Quick A/N before the fun begins…at the uploading of this chapter, there were 102 reviews for this story. I really thank you all for your support and for taking the time to let me know you were all still staying with me and reading. Your kind words and amazing interest have really been a driving force for my continued work on this and I thank you all very much.

Trixie21

(…) means twin's telepathy and ((…)) means Cosmo and Wanda telepathy.

No, I don't own FOP or any reference to its varied characters mentioned herein, and unless the new episodes that follow 'School's Out' begin showing the love again, I wouldn't want to. So, for now, Butch Hartman can keep his name tacked on…even if it is for nothing more than the royalties at this point.

Oh…and I don't own The Big Comfy Couch either. That belongs to some broadcasting company in Tennessee I think. : )

Fairly OddParents : The Next Generation

Chapter 19. Making It To The Top

By the time the three of them had managed to reach the fifteenth floor, even Wanda had to admit she'd definitely reached her limit. Her legs felt like lead weights, her chin hung to her chest, her stomach was very unhappily upset, and even though she'd had her eyes open the whole time, it seemed the only thing she could see was one step at a time. In total, even with her solid body type, she was utterly exhausted and the jacket and hat she was still wearing certainly weren't helping to keep her any cooler.

Sure she liked to exercise a little when things were quiet…when god children were somewhere where Fairy Godparents weren't needed just then and Cosmo was otherwise constructively occupied. All godparents were encouraged by Fairy Godparent Resources Department too exercise regularly anyway. After all, it wasn't only healthier for a fairy, but it was good to be prepared for situations where one might have to walk and move just like any mortal might for a reasonable amount of time. But truthfully, what fairy ever would have thought they would have had to go so long and to such extremes without any magic?

To top it off, she was working on all of maybe two hours sleep after running around all night and barely managing to verify that half the houses on the first four pages alone on Timmy's list were fairy occupied homes before the first light of dawn. Though, with a ratio like that, she didn't doubt for a second that more than half of the last four pages probably had had fairies too. Given the numbers, the Vic-Bots kidnapping the fairies had been a reasonable assessment in her tired mind, so she'd gone home and barely managed to evade Tommy and Tammy's mother by mere minutes.

She'd literally been a minute past putting the list back into Timmy's briefcase and relocking it when she'd heard the woman getting up to take her morning shower. The poor fairy had zoomed up the stairs, instinctively skipping that squeaky step, and made it back into the closet with a minute to spare before the human had checked on her kids as she did every morning. Once the woman had left for the day, Wanda had come out of the closet and climbed up onto Tammy's bed with the intention of just resting on something soft for a few brief moments. But she'd fallen asleep instead, only to have to be woken by a nine year old telling her how unsafe such a situation was. It was downright embarrassing to say the least.

Now here she was, just about to fall apart physically, and yet minorly grateful that she finally had something to dwell on other than Cosmo's absence.

"Are we there yet?" asked Tommy dismally.

"You tell me," retorted his sister tiredly. "You're in front."

"Oh," said the boy. "Right."

"You still back there Wanda?" asked Tammy without looking back.

"I'm here," was the fairy's answer between tired breaths. "I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be able to take this though."

"Don't worry Wanda. Just a few more to go. Look, see? There's floor fifteen's door right up there," said Tommy.

Wanda didn't look. She was too afraid that if she lifted her head up, she'd fall backwards. Or pass out. One or the other.

When the three of them had finally arrived on floor fifteen, they took a few minutes to catch their breaths before Tommy outlined what he remembered about the floor plans.

"Okay, once we go through this door there's going to be a long hall with offices to both sides until we reach the halfway point. Then, there's a couple of meeting rooms a few more even bigger offices, and then there's a whole bunch of big rooms after that."

"What are those rooms?" asked Tammy.

"I don't know. They weren't labeled. But they're all four times as large as the offices just on the other side of the door."

"Large conference rooms maybe?" suggested Wanda.

The boy gave her a shrug.

"I'm not sure. Could be."

"Okay," confirmed the Tammy. "So we're going to start down the hall and be alert for any door with 'President', 'CEO' or Ibrahim on it."

"Right," agreed her brother.

"And at the same try not to get caught while we're snooping about." added Wanda grimly.

"Well, yes. There's that too. But if we keep low and make it fast, maybe we can find this guy before anyone sees us."

"So you hope," muttered Tammy.

Tommy made no answer but put his hand on the door handle.

"Ready?"

