The Big O and all of its settings and characters are owned by Cartoon Network, Sunrise, and Bandai Visual.

THE BIG O:

ACT 27

ROGER THE VIGILANTE

Chapter Ten: Getting in Dorothy's Head

Beck ate his breakfast as noisily and obnoxiously as he could. He slurped his coffee, chewed with his mouth open, and made himself as childishly annoying as possible. Afterwards he made a big show of picking his teeth.

Roger could only watch in impotent rage. He had to keep an eye on him at all times. No matter how conciliatory or cooperative Beck pretended to be, there was no doubt that if an opportunity to turn on Roger arose, the criminal would feel obligated to turn the tables on the negotiator. Roger supposed that it was only a matter of time for Beck to try something, and had to keep up his guard in the meantime.

Beck, for his part, passively resisted by being as irritating as possible. The trick was to make it all look involuntary, but the criminal's dopey grin gave the show away. By subtly testing his limits, the wily crook could see how much Roger needed him while simultaneously make the negotiator angry enough to make a careless mistake.

Roger, of course, knew that this was Beck's tactic, but caught himself looking away from the criminal's disgusting display of eating at least twice. He knew that Beck was watching him as carefully as he was watching Beck, and that the golden crook was keeping track of every mistake Roger made.

Norman had been instructed to stay out of the felon's reach at all times. It wasn't that Norman Burg couldn't handle himself physically against Jason Beck, it was the fact the Norman was armed, and there was no sense letting a pickpocket like Beck have the opportunity to acquire a firearm.

As Beck practiced his after meal belching, Roger decided it was time to distract clownish kidnapper from his ridiculous performance. "Tell me something, Beck," Roger began. "Why is it that in all of the times we've clashed you've never once attempted to take control of Big O?"

"Hm?" Beck made a big show of being surprised by the question. "Why Crow-boy, should I? Would you like me to take control of your megadeus? I thought you wouldn't let me go near it, but if you insist…"

"Quit clowning around," Roger snapped. "You know what I mean. When you had me kidnapped and created that ridiculous facsimile of me, you had it lead Big O to the edge of the sea to get rid of him. You never once tried to take control of Big O yourself."

To Roger's satisfaction, Beck squirmed in his seat. "Well, uh, Roger, um, I was working on a giant robot of my own, ya know. I didn't really need yours…"

"Big O defeated your robot in less than a minute," Roger pointed out mercilessly. Your RX3 was no match for Big O."

"Don't remind me," Beck grumbled.

"So why settle for building a cheap imitation?" Roger prodded. "Why not go for the real thing?"

"My Beck the Great RX3 was not a cheap imitation!" Beck exclaimed angrily. "I designed it myself! It could separate into three vehicles for crying out loud!"

"You have never tried to steal Big O," Roger continued. "As a matter of fact, unless I miss my guess, you had the opportunity to hijack Big Fau and Big Duo but you never did. Why not?"

"Well, uh, Paradigm's goons kept a close eye on me…"

"Why build the RX3 if you knew that kidnapping me was the key to controlling Big O?" Roger asked. "You never once tried to take control of him."

"Quit playin' around, Roger!" Beck growled. "I think you know the answer already!"

"Oh?" Roger's face had an exaggerated expression of innocence. "And what is that, pray tell?"

"I didn't try to rip off your megadeus for the same reason you call it 'he' and not 'it'," Beck announced. The criminal smirked when Roger gasped and continued. "Call it a hunch but I think that the megadeuses are alive in their own unfinished way, and they won't accept just anybody as a domineus."

There's that word again, domineus. Roger raised an eyebrow. So far, no one but an enemy had ever used that word. "'Domineus,' huh? Where did you hear that word, anyway?"

"It popped into my head during my last prison break," Beck tapped the side of his head with a forefinger. "Anyway, it's pretty obvious that the domineus and the megadeus gotta be in sync," the crook continued. "Otherwise, bad things happen."

Roger snorted with faked contempt. "And just how does a megadeus grade its pilot? What's the criteria?"

