“A mind-controlled squid? Brilliant!”
Inside the Planet Express Building, Drakken and Brother Blood had seemed to have forgotten their predicament and were now in the lounge room on the couch, each with a beer in hand. Bender was with them in his usual place on the couch, with the usual beer in hand.
“Yes,” Blood answered Drakken. “I thought it was brilliant, too - but it wasn't enough to stop those damned Titans from ruining my plan…”
“Will you two can a cram in it? I'm tryin’ to watch TV!” chided Bender, promptly letting out a loud burp that was accompanied by a jet of flame shooting out of his mouth. “Ah…”
Drakken and Blood shut up, just in time to hear the TV announcer : “And now for “All My Circuits.”
On the TV screen, the “All My Circuits” graphic disappeared. The show began with the hero, the robot Calculon, consoling a glum-faced young robot. “Now there, son,” said Calculon, “There's no reason to be ashamed of efficient code.” But that didn’t seem to work. Instantly, the young robot burst into tears of oil – at which Calculon changed his tone, grabbing the child bot forcefully. “Hey! There'll be no crying around me, young man!” he screamed. “Ya’ got that? I'm only here because it's a condition of my (bleep) probation! Don't think you'll get this kind of treatment every day, ya’ know!”
At the scene, Bender laughed uproariously. “Ah hah hah hah! Oh man - good ol’ Calculon!”
“Ooh! Is this a soap opera?” said Drakken, who had just noticed what was on. “Oh, I loves my daily soaps so!”
Brother Blood moved away from Drakken slightly.
Meanwhile, in the meeting area, Professor Farnsworth came to a startling discovery:
“Whoah my! Why didn't anyone tell me I was talking to the wall again?”
Shego and Kim, at the table with Ron, the Titans, and Leela, looked up at the sudden exclamation of noise from Farnsworth. Behind the table, the Planet Express ship was not there.
“We did,” Leela explained. “About two hours ago.”
“Then that must've been that babble of words I just heard,” said Farnsworth. He left the room, muttering to himself.
When he was gone, Kim turned back to the table and groaned in anguish. “How are we gonna get out of this mess? I am so going to miss my Commencement!” She plopped her head on the table, moaning in disbelief.
“Hey, chill, KP - we'll find a way.” To add to Ron’s words, Rufus ran to Kim's face, chittering the equivalent of “Yeah, cheer up!”
“Ron, you don't understand!” Kim kept her head on the table even as she looked up at Ron – “Every Possible in my family will be there - and every single Possible since the first one in the family to go to school has graduated! I owe it to my parents & the Tweebs to keep the record alive!” Shego put her hands on Kim's shoulders to comfort the redhead, but her actions did little to console Kim much. “Ohh, but Warp could be anywhere by now!”
“Hey, ease down!” chimed in Leela. “I'm sure we can get you back to your time before…whenever your Graduation ceremony happens to be.”
“That would be in, like, a week,” Ron clarified.
There came a particularly nasty-sounding CRUNCH! from the Lounge room. “GO MASKED UNIT! WHOOOOO!” shot Bender’s voice through the wall.
“Ouch,” came Drakken’s voice next. “I dare say, that looked quite painful…”
“Hah! I win! Pay up, Drakken!” The voice was clearly Brother Blood.
Drakken was heard grumbling. “Rrrgh…last time I bet on a sport…”
When no more voices interrupted them, Robin returned his attention back to the table. “Alright, we know Warp had his Vortex Modulator damaged - so we can expect him to go look for a replacement first.”
Beast Boy scoffed. “Uh, hello? He's in a place 898 years ahead of his time? Wouldn't he, like, immediately go for a major upgrade?” How could they all miss the obvious?
“Did you just do that math in your head?” asked Raven - eliciting a sarcastic snort from the changeling and no further reply.
“Well, he's got a point regardless,” said Cyborg. “Warp's Vortex Modulator is probably a kid's toy in this day and age. It's more than likely he's gonna go get some better equipment and weaponry.”
Bender’s voice cut through the air again. “Aw, c'mon, Masked Unit! Get up, damn you!”
Shego returned the conversation to the more urgent topic. “But how do we know if he even has money to buy something if he finds an upgrade that he wants? Or, assuming that he does have some dough, if the store will even accept the money he has on him?”
“Uh, this is Warp we're talking about, Shego,” Raven countered. “I doubt he'll try buying first.”
“Yeah,” added Cyborg, “specially since he's probably in a hurry to get home as much as we are.”
Shego smacked her head, not wanting to believe she’d just said what she had without thinking about herself and what she'd done zillions of the time in the past. “Oh - duh! Right, I forgot. Stealing.” She looked at Kim with an embarrassed grin. “I've been a hero for too long…”
Her remark elicited a sheepish grin from Kim, but otherwise she showed no uplift in her downtrodden spirit at the moment.
Robin was busy studying the huge viewscreen opposite the table. “Leela, can we use the viewscreen in here to look for Warp's whereabouts?” he asked.
“I don't know,” Leela replied. “Ask the Professor.”
