarks, the once benevolent dog we used to know just may have been turned to evil. I'm Wolf Spitzer, and I think I'm speaking for all of Petropolis when I say: Agent Puppy is on the most wanted list of TUFF. Although they have tried, Agent Puppy has been seen here mercilessly assaulting without hesitation."
Kitty hardly believed this. That monstrous wolf, was Dudley? The Dudley she knew was fun, lazy, and a little childish. This dog was mean, selfish, vicious, and very very dark gray. Now she was convinced that Donnegan was evil. Being around Dudley most of the time, who knows what went on between the two? Whatever Dudley was, it was not what he normally was.
"With that in mind",Spitzer continued, "Petropolis citizens are advised to get to safety and stay clear of this dog. I'm Wolf Spitzer, and we'll soon be back with more updates as we get more coverage of this story."
With that, Wolf's report went to commercial, and Kitty was now having severe inner turmoil. She wanted to get Dudley and make him suffer for the crimes he committed, yet at the same time, she wanted to get an answer on why he went this bad. Whatever the reason, Kitty knew what she had to do, and was on her way to TUFF HQ.
Dudley on the other hand, was now taking a breather back at the abandoned warehouse his minions and him were at. Chameleon saw that Dudley looked conflicted so he thought it would be best to remind him of his issues.
"So, 01, what do you think is the next bad thing 00 is going to deploy you for?"
Dudley just shrugged.
"Chameleon, I first thought this was going to help, but now it's hurting people."
"That's the idea. And you do remember what 00 said, don't you? We do as he says or severe pain will follow."
"Oh don't remind me", Dudley cringed.
Dudley looked down at the black tattoo on his left arm. This was his mark that symbolized him as 00's obedient servant. It started out as black silk, then it was literally stitched thru his fur, and into his skin which was extremely painful I might want to mention. Chameleon saw that Dudley's state of conflict would eventually fade, so he went back to practicing his combat techniques with Snaptrap. Dudley was now having second thoughts on his deal with 00. His familiar foes that were not working with him were scared of even coming out of hiding, his fellow agents now labeled him a wanted criminal, and all ordinary people rejected him. What else could go wrong? Beating people into submission he could live with, but killing people, that he wanted to drop entirely. Just when he was about to give up, Bird Brain flew in.
"01, I've gathered intel, that TUFF's on the move."
"Really?", Dudley asked, his darker persona now taking over again, "What do you got?"
"From what I've gathered, Kitty's in a real mess. Having to keep TUFF from falling apart, prevent pedestrians from panicking, and us from doing things that are bad. That could make any mind spin."
"Yeah, I know it would make my mind spin. Hey, you have we not intimidated so far?"
"Well according to our records, we've terrorized mostly everyone who used to try and eliminate you sir."
Dudley thought for a minute. Then Bird Brain saw he needed a minute so he flew off back to the observation desk where Larry was checking for TUFF activity as well as any other activity for that matter. Just then, the alarm went off, and 00's image appeared on the screen.
"Greetings, boys."
Dudley's dark ego instantly took hold as he stood in front of the screen with his minions following.
"We were just about to mention you 00. Your ears must have heard us."
"My ears hear many things 01. It comes with the infernal power I'm wielding."
"Oh, they're very nice looking too.", Snaptrap swooned.
"Spare the comments.", 00 sneered before turning back to Dudley, "So you boys up for another mission?"
"What's the objective this time?", Dudley asked harshly, "Another rumble? Intimidation? Complete destruction?"
"Actually, the gig is to head over to the game show studio, and give Quacky a severe case of mayhem."
The sound of that name made Dudley's face darken into a look of vengeance. Quacky had been his favorite show for a while until it was pulled, during that Dudley had been deceived into getting him some things he needed for a getaway while he took the fall. After several times of this, Dudley now wanted his head on a platter and his body fried and devoured.
"When do we start, sir?", Dudley asked coldly.
"You may start when ready 01. Oh and for the record, mind if you remind Quacky that he owes me a ton of dough for the times I offered a crime plan for him?"
Dudley's face turned a demonic smile.
"Love to."
Back at TUFF HQ, Kitty had put together several search parties to be deployed. While the others worked on monitoring the city activity. Kitty knew she still worried about Dudley, but now she had to act so she wouldn't seem like she was covering for him like she used to when he worked with her.
"Listen up everyone, as your new chief of TUFF, I hereby decree a state of search. Our target is Dudley Puppy and after several long days of waiting, I can't ignore it no longer. Today, we will get our answers to why all this is occurring and Dudley may know."
Her audience applauded her and she waited til they settled before she started again.
"Be warned though, his new minions pose a threat. You may think they are easily taken down, but they are no longer the foes we knew. They are unfeeling, uncaring, and unable to be reasoned with. We can not allow this madness to continue. In the name of TUFF, and all the good people of Petropolis, best of luck. Now, DEPLOY!"
Her audience instantly scurried about, gathering their equipment, outfitting their vehicles, and driving off into the streets. Kitty watched all this and was approached by Herbert.
"Kitty, you only did what you needed to do. I know you still feel for your partner, but he's not your partner now. We need to bring him down."
