Chapter 14:
Mr. Monitor is Watching You
When Meggy and Mr. Monitor first started off, they weren't exactly on the best terms. Their first encounter was during another one of Mario's stupid schemes, wanting to start his own school club after some kids wouldn't let him join theirs. There was only one tiny problem, though—they were trespassing the school his club was meant for, and the security guard for it was none other than Mr. Monitor.
Actually, that wasn't the only problem—nor was it tiny, as the man had already made his strong hatred of disorder crystal clear. And SMG4 and pals were caught in the brunt of it, not just for trespassing that school, but for other things too, most notably spawning a demon from Hell. Meggy remembered how scary Mr. Monitor was in his pursuit of the "ILLEGAL" activity that happened that day—which is saying something, since Meggy's usually a fearless girl. In a fun twist, the demon they spawned was more scared of him than anyone, and gladly went back to Hell if it meant getting away from him.
Sometime later, Mr. Monitor apparently decided guarding a school wasn't enough for him, so he found a job in the police force, where his relentlessness in tracking down "ILLEGAL" activity has not diminished in the slightest. If anything, it amplified. Anyone who even thought about doing anything "ILLEGAL" would have to answer to him—since blue-clad palette swaps of Mario are so three years ago. Simply put, Mr. Monitor is not someone you would want to mess with.
Around that time period was Meggy's ultimate Splatfest victory, as well as her move from Inkopolis, a time where she wondered where her life was going to go next. One career she considered was police work, and when she saw ol' Mr. Monitor again, he was happy to have her on board as his deputy—which was a huge step up from all that trouble at the school of…well, they never said the name of the school.
Indeed, Meggy has proven herself to be quite the competent officer, and Mr. Monitor couldn't be prouder of her for taking down those Shy Guys (whom he said he had been onto for months) and foiling their "human trafficking". They were actually just stealing monitors—which is still "ILLEGAL", and they were still dangerous.
The former Inkling never forgot about that thrilling experience, nor did she stop learning about police work. She understood that she still had much to learn before she was an enforcer of justice like Mr. Monitor, but she was willing to take the journey and learn the steps if it meant making him proud. He had become like a father figure to her since that day.
And here she was again, now needing his help taking down their latest foes. This might seem a bit late to be returning to the cop business, but crime never sleeps. And neither does justice enforcement, for that matter.
Meggy still had her police outfit for this meetup, which she had been wearing basically all day, but here she felt it was absolutely necessary. She had the footage on a flash drive; all that was left was to show it. But first, the formal greetings.
"Knock-knock!" greeted Meggy as she opened the door.
"Why, Meggy Spletzer," greeted Mr. Monitor, "it's so good to see you again."
The cop-in-training took her seat, and the report began.
"The feeling's mutual," she said, "but I'm not here to say hi to an old friend. I'm here to report…some ILLEGAL activity."
As you would expect, Mr. Monitor did not like hearing that, as evidenced by the display of his iconic perturbed face—though he secretly liked his old partner carrying on his catchphrase.
"No doubt this has something to do with the unfortunate passing of your gamer friend," he said.
"Oh, you haven't heard the latest update?" said Meggy. "Tari's alive. We'll explain the whole story."
"'We?'" asked a confused Mr. Monitor.
Right on cue, more people arrived into the office, showing that Meggy wasn't alone in her quest to enforce justice. She brought Saiko, Shroomy, and Whimpu. In other words, the whole band was here. But not all of them were happy to be there. Granted, a police station wasn't exactly a fun place to be in, but Saiko looked especially miserable there. So many things were on her mind. As eager as she was to give Senbo and Aibo their just desserts, she couldn't take her mind off of the pain they caused her. Or that time Mr. Monitor kicked her into the sky for being in a "No Thots" zone.
"Mr. Monitor," she said while looking away from him with her arms crossed.
"Miss Bichitaru," said Mr. Monitor with equal indifference.
Tari and Belle also entered the office for the intent of filing the report, since this involved them too. They were thankful the office had enough room for all seven of them. That said, there were only two chairs—one for Meggy, and one for Mr. Monitor. The rest had to report Senbo and Aibo standing up—not that they minded, as long as justice would be served in the end.
Monitor man was a bit surprised to see Tari alive and well after her alleged death, just like everyone at the memorial service. Tari herself hadn't said anything back to the officer yet, both due to her shyness and because she was getting tired of people thinking she came back to life as if she were Jesus. Not to mention the way Senbo and Aibo manipulated her being on her mind as well.
"But you drowned in quicksand," said Mr. Monitor.
"No, I didn't," said Tari, finally speaking up. "Senbo and Aibo are behind this! They faked my death!"
