A/N: I'm back! I make several references to the episode "Spanish Fry" in this chapter. Also, I don't know Zapp's actual age, so I'm just estimating that he's 30. Also, thanks to Crazyfads.com for some background information on… I don't want to spoil it! :)
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Chapter 8
Bizarre Bazaar
"So," said Captain Black, crossing his arms and looking the crew over, "I hear you guys are all out to find Myotismon." They were all outside the courthouse, gathered outside Captain Black's black ship that looked suspiciously like the Blackbird from X-Men.
"How did you know?" asked Fry. "Do you have ESPN?"
"You mean ESP?" questioned the secret agent. He chuckled. "No, Jackie told me. Plus, Section 13 has been monitoring the activity on nearly every planet in this sector. When I saw you guys crashing into the Omicronians' ship, I knew you guys were boned, as they say. I knew the Omicronians do not have a good rapport with Earthlings, so if I couldn't come in to save you, I knew no one could."
Suddenly, a loud rumbling sounded from close up. Everyone turned around and looked at Fry, who held his stomach as if to say "I'm guilty."
"Sorry," apologized the delivery boy as his stomach rumbled again. "I'm starving, and I haven't had anything to eat since yesterday! Just those toast deelies with the SPAM on them."
"All I had to drink was coffee," added Leela. "And that was yesterday morning. Now, if SOMEONE—" she glared at Zapp, "—had gotten food like a SMART person would have—"
"But I did!" protested the DOOP captain. "I brought enough for me, and maybe Kif, onto the Cumulus, but that lardo space bandito ate everything except the *horse doo-vers!*"
"Always blaming the fat bandito," muttered Leela. "That's just like you to do it, Zapp. And I can't believe the nerve to have to call the fat bandito fat when you've got a bay window large enough to view the entire coastline!"
"OK guys, enough of this childish bickering," intervened Captain Black, stepping between Zapp and Leela with his arms out. "Lady with one eye? Man with the gut? Everyone else? You know what, I'm hungry too. Breakfast at IHOP, on me!" Every male from the Futurama cast, except Bender, gasped. Bender started snickering.
"IHOP? ARE YOU NUTS?" asked Leela, her eye so wide it could have popped out of her head if she had opened it any wider. "You just suggested we all go to the Interplanetary Hospital of Proctology!"
"But—but—" stammered Jackie, "Captain Black was talking about… well… you know, the house of pancakes?"
"Oh, you mean UHOP!" corrected Leela. Fry, Zapp, and Kif relaxed. "The Universal House of Pancakes. Remember, Mr. Black, this is 3002. Things have changed since the 21st century. Like…"
"Like the career chips!" Fry exclaimed. "And the probing, and the Soylent Doritos, and the Near-Death Star, where geezers go to die!"
"And hookerbots at every corner!" added Bender.
"Oh yeah," Fry continued. "And heads-in-jars, and the DOOP instead of the U.N., and the fact that movies are interactive, and the religion of Oprah-ism. And there are seven MTV's, none of which play music videos, only footage of Spring Break parties and tours of celebrity houses…"
"And you can be a judge at the Swimsuit Olympics and make love to all the contestants and judge them by how well they can work it," said Zapp. Everyone looked at him. "And handsome starship captains," he brusquely added.
Captain Black led everyone to his ship, but Fry kept talking. "And Lightspeed Briefs, and commercials playing in your dreams, and the fact that everything is trademarked except the name 'Zitsel,' and the Bronx being a historical area, and Internet suits, and cars with margarita blenders, and…"
When the Blackbird–like ship pulled into the nearest UHOP parking lot thirty minutes later, Fry kept talking. "…and 'caca' is now a swear word, and Kid Rock became a priest, and there's a new sport called 'Extreme Jacks,' and marching bands get plastic surgery so every member looks EXACTLY alike, and—"
"Fry, you can stop talking now," said Leela. "Seriously."
