What Did You Do? (UPDATED)

Same thing as before.

Chapter 1




James had just gotten home from school after a long day of work. He was on the school's track team, and like anyone who chose to do a sport that school year, he had to spend hours a day or week practicing and practicing.
Because of this, he had almost no time to hang out with his friends. He did have a little time to hang out with his best friend, but not much. He was sad about this realization initially, but he eventually got over it in time. For now, he had bigger goals to focus on. He had to focus on the biggest prank he would ever pull.
He had been planning this for over a year and a half, but he had never had a chance to pull it off. That is, until he had met his best friend Mark. Mark’s dad owned a prank shop down the street, and Mark’s mom owned the candy shop next door. Every day after school since they met, they would immediately go to the prank shop to check out the inventory, and then go to the candy shop to eat some candy and pull some pranks on some customers.
Ever since he had joined the school’s track team, though, he had not had much time to go to the candy shop and the prank shop with Mark. He had joined by his parents request in order for him to get involved with the other kids. It was slowly but surely working, but not in the way they had expected.
Every day during track practice, he had pulled at least one prank on someone, which earned laughter from some, and was frowned upon by others. But, either way, he did enjoy track, and could see it as a possible career choice for him in the future.
When he got home, he plopped down on his bed and turned on his console to play some games. He had to have some sort of break from other things in life, you know? Being in 10th grade was hard. He had to solve difficult math equations, navigate through the world of science and social studies, and go through the vast possibilities of English. He also had other classes to deal with, such as art, health, physical education, and more. But that wasn’t his concern right now. For now, he had to focus on the task at hand: Playing games and planning his big prank.
His parents had called him briefly. He told them, “Hello! I can’t currently speak right now. This is an automated recorded message. Please call back later.” Yet another prank he had pulled, which he now had thought it was great that he hadn’t told his parents whether or not he made that his voicemail. As a matter of fact, he should make that his voicemail so they don’t get suspicious of him.
I am a smart kid, he thought. I’m so smart I might actually be able to pull off the prank! He knew he still had much to prepare for, though. He still had to get over half of the supplies needed for this.
But what was this prank, you may ask? Well, you see, this prank was going to be legendary. He had it all planned out. First, he would go to the town hall and set off the town meeting button, which he assumed they had. If they didn’t, then he was in trouble, because then he would not be able to pull it off regardless of the materials.
Then, after they were all assembled, he would get a paint bucket the size of the town hall and dump it on everyone (somehow) He would then throw a practice dummy off the town hall roof, and make people think someone jumped.
Then, he would grab a parachute, jump off the building for real, and hope people would applaud his master skill of pulling this all together. He was also hoping the paint bucket would not trap anybody under it if it were to fall.
So far, he had gathered the paint, the blueprints for the town hall (So he knew where the main office was) and the parachute. He still needed access to the button, the paint bucket, and the test dummy. The test dummy should be easy to get, since they sell those at a place pretty close to where he lives (for some reason) The button should also be easy to get to, because he could get in, talk about some serious business, then go into the bathroom, crawl through the vents, and he was basically already in the room.
But he still needed to find a really big paint bucket. He needed to do this quickly. And fast, too. He would only have 7 more chances for this, because right now, the town is rallying for the town hall to be closed down and be replaced by a roller rink. Unfortunately, as of right now, the roller rink team has a slight lead, with 52 percent of the town voting for the town hall to be replaced by a roller rink.
So, if he wanted to pull this off, he had to do it before the roller rink was constructed. He must pull off this prank soon.
So, in other words, he somehow had to find a general store that had a gigantic paint bucket. Obviously, not the best situation to be in. But, soon, that may all change.
You see, there was a new general store opening up down the street from the old general store, most likely to compete. And, luckily, they were a general store that not only sold regular items, but gigantic ones as well! So, as you may imagine, James would spend all night next week camping out in front of the store until it opened.
But all of his plans were going to change when he realized something.
How was he going to sneak out of his house without his parents noticing?









Chapter 2



While he was falling asleep that night, he had an idea. So, he got out all of his supplies for making a masterful plan full of whimsy and fun, and maybe, just maybe, even a little bit of a reward.
He had it all planned out. The first step in his plan was to hide a test dummy under his blanket to make it look like he was sleeping in the bed. Sure, he would have to buy an extra test dummy for this, but it was all worth it for the plan.
Then, after that, he would have to make the test dummy look like him so his parents would not grow suspicious when they saw someone who looked like they had no face when they went to go check in on him.
He would sneak out of his room, leave his house through the first floor window (after disabling the alarm and making sure he made no sound.) He would swing from his window using a rope that he would also have to buy from a store eventually. After that, he would dart down his street and hide behind some trash cans, because, despite being one of the most athletic people in his school, he was pretty skinny, and could hide behind a trash can with no one noticing. He also was pretty smart, and was able to think out a plan like this.
Finally, he could camp out at his friend Mark’s house, because he was fully aware of this whole situation and plan that he had gotten himself wrapped into. He knew he would be coming to his house when this plan would be initiated, and as such, he was prepared.
So that morning, as he was walking to school, discussing this with Mark, one of their other friends, Jimmy, came over to them and said, “Hey, guys. So James, I heard all about your plan! Let's just say, when this happens, I'm in.” James responded with, “You know you wouldn't be “in”, right? You wouldn't even be part of the plan. No offense, but we can't draw any more attention to ourselves, and with you joining, with you being a highly respected and prestigious person at this school, Hawkeye High School, would have lots of attention drawn to this operation as soon as you join.”
James then continued on, saying “Well, actually, I do have a job for you. If you can help me gather some supplies for this operation, that would really help a lot.” Jimmy responded, “Yeah! I would love to! One question: What supplies do you need?”
And that was when James told him all about the giant bucket. Jimmy said, “I don’t know how I’m supposed to get this, but you know what, I'll get it anyways!
James said “Great. Now, you should probably catch up with your other friends. It looks like they’re almost at school.” Jimmy ran off, and James and Mark high fived each other at the same time and continued walking towards the school. Once they were in school, they split up, each saying, “See ya.” and walked off to their homeroom. James had history, which he found pretty interesting, because it taught him about all of the previous rulers that had roamed this Earth back in the olden days. People like Julius Caesar, King Sargon, King Tut, Alexander The Great, and more. And this was great, because even when other people didn’t like this class, hey, at least they were learning, right?
His first period class was when he had some trouble, though. He had to face his least favorite class. Economic Studies. He didn’t like this class not only because of the class itself, but also because of the teacher. Mr. Herald.
Mr. Herald was always mean to James, even from day one. He would constantly yell at him for doing something wrong, such as forgetting to do something like adding up all of the forms of money instead of dollars, or forgetting to turn in his homework when he was one second too late. It was infuriating.
But the worst part? Every day, for no reason besides him sometimes talking for a minute with his friends and not doing anything else, he would get detention. Every. Single. Day. You know how long he had had this class? 7 months. 7. Months. So he was having a rough time, to say the least.
But this day, something was different. Mr. Herald wasn’t there. And this substitute was somehow looking to be even meaner than Mr. Herald.
So a new thought came to mind in James' head. A quite exquisite thought, actually. He had an idea to prank this substitute.


