You Can Only Die in Tibet Twice

By n0nameneeded

CHAPTER 1

Jimmy plucked a hair from his head and held it an inch or so from the DNA scanner next to his clubhouse door. He waited for a brief moment as the hair was analyzed before the door unlocked itself. Stepping inside, he quickly surveyed the room to see that everything was in its proper place. "Vox," he said, "display last entry of clubhouse." Jimmy nodded with satisfaction as he saw himself entering his clubhouse on the TV screen.

"To the lab," he announced to no one in particular. Suddenly the rug on the floor moved to the side to uncover a hole. Jimmy lowered himself in and dropped, throwing himself into complete darkness. He instantly regretted taking the slide into the lab and not the straight drop from outside as his tailbone protested in pain. Still, he landed on two feet and sat down in the chair facing his giant monitor and computer.

"Goddard, wake mode," he called. His faithful canine companion instantly came to life, barking and extending his neck like a giraffe to grab the empty Purple Flurp can next to the keyboard. "Hey, buddy. I see you're making good use of that extendable neck." Goddard barked repeatedly as Jimmy turned back to the monitor, then whined when he didn't immediately have his attention.

Noticing his friend's distress, the boy genius cocked an eyebrow. "What's the matter, Goddard?" Goddard barked again and lifted his front plate, revealing a small video screen, which showed the words, "You have 1 new message(s)." Jimmy looked up at his inbox. He did, in fact, have a new video email. "Thanks, boy," he said.

Clicking on the new mail icon, he became confused when the media window came up on screen completely blank, and the progress bar indicated that it was finished loading. Hitting reload did nothing. When he tried to reload again, the screen froze temporarily. His eyebrows shot up when the email deleted itself and window after window began to appear onscreen, binary and encrypted coding flashing before his eyes.

Jimmy kept a cool head, but he realized that he was being hacked. He could think of only a handful of computers in the world that could get past the defenses he had built into his own computer. Knowing that he would be able to recognize who was hacking him by the decryption method being used, or at least narrow it down a bit, Jimmy sat straight up in his chair and tried to make sense of what was happening.

Watching intently for only a matter of minutes, Jimmy realized that the hacker, whoever he or she was, was tearing down every bit of security he had installed in his machine, but was then rebuilding it. He could make out his own firewalls being destroyed, and then being rebuilt; gaps he didn't even know had existed being filled in the process. He could only assume that whoever was doing this was trying to send him a confidential message, and was making sure that it would not be intercepted.

"Goddard," he said, his tone anxious, "delete audio and video recordings of all events since my most recent arrival at the laboratory and continue to keep all methods of recording shut down until my departure." His metal friend answered with two barks. Jimmy turned back to the screen, unable to recognize the pattern the hacker was following. He quickly realized that it was a fruitless pursuit and closed his eyes for a brief second, trying to figure out who could possibly have anything important enough to say to him that they would go to this length to do it.

As if on cue, the screen went completely white for a moment before being replaced with a media window. Jet Fusion and Commander Baker appeared on screen. "Good afternoon, Mr. Neutron," Baker greeted the boy genius. Jimmy's eyes shot open and he sat bolt upright. This was the first time in three years B.T.S.O. had contacted him.

"This is a prerecorded message for your eyes only," Baker said in his powerful voice. "Under no circumstances are you to show this to anyone else, nor are you to record it in any way, shape or form. This message will erase itself completely after one viewing. Take care to memorize every word." Jimmy couldn't believe it. He was going on another mission!

Jet stepped forward. "As you're probably aware, my new movie, 'You Can Only Die in Tibet Twice', comes out in theaters next year. Currently I am in Hollywood, but I am about to leave for Tibet for the shooting of the next stage of the movie. You will arrive at the airport in Tibet and there will be a black stretch limo with opaque windows and a license plate you're sure to recognize waiting for you."

Commander Baker took over. "Upon your arrival, Jet will meet you in the parking lot outside the airport on the hour and bring you up to speed. We have an agent positioned in Retroville, Texas disguised as a baggage security worker who will give you five round-trip tickets to Tibet. You will be staying in the same hotel as Jet. Two rooms are reserved under his name for you and your friends for one week."