A few minutes later, the eight of them sat in an extra-large booth at the UHOP. One one side, in order, sat Captain Black, Jackie, Jade, and Fry. Across from them, in this order, were Zapp, Leela, Kif, and Bender. Since it was still the middle of nowhere, there was nothing but stars, distant planets, and a massive gray building outside.
"What's that building over there?" wondered Jackie.
"That you will know in time," replied Captain Black. "But right now, I'm in the mood for some breakfast." He picked up the menu, and everyone did the same.
On the other side of the UHOP, however, that was another story. Finn, Chow, Ratso, and Demidevimon entered through the door and halted when they reached the host's podium.
"I hope you're happy, Ratso," snarled Chow.
"I wanted this place to have a play area," said Ratso, pouting.
"Yeah, whatever," added Demidevimon. "But hey, it's better than that crap we ate back at the Helms Fish Cannery, that's for sure. All we ever ate was canned fish!"
"We?" asked Finn.
The hostess, who was a bubbly blonde woman dressed in a vibrant pink work uniform that reflected her mood, brightly strolled up to the podium. She picked up three menus and smiled at all three Dark Hand members. "Table for three, sirs?" she asked in her chipper, vivacious voice. She glanced at Demidevimon, who sneered at her. "I'm sorry, you can't bring your pet… er… bowling ball in here."
Three booms sounded outside, and then the doors crashed open. Tohru appeared on the other side, his face cold and emotionless. He attempted to venture through the double doors, but he was so gigantic he got stuck.
"Suck it in, pal," advised Finn.
"Make that a table for six?" asked the hostess.
Tohru took a deep breath of air and sucked in his gut just long enough for himself to squeeze through. His massive sumo wrestler's physique cast a shadow down onto the hostess, who dropped her menus in fear and stepped back.
"Sorry… sorry…" she apologized, shaking. "Uh, you can take your thingy in here, just PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!"
Finn, Ratso, and Chow nodded at Demidevimon, who shouted, "DEMI DART!" Demidevimon hurled a syringe filled with an unidentifiable gray liquid into the hostess's arm. She squealed out in pain, then crumpled to the floor. She had been knocked out cold. The Dark Hand members took their seats in another eight-person booth—Finn, Chow, Ratso, and Demidevimon on one side, Tohru squeezing into the other. The sumo wrestler's blob-like gut rested on top of the table. Little did they know that two booths away were the heroes.
Ratso looked at the menu. "Ooh! I'll take the face! It's eggs and bacon arranged as a smiley face!" He chuckled, then punched a button on the table that placed his order. (In the year 3002, some restaurants had no waiters, but a button that summoned a robot that brought the patron's order in a flash.)
"I think I'll go with the shortstack and a newspaper to read," added Chow, punching the button on his side. "Never know where that box is gonna be found."
"Man, I'm starved!" exclaimed Finn. "I think I'll go with this 'Starvin' Man' breakfast. You know, the one with the HUGE 12-ounce steak, six pieces of bacon, three fried eggs, and a tower of pancakes so tall you can't see in front of you? One 'Starvin' Man' breakfast!"
"Make that three," added Tohru. "Plus everything on the menu."
Two tables away…
"Make that three!" added Zapp. "Do you think I could also eat everything on the menu?" he asked no one in particular.
"I don't really know, captain," replied Kif. "Last time you ordered everything on the menu, you ate so much your girdle ended up in shards."
"Rrrright, rrright, better not," said Zapp.
"And now for the IMPORTANT issues?" asked Jackie. "Captain Black has something very important to say, if you don't mind."