Chapter 3

First, he had to find the super glue he kept in his locker, just in case he ever needed it for some reason. Then, he had to find his stash of thumbtacks and glue a couple handfuls of them all down on the subs seat.
But he already knew the sub wouldn’t fall for it that easily, so he had another backup plan. He would grab even more thumbtacks and place them all on her desk under her lesson plans, and when she lifted up her paperweight to let them all go, she would be sprung in the face with thumbtacks. It was diabolical. Evil genius, some might say.
But he had to rely on good old luck in order for this to work, one wrong move and the actual teacher could end up getting the tacks because the sub never moved the papers.
Soon, though, he would find all his planning would not go to waste, as the sub soon went to sit down and surprisingly, fell for that trap, even though that was just set there for fooling. She needed to call the nurse, but her phone was underneath all of the papers, so she lifted the paperweight and got sprung right in the face with thumbtacks.
The entire class erupted into laughter, and for that one day, James was not only the most popular kid in their school, but also the kid with the most detentions racked up in one day: a record setting 47, not to mention getting a medical bill for all the small holes in his substitute teachers face.
So due to his ungodly amount of detentions, he knocked one off that afternoon in the detention room with Ms. Harold. Ms. Harold was known as the worst teacher in the school due to her anger always bubbling over the limit and blowing out at her students just for throwing a paper airplane. Luckily, though, she was absent that day, so they got to sit through class with a substitute teacher. James had learned his lesson earlier in the day and decided not to mess with the substitute teacher and instead just sit there during detention.
When he got home, though, his parents were understandably extremely mad that he racked up 47 detentions in one go, which, albeit, is extremely impressive, but he decided not to mention that to his parents. They already knew what he had done from the faculty who called them and told them about the situation, and he was grounded until he cleared out all 47 detentions. Luckily, he already cleared out 1, so only 46 to go.
So while his friends were outside playing football and other activities for fun, he was forced to stay inside and look at his ceiling until dinner. After dinner, he went to take a shower, and then went to bed after he finished his shower.
The next day at school, all anybody would talk about was what happened and the kid who racked up 47 detentions in one day. But the surprise came later that day, when he was called to the office.
When he went to the office, he was told he had to go with his parents to the hospital. When he arrived, he knew what was about to happen, when the person whose medical bill he was paying for stood up and walked toward him, the holes in her face still visible. The substitute teacher, walking over to him. In other words, he was a dead man walking.

Chapter 4

The substitute teacher, walking a bit angrily with an expression of… something (it was hard for James to tell due to the holes in her face) came up to him and muttered out, “Well, if it isn't the peculiar troublemaker himself, James, the ultimate prankster.
James stuttered out, “Heh heh, yeah… A little surprising hearing you say that, actually… Heh…”
The substitute teacher smirked and said, “Well I had to call you that… after I found out you had racked up 47 detentions and had pranked over 30 other teachers and substitutes alike!”
James’ weary smile drooped into a sad frown as he stammered, “Wow, it’s really that many? Feels like I just started yesterday…”
The substitute seemed a little angry about this response and followed up with, “You know, I used to go to your school, and I was quite the know-it-all. In fact, and correct me if I’m wrong, there is a rule in the student handbook that states that any student or teacher that commits over 35 offenses will be expelled or fired from the school. Now, they could have changed that over the years, but I’m not wrong, am I?”
As James heard this comment, sudden realization had set in. He only had 5 more pranks left on teachers before he was expelled. Maybe even less because he had lost count. So he had to lose those remaining pranks wisely, or else they might cut him off earlier than expected.
He also realized that soon after he pulled the pranks on the teachers and the substitutes over the years that most of them had quit, meaning he had probably cost the school a lot of money to find at least 10 new teachers. He would have to pay for this eventually- whether it be through being expelled or his parents covering the costs of damages to the school in order to get him back in and enrolled.
But he still had time to find new substitutes and to come up with more prank ideas. But maybe he should hold off until this issue is solved. Because he doesn't know how many pranks he has left. So while he solved that problem, he would have to come up with new things to do to keep up his image as a prankster. What if Mark stopped being friends with him over this? He wouldn't be able to help with any more of his plans, which would admittedly be awful due to him being a key component to many of his pranks and big pranks.
Jimmy still hadn't gotten him his giant paint bucket, which he was going to need for something at some point. He might be able to play a big prank, one so big that it would shock the entire town and maybe make its way around nationally if he pulled it off correctly.
He was going to call everyone in front of town hall in about a month, through the mayor who he knew well because of his parents, after he had his giant paint bucket and it was completely full with red paint, he was going to hire a helicopter through unknown means to hover directly over the crowd gathered in the city hall plaza and drop the entire paint bucket on all of them.
He was going to be known throughout Hanksville as The Ultimate Prankster.
Now his only concern was: How was he going to hire a helicopter?

Chapter 5

He would have to find a cheap helicopter for hire, but this would not be easy to accomplish. It could take hours, days, maybe weeks, whole months, just to find a cheap helicopter for hire. Maybe this is too difficult for even me, James thought. Maybe I’m not cut out to find a helicopter for hire through methods that may not be legal. But I can’t give up. I know I can do this. So he logged on to his computer and started searching.
He found some websites that looked promising, but were either too expensive, too scammy, or literally were $1, which is never a good sign. But, eventually, he found a helicopter cheap enough that he could just barely afford it. It was from a guy named Gordon Wingman and he was selling a one time helicopter ride service for just $300.
He clicked buy after putting in his credit card information and had to wait a week for the service to be able to happen and any time after that the helicopter service was free to use. Now he just had to make some final preparations for the operation after school the next day.
He went to bed and woke up in the morning, got ready, and walked to school with Mark. When they were about halfway to school, Jimmy came over to them and said, “Hey, guys! How’s the plan coming along?” James said, “Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. The more important question is how is that giant paint bucket order coming along?”
Jimmy responded with, “Also not too shabby if I do say so myself. The order should be ready by next week.” James said, “Perfect. Now, we’re almost at school, so we should probably get going.” Jimmy nodded and said, “Alright then. See you guys later!”
Mark then asked, “So what’s the big prank you’ve got planned now that you can’t really prank in school?” James said, “You heard I can’t prank in school anymore?” Mark responded with a smirk and said, “Word goes around fast, James. You need to catch up to speed on gossip in our school.” James, looking a bit deflated about revealing his surprise, said, “Yeah, whatever.
He continued with, “Anyways, I can’t reveal any big details this early into the project, but let's just say if you want to see it in action, you’re gonna want to stay away from city hall when I call a meeting.”
Mark, now eyes wide with a smirk on his face, said, “Ok, ultimate prankster. But just remember that we have track after school, okay?” James said, “Okay. Now let's get to school.”
When they got there, it seemed like most people already knew that James didn’t have much time left to prank, with him only being able to do 5 more pranks at most. One kid, Jeremy, came up and said, “Well, if it isn’t Mr. Ultimate Prankster himself. Seems someone has run out of time to make their name known around here, no?”
James said, “Oh no. I’ve still got one more big prank left, and this time it is going to be outside of school, so no more big limitations. Only the possibility of fame and the law.” Jeremy said, “Oh, well. Too bad that I don’t get to help you out with this operation. I could offer quite a bit of information to the team. So sad.”
James thought about this for a second, and realized he could be bluffing, but if he wasn’t and was not going to destroy this operation from the ground up, this could be big. So he said, “Well, Jeremy, it looks like you are hired

