V.I.L.E vs V.I.LE?

[Joseph Porter]

CHAPTER 1: SCHOOLHOUSE ROBBED!!!​

DENVER, Colorado USA

Denver is located in the Southwestern United States, in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Its downtown district is immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River, approximately 12 mi (19 km) east of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It is named after James W. Denver, a governor of the Kansas Territory. It is nicknamed the Mile High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile (5280 feet or 1609.344 meters) above sea level.[15] The 105th meridian west of Greenwich, the longitudinal reference for the Mountain Time Zone, passes directly through Denver Union Station.
Denver is ranked as a Beta world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. The 10-county Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 2,963,821 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the 19th most populous U.S. metropolitan statistical area.[11] The 12-county Denver-Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area had a population of 3,623,560 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the 17th most populous U.S. primary statistical area.[11] Denver is the most populous city of the 18-county Front Range Urban Corridor, an oblong urban region stretching across two states with a population of 5,055,344 at the 2020 United States Census.[11] Its metropolitan area is the most populous metropolitan area within an 560-mile (900 km) radius and the second most populous city in the Mountain West after Phoenix, Arizona. In 2016, it was named the best place to live in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.[16]

Travelling on a highway making his way to the foothills of the rockies as a gold mining operation had hired his company for delivering supplies and goods and after making the first of several successful deliveries each of which prove more difficult than the next he eventually is finished and is well paid for his services.

As Joe makes his way down the mountain he gets a phone call and the name on it is one P.LARCENY.

Hmm dunno if I recall the name personally but I'd bet the farm on who might he says turning on a secret ACME tracer and picking up the call

This is Joe How can I help you?

the voice on the other line is indeed sweet Patty's
H-HELLO? i-is this an ACME Agent I'm speaking with? she says nervously

Detective Joseph T. Porter at your service. He says

Oh good! listen? is there someplace in town where you and I can meet for a face to face I'm not comfortable talking on the phone about what just happened today!

I've got just the place so meet me there Joe instructs her and gives the directions and as he's soon back in town he is enroute to the rendezvous location

parking his truck he uploads his location and a recorded transcript of their prior conversation over the phone to ACME and prepares a second uploading of their conversation here to go to ACME as well

Oh goody! I'm so glad you made it Mr.Porter! and you made sure we're alone here in this warehouse too! thank you!

Just what you wanted! now what's the story morning glory?

Okay, my Name is Patty Larceny and I work for Carmen Sandiego as a V.I.LE gang member despite my schoolgirl looks and speaking of school that's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about because apparently it would seem school is out permanently all over the United States! nobody has a clue why but schools from grade schools to colleges and universities are disappearing and nobody knows where they're going? I was hoping maybe you ACME'S might be able to shed a little light on the situation and help bring back the schools before something bad happens please?"

Hmm This here sound like a real serious situation from what I understand. Patty, you made the right call calling ACME to the case! I'm gon' get with my fellow detectives and we gon' get on the case right now!

Oh! Thank you Mr. Porter! I knew I could count on you!! she says with a smile as they part ways and Joe uploads the transcript to ACME

Acme Home Base, Acme Home Base this here's Ol' Joe porter talkin' atcha! ya got your ears on come back? We got Schools gone missing all over the place and not nobody knowing why? Now don't that sound more than a little farfetched to you? come back. he reports to them on his Citizen's Band Radio tuned to an Acme Frequency as he climbs back in his truck and is back on the road in no time. Next Stop: ACME HEADQUARTERS.

 

[Tenchi Masaki]

Tenchi was making his way back and forth between ACME Detective Agency and ACME Academy. Needless to say he was quite busy running the lab and speaking with the student body. Of concern was the constant referencing to a case in the Siberian region involving two mischievous students. They of course would tell the other kids the details of the case at the slightest opportunity. This led to the other students wondering when they would get picked to go on missions with the grownups.

Tenchi and his partner Kylie Griffin had to keep shooting down their dreams reminding them they were inexperienced children, and extenuating circumstances such as the one in Siberia were the only way they would find themselves in a field mission scenario. As Tenchi spoke to the usual “boos” coming up from jr. Detectives at ground level he said, “The only reason your fellow classmates were on this mission was because they were sent for field experience before the situation escalated. Detective Griffin and I handled the situation to the best of our ability; which as you all know is the best one can expect from Genius Class graduates. Now stop asking when you can arrest VILE Henchmen as since your so small they would simply stuff you into their loot bags without noticing.”

