Dr. Flanner nervously glanced through the multi-frequency binoculars. As far as she could tell, the Nunoff-MiNoze facility was a perfect target… and she was standing on the bulls-eye. “Are you sure the other agents are in place?”
“Absolutely.” said Will Du. “They’re in place… just camouflaged. How about your guys?”
Dr. Flanner glanced back. Standing in the shadows were the four remaining prototypes of the Global Operatives. “They’re ready.” she said, trying to sound confidant. As always, before one of her projects was about to be put into field use, she was getting jitters. It was ridiculous; she never felt this way during a lab test. “Now what?” she asked.
Will smiled and pulled something out of his pocket. “Now, doctor, we wait.”. Will held up the small, rectangular item. “This, doctor, is the key to a successful stake-out.”
“Playing cards?” asked Dr. Flanner in confusion.
Will nodded, pulling the cards out of the box and shuffling them. “Stake-outs ALWAYS involve waiting.” he said. “Do you want to play Spades? Blackjack?”
“Anything but strip poker.” said Dr. Flanner. When Will looked at her inquiringly, she blushed. “Bad experience, I don’t want to talk about it.” she said.
In college, she’d wound up in a game of strip poker with a group of football players. The party had involved free beer and she’d actually been drunk enough to agree to play. When the game had broken up, the players were down to underwear and she’d taken off a sock. NEVER play poker against a woman who can solve five dimensional equations in her head. It was only after the game that Dr. Flanner had realized her popularity would have been improved by not playing so well.
“Ok, doc… we’re here.” reported Adrenna Lynn. She glanced in the back of the truck, where Dr. Drakken was gazing at a naked persocom. Adrenna Lynn couldn’t see why… at this stage, it didn’t even look human. Humanoid, yes… but the synth-muscle fibers and electronics were completely exposed. A portable, unlicensed nuclear accelerator pack was in the corner of the room, cables running from the pack to the almost-complete persocom.
This mission, if successful, would get the high-strength, high-energy solar-accumalitve skin that would be the final component of the persocom Dr. Drakken had dubbed ‘Dark She/Go’. Once the skin was on, Dark She/Go would be able to recharge from sunlight and wouldn’t need the pack to recharge.
Dr. Drakken, for once in his life, had actually sat down and carefully read through the instructions before building something. Dark She/Go was almost a complete duplicate of the original SHE/GO. The only difference, besides the skin which they were here to get, was in the central neural core.
The original SHE/GO had used some sort of ‘autonomous emotive learning processor’. The notes were extremely sketchy; fortunately, the notes had also included complete blueprints for an ‘Holistc AI Learning Facsimile’ used in the other GO prototypes. Dr. Drakken had used those plans to build Dark She/Go’s main processor, making a few modifications. While Dark SHE/GO was still a HALF-wit, her reactions should be faster then Global Justice’s HALF-wits, at the cost of reduced long range strategic thinking.
Adrenna Lynn pointed at the incompleted Dark SHE/GO. “Why did you bring her along?”
“Just in case, sidekick.” said Dr. Drakken. “Tell the boys to get ready to break in.”
Lynn lifted a radio handset to her mouth. “Prepare to break in.”
“On the count of three.” said Dr. Drakken. “One… two…”
Spotlights suddenly turned on, brightly pinpointing the three vans Dr. Drakken had taken on this raid.
“What’s going on?” demanded Dr. Drakken. “Where did they come from?”
“They must have had some sort of plan to ambush us.” said Adrenna Lynn.
“Well, what do we have? A quisinart?” demanded Dr. Drakken.
“No sir!” said Adrenna Lynn. “Suggest we activate plan GOWTGG.”
“No, Plan GOWTGG is too slow.” said Dr. Drakken.
“Plan Get out while the going’s good is too slow?” gasped Adrenna Lynn.
Dr. Drakken pulled the handset from Lynn’s hand. “All persocom agents… We’re going in!”
“They’re going in!” said one of the Global Justice operative, from his station by a spot-light. “I wouldn’t.” he said, considering the fact that the persocoms he was seeing were outnumbered two to one by waiting Global Justice agents.
“Attack!” ordered Will Du.
Doors slid open around the Nunoff-MiNoze as dozens of Global Justice agents rushed the persocoms, firing at them.
The persocoms, loaded with the information meant to create a super Global-Justice soldier, rushed to meet them. Occasionally a blaster bolt would strike a persocom’s neural processor, shutting it off. But any other damage the persocoms ignored… As long as a persocom still had one stump to stand on and a functioning (even if damaged) optical receptor, it could still function.
Dr. Drakken glanced at the battle going on outside, and made his decission. “Dark She/go, arise!” he said.
The endoskeleton persocom activated, rising off the platform. Dr. Drakken took the nuclear accelerator pack and fastened the straps arround Dark She/Go’s chest. “Infiltration mode.” said Dr. Drakken. “You are to break into the factor, retrieve the solar accumulator skin we want, and return.”
Dark She/Go nodded, moving silently toward the back of the van. She adjusted her stance, to better accommodate the heavy backpack providing her power, and then slipped out of the van.
Agent Du watched a holographic image of the battle below, cursing under his breath.
At first, the fight had gone well. Dr. Drakken had overlooked the idea of giving his persocoms guns, so the Global Justice agents had been able to reduce the number of persocom opponents through simple gunfire. Unfortunately, elated by their initial success, several of the Global Justice agents had charged at the battered but still advancing persocom forces.
In close range, the persocoms were simply better fighters. In addition to the highly advanced combat programming Dr. Drakken had stolen from Global Justice, the simple fact was that persocoms were more durable and stronger then humans. Add in the ability to completely ignore pain, and this was one hand-to-hand fight Global Justice was going to lose.