Chapter 6

For Jeremy’s first job as an employee in this operation, he had to go and find him some information about the blueprints for town hall. Just in case Jimmy’s giant paint bucket happened to be too small, he had to find out the general area of the plaza of town hall.
While Jimmy and Jeremy were doing their jobs, James finally gave Mark a job and told him to go and find out as much information as possible about how clear the sky would be the day he pulled this off. How many planes would be in the sky that day, just to make sure the planes wouldn’t crash into the helicopter accidentally.
And with all the employees in this operation doing their jobs to help them plan this humongous prank, James got to do the hardest job of all: He got to relax.
Of course he got to relax. For starters, he had already put a lot into the operation. He found a helicopter for hire, and… Oh, he thought. I guess I haven’t really done as much. But my job was still difficult, and there wasn't really anything else I could do except… Wait. He had completely forgotten he had to ask the mayor to host a gathering in town hall plaza. Oh shoot! I’ve got to go do that now!
So he left his house to go rush to town hall and request a meeting with the mayor. Unfortunately for him, the next meeting with the mayor would be in 4 hours, but he had to do his part in this operation, so he had to play the waiting game.
A long, gruelling four hours later, and he was sitting across from the mayor. He had seen a lot of people walk into city hall when he was waiting. He saw two people waiting to be married, an old man who thought this was a doctor's office, and a baby who just kind of sat there.
When he walked into the office, he noticed the mayor was looking outside, almost like he was waiting for something, or someone, to show up outside. When he noticed James was there, though, he turned around and said, “Well, if it isn’t James Trison! How may I help you today?
James said, “Oh, nothing much. I just need you to schedule a town hall meeting, preferably next week.” The mayor looked at him skeptically and said, “What for?” James hadn’t thought about this much, but he had an idea, so he responded with, “Well, sometimes people in this country go unnoticed, so I think we should have a ceremony for all the veterans in the town.”
The mayor furrowed his brow and said, “Well, I believe that can be arranged. You will need to attend this meeting, though, as you were the one who came up with this idea.” James responded with, “Oh, I will be attending this meeting. You will notice me when I arrive.”


Chapter 7

Now that James had all of that done and over with, all he had to do now was sit back and relax while the operation did its work. He got to lay down for a while, check in on his other employees, and it was awesome having nothing to do.
So he did check in on all of them and everything was going well. Mark had managed to see all the flight plans for next week, and no planes would be going by in between 1:30 and 2:30, Jeremy found out that the giant bucket would barely manage to cover the area of town hall, and Jimmy was doing decently with getting the giant bucket, with it being shipped the next week. So everything was going swimmingly.
With nothing left to do, James decided to go to the track to maybe find some new people to recruit or to just run. When he gets there, he sees his friend Terry with his other friend Harry and decides to hire both of them.
He walks over to them and says, “Hey, Terry. Hey, Harry. Now, would you like to be hired as an employee?” Terry says, “Well, we did hear about your operation. We don’t know what's gonna happen in this operation, but we want in on this.” Harry says, “Hey, you don’t know I want to join!” Terry says, “Well, do you want to join? Harry, looking down, says, “Yes.” Terry says, “Well, problem solved! We’re in.”
James said, “Perfect! For your first job, Terry, for my next operation after this, I am going to need a sewing machine. Think you can acquire one?” Terry said, “Sure! But why?” James said, “Oh, you know. Just something I might need. And Harry, I need 10 yards of green fabric.” Harry said, “Well, ok! We’ll get those! See you around!” James said, “Bye.”
He didn’t know exactly what he was going to need it for as he had not thought of the next operation, but now he was going to have to incorporate the green fabric and sewing machine so as not to let it go to waste. But now that he had hired 5 employees, he figured he had to think of a name.
He came upon The C Team, because they definitely weren't The A Team and nobody wants to be The B Team to The A Team. So there they were, The C Team, in full action. With 6 people working around the clock to come up with great pranks and working to make them happen, this would surely be a great idea.
And with the meeting coming in just a few days, he was happy that everything was slowly but surely falling into place.
With everything working, nothing could possibly go wrong at this point in the plan.
Or could there?


Chapter 8

The day of the meeting had finally come. Which meant that James, Mark, Jeremy, Jimmy, Harry, and Terry had come to the day all of them were waiting for. The day they would get recognized by the town and maybe the world as the best pranksters in history.
When they all went to go get their supplies for the plan, after all of them came back after telling the helicopter to hover over the town hall, got the paint to fill the giant paint bucket, and made sure the sky was still clear, something was missing.
James said, “Jimmy, where is the giant paint bucket?”
Jimmy said, “Well, I don’t really know. I ordered it a while ago and they said they would ship it yesterday, and it’s still not here. I don’t really know, James. Sorry.”
James said, “Well, guys, we can’t do the plan then. Looks like we’re gonna have to do something else.”
Jimmy said, “Well, I can go check my house. I’ll be right back.”
So now they are all waiting for Jimmy to come back from his house when, 30 minutes later, he comes back and says, “Well, it’s there! But a few of you guys are going to need to help me. I’ll take Mark, Terry, and James.” So they go and help him. Another 30 minutes later, they drag it all the way over to a few blocks away from town hall, in an open space so the helicopter can latch on to the handle. But they realized they forgot something important about this operation.
“Wait a minute,” James said. “Did we even get paint to fill the bucket? This feels like a huge oversight. How did we not think of this? We have been planning this for weeks. Why did I not remember this?” Jimmy said, “Hey, it’s not your fault. And we still have an hour before the meeting starts. Let’s just go to the department store and get a bunch of red paint.” Terry and Harry say, “Yeah. We’ll go.” Jeremy says, “Me too. You’ll need some people to carry those heavy buckets.”
Finally, James says, “Yeah, I’ll go too. But we have to be back by 1:30 in order for this to work.
They all promise to make that happen, and an hour later, right before 1:30, they make it back to the paint bucket and fill it up. After that, they realize it’s past 1:30, so they begin rushing to town hall, where the mayor is waiting for them.
He says to James, “Well, if it isn’t James! Running a little late, I see! Well, no matter! You’re here now. We can now begin our speech for the veterans of this town.”
So the meeting begins and ends about 2 hours later, and nothing eventful happens, but now the question remains:
What in the world are they going to do with the giant paint bucket and helicopter?

Chapter 9

So James had to have a plan. He had to have some kind of backup in order to make this stuff he bought go to use.
So he decided to cut out the power to the town. Then the town hall would have to call a meeting to address this issue. So he had to perform a heist, with Mark and Jimmy and everyone else helping him.
It was going to be awesome. But how was he going to pull it off? It was going to be difficult, but he would have to manage.
Well, first, he would have to get a scope on the size of the place he was breaking into, which happened to be the town hall control room, located deep in the basement of town hall. There was a security system enabled down there, as he already knew, but he had no idea what kind of security system was in place, so he would have to figure that out on his own time. But in the meantime, he had to prepare the team for this mission.
After he had found out the type of security system enabled, which was a dance floor puzzle (which he thought was random but he went along with it) he had devised a plan to break in. He began telling his employees about the operation and told them to get ready. Later that night, they were all going to break into town hall and run down to the basement while being careful not to sight off any alarms that might be precariously placed around the interior of town hall.
After they reached the basement, they would first attempt to shut off the dance floor so they could pass by without having to go through the trouble of trying to solve it. If they couldn’t shut it off, they would do the puzzle and get into the next room, presumably another puzzle they would have to solve involving a dance floor or lasers. But either way, they would get past it and reach the control room and turn off the power to the town, therefore assuring there would be a meeting to discuss all of this mayhem. Now it was just time to wait for nightfall.
Once nightfall had come, he and his employees snuck into the town hall and easily passed by the first few rooms leading up to the basement. Once they got to the basement, it was also relatively easy to disable the puzzle, but they just decided to try it out for the fun of it. It involved them playing a game with arrows and trying to keep up with the person dancing on screen, who appeared to be the mayor when he was younger. The first few parts of the puzzle were easy, but as it went on it got more difficult, with the mayor even sweating bullets after they were done.
They moved on to the next room, which, as James had predicted, was a laser puzzle. The lasers were constantly moving, and the movements were random, so you never knew where they would be next. But there was a 3 second window in between each switch, so they were going to try and get by within one of those windows. They successfully made it past everything and shut off the power to the town. So they all went back to their houses to sleep in darkness, and in the morning they would have to see the town's response.