"I knew it!" said Mr. Monitor a tad abruptly. "I knew those hoodlums were up to no good!"
"Wait," said Whimpu, "you know them?"
"Affirmative," replied Mr. Monitor. "My first encounter with them was during one of my regular routine checkups. I could have sworn they were talking about doing something VERY ILLEGAL, so I took a silent photograph of them when I was passing them by to keep a close eye on them. The question is, why would they fake Tari's death?"
"They wanted to lure Saiko out of the house so her guitar would be left unguarded," explained Shroomy. "Show him, Meggy."
Right on cue, the former Inkling walked up to Mr. Monitor, getting ready to put her flash drive into her cop friend's head…only to run into some difficulties finding where the flash drive was supposed to go.
"Uh…" said Meggy, "where's your USB port?"
"Right here," replied Mr. Monitor as he pointed to the opposite side of his head where Meggy was trying to insert her flash drive.
Now that she knew where to put the flash drive, she connected it to the correct USB port, and just like that, the very footage she was talking about was playing on Mr. Monitor's "face". The screen was displaying just what Meggy had witnessed, but with Saiko's contemplation of life on her couch heavily cut down. She wanted to cut right to the chase.
The cop-in-training knew Mr. Monitor well enough to know that he would receive information from flash drives into his head, and act as if he was watching the video with the rest of them, despite technically being the video. Sure enough, monitor man had received all the information he needed from that footage—the phone call, Saiko running out the door, the breaking in, and most importantly to Senbo, the playing of her guitar.
The last time this footage was watched, the security system couldn't carry sound from Saiko, her phone, or Senbo. Since then, Meggy found a way to restore the audio from the footage, allowing Mr. Monitor to hear important details, like Tari's cries for help and Saiko panicking to save her. Unfortunately for everyone watching, this meant they had to suffer through Senbo's terrible music.
Everything about the crime being committed made everyone watching sick to their stomachs, particularly Saiko. The anime girl was desperately trying to keep herself together after seeing the extent of her enemy's desperation to get her guitar.
"Grrrrr," she growled.
"Wait a minute," said Belle. "I recognize that kid! He and his girlfriend were the ones who compared my gaming skills inferior to Tari's! I had no idea everyone thought she was dead when I challenged her!"
Due to his hatred of disorder, it didn't take that long for Mr. Monitor to recognize the crime, and he forcefully pulled the flash drive out if his head, ending the video and giving off his iconic perturbed look.
"You mean…they manipulated you too?" asked Tari with her voice noticeably breaking.
Unable to lie to her rival, even when she was clearly on the verge of tears, Belle felt like she deserved to know the truth.
"Yes," she said. "Senbo and Aibo have manipulated and hurt all of us."
Part of Belle regretted being so blunt about it, considering the reaction from Tari was exactly what she expected—tears. But again, the android deserved to know what was going on, and there was no way she could hide it.
"I don't understand how anyone can be so mean," said Tari tearfully as she hung her head.
While the android had always been prone to tears, it broke all of her friends' hearts to see her crying at the prospect of being lied to. These were tears of betrayal, which only served to infuriate Saiko more. It was starting to infuriate Belle too. Not because it was annoying to watch Tari cry (which it was), but because she felt the android's pain. After all, this was the same girl who threatened to shoot Bob's balls for crushing Tari's dreams of a perfect Christmas present.
Mr. Monitor couldn't be considered Tari's friend per se…not because he hated her (hardly anyone could, for obvious reasons), but because he doesn't partake in the adventures of the Glitchy Gang that much, what will all the "ILLEGAL" activity he hunts down on a regular basis. Yet even he felt bad for the crying android. On the upside, this meant they were one step closer to catching Senbo and Aibo.
"So, officer, do we have enough evidence to convict those two?" asked Shroomy.
"Not quite," replied Mr. Monitor. "We still need evidence of Aibo's involvement."
"Way ahead of you," said Meggy. "To make sure that it was a fake Meta Runner arm Saiko saw sinking in the quicksand, I went to the store that sells them and asked them if they sold their products to Aibo, since it was on the way over here and they're still open this time of night."
"Don't you need photo identification for that?" asked Whimpu.
"I thought of that too," said Meggy as she showed Mr. Monitor a picture of Aibo on her phone, which looked like it came from her Twitter profile. "They confirmed that yes, Aibo bought a fake arm from their store."
"Good job, Meggy," congratulated Mr. Monitor. "It's good to know you've still got it."
Although appreciative of the compliments from monitor man, Meggy would like to stay focused on catching the criminal couple, and so would her friends.
"Does this mean we're gonna drop by their houses for a 'little talk'?" the former Inkling asked.
