Frugal Lucre Strikes Again!  Chapter 01

“Come on, print for Kim, print for Kim...” she said, as the printer in her locker struggled with her term paper, a term paper which was do in five minutes.  Kim's desktop disappeared in a horrible burst of static, quickly being replaced with the image of Frugal Lucre, complete with his fake moustache and fake Eastern-European accent.

“Citizens of ze vorld, last time it vould only have cost you vun dollar per person, but now” he said, rolling into into a villainous chortle, “now! it is vun hundred dollars per person.”  His face get's replaced with a number, $ _ _ _ , _ _ _  ,  _ _ _ , _ 1 7 . 5 8.  “I have rounded ze vorld's population to eight billion.  As soon as this number reaches eight hundred billion, I vvill end my reign of terror.  You can find ze pertinent account information at any bank around ze volrd, und until then, the information super hivay vill crash!  Ze markets of the vvorld's greatest economic powers will grind to a halt; it could have cost you a mear dollar, but now watch as the mother's teat of your decadent economies dries up and her fat children are forced to fend for themselves,” *Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha....*

“ooh,” Ron said from behind Kim, “he really has the laugh down.”

“That's not the point, Ron!  I thought we put him in jail.”

“Yeah, duh, like that stops Shego... I mean, what kind of prison can't hold a measily super villain or two...”

“Ron, this is not the time.” Kim said, as she began to strike her printer, hoping to coax a few more pages out of it.  “Any other time but now!” she panicked and yanked, finally dislodging the half-printed page.

The telephone on a nearby wall rang and Ron picked it up, “Middleton Highschool, B-hall, what can I do for you.”

“Ron,”

“Wade?, on a land-line?  You have a land-line?!”

“Yeah, it's a hold-over from when I was studying late twentieth century telephone modems in history class.  I take it you guys know what Lucre did.”

“Whammed the internet again.” Ron replied.

“So, how's Kim taking it?”

Ron looked over to see Kim on her knees, banging her head on the locker below, saying “no...” with every beat.

“Uh, well... she's doing... okay... I guess...  She was kind of looking forward to printing that term paper before...”  *school bell rings*

“oooo...” Wade replied.

“A mission would probably cheer her up, and it would give her an excuse to hand the paper late, so, what do you have?”

“Nothing.  After he broke out of prison, he completely disappeared, and with all of my computers down, there is not much I can do.”

“All of your computers?  Is that even possible?  You've got the big ones and the little ones and the ones protecting other ones and....” Ron asked.

“Well, everything except my pre-broadband legacy machines, but those things are...”

“Yeah, can't you use those, you know, what ever they are?” Ron asked.

“Well, I have been meaning to brush up on my archaic languages, but it is really going to take some time.”

“I guess this is the part where Kim would usually say, 'Please and Thankyou.'  I should get going, Wade, I don't know how much more of her head that locker can take.”

“Pass her the phone... if it will reach...” *sigh*

Ron held out the phone to her ear, trying his best to hold it with the constant head movment.  “no... no... no... Kim still said with each beat.

“Kim?” Wade asked.

“no... no... no...”

“Kim, you brought the paper on disk, right?”

“no... no... no...”

“If you turn off the computer and reset the printer, you should be able to print directly from the disk.  Kim?”

“no... no.. no...”

Ron pushed a couple of buttons on with his free hand, and after the usual start up noises, pages started to come back out of the printer.  He held the completed term paper in front of Kim, between her head bobs.  “Term paper!” she exclaimed, grabbing the pages.  “Thank you, Ron!” she said, nearly tackling him with a hug before running down the hallway.

“Hey!” the phone yelled, and Ron lifted it up to his ear.

“Too late.”

“Sorry, Wade; she's long gone.”  *pause*  “Uh, Wade?”

“Trying to stare you into submission,” Wade answered, “but it just doesn't work... my computers!..”

“Easy, Wade, they'll be back up when Kim stops Frugral Lucre.”

“I know, I know, but my babies!.. wait, aren't you two in the same class, shouldn't you have a paper to hand in as well?”

“Yeah, well... 10% per day...”

“You waited until the last minute again, didn't...”

“If by last minute you mean when I get to Bueno Nacho, then...” Ron said into the phone, “class!  I've got  to go...” *click*