Author Notes:
Hey all you people. Hey all you people. Hey all you people won't you listen to meeeeee! This is a edited version of the real life episode 'Low Budget'. I think we all knew where this is going so I'll make it short and quick.
...
..
Enjoy the chapter!
Delayeddddddd... By approximately. 10 days. Gee I've been very slack recently.
One quick thing. If no one got the previous chapter's name meaning, is was the opposite of Down Hill, which is Up Plain. Get it? Huh? Huh? 8)
Reviews Q,R & A:
R:
A:
None in the past month... Slow reading day.
McGee Gale Hasland - Eric Andre (The Eric Andre Show as Himself/Host/Presenter/Bird Up. Disenchantment as Luci) - OC Character
Disclaimer: I don't own Kim Possible or any other relevant stuff. KP is the property of the Walt Disney Company. My OC Characters are owned by me.
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On a pier on a cold dark night, outside a big warehouse with a guard keeping watch outside it's front entrance.
He was minding his own business, that was until something hit his neck. A dart of some sort, pricking his skin.
"Ow! Who was that- 'THUD'"
The guard falls unconscious, as man appears out of nowhere which is revealed to be wearing a full black suit.
He puts two fingers towards his ear, "The guard is done, begin phase two of 'Operation Man at the Tee.'"
"Paul we didn't agree to Operation names." A female answers on the other end of the earbud.
"Well I think it has a nice ring to it. Proceeding in the front." Paul goes through the front quietly, popping his head through the front door and sees the coast is clear, he hides behind a crate. He sees a few guys moving some boxes around.
"Come on boys, the buyers for the manatees are coming in 20, I want no screwing around."
"Relax boss. Everything is A OK."
"Usually when someone says that, everything goes wrong."
"Shut it Al!" The guy slaps his bald forehead.
"We got 4 bogeys inside, 1 of them is a heavy hitter. Proceed with caution." Paul says over his airpod.
"10-4." Kim says. With Kim she was with two other guys as they prepared to ransack this place and save those manatees.
"Ready guys?" Kim says.
"Born ready Miss Possible." One of the guys says.
"Now let's save those manatees." Kim says as she leads them to the back of the warehouse.
Paul was keeping an eye out at the front of the warehouse, peaking over the crate every few seconds.
When everyone had their guard down, the teen saw the opportunity.
"On my signal." Paul says over his airpod.
The other three were patiently waiting for the teen's signal.
He closed his eyes ready to jump out and take down the bad guys. Reopening them he prepares to jump out behind the crate.
"Freeze!" Paul exclaims. The bad guys directed their short attention spans to the teen.
The bad guys panic seeing an intruder in their warehouse, they had another surprise awaiting right behind them.
"Freeze!" The group says.
There it is!
The baddies look behind them, realising that they're surrounded and they attempt to make a run for it.
"Might as well just say run." Paul says.
The baddies try and defend against the group.
"Stop them! We gotta hold them off for another 17 minutes." The bad guy says.
A few spot fires begin, as the group try and take down the criminals.
Kim uses her hands, instead of her leg to kick them. He hey! She ain't using her crutches no more!
The other two guys use their soft clubs to beat the bad guys up.
"Hey... That's kinda ticklish. And soft too." The bad guy says, as he gets another round of soft clubs at his head.
Paul continues to beat up one of the bad guys up. It appeared to be the leader of the group.
"Give back those manatees!" Paul says grabbing the baddies collar.
"Never! We stole them from Sea World fair and square!" The menace says.
"They were days from returning to the ocean!" Paul says as he punches the guy and Paul releases his collar as he dust off he's hands.
"Clear!" Paul says.
"Clear!" Kim says.
"Clear!"
"Glass." One guys points at the glass containers the manatees were being held captive.
They looked afraid, but the guy rubs his check against the glass. Pressing his mouth against it.
"It's okay guys. We're here to set you free." One guy says.
The manatees swam around in joy as they were about to be freed from their small confined water tanks.
"Let's get them to the boat." The same guy says to the group.
The teens were loading the manatees onto Jerry's speedboat using glass tanks and were transporting them with a forklift, the guy who requested Kim's assistance to rescue the Manatees.
Kim and Paul were taking care of the smaller manatees. The much much smaller ones, as they weren't as heavy as the other ones. They place down the glass container onto the boat carefully.
"Ahh It's so good to be back on missions." Kim says with delight.
"The doctor said you have to be careful though." Paul says.
"I know I know. But it's so hard not to use my leg to kick someone's butt." Kim admits.
Ah yes. The doctor has fully granted Kim to remove her moonboot and not use the crutches anymore, but strong advised her to avoid any cheerleading activities for at least another week.
"We all got our weaknesses." Paul says.
"Right that's the last one. Thanks for the help Kim. I really appreciate that rescue mission with the manatees back there." The guy says as he jumps into the boat.
"No big Jerry. We still on to help me with my marine biology homework?"
"You know it."
"Jerry you think you can write me a letter declaring I assisted recusing these manatees in this salvage operation?" Paul asks.
"Sure, but why do you need such a thing?" Jerry asks about Paul's weird request.
"Just for safe keeping." Paul says. PETA could just be around the corner for the teen, he needed as many witnesses that he can get to show that he cares about animals. He's just very unlucky that the baddies love to use some sort of animal to attack Team Possible.
Jerry starts his motorboat as he had to be careful not to shatter the glass tanks holding the manatees, gently breezing away from the pier.
Getting further away towards the coast, they were gaining speed slowly.
"We're almost to open sea big guys." Kim says to the manatees.
"Uh. We have company behind us." One of the guys on the boat pointed out.
Two speedboats were behind Jerry's boat. They were using spotlights to find them easily, being night time of course.
"It's always the hard way with these guys." Paul says.
"What do you mean by 'guys?'" Kim says.
"Ah come on Kim. Don't give me stick, you know exactly what I mean by that." Paul says, while Kim gave a cheeky grin. Loving to stir the pot with the male teen. "Can we wave them off?" Paul asks Jerry.
"I'll do my best. But I can't move too much around, or those glass tanks will shatter." Jerry says as he gains speed.
In doing so, the speedboats behind them also gain speed to. As they were closing down on them.
"Damn it. They are neck with us!" Paul says. One of the speedboats goes beside them, it was a very narrow gap between them.
One guy on the boat holds a knife in his hand and attempts to jump onto Jerry's boat, but fails miserably falling into the water at a high speed.
The teens witness the whole thing and they were bamboozled by the extreme stunt.
"Now why would that guy be stupid enough to do that?" Paul says
"Just another guy who thinks they're invincible." Kim adds.
The boat doesn't stop for it's lost passenger, the same leader from before just adding a few bruises to his face, held out a megaphone.
"Surrender now, or will be forced to use- Uh Force!" The leader says.
"What?" Jerry said, as they couldn't hear them, they had loud engines, speeding in the water and it was windy.
"Damn the doppler effect!" The leader says to himself.
"Wrong scientific action." Al says.
"Shut up Al!" The leader hits Al with the megaphone.
"Prepare to board their boat!" The leader points.
"Didn't you see Ralph jump overboard?"
"Because, Ralph's a wannabee stuntman. Now get back those Manatees! Or the buyers are gonna be pissed."
Their speedboat and their second one speedboat gets beside Jerry's speedboat.
"On 3." The leader says "5"
One guy from each individual speedboat prepare themselves.
"4"
They were ready to jump onto the moving speedboat. Just like Ralph miserably attempted to do, moments ago.
"Brake!" Jerry yells as he powers off his boat, the two speedboats go past them at speed.
"Fuck! Turn around. Now!" The leader says.
