Ch 2
Disclaimer: I own nothing that appears in this, and if I did this would be an episode as opposed to merely a story.
Within the hour the two had arrived at Global Dynamics. The sight before them however was not one they had expected. Almost every inch of the building appeared to be covered in various materials. The fragments of egg shells along with silly string clung grotesquely from several walls and windows. Toilet paper draped every tree several layers thick. The numerous items flying from the flagpole were the only things to stop the officers in their tracks as they gazed in shock at the sight.
"Jo am I imagining things, or do those look like Stark's suits flying up there?" He looked to his deputy for confirmation.
"If so then Stark is going to be pissed today. Most of his suits are custom made and fitted. Whoever did it has a lot of guts, or has a death wish." Shading her eyes from the sunlight she quickly surveyed the rest of the building busy calculating how long it would likely take the janitorial staff to clean up the mess. Lost in her thoughts she almost missed seeing Carter heading into the building and had to run to catch up to him.
Things were not much better inside where the entire main entrance area was dimly lit. Music was blasting from the PA system; the little light in the room came from several colored lights placed strategically around the ceiling and to top things off a large disco balled lay suspended in the center of the room slowly turning. Overall Carter was impressed by the lengths that had been gone to.
Looking past the entrance foyer Carter was surprised to see that Allison's office was completely dark. He knew Allison prided herself on her punctuality and was unnerved by her absence.
Maneuvering around the GD employees the sheriff and his deputy made their way towards Allison's office. Carter held out hope that Allison was in the vicinity or failing that hopefully Fargo would be able to shed some light on her whereabouts.
Fargo was sitting at his desk hunched over his keyboard glowering at something on the monitor. He was typing furiously when Carter and Jo entered the small office space and for once he failed to notice their presence straight away.
"Fargo what are you doing?"
Fargo's head jerked up at Carter's question. Seeing that it was merely Eureka's law enforcement he pushed his glasses back up his nose before looking back down at the monitor and continuing his typing. "Someone managed to plant some viruses and worms in Eureka's mainframe last night. I've been trying to remove them for the last four hours but it's proving difficult."
"Is there anything I can do to help you Fargo?" Walking over behind the desk Jo looked over Fargo's shoulder at the computer monitor.
"There isn't much you can do Jo. A lot of the problems are in the code themselves and they've changed just about every password making it into a riddle that only I can solve. See?" Pressing a few buttons Fargo brought up one of the password riddles.
After staring at the riddle for about a minute Jo shook her head. "I don't have the slightest idea what the answer could be."
"Few people would. For some reason all the passwords seem to revolve around Buffy the Vampire Slayer trivia or movies Sarah Michelle Gellar has been in." Typing a name on the keyboard a green checkmark appeared on the screen indicating the password had been accepted.
"As fascinating as this is Fargo we need to talk to either Allison or Stark.. Any chance they're in their office?"
"Unfortunately Dr. Blake is off in the building somewhere trying to get the light show turned off, and Dr. Stark hasn't shown up yet."
"Fine then we'll just wait in their office until they get here." Going over to the office door Carter grasped hold of the handle and started pulling it open.
"WAIT DON'T DO THAT!" Fargo's cry of warning came to late.
As the office door opened a wall of pink filled the entire doorframe. For several seconds it remained still then with almost comedic irony it began to topple over and onto the sheriff, who could only begin to cry in shock before he was bowled under by the pink wave.
Fifteen minutes later
Carter had managed to get most of the pink foam off of him and had changed into a clean GD Security uniform. Jo nearly had to restrain the sheriff from throttling Fargo as the computer scientist nervously explained how someone had managed to fill the entire office with pink packing foam specially made in Eureka for shipping fragile items.
Thankfully Allison had shown up shortly afterwards a look of relief on her face at seeing Carter and Lupo. "Fargo after you finish restoring the mainframe I'll need you to go down to Section 4. Someone screwed with the sprinkler system down there and the entire floor is slowly flooding."
"Guess it's a going to be a busy day for you Allison."
"You don't know the half of it Carter. I've spent the last 2 hours fielding complaints from most of the town." Sighing heavily she sat down on a couch by the wall as she started to tick of a few of the problems she had been notified of. "Tesla school has locked every teacher in the Teacher's Lounge and the student's are busy partying and toilet papering the place. All the animals escaped from Section 3 and Taggert's busy trying to hunt them down. The Post Office is almost completely buried in SPAM mail. Vincent's freezer has become a sauna. Oh and Section 5 is completely off limits unless you 'Correctly answer me these riddles three.' When ever I get hold of the person who programmed that particular virus into the computer is going to wish they were dead."
"Allison has anyone checked the security footage to see if they can ID the culprit, or even get some kind of overriding code to all this?"
"Gee Carter we never thought of that. Fargo why don't you show the Sheriff last nights security footage."
Without looking up from the computer Fargo seemed to type a few things into the computer and the television on the wall behind Allison came to life.
However instead of showing the footage from the video cameras the screen was filled entirely with footage of a battle between soldiers of the U.S. air force and an army wearing strange metal armor and carrying energy weapons.
"Wait I know this one. That's some show Zoe's been watching for the last month and a half. StarFence…StarEntrance…" Jack knew the answer he'd put up with Zoe trying to explain it to him for the last week and the answer was on the tip of his tounge but would not come. In annoyance he started to snap his fingers in the vain hope of finding the answer sooner.
"StarGate. That's what it's called." Jo helpfully told him her eyes riveted to the screen.
"Than…wait how do you know that?"
"It's a popular show."
Carter knew his deputy wasn't telling him everything. He made sure to put enough annoyance and questioning into his voice as he asked his single worded question. "Jo?"
"Ok so maybe I own…most of it on DVD."
"Regardless Jack every bit of the security footage from every camera is nothing but some other episode from that show. Anyway I don't care what you had planned for today, but I need you, Jo, and Nathan to try and find out whose responsible for all this and to try and restore some peace to the town.
"Well get on it once Stark manages to drag himself in here. Where is he anyway?"
As if a higher power was answering his question the elevator doors opened revealing Dr. Nathan Stark. Stark looked ready to kill and it was readily apparent as to why. In place of his usual business suit and tie Dr. Stark looked ready for a day at the beach. A bright red Hawaiian shirt lay unbuttoned over a plain white T-Shirt. Tan khaki shorts covered his legs to his knees. The final indignity was a pair of dark brown sandals that covered his bare feet.
"Stark is this casual Friday or have you decided to change your dress style?" Carter had to grin at the obvious discomfort on Stark's face.
"For your information Sheriff someone broke into my home last night. This is all they left for me to wear." Angry as he was Stark still managed to sound professional as he shot a distrustful glare at his rival for Allison's heart.
"Nathan are you actually going to wear that?" Curiosity filled Allison's voice.
"Actually I'm prepared for a similar situation." Walking over behind Fargo's desk Stark put his hand against the wall and pressed something. A section of the wall slid away revealing numerous business suits hanging neatly inside the small niche. "I've worked innumerable all nighters and needed to look presentable the next day. So I took the liberty of storing numerous suits here in the event of an emergency or if I had a meeting the next day." Taking out one of the suits, a dark red tie and a pair of shoes Stark turned back to the group. "Now if you'll excuse me while I go change afterwards we can get started on getting the town back under control."
That is all for now people. Feel free to review and let me know what you thought, and if you have any ideas about what other pranks have been pulled throughout the town please feel free to share them. Oh and also feel free to start making your predictions on who is behind all this. Till next time.