Disclaimer: I do not own Jimmy Neutron or any related characters.
Author's Note: We're heading towards the end of the story now, so I thought I'd give some thank-you's to all my reviewers. CindyNeutron3, acosta pérez josé ramiro, ReddistheRose, Superdork398, kingdom219, Sassy08, and Snowboarder9 have all given plenty of reviews that were very descriptive. Thanks you guys! And now I'll respond to a few things in the reviews I received.
samuraistar: I do know a little bit about firearms, but I'm not sure if the bomb thing would actually work. I sat down and thought of a productive solution with the supplies at hand. And yeah, I do watch MacGyver. I kept thinking, there's got to be a MacGyverism for this.
acosta pérez josé ramiro: While I won't reveal who dies (if anyone), I'll tell you that I didn't mean the title of the chapter that way. It referred to them splitting up again.
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Jimmy slowly crawled through the ceiling tiles, praying that each one would hold his weight. Cindy was about a foot behind him. "Cindy, can you please move back a little bit?"
Cindy looked at him. "Why? Am I in your personal space?" she sarcastically asked.
Jimmy clenched his teeth. "No. First off, we have to separate our weight so the tiles don't collapse. And two, I'm handling bombs here. If they go off, I don't want you to blow up too."
Cindy stare at him, a small smile spreading across her face. She was impressed with his chivalry. But then she truly deciphered what he had just told her. "Those things are safe, right?"
Jimmy crawled a few feet forward and turned back towards Cindy. "I told you I don't know much about guns. It's not nitroglycerin, but I don't want to take any chances. I don't know what makes this stuff go off."
They continued slowly making their way through the ceiling, stopping every few seconds so Jimmy could check the strength of the next tile. "So, what exactly is the plan, Jimmy?"
Jimmy cautiously went across another tile. "We reach the office, which is where the gunmen are hiding. We drop the bombs. If we're lucky, it'll kill them or knock them out long enough so we can grab their guns. If not," he explained to her.
"Yeah, I know," Cindy nervously said.
They continued on in an awkward silence, trying not to think about what would happen if they messed up. Jimmy suddenly stopped and held his hand up.
"What is it?" Cindy asked.
Jimmy put his ear to the ceiling tile. He then took out his knife and cut a small hole in it. He peered down at the floor below. He could see someone in a mask going down the hallway.
As Jimmy closed his eyes in thought, he thought of something. He turned behind him towards Cindy. "Cind, how close are we to the office?"
Cindy closed her eyes and envisioned the school's layout. "Uh, I don't know. I think it's at the end of this hallway. Maybe thirty feet."
Jimmy did a quick calculation in his mind and sighed. It's risky, but it just might be our best chance. "Cindy, do you have any gum?"
Cindy fiddled in her pockets and pulled out a couple of sticks. She tossed them to Jimmy, who opened them and threw them in his mouth. He began chewing rapidly while taking his backpack off.
"I'm scared to ask, but what exactly are you doing?"
Jimmy carefully unwrapped the bombs and laid them on the ceiling tile. He opened up the broken jetpack's computer system and began fiddling with some wires. He turned a knob and stared at the rocket on the left side. A flame about the size of one on a candle was glowing. He turned it off and smiled. He took out the pieces of gum and covered the back of the rocket (where the flames come out) with them. He laid it down on the tile next to the pile of explosives. He stuck the hair/fuse to the top of the gum.
He turned back towards Cindy. "It's a time delay. I'll set the flame on, and it will slowly burn the gum. When the gum burns off, it will fall onto the ceiling tile. The hair is attached to the gum. As the gum falls it will get lit on fire. The flame will travel up the fuse and ignite the bombs. The gunmen will see the explosions and call the people in the office out to investigate. By the time it blows, we'll be directly above the office. We'll drop in unnoticed and take it from there," he happily told Cindy while smiling.
Cindy just shook her head. "Leave it to Jimmy Neutron to build a bomb out of gum, hair, and string."
"Ready?" Jimmy asked as he put his hand on the jetpack's knob.
"Yeah," Cindy said as he turned it. They both crawled as fast as they could across the ceiling as the gum began to melt.