“I guess I don’t need you after all,” Queen Bee said, waving her arms dramatically.
“You still don’t know my secret to shrinking…or growing big,” Bumblebee warned her. “Without the right program and settings, the results of altering their size could be disastrous!”
“I’ll take my chances. Plenty more bees where they came from,” Queen Bee said haughtily. “Now I’m off to conquer the world.”
“No way!” said Beast Boy, back to being a boy. “We’re gonna stop you.”
“Are you still here?” Queen Bee asked, not even attempting to stifle her laugh. “That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all week. You two and who else will stop me and my Royal Army?”
Bumblebee looked toward the castle. She smiled when she saw Cuckoo Bee’s reflection in one of the leaded glass windows. “Who else will stop you and your Royal Army?” she asked. “I’ll show you.”
Behind Bumblebee, over the wall of Honeycomb Hall, rose an army of super heroes from Super Hero High, with Cuckoo Bee sitting alongside Wonder Woman in her Invisible Jet, leading the way.
“Hi, Queen Bee,” Cuckoo Bee said, waving. “Uh, I’m with them now!”
Queen Bee’s eyes narrowed and her lips pursed into a sour expression. “Army,” she ordered, “get them!”
Instantly a battle raged, with Queen Bee’s giant killer bees leading the Royal Army on one side, and several Supers on the other. Wonder Woman began lassoing the giant bees. Batgirl was on the ground, analyzing their flight patterns, calculating their next moves, and relaying that information to the Supers in the air.
Supergirl took on two giant killer bees at once. Her speed and strength overwhelmed them as she flew in circles, creating a vortex that spun them dizzy. Barda batted two more over the castle wall with her Mega Rod.
As Queen Bee shouted out orders to the giant killer bees, Bumblebee flew at her, grabbed the control box, then tossed it to Batgirl and shouted, “Reprogram this!”
Bumblebee turned to Beast Boy, who nodded back to her. “We got this covered,” he told his friend. “You do what you need to do.”
While The Flash taunted a duo of giant bees into chasing him, Frost lay in wait. Just as The Flash jetted past, she leapt into their path. “Not so fast,” she said, freezing both. The ice-cold giant bees landed on the ground with a thud.
Harley Quinn, who had a video camera in one hand and her mallet in the other, was cheerfully multitasking. “Hey, Harley’s Quinntessentials fans, while Poison Ivy is busy regenerating the world’s flowers to grow and produce much-needed real pollen, here at Honeycomb Hall, we’re having an epic battle!”
As she was talking, three giant killer bees headed straight at her. “WOWZA, you don’t want to do that,” Harley shouted gleefully, cartwheeling end over end in a series of forward flips. She used her momentum as she brought her mallet down, scattering the three killer bees. “One! Two! Three! They’re out!”
As the fight raged on, with Supers versus giant killer bees and small Royal Army bees, Big Barda spied a frightened Cuckoo Bee cowering behind a rosebush. She rushed over to him.
“I’m scared,” he said mournfully. “This is all my fault.”
“You did good,” Barda told him. “Don’t worry, we’ll protect you.”
Back in the throne room, another battle was about to commence. But there were no cameras or armies or battalions of super heroes here.
“Nice of you to agree to meet me alone,” Bumblebee said.
“Hurry, hurry, we’ll need to hurry. I’ll do away with you and then I need to get back to my army,” Queen Bee said dismissively. “You’ve been a pest for far too long.”
Bumblebee began to circle Queen Bee, who stood before her throne. The floor was sticky with honey, and shards of broken glass were everywhere. Sunlight streamed in through the windows, now that the rain had washed away the dirt. With each second, Bumblebee could feel her battery pack gaining more power.
Despite the roars and cries of battle outside, inside, the room was eerily quiet. Queen Bee got into fighting position. Bumblebee took a stance, raising her arms and aiming her sonic blasters at Queen Bee.
“I have my powers back online,” Bumblebee warned her nemesis.
“Good thing,” Queen Bee said. “Because without them, you’re just plain old Karen Andrena-Beecher, super-hero wannabee.”
A troubled look passed across Bumblebee’s face.
Queen Bee’s lip curled into a sneer. There was an evil glint in her eyes. “Oh, yes, that’s right. Everyone knows that without your super suit, you’re just another little girl pretending to be a super hero. I’m surprised Waller even let you into Super Hero High. My, my, how the standards have dropped.”
Bumblebee’s jaw clenched.
“You are nothing without your super suit,” Queen Bee taunted. “NOTHING!”
The jab of Queen Bee’s words pierced Bumblebee. For the first time since she’d gotten to Honeycomb Hall, serious doubt washed over her. Was she just playing super hero? That was the question she had been asking herself for weeks. Bumblebee looked at her power-control panel. The light was green, meaning she was charged up with energy and ready to use the full force of her resources.
Queen Bee was still smirking. “Am I right?” she asked. “Isn’t it true you are nothing without your super suit?”
Bumblebee let the question play out in her brain. Finally, she took in a deep breath as her eyes narrowed. “You are wrong,” Bumblebee told the queen. And with that, she turned her power off.