Chapter Four: Jimbles

Jim yawned as he slowly awoke. He stretched his arms and smiled at Sarah who was still snoozing at his feet. It was early morning, Kalm was still soundly asleep. It was only Jim who was up and about.
He slowly crawled out of bed and slid on his slippers. He got his house coat and wrapped it around him and then began a short walk to his bathroom.
"Ahh! No, no, no! This can't be! Oh my God!" Jim screamed, gazing into his bathroom mirror.
A short series of events then occurred. The sound that could best be described as a goat screaming, the sound of Jim's bed bouncing up, the sound of something hitting Jim's ceiling, then something crashing back down on Jim's bed. Down the hall in a guest room, there was an answering scream, a bit of a jump and a loud crash as something hit the floor and tipped a couple of lamps as it was falling. This followed in Jim's jumping, turning, running to see all that had happened, tripping on a mat, and landing flat on his face.
A little more than five minutes passed until Jim, Florence and Sarah met in the hallway. Jim was crawling slowly, Sarah barely managed to keep half a trot and Florence was dizzily wobbling about, trying as best she could to keep from falling to the ground.
"Goodness gracious, Jim! Your hair looks terrible!" Florence exclaimed.
Even through her blurred, dizzied vision, she was quite right. Jim's hair was terrible. Luckily, it wasn't frizzed out all over the place like yesterday. It was only on the one side of his head this time. It was tangled, mangled and strangled. It was a lovely frizz located on one side of his head.
Jim sighed, "I know. Well, you two just go into the kitchen and make breakfast. Don't worry, Sarah can show you were everything is. I'll try fixing up my hair." He slowly got to his feet, then turned back to the bathroom.
Florence glanced at Sarah. She had an odd look on her face. "That guy is just strange. Do you have any idea why he's the chosen protector of the planet?"
Sarah shook her goatly head and then began trotting off towards the kitchen, followed slowly by Florence.
"So... Where are the eggs?"
Sarah kind of blinked, shook her head and walked off to the pantry where she began chewing through a bag of "Kalm Co. Goat Chow".
"Darn uncooperative goat..." Florence grumbled as she turned and began searching for something edible.

Ding dong! Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding dong! The door bell rang, and rang, and then rang a little more.
"Coming! I'm coming!" Jim called as he ran. He had on the same outfit he had been wearing the day before and managed to get his hair to the same sideways spiked out state it had been in when he went to Wigfarm.
He opened the door and Harry Smith immediately burst inside. "Are you all ready? The time to leave is now! We must go into Wigfarm as quickly as possible. The Gengai will send a rain of destruction upon all at any moment. Hurry! Hurry! Bring supplies and lock the door! We may not be back for a long time. Hurry, there's little time to spare!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands and jumping about as he gave his orders.
Florence, Sarah, Harry and Jim were soon on their way. Each carried a backpack and their own little weapons. Except for Sarah of course who couldn't hold any sort of weapon.
Jim was equipped with his handy Bungle Sword, Florence had two large rubber chocobos and Harry had a couple of broken beer bottles from last week's party.
They marched along, somewhat cheerfully. Well, Jim was cheerful. Florence was a little confused as to why she was tagging along with these people, Harry kept glancing around nervously and Sarah just trotted along.
"Well... Isn't it a great day?" Jim asked, trying to start up conversation.
"Yes, now be quiet... There's danger afoot and we need complete silence," Harry whispered. The rest of their trip into Wigfarm was in silence.
They entered the massive gates of the city. Harry glanced around suspiciously. "We're entering the heart of Gengai. Come on, follow me."
"Wait, Mr. Smith. Where are we going?" Florence asked with concern.
"It's simple.. We're going to Gengai headquarters. The very heart of the Gengai. The soul of the evil. We will stop it before it has the chance to grow any more. Now hurry, there isn't another moment to spare! The short cut's this way," and at that, Harry dashed off, quickly followed by Jim, Florence and Sarah.

"Come on! Keep moving!" a man shouted out.
"..."
"Shut up, Parrot! Let's go, Oreo. Gengai's waiting!" it was the red headed man from Ball Market. He was forcing Dirk Oreo up a flight of stairs, kicking him every so often. Parrot was just walking along, carrying the stereo which was now silenced.