Both speedboats turn left and right retrospectively, when they start to turn around both speedboats were about to crash into each other.
"TURN THE OTHER WAY!" The leader yells out.
Both boats narrowly avoid hitting each other, as one of them was about to crash into a buoy, everyone jumped off before the boat crashed into the buoy causing an explosion.
The leader watches on as he now only had one crew out in the water.
"God damn it!" The leader yells out, "Now I'm mad."
The speedboat quickly gains up to Jerry again.
"Andddd there back again." Paul says.
"One less boat to worry about. Hang on guys. This is going to get bumpy!" Jerry says.
They now approached rougher waters, which had more waves. The passengers were starting to get unsettled with the bumpy ride. Kim turns towards the glass tanks holding the manatees, she notices minor cracks starting to form on the tanks.
"Uh Jerry. Sorry to burst your bubble, but the tanks look like they're going to shatter. Paul, give me some duct tape! Please and thank you." Kim asks her partner.
Paul shows the duct tape and pulls some apart.
'KRRP'
Kim carefully applies it around the cracks on the glass tank.
She wraps it around with duct tape, her eyes look to the speedboat behind them. She appeared to be shocked by this.
"Harpoon!" Kim taps Paul as she gestures to the other boat.
The speedboat aims a harpoon hook at Jerry's boat.
"FIRE IN THE HOLEEEEEEE!" One guy yelled.
'BOOOOOOM!'
The harpoon hits the back of Jerry's speedboat, making a hole at the back of it, as Kim narrowly avoids get pierced by it, as she was sitting at the very end of the speedboat. The large and long rope was attached to the base of the crooks speedboat, now following Jerry's every move.
"Ah come on! I just finished off it's last installed payment!" Jerry complains. He had a right to be mad. Imaging slowly paying off something just to get ruined.
Little did she know, that a small thread of her pants got caught in the harpoons hook.
"Yes! Now we can't possibly lose them." The leader says.
"Not unless we do that Back to the Future shit." Al says.
"Al, can't you just zip your trap?"
Jerry thought he can try and escape their grasps, but they harpoon and it's attached rope were keeping the baddies at an arms length.
While this happened, lots of treads from Kim's pants starting to come undone due to the movement of the boat. She started to think that they weren't going anywhere anytime soon, so she gets up from her seat to help Jerry out.
"Kim what you doing?" Paul says as she got up.
"Getting rid of the heavy load." Kim says as she jumps near the edge of the boat, and pulls out her lipstick.
"Ha! What's this girl doing? Putting on her lipstick." The leader mocks.
Kim opens it up and a mini flamethrower goes off as she gives off a smug smile and a wiggle of the eyebrows.
"Oh shit!" The leader exclaims.
She places it over the rope and very quickly it starts to burn. The boat behind stares motionless at here.
"Make her fall!" The leader points at Kim
"But she's just a girl!"
"I said make her fall. Now!" The leader demands.
The driver was reluctant, but he still complied to the order. He began to rock the speedboat side to side. This made Kim move around and she fell off the boat, but grabbed onto the now thin rope, she dropped her lipstick in the ocean, Paul was watching all of this.
"Kim! Hang on!" Paul shouts
"Duh!" Kim shouts back.
In hearing that Paul pulled out his notepad. "Get Wade to build a new lipstick flamethrower." Paul repeats as he writes down in his notepad.
Kim was hanging onto the rope for dear life, as it shook violently. She was getting splashes of water on her from the ocean.
Slowly slowly, her threads were coming off, decreasing her pants length by the second and no one on Jerry's boat noticed as they were focusing in front of them. While the boat behind...
"(Wolf Whistle) Look at them girls legs!" One of the henchman said.
"Perverts." Kim mutters oblivious to the fact the her pants were slowly coming off thread by thread.
"Dude! She's underaged."
"What? No she's not!"
"Yes she is. You wanna go to jail?"
"she isn't underage!"
"Yes she is!"
"No she isn't"
"Yes she is!"
"No she isn't"
"Yes she-"
"ENOUGH! The manatees are our goal!" The leader interrupts angrily.
"You said the word 'Are' twice. How can that make any sense?" Al said. As from this point, you can tell Al isn't the brightest man.
More determined than ever to not lose the sight of the manatees, they were trying to throw Kim off the rope. But the more they move around, the thinner the rope becomes as Kim attempted to cut off their harpoon connecting to Jerry's boat.
Kim realising the rope was a few seconds away from breaking, she slowly pulls herself back to the boat. The wind and water hitting her face made it more challenging. Her body was starting to get colder and her pants were starting to become nothing.
No one could help her, as Paul had his weight against his seat, due to the speed of the boat. Like he was on an airplane with really bad turbulence. Praying that they don't crash.
The teenage girl looked up and saw a few buoys coming towards them. Jerry saw them too and had a plan.
"Buckle up guys! I'm going to lose them for good this time." Jerry says as he maxes out the speedboat, not giving a worry in the world about the glass tanks shattering.
"WHAT DID HE SAY?" Jerry's pal said to Paul, as the teen had other things to worry about.
Kim was almost to the back of the boat. As she climbs back up to her seat, her pants almost gone. But still! No one noticed on Jerry's boat!
"(Loud wind noise) HEY KIM! WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?" Paul says loudly as he was lying back in his seat as the wind was preventing him from sitting up straight.
"I WAS TRYING TO BURN THE ROPE, THEN I ALMOST FELL AND HELD ONTO THE ROPE FOR DEAR LIFE!"
"SOUNDS GOOD!"
"DID YOU EVEN HEAR WHAT I SAID?"
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"
"GOOD!" Kim replies barley hearing a word.
"HUH!" Paul says as the wind wasn't helping the conversation.
Now, going inside and out of the buoys, and extremely dangerous moves in the rough waters was crazy enough
Both boats could easily collide into the buoys.
Unfortunately the villains boat crashed hard into a wave, causing all the men in the enemy boat to lose their seat, including the driver.
Al was the first one to get up and help up his binoculars to his eyes.
"Hey boss, we're heading towards that small lighthouse."
"Give me that!" The leader get ups and snatches the binoculars off Al
He looks through them as they were heading straight towards an unusually large buoy. He lowers the googles.
"You know Al, you can be a real dumb mother-"
'BANNNNGGGGG!'
Their speedboat had hit the buoy at some speed.
Jerry slows down his boat to take a look at the crash.
"WOAH! Gee. That's a nasty collision... You think they made it?" Jerry says concerned about their unfortunate demise.
"I hope so." Paul says...
From the distance you can see a few heads floating in the water.
"Oh yep, I can see them in the water." Paul states.
The baddies from the boat were swimming in the water or other holding onto debris of the boat to stay a float. Majority were pissed to be soaked.
As for Al, he starts giggling and splashing water on the faces of his peers.
"Hey, Al is splashing water at me!" One of the henchman said.
The leader spits out some water and a fish came out. "Look, nobody like's a wining bitch, okay? Just splash him back." The leader says angrily.
Back on Jerry's speedboat they had defeated the second wave of attacks, they were glad to get away from them. Finally!
"Phew! That was a close shave." Paul wipes his brow.
"Why do I feel cold from the waist down?" Kim says.
"Gee Kim, What do you-...Uh Kim... Don't panic... But you're pants are kinda.."
Kim looked down straight away and noticed her pants were missing! She noticed the thread near the waist was attached to the harpoon. She shrieked in embarrassment.
"EKKK! Don't look at me!" Kim tries to cover her pasty legs.
"I'm not!" Paul instantly covers his eyes.
"Oh that ain't pretty." Jerry says as he looks at the teen.
