On the morning of the mission to Seaside Town, Count Bleck awoke to find a note taped to his door: Had to leave; meet you in Seaside Town. L. "What do you think?" he asked his wife, who was lying down on the top of his hat.
She yawned. "That you should meet him in Seaside Town," she replied. "I'm still sleepy."
He tucked the note in his cape. "I wonder where he had to be in the middle of the night."
The rest of the minions were in the castle, and after a quick headcount, Count Bleck took Mimi, O'Chunks, and Dimentio out to Seaside Town. Nastasia and Tippi arrived shortly after.
Seaside Town was a small town with a lot of interesting things. Most sleepy towns on a travel route made do with an inn for tourists and a shop for regulars. Seaside Town was a showcase for all the impressive goods that came from or into the port. Exotic accessories, rare items, and even places that only accepted certain currencies could be found in this little town beside the sea. There was a field on the far west that ended in a cliff overlooking the ocean in which the pirates who terrorized the townspeople lived.
"You'd better get to know the place," Count Bleck said when they arrived. Really, he was stalling for Mr. L, but he didn't want to say it. "Take a look around."
The minions did, and spent the morning enjoying themselves. O'Chunks found a store that bought beetles captured from a nearby mountain, and enjoyed bantering about bugs with the shopkeeper. Meanwhile, Dimentio found a toad who claimed he could tell whether a mushroom was rare or not by tasting it, and spent the rest of the morning trying to get him to admit he was lying to get a free meal by playing various tricks on him until Count Bleck had to break up the fight. Mimi, in the meantime, had gone to the sunken ship disguised as a small shark in a red bandana.
At around noon, the village elder approached Count Bleck, who was sitting on a crate beside the inn. "So," said Elder, "I can't help but notice you've been here for a few hours, eating our food, causing a disturbance, and not helping us with our shark problem."
"Yes," said Count Bleck, "we're just waiting for the last one of us to show up."
"Well, we have a ship that's all ready to go out with barrels and barrels of stock, and we need to make sure Johnny doesn't get his fins on it. It had to sail out of port three days ago," he said with extra emphasis.
"Yes," said Count Bleck. "Well, my minion Mimi is in disguise to try and defuse the situation from her end.
Elder raised an eyebrow.
Count Bleck cleared his throat. "I'll just... go and get the others, then."
Ten minutes later, the villagers of Seaside Town were gathered around the plateau overlooking the ocean, giving it a wide berth. Count Bleck, O'Chunks, Nastasia, and Tippi were standing in the middle of the clearing with the village elder among them.
"How do we summon him?" asked Count Bleck.
"He'll come when he knows we're gathered," said Elder. "He always knows."
Sure enough, after only a few more minutes of quiet stillness, the waters rippled and an enormous blue shark jumped out and landed on the ground at the side of the cliff. Three more sharklings with red bandannas around their heads followed, and then three with blue bandannas. These six sharklings surrounded the blue shark, Jonathan Jones, as he sauntered up into the group.
The Seaside Town residents visibly tensed as Johnny approached. Seeing how nervous they were, one of the Bandana Reds made a jumping motion at one of the Seaside toads, causing him to startle terribly. The two Bandana Blues on his sides both laughed at this, making the toad very upset.
"Yeah, that's not good," Nastasia muttered to Count Bleck. "We're already losing control of the situation. If the sharks are allowed to walk all over the townies, it could drastically change the way the negotiations proceed."
"I know, Count Bleck whispered back."
Johnny had a definite swagger in his fin-walk. He clearly knew he was the top shark here, and that he had the most control in this situation. That meant as far as he was concerned that everyone had to bow down to his wishes. "Well," he said proudly, "I understand we're having quite the meeting about me."
One of the villagers, the Snifit from the Beetle Shop, shouted out, "Why are you sinking our boats, Jonathan Jones?" The others around him began to murmur in agreement before Nastasia shushed them. The shushing, however, also reinforced that Jonathan Jones was calling the shots because no one had bothered to reel in his own sharklings.
"You see that out there?" He pointed out at the sea with his trident. "That big, blue thing stretching in all directions? That's mine. That is my ocean, and I run it as I see fit."
"Be reasonable, Mr. Jones," said Tippi. "You can't claim ownership of the entire ocean."
"Normally, I couldn't," agreed Johnny, "but it seems to me like I've got the muscle to back it up."
"Yeah!" agreed the sharklings. Count Bleck scanned them to see if one of them was Mimi, but he couldn't tell.
"Look," said Elder, "I really think we need to come to an agreement here. You can't keep sinking our boats, Jones, and we are prepared to take action against you should it continue."