Captain Black cleared his throat and clinked his spoon against his glass of water. "Thank you, Jackie," he acknowledged. "As you all know, Section 13 has a high level of knowledge about Myotismon, and how he and a strange force are wreaking havoc on Earth. Though I don't believe in magic, I do believe in digital artifacts that can unlock the doors to the digital world. You see, the digital world was once a wonderful place, full of life and growth and not a worry in the world. But suddenly, eight Virus Digieggs hatched and gave way to the eight Digi-Demons. You already know about Myotismon, the Digi-Demon of Darkness. But there are eight more. Devimon, the Digi-Demon of Air. Etemon, the Digi-Demon of Rock. Piedmon, the Digi-Demon of Mountain. MetalSeadramon, the Digi-Demon of Water. Puppetmon, the Digi-Demon of the Forest. LadyDevimon, the Digi-Demon of Wind. Finally, Apocalymon, the Digi-Demon of the Moon. They have all been banished to the other side of the Wall of Fire by Magna Angemon. However, one item can set them free, and it is close."
"What is it?" asked Fry. "A coat hanger? My dad once got his car door open with that. Oh, and whenever my brother Yancey wanted to steal my stuff, he broke into my room and left a coat hanger in place of the things he stole."
"No," Captain Black replied sternly. "It is called the Pan-Ku Box, and once the code is in place, the other seven Digi-Demons will escape and rule the universe. With Myotismon as the supreme leader! But not now. Our breakfasts are here."
"Awww… already?" asked Jade. "I haven't helped Peter Pancake find his way out of the maze yet!" She stared at the maze on the placemat in front of her, then found the solution. She quickly drew in the path with an orange crayon and began polishing off her chocolate-chip pancakes.
"I hear ya, Jade," added Fry, who was working on the same maze on a different placemat. He scribbled a line in with a purple crayon, once again finding a dead end. The only available path was the correct one. "Damn, I was SO close!" He crumpled up the menu and threw it behind him. It hit Chow on the head two booths away.
"What the—" Chow began, uncrumpling the menu. "Ratso, is this yours?"
Demidevimon peered over the side of the booth and saw the backs of Leela's, Bender's, Zapp's, and Kif's heads. They were concealing the heads of Fry, Jackie, Jade, and Captain Black. "Nope, don't see nothin'. It coulda been the robot, though."
"Wait a minute there, Demidevimon…" muttered Finn. He turned his head so his eyes peeked over the top of the seat. He, too, saw the four heads concealing Jackie, Jade, and Captain Black. "I think there's someone behind those guys, but I can't quite make it out…"
Chow turned his head as well as Ratso struggled to finish the maze.
"That's right, let's clear our minds of the Pan-KU and think about the pan-CAKES," added Zapp from the other booth. He leaned over towards Leela, who edged away. "And I'm thinking about Lee-LA." He leaned in even closer and held up a bottle. "Mind if I lick this maple syrup off your stomach?"
"First of all, that's ketchup, and second of all, NO WAY!" screamed Leela, edging away so far back she leaned backwards. The absence of her head exposed Jackie's, which was now in full view of the Dark Hand.
"CHAN!" hissed Finn. "I KNEW it! Let's go beat him up—"
Chow extended one of his hands. "Hey, not so fast, Finn. I got an idea." He whispered it to the other humans at the table.
"Enough of this!" exclaimed Captain Black, clinking his spoon against his glass again. "Our sensors have traced the location of the Pan-Ku Box to somewhere in this region. Section 13 has closed in on it, and we have detected substantial amounts of digital disturbance in the direction of that structure over there." He pointed out the window, where the gray building floated like the answer staring them in the face. "The only question now is 'where in the building is it?'"
Bender looked out the window, and he made a beeping noise. "Hey meatbags, my recall file tells me that that place looks like where we searched for Fry's nose when it got stolen. I remember 'cause I stole a hundred Pez dispensers and resold 'em to the owners for twice the price, heh heh heh."
"Oh yeah!" remembered Fry. "It's the Intergalactic Bazaar! It's the PERFECT place to hide a Pan-Ku box!"
"Yes," replied Jackie, "but how big is this place, exactly?"
"Oh, man, it's HUGE," answered the delivery boy. "Four floors, and anyone could wander that place for days and not find anything there! I mean, we spent twelve hours trying to find my nose when it was poached by those dirty poachers."
