Chapter 3: Sibling Rivalry

"Hey, I remember you," said Belladonna, an eager smile on her face. "You're that lady who sent Morgana to kill your sister."

"That's right," answered Myrna. "Alexandra was always a great pain in my tail when we were growing up. My parents loved her so much, it made me very sick just to see them spoiling their 'favorite little girl'. So, when I had my chance, I called for Morgana, and told her to get rid of Alexandra for good. And now you speak of killing Bentley Raccoon?"

Chris said, "Yeah. And the word is that he's pregnant. That means we're going to kill him and his baby. Sounds like jackpot, huh?"

"It sounds like a good idea to me, but what I was really aiming for is killing my worthless nephew."

Belladonna and Chris looked at each other. Then, they said, "What?"

Myrna shouted, "BERT!"

"Oh, so you want to kill the president, too?" Belladonna asked.

Myrna replied, "No, you silly demon dog, I'm not going to kill him. I'm going to use him as a tool for unleashing my wrath upon this world for what he did to me years ago."

CUE SONG: "My Revenge"

Ever since my stupid sister died,
I had to bring him up,
The people of the forest expected me
To treat him like a cute little pup

But I had other plans for him
And I plotted to kill him at once
Unfortunately, he snitched on me
And made me feel like a dunce!

My revenge, my revenge,
At last I'll get my own revenge,
I'll make my no-good nephew wish
That he were never born

My revenge, my revenge,
After all those grievous years,
I'll slaughter him and crush his guts
And bring his wives to tears!

"I thought you wasn't going to kill him," said Chris.

"Wrong again," said Myrna. "The plot to murder him was part of my original plan. To kill my nephew is to injure my rotten sister's pride, but then I changed my mind and started making a new plan--to use him to help you."

I have the secret recipe
For Jackson's Dark Liquid,
All you have to do is take nuclear waste
And mix it with the blood of a squid

Add a pinch of crushed centaur's tooth
And when it is all done,
Spill some of it on poor little Bert
And he'll be the evil one

My revenge, my revenge,
At last I'll finally get revenge,
I'll help you kill Bentley Raccoon
And his little kiddy, too

My revenge, my revenge,
I'll make each Canerican's heart to cringe,
When they hear that the Time Toon Cops are dead
They'll wish they lived in a zoo!

Myrna laughed evilly, before declaring, "All right, Belladonna and Chris, let's go and make my dreams come true. First, we'll get Bentley by using Bert as a decoy to lead him to us, and then we'll kill him."

"We can make an evil version of him," said Chris.

Belladonna said, "No, there's already an evil version of my enemy--Evil Bert. He's still at the Happy Valley Ex-Villains Home with Dr. Hamsterviel and the others. He swore that he would never do bad things again, but I do know a way that I could bring him back to his wicked ways."

"Good," said Myrna. "Go get him, and meet me back here at the graveyard tomorrow night. We can figure out the plans then. And, as for you, Chris, you can go home to your secret lair now--it seems that your little family is getting pretty worried about you."

Chris nodded and said, "Yes, Myrna. I will." And as he and Belladonna left, Myrna snickered and rubbed her paws with glee. She whispered, "Finally...it's payback time..."

Nobody was able to figure out what went on in the graveyard that very night, but one witness did discover the plan that the wicked trio had made to get rid of Bentley Raccoon. Hiding behind one of the large tombstones was a cute little grey squirrel with sparkling green eyes and a small green hair bow on her head. When she saw Belladonna and Chris with Myrna, her eyes grew big with horror. Then, she picked up a cell phone, dialed a number, and said into it, "Hello? Xochitl, this is Emerald. I've got three villains in the graveyard in Washington DC, intent on planning to murder your good friend, Bentley Raccoon. Pass the word on back to Hollywood!"

Xochitl, who was in Los Angeles, answered, "Got it." And then she went all the way to Hollywood to relay the news to Bentley. After hearing about it, he said, "Belladonna is going to kill me? And with the help of Chris Roberts...and an evil woman named Myrna Raccoon?"

