The Bad Guys: Episode 18: Look Who’s Talking

**The Bad Guys in: Look Who’s Talking** is the eighteenth book in the Bad Guys series, and the eighth book in season two. It was released on October 1, 2023 in Australia, and on November 7, 2023 in the U.S.

## Description

Forget what you know. This book changes everything. Someone’s found her voice and she has A LOT to tell you. Take a deep breath, hermano, it’s the 18th installment of THE BAD GUYS!

## Plot

The book opens with a young Wolf and Snake attending the funeral of Vinnie Wolf, who leave soon after Wolf’s mourning. After reading a newspaper, it is revealed Vinnie was the leader of an underworld crime operation, which Wolf now takes over leadership duties. Wolf and Snake decide to celebrate and drive off, but are stopped by an elderly woman in the way. Annoyed, the duo show off their new statuses before speeding off.

Cutting back to present day, Wolf is in shock at Shortfuse revealing her status as The One, along with the ability to talk. Upon Eaar overhearing this, he tries informing the rest of the Underlords of the development, though they’re distracted by celebrating Fox’s death. Taking advantage of the situation, Wolf and Shortfuse escape the dimension and arrive at a seemingly empty realm. With Wolf enraged at Shortfuse’s nonchalantness, he demands an explanation about herself. Shortfuse goes on to explain Splaarghon has been the multiversal **Ultimate Force of Darkness**, with Shortfuse having been the **Ultimate Force of Goodness**. Since the dawn of time, Shortfuse has protected the multiverse from Splaarghon’s influence, and has the advantage of limitlessly traveling throughout space and time. However, Splaarghon was gradually able to develop the same ability, eventually discovering the multiversal doorways—which Shortfuse created—and manipulating others to find the rest. Whilst Shortfuse was able to keep the multiverse at peace, a vision would prophesy a battle between Splaarghon and Shortfuse, along with a being whose actions would lead to Splaarghon’s multiversal dominance, the being revealed to be Snake. However, at the time Shortfuse was unsure of which snake the vision was revealing, so she would send her apprentice—Agent Fox—to monitor him throughout the series events in case of arising trouble.

Shortfuse reveals that she took Fox under her wing when orphaned, determining her tenacious character to be worthy of training. Upon having learned of Splaarghon’s plans of multiversal domination, she planned herself to go under the lie of her being The One, being a distraction for The Underlords and any other evil. She initially did not have any powers, but was granted some during the events of Book 11, along with Piranha. Shortfuse granted Piranha abilities in order for him to serve as a communication device, with Papa Piranha’s ability acquisition being an unplanned but welcome side effect. By this point, the two realize their short timeframe of escape and continue traveling through the dimension. On the way, Shortfuse confirms with Wolf that The Others are parts of herself, with Granny, Abe, Zee, and Milton being the embodiments of Shortfuse’s tenacity, integrity, wisdom, magical hair, kindness, humility, and intelligence all respectively in order to hide herself from Splaarghon. Afterwards, Shortfuse was left with only her purest survival instincts, and Fox gave Shortfuse her alias due to her grumpiness. When Wolf questions Shortfuse transferring some personality traits to Milton, she confesses she was responsible for Book 7’s events, due to having tampered with the team’s escape pod in Book 6 to make sure they travelled back to the Cretaceous era and retrieved Milton. She was aware of the superpowers the Good Guys Club gained, but assumed they would be harmless due to them being a side effect of her own abilities. However, Snake’s acquisition of everyone’s abilities was unprecedented, and the inability to control his strength lured Splaarghon to their dimension and allowed Snake to be manipulated and controlled, leading to the events of the second story arc. Shortfuse accepts responsibility for the ongoing destruction of the multiverse due to her oversights.

When Wolf asks if Shortfuse is ready to defeat Splaarghon, Shortfuse reveals that while her and Splaarghon’s foretold battle commenced, another between “The Serpent and The Beast” would go on simultaneously, with Snake being the serpent and Wolf being the beast. Upon Wolf’s confusion, Shortfuse goes on to explain she’s been monitoring him for ages, with the aforementioned elderly woman from the beginning of the story having been Shortfuse in disguise. Whilst Shortfuse had monitored many serpents and beasts, the day they first met affirmed Shortfuse’s beliefs that Wolf and Snake were the ones in her vision. After commending Wolf for his path of redemption, she leaves Wolf behind in order to transform into her true identity, though Wolf stops her to question her ambiguous species. She reveals she’s a Tasmanian Devil, showing pride at her unrecognizable disguise before walking away, advising Wolf to continue in the path that feels most “bad”.

Wolf makes self-deprecating comments regarding the actions leading up to present day, before walking towards an ominous presence. Unbeknownst to him, a large Shark emerges from the floor and startles Wolf, before vanishing immediately after. Panicked, Wolf continues running until toppled by a massive depiction of Hogwild slamming her fists, before also vanishing. As a now-flustered Wolf shouts, he narrowly avoids a slice by a manifestation of Kitty with her katana, though disappears like the others. The real version of Snake then appears behind Wolf, pleased with his taunts. Wolf attempts to reason with Snake and his newfound knowledge from Shortfuse, before questioning their whereabouts. Snake excitedly reveals the lands to be the **Nightmare Realm**, a dimension having created the mythology of monsters. He starts to give a brief speech to Wolf, believing they have connection to the realm and attempting to convince Wolf to embrace his villainous nature once more. In order to further convince Wolf, Snake reveals a newly revived and corrupted Fox, who then starts berating Wolf after he refuses to succumb to their influence. On the verge of tears, Wolf attempts lunging at the two before he falls down an unseen hole.

Having landed in a dark and empty area, Splaarghon reveals part of himself to Wolf, and after Wolf comments on his surprisingly small size, Splaarghon begins to extend his body and towers over him tenfold. The book concludes with the scene cutting to darkness, with the B-Team sensing Wolf’s danger before debuting in their newly transformed appearances.