"No, Fry," Leela reminded him. "We spent twelve hours trying to find the ship in the parking area. It took us about fifteen minutes to find out who bought your nose. But nonetheless, the bazaar is huge, so we have got to go in pairs."
"Leela, you read my mind," declared Captain Black. He handed two small, gray bags to Jackie and Leela, who examined them curiously. "I'm giving these to Jackie and Leela because I think these would work best in their hands. He actually was the one who decided that, but I didn't believe him because I don't believe in magic. Nonetheless, he insisted."
"They're the talismans," added Jackie as if the cyclops had not already known.
Jade pulled on her uncle's shirt sleeve. "Aw, Jackieeeee, why don't I get a talisman?" she whined.
"How come I don't get one either?" asked Zapp. "You wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for me!"
"Because," replied Jackie to both of them, narrowing his eyes.
"You're no fun," griped the two of them, slumping back and folding their arms.
The Intergalactic Bazaar was, as always, swarming with activity. Captain Black had dropped them off to where the Cumulus was located, then took off and bid the team farewell. It took a while (think a few hours), but the seven heroes found a decent parking space ("Compact only," the sign said, but Zapp would not let that defeat him. He drove the Cumulus between the two ships in the adjacent parking spaces, causing sparks and a discordant screech to erupt from the sides. It was smashed in so tightly between the spaceships that the doors could barely open.) and then entered the site of one of the most arduous tasks they would face.
Leela examined the map of the bazaar. "OK, we've got four floors to search for the Pan-Ku box. It's dark blue, and it's an irregularly-shaped box, and it has these weird markings on the top and bottom. Got it? Now, we must split up. Jackie and I will take the first floor, Fry and Kif will search on the second floor, and the third and fourth floors will be searched by the other three."
"Hold on here," said Zapp. "How come I have to search two floors, and not with you?"
"Because I hate you," replied Leela.
You've done it again, Chan… the starship captain muttered in his mind. You've got that charm that's hooked my Leela and left me with the robot and the pesky child. Well, I'm not going to let you steal her… not this time…
"Leela…" he put his hand around the cyclops's shoulder and leaned closer to her. "Do you know what stardate it is?"
"April 30," replied Leela, attempting to slip out of the romantic gesture. "What's so special about that?"
"That's right…" replied Zapp, grinning. "It's my thirtieth birthday…"
"Well then, here's your present!" Leela stomped as hard as possible on Zapp's left foot, and he immediately cried out in pain and jumped around.
Fry and Kif had absolutely no luck searching the second floor, which was completely for collectables. The four floors were as follows: the first floor was random and useless goods, the second was where collectables were sold, the third was a combination of the two categories, and the fourth was a mixture of questionable items and the black market.
Fry looked around at the booths, oohing and aahing. Aliens, robots, humans, hybrid creatures, and even mutants filled the kiosks and the spaces between them, checking things out and purchasing them. He saw a booth that sold "Pet Rocks to Pokémon: Stupid Fads from the 20th Century" and dashed over to it, Kif following.
"Wow," he said to Kif, admiring everything. "Beanie Babies, pet rocks, sea monkeys, Tamagotchis, and swallowable goldfish as far as the eye can see! And look how cheap these are!" His eyes opened so wide they nearly popped out of his sockets as he looked at a sign. "WOW! You can get an afro or a greaser haircut 50% off!"
"Fry, come on," wheedled Kif, "don't you want to get to the Pan-Ku Box or not?"
"Kif, come on," imitated Fry, "would you rather spend time looking at what little memories of the 20th century this world has, or would you rather be sitting around the Nimbus in a party hat, and giving your captain his 'present' of shaving his armpits?"
"Actually," replied Kif, "his birthday is May 28, and I do that all the time. Except without the party hat." The amphibian shuddered. "But I'd rather be looking at Pokémon cards than Zapp naked any day."
"So then, are you ready to party like it's 1999 and before?" asked Fry.