"What is it, Bentley?" asked Vanessa.

"It's Xochitl," answered Bentley. "She said that Belladonna and her two new friends are out to get me."

Xochitl added, "And I saw her launch the rocket that hit you one night, not very long ago."

"Oh, now I get it--it was her!"

Vanessa was shocked. She said, "WHAT? Belladonna did this? I'll get my hands on her for what she did to you."

Bentley said, "Vanessa, there's nothing evil about having a baby. It doesn't sound very bad, but the news about Belladonna's plan is far more worse. I'm going to protect my kid and stay on my guard for the rest of the three trimesters."

"Of course, you will," answered Xochitl. "But didn't you get to tell your friends about this?"

Bentley stood there in silence. He did forget to tell them about his condition. He said, "All right. I'll tell them--I hope they will believe me somehow."

Xochitl took the couple to Washington DC (leaving George and Nicole to look after the kids), and to the Time Toon Cops Headquarters, where Bentley told the team about what was going on. When he announced that he was pregnant, the team members gave him surprised and shocked looks. Tails asked, "You're...pregnant?"

"Yes, I am," replied Bentley. "And it was all because of the small rocket, which Belladonna launched to hit me. It contained all the DNA from every source that you could even name."

They still stared at him. Minora, who found out about the news in the first place, hung her head in shame. She whispered to Bert, "I'm sorry that I could've told you sooner enough. I've written it all down in my notebook."

"Oh, that's okay, Minnie," said Bert, gently scratching her chin with his finger and kissing her on the nose. "Just don't let it get into the tabloids." Minora nodded in reply.

Alex II said, "So, let me get this straight--Belladonna is after you?"

Bentley replied, "Yes."

"And she's up to her old tricks again?"

"You would if you had seen her in the graveyard, consulting with some strange guy. You see, he was..."

Suddenly, Charles felt a big pain from his head. He screamed and fell to the floor, and Bunnie and Blaze ran over to help him up. Bunnie asked, "What's wrong, love?"

"I have even worse news," said Charles. "An evil was greater than the other villains we ever faced--my Dark side, Chris Roberts a.k.a. the Dark Dragon is back. Belladonna summoned him."

Bert said, "I know everything about him. You told me about this dark side, and my mom warned me about him in one of my dreams. My aunt must've followed him, too."

"Huh?" asked PowerPaws. "You had an aunt, Bert? You never told us that you did."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about her, but yes--she was my mother's older sister. Her name was Myrna Raccoon, and she had made my life a living hell when I was growing up in the Evergreen Forest. Back when my mother was alive, I lived on a pleasant diet of peanut butter, besides other things...oh, the sweet memories. Myrna, she was different--when Mom died and my father sent me to her house, I was forced to live on dead rats and cobwebs. With Mom, I was always loved and cared for. But all Aunt Myrna did was beat me up, scratch me, and threaten to kill me. After that, my father heard of the treatment that she was giving me, and told the authorities about it. I never saw Aunt Myrna again--she died in jail just three years after my father took me away from her. And now that she is back with Chris Roberts, nobody knows what she is going to do next. She is after Bentley and his growing child--she always had a penchant for hatred of children."

Xochitl said, "Ouch...the first case of child abuse ever discovered in the Evergreen Forest. I wouldn't want that to happen to my child...if I had one, that is."

Ken Roberts, the new member of the team, sidled up to Xochitl and purred seductively. He whispered in her ear, "Then would you want one?" Xochitl pushed him away, knocking him off his chair. She said, "Not now, Ken. I'm busy."

"All right, Bentley," said Alex II. "We've got to take down Belladonna and her two new allies. But first, we have to have you put in a safe place where she'll never harm you."

Xochitl said, "I know somebody who can lead us to the whereabouts of Belladonna. Ever hear of Emerald?"