Chapter 10

When they woke up the next morning and turned on the news, they saw that every major news outlet in the state was covering this mass outage throughout the town, and sooner or later, people might link James and his friends to the outage, so they would have to think fast to prevent that from happening and pull of the prank without raising any suspicions in people's heads.
So James was going to have to come up with a good way to pull this off without people noticing, and the power outage was one step towards that. Now the real question was: Does that mean the helicopter still won’t work? Maybe so, considering it runs on power and not solar energy, but would that prove all of this preposterous preparation was all for nothing?
James would have to find out later that day, when he would hopefully pull off this prank. But until then, the preparation would have to be absolutely perfect, just like last time, with no mistakes made along the way, or else everything would go haywire, with nothing to show for it.
So he had to think of a solid plan for the prank. He had one good idea, but he would have to talk to the group about it. Once he had them all together in one room, he began speaking. “Alright, here’s the plan…”
First, they would all go get the helicopter and the giant paint bucket and attach the giant paint bucket using a giant rope, which they would also have to buy in time for this prank, which would be pulled off later this week. Then, after they had that all finished and the preparation was going smoothly, 3 of them would go in the helicopter and fly over town hall, spilling the paint on everyone, while 3 of them would watch to make sure no setbacks occurred during the prank.
After the prank was successfully pulled off, they would have to get out of the helicopter without anyone noticing or seeing them get out, so two of them would have parachutes while James would drive the helicopter to safety, making sure they didn’t accidentally crash it and have to pay for insurance.
It was going to be perfect, and they were going to be known as legends. And with no further preparation needed, they just had to wait for the fateful day to come when they would pull this off, or at least attempt to.
Little did they know, what was about to unfold was about to change everything.

Chapter 11

The day before the big operation was scheduled to happen, James and the crew were working together to get everything all set up, with them rushing to the store to go and get a giant rope after school ended that day. Surprisingly, they still had school even though they had knocked out power all across the town. They just had to use textbooks all day instead of laptops.
They went to Randy's Random Emporium, owned by Jimmy’s parents (which explains how they've been able to afford all of this) and walked in. Immediately, Jimmy’s dad greeted them with, “Why, hello Jimmy! And hello, all of Jimmy's friends and- wait. Why are all your friends here? Well, no matter. The more, the merrier, I suppose. Welcome!” Jimmy replied, “Hi, Dad. We’re just here to look for a giant rope. Do you mind telling me where that is again?” Jimmy’s dad said, “Sure, son. It should be in Aisle 147. But what do you need this for?”
Jimmy said, “Oh, me and my friends are going to pull a prank on the town because of the power outage. No big deal.” Jimmy's dad said, “Well, ok. As weird and out of pocket that is, I will probably still show up to the place where you’re doing this prank to advertise the business. Have fun!” Jimmy said, “Thanks, dad!” James said quizzically, “Your parents are just ok with all of this? My parents would kill me if they found out about all of this.”
Jimmy said, “Well, compared to the things my brother does, this is nothing.” Harry and Terry both said at the same time, “What does your brother do?” Jimmy said, “Well, the last time his friends pulled a prank, he publicly announced it was them and his friends got revenge by tying him up in their jail cell and leaving him. He then got out by using a flamethrower to melt the jail cell, so he got arrested.”
Everyone’s jaws fell wide open, and Jeremy said, “Well gee, I hope nobody does that to this operation. Not like I would destroy this operation from the ground up and bust all of you guys by reporting you to the cops. Definitely not.” James said, “Ok, Jeremy, a bit weird to clarify if you supposedly aren’t going to do it, but ok, I guess.”
After that interesting interaction between all of them, they went over to Aisle 147 and found the giant rope. Jimmy’s dad let them get it for free because Jimmy was his son and he gets a ton of customers anyway so it wouldn’t be a big loss.
They left the store and began hooking up the bucket to the giant rope and filling the bucket up with paint.
James finally had ended work on the prank, so he promptly said:
“Everything is all coming to plan, once and for all. And this time, no one could stop me.”
“Or so he thought,” Jeremy muttered under his breath.
“What was that?” James said. Jeremy replied, “Oh, just whispering something about the plan.” James said, “Well, ok.”
Jeremy then once again muttered, “My plan.”

Chapter 12

The day had finally come when they would try pulling this off for the second time. They had everything in order for the plan, but now they had to hook the rope and the giant bucket up to the helicopter, and make sure there would be enough support in place for it not to tip over every time they moved in the helicopter, so they sent Jeremy and James to take a flight.
Jeremy said, “Well, James, looks like we’re on flying duty. I think I’ll take the first flight.” James said, “Hey, let’s not decide who’s gonna fly yet. It doesn’t really matter in the long run.” James said, “Oh, James, but it does. It very much does matter.”
James said, “Oh, really? And why does it matter?” Jeremy replied snarkily with, “Because I’m going to bring this whole operation down.”
Jeremy then started up the helicopter and rose into the sky, stopping about 1,000 feet in the air. James said, “You can’t get away with this! I won’t let you!” James lunged toward Jeremy, causing him to lose control of the helicopter, but Jeremy said, “Ha! I left it on autopilot to stay in the sky!”
James said, “Well, I’ll just take you down, instead!” James and Jeremy were fighting, throwing things inside the helicopter at each other, until finally, when it seemed like James had given up and was ready to go back down, Jeremy had one final trick up his sleeve.
Jeremy then pushed James out of the helicopter. His intent was for him to fall to his doom in the lake down below and leave a final mark on humanity: going out with a splash. Or, in the event James survived, James would most likely order Jeremy to be locked up for a few years due to his crimes.
Jeremy muttered one final utterance to James, whispering, “Who’s laughing now, James? You, or me?
But little did Jeremy know, James was still alive, and had fallen deep into the paint bucket. It had seemed the supports were good enough, because James hadn’t fallen out of the bucket quite yet. But he was knocked unconscious for the time being due to the severity of the fall.
When James had woken up and began to get up and walk around, he noticed he was in the paint bucket.
Then, he heard a creak coming straight from the paint bucket, the giant rope began to snap, and a few seconds later, James fell out of the helicopter.