Kitty nodded. Even though she felt like Dudley wouldn't sell himself out like this, she had to put all that aside. If she put her feelings before her duties, it would lead to her downfall. She learned that the hard way a lot of times. She held her bushy tail and remembered the time Dudley chewed on it. She could even feel the bite marks still not healed yet. Kitty then went to the old desk Dudley had to collect his things. If he wasn't going to be a TUFF agent, his stuff better go. As she put all his stuff away, she pulled up the photo of Dudley and her standing heroically over a defeated Snaptrap and that really tugged at her heartstrings. It was the days they had fun, had complications, even times they laughed together as well as cried. This was enough for her to get all teary eyed again. She then took a breath, wiped her eyes dry, and continued putting Dudley's stuff away. Then, she accidentally activated Dudley's phone's answering machine.
"Hi, you've reached a totally cool, secret agent named Dudley Puppy and his side kick Kitty."
"I'm not your SIDEKICK!" Kitty's voice rang out.
"Gotta go, leave a message, and I'll get to you."
While the phone beeped, Kitty just stood there sighing. She took the cleared out stuff to the vaults so she could lock it up. She didn't like it, but it was for the best. If she had no reminder of Dudley in her past life, she would focus on her duties. With a now heavy heart, Kitty placed Dudley's stuff in the vault, and slowly closed the heavy door.
Dudley and his minions were at this time walking out of the studio with a lot of dough( as in cash), their faces displaying pride and confidence, and their fists steaming.
"Now that was what I call a smack down boys", Dudley said with leader like pride.
"Yeah", chuckled Snaptrap, "Did you see their faces?"
"Man did they look confused", Chameleon added, "And when you told them who you really were? Priceless."
"At first, they tried to fight, and after they saw they were outmatched, they tried to flee. But with the training that we do, and the strategy we devise, they were on their knees in mere minutes.", Dudley boasted, "I can't believe I once trusted that pitiful, pathetic, and just plain short sighted duck. He thought I would forgive and forget, well guess what? Not his time. Not after what he did to me all those times before. Strapping me to a rocket, having me rob Fort Ox, sabotage my birthday, and even had the nerve to manipulate me into covering for them. At least now I don't hide my true feelings towards them. They were just annoying me anyway."
"Oh and don't forget the time Quacky had you destroy his fast food competition so his fast food joint was making the most bucks", Bird Brain added.
"Thanks, BB", Dudley answered (he called Bird Brain BB because it was shorter).
Just then, Dudley caught something in the corner of his eye. Not that he was surprised. It was the very malamute that he saw that one time and that had drove away his spotlight. Now he wanted to get even with this copycat. But before he could pursue him, Snaptrap tapped his shoulder.
"Sir, we got trouble.", Snaptrap informed as he pointed to the other side of the intersection where the were.
It was TUFF vehicles and they definably looked like they wanted to fight.
"Hold them off!", Dudley ordered, "I have a...score to settle."
Dudley bolted after the malamute while his minions stayed behind. Shortly there came the sounds of gunfire, as well as crashes, bangs and explosions. Dudley ignored them though. If his minions were as powerful as 00 assured they were, they could handle anything. After a short dash, Dudley found he had lost the malamute. He put his pointy nose to the ground and started sniffing around. After about a minute, Dudley stood straight up.
"Come out, whoever you are.", he demanded, "Afraid of me?"
"Not on your life!"
Dudley turned fast to see the malamute assaulting from behind. Dudley quickly put a guard stance up and managed to evade the tackle, then the malamute skidded to a halt as he turned to face Dudley straight in the eyes.
"State your name.", Dudley insisted.
"I'll tell you my name, when I beat you!"
That was where the real fighting started. With every move and exchanged blow, Dudley and the malamute kept up quite the display of combat. Even though the malamute was good, Dudley wanted to do better and his rage was insisting on being used. After a quick flip back, Dudley conjured a fireball in his hand and hurled it at his enemy. The malamute evaded it, but the explosion the fireball caused was quite a bang. Dudley's fireball were being fired by a special fire shaping device in his palm. By drawing oxygen from the surrounding area, the device used special underworld tech to ignite a sphere of flaming sphere which could be used as a form of attack. But the malamute had tricks too. While Dudley hurled fireballs, he hurled lightning bolts using similar tech that relied on static electricity. And when they got close, they used close combat. And that was quite a workout. As it looked like they were matched almost evenly, the malamute slipped. Dudley then used a flip and a quick jab to finally send his target into the wall. Panting and sweating, both dogs stood and looked the other in the eye.
"So you've been working on combat as well have you?"
"You're quite the adversary yourself", Dudley countered.
"Well, by the look of things, your minions are going to call you and inform you that more TUFF agents are on the way."
Dudley was about to counter that comment, when his communicator rang. Sure enough, it was Snaptrap informing him that more TUFF agents were on the way to their location.
"Darn it", Dudley sneered as he looked his target in the eye again, "We'll finish this some other time. Count on it."
With that, Dudley turned and ran to assist his minions, but the malamute stood there.
"Name's Dante. Dante Swigger", he muttered before he flipped over the fence and vanished.
The fight did not go unnoticed. Watching from the shadows, 03 and 04 had observed Dudley's battle.
"01 is quite the learner", 03 stated.
"Indeed", 04 added, "But who was-"
"That?", 03 finished, "Judging by the skill and the technique he just-"
"Displayed", 04 put in, "Our little renegade."
03 and 04 then mad a very special phone call to 00.
"This better be important."
"Sir, we have a problem", 03 and 04 informed.
"What kind of problem?"