The Big O and all of its setting and characters are © Cartoon Network, Sunrise, and Bandai Visual.

Additional material © 20th century Fox

THE BIG O:

ACT 27

ROGER THE VIGILANTE

Chapter Seven: I Own The Night

Bobo 'the Clown' Jacobs was a career criminal. During one job robbing the Paradigm Chemical Plant, he fell into a vat that bleached his skin white, dyed his hair green, and colored his lips blood red. Confronted with his new clown-like appearance, Bobo decided to become… a henchman. The role of criminal mastermind or homicidal supervillain just didn't suit him. He had never been very assertive, although he was good with tools and was a talented getaway driver. He was a henchman before the accident, and decided to stick with what he was good at.

Unfortunately, his new appearance made it easy to pick him out of a lineup, and few criminals wanted to associate with him. One exception was Jason Beck, alias Beck Gold, who was looking for talented mechanics to build and operate the Beck Victory Deluxe. After Beck and most of his henchmen were captured after two failed attempts to rob the Paradigm Mint of the plates used to print dollar bills, Bobo and Lou 'T-bone' Tortellini had continued to complete the giant robot on their own to break Beck out of prison.

After that, Bobo and T-bone were Beck's right-hand men. Jason Beck had even used what little influence he had with Paradigm to get them released from prison 'to speed the restoration of the megadeuses'. After Big Duo soared into the sky to disappear in an explosion (taking the psychotic Alan Gabriel) with it, and Big Fau was defeated, Beck, Bobo, and T-bone disappeared into the Paradigm City's underworld in the confusion.

The boss was running scared. Something happened during Beck's visit at the Smith mansion. Whatever it was, it was the straw that broke the camel's back (whatever a camel was). Bobo could understand. Hell, having a psycho like Alan Gabriel dangle a death warrant over your head could get to anybody. Being forced at gunpoint to use your skills in robotics and not knowing if you were going to be alive when you were finished had a way of wearing away at your nerves.

But the boss had thought of everything. A few scorpion robots had been left behind to break Bobo and T-bone out of Paradigm's hidden Megadeus hangar hadn't they? Now they were laying low, the lower the better.

Deep down, Bobo just couldn't understand it. What was Alan Gabriel up to before Big Duo soared away taking the homicidal cyborg with it? He and T-bone waited for Gabriel to betray his boss, Alex Rosewater, but apparently Gabriel was loyal to Rosewater to the end.

What was Rosewater after? Alex Rosewater was the ruler of the entire city, the ruler of, for all intents and purposes, what was left of the human race. So why was Rosewater using Big Fau to destroy Paradigm City? What was the point? Why destroy his own kingdom?

Bobo had a feeling that Beck knew why. That it had come to him while he was at Smith's mansion the second time around. That he had found out something he really shouldn't have. In this city, it didn't pay to know too much.

That was why Bobo 'the Clown' Jacobs was quite happy being a henchman, thank you very much. Had Jason Beck become too big for his own good? Had he become a player in a game with very high stakes? Who knew? All Bobo knew was that he was keeping his mouth shut. With luck, nobody knew that Beck had figured out, whatever he had figured out, and if Bobo and T-bone had their way, that was the way it was going to stay.

In the meantime, regroup, rebuild, and re… uh… somethin'. Revise. That was it. It sure as hell wasn't remember.

Aside of making trips out for groceries, Bobo and T-bone had been making themselves useful by collecting megadeus pieces before Paradigm's cleanup crews got all of them. They had scoured the junk yards to see if there were any android components they could find. Android components that were expensive or useful that is.

In the meantime, the boss had hired more bodyguards and kept to himself lately. That wasn't good. Jason Beck was a loud social animal, not a silent brooder. If he started dressing in black like a certain negotiator, Bobo and T-bone might have to find another criminal mastermind.

Thankfully, T-bone managed to break his boss out of that funk. Bobo would have kissed him, but people had been calling him a fairy as it was, so he settled for a manly hug.