"Well…"
"KI-if…"
"OK, I guess I will! We'll ask if there's a Pan-Ku Box around here, then we'll indulge ourselves in nostalgia." Kif walked up to a young-looking man whose back was to them, who was looking at shells from a Decapod 10 kiosk across from the exceptionally large 20th-century booth. He smiled, then tapped him on the back. He whirled around, and he was holding a conch shell covered with several sharp, white spikes.
"Yes?" the man asked pleasantly, reducing the intimidation the conch shell added to his image.
Kif's intravertive nature immediately took the words out of his mouth. "Uh… do… uh… you know where I can find a… uh… Pan-Ku Box?"
"A what?" asked the man.
"You know… a Pan-Ku Box… it's a thing that's used to release demons…"
"I thought that was exorcism."
"No, no… uh… digital demons? It's… uh… blue, I think, and has markings on the top and bottom?"
"Well, first of all, sir, I don't work here, and second…" The man trailed off as he scrutinized Kif's crimson tunic and his face. "You look familiar… are you, by any chance, Kif Kroker?"
"He sure is!" exclaimed Fry. "Amy Wong, our intern, is his girlfriend!"
The man's face grew red from rage, and he held the conch shell as if it were a weapon. "I think she has told me about you… my name is Tom Hearst, descendant of mega tycoon William Randolph Hearst, and Amy… Wong… was… MY GIRLFRIEND!!! You STOLE her from me, you dirty, slimy, amphibious bastard! I'm gonna KILL YOU!!!" He hurled the shell at the two of them, who ducked. It hit a display rack of Furbies behind Fry and Kif, who immediately made a run for it. The crowd parted and began to run for it as well as Tom drew out an authentic lightsaber.
The Furbies on the other hand, made a chorus of voices… "Hey, help me up, you lazy bastards!" "Man, this f***ing hurts!" "You, lardo! Pick me up or I'll kill ya!"
A child in the crowd began to cry. "Mommy, make them stop!" he wailed.
As Tom furiously pursued them, Fry and Kif darted through the crowd and the various booths, pushing over display racks and whatever else they could find to get him out of the way. Fry, like Jackie would have said, called "I'msorryI'llpayfortheselaterTHANKYOOOOUUUUUU!!!" back to a vendor who was selling KISS merchandise as Fry grabbed a handful of KISS Grenades with pictures of the band members on them. He pulled the caps off of them and hurled them back at where Tom was thought to be. Instead, they just caused more damage in the crowd.
Because Fry and Kif were both severely out of shape, Tom closed in on them quickly.
"Wait!" exclaimed Kif, panting. "I… *pant pant* have… idea. Follow… *gasp* my… lead."
Kif, followed by Fry, darted into a Porta-Potty and locked the door. Tom pounded on the door.
"Occupied!" shouted Fry. "I said, OCCUPIED!"
"Grrrrr…" growled Tom. He slashed the lightsaber through the hinges of the door, which fell right off, and saw a terrified Fry and Kif standing on the rim of the toilet, clutching each other in fear.
"Please don't kill us!" shouted Fry. "I have so much to live for!"
"Speak for yourself," whispered Kif.
Suddenly, the neon glow of the lightsaber turned into an opaque, plastic gray. "Oh crap!" shouted Tom. "Stupid batteries must be dead!"
"So… that means you won't kill us?" wondered Fry, gritting his teeth.
"No, but that DOES mean I'm gonna beat you!" shouted the spoiled, rich man. He took his lightsaber and began pounding Fry and Kif. Ten minutes later, Fry and Kif, covered in bruises with black eyes and bloody noses, resumed shopping.
Leela and Jackie searched the first floor, which was the largest and congested with the most patrons. The aisles between the booths and kiosks were so full, it was hot, stuffy, and difficult to breathe or move. The air was filled with the smells of food, oil, burning items, and the shouts of vendors. A fish flew through the air as they passed one booth, and the fumes from a car on a rotisserie made them gag.