Chapter 13

James’ life flashed before his eyes, seeing his future life, his past life, his present life, and more memories that now he could never see again as he was falling to his inevitable death. Even if he didn’t immediately die due to falling 1,000 feet in the air all the way down to the surface of the lake, he would more than likely soon succumb to his injuries in the hospital as Jeremy patiently waited so he could take over the operation. It was only a matter of time.
On the plus side, while he didn’t pull off the prank the exact way he wanted to, the entire lake immediately turned red as the paint bucket tipped over, meaning he now technically made an entire land formation in his state red in his honor. He wasn’t immediately dead, as he thought, and with no major injuries other than a possible broken spine and some bleeding coming from his arms, so he might survive after all. He couldn’t really get up and start walking though, so until someone found him after Jeremy landed the helicopter, he would be stuck floating there for a while.
While Jeremy watched James fall, he began steering the helicopter back over to the rest of the group after he was sure that James had fallen and wasn’t moving. They immediately asked, “Where is James?” Jeremy responded with, “He, sadly, had an accident and fell out of the helicopter. He didn’t make it.” They all said, “Oh my god. This… is insane. We need to go look for him now to make some final reservations. Hopefully, he is still alive, though I doubt it. This is heartbreaking.” Little did Jeremy know, James had texted all of them from his phone, which had not yet succumbed to water damages, and told them Jeremy had pushed him out of the helicopter. Jeremy said, “Well, why would we need to do that? Everything is fine, and his body might already be lost to the vast lake, anyways. It is over 75 feet deep, you know.”
Eventually, they all decided to go to find his body, with them buying a rope to dangle from and look in case they needed to get back up quickly. They all distracted Jeremy when they were looking, and when they found him, they made sure he came up very slowly so Jeremy was none the wiser to their plan of pushing him off this time, instead. He had ruined the plan and had failed at doing his one job of following James’ orders, and now he was going to pay.
Jeremy said, “Well, guys? Any luck?” James responded with, “Oh, yes. I was very lucky. You, not so much.” Jeremy began to register fear on his face, but it was too late. And then they pushed him out of the helicopter.

Chapter 14

Now Jeremy was falling from the helicopter, soon to also meet his doom. But he turned out a little bit more fortunate than everyone else. He had thought ahead and brought a parachute in order for him to make it safely to the ground. Once there, he acted like he was still dead and waited for them to fly away, then hiked all the way back to town and met up with them again.
They were surprised to see him, as they were sure he had succumbed to his injuries. They said, “Oh look, the plan ruiner is back. Ready to pay for all the expenses to buy back everything you wasted?” Jeremy said, “No, actually. I decided to become part of the plan under one condition: I get to control half of the plan.” They all say no immediately, but Jeremy says, “Well, then I guess I can’t share my information with you.” They all ask, “What information?” And Jeremy says:
“Classified. But except me once again and I will tell you.” So they agree to let him in again, and he tells them about what he knows.
“Well, long ago, some kids tried to pull a big prank, just like us. They had tried and tried and tried again, but all to no avail. Then, when they were just about to give up, one of them came up with an idea and detailed it on a big sheet of paper in their bunker underground. No one knows why they had a bunker, but they do know that they were arrested for their plan because they found out what they were going to do, but they didn’t take the sheet of paper with them, meaning if we can find that bunker, we can pull of that prank they sought out to pull so long ago.”
So they all said, “Well, thanks for the information Jeremy! But keep your distance. We can’t repeat the helicopter incident. But anyways, let’s go find that bunker!” They went scavenging the old woods that used to be filled with houses and people, now degraded over time, and found nothing. Until finally, Terry and Harry discovered a lever, and shouted, “Hey, look! A lever!” Everyone also told them to be quiet, as people might find out they are looking for the bunker. They pulled the lever, and another lever popped up. One of them pulled it quickly, and finally, a third one popped up in a tree. Jeremy climbed the tree and pulled the final lever, and they heard a mechanism near them, creaking as it was moving.
The last thing they saw before they fell in the hole was the levers resetting.


Chapter 15

It felt like they were falling for hours upon hours, constantly speeding down the hole at a rapid rate but never quite reaching the floor of the bunker. But eventually, after about 30 seconds of falling, they reached the bottom and instantly hurt their knees. Possibly broke them, but they had to look around before they got it checked out by a doctor later on, after they found a way out of this place.
Inside, they found a base that looked to be inhabited by people over 50 years ago, as a calendar was dated 1973. There were some supplies scattered around the desk, suggesting that things hadn’t always been so clean in this place. And on the desk, the scattered supplies surrounding it, there was the holy grail of pranks. A giant, 5-foot wide blueprint of the prank.
It detailed how they planned to pull it off, requiring some obscure supplies that had long gone out of production, such as a specific brand of chewing gum needed to stabilize the crane holding a wad of tape the size of the city. He thought it fitting that they decided to use a massive quantity of gum to hold the tape instead of the tape itself. They had an insane amount of gum, over 1,500 packs.
The gum appeared to just be normal gum, which it was, but it also had an extra sticking factor, according to the blueprint, that had gone out of production due to too many pieces of gum being stuck to the roofs of peoples mouths and having to be surgically removed. They ignored that and instead opened a drawer in the desk to find the stash of tape that they had amassed, hundreds of rolls all still intact after 50+ years, to their surprise.
“Wow!” Jimmy said. “This is a bigger collection than my dad has in his store!” Jeremy said, “Yeah, no doubt. And it seems like we could take all of it, as there is no way anyone will be coming to retrieve it anytime soon. But now we need to find the exit to this place.” James said, “You’re right. I’m assuming it has something to do with that lever over there, but it’s just a hunch.”
He pointed to a lever marked elevator, and jokingly replied, “You know, I’m getting the feeling this might turn the floor into a giant elevator.” Harry and Terry grinned, saying, “Yeah, definitely. Let’s go flip it!” Jeremy, Mark, and Jimmy grabbed all of the rolls of tape and carried them in a bag that was in the bunker, hung on the wall, and they all stood directly below the hole they fell down and flipped the lever.
If their knees weren’t damaged then, they surely were now, as the elevator began moving up at 50 miles per hour, flinging them into the sky as it spat them back out the hole.

Chapter 16

They landed in the trees, and slowly made their descent to the ground. When they finally made it to the ground, they groaned in pain as the broken knees kicked in (literally). They were unable to stand, but were able to crawl, but that hurt almost as much as walking would’ve.
When they were almost out of the woods, they noticed a carving in the trees with their initials and a small paragraph that said, “For our grandchildren, future pranksters in the making.”
James picked up on the underlying tone here, being that they were descended down from the pranksters that once held refuge in this base. Now it all made sense why he hadn’t seen his grandpa since he was born, and probably why none of his friends had seen their grandpas since then, too. It all made sense now.
“Guys,” James said, “I think we are descended from the pranksters who once lived here.”
Mark responded with, “Yeah, obviously, but how can we pull this off without them now? It only feels right.”
Jimmy said, “So what are you suggesting?”
And Jeremy said, “I think he is suggesting we pull a heist. Break all of them out of the prison and get them in on the action.”
Harry and Terry both said in unison, “But how are we going to do that?”
And James and Jeremy, having the same thought, also said in unison, “It appears we are going to need a plan.”
They spent the next few days using the large supply of gum (and still having a lot left over) to link to the giant rope, which they recovered from the wreckage. They attached the gum to the giant bucket, then attached the other end of the giant rope to the helicopter, also recovered from the wreckage, in which they intended to break through the prison roof. They were going to wreck the prison and were going to break through and get their grandpas.
It was going to be amazing.
And yet, something told James it was going to go very wrong…


Chapter 17

They slept in the next morning, waking up at 12 pm revitalized and prepared for the long days work ahead of them.
They decided to buy some more stabilizing material and extra aluminum coating for the bucket to make it stronger and more durable in preparation for the plan later that afternoon.
Jimmy’s dad was slightly more suspicious the second time around, but he waved it off as another fun thing Jimmy was doing with his friends, rather than a security threat.
After that, they decided to sneak into the prison. Well, not really, as they just went in as visitors to see their grandpas now that they knew where they were all this time. Their grandpas were delighted, saying, “Well, who might you be, you pranksters? We know those smiles anywhere, though we haven’t seen them in years. What brings you here?”
“Oh, you know,” they said, “Just here to see you guys.”
They said, “Well, we are happy nonetheless. Thanks for stopping by!”
They then left, having all the information they needed. What they were there for was to be able to figure out where their cell was located, or at least the general area they were allowed to go in order to figure out where to drop the bucket later to get them out. It was genius.
A few hours rolled by, and, not having much to do, James decided to turn on the news, now that the power was back on. They didn’t really have much to say, although one thing did get his attention.
“We are now reporting live from town hall, where new footage will be uncovered on the outage caused a week ago by an unknown suspect. Tune in for nightly news, as we unveil the suspect to all of our viewers.”
Oh no, James thought. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening! Not when I was so close to becoming famous, I am now going to be infamous!
Now, with less than 4 hours to achieve his goal of accomplishing this plan, he had to warn everyone else of the impending doom that would soon follow.

