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This is an interactive story that a group of us on Prodigy wrote. Only a
few words, for the
sake of spelling and grammar, have been changed. Otherwise it is almost exactly
the way it
appeared on Prodigy. Well, I thought that the story was good and deserved
to be published
on the web. I want to thank IGD and Jody for helping me write this. Here
we go...
By the way: if you see {} that means that person wrote that section.
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{Joeanne}
Our heroes on the SOL were gather around Crow T. Robot as he attempted to
decipher
the computer files from Deep 13.
"Well, have you got anything yet?" Mike asked. Crow looked up at him with
his
patented "Nerdy guy" glasses on.
"MIKE! These things take time!" Crow said. He turned back to the computer
and
continued typing. Everyone leaned closer to the screen. "AHHHHH! Stop that!
I'm getting
claustrophobic," Crow protested. The others backed off. This kind of thing
went on in a
cycle for five hours...
Back in Deep 13, Dr. Forrester was on the computer, snickering. "Ha! They
think
they're so smart, wait 'till you get to the *bat* files," he laughed
evilly.
"Clay! You've been spending way too much time on that thing since Frank left,"
Mrs. Forrester scolded.
"But mother! They're trying to break into my system. I can't sleep now, not
when I
can give them some 'Deep Hurting'," Dr. F complained, holding up a microphone
up at the
appropriate time.
"Oh, stop it you!" Mrs. Forrester said and took the microphone away. She
turned the
computer off. At that exact moment Crow broke into the files. The simultaneous
events
somehow created a weird vortex. This rush of power woke the hellbeast that
was in
hibernation since the sixties. It rose out of its cave. It brushed off its
costume and
stood in the sun.
"Now I can awaken the spirit of music in everyone!" it cried. Mr. B Natural
flew from
its cave on the cliffs and headed for Minnesota...
Joel leaned against the broom, snoring. One of the managers slapped him on
the back.
"Come now Mr. Robinson, sleeping on the job? You have a lot of work to do,"
he said. Joel
looked at him with his sleepy eyes.
"Sir, you just interrupted my Hercules impression," Joel protested. The manager
shook
his head.
"I know better than that Joel, come now, the shelves in Aisle 5 need to be
restocked,"
the manager explained.
"Sir, not the 'Tickle Me Elmo' aisle," Joel complained.
"Come on, you want this job or not?" the manager asked.
"I do, but if I get tackled again, I'm..uh..gonna...do...uh..something...bad,"
Joel
stammered.
"Whatever," the manager said, walking away. Joel sighed and went to the back
room of
Perry's Toy Store. He picked one of the heavy boxes and began to walk to
the dreaded
Aisle 5. Joel dropped the box next to the shelf. He looked to his left, he
looked to his
right, then he took one of the dolls out of the box. Suddenly, a wave of
screaming mothers
came running at him. Joel threw the box on top of the shelf, then scrambled
up to meet it.
Joel barely go to the top when the wave of mothers smashed themselves against
the
shelf. "Give me the doll, boy!" one cried. Joel stood up to stay out of their
reach.
"Heck no! I won't let anyone get one of these things until I stock the shelf,
got?!
No one, I repeat, no one gets a Tickle Me Elmo until I leave this aisle safely!"
Joel
yelled. The mothers became silent...
Meanwhile, Mike had Crow lying in his lap. The little robot had taken quite
a beating
from the power-vortex-type-thing. Crow looked up at Mike, "What happened?"
"Oh, you just got fried by your own computer. We're thinking about selling
parts of
you as 'Kentucky Fried Crow'," Tom replied. Mike glared at Tom.
"That isn't very nice," Gypsy said.
"Nothing's nice in war, sweetheart," Tom said and hovered away.
"What was that about?" Mike asked.
"Some of that surge hit Tom too. He's been acting funny lately," Gypsy replied...
Somewhere in Minnesota Mr. B Natural sat on a statue in the park, telling
all of the
children about the spirit of music. The Children were so horrified at the
sight of Mr. B,
they became mindless zombies. Mr. B smiled obnoxiously. "I knew your parents,
I did," it
said. Several teenagers fell down, foaming at the mouth, screaming. "Come
now! Let's go
tell others about the spirit of music!!!"