"I said don't look!" Kim says.
"Ahh! Adolescents." Jerry says closing his eyes.
"Wait. Who the fuck is driving the boat?" Paul says.
"Me." Jerry says.
"With your eyes closed?" Paul says opening his eyes looking at the captain of the vessel.
"Yeah? You're po- Wait! Oh shit!" Jerry immediately reopened his eyes after realising he had been driving blind for a few hundred meters.
Everyone on the boat panicked.
Jerry tries to gain control of the boat, he saw a buoy right in front of him.
"BOUY!" Paul shouts.
He turns sharply as he just slightly scraps his speedboat against the buoy. He avoided a major disaster.
"Gee we nearly hit that buoy. Sorry about that kids." Jerry apologies as he slows down the boat.
"I can't believe my Club Banana pants are gone! Those were brand new!" Kim says more worried her pants ripped off.
"Don't worry Kim, I've got a spare pair of pants for you." Paul says as he digs inside his backpack.
"They might be baggy but they'll do the trick." Paul gives them to her. She tries them on. "Well?"
Kim wasn't really satisfied with the pants.
"Gee... Thanks Paul... I don't know what to say-"
"You don't like them, do you?"
"Was it that noticeably?"
"100%"
"Well that's out of the bag. Jerry, you think you can stop by a mall or something when you drop us off?"
"Sure. But it's kinda late, but we know a place that's open for all your needs."
"Club Banana?" Kim says.
"No clue what that is, but it's even better than Club Bandana... Smarty Mart." Jerry says empathising the words 'Smarty Mart.'
"Smarty Mart? Uh not to be a snob about it but, I prefer to wait until we get home." Kim admits.
This gave Paul an odd look. He actually liked Smarty Mart.
"Your loss kid." Jerry says.
Kim leaned against the boat disappointed that her new Club Banana pants were ruined. She had to wait until she got back home for a replacement pair.
After a long drag getting back to Middleton. Kim was hiding in between a bush inside the Middleton Mall.
"Pst! Paul Is the coast clear?" She whispers poking her head towards the teen.
"Kim I think you're being ridiculous." Paul says leaning against the wall.
"These aren't even unisex pants."
"I think you're overacting. Like someone is going to check the pants label and see it's for men only."
"Girls can spot the difference from a mile away." Kim argues back.
"And guys can't? Come on Kim. Stop being over zealous!" Paul drags Kim out of the bush.
"Hey, let go!" Kim tries to go back into the bush.
"There you go. See? Nothing to worry about. Plus, who plants a bush inside a shopping centre? " Paul says as Kim was now in the open.
"Great, now someone's going to see me in these... these... these."
"Go on Kim say it. These pants probably cost more than your original pants that got ripped."
"Oh yeah? $80 dollar is pretty steep for a pair of pants."
"Care to try $600 dollars?" Paul says.
"You paid $600 dollars for these!" Kim says shocked that Paul spent so much on one pair of pants!
Kim would have easily bought an outfit or two for that amount of money.
"You know how many pairs of shoes that is?"
"...Are we talking about standard, good or excellent quality shoes."
"Standard."
"6-8 pairs. It's my Crypto stash, I can spend it on clothes if I choose to. But I got to be careful about growing out of them." Paul says.
Kim spots someone on the corner of her eye. It was Bonnie from a far distance and begins to worry. She was ready to prepare her coming over towards her and giving her a mocking comment about these pants.
But to Kim's amazement.
Bonnie just waved back and went on her way, it was more of a nervous wave then anything else, but the teens were more flabbergast by her waving. Kim was expecting a snarky remark about the pants, but she didn't even come near her.
"That's... Weird? Bonnie had the chance to make fun of my pants and she just... waved?"
"That's a new one." Paul said.
Suddenly behind them, the screens at the Victoria Circuits place went to static.
"Greetings everyone. It is I! Frugal Lucre!"
"Who said what now?" Paul turns his head in confusion.
"Pay attention for the next few minutes as I explain. Now... As you may notice, I haven't got an expensive laser, pricy robot army, big henchman or an evil liar, par from the fact using a basement. But I have something that those big-budget bad guys lack."
"Successfully finishing off an evil plan?" Paul says.
"That's right. Computer skills! Synchronise your watches, because in exactly 72 hours, I. The great Frugal Lucre will destroyed your beloved Internet you all trust so much... And then see if you can do online shopping now! MWAHHAHAHA!"
Ron's Residence in London, UK
Ron who was in London watching TV was watching the broadcast eating potato chips with Rufus. He was watching a man laughing on the screen, the same thing Paul and Kim were watching right now.
"Wow, this movie is amazing! It feels so real! He's got the audience attention! The evil laugh is on point! And he has a cool stache too!" Ron says as he puts a mouth full of chips.
Rufus slaps his head, realising Ron's obliviousness to understand what's actually happening.
"However, this can be prevented if my ransom is paid." He does a Dr Evil impression with his pinkie, "Everyone in the world must pay me... One dollar each. Or the equivalent at the current rate of exchange, I don't know. But to prove I mean business-"
"Francis! You're toaster tasties are getting cold."
"Not now Ma!"
"Okay sweetheart. They're sitting on the kitchen benchtop when you want them. Love you."
"... Love you too Ma." He says unwillingly as he was on camera. Didn't want to embarrass himself. "Now! To prove I mean business, I've sent you all a text message.. It might enlighten you. Enjoy the last few days of the web! (Maniacal Laughs) (Laughs so hard he falls backwards on his chair and continues to laugh)
The transmission cuts and static shows up on the screen. But this time it didn't continue its original broadcast.
"Kim... You don't think?" Paul says.
"Oh come one Paul. This guy is a nobody. He seriously can't wipe out the entire internet." Kim says.
"Yeah. You're right. It's difficult to do, unless you drive the Earth into the sun." Paul points out.
"Exactly. A bit drastic though."
"And it's pretty hard to have access to all the TVs in the area." Paul says sarcastically.
"It is?"
"Kim, I was joking. If this guy can gain access to these random screens here in the mall, who knows what he can do?"
'Beep-Beep, De-Deep'
Kim quickly takes out her Kimmunciator device from her pocket. "You're.. being serious though?" Kim asks Paul before picking up the call.
"Yes!" Paul says.
"Wade tell me everything is alright." Kim says slowly getting worried at Paul's theory.
"Wade? No KP. It's me.. Ron. Hey check this out. I'm watching some British Television and this cool movie came on about this guy who want's to destroy the internet, unless everyone pays him 1 dollar. Now it's showing static!"
Paul stares at Kim. If they saw it, Ron saw it from the UK. Everyone around the world saw it.
"Um Ron-"
"Kim. Let him have his moment. Ron buddy, hi. That was a villain trying to finesse the whole world with his computer skills."
"(Gasp) You saw it too? Did you check out his beard? A-and the stache!? Wicked right?"
"Certainly wicked Ron. But listen. Don't pay a cent to this guy. Find something else to watch."
"Like what?"
"I don't know. A DVD, Netflix. Be creative."
"Okay. Creative I can do. Later guys."
Kim hangs up.
"This guy isn't fucking around. It might seem a bit unprofessional, but it's certainly got our attention." Paul says
'DA DING'
'DA DING'
Both teens get a text message almost at the same time.
"Huh? I got this weird message." Kim says.
"Me too."
'DA DING'
'DA DING'
'DA DING'
'DA DING'
'DA DING'
'DA DING'
'DA DING'
'DA DING'
'DA DING'
'DA DING'
'DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DING'
All around the Middleton Mall, everyone's phones went off almost at the same time. They pulled out their phones to check that out, as Kim and Paul looks around now, and both know this guy ain't screwing around.