"Uncle is not going to approve of this…" muttered Jackie. "He says that bazaars and flea markets rip off of wholesome antique stores, and that it's bad chi to go to one."
"So?" asked Leela. "Don't let him know about this."
"Uncle knows this stuff, Leela," said Jackie. "Oooh, he knows this stuff. Once he knew that I shopped at an antique mall simply because of the chi I was radiating or something like that."
"You hungry?" asked Leela. "This floor sells exceptional food!"
A few minutes later, the cyclops was munching on a buggalo leg covered in barbecue sauce. A green-looking Jackie followed.
"Don't they have any NORMAL food around here?" complained the Chinese-American.
"What, don't like barbecue?" wondered Leela. "I thought it was normal."
Jackie paused in his tracks and gasped. "Oh… my… word!" He stared at the small kiosk located in the corner which had a handmade sign that read "UFO's: Unidentifiable Forgotten Objects" propped up against it. One of Kif's kind gingerly stood inside it. Among the misshapen and random objects that not even Leela recognized, between the necklace that Rose (the lady from Titanic) dropped into the ocean at the end and a 10-cent copy of the original Gutenburg Bible, sat the dusty Pan-Ku Box.
Leela dropped her jaw and her buggalo drumstick at the same time. "Is that…"
"The Pan-Ku Box!" the two of them exclaimed simultaneously, then dashed over to the booth. "How much?" they asked again in unison.
"H— how much is the what?" questioned the Amphibios 9 alien. "Please don't hurt me!"
"That box over there," replied Jackie, pointing to the Pan-Ku Box. The amphibian briskly walked over to the shelves behind him and placed his webbed hands around the objects he assumed Jackie was talking about. "No… not that one… the navy blue one with the green glass on top." The amphibian put his hands around the Pan-Ku Box and took it over to where Jackie and Leela were standing.
"THAT'S IT!" exclaimed Jackie and Leela, both grabbing the box out of the poor Amphibios 9 alien's hands.
"How much is it?" asked Leela.
The alien backed into a shelf, obviously intimidated. "Uh…"
"Never mind that," interrupted Jackie, taking out two $20 bills and placing them in the alien's hands. "Keep the change. Thank you so, SO MUCH!" He shook the alien's hand and ran off to find the others. Both drunk on their own joy of finding the Pan-Ku box before the Dark Hand and the others, the two did not realize that the Dark Hand, minus Demidevimon, stood in front of them in the center of the aisle.
Finn tapped his foot on the ground. "Hand… over… the box," he dictated. "Or shall… THEY take it from you?"
In an instant, the Shadow Con appeared. Cackling, the Dark Hand ran away. Leela and Jackie froze in their tracks, not knowing what to do.
The final group, consisting of Bender, Zapp, and Jade, had no luck in finding anything since Leela and Jackie found the Pan-Ku Box. All three stood away from the other two because of their lack of a positive rapport. Every one believed that they were too good for the other two.
"I can't believe I'm working with THEM," muttered Bender. "Damn meatbags… I'm gonna kill all humans once I get the chance… starting with those two psychotic infants…" He ventured into the food court and strolled up to a booth that sold liquor. "But first I'm gonna refuel."
"Where are you going, Bender?" asked Jade. "I thought we had to search!"
"With my tank on 'empty?'" asked the robot. "I don't think so, meatbag. You HUMANS don't understand us robots."
"I understand the killbots!" exclaimed Zapp. "How do you think I defeated them?"
Bender muttered a few random swear words and began polishing off his alcoholic drinks. Then he belched fire directly at Zapp, whose hair caught on fire.
"MY HAIR!" screamed the starship captain, leaping up into the air and desperately attempting to extinguish it. "MY HAIR'S ON FIRE!" He ran around, attracting stares from the passersby. He slapped his head a few times, but it only spread to his gloves, then up his sleeves from there. "DON'T JUST STAND THERE! I'M ON FIRE!" Looking around, he saw a pitcher of water and dumped it on himself. His sleeves were gone and his hair was singed. The rest of the velour uniform had burn marks on it. "Luckily, I used the extra-strong hair gel today!" he exclaimed.
