Elsewhere in Civic City, Bob was over at the toy store, looking over some wind up toys that were in what Mr. Jay called "The Bargain Bin."
"The mechanics in these things are great," Bob said, looking them over. "I think I might be able to use these."
"You're the first," Mr. Jay replied. "Nobody's interested in wind up toys anymore. They go for interactive computerized toys now."
"Yeah, I can use the spare parts from those, too."
"I'll tell you what, I'll give you the whole wind up batch for nothing. Nobody's going to buy them, anyway."
"Great, thanks! Thanks a lot, boss!"
"You're welcome. Incidentally, did you hear about the office supply store over on Eighth Street?"
"What about it?"
"Somebody robbed it the other night."
"You're kidding! How much did they get away with?"
"Nothing. They didn't steal any money. They just took rubber bands and erasers."
"Huh, that's strange."
"Yeah, and you know this is the second robbery that's taken place in Civic City?"
"Second? What was the first?"
"Some nut knocked over this store that specialized in bath towels and the like. The place sold rubber ducks, and the crooks got away with all of 'em."
"Rubber ducks, rubber bands, and erasers. I see a pattern already, but I don't get it. Who'd want to steal rubber ducks, rubber bands, and erasers?"
"Some nut, that's all I can tell you."
"Yeah, that's a good point."
"Man the fort, Bob. I'm going out back for awhile."
Bob saluted, and put the box of wind up toys under the counter. He would take it out to his Jeep later. Once he did that, he picked up the paper Mr. Jay had been reading, and looked through it himself. The door opened shortly afterwards.
"Excuse me," a voice said. "This is a stick up."
"Huh?" Bob asked looking up.
In a split second, a man in black fired a strange looking gun, and a stream of pink goo shot out of it, hitting Bob smack in the chest. The force blew him to the wall and plastered him there.
"Hey, what the heck is this stuff?!" he shouted.
"Quick drying liquid rubber," the guy with the gun said. "Courtesy of Professor Stretch, the criminal genius!"
"Huh?!" Bob shouted.
By that time, the crooks began going up and down the aisles of the store, grabbing everything that was made of rubber off the shelves. One of Professor Stretch's cronies was digging out small rubber balls from a bin, and began bouncing them up and down on the floor.
"Hey, these things are great!" he said.
"Wha?" one of the other henchmen asked.
"We're here to clean out the store, not to play!" the third shouted. "Put that in the bag and let's get going!"
"Okay, okay."
The henchman stashed the ball in the bag, and then the three of them retreated out to the waiting car. Professor Stretch happened to be the one driving, and he took off at a fast pace.
"Well, boys?" he asked.
"We got a good haul, boss," one of the henchmen said. All of them pulled off their black ski masks to reveal their identities. They were named Mitch, Kyle, and Jack.
"We almost didn't get out of there," Kyle said. "Jack wanted to play with the loot."
"Well," Jack said.
"That's your problem, Jack," Mitch said. "You're too soft."
"I am not too soft!" Jack shouted. "I just don't think it's a good idea to knock over a toy store in broad daylight!"
"You know the Civic City police can't do anything anyway," Professor Stretch said. "By the time that kid gets around to calling the police, we'll be safe in our hideout, thanks to my quick drying liquid rubber pistols."
The group laughed and sped off. Back at Civic City Elementary School, Buzz was walking down the hall, when Jeff approached him again.
"Hiya, Conroy," he said. "Ready to get my homework?"
"You know, you can't make me do your homework," Buzz said. "Do it yourself!"
"Shouldn't have said that, Conroy. Okay, guys, let's go."
Jeff's buddies grabbed Buzz by the arm and then dragged him into the nearest boy's room. A bunch of fourth graders gathered around the door and waited in anticipation.
"Uh oh," Ronnie said.
"He's gonna get the Swirly for sure!" Tina shouted.
"Nah, they're gonna beat him up," Rosie said.
Within seconds, a flush was heard, and Jeff and his buddies emerged from the boy's room, laughing like loons. Buzz came out a few minutes later, soaked.
"Hmm," Rosie said. "You were right. It was a Swirly."
"You okay, Buzz?" Tina asked.
"Yeah," Buzz said. "He just made me do his homework again."
That was all there was to that. Buzz went home and found his father reading the newspaper.
"Hi, Buzz," he said. "How was . . . . . oohhh, never mind."
"I told Jeff I wasn't going to do his homework anymore," Buzz said. "Like you said."
"And he gave you a Swirly, huh?"
"How'd you know?"