"Hey boss," the short tubby beatnik said to his gold clad boss. His gold clad boss who's color recently, had been yellow. "Look what I found in an old train tunnel! It looks a lot like that doohickey we needed to pull out of that android's head, doesn't it?"

Jason Beck had been staring off into space, sitting in the dark smoking a cigarette. His haunted, dead eyes moved slowly in the direction of his short tubby henchman who hid his baldness under a black beret.

"It sure looks like that android's main memory, doesn't it boss?" Bobo added in his high-pitched effeminate voice.

Jason Beck frightened both his men when his thin skeletal face broke into a hideous grin. He sprung out of his chair so quickly that his two loyal henchmen jumped back in surprise.

"What?" He exclaimed as he snatched the thin disk drive out T-bone's hands. "Where did you get this? It's a Wayneright style memory drive! This is incredible!"

"I… I… found it in a train tunnel…" T-bone explained. I was hiding from the cops and I was scared out of my mind. Did you know that there's ghosts down there, boss?"

"I know all about the ghosts, you moron," he snapped.

"I tripped and dropped my flashlight," T-bone continued. "While looking for it I found this. Dumb luck huh?" he grinned.

"So, do you think we might be able to use it?" Bobo's squeaky voice asked him. "I mean, we cleaned it up and all. It looks like it's still in good shape. What do you think?"

"Boys," Beck smiled, "I think we're back in business!"

Alright. So Bobo hugged T-bone at that moment. But he didn't kiss him and that should count for something.

"Aw right! Boss!" T-bone cheered. "It's good ta have ya back!"

"It's good to be back," Beck smiled back at him. "The time for laying low is over! Now is the time to start making some money."

"You took the words right out'a my mouth, Boss!" T-bone grinned.

"Okay, let's get to work on the next job," Beck took his comb out of his pocket and ran it through his blonde hair. "Heck, this calls for a celebration! Bobo, while T-bone and I get out the blueprints, why don't you go to the liquor store and get us some good stuff? We won't have to drink cheap beer anymore!"

"I'll be back in no time, Boss!" Bobo chirped. A smile on his deathly white face, Bobo skipped happily through the house on the edge of town that Beck had made his hideout.

"Hey, fellas!" the clown-like henchmen announced to a quartet of hoods sitting around a table playing cards. "The boss says we're back in action again!"

Like they cared. They were just hired muscle. As long as Beck paid them they didn't care either way. Still, Bobo was so happy that it didn't matter what they thought. All that mattered was the Beck was scheming again. It wasn't healthy for him to sit in the dark and brood like that. Now that Beck was himself again, they could build a giant robot and make some money!

At that moment, the doorbell rang. "Hey Bobo," one of the henchmen at the card table said. "As long as you're up, could you see who's at the door?"

"Sure fellas," said the smiling clown. "I was going out to the store anyway!"

As the lackey walked to the door an unsettling thought went through his head. What if it was the cops? Being taken to prison was bad enough, but being at the mercy of Paradigm would be a nightmare! Before he opened the door, Bobo stopped and put his eye to the peephole.

Through the peephole, Bobo could clearly see a tall broad shouldered man in a black suit running directly towards the door. In less than a second, Roger Smith had dashed to the porch and hurled himself at the door.

The door was torn from its rusty hinges and was flung into the room hurling poor Bobo before it. On top of the door was the black clad form of Roger Smith the negotiator.

Cigarettes still clenched in their teeth, the mercenaries rose from their seats and drew their pistols. Roger rolled off the door and used it as a shield as the crooks fired their guns at him.

Since none of the guns had silencers, the shots were heard by Beck and T-bone. "What the hell?" Beck's face lost all of its color. "What's going on?"

"It sounds like we have company, boss!" T-bone exclaimed.

Roger's door not only made a good shield, it was a handy weapon. Grabbing the end of it with both hands, he swung at the two crooks closest to him and was rewarded by two sold hits. Although an awkward weapon, the number of holes the shots put into it reduced the air resistance enough to use it effectively.