{IGD}
But some of the children did not seem affected by Mr. B. Oh sure, the blank
zombie
faces were there, but no spirit of music was in them. Mr. B pranced over
to one tot
clutching a doll and trilled/screeched, "Don't you want to know the dignity
of a French
Horn?!" The kid only drooled. She...er he...crap, you know who, frowned and
looked at
what the lad was holding. "A purple dinosaur? What's this, has something
been taking my
rightful minds while I slept? hmmm..."
Meanwhile, Joel was now perched somewhat unstably on the top shelf. He got
there by
narrowly escaping a charge by the mothers by utilizing a nearby slinky (non
domesticated)
and his broom. "This would make a good invention exchange," he thought, then
shuddered.
Joel then clicked on his headset (standard equipment in toy stores) and spoke,
"There's just
too many of them! It's time for the diversion! Go!"
Overhead, the intercom clicked on, "beAnIe bABiES arE NOw AvaILAblE in
aSILe
tWo..." Cartoony stampeding noises were the result.
Joel sighed, clicked on again, "Thanks Torgo."
"iT wAS ThE leASt I cOuLD Do fOr tHE GuY wHo FoUnD mE a JoB aFTeR bEinG
kICkeD oUt oF SEcoNd bAnaNA heAveN."
"How did that happen anyway?"
{Joeanne}
Joel asked as he climbed down. Torgo seemed to shudder, "It GoT ToO NiCe
FoR ThE
LiKeS oF mE. ThEy DiDn'T LIkE mE. I DOn't KnOW WhY," Torgo replied. Joel
shook his
head at the headphones.
"I know what you mean. I don't know what the Mads didn't like about me either.
Life's funny that way. Hey, have the mothers figured it out yet?" Joel
asked.
"FiGUrEd whAT OuT?" Torgo asked.
"That we don't have any..." Joel was cut off when a wall of mothers suddenly
appeared
before him. "Oh, crap," he whispered. The mothers began to advance toward
him.
"They lied, it's not nice to lie!" one of the mothers said.
Meanwhile, Mike shook his head, everything was going wrong at once. Crow
was totally
fried, Tom was acting weirder that usual, and Gypsy just seemed...distant.
He just couldn't
get it. He stood up and waked to the small bed he had set up for Crow on
the bridge. Crow
moaned. Mike placed a hand on his forehead. "You okay?"
"Not really. I have this horrible dream about..." Crow was cut off by Tom
who hovered
by screaming.
"It's Mr. B!!!! He, she, it's back! Run aaaaahhh!!!" Mike stared after the
fleeing
bot.
"Who's Mr. B?"
{IGD}
Crow started screaming as well! "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAh!"
"Crow, is this Mr. B really that bad?"
"Huh? No, I just remembered my dream, I was at school with no clothes on
and..."
"But Crow, you've never been to school and you hardly ever wear clothes!"
"Oh yeah, but you interRUPTed me Mike, and teaching the class was BILL MAHER!"
They screamed in unison. "Oh yeah and Timmy told me via the dream world that
he was back
and was going to help Mr. B."
Mike groaned, "Maybe Tom can tell me who this 'Mr. B' is..."
While on the subject of Mr. B. Having gotten no where with the child or any
other
similarly affected revealed scant few insights, and to make things worse,
Mr. B could not
destroy them. Mostly She had got a name, "Sissy Spacek." But she was instantly
under
Mr. B's will, so that was not it. A beat went by and everything went quiet,
"Who turned off
my beautiful dignified music!" her zombies could only shuffle about. S/He
turned around to
see a dark specter, that simultaneous looked like an all black copy of B
and all black copy
of a robot with a bowling pin for a nose...
{Joeanne}
Joel backed away from the mothers. They began to get closer and closer and
closer,
finally Joel turned tail and ran. The mothers chased after him yelling and
screaming. He
was chased through the store, finally Joel ran out the door, and continued
to run until he
reached a park...
Tom calmed down and began to explained about Mr. B to Mike. Mike finally
understood
their horror and screamed with them.