Tammy and Wanda nodded and with that, Tommy opened the door slowly and peered out. Seeing no one standing in the open, the three slipped out of the stairwell

The long hall stretched out before them with a lush red and gold patterned carpet beneath their feet and deep wood walls all around them. At intermittent spaces there were half wall partitions and open entryways that would lead into little secretarial alcoves that sat before each executive's personal office. It was a pinch of luck for them when they quickly discovered that the secretaries were at lunch so there was little need for absolute silence. Halfway down the corridor however, they'd had to duck beneath a desk when two men came striding out of an office quickly, both with briefcases in hand.

"Hurry Fred. He only gave us ten minutes to get the rest of the presentation together, not the whole afternoon."

"I know! I know! Geez, Marcus. Its not like Mr. Ibrahim's gonna' fire us on the spot for being a minute or two late for a meeting."

"Maybe not. But I don't want to take the chance."

The voices of the two adults died as they moved on down the hall.

"Did you guys hear that?" asked Tommy.

"Yeah," answered Tammy.

"Well, lets get moving so we don't lose them. They'll take us right to Mr. Ibrahim," said Wanda as she stepped out from behind the desk to follow the two men.

Keeping a discreet distance behind the adults, Wanda now led Tammy and Tommy as she caught a second wind after hearing Mr. Ibrahim's name mentioned. Where as before they hadn't known where the man could possible be in this huge building, he now seemed within reach, and in Wanda's mind, this was a step closer to Cosmo and the other fairies then they'd been at anytime before this.

She didn't want to let herself get too excited by the hope that was again growing, but she just couldn't help it. She needed Cosmo too much.

It seemed like forever since she'd felt anything even close to normal. Life with Cosmo had given her so much of what she was now, and to be without it was like having the fire within her gutted leaving an empty shell of a fairy. But it wasn't going to stay that way for long. She wasn't going to let it.

Up ahead of them, Wanda saw the two men turn off to the right and the fairy smiled slightly.

'They must have turned down into one of the meeting rooms Tommy mentioned,' she thought as she tried to force herself to pick up her pace. 'We're almost there. Mr. Ibrahim will be right in there. He'll have some information we can use I'm sure. He has to…'

"Hey! You three! What are you doing up here? Stop!"

When Wanda turned to see two security guards heading towards them, her heart jumped into her throat at the sight as her hopeful thoughts were dismantled almost painfully. They didn't need this now. They couldn't be caught. Not when this Mr. Ibrahim was so close.

Panic surged through her.

"Run!" she called to the kids as she turned and urged her already tired legs to move into the action even though she knew there was no way the three of them could out run two grown men for any serious distance.

"We have to get to that meeting room!" she called back to Tommy and Tammy. "It may be the only chance we've got."

The three rounded the corner the two executives had disappeared behind to find the closed doors of one of the meeting rooms, and without a second of hesitation for whatever they might possible find beyond it, they crashed against it, throwing the door open with a loud bang. There was a long table stretched out the length of the room and all around it sat almost thirty men and women.

Every head turned to take in the three newcomers in curiosity, but having no time to take anymore than that in, Tammy called out loudly, "Which ever one of you is Mr. Ibrahim, we have to tell you that there's something wrong with the Vic-Bots! They're stealing things and hurting kids, and if you don't do something…"

Her hurried explanation however was cut short when the two guards burst in just then. Wanda went around the side of the table in one direction as Tammy went the other. Tommy proceeded to jump up onto the table and ran down its center.

The guards shouted, the executives gasped as they tried to avoid getting in anyone's way, Tammy continued to try and yell her case above the insuring din, and Wanda just managed to escape the grasp of one security officer by ducking beneath the conference table. Tommy on top had decided to give his sister and godmother a hand by grabbing two pitchers of water from the center of the table and tossing the contents of them at the security officers. Several of the executives dived out of the way quickly and even more confusion was created when the people trying to escape the water ended up getting tangled with the security men.

Though it would have seemed to last for minutes for anyone truly involved in the fiasco, it was really only seconds since the whole thing began when from the head of the table a loud voice issued, "That's enough, all of you!"

It was not a particularly loud voice, but it was a commanding voice and those in the room who knew to whom it belonged did exactly as it ordered. They stopped. The three who did not know who had spoken took several seconds to realize that something was happening before ceasing their harried fleeing.

As Wanda peeked out from under the table, she quickly observed to which direction the other people were staring and turned to see a tall, casually clad, dark skinned man standing at the head of the table with his hands resting on the table surface before him. His eyes slowly took in the scene before he asked, "What, may I ask, is going on here?"

Instantly, the two guards and both twins began talking in a rush at the same time, neither set of people successful in getting anything clear above the other set.

