Chapter 14: The Bear and Bird Necessities

Back at the floating island base, Wolverine and Jubilee slowly crept through the corridors, not wanting to make any noise. "So far, we haven't run into anyone...or anything," Jubilee whispered.

"Don't think we're out of the woods yet, kid," Wolverine growled. "If that door was any clue, this lab's extremely well-guarded. We gotta be on our toes."

The two X-Men heard low thumping noises over their heads. "Great...we might be having company later on," Wolverine groaned.

"C'mon, let's keep moving!" Jubilee hissed, silently running forward. Wolverine followed suit, lumbering behind her.

--- --- --- ---

In another corridor, the thumping had finally come to a stop. Suddenly, a red laser beam cut through the ceiling. The carved-our piece of ceiling fell through and crumbled; two figures dropped in from above soon afterward. One of them was a young 12 year old girl with green eyes and long red hair tied back into a ponytail. She wore a simple karate gi with a black sash, black slipon shoes, and a green headband in her hair. She was Betty Barrett, also one of the greatest Galactic Guardians in the universe, Atomic Betty.

The other figure was far older than Betty was. He was a muscular man wearing a gray jumpsuit with a yellow belt, black boots, similarly-colored gloves with spikes on the sides, black pants, a black cowl with two hornlike features, and a long, flowing black cape. Most noticable was the black batlike symbol on the chest of his suit. This was an icon that was just as legendary as Superman: the Dark Knight himself, Batman.

"Thanks for your help, Mr. Wayne," Betty said as she rose to her feet.

"Don't mention it, kid," Batman replied solemnly as he dusted himself off. "Working with sidekicks isn't really my thing, but you're an acception."

"Didn't you have a sidekick once before?" Betty asked curiously.

Batman rose an eyebrow at the young girl. He looked away, saying, "I don't like to talk about it."

"So why did you offer to help me out?" Betty asked curiously as she and Batman patrolled the corridors.

"There were reports of strange activity coming from an island a few miles off the coast of Gotham," Batman explained. "I decided to look into it to see what it was; then you showed up in the Batcave. I would've fought you, but when you said you were with the Galactic Guardians, I knew you came in peace."

"So you know the Galactic Guardians," Betty said.

"The Justice League has a partnership with the Galactic Guardian Counsel," Batman said. "If anything happens that they can't handle, they call us in. So let me ask YOU something next: how'd you find me?"

"I was looking for someone who could help me get my bracelet back," Betty replied. "And someone told me to go to Wayne Manor; it was a man in a red and blue suit sticking to one of the walls."

"A red and blue suit?" Batman repeated. He grumbled to himself, "There's no way it could've been Clark..."

"What was that?" Betty asked.

"Nothing," Batman said simply.

The two heroes passed a door to a nearby room, and heard something inside; the sounds of whirring electricity, and cries of pain and anguish. "Help! Somebody help us in here!!" screamed a frightened voice.

"Sounds like a torture chamber in there," Betty gulped.

"No, it's an energy room," Batman shook his head. "They must be using a live source to power it."

Betty dialed a few numbers on a nearby keypad, and the door swung open. Both heroes ran inside before the door closed behind them. They wandered the room before something lit up in front of them; it was a large energy generator, and inside the glass tube was Banjo & Kazooie!

"I knew it," Batman grunted.

"Hey, over here!" shouted the voice from before. Betty and Batman turned to see Tooty in a cage. "My big brother's in there! You got to help him!"

The electricity ceased as Banjo struggled to get to his paws. "Guh...boy, that hurt," he sputtered.

Batman raised his brow. "You can talk?" he asked.

"Of course," Kazooie coughed. "What did you exp-OOOOWWWW!!!" The electricity surged again, sending the bear and bird writhing in pain.

"We have to stop this machine!" Betty cried.

"Stand back!" Batman bellowed as he took out a bat-shaped boomerang. He used it to hack open Banjo and Kazooie's tube, stopping the machine cold. But at the same time, it triggered several alarms. "Great...it was rigged," Batman growled.

Betty dashed over to Tooty's cage and undid the lock, freeing the young bear girl from within. At the same time, several robots...both Maximus's robots and the ones responsible for the Subspace bombs...began to pour into the room.

"Oh, great, MORE of these tin cans," Kazooie bemoaned. "As if we dealt with enough of them already!"

"Looks like you'll have to put up with more of them," Batman said, lowering himself into a fighting position.

A blast of sparks filled the room, with the robots falling to pieces from the blast. Betty, Batman, Tooty, and Banjo & Kazooie looked to see Wolverine and Jubilee standing in the doorway.

"You the good guys?" Wolverine asked.

"Uh, yes sir!" Banjo nodded.

"Good! Come with us if you want to live!" Jubilee cried as Wolverine slashed a robot away.

Banjo arched his brow. "That was...random," he said.

"At this point, Tom's NEVER going to run out of jokes for this story," Kazooie chuckled.

The group raced out of the room, where a cavalcade of robots were waiting for them. Betty somersalted in the air and drilled into one robot before slashing two others with the side of her hand. Batman punched into one robot, then took out a small pellet and threw it to the ground, enveloping the robots in a smokescreen; this allowed him to smash the robots together. Tooty took her bright pink backpack and swung it into the robots, scooping up their remains and making it heavier and more lethal. Banjo ducked down and shoulder-charged forward with Kazooie sticking out, skewering each robot that came in their way. And Jubilee handled the robots with her sparks while Wolverine reduced them to scrap metal with his claws.

"Hmph! Good riddance!" Tooty snapped, kicking the severed head of a wayward robot.

"Nice save back there, Claw Boy," Kazooie said to Wolverine.

"Name's Wolverine," Wolverine responded.

"And I'm Jubilee," Jubilee spoke up next. "We're with the X-Men."

"I've heard of them," Batman nodded. "You're part of a group of mutants lead by Professer Charles Xavier, right?"

Wolverine and Jubilee nodded.

"So what're you two doing here?" Banjo asked.

"We're trying to see what's going on with this island," Jubilee explained. "Two of the other X-Men are outside while we're exploring this lab. Who are you?"

"My name's Banjo," Banjo greeted. "And this here's my feathered friend Kazooie, and my sister Tooty."

"People know me as Betty," Betty nodded.

"I'm Batman," Batman said simply.

Kazooie looked to Batman. "Keepin' it simple, huh? Reeeal nice," she said with a smug grin.

"Now what're you all doing here?" Wolverine asked.

"We were kidnapped by this crazy cat man!" Tooty piped up. "And he took us here, and used my big brother as a battery!"

"Batman and I were just supposed to get my gear back," Betty explained, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly, "But we rescued these three along the way."

"Sounds like we should come with you," Jubilee spoke up. "If we come with you, maybe we'll find the one in charge of this place."

"Good enough for me," Batman nodded.

The crew found a door and managed to open it up. She walked in, with Wolverine, Jubilee, Batman, Tooty, and Banjo & Kazooie following. Their eyes wandered about, looking from moniter to moniter. Then, Betty gasped as she found something. She went to one monitor and looked at it; it showed a glass container holding a pink suit, white helmet, gloves, and boots. On the wrist of the right glove was a bracelet...one with a high-tech motif to it.

"There it is..." Betty breathed.

"That's your suit?" Wolverine asked.

"Yeah," Betty nodded. "The only thing is...how're we going to get to it?"

"I dunno," Banjo said, scratching his head. "There's so many minotrs here, we don't know where to go next!"

"Leave that to me," Batman said. He hooked up a handheld computer he carried with him to the monitor showing Betty's suit. The screen then read,

"NOW DOWNLOADING COORDINATES."