At that, Professor Farnsworth popped back in. “Who said my name?”
Leela stood up, and made the proper introducing gestures. “Professor, these people came into the office through a time portal while you were about to tell us the details of the next delivery.”
“Howah? Oh, yes! The next delivery! Are they the extra crew that I hired?”
Leela sighed. “No - they never showed up. But the company that hired us called back wanting the package returned to them. They're three blocks away, so Hermes took the ship over to bully their CEO about the Bureau's new Return to Sender fees.”
Farnsworth’s face got a weird glint to it. “Ah! So we'll be getting some money out of this transaction after all. Well, that's all that really matters…Now, what are those filthy young hooligans doing sitting at my conference table?”
“‘Filthy young hooligans?’ Hey, c'mere and say that to our faces, ya’ wrinkly old fogey!” Shego charged up her green energy and got up, moving aggressively towards Farnsworth – but Kim grabbed her shoulder before she could escape the table.
“Sheegee, calm down. He's 160 years old.”
“I don't care how old he is, Kimmie! Nobody calls me a hooligan! Ever!”
Starfire was fed up. “May I ask that everyone please cease with their aggressions? This behaviour is not helping us in our goal of finding Warp!” she reminded everyone.
“Yeah, can everyone just shut up for right now?” You're giving me a headache,” said Beast Boy.
Robin stood up, and approached Farnsworth. “Professor, in our time, we were chasing a man named Warp. He tried to escape back to his time - 100 years ahead of ours - but something happened and we all fell through the portal and ended up here. We need to use the viewscreen behind us to see if we can track Warp.”
Ron got up, immediately dropping to his knees. “So can we, Prof - prettypretty please?”
“Hmm…” Farnsworth thought about it. “I don't know. Even I can't forget what happened when I gave Fry permission to use it.” Then Leela whispered something to him. “What's that? High School Graduation? Two of them, you say? Well, in that case, I'm certain I can trust them!” Farnsworth turned back to Robin. “Do whatever the hell you want with it, wastrel!”
Starfire was instantly shaking his hand, quite violently. “Oh, thank you, good sir! Your kindness is very much appreciated, I assure you!” she squealed quite joyously.
“Ow! My metacarpals!” was all the Professor could respond, as the pain in his hand was all he could think about at the present moment.
“Star, let go of his hand!” Robin shouted. “Look at him!”
“Eep!” Starfire released her grasp upon seeing the Professor’s pained face. “I am most sorry,” she apologized. “I can sometimes become a little too…overexcited for things.”
“Well, see that it doesn't happen again!” Farnsworth scolded. “I'd revoke that permission I gave if I could remember what I promised you all!”
“Uh, you said we could use your-” Rufus instantly clasped Ron’s mouth shut.
“Thank you, Rufus,” said Kim, exasperated.
Beast Boy, meanwhile, had wandered over to the viewscreen. “Hey, how do you turn this thing on?” he asked.
“Oh, it's very simple!” cheered Farnsworth. “You just press this button on the panel over here!”
He then pressed possibly the largest button on the whole control panel, a gigantic red button with the word “ON” clearly marked in bright white letters. Beast Boy felt like hurting himself.
“You couldn't see that?” Raven added insult to injury.
Cyborg and Robin came over to study the viewscreen. “Think you can figure it out, Cyborg?” asked Robin.
“Shouldn't be too hard. The controls don't look that much far advanced from the one we got in the Tower. Kim, can you drag Wade up on that communicator? It's gonna take a lot less time to do this if I had his help over here. ”
“No prob, Cy.” Kim took out her communicator. “Wade, you there?”
“Yeah, I'm here,” said Wade over the video feed. “Somehow…”
“Look, forget about that. We may have a way to find Warp, but Cyborg needs your help.”
“That I can give! Put him on.”
Kim tossed the communicator to Cyborg.
“Alright Wade,” said Cyborg. “First off, let's-”
His voice seemed to fade as Fry came in, along with Amy and Bender. “Hey, somebody tell that blue-skinned jerk in there to get his own beers!” Bender snarled to no one in particular.
Amy looked at the newcomers. “Hey, you guys want us to show you around, since it seems you're all gonna be stuck here for a little while?”
Everyone looked at Cyborg - who gave the “Enh, I'll be fine” shrug and returned to his conversation with Wade.
“I don't see why not,” said Shego. Despite her premonitions, she did wish to see all the stuff from the future she thought she’d never be able to see. Plus, it occurred to her Kim needed something to take her mind of the subject of Warp. And what better way to do that than spending some quality time with one’s lover? “Whaddya say, Kimmie? Up for a night on the town?”
Kim shrugged. “Yeah, sure, whatever - I need anything that'll get my mind off all of this…”
“Cool!” said Fry. “C'mon, then! We'll take you to the Head Museum first, since it's free!”
The last part of the sentence perked Ron’s ears up. His eyes widened. “H - Head…Museum?” That didn’t sound very pleasant to him. He looked at Rufus, slightly frightened.
END ACT TWO