A/N: I am *so* sorry about the error in last chapter's author's note! In case anybody noticed, it's supposed to have thanked ready . aim. fire333 for their review, but for some reason didn't upload it correctly. (I typed that, I swear!!) I'd still like to thank them and Anakin'sQueen for their reviews. Elphie's started e-mailing me the Story Alert messages she receives, and I'm feeling overwhelmed with all of this support. Everyone who's subscribed or reviewed so far: this chapter's for you! :) ~G
Elphie here! Thank you guys so much for reading and enjoying G's story… She's a great writer (obviously) and is the best friend ever! So, the reason I am writing this is because G is planning a sequel, so let us know if you want the sequel! I don't know how many chapters are left, since I have the full story on my laptop, undivided by chapters. So, please enjoy and let us know about the possible sequel! (I had a sneak peek, and it is awesome, as is this story!)
Chapter Nine: It's All Part of the Plan
"That is just not fair!" Reeva shouted when Gwen told her about the bowling ball that afternoon. "You don't even want to play the darned game, and you're beating everybody at it!"
"I'm not trying to beat anybody," Gwen grinned. "It's not about that. I told you…" her voice turned serious. "I just want to beat the--J--at his own game. That's all."
"You sure about that?" Deb asked in the background. She was over at Reeva's house for the evening. "You don't sound too happy about it!"
"Don't be silly. I'm fine," Gwen said. But, deeper inside, she found herself wondering if she was fine, after all.
The next week, a major cop bust was reported on ClownCommunicationsGotham . com. About half the members of the site posted that they'd been asked by J to try and break into the Gotham National Bank. They'd all been caught by the GPD, and Lieutenant Jim Gordon had told them that to escape jail time they'd have to work undercover for the police in an upcoming sting. At least, that's what Tracy said. She'd found the thread, but by the time Gwen had tried to check it out, someone had deleted it. She guessed whoever it was didn't want anybody to know.
About a week after this, the front page of the Gotham Times reported the busting of 27 Gotham policemen who had been working for the mob under the table. They'd been caught in Operation Slipknot, the article said, and although it wasn't very specific about what the operation had involved, Gwen and her friends suspected that their friends had been involved in the sting. Sure enough, the next day all the Phonies were sent a private message saying that the people caught in the bank crisis had been released from suspicion. Another board had been set up for the people who'd intercepted phones from the bowling alleys, as well. Gwen was the only member to be both a Phonie and a B-Phonie, the name coined for the phone owners who'd gotten their phones in the bowling alleys.
A couple days later, all the members of were sent a high-priority PM. It said that all of the members involved in Operation Slipknot had received a text message that morning from J. It read, "I wouldn't worry about Gordon. IT'S ALL PART OF THE PLAN." Somebody thought to type WhySoSerious . com/ItsAllPartofthePlan into their web browser, which turned out to be a valid address as well. The site showed the portraits of twelve presidents, each one listing a street address somewhere in Gotham. There was also a clock counting down to 6:00 p.m. two days from then. Threads popped up all over the forum, in which the members organized themselves into groups and selected locations to head to. Somebody pointed out that each address would probably need a stay-at-home player to read clues off of the Internet, similar to the first scavenger hunt. It was immediately obvious that Gwen could not work all twelve clue trails at once, so she signed herself up for just one: New Hampton Court. Reeva, Tracy and Deb were all planning to meet up there as well, along with twenty-seven others that Gwen didn't know personally. Everyone was really excited about the new scavenger hunt, for surely (they thought) that was what it was going to be.
At five thirty on the day of the new game Gwen started setting herself up for the long night. She didn't plan to spend the whole time sitting at her desk chair, which got a little uncomfortable after a while. She laid out the television remote, her clock radio, a cup of espresso, some chocolate kisses and a Bluetooth headset on the coffee table. At five forty-five she called Deb, who again planned to serve as the one who relayed messages to the group. Most everybody was already there at New Hampton Court, Deb told her. A buzz of excitement filled the air. At five fifty-five, Gwen logged onto the Internet and made it to WhySoSerious . com/ItsAllPartofthePlan. The site was unchanged from what it had been before. She put on her Bluetooth headset and tested it.
"All clear," Deb said. "And three…two…one…"
At six o'clock sharp, Gwen refreshed the page. Now, the presidents' pictures were all captioned with speech blurbs. Gwen clicked on the president whose instructions pertained to the New Hampton Court search. She read the introduction to herself, and then the first clue aloud.
A/N: Just to let everybody know, if there are any blank spots where a URL looks like it should be in this or any of the chapter, it's because is omitting the addresses from the chapters. I've been trying to put spaces between the dot com and the rest of the sentence, but if I've missed any, it's my own fault. Please excuse my error, and let me know what you think! Chapter Ten is coming soon! ~G