As Tenchi found himself dodging tomatoes from that ill-timed joke, Kylie added, “Tenchi’s bad jokes aside you do not have the training or combat skills necessary to deal with VILE; or any other criminals for that matter. Your time will come when you are ready.” Kylie while loving to look on the gloomy side of things did want the best for everyone and as she tried to dissuade Tenchi from another of his ideas forming in his eyes she simply said, “No, Tenchi.” Tenchi responded saying, “Seriously, we have exotic butters and now it’s time someone did it! Why stop with tomato ketchup when you can have cucumber, lettuce, beets and so on!? The possibilities are endless I tell you!”

After calming another child storm, and dashing exotic ketchup delusions. the two headed back to ACME HQ for a well deserved coffee and doughnut break. When they got there they received a message saying public schools were vanishing. The two talked about what could be done about it in the break room.

 

[Polly Tix]

“I don’t know whether to feel happy or upset at that loot bag joke.” Polly thought to herself as she tossed tomatoes. While it was true Polly and her best friend Ann had been the two jr. Detectives in question, they were pretty sure tenchi didn’t bring up nearly enough details of their solo work. Polly said, “We both did extensive work in the field without the grownups! And brought Sachi Karin and Candy Corn to justice! Why don’t I have a medal or something for it yet?”

 

[Ann Tickwitee]

Ann said, “We did get a valuable learning experience at least. And the townsfolk are grateful too.” As Ann threw her last tomato Polly and Ann decided to confront Tenchi about proper award protocol. This was merely an excuse to go over what had happened of course which they never got tired of hearing about. On the way Ann brought up info about Greece on her Hobonichi Techo and soaked up the facts like a sponge.

 

[Claire Avalon]

Claire sat in the blue glow of her monitor as the clock on the screen clicked into an ungodly hour. Little matter, since her conservatory’s classes had been mysterious suspended for three days now. The oddest part was that this came with no announcement, email, and no obvious environmental factor for the closure. Rumors had spread about everything from a bomb threat to a gas leak, when students arrived to a shuttered and deserted class buildings. Her Chicago city campus was small, only two buildings in total. But attempts to make contact with school administration had gone unheard. Claire’s Mahler score sat open on her keyboard stand. But her fingers were focused on another keyboard. As a freelance profiler for ACME Detective Agency, Claire had some level of clearance to access CrimeNet, and tonight, it would seem the whole site was buzzing with strange reports, schools shutting down across the country. She reached for the phone instinctively, then, glancing at the clock, she thought the better of it and made a mental note to call at a sane hour. Perhaps a flight to San Francisco was in her future. Shutting down her computer, Claire paced across the room and flipped her score closed. In the city street light flickering between her blinds, she could have sworn the cover portrait of Mahler looked almost jealous.

 

[Joseph Porter]

San Francisco (/ˌsæn frənˈsɪskoʊ/; Spanish for "Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a cultural, commercial, and financial center in the U.S. state of California. Located in Northern California, San Francisco is the 17th most populous city proper in the United States, and the fourth most populous in California, with 873,965 residents as of 2020.[15] It covers an area of about 46.9 square miles (121 square kilometers),[20] mostly at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area, making it the second most densely populated large U.S. city, and the fifth most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. San Francisco is the 12th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States with 4.7 million residents, and the fourth-largest by economic output, with a GDP of $592 billion in 2019.[21] With San Jose, California, it forms the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area, the fifth most populous combined statistical area in the United States, with 9.6 million residents as of 2019. Colloquial nicknames for San Francisco include SF, San Fran, The City, and Frisco.[22][23]
In 2019, San Francisco was the county with the seventh-highest income in the United States, with a per capita income of $139,405.[24] In the same year, San Francisco proper had a GDP of $203.5 billion, and a GDP per capita of $230,829.[21][25] The San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area, with a GDP of $1.09 trillion as of 2019, is the country's third-largest economy.[26] Of the 105 primary statistical areas in the U.S. with over 500,000 residents, this CSA had the highest GDP per capita in 2019, at $112,348.[26] San Francisco was ranked 5th in the world and second in the United States on the Global Financial Centres Index as of September 2021.[27]