Chapter 18

Another hour passed by, as their looming arrestation came ever closer, and they were about to break into the prison. Their thought process was that if they were able to do that a little bit before the broadcast was scheduled to happen, the broadcast would be delayed and they wouldn’t be arrested. Possibly, they could even frame someone else for the act and get off scot-free, but they would worry about that later.
Tonight also happened to be Halloween, but the only trick or treating they would be doing was none, actually, even though they had a bit of time in between the plan and the broadcast. They would use that time wisely, though, and spend it meeting together in an undisclosed location to talk about it. In reality, the location was just a park, but hey, that information could be useful to anyone, so it had to be undisclosed.
They decided to meet up 2 hours before the broadcast aired so they could discuss how they planned to destroy the roof and break in. Unfortunately, there were people at the park with them, so they decided to move to the area around the park, that being the fountain.
James said, “So, guys, any thoughts on the operation and how it looks so far?”
Jeremy said, “Well, this operation actually benefits me, so I think I won’t be bringing down this operation. This time, anyway.”
James said, “That’s good to hear. Jimmy? Harry, Terry, Mark?”
Harry and Terry said, “There are some things that could go wrong, including the broadcast switching over to us during the destruction of the prison, but there is almost no way that will happen. Right, Mark?”
Mark, with a grimace on his face, said, “Now that you mention it, there is a lot that could go wrong with this operation. For one, we might have miscalculated the placing of the cell. And we might get caught destroying the literal roof of a prison. But, with high risk comes high reward, and I’m all for it.”
James said, “Perfect. Now, we must be getting on.”
They then left, the short hours ticking down until their plan commenced.

Chapter 19

They boarded the helicopter that night at 10 pm, just as the nightly news was coming on, and took a test run high in the sky out of public view. It went well, so they boarded the helicopter for a final flight. Just in time, too, as the lease would run out at 12 am. How poetic.
They were high into the sky, still keeping themselves out of public view so no one would see them slowly lowering down a bucket. Even though that would be extremely obvious, they all thought that this was a good idea, for some reason none of them would explain.
James said, “Alright guys, eyes on the prison. Are we all in position?”
Mark, standing by the side of the helicopter and holding the rope in position, said, “Yes, sir!”
Jeremy, inside the bucket which had a closed lid they had recently added so he would be less likely to be injured, said, “In position.”
Jimmy, on the other side of the helicopter, adding the last few pieces of gum to the bucket and the rope by sliding the pieces down to Jeremy, said, “All ready, boss!”
Harry and Terry, just kind of sitting in the backseat while all of this happens, say, “Here, but have no real purpose.”
James said, “Alright, guys! Looks like everything is in order for this operation to reach its pinnacle!”
James set his eyes on the roof of the prison, about to break in, when they noticed the news report just beginning. James had turned on the radio so they could listen in on the broadcast without seeing anything.
The jingle for the news channel played, and the reporter, Kim Poodle, came into view. Standing in front of town hall, she said, “Hello, viewers and listeners. I am here on the scene of the power outage that plagued our town a few weeks ago, where we will finally uncover the mystery of the perpetrators behind this tragedy.”
James knew they would have to act fast if they wanted to get out of there scot-free, so he lowered the helicopter and said over the intercom, “Attention, the plan is commencing! I repeat the plan is commencing! Last check to make sure everything is in order!”
They all responded with yes, and he was hovering about 500 feet above the prison, when Jimmy said, “Wait, I have to pee!”
James said, "Can't you hold it?” And Jimmy responded, “Well, I’ve been holding it for a few hours now, and I’ve peed my ants more than once during that time.”
James made a disgusted face and said, “Too much information. If you have to pee that bad, do it now before we get too far into this operation.”
Jimmy said, “Ok. Hope nobody is right below us.”
Jimmy took a minute to finish, and a person screamed down below. Jimmy screamed, “Sorry!” and they carried on.
He was now practically giving the prison a haircut with how close he was to the roof. He began to lower down into the roof, and he heard a cracking down below.
James said, “Everything okay down there, Jeremy? Jimmy, is everything looking ok from your point of view?”
Jeremy said into his mic, “Yeah, everything looks fine from where I am.”
Jimmy was in the middle of saying, “Yes, everything looks fine from outside the bucket, as well.” When the rope began to snap.
Jimmy said, “James, we may have a problem. The rope is snapping!”
Prisoners were beginning to see the bucket crashing through the ceiling, just dangling there, and some of them were commenting on the bucket.
“What’s that bucket doing there?”
“Seems like a kid driving it with how out-of-control this helicopter ride must have gone.”
“Oh, wait, it does look like a kid! Come and see!”
“Oh, yeah! It does! Well, we might as well get acquainted with them, since they’re definitely coming in here soon!”
They all laughed, and James began to worry about the repercussions of this. Apparently, he hadn’t ever thought about the repercussions this operation could have on all of them, or else he wouldn’t have spent weeks doing all of this. But, it was too late now. High risk, high reward, he thought.
He waited for the sound of the rope snapping to stop and Jimmy and Jeremy to both confirm everything looked fine once again. He then began to lower down farther into the prison, reaching the ground, and they all screamed down, “Grandpa, James grandpa, and everyone else's grandpa! Come and join us! Climb in!”
Their grandpas, shocked, screamed, “Well, look at this! Seems our grandchildren really are pranksters in the making. Let’s break out!
James was flying for about 2 minutes, everything going fine. Jeremy was talking to the grandpas, keeping them company during the ride to the junkyard, where they would leave the helicopter.
They were almost to the junkyard. 5 miles, 2 miles, 1 mile, ½ a mile. So close to being home free. I’m almost famous! James thought. So close to fame! Nothing can go wrong at this point!
He was almost there when the bullets caught in the propeller, bringing their escapades to an end and crashing the helicopter.


Chapter 20

The court case was scheduled for today, where James and his friends would be put up for trial and held accountable for any actions the judge found they were responsible for.
The police had gunned down the helicopter after they noticed the helicopter was seen leaving the prison right after a gaping hole was discovered in the roof of the prison. They then sent out the troops to hunt down the helicopter and find the kids, and when they did, they gunned down the helicopter.
They were actually very lucky none of the kids were injured when they shot the helicopter, because they had actually put their worst shooter to shoot the bullets precisely into the propeller. Some of the kids were injured after the helicopter slowly made its descent down from the sky, as it soon careened into the trash heap in the junk yard and exploded 20 minutes later.
Luckily, no fatalities occurred in the prison or when the helicopter exploded, but they were all injured in some way. They all got broken legs and all used crutches to hobble into the courtroom.
Nothing of note was really discussed that they hadn’t heard before, but they did catch one thing. Apparently, the authorities had seen them go into the bunker, which had been blocked off from the public for years, leading them to believe that they would soon pull a prank.
They decided to wait until they did something before they took action, leading them to this.
At the very end of the session, the judge said, “According to all of the evidence found in today’s trial, I hereby sentence all parties involved to 1 year in prison.”
The realization hit them all like a stack of bricks. Jail? For them? That can’t be right. That can’t possibly be right.
And yet, it was. They would begin serving the sentence later that day. Begin paying off the actions that they brought upon themselves. The actions James and his friends thought they wouldn’t be punished for. And now, they shared one thing in common with their grandfathers:
James and his friends were going to jail.