The man at the end of the table gave an annoyed look before giving a dismissive wave of his hand causing all four to stop.

There was silence again a moment before one of the guards jumped in to speak.

"Mr. Ibrahim, we're really sorry about this. We saw these three wandering the hallway and when we tried to apprehend them, they came in here and…"

The man, now known as Mr. Ibrahim, gave another short gesture with his hand to cut the guard off before looking at Tammy. Tommy had jumped off the table to stand at her side and Wanda was just now getting out from under the table to join them.

He regarded them for a long moment and as he did, Wanda could not help but have the distinct feeling that she recognized him from someplace. Or that she should. There was something about the way he looked at them…as though he were studying them…analyzing them…trying to figure something about them out…

Just as Wanda realized that he was doing exactly as she was and trying to figure out where he knew them from, Mr. Ibrahim suddenly asked the twins, "Who are your parents?"

Wanda started at the rather pointed question. Their parents?

"Timothy and Dorothy Turner. I'm Tammy, and this is my brother Tommy."

He took the information in before suddenly grinning amusedly.

"Well, that certainly explains a lot already," said the man.

Mr. Ibrahim looked at the guards, "You two need to go change and get back to work."

"But sir, what about the kids?"

"They're with me. The rest of you, this meeting is over. We'll reschedule it for tomorrow. Rodgers, Brody, if you two have any more adjustments to make to your presentation I suggest you use this reprieve to get them done. I'll expect it tomorrow without being late."

The two men that Wanda and the kids had followed, gave relieved smiles as they both said, Thank you sir."

Mr. Ibrahim turned his attention back to the Wanda and the twins.

"As for you three, come with me."

Wanda wasn't going to question it. Mr. Ibrahim obviously knew something, especially after his comment that the knowledge of their parents "certainly explains a lot," so she followed him and the twins out a back door to the meeting room. The man said nothing as he led them down a narrow private hall and through another door that led into a huge well appointed office.

Bookcases lined the walls and in the few places where there were none, framed pictures, awards, articles, and magazine fronts with Mr. Ibrahim's face filled the spaces. Fortune 500, Time, The New Yorker, Scientific America, Forbes…the list of periodicals in which his face appeared was almost endless and most of them immeasurably prestigious.

Mr. Ibrahim walked behind his massive dark oak desk and plucked a small frame from off a shelf behind where his chair stood and as he turned back around he looked at the picture and smiled.

"I thought you two seemed a little on the familiar side."

"Sir?" asked Tommy curiously.

Mr. Ibrahim turned the picture around and set it on the desk for the kids to see. Wanda looked at it as well, then smiled to herself. So that was why this man seemed to look the kids over as if he knew them. It explained too why she thought he seemed to be someone she should know. Technically, she did.

There were three people in the picture. Three boys all ten years of age. Timmy, Chester McBadbat…and AJ Ibrahim. The once small dark skinned boy had grown though into a moderately well built, not to mention successful, fellow who apparently still preferred to sport the bald look.

"Except for the hair color exchange, you two are your parents right down to a tee. And I see Timmy's penchant for getting into trouble hasn't skipped a generation either."

"You know our Daddy?"

"Sure do. Your daddy, our buddy Chester and I used to hang together all the time as kids. Used to get into trouble a lot too back then."

AJ looked at Wanda then with a bothered look.

"You look a little familiar too, but I have to admit I can't quite place from where."

Wanda looked at him with a small smile as she quickly thought of an explanation.

"My parents were friends with Timmy too."

"Oh. Right. That's probably it. I must have seen your mother with Timmy once or twice. Maybe one of the years we went trick or treating with some other kids. Ah well. I suppose it doesn't matter now," said AJ as he turned and replaced the picture back on the shelf before sitting on one corner of his desk.

"But what does matter would be this little issue you three have with the Vic-Sit 2200. Care to explain to me what exactly is going on with them?"

Tammy and Tommy looked at Wanda and the fairy nodded. They were here, he was listening and now was no time for cold feet.

"Well, Mr. Ibrahim, to begin with, they've been stealing things from people's homes."

"Stealing?"

"Yes sir. We know it was them because we've…" Tammy glanced at Wanda. "…we've talked to some other kids who have had Vic-Bots, and they've found things stolen too."

"Yeah," added Tommy. "And after they take something, they hike out of there really quick. Right in the middle of their babysitting shift too."

AJ rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Hmmm. We'd heard that there was a problem with some of the 'Bots taking off and we sent the baby sitting services that reported the issue new reboot disks, but I haven't heard anything about them stealing. That's definitely cause for concern."