Mr. B walked over to the strange creature. "Who are you, strange one?" it asked...
Dr. F groaned. The computer system was totally trashed. "Thanks a lot Mom!"
Dr. F
yelled. Mrs. Forrester shook her head.
"It's not my fault you broke your computer," she answered. Dr. F clenched
and
unclenched his fists.
{IGD}
Joel stopped and caught his breath. Stopping at a water fountain to get a
drink, it
hit him! "I FORGOT tORgO!!!" Joel ran back to the store just in time to see
his boss
booting Torgo out the doors. Special toy store doors that always closed at
the most
inopportune times for employees yet have no trouble for customers. It acted
the same with
recently fired employees as well. =crunch=
"And you can tell that smartypants janitor friend he's fired too! It's going
to be
weeks before we can fix the intercom," muttered their boss as he went back
inside.
"Oh Torgo! I'm sorry, my instincts got a hold of me, wave after wave of floral
print!
Let's get you out of there..."
{Joeanne}
The door wouldn't open! Joel finally took a wrench and pried the door open.
Torgo
fell out, landing on his knees. "ThANk YoU, jOeL," Torgo said. Joel helped
him up and
brushed him off.
"Well, I don't know what to do now. I'm sorry that this happened, I really
am. But,
what to do, what to do..." Joel apologized.
Torgo looked up at Joel, "lET's gO tO ThE pARk."
Joel shrugged, "Okay buddy. Whatever you want." So the two of them began
to walked
back to the park, unaware of the evil waiting there.
Mike stopped screaming long enough to catch his breath. "Do you know what
this
means? We have to get back to Earth! We have to save the people!" Gypsy screamed
patriotically. Tom stared at her.
"Oh yeah, we'll go down to Earth and risk our neck for a bunch of no good,
slimy.."
Tom was interrupted by Mike.
"What about Joel?" Tom looked at Mike.
"What about him?" Gypsy turned and smacked Tom.
"Something's seriously wrong here," Crow murmured.
"We have to do something for the good Earth people," Mike said. Crow
nodded.
"But what?" he asked. Mike pointed at the computer.
"Didn't you gain access to the secret files of Deep 13?" Mike asked.
"Yup, so?" Crow didn't get the idea.
"I know! Maybe we can steer down or something!" Gypsy blurted out. Crow shook
his
head.
"I'm not going on that thing again!"
Mike put his hands on Crow's shoulders, "Remember that old saying? If you
fall off
the horse, you have to get right back on."
"Bite me."
"Come on Crow..." Mike pleaded.
"Alright, but I get extra RAM chips for this."
Timmy approached Mr. B. He leaned close to it and whispered a plan into Mr.
B's ear.
"Why should I listen to one who doesn't appreciate the spirit of music?"
Mr. B demanded
to know. Timmy answered it in a whisper. "Oh," Mr. B said. Timmy then told
Mr. B about
some people who REALLY needed the spirit of music. "And where are these
unfortunate
people?" Mr. B twittered. Timmy told it.
Mr. B practically burst with revolting pleasure. Suddenly, one of the
"unfortunate"
people walked into the park with his hobbling friend. Mr. B smiled and danced
toward them.
Suddenly the "unfortunate" person, who was wearing a store uniform, screamed
in horror.
Mr. B danced toward them. The store clerk grabbed his strange friend by the
arm and pulled
him away.
"Come on Torgo!" the clerk yelled...
{IGD}
Torgo hobbled along, theme music blaring. "JoEL mY kNee'S!!"
Joel searched around as he ran, conflicting thoughts hammering in his brain,
"Did
I just see TWO evils of my old life back there?..." "What do I do with Torgo?..."
"You
know, Hillary Clinton does sorta look cute.." "AHA!" he shouts as he saw
a kid with a
scooter. "I need to borrow this!" he then ripped off the front part, ala
Back to the
Future. It wasn't a homemade scooter, but as the kid saw the note spangled
jacket already,
he didn't mind, he didn't mind anything.
Joel then tossed the wrecked but still functional board to Torgo. Torgo climbed
on,
shouted, "cOwABuNga, dUdE'S!!" and zoomed off, the opposite direction of
Joel. On the
headphones, he told Joel, "wHatevER frIGHTened tHE grEAt JoEl *MuSt* bE bAD,
sO we'Ll sPlit uP!"