Chapter 21

Prison. A harsh place for all involved. And yet James and his friends were still there. They were still a little surprised they were there, but in retrospect, it made perfect sense. They did break into a prison and fly a helicopter illegally, after all. And now their grandpa’s were on the loose because of them, since they escaped while the helicopter was crashing.
Ironically, even though the guard likely didn’t know that they were related to their grandpa’s, the guard still assigned them the same cells as their grandpa’s, so they saw all the graffiti left there over the last 40 or so years. Lots of scratch marks indicating how long they had been there for, many years worth of Christmas memos and reminders to send birthday cards to their grandchildren, which none of them ever received, according to the guards, and much more.
There were also marks all over the wall and chipped paint, showing they had attempted to escape many times, likely using ineffective tools to try and break out to no avail. But they did eventually achieve, though not by a method any of them were expecting.
But James and his friends now had to go to the lunch hall to claim their food. Today’s special? Tomato soup with a mysterious food item floating in the dead center of the bowl that suspiciously looked like a rabbit's leg. They were still going to eat it, though, as they were only allowed to eat food 3 times a day, with 5 hours in between each meal time.
They went back to their cells and continued to examine the walls, when suddenly, a rabbit leaped out of the bowl and ran down the hall. They weren’t incredibly shocked by this revelation, though, as many dishes they had eaten in the past weeks had many animals. Last night’s special had a literal baby bird in the bowl of chicken soup, using the soup as a nest.
But this rabbit had something peculiar about it. It had a note stuffed in it’s collar, likely given to it by its past owner, and, based on all of the other prisoners, none of them had a note in the collar of their rabbit. Jimmy, James, Mark, Terry, Harry, and Jeremy all got notes, and all of them had the same ominous message:
“Meet me in the courtyard.”

Chapter 22



Unfortunately, due to the fact it was late at night, none of them could visit the courtyard until the morning. Hopefully, the mysterious person had left them a note indicating any form of information, but until then, they had to get some sleep.
They didn’t sleep very well that night, shaking and shivering at the possibilities that the mysterious notes they all received could hold. Maybe even a chance to break out, but that may put them into more trouble. They would likely just receive some inside information about how the prison works and how this person is a mysterious entity working for the police force tasked with keeping them in place, or something along the lines of that. That may have also just been the plot of a movie that James saw, but he didn’t remember now.
They went to the courtyard first thing in the morning, and lo and behold, they found a note left for them behind the prison sign that read, “I have left another note for you in the prison bathroom. Enter the third stall to find another clue.”
They groaned at the fact they had to do a scavenger hunt, but in a way, this was kind of a relief for them, as nothing interesting had happened in weeks since they had gotten here. The most interesting thing was that an up-and-coming billionaire was recently arrested and sent to this prison as it was discovered he had been a money launderer and the owner of a meticulous pyramid scheme with over 200,000 people, and one of those people was an undercover spy working for the CIA who blew the pyramid to ruins.
They went to the bathroom and James went into the third stall, not only to look at the note left, but also because that soup had given him food poisoning of some kind and he had to throw some soup up into the toilet bowl. He read the note after he was done, and it was a riddle this time. “In the place where you have never been, I have left an invisible ink pen. Bring it back to your rooms and seek the note I have left for you where you sleep.”
They thought the riddle seemed kind of bad, but the message was pretty clear to them. The only place they had not visited in the prison yet was the place where prisoners take calls, and they hadn’t gotten any yet, but there had been some voicemails left for them, according to the guard. They went to the call room and found a pen and an invisible ink flashlight. When they went back to their rooms and looked on their beds (more cardboard boxes with sheets on them) they found nothing, but when they looked under the sheets, they found a final message. It said:
“There is someone watching you in this prison, working for the FBI. Keep your eyes peeled, and always stay on guard.”

Chapter 23



This wasn't exactly surprising to any of them, as they had noticed some mysterious people lurking around the prison that they hadn’t seen before until recently. Men in black suits, mysterious people leaving them voicemails, or so the guard said, notes they noticed passing between guards reading something about keeping an eye on them. Come to think of it, it’s actually weirder they didn’t put together the fact that this was shady earlier.
Now they knew who to keep an eye out for, though, and they knew where they went everyday, as well. They always tended to hang around the men’s bathroom and greeted them in the morning and at night. James wonders why they didn’t just, you know, do anything normally instead of lurking around the bathroom, but alas.
They decided to make a ploy, where one of them mysteriously went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and just stayed there for a minute. While the guard was making sure he wasn’t trying to break out or do anything else that is mysterious, they secretly planted security cameras they had smuggled in (just in case) in the corners of the bathrooms to spy on the guards. They were extra small, yet still able to provide security footage good enough to prove that the guard was spying on them and to get him busted.
Now they just had to wait.
They waited for a very long time, watching on the control pad that came with the cams, but the guard hadn’t done anything suspicious yet after all of them were in the bathroom.
However, when a random person went into the bathroom, he made a special signal to show that he wanted the guard to follow. The signal looked like an ostrich, using both hands to make the ostrich, and they knew about this special signal now. Not like it would be of any use to them, but maybe when they got bored they could try making it with their own hands.
Once the coast was clear, the guard began to speak, saying, “Ok, Gerald, you got the goods?”
Jeremy said out loud, “Gerald?! My brother?!”
The rest of the group all said to him, “You have a brother?”
And Jeremy said, “Yes, and he was arrested a few years ago for a crime he didn’t commit! Maybe he did commit the crime after all…”
They said, “What crime?”
And he said, “Not important. Let’s keep listening.”
Gerald said, “Got 'em all set. Let’s set up the cameras.”
They all exclaimed, “They have cameras too?!”
The guard heard them screaming and went to go check on them, so he said, “I’ll be back. Get these cameras set up.”
Hearing the guard coming straight for them, they knew they had to make up some kind of excuse to cover up the screaming.
But what?



Chapter 24



“I needed to go to the bathroom, so I started screaming to… get your attention.”
That is what Jimmy said to cover up for them. Ironically, though it wouldn’t seem plausible to the average person listening to this all playing out, he actually went to the bathroom far more often than any of the other guys in the group, usually once every 3 hours. Time usually slowed down on his schedule during the night, being once every 4 hours, but he still went more often than any of them, even at night.
They suspect the reason for this is that he caught an infection when he used stall number 3, and everyone knows not to use stall number 3, usually the worst stall. But, he had to go, and now his bathroom schedule was all out of whack thanks to that stall. It makes you wonder who in their right mind made the bright decision to leave some kind of infection in the stall for the next people to catch.
The FBI agent, staring sternly at them, said, “I’m not sure I believe this husk of an excuse you gave me. Do you have anything else to back up your trashy claim?”
Mark said, “Well, we have all seen his bathroom schedule. You have too, so you should have known that right about now is when he would try going.”
The guard, now calmed down and believing this excuse slightly more, said, “Well, you were pretty close to your regular time. But I warn you, if you ever try to pull a fast one on Kyle Morgenburger again, I will lock you up in a maximum security prison for life. And I’m serious about that.”
They all assured him it would never happen again, and the guard went back to his post.
They now knew his name, valuable information indeed, as they may need that in the future to pull another fast one on Kyle Morgenburger.
Kyle didn’t seem fully sure they were completely innocent, as he did leave something attached to their cell, appearing to be a note for the chief guard telling them about their behavior. But they weren’t too worried about that, as they had switched the note out for an identical one using paper the chief guard had given him and detailed how good they were all acting that day and how wonderful they all were.
They figured that was convincing enough, so they all drifted off to sleep for the night.
Little did they know what was in store for them the next day.