"Holy fuck, he wasn't joking. Try and call Wade Kim. Now!"
"I'm calling! I'm calling!" Kim says.
Kim tries to contact him. But the call was declining.
"Damn it! He's not answering." Kim says.
"Let me try." Paul says.
Paul tries on his end. At to no avail, Wade wasn't picking up.
"Nothing. It's like he's gone total AWOL."
"Guys!" Monique comes running towards the teens, as she holds her phone in the palm of her hands.
"Monique, what's wrong?" Paul asks.
"The whole Club Banana system just crashed."
"(Gasps) Not Club Banana! In my hour of need!" Kim shouts out in disbelief. Where will she go shopping now!
"The cash registers are down?" Paul says.
"Yes!" Monique says.
After a very short walk back to Club Banana. Monique was on the phone, Kim was leaning on the counter with both arms folded with a glum look on her face as Paul was on his phone trying to get a hold of Wade.
"I can't believe the whole store's system is down. How am I going to get my pants now! And that cute jacket I've had my eye on for weeks!" Kim says complaining.
"Write a cheque, but make sure it doesn't bounce." Paul says. "Or they usually have a form that you fill out and leave your debit or credit card details." Paul says with the phone to his ear.
"Maybe if I try the pants on now or saving it a layby, I will buy it afterwards." Kim had an idea. She was more seriously concerned about the pants that the other problem at stake.
"Kim I think we have bigger problems then a freaking pair of pants. Just wear mine."
"Oh yeah, the non unisex pants." Kim says. Paul was a bit agitated by her stubbornness and ungratefulness. She should be happy to even be wearing pants right now.
"Thanks Julia." Monique says over the store phone before hanging up.
"Well what happened?" Paul asks.
"Upperton Club Banana system is down as well."
"So it's our worst fears?" Kim says fearing the worse for her beloved shop.
"I'm afraid so Kim. No online system, means no more sales!"
"Oh great so we can't buy clothes. Now can we investigate El Beardo and his scheme to take down the web?" Paul says walking near the exit.
"Gee what's up with him today?" Monique asks.
"I don't know to be honest." Kim says, missing the fact he wasn't happy at Kim not accepting his back up pants.
"Kim, we should go to Wade's house and see him directly. I'm starting to see people ready for the purge." Paul points out.
"Woo hoo! It's looting time." A man throws a garbage bin at the front store window, but it bounces back hitting him square in the face, falling to the marble floor. Failing to even crack the window front.
"Gnarly dude. I think I lost some teeth." The guy says in pain on the floor, as a tooth fell out of his gums.
"See what I mean? Later Monique." Paul says.
"(Sighs) Alright. Looks like those pants have to wait, Later Mon." Kim says before running out the store.
"Take me with you!" Monique says begging.
Almost 40 minutes later and 357 Attempted phone calls of trying to contact Wade, the teens were almost at his house to find some answers.
"Still not answering. I hope he's okay." Kim says.
"I wouldn't be okay, if there were 5 cars parked outside my house." Paul points out.
Kim and Paul arrived at Wade's house who had about 5 cars parked at the front, 3 of them were vans. This made the teens raise their eyebrows in suspicion. Upon going through Wade's house and into his room, they spot almost a dozen people working on his hardware.
"Is Wade moving?" Kim says.
"Guys!" Wade walks to the teens.
"Wade, what is all this? We've been trying to contact you for more than an hour! What happened?" Kim asks.
"Frugal Lucre. The guy managed to send the mother of all viruses onto my system and froze me out."
"Damn. He did all of this?" Paul said looking.
"Unfortunately. And my mum just got rid of her landline... A-and both of them aren't here."
"Gee Sorry Wade. We thought something happened to you." Kim says.
"Aww, you two do care about me." Wade says warmly.
"Okay team, we got debug all these circuits. I hoped everything's backed up kid."
"Of course. Here on my servers." Wade taps on his cooling server.
"So... What's the sitch with all of this?" Kim asks.
"Ha! That rhymed. Anyway, I called these tech guys to give me a hand. Frugal sent a real nasty virus. Plus it's a good opportunity to upgrade my hardware and firewalls. Paul, permission to pay for all these services?" Wade says.
"Yep. But are all these guys necessary?"
"Well it could take a week to fix everything. Plus Frugal did say we 72 hours to pay him. (Checks Watch) 70 Hours and 57 Minutes to be exact."
"So he wasn't fibbing?" Kim asks.
"It's real as real can be. But we can stop him."
"How?" Kim asks.
Wade hands them a piece of paper. "I traced his IP Address before he shut me out. I couldn't get the whole thing, but the first few numbers links to a major company here in the US. Lucky for us, he wasn't clean enough to trace he's own footsteps."
"Which company is it?" Kim asks.
...
..
.
"Smarty Mart."
"...Oh brother." Kim says.
"Yeah... Really hard to find. They have millions of employees across the state. Finding him will take some time. Plus with my system out, I can't really assist you."
"Well what if we bought you a laptop."
"Yeahhh... That would be good... Butttt.. (Tsk) I prefer my own PC. Plus I need everything-"
"Okay Wade. I understand your sentimental about your computer." Kim says.
"Well. I could use it. It's just that everything is on my drive. Which has every program I installed."
"So I'm guessing. We're on are own for the next few days?" Paul says.
"You got half an IP Address. Plus Paul's pretty tech savvy." Wade points out.
"Hey boss. Were do you want these two new cooling towers." A guy has two large boxes.
"Right over there." Both teens stare at him, "What? Gotta go all out." Wade smiles sheepishly at the teens as they continue to stare at him.
The Next Day
With Wade MIA for the next few days. The duo had to found out who was Frugal Lucre, by themselves. They didn't have much sleep the night before and it was really chipping into their school time. Thankfully Lunch time arrived.
"Dear diary. Day 2 of not working at Club Banana, my vital organs aren't failing, I haven't touched a cash register in 27 hours. I'm 9 hours behind on pay, which is equivalent to 112 dollars and 75 cents. DERH! Aww... This is a nightmare!" Monique says with a rugged look on her face, as she chucks her book on the side.
"Thing's could be worse Monique. We could permanently lose Snapchat and Instagram." Paul says keeping his eyes on his laptop.
Since Wade's system was down, Kim and Paul had to do all the research themselves. All of his programs were on his system and would take some time to find and download from a laptop. Call it slack and lazy, but he's helped them out soo much in recent times. At least it tests out their own skills for the time being.
They were trying to find out which store Frugal Lucre works at. They tried calling Smarty Marts across the state of Colorado, but gave up after 100 phone calls, wasting their time and seemed pretty pointless.
"Kim this is pointless. There's more than 3000 stores located across America. Plus what if he was from overseas? He could have been using a VPN."
"Well he did have an American accent, so that rules out other countries."
"Still we've got a timeline of... 45 hours and 54 minutes to go." Paul says.
"You do realise how hard it is to destroy the existence of the internet?" Josh speaks up at the table.
"Y2K nearly made it happen." Paul states.
"Yeah, but that was all hype going into the new millennium. Plus they were prepared for all of that debugging every computer and electronic device."
"Homer Simpson wasn't prepared and plunged the whole word into 1900." Paul mentions.
"But that's a cartoon." Josh says.
...
"You don't think I know that Josh?" Paul says.
"Just saying."
"Hey kids." Mr Barkin says. It was out of the ordinary for the man to come up to them.
"Mr Barkin? Is there something wrong?" Paul asks.