The TTC looked at each other, puzzled. Then, PowerPaws said, "I know who Emerald is. She's our half-sister!"

Master Rufus Dudley, the ally of the Time Toon Cops and the father of PowerPaws and Xochitl, came over and confirmed his daughter's answer. He said, "You're absolutely right, Eugenia." To the cops, he continued, "Everyone...I'd like to tell you about my third daughter, Hibernia Colleen Dudley."

"Wow," said Colleen. "Her middle name is my name, too!"

"I gave her the nickname 'Emerald' for two reasons," Rufus went on. "The first was because she was born in Ireland--don't you get it? And the second reason is that her birthday is in May, hence the emerald is the birthstone of that month. I created her from the DNA of a lovely Celtic woman that I met in Ireland during the old days--that's my third wife, Nora. And along with that, I gathered some from a northeastern grey squirrel and mixed the two ingredients with my own, and then...there was her. She has the power to run really fast, just like Xochitl does, and she can also communicate with the creatures of the land, air, and sea."

"So, is she classified as a superhero?" asked Charles.

Rufus shook his head. He replied, "In a word, I'm not sure. She still needs a little more time to manage her superpowers on her own. She couldn't even talk with one of the white mice in my laboratory."

Alex II said, "Well, we'll just need her anyway. We've got to stop Belladonna from taking advantage of our plans to protect Bentley. Do you have any ideas?"

"I have one," answered Rufus, his black eyes gleaming with interest. "Did you know that I founded a resort for pregnant women on an uncharted island out there somewhere in the Pacific Ocean? It's almost twice as large as Hawaii, yet it looks pretty familiar to it. And to keep it hidden, there is a wall of misty clouds surrounding the entire island. I'm sure Bentley will be safe over there, as long as they don't mind having a pregnant man around."

"It sounds like a good plan to me," said Bentley. "Where can I get started?"

Rufus handed a pamphlet to him, saying, "The resort is called 'Mr. Stork's Paradise Island', the only private resort to cater to expectant women. Included in the pamphlet that I just gave you is the map--it'll show you where the facilities are at over there. The island has 1,000-room accommodations, a cafeteria, a gym, a movie theater, a marketplace, and a fairly large park for you to stroll in and relax in. When the time comes for you to have your baby or you have a prenatal appointment, there's also a hospital on the island that's large enough to handle more than a hundred patients."

"Thanks, Mr. Dudley."

"And Mrs. Raccoon," Rufus continued, turning to Minora. "I think you should go there and accompany him. You're pregnant, too, you know. And as for Lady Creampuff--"

"I already sent her there," said Snooper. "You told me about that island then."

"Good. Then, we shall be on our way. And don't worry, Bentley--with you hiding in the resort, there's no way Belladonna or Chris or Myrna could get through the protective cloud that covers the whole island. It's impenetrable--nothing could get through it, not even lasers or the dreaded Dark Liquid."

"All right," said Bentley, as he and Minora headed for the taxi cab that took them to the airport. Vanessa waved goodbye, saying, "Good luck, Bentley. And be careful!"

Meanwhile, in Chris' secret lair in Neo-Detroit, the Dark counterparts of Blaze, Bunnie and Vanilla came to him when he arrived and they hugged him tenderly.

"Hey, love," said Dark Bunnie. "We missed you."

"Yes," said Strawberry, the Dark side of vanilla. "Since Charles put you to sleep with that spell he used."

Scream (Cream's Dark side), his stepdaughter, added, "That mean goody-two shoes made me angry on that one."

Flame (the Dark side of Blaze) said, "Now I heard that my counterpart broke up with him and married Bert Raccoon, becoming his second wife."

"Well," said Chris. "That's little good news for me, my ladies. Now, let's make some trouble, letting them know that I am back! AH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

They all laughed evilly together. And they all went to Washington DC, to see if Myrna has any plans for them. A new era of evil had just begun!