"No," said Mr. Monitor, "that's what they'll be expecting. I have a better idea. You see, there's a satellite feature built into me that not only helps me sense perpetrators within a 50-mile radius, but also memorize the location of where they are. The photograph I took of Senbo and Aibo activates it. Think of it as the Google Maps of justice enforcement. Observe."
With that, Mr. Monitor's "face" displayed a loading screen as he was preparing the feature he was talking about. After some waiting, there it was—footage of Senbo and Aibo in action. From the looks of it, they seemed to be in the back seat of a bus, with suitcases next to them. Senbo looked like he was checking something on his phone, and Aibo was sleeping next to him without her glasses. The satellite feature carried sound, as evidenced by the bus's engine running being clearly hearable—as well as Aibo's snoring.
To put it nicely, there was no escape from Mr. Monitor.
After coming across something of interest on his phone, the would-be musician was quick to turn to his snoozing girlfriend and give her a nudge to wake her up.
"Hey, Aibo," he said quietly, "wake up. Wake up, babe. We're almost there."
With a loud yawn, Aibo woke up to see what Senbo found on his phone. The would-be musician put her glasses back on so she could see where he was taking her. The people watching the footage couldn't see it, but as their target's conversation would soon prove, they didn't have to.
"The circus?" the bespectacled girl asked in her half-drowsy state.
"That's right, babe," confirmed Senbo as his girlfriend stretched her arms. "We're running away to the circus. It's so original."
The would-be musician could see Aibo still in the awakening process, as she briefly took her glasses back off just so she could rub her eyes, and he couldn't help but worry about her just a little bit.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yeah," said Aibo. "Just a little tired. Feels like we were on this bus for hours."
"We were," said Senbo, "and it didn't take you that long to fall asleep. But it's okay, because I didn't draw on your face even once."
"Wow, you really are a true gentleman," said Aibo sincerely.
Just as the bespectacled girl finished her sentence, the insides of the bus suddenly started lighting up with outside neon lights, and they could hear carnival music and children laughing. That could only mean one thing.
They were at the circus.
"We're here," said Aibo as she reached for the string that signals the bus to stop.
"No, no, don't trouble yourself," said Senbo, "I'll get it."
And that's just what he did. The would-be musician pulled the lever on the bus, signaling for it to stop. Once it did, the door opened, and the runaway couple walked out of the bus while carrying their suitcases. While they weren't directly in front of the circus entrance, it was just close enough for them to walk to with zero difficulty—while holding hands and carrying their luggage, of course.
Everything about the circus made the runaway couple more and more excited with each step they took closer to it. Neither of them had any intention of going back to their old lives and face the repercussions for their crimes, and neither of them were too tired in spite of how late it was. Well, Aibo admittedly was, but the excitement of the circus quickly woke her up.
"No going back," said Senbo as they were closer to the front entrance.
"To the ends of the Earth, my love," said Aibo.
As soon as both kids paid the guy at the ticket booth with the money they brought, the front gate opened up, allowing them entry to the circus. But instead of walking in together, Senbo made "after you" gestures with his hands, allowing his girlfriend to go in first, while he followed suit.
Saiko liked Senbo's chivalry, but the very sight of the perpetrators who faked her dear friend's death just to get to her property made her blood boil with rage. They were clearly not interested in taking any responsibility for their actions and just wanted to escape the repercussions of the mass panic caused by their machinations and starting a new life in the circus. The victims of said machinations found this immature and cowardly, but not surprising.
While the kids were amazed and mesmerized by the bright neon lights and the many rides and attractions that were close to the front entrance, Saiko couldn't help but angrily glare at the footage with a scowl, as were the other members of her band, and Belle. Tari, however, seemed to have dried her tears and looked just as entranced by the circus as Senbo and Aibo.
"Are we going to the circus?" the android asked in a childlike manner.
You wouldn't think this would be the best time for Tari's childlike innocence to show. But to some present in the office, this was exactly the time for Tari's childlike innocence to show. Not only did they like seeing her happy, but they too wanted to go to the circus, though not for the reasons their gamer friend may think.
"Yes, Tari," said Belle. "We're going to the circus."
Saiko didn't want to watch another second of the footage of Senbo and Aibo already enjoying the circus, and now that their current location was known, she didn't have to. Everyone now had a lead on where they were going.
The anime girl's heart was somewhat put at ease, but she was still furious at the two for the trouble they caused her. Most of the other people there were too, and eager to teach Senbo and Aibo a lesson once and for all.
"You can run, Senbo and Aibo," growled Saiko, "but you can't hide."
We're finally nearing the completion of this story. Fourteen chapters down, three to go!
Once again, I'd like to thank everyone for reading and enjoying my story. Every view and every comment counts.
Stay tuned for Chapter 15 next week!