"No not really. It's just that I won't be covering your Physics class afterwards. Eyestein finished his Eye strain doctors appointment earlier than excepted. He'll be wearing an eye patch, but he's fit enough to teach the class. I've got somewhere important to go to after lunch time."
"Alright, thanks for telling us sir. Did you tell the other students?" Paul says.
"No. Only you guys know." Barkin says.
"Why us only?" Kim says.
"Well because you guys all seem pretty close. Plus... and... Plus and Minus is a minus. That's the maths equation they use in maths." Barkin was about to say something about the group, but didn't want to show any favouritism towards them. The teens all gave a look to each other.
"Well we appreciate the heads up. Where you heading off to sir?" Kim asks.
"I've got my second job to go to. They need me double shifts there. Something about an system crash at the stores registers."
"Second Job? Oh you mean Smarty Mart?" Paul says a bit loud.
Barkin eyes widen at this.
"Shhhh! Keep it down cadet. I can't believe you actually remember where my second job is." Barkin says lowering his hands to keep the conversation down.
"Well of course I remember. I almost never forget about a person's life... Wait a second." Paul realises.
"What? Remembering someone's personal life is living rent free in your head?" Kim says.
"Not that... I see a window of opportunity. All we need is to get access to Smarty Mart's employee records." Paul says. Kim understood what Paul was getting at.
"And we got the backstage pass right here." Kim completes the rest of the sentence as he gesture towards Barkin.
"Wade who? Nah I'm just joking. He's a super vital member of this team. He would have found his name by now." Paul says.
"Now we need to cause a distraction. Mr Barkin could cover us from-" Kim says as they mentioned interrupts her.
"Woah woah woah woah woah... Woah. I'm going to be late (Checks his watch the whole time, before looking back up at the teens). And who said I agreed to do all of this?" Barkin interrupts.
"But sir the internet is at stake, you see-"
"(Gasp) Did you say the internet? How will I ever surf the web now? It will be just... surfing the computer! And I just found out I own another cloud! Alright I'm in. But this only slides... once... Maybe twice... Or Trice." Barkin says
"Yes sir. Kim prepare yourself for the almighty Smarty Mart! Discounts as far as you can see, miles of walking and freaking scooters that overweight people use to get around from aisle to asile." Paul says.
"Oh boy. My favourite place." Kim says sarcastically.
"And lose the attitude. You'll love it there." Paul says.
"Here's your receipt and have a smart day!" A cashier hands the receipt to the man.
Once he leaves he starts to rub his hands in a evil way
"Hehehe It will be the last smart day you ever have, once I erase the internet!" The man says, before he get interrupted by a taller and older male.
"Hey Lurman, less muttering more scanning."
"Oh right. Sorry boss."
'BEEP'
'BEEP'
'BEEP'
'BEEP'
During Middleton High School's lunchbreak, the cheerleading squad were practicing for their up and coming tournaments. Kim wasn't given the approval to continue cheerleading as of yet. That meant Bonnie was still leading the way for the time being.
They just finish completing their routine, once they finish all the girls wipe their sweat away, hoping that was it for today.
"Bonnie you think we can take a break now? We've been at it since the start of lunch." One of the girls says.
"No No Marcella. We have to keep on practicing." Bonnie insists.
"But Bonnie, we know the routine off by heart. Every step and every skip. Can't we rest and have our lunches?" Hope says to the brunette.
"A few more times, then we can rest. Okay team. 5 6 7 8." Bonnie says.
The girls started their routine from the beginning, after a minute of turns, flips and pyramids they finished their routine
"Again." Bonnie said not satisfied.
They did the routine again.
"Again."
And again.
"Again."
And again...
"Again!"
...And...Again...
"Again!" Bonnie says loudly, as this irritated all of the girls.
"Argh! Bonnie how many times are we going to perform this routine?" Jessica says.
"Until we get it right. Now from the top girls." Bonnie says as she turns from the girls.
"NO!"
Bonnie froze and slowly turned towards that voice.
"Who said that?" Bonnie says angrily.
"I did! We are sick and tired of tiring ourselves Bonnie!" Tara speaks up for the group.
"Tara? But you were on board for the new uniforms.. Don't you wanna be the best? Those uniforms we saw online looked gorgeous." Bonnie says.
"We prefer better leadership than those cool, dazziling sparkly fabou- (Clears Throat) Uniforms." Tara says.
"But all of you girls were for it!"
"That's when you presented this idea to us. And we felt like Kim was... Tossed aside! I can't believe we threw Kim under the bus for this... Bonnie, I speak for the girls of the squad and I say. When Kim comes back you should reconsider your position as captain of this team." Hope says.
"Wh- I- I should reconsider! Hope you're on very thin ice. I could just kick you out of this group right now." Bonnie threatens. If she leaves, they'll be two people down.
"Go ahead. If you kick her out. I'm leaving too." Liz says.
"Me too." Crystal adds.
"Me three." Marcella says
The girls agree to this. They were willing to all quit, if Hope was going to be kicked out of the cheer squad.
"Don't tell me that four eyed freak told you to back up Kim. He hasn't got a say for the squad." Bonnie says.
"Paul made a valid point about your decision to vote for captaincy." Liz says.
"He was right! Selling cookies for charity? I'm for that, but bribing us with new uniforms so that we can chose you as the next captain? Where's the compassion for Kim? She nearly lost her life out there." Hope says.
"Yeah."
"Totally."
The girls are starting to come to their senses about Kim and what the other teen said about Bonnie's decision to take over as captain. If was basically Bonnie enforcing herself to become the next permanent captain of the cheer squad. But the girls were showing maturity and backing their fellow peer and friend Kim.
"He's right? But he doesn't even cheer on the team! He's a boy! He's a nobody! He will be irrelevant by next year." Bonnie says.
"Immaterial or not. He was right. Kim deserved better than this. He truly cares about her health and wellbeing. Most girls would dream to have a boy do stuff like that. I wish their were more guys like him existed. Come on girls, let's get changed and enjoy the rest of what's left of lunch time. I don't wanna be around a total control freak." Hope says clearly talking about Bonnie. All the girls walk away quietly.
"Tara. Even you?" Bonnie says sounding hurt. Tara turns back to face her best friend.
"Sorry Bonnie. But this is getting way out of hand. Somethings been bothering you for sometime now. I can sense it. I... I can help you whatever's bothering you, but I just need to rest now. When Kim comes back, maybe we'll come back too... I'll see you later Bon." Tara says before walking off.
Once all the girls leave the gym doors slam shut. It echoed around the gymnasium.
Bonnie was distraught. They had a point. She totally isolated Kim when she had her injury mishap a while back.
She slides on the floor as she slumps onto the wooden floor, hear hands leaning back against the ground. She couldn't believe that the cheer squad won't be back until Kim's fit enough to join again.
Most importantly her friends didn't want to be around her. Including her closest and dearest friend in Tara.
This was Bonnie's lowest point.
Outside the Smarty Mart Paul and Kim enter the mega store, they both take in the massive building.
"Well howdy and welcome to Smarty Mart, where smart shoppers shop smart! Need a map?" The man greets both teens. He had a nametag which had the name 'Oscar' on his shirt.
"No thanks. This will be a quick trip." Kim says.
"Then you'll need this. A Quick Stop guide." Oscar hands them a small pamphlet.
"I'll pass." Kim says.
Steve Barkin walks through the doors and Oscar recognises him as a fellow employee.
"Hey Steve. Your shift is about to start." Oscar says to his fellow employee.
"I know Oscar. I came from my other job just now."
"You know these two?"
"Long story." Barkin says as he walks past the greeter. Both teens follow him.