"RIGHT! Meet me later at that TV station I pointed out to you during our
tour of the
Twin Cities!" Joel ran.
Dr. F collapsed next to the terminal. "That's it! It's kaput!! Drat!! If
only
Frank were here! He wouldn't be able to fix it, but I could at least blame
him!"
Mrs. Forrester, "mmmm honey? Well, I'm going out to get a few things, want
me to get
you anything Clayton? Like a backBONE?? Haha! Well, be back later." Mrs.
F opened the
hatch and climbed into the express elevator.
The lift took her past Deep 12, "Such nice girls in there," Pearl thought,
"Especially
that other Pearl!" Deep 11, Deep Purple, Deep 9, etc. until she reached the
surface level,
a TV station front for Dr. F's real activities called Bad Brains, Inc. It
also made finding
cheesy movies a bit easier.
Currently the station had a "special guest" in the form of the gaffaling
purple
dinosaur children loved everywhere. Dr. F decided he must be killed and invited
him to
make a few local commercials.
{Joeanne}
Joel ran on and on and on. Finally he stopped. He glanced around him, no
one there.
'Great,' he thought, then collapsed onto the grass. He stared up at the sky
fora while.
Joel imagined goofy cloud shapes. "Hey, there's a dog, and a Doctari stool,
and the
Satellite of Love...Satellite of Love!" Joel yelled. Yes, it was the SOL
and it was
plummeting to Earth right on top of Joel.
He scrambled up and ran away as fast as he could. He was only a few inches
away from
the SOL as it crashed. Joel felt part of the ship brush against his uniform.
He imagined
that he could hear many groans coming from the ship. Joel scrambled up the
side and looked
for the escape hatch. He opened it up with a wrench and climbed inside.
Joel recognized the tube that carried him to the pod and scrambled up. Finally
he
reached the bridge. He tried to open the lid, but it was stuck. "Hey! Guys!
I'm down
here!" he called. Suddenly the hatch opened. It turns out Mike had landed
on it.
"Hey! We made it to Earth, guys!" Mike called out. The 'bots just moaned.
Crow
managed to pick himself out of the rubble.,
"Okay, I want those RAM chips now!" he demanded.
Joel looked at Mike in surprise. "How'd you get here anyhow?" Joel asked
Mike. Mike
told him. "Oh, bet Dr. F was ticked," Joel said.
"Probably, we lost all communications when Crow was fried," Mike answered.
Tom and
Gypsy then found their own way out of the debris.
"Since we're here anyway, we'd better go save Earth," Tom muttered.
"You mean, you know about Mr. B Natural and Timmy?!" Joel cried.
Mrs. Forrester grimaced at the purple dinosaur and continued on whatever
evil errand
she was on. Dr. Forrester had turned on an outside monitor and was surprised
to see the SOL
only a few miles from the studio. "What?! Oh, when I find those...urg...they'll
hurt like
never before!" he screamed. Dr. F took the elevator (out dancing, just kidding)
and rose
toward the surface.
{IGD}
The elevator slapped him. Then rose to the top...
"Mike, sorry you got sent up after me, how are my bots?"
"Oh, they're...ok, I guess...Gypsy's been distant lately, Crow's still a
little smoky,
Cambot's been asleep for a while, and Tom..."
"My GIZMOS! TOM!" Joel rushed past Mike into the bridge, to the crumpled
pile of
parts that was Tom.
Tom wearily said, "Oh..hello...waitress...I'd like...a
pillow...hee...oooo."
Mike thought out loud, "The crash must have been too much for the little
guy, sheesh,
how did I survive an orbit to surface fall!"
"I installed a coincidence-o-tron in the SOL in one of my less successful
escape
attempts, leaving things to chance as it were. Actually, with Tom in this
condition I could
make some modifications to deal with those...evils." Everyone who could,
shuddered.
{Joeanne}
Dr. Forrester stepped out of the elevator and looked around. There was no
one there.
'Good,' he thought evilly. He held a cattle prod in his right hand and a
tazer in the left.