Chapter 25

When they awoke the next day, they soon found that something was different about their rooms. They also found that someone had shifted through their things and left them all in disarray, including the control pad for the cameras which was now confiscated with a note in its original spot reading, “I’ll find the cameras. I will find them if it means my life, or more.”
They felt this was a bit ominous, but they brushed it off, since he was an FBI agent so they should have already been expecting this. What they were concerned about was what Jeremy’s brother was doing with an FBI agent.
Gerald wasn’t really known to be the most normal kid in his school before he was taken to jail, but even mingling with an FBI agent is new territory he had never entered before. Sure, he had done some suspicious things, like bombing part of the school using explosives he had obtained from an old World War 2 site, and the hole was still not fixed from when he bombed the hole in the wall. He also happened to come across some exposed wires in the wall, and he used some electric coils he had to black out the whole school and fry the powergrid. Surprisingly, this wasn’t the thing that had gotten him put in jail.
What he had done to get himself put in jail was on April Fools Day, when the factory producing paper for the town was closed for the day, Gerald had snuck in and set fire to a small stack of papers inside the building. A chain of reactions then occurred, leading to the entire power line going out across the entire town and all of the power lines falling down like dominoes, crushing multiple cars, the factory burning down in a massive fire that enveloped many people in flames, with one fatality, and the entirety of that sector of town being closed indefinitely.
“Gerald was never very smart,” Jeremy said, “but you would think even he would have the common sense not to set a stack of papers inside a paper factory on fire. But, he did, and he’s been in jail ever since I was 5.”
They all thought about this for a moment, and realized how bad his life had turned out so far. It made much more sense he would be working with an FBI agent on something, as they were probably trying to stop a crime syndicate. Gerald obviously felt that he had to do this to make up for all the other bad stuff he had caused throughout his life, but this could go bad in many ways, as well.
The team now had a new plan: They had to protect him as much as possible.



Chapter 26



Of course, it wasn’t like the mission was going to be all that easy. How were they supposed to interfere with an FBI agent's work without being discovered? They could just outright ask to join the project which they are working on, if it even is a project, but why would an FBI agent and a 22 year old want to let a group of teenagers join a top secret operation, or whatever they were doing?
No, they were going to have to work their way in and discover what they were doing. But without cameras, how?
They had just the plan. On a day that one of their parents comes to visit, they would take one of their phones during the meet and rig it to record whenever they wanted by the use of a small remote-control device. (Harry and Terry were going to have to construct it. They were exceptionally good with technology, so much so they were top of Tech class at their high school.)
Once set up, every night, they would hide the phone in the most common spots that Gerald and the agent meet up in every day. (They would also grab a notebook from their parents when they came to visit to mark the most common spots. This would be up to Mark, an exceptionally good Math student who would be able to calculate the most time spent in a certain area with relative ease.)
They would then review the footage in the morning, and James (a high–ranking English student in their grade) would mark many small details he noticed, while Jimmy and Jeremy would try to decipher what they were saying in the parts they couldn’t or wouldn’t be able to hear from the video (They were very good at Speech at their school, and sometimes were even able to decipher speech underwater, according to them.)
After devising this plan, they went to bed and rigged the camera in the most common spot they had seen them near at this point, near the bathroom, so they set it behind one of the gargoyle statues lining the walls near the cells and used some chalk-like material found in their cells to coat it in what appeared to be stone from afar to blend in with the statue.
They went to bed late that night after observing them for a short time and trying to decipher some of their speech early into the conversation they had been having.
However, they had hardly expected what would come next.


Chapter 27

It appears the agent was on to them. He let them off with a warning this time, merely leaving a note saying, “I can see what you’re doing, and it won’t work” on the phone screen.
They had to figure out a new plan to better disguise the phone now. They supposed that they had to coat it in a substance that blended with a different part of the room. The room did have greenery growing through the windows, seeing as the prison was essentially abandoned by this point, barely even being held onto by town officials, merely for the fact that prisoners would have to move towns if not for this prison.
They also found out due to a post on the bulletin board in the prison (also long-abandoned, the latest post besides the newest one being from 1957) that the town hall was officially bulldozed and turned into a roller rink. This was a big blow, but once they escaped, one way or another, they would at least have another place to wreak havoc.
They decided to collect some greens from around their cells and coated the phone in the greenery, rigged a holding place for the phone concealed behind the greenery, and hid the camera enough so that they could still see footage but was unable to be noticed by the naked eye.
They went to sleep that night feeling confident about their plan, and awoke to find the phone still recording, a good sign. The phone was running low on battery though, so they used a potato they collected from lunch over this week to make a charger using energy conducted by the potato for the phone to get battery percentage.
They did find some suspicious footage on the phone when the phone had charged to a substantial enough battery, such as the middle of the conversation Gerald and the agent had.
The conversation had been going normally up until this point, but then Gerald and the agent got real quiet for a moment, and they caught one little snippet of the conversation before beginning to decipher it in full. It was highly troubling, and they decided they had to inspect it at a later point in time before diving into it right now, but they heard the agent say to Gerald:
“So, you got the explosives from the Russian Embassy all cleared through American security yet?”


Chapter 28



This was an absolute shock to them. I mean, how much farther can you go in an FBI agent’s ranks than already being called on to handle explosives from the Russian Embassy?
Not to mention, he was only 22! He quite literally could have a family right now, but he decided to handle explosives instead. He probably was thinking about having a family when he got out of there. Could be in talk with some Russian agent and might be in love with that agent.
But the big question was how was he even sneaking explosives in through the Russian Embassy?
“It’s not like he’s the sharpest tool in the shed,” Jeremy said, “but he can be smart when it comes to escaping places. He once finished an escape room in under 5 minutes. The escape room had 5 sections, with 5 puzzles in each. Maybe this explains how he snuck out of the house on April 1st all those years ago…”
So he had an escape route. They just had to monitor where he spends the most time once again, and figure out when they can and can’t see him, and eventually, they should have enough data to piece together the entire route he was using to escape and harbor explosives when he returns.
Not to mention, how is he even getting to Russia in the first place? The physics of the situation literally make no sense in reality, considering he is a 22 year old who probably can’t afford to even fly one trip to Russia and back, it sounds like he was doing it multiple times a week!
James and the group figured he was probably getting free flights from the FBI to do this mission, but still, why him?
Seriously, he had no special qualities they had noticed besides being good at escapism, and they had been noticing him for a very long time. He has never demonstrated any special abilities to their knowledge. But still, a young agent could be helpful in cases requiring those of younger age.
Still, why him?
Then, it all clicked. He set a stack of papers on fire. An entire stack of papers, with supposedly a small handheld lighter.
He likely had to make additions to the lighter, which meant one thing:
He had a knack for pyrotechnics.


Chapter 29

Well,