I know, it's been a while, but I'm still alive! Here's the next chapter of GR101. I'm planning on updating my other fic, too; just be patient...
Chapter 14: Persuading a Fanatic
Aboard the hovercraft, Jimmy was attempting to reason with Jet Fusion, but Jet was still clinging to his picture idiotically. Bolbi, meanwhile, munched on his third shish kabob.
"Jet, you can't betray BTSO!" Jimmy insisted.
Jet Fusion didn't even move his eyes from his picture. "Kid, you don't understand. Beautiful Gorgeous is my soul mate!"
Jimmy grimaced. "But Jet Fusion doesn't side with the villain!"
"That's only in sappy movies with clichéd storylines bent on satisfying people who have no better way to spend their time," Jet argued, still focused on Beautiful's photo.
"You're crazy!" Jimmy spat out, flinging up his arms in exasperation.
Apparently thinking Jimmy was talking to him, Bolbi spoke up from the other side of the room. "Bolbi not crazy! Bolbi just a little bit confused."
Seeming not to hear Bolbi's comment, Jet murmured dreamily: "Yes, I am crazy about her…"
Jimmy carefully ignored Bolbi and tried to knock some reason into Jet. "You're a mindless puppet being used for crime!" he explained. "You're not thinking clearly!"
"I've started to see everything clearly…my whole future…since the day I met her." But from the blank, dreamy expression on his face, it appeared the only thing Jet could see clearly was Beautiful Gorgeous's picture.
Frustrated, Jimmy slapped a hand to his forehead. "I need to get his attention! All he does is stare at Beautiful Gorgeous's picture!"
Suddenly, Beautiful Gorgeous burst into the room. Jimmy swallowed and raised his eyes anxiously to the female spy. Jet moved his gaze from his picture only to stare dumbly at Beautiful herself.
"Well?" Beautiful demanded, setting a hand on her hip and lifting an eyebrow at Jimmy.
"Uh…I haven't thought of anything yet…exactly," Jimmy stammered.
"What?!" she snapped.
"I just watched my friends fall off a one hundred forty-two foot cliff!" the genius protested. "How am I supposed to think clearly?!"
"I don't have time to let you sit around and cry about those brats! I have a world to control! You'd better start thinking!" And with that, Beautiful stormed back out.
"Great! I have to think of something…fast!" Jimmy mused.
Again, that strangely accented voice broke in on his thoughts. "Bolbi say: "Eat goat kabobs!" Goat kabobs are favorite snack in Bakharistan!"
Throwing a momentary frown at Bolbi, Jimmy attempted to ignore the boy while he worked to form a plan.
That night, Cindy, Libby, Sheen, Carl, and Goddard finally reached the broken-down Hover-Sub, still lying on the beach where they'd left it.
"How're we gonna make fuel?" Libby questioned, studying the machine where in glistened in the moonlight.
"All the information we need is downloaded into Goddard," Cindy responded easily.
Right on cue, Goddard barked and displayed the list of materials on his screen again.
"I should be able to get all the other materials nearby," Cindy informed her friend.
Libby yawned. "Not that it won't be fun to watch you make fuel, but I think I'm goin' to bed."
"Yeah, me too," Carl added.
"Are you guys crazy?!" Sheen cried. "I love to watch Jimmy work in his lab! It'll be even more fun to watch Cindy mix formulas and make things explode!"
Libby raised an eyebrow at the boy. "Sheen, she's not gonna explode anythin'."
"Man, that's a rip-off!" Sheen exclaimed disappointedly. "I guess I'm going to bed too."
Without another word, Libby, Sheen, and Carl lay down in their sleeping bags, and were soon sound asleep. Left on their own, Goddard and Cindy remained awake all night, working hard to find the necessary ingredients for the fuel.
Aboard the hovercraft, Jimmy again heard footsteps approaching the room he, Jet, and Bolbi were in. The door thrust open and in stepped Professor Calamitous, rubbing his hands together and grinning evilly.