"Well, the criteria is probably based off the first guy who used it as a domineus," Like Roger, Beck attempted to make light of the conversation. "The first guy probably sets the standard."

"So how does a machine determine who's worthy in the first place?" Roger asked in a mocking tone. As long as he could make Beck squirm, he had the upper hand.

"Haven't you ever noticed the message that scrolls across the screen?" Beck asked. "'Cast in the name of God, Ye not guilty'? Or does it not say that in yours?"

"I'm asking the questions Beck, you know too much about Big O already," the negotiator responded in a wry tone. "How would a machine determine who's guilty anyway?"

"Oh that's the clever part, Crow-boy," Beck smirked. "The Bigs seem to have some kind of telepathic device installed. My guess is that they read the brain patterns of the pilot and make judgment calls based on the pilot's sense of right and wrong." Beck pointed at his ear in his exaggerated manner. "Deep down, the domineus knows if he's guilty or not."

"So you're saying that each domineus in effect judges himself?" Roger frowned. The theory seemed to fit the facts, but there was no proof one way or the other.

Beck shrugged. "It's a bit metaphysical but it's the only fair way."

"That doesn't sound very helpful," Roger grumbled. "A delusional fanatic with no doubts to his insane cause could pilot one."

"Yeah but those jokers are so unstable that they self-destruct," Beck shrugged. "It's only a matter of time before they go from having a god complex to having an inferiority complex. And when that happens, they don't want to be in the megadeus or else, pow!" Beck's gesture symbolized an explosion.

"Is that what happened to Alan Gabriel?" Roger asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"Absolutely!" Beck was practically jumping up and down in his seat as he laughed like a hyena. "He was a sadistic freak and he knew it! I'm surprised it took as long as it did for the Big Duo Inferno to give him the boot!"

"What about you?" Roger asked slyly. "Would a megadeus consider you 'guilty'?"

Beck seemed to find this question funny. "Roger, I'm a professional criminal! I know I'm guilty and I can produce the court records to prove it! I wasn't sent to prison for jaywalking, ya know!"

"No," said Roger Smith in a cold voice. "You were put in prison for kidnapping, murder, and robbery."

"Oh!" Jason Beck became worried as the realization of his self incrimination dawned to him. "That. Heh-heh-heh," he hunched his shoulders and chuckled sheepishly.

"Come on," Roger ordered. "The sooner you restore Dorothy the sooner we don't have to look at each other anymore."

Roger and Norman led Beck into another room where Dorothy Wayneright was waiting for them. She was lying on a table, her head on a pillow. Her unseeing eyes stared up at the ceiling. The gap in her head was like a mouth screaming mute accusations at the blond criminal.

"Okay, get to work," Roger snapped.

Beck squirmed uncomfortably and backed away, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'll uh, supervise," he muttered. "You can be my hands."

"What's wrong with your hands?" Roger growled.

"Nothing, nothing," Beck assured him. "I just don't think that you want to give me the opportunity to cop a feel. Don't want you to break my fingers because I got too close to your android lover." He smiled his smart aleck smile.

Roger was tempted to slug the wisecracking criminal right then and there. He wouldn't put it past Beck to examine Dorothy's pert and slender body with his grimy hands out of morbid curiosity, let alone sexual perversity. To Roger's shame, he had fantasized doing the same thing once or twice. He only hoped that hands were the only part of Beck's anatomy that the twisted criminal had probed her with.

"Just get over there and stop stalling!" Roger shouted as he grabbed Beck by the lapels and pushed him in Dorothy's direction. Norman, for his part simply watched the spectacle with an amused eye and kept his distance.

"Touched a nerve did I?" Beck smirked. "I must have hit you pretty close to the mark to get you all riled up like that."

Norman drew the hammer back on his revolver with an audible click. He didn't point it at Beck. The barrel was facing the floor. Then again, he didn't need to.

"Okay, time to get to work," Beck nervously sighed as Roger set a toolkit down on the table by Dorothy's feet. The gold suited kidnapper flinched as he looked down at Dorothy's staring eyes. He raised his hand over her face to close her eyes, then backed away without touching her.