"So you believe us?"

AJ gave them a steady gaze.

"Are you giving me reason not too?"

"No sir."

The man smiled.

"Then I believe you. You two are Timmy's kids after all. He may have gotten us in some weird fixes when we were young, but he was never a liar and I doubt very much he'd raise his kids to be. Besides, I can't have anything like this staining the reputation of my company. I run a tight ship here and I won't let anything ruin it for me."

"We sort of gathered that," said Tommy.

AJ lifted a brow of curiosity at the boy.

"I SEE ALL?" responded Tommy suggestively.

The man laughed.

"Do you know that no one over the age of 15 has caught that yet? But honestly, it was an accident really. Happened when I bought out Laboratories Limited and incorporated them with Ibrahim Scientific Electronics Enterprises."

"Ah."

Wanda sighed as she watched Tammy give her brother an annoyed look for wasting time on useless explanations when they needed something that would help them.

"Mr. Ibrahim, you said your company sent reboot disks to those sitting services that reported problems. So, you're treating this as a programming error?" asked Wanda.

"Random programming glitch more like. When it happened with one of the first ones and it came back to the sitting service, I had my guys go over its hard drive with a fine tooth comb and everything was in place. We rebooted it and it seemed fine after that."

"But what if it wasn't a random programming glitch? What if someone meant for it to be there?"

"So you're saying that you believe someone programmed the 'Bots to do that."

"Yes."

AJ shook his head.

"We incase those hard drives and restrict access to its mainframe. Only repair services that my company authorizes are allowed to open them up and even that's only after we've given them the go ahead. That and the programming is so complex and intricate that it would take either a genius or super computer to reprogram it."

Wanda's eyebrow went up as she remembered Vicky saying how she had had some modifications made to her Vic-Bot's programming.

"Do you have them specially programmed for some of the sitting services?" she asked with a meaningful look at the twins.

"We can, but if any adjustments are made, they're only very minor. We do have to comply with the World Health Organization's agreed standards for basic child care after all. Of course we do exceed those basics as the American population would never have used them if they weren't quite a bit above the basic standards."

The twins smiled back at Wanda and she understood completely why if not even more so. Poor AJ was going to have a fit when he found out that someone outside his organization had managed to change a few of those base care command functions. It would be even worse when he found out who that someone was. Wanda very much remembered that AJ, even as intelligent as he was, had been just as under the dread and fear of 'Icky Vicky' as any other.

'So much for 'Seeing All',' she smirked.

"You may want to double check some of those Vic-Bots then sir," said Tommy with a grin.

"What?"

"Well, its just that we found one that didn't like kids very much," added Tammy.

AJ looked at the twins wordlessly in surprise.

"Mr. Ibrahim, what if it was done on the inside then?" asked Wanda before the man had time to recover from his surprise.

"Are you suggesting that someone in my staff would have intentionally programmed the Vic-Bots to steal or be a threat to kids and that we wouldn't catch it?"

"Why not? And if he was on the same team that went over the one you checked out, it would have been easy for that person to over look it," said Tommy

AJ gave a perturbed grimace.

"I have to say that I do find that hard to believe. I hire only the best programmers in the world. My standards for employment are so high, less than one percent of computer programmers in the world could get a job here."

Wanda gave the man a grim look, understanding he was implying that a job with his company gave an employee a once in a lifetime opportunity that would not be betrayed. He truly believed that.

And it made what she said next all the harder.

"Perhaps, but even the best may have a price Mr. Ibrahim."

Oh. And for anybody who caught my little fun with names (and that would actually care) I do not own Fred Rodgers or Marcus Brody, the characters that they may imply, or the shows from which their names may be found. Those of course, being Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood and the Indiana Jones Trilogy. ; ) Hmm. Fun with numbers last chapter and now fun with names. It seems I get weirder by the chapter, eh? Lol.

Wanda Wish - Thank you for not thinking me pathetic. And as above has already mentioned, if you guessed AJ, then you were obviously correct. Oh yes. Vicky is still the mean nasty child hating person she's always been. I don't think that could ever change! And don't worry. We're getting there. To the ending that is.

