Continued From Chapter 16…
A couple of days later, Binary Bard, Dr. Hare, Black Widow, and Crawfish were once again back in New Pop City. New Pop was still in bad shape after Zeus destroyed the part of the city where the N.I.S.S. was, but most of the city was the same as it had always been.
The Four of them walked around the city for a bit, looking for a place to live. It was very early in the morning, so not many people were outside, and it was still a little dark.
Crawfish: “If we ever do find somewhere to stay, how will we afford it? It’s not like we have any money. We would have been rich if I had gotten to that buried treasure first…”
Black Widow: “We could get jobs, I guess.”
Binary Bard: “But, um…what job can we get? I’ve never had a real job other than inventing things or trying to take over the universe and stuff like that. 01010111 01100101 01101100 01101100 00101100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100100 01101001 01100100 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110000 01100001 01110010 01110100 00101101 01110100 01101001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101010 01101111 01100010 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100011 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01101000 01101001 01100111 01101000 00100000 01110011 01100011 01101000 01101111 01101111 01101100 00101100 00100000 01110111 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101101 01100001 01100100 01100101 00100000 01011111 01011111 01011111 01011111 00101100 01100010 01110101 01110100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101111 01101110 01101100 01111001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101010 01101111 01100010 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01100100 01100001 01111001 00101110 00100000 01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101110 01100101 01111000 01110100 00100000 01100100 01100001 01111001 00101100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01011111 01011111 01011111 01011111 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01100101 01101110 01100101 01100100 00101110 00100000 01001001 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01101000 01100001 01100100 00100000 01101110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01100101 01101110 01100101 01100100 00101100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110010 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110111 00101100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101100 00100000 01101000 01101111 01101101 01100101 00101110 00100000 01010111 01101000 01111001 00100000 01100100 01101001 01100100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00101100 00100000 01010110 01101001 01101111 01101100 01100101 01110100 00111111 00100000 01001110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100111 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01100101 00101110 00101110 00101110”
Dr. Hare: “None of us have. Our jobs were being villains, and we aren’t evil anymore. And please stop with the binary.”
Binary Bard: “I told you, I’m a cyborg! I can’t help it! And, by the way, maybe we should call each other by our real names since we are no longer super-villains.”
Black Widow: “Of course. I’m once again Charlotte, and you’re Mordred and Harvey and…”
Crawfish: “James. But I prefer being called my last name.”
Charlotte: “OK then, Crawfish…”
By then, the sun was starting to rise, and people were starting to come outside and enjoy this beautiful day. The ex-villains tried to walk faster, as people were starting to stare at them.
A couple hours later, all the stores opened. The four of them walked into the nearest clothing store, which had a “Help Wanted” sign hanging on the front window.
Harvey: “Hi. Me and my friends-”
Mordred: “My friends and I.”
Harvey: “Seriously, Mordred…were wondering if we could get a job here. We saw the sign outside and-”
Cashier: “It’s them! The most evil villains in Poptropica! RUN!!!”
Charlotte: “What?!?”
Everyone in the store started to run away. In less than a minute, everyone was gone except for the Four and the store owner, a man who looked strangely familiar.
Store Owner: “Thanks a lot. I just lost all my customers, and my employees, and they probably will never come back. Now my store will go bankrupt. And no, you are never getting a job here. Sorry…”
Mordred: “But-but, we aren’t evil anymore! Dr. Jupiter, I mean Zeus, made Poppy, you know, the “Hero of Poptropica” remove our, um, totems, which made us bad.”
Store Owner: “I see. I believe you. I was once a criminal myself, but not so long ago I turned my life around and started over, making the store you are standing in right now. But most people don’t understand. They still see you as these people who are pure evil for the rest of your lives, maybe even history. You have to prove them wrong.”
Charlotte: “How though? How can we prove them wrong?”
Store Owner: “I don’t know. Donate money for charity, make a band, do art, or maybe even save the world.”
Crawfish: “Thanks, but that didn’t help at all. We should be going now…”
Store Owner: “Remember, don’t get arrested.”
Mordred: “We know, we know.”
Store Owner: “And…”
A siren is heard.
Store Owner: “The police are coming to get us! I DON’T WANNA GO BACK TO JAIL!!!”
Harvey: “You were in jail?”
Store Owner: “Yes! I just escaped a week ago! Ten years in jail was way to much for me! Listen, I’m not really a store owner…”
Charlotte: “WHAT?!?”
Store Owner: “I’m Dr. Bill Nye, and we have to get out of here NOW!!!”
TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 18, COMING OUT ON SATURDAY, APRIL 23RD!!!
Tall Cactus
Explore Collect Compete 