"It slipped," said Bender airily, as if he knew what Zapp was about to say next.
"That's it, I'm leaving," asserted Jade, leaving the presence of the other two. She exited the food court and wandered down the aisles, oohing and aahing at the various items for sale and the beings that passed by. She stared at two aliens demonstrate how to sautee a human and ran away immediately. She watched in awe at a display of Insta-Tornado-In-A-Can and even volunteered to get sucked up by one. With her hair mussed up, she admired the Amizonian bone jewelry and makeup. But what truly caught her eye was the Melvin booth. Jade dashed up to the booth that was filled to the brim with merchandise that bore the likeness of the cartoon moose.
"Hello, little girl!" exclaimed the vendor. "You like Melvin? Big hit back in the early 21st century."
Jade nodded enthusiastically and decided to buy a Melvin camera and a set of Melvin pencils. She put the camera around her neck and the pencils in the pocket of her sweatshirt. By that time, it was the peak hour for customers and getting cold. She decided she wanted to go back.
"LEELA!" she called, craning her neck around. "LEELA! FRY! WHERE ARE YOU?" All she received were odd glances from the crowd around her. She crawled through legs, between people, and even onto the counters of a few booths. She looked around the endless floor, but there was no sign of that purple hair that belonged to her favorite person there.
After several minutes of wandering deeper into the heart of the fourth floor, where crowds literally packed the alleyways, Jade edged back towards the Beast With Two Bucks tent and sat against the side. She curled herself up into a ball and began to sob. "I want to go home!" she wailed.
"Home, you say?" asked a familiar raspy voice. "Kid, if you want to go home, all ya gotta do is come with me!" Demidevimon flew over from behind another booth and perched on her shoulder.
Jade swatted at the imp. "Get away, Demidevimon!"
Demidevimon's face grew sympathetic. "Hey, don't be swattin' at me, kid! I quit!"
The spunky girl paused. "You… quit?" she asked skeptically. "I don't believe you," she uttered, turning away. Demidevimon landed in front of her.
"I know, I know, why trust me, who was Myotismon's former right-hand henchmon? And I don't blame ya, sister. After all those months of harassing you and Chan and the old guy for the talismans… I feel awful for what I did and am willing to take you home!"
"Really?" asked Jade, beginning to trust Demidevimon. Then her face tightened into a suspicious expression. "What made you quit, anyway?"
"Hey, Jade, this is MYOTISMON we're talking about," replied the imp. "He's mean and nasty and has no sense of humor. Not to mention I've been replaced as his right-hand man by Valmont… workin' with Finn and the others is kinda degrading, don'tcha think? That's why I quit. I'm pursuin' the good-guy life. I heard the rewards are better and don't come with all the guilty side effects. So what do ya say? Ya comin' with me to find the others? I know where they are; I just saw 'em."
"Sure!" exclaimed Jade in a naïve manner. She chased Demidevimon down the aisle for a few minutes until she ran into Larry, Walt, and Igner and found herself staring at them.
"You're not going anywhere," said Walt, brandishing a rope. He bound Jade's feet and hands together so she was rendered immobile.
"Yeah!" added Larry, who was slapped in the face by Walt.
"Now, Igner," dictated the oldest son.
Igner took an aerosol spray can of chloroform ("Nighty-Night Spray," it said on the can) and accidentally sprayed his own face with it. His eyes closed and he crumpled to the floor.
"Idiot," muttered Walt, who picked up the can and sprayed Jade in the face with it. She coughed as the scent tingled the inside of her nostrils and mouth, then felt herself grow drowsy. Before she could call for help, Jade's eyes closed and she fell into the deepest sleep of her life.
To be continued…
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