The Bad Guys: Episode 12: The One?!

**The One?!** is the twelfth book in the *Bad Guys* series and the second book of Season 2.

## Description

Seriously, WHAT is going on with Mr. Snake?! Terrible powers have been revealed! Evil allies have materialized! Inter-dimensional doors have opened! Shady-looking cloaks have been purchased! What is his deal?! And that's not all! Why does Agent Fox suddenly have a whole lot more backstory than we'd counted on?! Dang it! We need answers! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!

## Plot

The book opens with a nightmare from Snake, showing him at school in his childhood. As he tries approaching some students, they all scream at him in terror, getting the attention of two staff members. While one of them protects the children, the other hits Snake with a gardening rake, waking him up. Splaarghön then consoles him, claiming he has no need for nightmares as he is already one.

With Shadow Squad G perplexed at the recent sequence of events, Nathan explains that Snake may have received new abilities due to opening a doorway into the multiverse. He then goes on to explain the concept of the multiverse, with each universe having one doorway leading inside and one doorway outside. He further talks about the multiverse being under the rule of Splaarghön, but their universe hadn't been discovered by him until the previous book. Kitty questions how they're aware of Splaarghön's existence, to where Nathan responds that Marmalade's father attempted to harness mysterious energy from a black hole into his space cruiser, which then caused a chain reaction in the alien ships granting the ability to bestow superpowers via their ships. Once the king had done so, he experienced a vision of Splaarghön, who wanted the powers in order to find the doorway to this universe and destroy it. While Wolf lashes out at Nathan, Piranha begins levitating once again, declaring "The One" is the one who must defeat Splaarghön, before he returns to normal. Kitty then gets upset at Fox, having hidden superpowers and a secret identity from her team her whole life, and although Fox tries reasoning with her and confirming she is The One, Kitty leaves broken-hearted.

Splaarghön prepares Snake for his new position, though the rest of the Underlords doubt his skill. Splaarghön then defends him, believing in his confidence and vetoing the others volunteering. He then tasks Snake with brainwashing all of Shadow Squad G and capturing The One, and Snake begins his goal.

The team questions what Fox's "The One" status means, with her responding that she is the only one who can defeat Splaarghön. She then elaborates that due to Splaarghön's cowardice, she must travel through as many doorways as possible to find him, although she's unsure where exactly the doorways are. Piranha experiences another levitation episode, this time yelling random numbers, later revealed to be map coordinates. Doom asks what's happening to him, with Fox declaring him to be "The Oracle", who's being used as a vessel to transfer information to the team. Legs tracks down the location of the coordinates, with the first one being only a few miles away. However, the second coordinates are 92 million light-years away, with Piranha then explaining that someone must travel to a hidden realm and find "The Others", and that The One will fail without them. The team assumes the "hidden realm" is at the farther location, and Nathan offers to head to the location via his spaceship. Kitty then returns to the team in her fighting uniform, and the team sets off for the first location.

The team's headquarters suffers massive damage by some enormous energy snakes conjured by Snake, just barely missing the team. However, the damage forces the team to be split in two, later referred to as the A-Team and B-Team. The A-Team, setting off for the doorway, consists of Wolf, Fox, Shark, Piranha, Kitty, Hogwild, and Shortfuse. The B-Team, who are searching for The Others, consist of Milton, Doom, Nathan, Papa Piranha, Legs, and Tiffany, although Doom wishes to join the A-Team but is stuck on Milton's segway. The teams part ways, as the A-Team is ambushed by a larger army of energy snakes, and the team sets off via car.

Kitty and Shortfuse are on the roof of the car fighting off the snakes, while the rest of the team is inside the car. Fighting shows little success, as any attempt to eliminate the snakes only results in their duplication. Snake then starts to hypnotize Wolf, who is quickly brought back by a swift kick in the face from Kitty. Unfortunately, she's then hypnotized right after, rendering the team overwhelmed.

The B-Team had a rather uneventful trip to Nathan's spaceship, having not been chased down or even in any form of danger. However, they are then nearly struck down by a rainfall of sharp arrows, quickly retreating to the ship and dodging the arrows. One of the Underlords is then shown to be throwing the arrows, to his annoyance.

Snake becomes frustrated and hypnotizes the entire team, stopping the car, though they're quickly reverted back by Fox. While she becomes weak protecting the team, Wolf tries reasoning with Snake, to which Snake then implies his unwillingness towards his position. The team eventually continues driving as Splaarghön pressures Snake to complete his goal.

As the B-Team is uncomfortably compact inside the spaceship, they're then attacked with even more arrows, being forced to fly into space. One arrow cuts the ship's tail clean off, causing the ship to spin uncontrollably. The A-Team are still en route to the doorway, and find it being disguised in a "poop restaurant" seemingly owned by Granny Gumbo, baffling the team. Snake then confronts the team again, but gets distracted by the building. Fox attacks with another energy blast, as the team run to the doorway, being inside a "poop storage" room. The team reluctantly step inside, with Snake then being criticized for his failure. Another Underlord then shoves Snake aside, commenting the A-Team is in his dimension, where he then goes through the doorway. Hoping to truly prove himself, Snake then bitterly follows him, ending the book.