Dr. Forrester grinned evilly then headed toward the Satellite.
Joel finished working on Tom and gave Crow some RAM chips and they headed
out of
the ship. "Listen, we can come back later and get some of this stuff out
of the ship, we
might need it later," Joel explained.
"Say Joel, what have you been doing the past few years?" Tom asked. Joel
looked
uncomfortable. The job at the toy store was the most recent of a steady stream
of failed
janitorial-type occupations.
"I've been doing...stuff," Joel evasively answered. Mike guessed that life
hadn't been
too good and whispered to the 'bots not to push it. As they began to walk
away,
Dr. Forrester came up from behind and tazered Mike. Mike fell to the ground
with a thud.
"Ah!" the 'bots and Joel screamed.
"I've got you now, there's no escape THIS time," Dr. Forrester said. Suddenly,
two
figures and an army of zombie children began to advance toward them.
"We're doomed," Crow said.
"Come on guys, it's just Dr. Forrester," Joel said, he hadn't noticed the
others
behind him.
"Yeah, and Mr. B Natural with an army of zombie children," Tom relied.
"Wha? Holy..." Joel managed to say before Gypsy slapped a coil around his
mouth.
"I'll have none of that language in this story!" she said. Joel pushed her
off just
as Mr. B and Timmy's army stopped marching. Dr. F stood there, amazed.
"Hello! I've come to awaken the spirit of music in all of you!" Mr. B said.
Joel,
the 'bots, Dr. F, and Mike (who finally woke up)screamed. Timmy came forward
and smiled
evilly at Crow.
"No, no, no, not Timmy! Make it stop, make it stop!" Crow cried. Joel stood
protectively in front of Crow and Tom.
"Leave them alone you..."
"Don't you dare say it!" Gypsy warned.
"It's the best part of the whole 'Timmy saga' though," Joel complained.
Mike stood up groggily, "What's wrong? He was only gonna say..." Gypsy looked
at
Mike warningly. Mr. B danced over to Dr. F, he stood paralyzed with horror.
The group used
this distraction to their advantage and ran into the TV studio, that just
happened to be
close by.
Timmy ordered the zombie children to march after them.
{IGD}
Mike shouted, "I'll help! I'll spin a clipboard around at them."
Crow looked at him oddly, What's that supposed to do?"
"Well, it's my best skill. Haven't you noticed?"
Mr. B approached Forrester, "Wait! Mr. B! I'm evil too! Aren't I?"
{Joeanne}
Mr. B Natural stared at Dr. Forrester. "What is evil about the spirit of
music?" it
asked.
"Plenty," Dr. F whispered under his breath. "Um, you want to awaken music
in those
people who just ran by, correct?
"Yes," Mr. B answered.
"I may be able to help..."
Mike's plan was quickly abandoned as the army drew closer. The group ran
down hallway
after hallway, trying to escape. "This feels familiar..." Joel commented.
For a brief
moment the crew thought they saw some weird monkey pictures.
"God, no! We're in 'Time of the Apes'!" Tom cried out. Everyone screamed,
except for
Mike who had no clue as to what they were talking about.
"'Time of the Apes?'" he asked.
"You don't want to know," Crow answered.
"Hey guys, in here!" Gypsy called out and the mass ran into one of the studios.
Torgo looked around him. "Oh, dArN, whERe dId thEY gO?" he asked himself.
He had
been on the skateboard for a while now. "I'd beTTEr fINd thEm," he thought
and got off the
skateboard. He began to walk, theme music blaring, to the studio Joel had
mentioned
earlier.
Joel, Mike, and the 'bots leaned against the wall and panted. "Hope that's
the LAST
time we see them," Gypsy said. Suddenly a goofy laughed interrupted them.
They looked up
to see a big dumb guy in a dinosaur suit.
"Oh no, not him," Joel moaned. The dinosaur looked at them and seemed to
recognize
Joel.
"Hello, Mr. Clerk, remember me? You helped load all my little friends into
that toy
store," Barney said. Joel nearly smacked his head. He had forgotten how,
a few days ago,
he had to restock some shelves with Barney merchandise. Mike and the 'bots
gave him a
quizzical look.