Joe, having the advantage took the 18 hr western drive to the golden gate city home of ACME Hq and upon arrival backed his truck into the trailer parking slot incase he needed to exchange trailers for hauling other things ...today after the trip to handle the job in Denver it was still empty and dirty and needed a cleaning but he'd worry about that later as he exited the cab and after flashing his badge to the reader was given access to headquarters where he found a computer to sit down at and begin to understand that lady Larceny wasn't lying as not only were schools shutting down they were flat out disappearing off their grounds as if they were never there in the first place!

suddenly this didn't seem as farfetched as Joe had thought as he began to think about it....something had to link all this together...

he went into the break room to get some coffee and found Masaki and Griffin there too

How doin ya'll? I take it ya got my message did ya? apparently not only are these schools shutting down they're flat out vanishing as if they were never there to start with we're talking all over the country from Elementary Schools, to Junior and Senior high schools to universities and colleges and even the New York PS numbered schools! At first I thought ya'll gotta be kidding me given who this was I was talking to, the crime she was telling me about which itself seemed totally outta left field for somebody to be making happen, and her insisting on us being alone! but after reading it for myself I got reason to believe something really IS up! and that the person I talked to in Patty Larceny was despite her criminal record in fact telling a true tale.

So, after lookin up a few things I might just've found me a link between the disappearing schools but I'm gonna need ya'll to help me follow up on it.

His coffee having brewed he stirred in creamer and sugar and sat down to a cup...his first that day as he had been in Denver since 1:30 am that morning and had only just arrived in town late that evening 7:30 pm he needed something to wake him up and warm him up cause winter was not playing nice at all freezing him up bad ...no secret how hated it!

 

[Claire Avalon]

Claire stepped out onto the tarmac at SFO, black leather book bag slung under her left shoulder. The California warmth startled her as she exited the plane, a stark contrast to her beloved Chicago winter. Claire loved the snow, and the moody climate of the Windy City. Cali sunshine had always felt too abrasive on her skin, and despite her interest in profiling, she couldn’t quite be convinced to work full time at ACME HQ for that reason. However if she had to relocate to anywhere in California, San Francisco, with its winding roads and miles of gilded-age Victorian mansions had an irresistible charm. There was almost nothing in this world Claire loved as much as a well-preserved Queen Anne Victorian, with its endless lacy woodwork, whimsical paint, creaking floors…

Drawn out of her daydream, the young profiler stepped through the security doors toward baggage claim, scanning the crowd for the familiar face of Joe Nowak, ACME agent in charge of their K-9 unit, as well as the surprising amount of veterinary care involved in the aftermath of a Carmen case. Friends at the agency had made it their personal mission to set the two up, but Claire, hesitant to make long distance romantic ties had limited their romantic interactions to flirtatious banter.

“There she is!” The familiar baritone sounded across the baggage carousel, sweeping his target up in a jovial embrace.

Claire, not prone to initiate physical contact returned the embrace a little more stiffly.

“Thanks again for the ride to ACME. Maybe you can catch me up on the drive?”

Joe took Claire’s bags from her, shaking his long chestnut curls in confusion, “This one is a doozy for sure. I mean, schools shutting down is one thing, but buildings vanishing without a trace has a far more sinister energy.”

“Nothing spookier than the vanishing of our educational systems,” Claire teased, settling in the passenger seat of Joe’s obnoxiously bright orange jeep, “you know, a car like this makes people think you’re an asshole.”

“Orange is my favorite color!” Joe countered.

“Orange is no one’s favorite color.”

“I’m a simple man, Claire, and that’s why you love me.”

Claire rolled her eyes but she was smiling.

“So, what’s making some buildings disappear and others close?” She continued.

“You said your university has been effected?”

“Right, but everything is still intact, at least from the outside.”

Joe squinted, half at the sun, half for dramatic effect, “so it must be something about the buildings themselves. Was your campus always a school?”

“No, it was a hotel originally, converted in the 40s, I think. Do you think that has something to do with it?”

“I’m not sure, but if the buildings disappearing were constructed as schools, and the ones shutting down are repurposed, it must mean something.”

The jeep made its way through the security gate at ACME HQ, and the large corporate facility spread out before them. Claire couldn’t help but notice the tightening of her stomach muscles and the racing of her heart. She’d underestimated the effects of a few days without hours upon hours of rehearsals. Her mind was ready for a challenge, and this was gearing up to be a good one.

[apologies about using a character with the same name as OP, I’ve already developed his character in my own writing and while this is anachronistic, I’ve based this before their engagement. If I didn’t have another character to play off of it gets hard to write any action.]