"This mission isn't strictly pleasure, Jimmy," Fusion warned, "but I'll brief you on that when you reach Tibet. You will be undercover as my nephew if asked, but again, I'll go into specifics later. Remember that aside from you, me, and your four friends, nobody is going to know that you and I are spies, so it's hush hush." Jet winked. "See you in Tibet." The screen slowly faded to black and rebooted.

Jimmy was completely and utterly blown away.

He would be going to Tibet to see the filming of Jet Fusion's newest movie and to work with B.T.S.O. again. His brain began working at full speed in short order, and he booted up his internet browser and checked the next flight to Tibet. Sure enough, there was one scheduled for the next day, Monday, at 12:05 PM.

Jimmy smiled to himself. He had to pack his clothes, make a few phone calls, and most importantly of all, make Cindy Vortex sweat. He knew, of course, that he'd be inviting her. She was one of his best friends, but there was nothing like rubbing it in, not to mention that he knew a particular name that would give her fits in this situation.

He plucked his cell phone from his pocket and searched through his list of recently called numbers. He easily found Cindy's cell number and confirmed his selection, raising the phone to his ear and grinning like the Cheshire Cat. He heard her pick up and nearly laughed out loud at the thought of how she would react. This was going to be good.

"Hey, Jimmy. What's up?"

"Oh, nothing much, Vortex," he lied. "I'm so incredibly bored because I've got five plane tickets to go to Tibet and see the filming of Jet Fusion's new movie, and I don't know who to invite."

The silence on the other end of the line was priceless. When Cindy found her voice, it sounded like she was just getting a grip on the English language. "You - I - tickets to see - before - Jet Fusion?" she spluttered.

"That's right, and I can only bring four people besides myself. I'll bring Carl and Sheen, of course, and Sheen won't go without Libby, so that leaves only one spot. Any suggestions on who I should bring?" Jimmy could visualize her, openmouthed, taking her cell phone away from her ear to make sure it was indeed hers.

"You're obviously bringing me, Spewtron," she huffed. "Don't play mind games with me."

Jimmy tried his best to sound indecisive. "I don't know. This would be an excellent way for Betty Quinlan and I to get to know each other a little better, if you know what I mean. And you know how much of a Jet Fusion fan she is," he added tauntingly.

"And you know how much of a Jet Fusion fan I am," Cindy countered. "There's no way you're taking Quinlan to Tibet instead of me and you know it. Libby won't go without me, and Sheen won't go without Libby, and you won't go without Sheen."

Jimmy decided that the fun was over, although he couldn't help but allow himself a laugh at her initial reaction to the fact that he had tickets to see Jet Fusion. "The flight leaves at 12:05 PM. Get packed and call Libby, and I'll call Sheen and Carl. We'll be staying in Tibet for a week."

Cindy squealed on the other end of the line. Jimmy scoffed at her childish reaction to the good news, but his heart did a somersault at the sound. "Oh, thanks so much Jimmy! I knew you weren't completely useless!" she teased.

"Bite your tongue, Vortex," he said, "or I might accidentally lose that fifth ticket."

"As if. See you tomorrow," she laughed. He heard the line go dead and held the phone at an arm's length as he dialed Carl's cell number. This was going to be an awesome week.

Author's Notes

I'm not quite sure about how accurate I was in describing how Jimmy gets into his clubhouse, but I think this was fairly close. I was also probably way off on my explanation of how Jimmy's computer was hacked, but hopefully none of you are hackers and couldn't tell the difference. If you are, don't bother with me. I'm a poor high school student and you'd probably only profit in pocket change.

In case you were wondering, I had Jimmy take a plane because that way there wouldn't be the unfillable plot hole of where he hides his hovercar for a week without it being stolen or damaged. That really irked me in Operation: Rescue Jet Fusion, so now I'm setting things straight. And of course, there was just a hint of Jimmy/Cindy in this chapter, but do not worry, there is much more where that came from.

P.S. Reviews make me update faster. :P