Dropping the heavy and unwieldy door, Roger found another shield he could use as a weapon: One of the thugs. Grasping the hood by the lapels of his jacket, Roger used him to ram the gunman next to him and get near the table. Roger was glad that he was wearing a bullet proof vest when a trigger happy hoodlum accidentally shot the man he was using as a battering ram. The bullet went right through the gunman to impact on Roger's vest. That's one of the rules of a gunfight, Roger thought warily. Don't hide behind the skinny guy.

Dropping his now dead weight, Roger pulled the green tablecloth up off the card table and used it to entangle the gunman's pistol. He flung the tablecloth around him to slap away the gunmen near him as he pulled a retractable baton off the baldric he wore under his jacket. With the push of a button, the baton elongated nearly six feet to become a staff. Soon the negotiator was a whirling dervish as he spun with acrobatic grace, while his staff impacted with his foes.

After breaking the requisite number of ribs, wrists, kneecaps and heads, Roger Smith retracted his staff back into a baton to survey his injured enemies and see if any of them was in good enough condition to talk.

Movement alerted him to a figure in the corner. It was Bobo Jacobs, the henchman who looked like a clown. He held a sturdy wooden baseball bat in his hands as if he was a samurai warrior. His face though, betrayed his fear.

"I-I'm going to hit you over the head with this bat, man!" he threatened the negotiator.

"Go ahead and try it, you joker," Roger dared.

Bobo's war cry sounded like a screaming schoolgirl, but his face displayed the requisite amount of rage that would cow an ordinary foe. Unfortunately for him, he was facing Roger Smith, former member of the military police and now the pilot of Big O.

With one swift motion, Roger sidestepped Bobo's charge and tripped the palefaced lackey, sending him head over heels into the wall behind him.

Roger pulled Bobo to his feet by the neck of his shirt and put his face next to his. "Where's Beck?"

"I haven't seen Beck!" Bobo lied. It wasn't out of bravery or loyalty, it was just a kneejerk reaction.

"Wrong answer," Roger picked up the skinny hood and threw him out the window. He didn't bother to open the window first, so Bobo hit the shatterproof glass, turning it into a spiderweb of crystal and fell back into the room. Roger grabbed Bobo again. "Where is he?"

"I tell you I don't know!" Bobo whined, for he was too stunned to actually consider telling him. When under stress, he tended to deny everything. That's what his lawyers always told him to do.

This time Bobo tore through the shatterproof window and made it to the outside of the building.

Roger clapped his hands together to get the dust off of them and walked through a door to the interior of the house. In the hall he caught a glimpse of T-bone, Beck's short and portly henchman who dressed like a beatnik. Roger's long legs had a lot of reach and his foot darted out to hit T-bone in the chin, knocking the automatic pistol out of his hand and sending the tubby crook to the floor.

Roger picked up T-bone's automatic pistol, but didn't bother frisking the criminal or even check to see if he was still alive. He did, however seize the pistol, just in case T-bone should regain consciousness and try to threaten him with it.

Roger's stint as a lieutenant in the military police made him hold the pistol out in front of him with both hands, just as he used to when searching an unsecure crime scene. Apparently it had been too many years since he had been on the force, because he was almost instantly disarmed.

Wielding a fire axe was another bodyguard, this one in a white suit as if dressed up as a short Alex Rosewater. Roger ducked, spun backwards and weaved to avoid being chopped up by his newest assailant. When an opening presented itself the negotiator kicked his antagonist in the head, but although staggered, the axe man did not fall down.

Roger turned to flee up the hallway only to face a second man with a fire axe. This was getting ugly. For a second all three men paused to take stock of the new situation, and then the man before him swung.

On a desk filled with hourglasses a phone rings. Norman's hand picks up the receiver and a sinister voice says:

Next: Roger Strikes Gold