Barkin was about to start his shift for the day, putting on his Smarty Mart vest, as both teens look around the shelves. It's ceiling was so elevated and their were aisles as far as they could see. You could
"So we're inside. Mr Barkin, do you know where the main office is?" Paul asks.
"Sure. It's towards Aisle 35, near the Click and Collect counter. Careful though. Security is tight around this place."
"Great... (Stammers) Who puts the Click and Collect counter in the middle of Aisle 35!" Paul says.
"Anyway, sir you keep an eye out around Aisle 35." Kim says.
"Can do. But what do I do to signal you guys?" Barkin says.
"Take this. It's a Morse code signal." Paul hands him a small device with a button.
"Dandy. I haven't seen a Morse code device in years. I hope I haven't rusty all of these years." Barkin says.
"Great. So we have eyes outside the office, Paul follow me." Kim says.
Paul complies as both teens head towards Aisle 35.
"Geez. This place is huge. I wish I had a disguise on." Kim says. Paul found it to be pretty ridiculous what she just said.
"Why is that?"
"So no one sees me." Kim says to the teen.
"Everyone's at school Kim, how can anybody possibly see you here?" Paul says back.
Kim didn't know how to answer back.
"Why are you so against Smarty Mart?" He asks another question. Kim had to answer back, so she did...Making up a new word along the way.
"Because it's so...discounty."
"Discounty isn't even a word. Are you sure you don't like it because they sell heaps of cheap items in bulk at very considerate and low prices?"
"It's just..." Kim was stuck. Why did she dislike Smart Mart? "The quality is different."
"Different? Kim look around you. Sure there's heaps of products that aren't top tier brands. But some are if you actually look around."
"Well. I just don't like it. Okay. Let's leave it at that." Kim says clear not in the mood. She sounded like she didn't want to talk about it. It also looked like she wanted to leave as soon as possible. But
Paul started to realise why she hated Smarty Mart, but he couldn't jump over the hoop first until he finds out why she really dislikes this place.
"Kim, I think I know why you dislike Smarty Mart, it's how you say? Not hip? Or cool? That's why you want to wear a disguise."
"What! I didn't say it was uncool. I just don't like it." Kim says.
"How can you not like the place if you haven't been before?" Pau says.
"I have been here before." Kim says.
"Really? By yourself?" Paul asks.
...
"With my parents." Kim admits quietly.
"So you've done shopping in here before." Paul says.
"A few times, yes. But..."
"But what? Did you experience a traumatic experience before?" Paul questions her hatred for Smarty Mart.
Kim experiences a flashback.
Flashback
A flashback revealing Kim as a younger girl who had her hair into two pigtails and had some freckles on her face. She was at home drawing as her mum arrived home from the shops.
"Oh Kimmie. I bought you this nice cute jacket from Smarty Mart today." Ann says to her daughter as she shows the cute red jacket to her.
"Thanks mum." Younger Kim says.
"You wanna try it on?"
"Please and thank you mum." Kim says. She tried on the jacket and it was a perfect fit for her.
She decided to wear it on a cold day at elementary school. The day eventually arrived when she could wear it at school. Walking through the hallways she hears a familiar laugh.
A younger version of Bonnie was laughing. She had longer hair than her present self.
"Kim Possible is actually wearing a Smarty Mart Jacket."
"Thanks for noticing Bonnie. You like it?"
"I was being sarcastic. Smarty Mart's clothes are so gross."
"No they're not. It's a very warm and comfy jacket."
"I'm sure it is... And what's this? A Hello Kitty backpack?" Bonnie gestures to Kim's pinkish white bag.
"Yeah. Hello Kitty is awesome."
"Well Kim, were 9 years old. Not 5."
"So?"
"Hello Kitty, is so out of fashion."
"No it isn't! You're just saying that!" Kim says angrily. Bonnie was getting under her skin.
"Yeah right. Check out my bag. It's a Gucci backpack." Bonnie shows off her light brown bag, that potentially doesn't belong to her, but maybe to one of her twin sisters.
"A bags a bag Bonnie." Kim points out.
"Well mine isn't from Loser Mart like your one. See you later Kimmie."
Kim had her cheeks tinted red. She was angry and a bit embarrassed by her bag and jacket. She takes off her backpack and red jacket her mum just bought recently for her and quickly shoves it in the bag. Inside her mind, she vows from this day onwards, she will refuse to buy or wear anything from Smarty Mart again.
"Hey KP. Ready for class?" Younger Ron says as he held the straps of his backpack.
"Yeah Ron. Let's go." Kim puts her bag back on her back as she tries to ignore the colder weather.
"Maybe at lunch we can continue our game of tag."
"That sounds nice Ron." Younger Kim says with a small grin.
The flashback ends as Kim begins to speak again, "I wouldn't say.. Traumatic. More embarrassing." Kim admits skipping out the majority details.
"So, nothing you'll lose sleep over. Okay. What about Ron? Does he like this place?" Paul asks.
"Ron loves this place!" Kim says.
"He does?" Paul says.
"Yes! He buys his snacks here, his clothes here... He even bought Rufus here."
"His mole rat? They sell pets here." Paul says.
A passing employee with a trolley full of items walks by and hears their conversation. "We sure do! In Aisle 16. Pets include dogs, cats, gerbils, hamsters and almost every animal you can think off. Except for crocodiles."
"Why's that." Kim says.
"Let's say.. They get very hungry." The employee reveals his hook hand. Freaking out the teens, "Well! Happy Smarty Mart shopping." The male employee says as he pushes the trolley away as he went to restock some shelves.
"Man these people are dedicated at their jobs." Paul says, "So if Ron likes shopping here, why don't you?"
"It's totally un-chic!" Kim says.
"Un-chic? This company makes billions, possibly trillions of dollars a year. They must be doing something right." Paul says.
Paul knew what Kim was saying and he knew straight away what she was talking about. It was because she was a trend follower. She wanted to stay cool in front of her school peers...
Gee a lot of time was been wasted. Weren't they suppose to do something?
"Bonnie pointed out that shopping here made it seem lame or uncool." Kim admits.
"That's the reason you don't shop here? It's because others will judge you for where you shop and wear?"
"Well I wouldn't say it's the main reason why I don't shop here." Kim says.
"Howdy, smart shoppers!"
"You don't wanna come inside her without a disguise on. You think unholy of it?" Paul lists the things with his fingers. "Kim. I'm going to be open here, are you afraid people will think different of you if you shop here?"
"N-"
"And don't say so Bonnie says so!" Paul says before Kim was about to respond.
"You folks lost?"
Kim didn't know who to respond.
"I-I just think it's unnecessary to shop at a place like this."
"What for Kim? I would never care where you shop. I couldn't care less. If you think people with low incomes shop here for the discounts, then that's their reason. Some of the stuff they sell here is incredible! You got other competitors like Target, K-Mart and Wal-Mart, but this Smarty Mart destroys them with ease. But other classes shop here too. I can see wealthy people shop here too. Everyone has different taste and style. I can't force you to shop here if you don't want to. But don't disrespect this billionaire dollar franchise." Paul says.
"Uh excuse me folks."
"Plus, if you haven't tried shopping here before yourself. You can see the incredibly low low prices they have. Buying stuff in bulk can be cheaper and handy for when you live far away from the shops. Or prepare for a pandemic, the rapture or the end of the world... Or a pandemic!" Paul says.
"Do you guys need a map?"
"We're a bit busy here brain." Paul says to the person dressed in the Smarty Mart's mascot.
"Brian." The mascot guy points out,
"Yo- No. You're a brain." Paul says.
"Yes I know good sir, but my name is Brian." The brain mascot said.