"At last my daughter has done something useful by capturing you, Jimmy Neutron!" he crowed. "And now we will take over the world, together!" He paused to chuckle. "Tomorrow, we leave this island for some big cities, taunt and threaten citizens along the way, and then—well, I haven't gotten quite that far yet. Anyway, you'd better think of a good plan, or…um…" His voice trailed off and, losing his patience, he gave up trying to finish his sentence. "Well, you get the idea," he ended, heading toward the door. "And now I think I'll get back to those speech therapy tapes. I seem to be having trouble again with finishing my…um…um…"
He exited the room, leaving Jet Fusion to continue snoring in his chair and Bolbi to stand staring at the closed door. Not wanting waste another precious second, Jimmy got to his feet and woke Jet Fusion.
"What are you doing, kid?" Jet complained drowsily. "I was just having a dream about my darling—"
"We have to get out of here!" Jimmy interrupted quietly.
"What? And leave my sweet little butterfly?"
"Listen!" Jimmy hissed. "If we don't get out of here, Beautiful Gorgeous and Professor Calamitous are going to kill us! Remember what she tried to do when you were almost married?"
Jet's gaze turned dreamy once more. "I'll always remember that day…"
"We have to go!" Jimmy persisted.
Ignoring the boy genius, Jet Fusion pulled out his picture of Beautiful Gorgeous again.
"This is really weird," Jimmy muttered, frowning. "Every time he stares at that picture he looks as if he's being hypnotized!" At that instant, an idea struck him. "Wait a second…that's it!" Without hesitation, Jimmy jumped toward the chair Jet Fusion was sitting in and snatched the picture away from him.
"What are you doing, kid?" Jet demanded.
Ignoring Jet, Jimmy dropped the picture, smashing it on the floor! As soon as it hit, a fluorescent blue liquid spilled out and saturated the air with its strange, heavy aroma. Behind the broken frame lay a small, cracked bottle filled with more of the fluid. Professor Calamitous's mind control potion!
"Professor Calamitous's potion is dangerous when it's inhaled too!" Jimmy realized. He stepped away so as not to breathe in anymore of it, but Jet Fusion gulped it in with half-closed eyes, as if it was the sweetest air he'd ever breathed.
"Come on!" Jimmy cried, grabbing the man's arm. Jet obediently followed Jimmy to the other side of the room, where the air was still free of the scent. As they both gasped for oxygen, Bolbi watched them silently, his large eyes trained on them expressionlessly.
"I knew Beautiful Gorgeous was doing something to you, Jet!" Jimmy proclaimed.
"Beautiful…Gorgeous…" Jet repeated dazedly, appearing to be about to pass out.
"Uh…come on, we'd better get out of here." Jimmy grabbed Jet's arm again and pulled him toward one of the doorways.
It was then Bolbi spoke up. "Bolbi think, 'No!'" He skipped over to a large red button on the wall and pushed it. As Jimmy and Jet reached the door, an alarm began to blare all over the hovercraft!
"We've got to hurry!" Jimmy cried. He rushed through the door, dragging Jet Fusion behind him and leaving Bolbi to punch the button repeatedly with a giant smile on his face.
Jimmy led Jet Fusion through a series of doors until they plunged out into the night air. Stars shone down on the beach where the hovercraft was parked, but a cloud covered the moon. As Jimmy and Jet Fusion scurried toward the shadows beneath the jungle ahead of them, they looked much like black shadows themselves. Behind them, alarms continued to sound through the hovercraft, and shouts and running footsteps warned Jimmy that its occupants were searching frantically for him. In spite of this, he and Jet reached the safety of the trees without being discovered.
When Jimmy stopped running and released Jet Fusion's arm, the man rubbed a hand across his face and looked at his surroundings as if he'd become disoriented. "Oh, boy, did I have a strange dream!" he remarked. "It was about Beautiful Gorgeous…the loveliest and the most evil villain I've ever met in my thrilling spy career! But where are we and what are we doing out here?"
The boy's face lit up with excitement. "Jet! You sound like yourself again! The hypnotic fume's effects must be wearing off!"
"Hypnotic fume?" Jet gave the genius a puzzled stare.
"It's a long story. I'll tell you on the way!" Gesturing for the spy to follow, Jimmy ran deeper into the jungle with a confused Jet on his trail—and perhaps a few villains as well.
Hope that was half-way decent...It's not always easy converting a story in script form to paragraph form. At least, not for impatient people. :-)