CHAPTER TWELVE


As the final bell rang and the children of Springfield Elementary filed out on their way to their homes, Lisa waited outside for her brother. Bart arrived with Milhouse in tow.

"Ready to go Bart?" Lisa asked

"Can't. Martin needs me to look in on something at their after-school club" Bart replied, "I'm not keeping him waiting, this has something to do with Krusty's show"

"Well, try to make it back before Krusaders comes on will you?" replied Lisa.

"Hi Lisa" Milhouse said, waving anxiously at the girl he was known to have unappreciated affection for. "How's tricks?"

"I've picked up a few new things while all you sing is the same song Van Houten" said Lisa, "I have Ralph to thank for that"

"Ralph? Yeah right Lisa, he probably still thinks writing a movie title on the back of a blank DVD means the film is immediately burned onto it" Milhouse coldly jested. Lisa quickly jabbed him in the elbow.

"Come along Ralph, I'll walk you home" Lisa said as Ralph came out of the building.

"I have her diseases" said Ralph to Milhouse, a Cheshire grin etched across his face, followed by a herculean sneeze.

"Come on Milhouse, Martin's waiting for us" said Bart, and the two walked back into the school

Martin greeted them as soon as they entered the main hall; he led them to the after-school club meeting in the nearby I.T room.

There, Bart was greeted to a flurry of activity. It was a veritable think tank, a network of nerdom at work and at play, and sometimes there was a marriage of the two.

"This is where the Krusaders come under what we would label the "Kritical Eye", with an emphasis on "K"…'Kay?" asked Martin.

"I can think of one other letter attached to "ay" in regards to this but I'll reserve judgement 'till later" said Bart, "What is it with you fans? Why can't you just enjoy the show as it is?"

"Then where would the creativity go?" said Martin, "All that imagination does'nt have to be confined to our heads until adulthood"

"You won't believe what 'Crap Camp Krusaders Say' Tumblr got up to today. He screen-capped our entire conversation with the show's executive producer on the forums before the thread got purged" said one of Martin's friends, "AND he added a few homophobic slurs beneath each of our responses"

"When is he ever going to get the inkling we are CAMP KRUSADERS, as in a FACTION, not something in regards to a sexuality preference" scoffed Martin.

"Martin? Would you like to see the new rushes from our fan-editing project?" said another of the geeks.

"Alright" Milhouse said, "This one had better be approved this time on that editing website we go to"

"Ok, show me what's going on" said Bart

To his surprise, he found that he had edited together a more coherent and enjoyable yarn out of an average episode of Krusaders by tightening up the pacing, shortening the dialogue, and adding more of a custom rock soundtrack. Elements of the Japanese soundtrack from the source show used for the monster fights even made it in.

"Wow, you went all that trouble just to prove the show could be so much more" said Bart, "This goes above and beyond what we're taught in regular editing courses during normal school hours. I'm still learning how to transition music in just plain old Windows Movie Maker"

"If you want improvements, you have to make time for them, just as we always make time for the show. If it doesn't satisfy us, we feel obligated to make it satisfactory"

"All this time I thought making fun of the show or mocking it made you all less of a fan somewhat, but when you pour heart and energy into this product, it makes me appreciate the sheer magnitude of fandom all the more. You and your sort aren't half bad after all Martin"

"Martin?" said one of the nerds, "We have an incoming post on the multimedia section of our Krusaders forums. Today's episode has been leaked"

"Really? That's awesome" said Martin, salivating at the prospect of a preview

"There it is. In…1080 P? But the source material only has 5000 frames per second, this has 8000, it'll look weird"

"Well I'm not taking a gander at anything above its station in terms of coherent screen quality" said Martin

Bart shook his head, "Talk about turning out to be a bunch of entitled losers on the technicality of a technical nit-pick. I don't know about you, but I aim to download this episode myself back home, I'm out of this coo-coo farm"