While normally Roger would have been overjoyed at the idea of Beck being hesitant to touch Dorothy, now wasn't the time. "What's wrong now?" Roger snarled sarcastically. "Don't tell me you're finally growing a conscience!"

"She won't… move will she?" Beck asked shakily. "Not until I'm finished. She won't move until then, will she?"

"What are you scared of her or something?" Roger asked skeptically. He surprised to see that most of the color had left Beck's face. "That's it, isn't it? You're scared! She really unnerves you doesn't she? What's the matter, feeling guilty? Or are you not used to the people you murder coming back to life?"

Beck's glassy stare at Roger would have frightened most people, but the black clad negotiator could only feel a twinge of satisfaction. None of the other people that Beck had murdered got up and walked around before. When Roger was in danger of drowning, Dorothy had somehow reanimated herself despite the loss of her core memory. Although it had unnerved Roger, the party responsible must feel terrified. Just the idea would be unsettling, but to witness it with one's own eyes…

"Just get to work," Roger snorted as he closed Dorothy's eyes. "Don't let your hands shake or I'll give you a reason to be scared. Now put her back together right now!"

Beck gave Roger an indignant death glare and adjusted his jacket. He took a deep breath and drew himself to his full height and rocked back and forth on his heels before holding out his hand and speaking. "Okay, get me a jeweler's eyepiece and a light."

The next few hours were spent hunched over the opening in Dorothy's head. Roger would pass Beck the tools he needed. Norman would calmly watch them with his pistol at the ready. When her input/output peripherals were replaced there was only one more step.

"Okay, now to install her main memory and she'll be as good as new," Beck assured him.

"Get away from her," Roger pushed him out of the way. To his regret, Beck seemed to have completely conquered any phobias where R. Dorothy Wayneright was concerned. "The last thing she needs is to have your face be the first thing that she sees." Roger suspected that Dorothy was entirely aware despite being dormant, but after being forced to witness Beck tinker with the inside of her head he didn't care.

There was a brief scuffle while Roger Smith and an indignant Beck struggled for position, then Beck remembered that he was a prisoner and acquiesced. Norman couldn't help but smile. For a split second, the two grown men had looked like two girls having a catfight.

"Back off," Roger instructed. "Stand back in the corner and be quiet. I don't want any trouble out of you."

Beck frowned and raised his hands in an exaggerated gesture of surrender and did what he was told.

Roger walked over to Norman. "Okay, I'll trade you…" Roger reached inside his jacket and pulled out… nothing. He began to search his pockets in an exaggerated fashion until he heard Beck whistle behind him.

"Looking for this?" the gangly criminal smirked as he held up a Wayneright memory core in his hand.

"Give me that!" Roger nearly shouted as he snatched the vital component from Jason's hand. He paused to regain his composure, then marched back over to Norman and handed him the memory drive. Wordlessly, Norman handed Roger the gun.

The elderly butler examined the inside of Dorothy's skull while Roger kept the gun pointed at Beck.

"How does it look, Norman?" the armed and dangerous negotiator called.

"He did a masterful job of restoring Dorothy's peripherals, Master Roger," Norman assured him. "Installing her memory drive should be no problem now."

"Okay," Roger risked a glance in Norman's direction, then returned his gaze on Beck. "Go ahead and install it then."

This was it. This was the moment of weakness that Jason Beck was waiting for. No doubt Beck was expecting Roger's full attention to be on Dorothy Wayneright and that's when the blond crook would either make his escape or turn the tables on him. It took all of Roger's self-control not to watch Norman place the memory core into Dorothy's head. A bead of sweat trickled from his forehead as his eyes bored into Beck's daring him to make a move while Norman made little 'hm' noises and clicking sounds could be heard. As the whirring of Dorothy's drive was heard Roger realized that he was holding his breath. He inhaled deeply, not wanting to get dizzy and let Beck pull one on him. He wasn't going to let Beck out of his sight until he had given the gun back to Norman.

Despite his best efforts, he couldn't help wrenching his eyes away from the wily felon when he heard Dorothy say: "Roger, kill me."

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

Next: Kill Me Roger