Aerinsoul - Hmm. Does icky Vicky like her niece and nephew? I think maybe she stuck the little picture on the wall either as a dart board (refining her aim as I'm sure throwing darts at Timmy's bigger picture for so long has given her a fair accuracy) or maybe it's a 'token' gesture in case someone from the family happens by (like Timmy just did previously ; ). Of course you may enjoy speculating to your hearts content, lol. And maybe Vicky was having flashbacks back to that time with pink eyes running amuck. They did after all catch her attention, right? Heh, I laughed at the fitness fan club bit too as I hate exercising with that as the intended purpose. I'll run with my dogs, play a little touch football (being the tomboy I am) or go swimming when its hot…but don't dare tell me its exercise. All motion ceases instantly. Lol. Could you just imagine the FOP writers using this for a movie? Oh, contract negotiations would be brutal. "In exchange for all rights to FOP:TNG, the writers of FOP must return to the scripting style and morality of the first 3 and a half seasons for the remainder of the shows runtime." Heck! I'd give it to them for free if they would write a contract to guarantee that they go back to the old style stories or risk being sued for several million dollars. Anyway, glad you're enjoying the detail. It makes my obsessing over it all worth while! Pixies now? I think you may have finally found a threat I can't find any positive for! Except that I do kinda' like things quiet being the loner type by nature and all.

Commander - I hope you mean red licorice 'cause I'm not a big fan of the black stuff. Honestly, it makes me gag just thinking about it. Lol. Yeah, I get a little nervous too about some of what 'could' become computerized in the future. The Terminator movies have really done me in on it. Especially since they use Aug. 29th as the date the machines bomb the world. Happens to be my birthday don't ya' know. I actually went to see one of them (I think it was 2) when it was out on my birthday, and when she said the date, I cringed down in my sit like "Aw poopy." I still shiver over that. As for Tammy…she was just tired of the repetition. She's the kind who likes to get things done, and when the robot just runs her in circles with its replies, well, she wasn't too thrilled. Thank goodness her younger bro was there to give them another option, eh?

Band Geek - Yay! C&W pics! Send them! Please send them! Okay. So I might have sounded a little too needy just then. But gosh darn it! When its Cosmo and Wanda, I just can't help it! Lol. Glad you liked my take on the 'Vic-Bot' term. That actually was one of the first detail bits that came to me when I was writing up my outline for the story. The phone number bit came shortly after that. Lol. And I didn't know that Mirage's phone number spell "superhero." That is just so cool! And you don't have to be modest about knowing a detail like that. It just goes to show the creators of the movie that people really are paying attention. Personally, I would find it very flattering. I loved the Incredibles too. Not enough for fanfic work, but its still a cool movie none-the-less.

Invder Lava - Lol. Glad you liked the last chapter. And I might not go so far as to say Vicky has a heart. I think she just understood the position she was in with the kids. She knows who their dad is and she may have been concerned that he, of all people, might actually listen to what the kids would have to say about her robots since I'm sure she considers that he would remember how well she tortured him as a kid. And now that he's a cop…well…there's a bit more to think about these days. Hope your homework was easy!

Amras Felagund - Oh I agree. Tammy looked pretty darn cute with Trixie's eyes. If she gets contacts, she'll have the guys swooning! As a father, poor Timmy might have a little trouble with that. ;) As for the reworking of the Tootie vs. Trixie thing…I have a few ideas tumbling about in my head. I just have to decide which one best suits the story so its as believable as most everything else has been so far. And as you can see, you were correct about AJ too.

Kraven the Hunter - "I noticed that eerie message hidden in the company's name before Tommy even brought it up. It casts a foreboding warning as to the extent of the CEO's security systems." Very good thinking. Next chapter gets into that very thing a little bit! Like I said above…I'm not sure I'd label Vicky as being 'nice' even after what she did. She just knows the score here and sees the even footing they're on with her. Though of course the balance could always shift. ;) Ohhhh…good word! 'Haberdasher'…that's one you don't hear everyday. At least not where I'm at, lol. Yeah, plants that bite could be a real problem if people aren't careful. I'm still not sure what prompted that rare bit of randomness from me.

HeyyBabyy -"Seems promising!" Just in case you kept reading and didn't have time to review again, ;) , I'll say 'Thank you' for that. I hope you're enjoying the rest of this as much as I'm enjoying writing it.

Mysterygirl256 - And welcome to you too Mysterygirl256! I'm glad you enjoyed chapter 2 so much. I hope the rest of the story has met with your approval as well!

And I used 'AJ' rather than 'A.J.' folks simply for ease in typing. Honestly, those darn old periods would drive me nuts with all the times I used them already. And as for 'Dorothy Turner'…it's the only name I've ever seen generally given the nickname 'Tootie,' so I went with that. If anyone has a correction for me that I may have missed in the show, I'm all ears. Okay…eyes. It is the internet after all. Lol.

Trixie21