(SPOILER WARNING)
| “ | But, thankfully, there is no darkness without light. I am the light. | ” |
—Shortfuse describing herself to Wolf. | ||
Rhonda, better known as Agent Shortfuse, Shortfuse, or The One, is a supporting character in The Bad Guys. She was a member of the now dissolved International League of Heroes and is currently a member of Shadow Squad G. Serving as a pint-sized powerhouse, she assisted the team by helping to defeat Marmalade's army, especially with physical combat. During season two, she joins the A-Team in their journey throughout the multiverse, helping and protecting Fox on her quest to defeat Dread Overlord Splaarghon. At the end of Let the Games Begin!, after Fox’s death, Shortfuse vocally speaks for the first time and reveals The One was never Fox, rather it was herself.
Appearance[]
Shortfuse is disguised as small anthropomorphic Tasmanian devil with a ponytail, wearing her International League of Heroes uniform during the first season. In the second season, she wears a simple dark shirt and pants.
In her true form as The One, she is depicted as a bright shining light in flashbacks. Alternatively, she appears as a ball of light with a tranquil expression and mullet. As a combination of her true and disguised forms, she retains her Tasmanian Devil form but keeps the mullet and dons the same outfit as Zee, being a jumpsuit and boots.
Personality[]
Although she's almost never been shown talking until Book 18, Shortfuse has been shown to be very fiery and aggressive, especially during combat. She can almost be described as a ‘silent killer’ type. In The Bad Guys: Episode 18: Look Who’s Talking, much more to her personality is revealed. She is actually very wise, being The One, and a lot more powerful than one would explicit. She also has the power of foresight, not only predicting her prophesied battle with Dread Overlord Splaarghön, but also another battle between ‘The Serpent and The Beast’. However, she seems to be witty and nonchalant, especially regarding her primordial status, and is actually quite humble about her capability.
Shortfuse is not without flaw, as she express regret over allowing Snake to gain malefic powers, leading to Dread Overlord Splaarghön to nearly take over the multiverse. She is also very precautious underneath her hot-tempered personality, carefully hiding parts of herself around the multiverse to keep herself safe until the prophesied battle. Describing the traits she expelled into manifestations as “tenacity”, “integrity”, “wisdom”, “kindness”, and “intelligence”, she would only be left with ‘purest survival instincts’ and grouchiness as a shell of herself. Now reunited with the Others, she regained all aforementioned personality aspects.
Biography[]
Shortfuse is trillions of years old and has always been protecting the multiverse with her one advantage over her enemy, Dread Overlord Splaarghön: being able to traverse through space and time with ease. However, over time the centipede would develop the same abilities and by manipulating potential Underlords, break open the multiverse doorways too. Rhonda, seeing a prophecy of her impending battle with the centipede, hid parts of herself throughout the multiverse to keep the safe from his wrath. She also saw a vision of a battle between a serpent and a beast, and had been tracking many of them for years, before finding the two perfect suspects: Wolf and Snake.
One day, Shortfuse found a young orphaned Fox and adopted her. She eventually decided to share her secrets and train Fox. When Fox heard of the prophecy, she came up with a plan to be a decoy for The One while Shortfuse was reuniting with The Others. Soon, the two met Kitty Kat, Hogwild and Doom, and all decided to form the International League of Heroes to protect others from injustice.
Relationships[]
Agent Fox[]
Fox was Shortfuse’s apprentice, who was taken under Shortfuse’s wing after running away from fox hunters. As Shortfuse would later note, Fox had something exceptional in her back then. And despite Fox’s teenage bitterness over others discriminating her for he species, Shortfuse noted that Fox’s heart was still ‘pure’, and decided to trust and train her with the secret of Shortfuse being The One, bringing out Fox’s present-day goodness in the process. Throughout the course of the first arc, Shortfuse was a trusted member in Fox’s International League of Heroes.
In the second arc, when Snake began to help Dread Overlord Splaarghön break into the heroes’ universe, Shortfuse transferred some of her power to Fox, as Fox had come up with a plan to allow herself to be a decoy while The Others were being retrieved to reunite with Shortfuse. After Fox got killed by the Underlords at the end of Book 17, Shortfuse was as shaken as much as Wolf, but still held the nerve to move one without her.
International League of Heroes[]
At some point, Shortfuse and Fox joined the hands with the future members of the League, and created the International League of Heroes. As an Agent, Shortfuse was the aggressive, ‘silent killer’ and muscle of the group.
Mr. Wolf and Mr. Snake[]
In two of Shortfuse’s visions, she saw that it was a snake who would open the final door to allow Splaarghön into the only remaining safe universe and that a serpent and a beast would battle.
Shortfuse first encountered a young adult Wolf and Snake after Wolf nearly ran her (disguised as an old lady) over on his car. After Wolf arrogantly shows of his status as the new ‘Big Bad Wolf’ and tosses the newspaper proving his new status, he and Snake zoom off as Shortfuse takes a look of the newspaper, dreading the two who would be the serpent and beast foretold in her visions. Shortfuse later sends out Fox in Book 3 to track down Snake, and tracked the Good Guys Club herself in Book 5.
As Wolf and Snake’s fate of darkness seemed to be set in stone in Shortfuse’s prophecy, she initially deemed the two as inherently ‘bad’. However, Shortfuse also observed Wolf and Snake’s attempted path of redemption throughout the first arc and changed her view on them being ‘bad’. In Book 18, she instead blames herself for causing the second arc, not Wolf or Snake, and how she realised was Snake ‘good at heart, but had so many thing pulling him in the wrong direction’.
Dread Overlord Splaarghön[]
The Others[]
Abilities[]
Absolute Travel[]
Shortfuse is able to travel throughout space and time without any limits. She has visited thousands of galaxies, along with seeing the past and future.
Fission Inducement[]
Shortfuse was able to separate her personality traits into physical manifestations or transfer them into someone else, with the result being The Others. Oppositely, she can revert back into her true form by combining with The Others.
Power Transferral[]
During the events of Dawn of the Underlord, Shortfuse was able to transfer part of her power to both Fox and Piranha.
Primordial Deity[]
Like Splaarghön, Shortfuse has existed since the beginning of time, serving as the embodiment of good.