"It's a long story guys," he answered.
"Well, what are we gonna do now? Mr. B Natural and Timmy are waiting outside,"
Crow
said.
"Yeah, and we're stuck in here with Barney," Mike said.
"Talk about being between a Roc and a hard place," Tom cracked.
{IGD}
Crow was confused, "What roc?"
"Nevermind that now Crow, we're go to do something," Mike was concerned.
Crow thought, "Um, scream and run to another room?"
"Good idea!! Aaaaah!" The gang all pounded feet to the next room where
they found Torgo, oddly enough cringing in fright. Joel asked him concerned
about what was
the matter.
All Torgo managed to say was a frightened, "Ma-mA-M-m-ma..." Joel looked
around, as
did everyone else. The day was just throwing horror after horror at them,
and everyone
trembled.
Except Mike, "What's the matter, it's just a big field, and another field,
and
an-not-her...field?" The set of Manos: The Hands of Fate finally reached
into Mike's brain
and paralyzed him like the others.
Meanwhile, Dr. F was trying to prove his evilness to Timmy, "And I never
rewind rental
tapes, in fact I have even kept Beaches and have never returned it...Hahaha!"
Dr. F was for
the most part ignored as Timmy whispered into Mr. B's ear.
"A broadcast studio? Why I can awaken the spirit of the whole world!! A short
was
just too little too early!" Then Mrs. F pulled up, back from the store.
{Jody}
Mrs. F got out of the car with a brown paper bag in hand. "Clayton, I rented
Mystic
Pizza like you wanted," she suddenly stops, "Who are these people? That robot
looks just
like Crow..."
"Mother please, I'm trying to get on their side. Your being here doesn't
help," Dr. F
and Mrs. F began arguing.
Mike and everyone else were still paralyzed. "Why can't I move?" Mike was
really
confused.
"Don't you get it? It's Maaa-" Joel was cut off by a large explosion...
"-Nooss!" Joel screamed as he and everyone else were thrown out of the building from the force of the explosion. Everyone fell outside with a *THUD*.
"What could have caused that?" Mike asked.
"I don't know. Let's get out of here! We'll go back to my apartment so we can figure out a plan!"
Meanwhile with Forrester and friends...
"Mother! You never let me be evil!" Dr. Forrester whined.
"Evil has gotten you in so much trouble! Remember in high school when you hooked up those surveillance cameras in the girls locker room? You were suspended for three months. I couldn't show my face at the PTA meetings!" Pearl explained.
{Joeanne}
"Mother, you couldn't show your face at PTA meetings because they banned you for those cyanide cookies you made for the bake sale!" Dr. Forrester argued.
"That's not true!" Pearl said.
"Oh, no? Well, I still have a copy of the restraining order they put on you!"
Dr. Forrester spat. The two Forrester faced off, glaring at each other and neither giving up.
"Say, nice place, Joel," Tom commented as he hovered into the apartment. It was small but spacious. The walls were plastered with art renderings of plays, movies, and life on the SOL.
"Thanks, Tom Servo," Joel said and closed the door behind them. He ran to the large picture window and drew the curtains, plunging the room into darkness.
"Hey, I can't see!" Mike complained.
"oH, GoD i'M BLiND," Torgo panicked.
"Sorry, guys," Joel apologized and flipped the lights on. "Now, we've got to get serious guys and come up with a plan," Joel said.
"Right!" Crow agreed.
"Okay, anyone got any ideas?" Joel asked.
"I could flip my clipboard at them," Mike offered. He thought for a moment then said, "But I think I did that already."
"I cOUld mAKe ANimAL saCRIFices," Torgo suggested. The others laughed nervously for a moment and Crow made the "crazy" sign.
"Somehow, I don't think that's necessary," Mike replied.
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Use of copyrighted and trademarked material is for entertainment purposes only; no infringement on the original copyrights or trademarks held by Best Brains, Inc. is intended or should be inferred.
That's it so far. Well, I'm asking Jody and IGD to help me continue this on. If you like this, or if you don't, email me at MXTH95b@prodigy.com. Thank you, and God bless.