“Fall back.” Will ordered. “We’ll take them out with bullets.”
“Sir… we’re too close!” reported an agent, desperately fighting against a male persocom. Apperently meant to serve in a resteraunt, the reprogrammed persocom was still dressed as a formal waiter. “We can’t disengage, and if we open fire we’ll hit our own men.”
Will sighed, then turned to Dr. Flanner. “Send in your persocoms.” he ordered.
Dr. Flanner nodded. “He/Go, Me/Go, We/Go… move in. Take other enemy persocoms.”
“We hear and obey.” said He/Go, speaking for the group. The four persocoms jumped from the edge of the building. The four were all wearing anti-grav lifter packs, which allowed them to land unharmed.
He/Go and Me/Go waded into the fray. The two had the exact same combat programming as Dr. Drakken’s persocoms had. Me/Go was stronger and faster then what were, after all, merely reprogrammed civilian robots. He/Go, with his super strength, was able to rip Dr. D’s persocoms in half, moving through the crowd faster then Me/Go was able to.
Meenwhile, the We/Go’s began ‘cloning’ themselves… solid energy projections charging into the fray, to rescue individual fallen Global Justice agents.
“Looks like my Global Operatives are saving the day.” said Dr. Flanner, watching the hologram.
“Don’t rub it in.” grumbled Will Du. “Still, it looks like our combined forces are dealing with Dr. Drakken’s threat.”
The hologram suddenly started to flash red.
“The alarm… someone’s inside the facility!” gasped Du. He tapped controls.
The hologram image shimmered and changed, revealing a single, back-pack wearing humanoid figure filling a canister.
Dr. Flanner lifted the micraphone to her lips. “He/Go… new orders. Go to the factory and stop the intruder inside.”
He/Go dropped the persocom he had been using as a club. Blue energy arched over his body, a side effect of fully powering his advanced hyper-musculature. He began running toward the center factory area. Rather then stop to go through the open door, he plunged through a solid brick wall.
Dark She/Go finished filling a thermos-like container with the raw goo that, when properly applied, would form Dark She/Go’s new skin.
“Halt, evil doer!”
Dark She/Go turned to see He/Go standing firmly in front of the two exits… the doorway Dark She/Go had come through, and the new He/Go shaped hole He/Go had created.
The data Doctor Drakken had downloaded into Dark She/Go’s CPU included the full specifications for all GO agents. She tucked the thermos under one arm and began running toward He/Go, looking like a football player.
He/Go moved to intercept, his arms spread wide. Moments before DarkGo and He/Go would impact into each other, Dark She/Go released a powerful blast of green plasma. Even with armored skin and hyper-powered muscles, He/Go was pushed back by the attack. Dark She/Go leapt to the top of He/Go’s shoulders, and then bounded to the door before He/Go could move to stop her.
He/Go chased after Dark She/Go, but Dark She/Go was already climbing into the back of the van.
“Floor it!” ordered Dr. Drakken.
“What about the other persocoms?” asked Adrenna Lynn, even as she put the van in gear.
“Plenty more where they came from.” said Dr. Drakken. “No need to worry about them, when my perfect creation is almost complete.”
“Roger.” said Lynn, stomping on the accelerator pedal.
The souped-up hover van shot off, moving faster then HE/GO could run.
Will Du watched a replay of the internal security holo, zooming in on the figure as it plasma-blasted He/Go.
“That’s definitely She/Go” said Dr. Flanner. “She must have been even more damaged in the theft then we thought. But, now that she has the skin, she’ll be fully functional.”
“Not quite.” said Will Du. “Plan for success, prepare for failure.”
“What do you meen?” asked Dr. Flanner.
“That batch of super skin was contaminated.” said Will Du. “While it is the same color and durability of the original super skin used for She/Go, this one only has a fraction of the original skin’s ability to convert sunlight into power.”
“Very intelligent.” said Dr. Flanner, impressed.
“Well?” said Dr. Drakken, impatiently.
Adrenna Lynn sighed. Her boss was SUCH a weirdo. He builds a super-combat humanoid android, complete with the ability to fire plasma blasts, in order to take over the world and then gets so embarrassed by seeing her nude that he has to rush to the bathroom (with a bleeding nose) and sends Lynn in to get Dark She/Go dressed. “We’re ready, boss.”
Dr. Drakken, pressing a wad of tissue paper to his blue nose, stepped out of the bathroom. He saw Dark She/Go, now dressed in a black jumpsuit. On the front of the suit, in bright green, was the letters ‘DD’ (For Doctor Drakken).
“Ah, excellent work.” said Dr. Drakken. “Even if I do say so myself. How are we feeling, Dark She/Go?”
“Power level low.” reported Dark Shego.
“That can’t be right.” said Dr. Drakken. “I installed your new solar skin personally… all the connections were perfect!”
“Power level low.” repeated Dark Shego.
“To the lab!” yelled Dr. Drakken.
Dr. Drakken cursed as he stared at the read outs. “They’ve sabotaged my baby!”
“Chill, Dr. D.” said Adrenna. “We just need to steal a new batch of skin, right?”
“No.” said Dr. Drakken. “By now, they will have increased security at all the locations where the skin is produced. I will have to use Dark She/Go as she is, while searching for the original She/Go prototype.”
Dr. Drakken turned to the Dark She/Go. “Don’t worry, my dear… once we have the original She/Go to use for parts, you will be… perfect!”
Dr. Drakken turned to Adrenna Lynn. “That was five exclamation points, Right.”
Adrenna held out a hand, rocking it back and forth in a ‘so-so’ motion. “Four, four and a half tops.”
Dr. Drakken growled. “One day, I will perfect the villainous laugh! And then, the world!”
“Six that time. You overshot.” said Adrenna Lynn.