"... Brian in a brain costume. What will they think of next." Paul says.
"So need any assistance?" The mascot asks.
"Aisle 35." Paul says.
"Just right over there folks."
"Thanks Brian. That'll be all." Paul says as he wanted to continue talking to Kim.
"No problem, Happy Smarty Mart shopping." The mascot says as he walks away.
"Stooge." Paul mutters, "Now back to our chat. You can't except to be a follower and follow every single trend that comes your way." Paul says.
"Well heaps of teens these days are always coping trends."
"Yeah I know. All this Tik Tok shit you see is toxic and harms people to do stupid things! Believe it or not Kim. Did you know back at my old school I started some trends of my own?"
Kim had taken an interest in what he had to say. "I bought a pair of indoor soccer shoes and people thought they were socks. Very rare pair of shoes. Bought 10 different pairs of them are switched them every time I wore my sports uniform. I didn't post this on social media and all of that." Paul says.
"You had a sports uniform too?" Kim asks. He had a school uniform and he mentions also that he had to wear a sports uniform at his old private school back home.
"Yes.. But by year 11, P.E becomes an elective and is more theory than actual sport." Paul says.
"Hmm, that's how they teach you about the human body and sports evaluation."
"Yeah..." Paul says, "You get what I'm trying to say... Right?"
"I-...I do understand."
"I say this to you because I care... Don't be afraid to break the pack Kim. Be the leader you're always are. Not a sheep that follows." Paul gives off a reassuring smile to Kim. She gives a small grin back.
He's only one of many few people to rant and cheer someone up within a space of a few minutes.
As kids get older, they start to transition into different things and habits. They love their parents, but get embarrassed by their antics, hugging and kissing them comparing when they were younger kids. And they start to notice some changes within themselves, change is always inevitable. You can't stop change.
Back to focusing on the mission. The door that leads to the office wasn't supervised, giving the teens a chance to go inside.
"Coast is clear." Kim says. Both teens quickly and quietly enter the backroom, the close the door quietly and they turn around to their amazement.
"Holy shit!" Paul says quietly.
(Language!)
"Ah! How did he know?" Paul says quietly, as he heard a distorted but understandable Barkin from the distance telling him off about his colourful vocabulary.
Kim looks around as Paul careless walks around, Kim places an arm across the teen.
"Stop!" Kim shouts quietly.
Paul was about to trip on a piece of string, that had a bell attached to it.
"That's their tight security measure? A bell with a piece of string." Paul says.
"Ron would have definitely triggered that."
"Now let's not throw him under the bus." Paul says.
"No trust me. If he went on more missions with us. You'll see what I mean." Kim says.
"Well, let's just carefully go over this security measure." Paul lifts his foot over the wire.
Kim just stares at it as she back up and jumps over it with a flip very easily.
"Show off." Paul says.
"So I said, ''If you talk to me like that again, we're through!''
"Company!" Kim whispered as both teens ducked, and hide from the two employees behind a shipping crate.
"Damn bro, just like that? What'd she say?" One of the boys puts some paperwork on a desk.
"Well you know my mom. She sent me to my room."
"Damn. No TV privileges for a week?"
"2 Days."
"That's not so bad. So where you wanna go after work?"
"Well my console was confiscated... Maybe go to the arcade?" Both were about to leave the backroom office.
"That sounds great." The door closes shut.
"Uh. Boys and their video games." Kim says with a normal voice.
"There's the computer." Paul says. He heads over there and sits on the chair.
"Damn, this must be from the early 2000s!" Paul says looking at the old computer monitor. It had a really thick back and seemed very heavy to carry.
"Okay got it! You'd think for a billion-" Paul says.
"Dollar company they would have better resources. Yes I know what you mean. Here's the USB stick and let's get the heck out of here."
"Gee, you must be desperate to leave this place." Paul says.
"It's dark and cold in here."
".. That too." Paul says, he plugs the USB stick into the computer desktop and starts to download all the employee records on file. He starts the download, Paul turns towards Kim.
"This is totally illegal Kim." Paul says.
"If we encounter legal problems, we'll just contact Global Justice's lawyer." Kim looks at the computer screen as the download was at 2%
"The only lawyer I'm contacting is Saul Goodman." Paul says as the download was stuck at 3%
...
..
.
"How long will this take? We only got a small window until someone else comes in here." Kim asks.
"Hmm.. Let's see. There's 1,186,632 employees on this list, if each file is a quarter of a MB due to it's small images on each file, that's about 300 Gigabytes and with the USB stick we have which is capped at 20-
"Paul!" Kim says.
"Ahh! Uh 45-60 Minutes?"
"Can't you just check how long is left?"
"It's too old to check the time remaining... Unless. What if we tipped the computer on it's side. That will make the loading bar finish quicker." Paul says.
"Paul that's never going to work-" Kim says as Paul lifted the heavy computer monitor on it's right side.
"You say something Kim?" Paul was distracted by lifting the heavy monitor.
The computer download went from 6% to 100% within a matter of seconds, as the bar went fully green, thus completing the download.
Big Brian move!.. Brain!
"Yes!" Paul says, as he puts the computer back to it's original state
"Well now I've seen everything." Kim says amazed that actually worked.
Meanwhile outside the office Barkin was scanning products near Aisle 35, when he notices an employee was about to walk into the office room.
"Oh crap!" Barkin says, he pulls out the Morse code device Paul gave him and starts to press the button send off the signal.
"S-O-M-E-O-N-E I-S C-O-M-I-N-G." Barkin presses as he clicks the button to translate back to the teens.
Back inside the office, Paul realises the Morse code translator was going off.
"Oh the Morse code device is going off. Let me try and translate it." Paul says to Kim.
The Morse code... Code get's printed out as Paul rips it off and begins to read it.
... - - . - -. . / .. ... / -.-. - - .. -. -.
Paul begins to read the code with his mini Morse Code translator guide. "Some...one... I...S...Com...ing...Eww" He then realised Barkin. "Oh fuck! Someone is coming! Quick! Hide!" Paul shouts. Kim hides straight away as Paul removes the USB stick safely off the computer, he gets up panicking where to hide. He runs near the door as he sees the door knob move. He tries to hide against the wall.
On the other side Barkin calls out his fellow employee.
"Hey Dale. Good to see you... So you see them Nuggets on the weekend?" Barkin says trying to distract the employee.
Paul hears this and slight opens the door to see what was going on.
"Uh. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Plain terrible against the Lakers. Jokic played well, LeBron just smashed us with 37 points. I mean we're still on a good record of 13-8 for the season, it's just the finishing that kills them."
"I getcha. Say, mind moving about 6 steps forward?" Barkin says to ensure the teens have enough space to move swiftly out.
"Oh certainly Steve." He complies as Barkin moves back so Dale can move forward.
Paul waved Kim towards the door as she sees this too. This was their only opportunity.
"Now back to the game. I just wish they would maybe trade for some earlier picks. It breaks my heart that-"
While Dale was talking, both teens slowly open the door and gesture a shushing signal as they escape the door undetected. Barkin looks quickly as Paul gave a double tap to his heart to say thank you and gives a small nod of approval. Getting the respect for distracting the employee.
"Going off the paint and get the two points. As we can learn from the basics of basketball from the Wilt Chamberlain era in the old days. That's why are game is changing the way it transitions from end to end-
Barkin nods his head to make sure he was listening the Dale's conversation.
"Kill me now." Barkin says internally, as he was listening to his employee talk non-stop with a wide smile. He's cheeks were hurting badly.