O'Chunks flexed his muscles. "Yeah! You'll be gettin' a taste o' me chunks!"
Johnny looked O'Chunks up and down and then laughed. "You're kidding. You're kidding, right? This is the best you got?"
O'Chunks face soured.
Johnny waved a flipper. "Look, I ain't afraid of a musclehead like that. I clawed my way to the top taking out muscleheads like that, so don't think you can threaten me."
If Mr. L were here, thought Count Bleck, Brobot might intimidate him in ways O'Chunks cannot. Of course, it was only wishful speculation, as Count Bleck had heard no word from Mr. L. Still, he had counted on having more muscle in reserve, as O'Chunks, skilled as he was, cold only take on one at a time.
"Oh," said Johnny, "and if you were already thinking you might still have any sort of upper hand on me..." He picked up one of his Bandana Reds by the collar, then threw it over to the ground before the Count. "I think that's one of yours? Yeah. I've been feeding her the wrong information all day just to see if she would bring it back to you."
In a puff of purple smoke, the Bandana Red turned back into Mimi. She looked up sheepishly at Count Bleck. "Oopsie," she said weakly.
One of the Bandana Reds threw his spear after her. "G'wan, git outta here!" he shouted.
The spear veered a bit off course and landed at the feet of Miss Mole, who ran the health food store. "Hey! Watch it!" she snarled.
"Gonna make me?" the Bandana Red sneered.
"You can't talk to my lady like that!" the Snifit shouted.
It seemed like everyone began shouting after that.
"Ocean hogs!"
"Tresspassers!"
"Your bandanas are ugly!"
"Your faces are ugly!"
"You're not so tough!"
"Come over here and say that!"
One of the toads threw a rock across the clearing, and it landed right on Johnny's snoot. He grabbed his nose immediately (shark's noses are very sensitive.) "Who threw that?" he demanded. "Who threw that?!"
The crowd parted to reveal two young toads pointing at each other.
Johnny thrust up his trident and a small crowd of backup Bandana Blues and Reds jumped out of the ocean behind him. "Come on, boys," he growled, "let's show these townsfolk why they don't mess with Johnny Jones."
Count Bleck darted into the middle of the confrontation. "Now just a minute," he said, desperately trying to get the situation under control. "There is still a chance to talk this out and-"
"The time for talk is over!" shouted the Snifit. "We won't be pushed around anymore. Besides," he added, "you'll help us, won't you?"
"Well- I mean, of course- but-"
The two sides charged and clashed in the middle of the cliff. O'Chunks grabbed Count Bleck by the cape and pulled him out of harm's way, as he was in the middle of the melee. "Don't worry, Count," he said, "I'll chunk 'em good fer ya!"
"Very well, but-"
Suddenly a portal opened and Mr. L jumped through, out of breath. He was clutching a small purple amulet that aided him in moving through dimensions. "Sorry I'm late," he panted. "I- oh."
"Because your Brobot wasn't around," said Count Bleck, "Jonathan Jones was able to manipulate the situation to his own end."
Mr. L, looking like a deer in the headlights, reopened a portal and jumped back through. A minute later, an enormous dimensional portal opened and BroBot came crashing down into the clearing. When he hit the ground, everyone else was knocked into the air.
"That's enough of that!" he shouted through Brobot's speakers. Brobot's hand reached out and picked up Jonathan Jones by the tail. "I think you need some time to cool off." Brobot swung Jonathan Jones around a few times and then threw him off into the horizon. There was a light twinkle, and he was gone.
The Bandanas, seeing what happened to their leader, quickly jumped one by one back into the ocean. The townsfolk stood silently in awe of the giant robot.
Mr. L jumped out and landed on the ground in front of Count Bleck. "Well," he said lamely, "I'm here."
All eyes were fixed on the human. Not used to being the center of attention, Mr. L looked quickly down at his shoes.
"We needed you," said Count Bleck simply.
"I know," mumbled Mr. L.
"You let us down."
"I know."
"I need to know that I can trust my minions," said Count Bleck.
Mr. L felt his face go redder.
"I want to be on your side. I tried to be on your side. I think it's important that you spend time with your brother. But if you need to be there more than we need you here, you can't tell us you'll be here and not show up." Count Bleck turned to the other minions. "Come on," he said. One by one, each of them cast a look at Mr. L and followed Count Bleck back to Castle Bleck. Right before Count Bleck warped away behind the rest of his minions, he said, "You have a lot to think about. I suggest you get your priorities in order and you do it quickly."