"It's happened to the best of us. Don't let it get to you, Buzz. Bullies are just a part of life."
Buzz sighed and got started on his (and Jeff's) homework. Professor Conroy continued to read the paper. Moments later, the doorbell rang. Buzz put down his pencil and got up to answer it. Bob was standing there, covered in what looked like bubblegum.
"Bob, what the heck happened to you?!" Buzz asked. "You look like you blew the world's biggest bubblegum bubble and it popped right in your face!"
"I wish!" Bob shouted. "The store's just been robbed!"
"What?! When?!"
"A couple of hours ago. I would've been here to tell you sooner, but the police wanted to grill me."
"What are you covered in?"
"Quick drying liquid rubber. The crooks had a gun that shot the stuff out. I was plastered to the wall, and the cops had to scrape me off with clay knives!"
"Sheesh."
"The crooks got away with every rubber ball in the store, as well as a few other items that are made out of rubber."
"I don't get it. Why would they steal rubber and not money?"
"I don't know, and frankly, I don't want to know! They hit two other places as well. Also stole a bunch of rubber, and not cash."
Buzz had heard about those other two robberies, but he felt there was nothing he could do to change all that. A few days went by. Nobody heard about any more robberies. He helped Bob gradually add to his collection of spare parts, and the two of them began working them together, making a very large and elaborate remote control model plane, that actually flew (normally it would have just crashed). Buzz kept getting picked on by the bullies. Jeff had thrown him into the dumpster behind the school as well as repeatedly stole his lunch money, forced him to do homework, and among other things, given him Swirlys every chance he could.
"Bullies always pick on the smart kids," Rosie said. "It's no big deal, Buzz, just a fact of life. Pretty soon some other brainy kid'll come in and Jeff will move to him."
Buzz didn't acknowledge her. He just walked to class. Mrs. Lee announced an upcoming science fair. A lot of kids groaned.
"I encourage all of you to enter something in this year's science fair," she said. "You're not required to, but whoever enters a project in the science fair will receive extra credit."
The bell rang, and school was out for the day. Buzz ran all the way to the bus in order to avoid Jeff. Then he ran all the way to Bob's house that afternoon. Bob was boxing some of his spare parts.
"Hey Buzz," he said. "What's happenin'?"
"I need to build something for the science fair," Buzz said. "You got the wiring for a volcano?"
"Yeah, I think I do. Hang on a sec."
Bob dug through a couple of boxes, and gave Buzz some wires and other things. Buzz then home, and into the kitchen and started to get to work. Bob followed him to watch.
"You're an achiever, I'll give you that," he said. "Mind if I watch?"
"No, go ahead," Buzz said.
Bob sat down at the counter. Buzz was working pretty fast on that volcano. He even cooked up some make-shift lava out of oatmeal for it. He was finished with it within two hours. By the time he was finished, Professor Conroy came home.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"I'm building a volcano for the school science fair," Buzz said. "I just got finished with it!"
"Looks good, Buzz," Professor Conroy said. "How about giving us a test eruption?"
"Ladies and gentlemen," Buzz said. "I give you, Mount Conroy!"
Bob and Professor Conroy applauded as Buzz hooked up his wires and then pushed a button. The volcano blew, and oatmeal flew everywhere, making one huge mess.
"A little too much lava," Professor Conroy commented.
"A little too much juice!" Buzz shouted.
"And not enough brown sugar, either," Bob replied, licking the oatmeal off his fingers.
"You might want to adjust that, Buzz," Professor Conroy said.
"Well, I guess I'd better start cleaning up," Buzz said.
"Here, I'll give you a hand," Bob said.
Bob and Buzz got to work cleaning up the mess. Once they were finished, Buzz kept working on his volcano, but somehow, wasn't satisfied with the results. One try, the lava came out too slow, then too fast, and then it didn't come out at all.
"Buzz, give it up," Bob said. "I mean, everybody does volcanoes for science projects. You ought to do something different. I've got enough spare parts here for a robot."
"A robot?" Buzz asked, intrigued.
"Uh huh. You can use whatever parts you need. I'll bring by a couple of boxes."
"I think I will build a robot. Thanks, Bob."
"No sweat."
Bob left to get his boxes. He returned a few moments later with three boxes of parts, and set them on the kitchen floor. Then he had to get going. He had an early class in the morning. Buzz got to work digging through the boxes in order to get the spare parts. But he wasn't planning on any small robot. He wanted something big. Something that would win first prize, and maybe help his battle with the bullies.
"This is going to be the biggest science fair project ever!" he shouted.