At The Kanellopoulos Residence... In Middleton
Paul and Kim were inside the computer room. Syncing up all the employee data records to his laptop. They had heaps of time to capture him, but needed to find a name to his picture.
Paul was sitting at his desk and Kim was watching over him.
"Okay we linked the employee record to the laptop, god there must be millions of employees on here, it's going to take a while to find Frugal's file. Wish we had Wade's help." Paul says... That's when an idea came to him.
"(Finger Snap) That's it! Photoshop." Paul says.
"Photoshop?" Kim says.
"We get his photo."
"Which will be impossible to find- What are you typing?" Kim asks.
"YouTube."
"Paul. We're a bit busy to be watching funny videos."
"Found it." Paul says as he clicks the YouTube clip of Frugal Lucre
"Oh."
"It's trending. The comments are making fun of him... Right. That's his face." Paul points out.
Kim looks at the awkwardly paused frame. "Creepy. But he's wearing a fake moustache."
Paul clicked a few buttons around and after a minute he now had the culprits face clear, except for his creepy freeze frame photo.
"That's him without a moustache." Paul says.
Kim realised what Paul was doing.
"I see where you're going with this." Kim says realising Paul's plan.
"We have the guy's photo! And now we can cross reference with the rest of the employees." Paul says.
"Maybe we should give Wade an early retirement present." Kim says playfully, but Paul thought she was being serious.
"I-"
"Kidding. Kidding." Kim says chucking.
"Right...Matching the photos... Anddddd...3500 results! Hmm. Might need to go through each one." Paul suggests.
"Wait. I remember hearing his name being mentioned. His mother was calling out to him during his transmission feed." Kim says.
"Okay. Let's rewind the video. And Play." Paul presses play on the video from the start. It plays to a certain point.
"However, this can be prevented if my ransom is paid. Everyone in the world must pay me... One dollar each. Or the equivalent at the current rate of exchange, I don't know. But to prove I mean business-"
"Francis! You're toaster tasties are getting cold."
"Not now Ma!"
"Francis." Kim says.
"Okay let's see here... F-R-A-N- Oh. One result popped up" Paul says as the guys Photo ID pops up. "It matches! So we've got one Francis Lurman. AKA Frugal Lucre."
"AKA Mr Y2K 2.0." Kim says.
"Employee Number 01971570. He works at Smarty Mart Store in Philadelphia, PA 19150. USA. Aha! He's address! That was too easy!" Paul presses print and it prints out all his information.
"Philadelphia is a few hours away by plane. Good thing we have more than 24 hours until the deadline is due." Kim says.
'WING'
Paul's email dinged. He was curious and opens up the app.
It was another message from Frugal Lucre.
"Who was the email from?" Kim asks.
Paul opens up the email "It's from our fuck nut of a pal. Francis." and begins reading it.
"Dear World. I'm sick and tired of waiting until Wednesday 6PM to unleash project 'Death of the Internet'. So I have kindly pushed forward the deadline 24 hours earlier... And to show you we're serious… you have until midnight tonight."
"What!" Kim says shocked.
"Ha ha hahahaha ah ha. Pulled a sneaky on everyone. What the fuck is this guy's intentions! That is all. Enjoy the rest of the Internet, because by midnight tonight 5G will be irreversible for good unless my ransom is paid in full. 7,874,895,000- No 001- 999-002 dollars. God damn it! He has aa live feed of the world's current population! How did he do that?" Paul says intrigued at his impressive IT skills.
Kim is angered by this. The only had less than 7 Hours to stop him now! The timeline had gotten tighter and the plot had thicken.
"Damn this annoying twit! I'll call Wade to see if he can... Hook us.. Up with a- Oh. He's system is still down." Kim says realising his system was still down.
"Yeah, we might have to contact someone else." Paul says.
"Hang on, I'll see if I have the contacts on my device. I've got tons of favours that need to be owed." Kim quickly scrambles through her Kimmunicator device, as Paul watches her. He then remembers one guy who can help him out.
"Wait... I know a guy. Let me give him a call. He said to use him whenever I needed him." Paul presses a few button on his phone and exits the room as the phone rings.
A Few Miles Away
In a different part of Colorado at a smoothie bar.
A familiar face in McGee was drinking his smoothie as he feels a vibration in his pocket. He's phone was ringing. It was a new number he had never seen before.
He answers the phone call.
"This be Flying McGee speaking. How can I help?" McGee says.
"Hey McGee, it's Paul. You're on. We need some help. As soon as possible please."
After a few minutes of waiting inside Paul's computer room, the teen comes back inside to tell Kim the good news.
"Well?"
"Done. He said he would meet us at the school field in 30. Airport's too far. A 10 minute walk is much more suffice."
"Awesome. That gives us enough time to pack and head towards there.
"Okay... Man. What a douchebag." Paul says as he re-reads the email, before jumping onto YouTube. Kim stares at him.
"Why you going on YouTube again?" Kim says confused.
"Well if the Internet is going down. I wanna watch YouTube for the last time."
"Not if we have something to say!" Kim says.
"Kim, this guy will probably get massacred the second the internet goes down. They'll burn him for doing that. I have faith he won't do anything. Have you seen Mobs these days? They go crazy of this sort of shit. This guy won't even last 10 minutes walking on the street... Okay maybe it would take 24 hours to process all of this. It would be like the purge with Francis."
"True. But we're going to stop him anyway."
"Of course we are. That's what we do best." Paul says as he continues to watch videos, he chuckles at a funny video.
Author Notes:
Seems a bit weird comparing it to the original episode, but it works!
- Ron makes yet another cameo.
- The part about the 10 different pairs of indoor soccer shoes... True... 70% I actually had 7 of them and switched them around every time I had sports. Unfortunately I destroyed every pair except for 2, which are still in mint condition, one of them is lost and I took the massive risk with... *Gulp*... Buying them online! While in recent times I bought another 2 pairs in black, which are still rare and hard to find. Got a red one stuck in Dubai as I bought it in Russia. Long story short, packaging companies are refusing to send and receive from Russia.
- ...We all know who Saul Goodman is... (Saul music plays)
- "So I said, ''If you talk to me like that again, we're through!'' - That's from Monsters Inc the 2001 Film. Wanted to be more creative with that, but I had nothing on my mind. It's good to have random moments from previous films, there and there.
- I'll be honest. It's pretty hard to involve all the main characters I want to represent in this story. But it's running okay at times. I'm pretty happy how it's moving along.
- One of the developments in this story is Kim's peer pressure to keep up with the high end of the popularity chart at school. In the show... When Kim heard Bonnie saying that she couldn't keep a steady relationship with anyone due to her 'Saving the world' gig, hence the top of the food chain must date 'All the remotely acceptable guys' during the 'So the Drama' finale and saying that the worse she can do is date Ron. Kim worried about this that she freaks out boys tries to find a guy to take to the prom, except for her Best Friend Ron. Kim was simply being played by Bonnie. Due to Ron's... Ronness (Not even a word) He was totally oblivious with the whole dating thing until later on in their friendship. While the OC covers that aspect up trying to get Kim to open up, by this time being a boy other than her father, twin brothers or Ron. A blank canvas being in Paul.
McGee Gale Hasland - Eric Andre (The Eric Andre Show as Himself/Host/Presenter/Bird Up. Disenchantment as Luci) - OC Character - Very short Cameo!
Hey guys. Recently work has been hectic and finding time to type has become much harder. Plus the ideas! I wanna try and make the story at the highest of quality! I actually expected something like this in the future with work, but It came so quickly! COVID Helped me write more chapters within smaller periods, but that's almost faded, chapters are taking way longer these days.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you in (Insert Random Number) days time! Until then.. Take Care!