The three soon arrived at a huge desk. There was a slightly plump balding man sitting there with a cigar sticking out of his mouth. Smoke rings floated up and around him. Silver-grey little halos over his head formed and then floated away.
"..."
The red haired man gave a slight jab to Parrot's arm, signaling him to be quiet. He then took a step forward, holding Dirk up by the collar. He tossed him to the ground in front of the huge silver coloured desk.
The plump man stood up and began walking around his huge desk, smoke rings still bubbling up around him as he smoked. He wore a deep crimson suit with golden buttons and he wore polished black shoes. Deep wrinkles were embedded into the corners of his face, his balding hair was tinted silver-grey like the smoke rings that he was puffing out as he walked. His lips were frozen in a demonic little smirk that was almost horrifying. His eyes were cold and pale grey. They seemed uncaring and unemotional. Those deep, endless eyes were like stone; cold and hard.
He was now looming over Dirk Oreo. "Good job Rusty, Parrot," he said, glancing at the two men in black. The plump man gently took the cigar out of his mouth and rubbed it out on Dirk's bald head. Dirk winced as the fiery ashes were spread across his head.
"Thank you President Gengai. Should we leave?" Rusty, the red head, said obediently.
"No, not quite yet. Now Mr. Oreo, do you know why you're here? No? Well let me explain it to you, nice and slow so that even you can understand," Gengai turned, holding his hands behind his back and began walking back around the desk to his chair as he spoke. "I'm not satisfied with you're work, Mr. Oreo. You've become lazy and stupid. You are the Manager of Human Resources and you're wasting my money on your damn chess tournaments! I won't have this any longer, Mr. Oreo. You have no warnings, you have no chance to plead for your life. I won't let you drain the life of this corporation and interfere with my plans.
"You knew what you were doing Mr. Oreo, and you know what I have planned for the world. I can see through you." President Gengai's eyes were staring into the quivering Dirk. "You were attempting to sabotage my plan. You started off small, but I caught you before this could carry on further. I'm more clever than you think Dirk. No, this world and all the power that comes with it will still be mine and as for you Mr. Oreo..." he trailed off for a moment as he sat down and nodded to Rusty and Parrot. "As for you, Mr. Oreo. I'm afraid you won't be working for this company anymore."
Both Rusty and Parrot grabbed Dirk by each shoulder and lifted him above the ground. The fat bald man in gold kicked and squirmed in vain. Rusty and Parrot carried him to a window, the lights of Wigfarm were glittering brightly beneath them.
"Good bye Dirk," President Gengai muttered coldly as Rusty and Parrot threw Dirk Oreo out through the window. Glass flew about everywhere across the floor. "Call maintenance. Tell them to fix this window and clean this mess. As well, tell the secretary to give a call to Jirdiegger. Let him know there's a job opening as Manager of Human Resources."

"All right, we've made it this far, we need to be careful, we can't ruin this. We'll sneak into their HQ quietly, then carefully and subtly take them apart from within," Harry explained carefully to the group. They were all standing before the huge seventy story monstrosity that was Gengai Headquarters.
Jim, meanwhile, was not listening and was instead leading Sarah through the front door.
"Hey!" a soldier exclaimed, "you're not supposed to be in here! Get them!"
"Now, we'll take this flight of stairs here up to the 60th floor and-"
"Wait, Harry... Do you hear gunfire and screaming?" Florence asked, tilting her head and keeping quiet.
"Halp!" came a scream from in the building.
Both Florence and Harry jumped up and yelled, "Jim!" They ran into the building and found Jim dancing around, waving his sword around. Around him were the bleeding, unconscious bodies of the soldiers.
Florence blinked. "Jim.. How did you do this?"
"I didn't. It was Sarah. Wasn't it girl?" Jim said, beaming. He knelt down and patted Sarah on the head. She let out a proud shout as he did and gave a goatly smile.
"Come on! Into the elevator everyone! Hurry!" Harry shouted. He was already running to the elevator, waving the group towards himself.
