The Bean Brigade #3
T-T-That's Evil Folks!
The swirling vortex that had sucked up the members of the Bean Brigade finally opened up. One by one, it dropped the criminals unto the hard ground, then the Sands of Time materialized and dropped to the ground as well. Control Freak was the first one to recover.
"Ugh, what happened?" he asked, "the last thing I remember, we were fighting Batman, and then the Sands of Time hit the floor and there was this swirling portal and…oh crud."
He took notice of his surroundings, and they were like something he had only seen in his online games. The world around them was huge, with buildings towering over them like giant trees. Like Gotham, the place had a dark, noir quality to it. But the people's dress and high-tech vehicles made it clear that this was most definitely not the present century.
"Where are we dude, seriously?" Ed asked, surveying the area.
"If I had to guess, somewhere in the future" Control Freak replied.
"What!" exclaimed many of the other shocked villains.
Temblor quickly grabbed the portly perpetrator by his coat. "This is your fault!" he shouted, "if you had let me finish off Batman when I had the chance, that stupid hourglass wouldn't have broken and we wouldn't be stranded God knows where!"
"Leave him alone, it's not his fault" the Ottoman said, "anyway, I think we should figure out where we are first."
"And find a way to repair the Sands of Time" Jack added, picking up the cracked Wu "I hope they know what Shen Gong Wu are in the future, or we're in big trouble."
After calming down Temblor, the group made their way out of the alley and into the heart of the city.
"So how the heck do we figure out where we are?" Slipstream asked, "it ain't like we can just go up to someone and ask 'em."
"Actually, that might work dude, seriously" Ed replied.
Ed walked up to the first person he saw on the street. "Hey man, I'm from out of town, and I was wondering, where the heck am I seriously?"
"I don't know how you could be from out of town, since Acmetropolis is one huge planet," said the man "but judging from your clothes, I could be wrong."
"Hey man, you're the one with freaky clothes!" Ed replied, "so I'd keep that mouth shut if I was you."
"I have a good mind to report you to the police" the man said.
"Yeah, well unless they're freaky robot cops, bring 'em on, seriously" Ed said.
Before the two could engage in a battle, the Ottoman stepped out.
"You must excuse my husband" she said, "you see, we're on our way to a costume party and he's very into it."
"What the heck are you talking about dudette…oof" Ed said, as Ottoman elbowed him in the gut.
"I see" the man said, "well please hurry along. Great costumes by the way, you look like people from another time."
You have no idea the Ottoman thought as the man walked off.
"So we're in some place called Acmetropolis huh?" Ember said "and I thought Amity Park was a dumb name."
"Whatta we do?" a nervous Jack asked, "what if we can't fix the Sands of Time? What if we're stuck here forever? I can't rule a future world…or can I?"
Gearhead however, slapped him to bring him back to his senses.
"Thank you" Control Freak said, "now listen, we're in the future, somewhere there must be a scientist who's discovered time travel. All we have to do is 'persuade' them to lend us his machine and we're outta here."
"And what if such a scientist doesn't exist?" Temblor asked.
"Then we're screwed until we can figure out to fix the Sands" Control Freak explained.
"All I know is, you promised me money, not trips through time" Temblor explained, grabbing Control Freak by his lapels "so if I don't get that money, you're going to be on the receiving end of an earthquake. Got it?"
"Perfectly" Control Freak said, before Temblor dropped him to the ground.
"So whatta we do now?" Ember asked.
"I think we should find a place to hide out first" Ottoman replied, "then we'll work out a plot."
"But where the heck can we find a place to hide in the future?" Herring asked.
"I'm sure we can 'persuade' someone to offer us board" Gearhead said.
"Yeah, we can be quite convincing when we need to" Control Freak added.
After displaying their powers on a nearby couple, the Brigade drove them from their home, and set it up as their temporary HQ.
"Now what do we do?" Gearhead asked, "we don't know anything about this future."
"Actually, according to their calendar, we're in the year 2773" Slipstream remarked.
"Oh man, who knew I'd one day live to see the wonders of the future" Jack said, "of course, it would be better if I were ruling this future world, but I guess beggars can't be choosers."
"Focus" Control Freak said, "right now our main concern is to repair the Sands and return to our time. Now does anyone have any ideas?"
"I do" Ember replied, "I've been doing a lot of thinking, and it occurs to me that these future freaks have never heard of me."
"And this helps us…how?" Herring asked.
"If I can assert control over the people of this little burg, I can make 'em do whatever I want" Ember replied "including sending us back to our own time."
"This is stupid," Temblor said, "let's just threaten some scientists until we get what we want."
"Are you nuts?" Jack exclaimed, "we don't know what kind of high-tech weapons these guys have! Haven't you ever seen any sci-fi movies? People in those movies always have lazers, or guns that can disintegrate you into a pile of dust in seconds!"
"You have some serious problems dude" Ed replied.
"Let's try Ember's plan for now" Control Freak said, "but if we're going to do this, we need to do it right. I'm talking marketing, ya know, get her out somewhere where people can hear her."
"And one verse is all it'll take to make me the biggest name in music" Ember said, grinning wickedly.
Uh-oh, looks like Ember's back to her old tricks again. Stay tuned for chapter two, where Ember takes Acmetropolis by storm and a familiar group of "looney" heroes try to stop her.