They speedily followed Harry and jumped into the elevator. They pressed a button marked '60' and they heard the elevator buzz as it moved. 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, they sped up and up the floors on the Gengai building. 23-24-25-26-27-28 and the higher they went. 37-38-39-40, they were getting closer, almost there. Harry was shifting from foot to foot impatiently, Florence curiously glanced over the buttons to each floor in the building. Jim was still petting Sarah, congratulating her on her victory against the soldiers. 49-50-51-52-53, the elevator stopped.
Everyone inside froze and their eyes shifted towards the door. The sound of faint finger snapping to a strange rhythm was coming from outside the elevator. The doors slid open and there stood four people in black suits, each wearing thick black sunglasses. One of them, bald, was carrying a stereo that was playing the music. With him was a man with red hair that spiked out at all ends. It was Parrot and Rusty, with them was a man with curly black hair and a woman in blue pig tails.
"Jirdiegger just wouldn't stop talking. It was insane!" Rusty complained.
"..."
"Shut up Parrot!"
"Stop bickering!" the curly haired man commanded and then turned to the people standing in the elevator. "Who're you?"
"It's those guys from Dirk's place!" Rusty shouted, pointing at the people in the elevator.
"..." Parrot stepped forward, pulling a switch blade from his back pocket.
"How'd they get in here?" the blue-haired woman questioned.
"Forget about how. They aren't allowed in here. Let's show them how we treat intruders," Rusty snarled, stepping forward.
"This is not good," Jim murmured.
"We aren't gonna take this. Let's show these guys what we're made of!" Harry shouted, raising a broken beer bottle into the air.
Everyone let out a shout as Florence hit the button for the 60th floor again and the elevator door closed. The heard the sound of Rusty slamming into the door once it had fully closed.
"Well, that was a close call," Jim sighed with relief. He watched the numbers flashing by above the doorway. 54-55-56-57-58-59-60, the elevator gave a ping and the door opened to the 60th floor.
The group of four stepped out of the elevator. They watched workers and soldiers walk by, apparently unaware of the newcomers. They began walking about, looking around at all of the gadgets.
"So, where do we go now?" Florence asked, gazing up at the ceiling and down at the clean carpet.
"We need to get to President Gengai's office and stop him now before he gets the chance continue his mad plans of destruction. We'll have to kill the President," Harry said with complete seriousness.
"Harry, you really want us to kill President Gengai?" Jim questioned in shock.
"It's the only way." Harry began walking in the direction he believed would get them to Gengai's office. "We'll need to take the Executive Elevator up to the 69th floor. From there, it's only a few stairs away."
"You seem to know a lot about this building. How'd you figure it all out?" Florence asked as they walked.
"I used to work for the Gengai in this very building. I know how it works. First, we'll need a key card to use the Exec. Elevator," Harry answered. "Luckily, I still have mine from my old janitorial days."
"You used to be a janitor?" Jim asked with a chuckle.
"Yes, now be quiet and keep moving," Harry commanded and said nothing further as they walked.
They came to a new elevator and Harry put his keycard into a slot. "With my card, we can only get to the 67th floor. It's the Scientific Research and Development Department."
"Why do we need these key cards anyway?" Jim inquired, curiously as the elevator door opened.
"Security reasons. They don't want the average idiot knowing about some of Gengai's most top secret information," Harry explained as they stepped inside. He hit the button for the 67th floor and they were off. In a few moments, the door opened and the group stepped out.
Together, they swiftly walked down a hallway, in search of someone with a keycard to get them to the 69th floor. Jim suddenly stopped at a huge containment unit of some sort. He was gazing inside. "Woa! Guys, check this out!"
Everyone gathered around. The containment unit was a dark silver and a blackened name plate read: "JIMBLES". Within was a dark purple liquid and something else.
"What is this thing, Harry?" Florence asked, peering within.
"I don't know. I've never seen it before," Harry responded.
Jim lifted up Sarah so she would be able to look into the tiny window near the top of the containment unit.
Within, Sarah saw cords protruding from some strange black and purple creature. It seemed almost like a fish, of some unknown type. It was hard to make out, but it was most definately a fish. Sarah let out the goat's equivalent of a scream, struggled away from Jim's grip and dashed off, hiding in fear. Somehow, Sarah knew what that thing was and she was afraid of it.