 

[Tenchi Masaki]

“Well Joe we’d be happy to help out. And do please try the exotic ketchup prototypes I made using the food processor.” Kylie quipped, “That won’t be necessary Joe, I’ll stop his twisted veggie science from continuing.” Tenchi relented in the face of such opposition and resigned his idea to the “Invention Bucket List”. The kids started hearing about schools vanishing online and we’re not too thrilled that ACME Academy was not a public school as well. Their hopes of vacation dashed, they decided to await instructions from the grownups.

 

[Joseph Porter]

Alright then get ready for this one...being a history economics geography and social studies master in school the link I feel like has to do with the creation of the first free public school.
As I recall that was 1635 with the opening of the Boston Latin School which is still running today.

My best guess is that somebody had to have gone back in time and stole it and cause they did its affecting EVERY public school that would be established in America throughout history up to today causing the disappearances! so since i'm still just a probationary agent right now i'm limited in what I can do unless I get help from other agents and this one I definitely will need help with especially if we're dealing with a time villain Masaki, Griffin. he said stonefaced as ever definitely not happy with the situation as he drank his coffee and then got up to find a bagel or two to toast.

As Joe picked up the two toasted bagels sesame seed style he put butter, and cream cheese on it then ate munching one in half then it's twin and eating the other halves afterward.

Tell ya what though...I have my 18 wheeler Mack truck and its got a trailer wide and long which would be big enough to take an entire Acme tech setup mobile in the back.

 

[Tenchi Masaki]

Tenchi replied, “Well you happen to be looking at ACME’s best and we’d be happy to take the case. I mean seriously we just got off that case in Siberia and- mmph!” Kylie covered Tenchi’s mouth with her hand before any case details could be spoken. She then finished by saying, “He was going to say that the case will be filed into the system and given to us. At which point we will assemble a task force as per the norm.”

Tenchi removing her hand said, “Yes we’ll handle the paperwork and red tape in no time. Meanwhile seeing as your a lover of trucks, you can checkout our mobile base for our cars; Roadie and Wheels. It helps us transport them around the country when they need to travel and the box has multiple rooms so we can live in it if we need to.” Kylie reminded Tenchi what they’d agreed to concerning Roadie and zehrrls saying, “You know full well we agreed to be highly selective about ho gets to see them after all the mean things that were said about them.” Tenchi said, Of course I do but it’s the Bhp and the official specs not the truck they are transported in. Besides he doesn’t have to if he doesn’t want to. And we’ll be heading out once the case is registered anyway Ms. Griffin.

Kylie could sense what the sudden tonal shift in Tenchi’s voice indicated. Both of them always centered themselves before a mission. And so their Casual selves were shutting down and it was time for Special Agents Tenchi and Kylie to emerge once more.

 

[Joseph Porter]

sounds good to me. if ya don't mind though since I'll need this for the experience I'd like to come with ya'll on the case...my knowledge ought to come in handy for this job plus if in fact we'll be heading back in time as I suspect then this'll be my first time going and seeing history face to face as compared to the books which sounds like a good time. he says clearing his throat, then straightening his bandanna, cracking his neck, hands, knuckles and back and re-affixing his gloves before finally cleaning his prescription ray-ban shades. Probationary ACME Agent Joseph T. Porter reporting for duty sir!

 

[Tenchi Masaki]

The game would have been afoot but first ACME Red tape-net had to act. Fortunately they were caught up in an impromptu game tournament centered around a very popular kart racing game and that ink shooting fashion based one. Competitiveness had taken hold and what had started out as a friendly game had spiraled out of control. The original two groups were arguing over which game should be played, that led both groups playing the other groups game to see if it was as good as they said it was. But this led to others taking sides and a mutual respect driven backstory that we don’t have time to tell right now taking place.

In the end a spontaneous tournament was setup and as they were quite busy, decided to throw a red folder in Tenchi and Kylie’s general direction. As the empty folder hit the floor the two were reminded about the color coded case folder system. It was created to assign cases more efficiently to detectives. Most didn’t even care about the case details beforehand as they knew the general level of difficulty by the folders color. Blue was easy-peasy, yellow was moderately mellow, and red was just plain spicy hard. It became a surprise that detectives mostly enjoyed when they opened the folder and saw the details of the case. Of course they could sift through the case folders and pick up to five of their choosing as well.

Luckily since Tenchi came up with the Color Folder System(CFS) he had no problem filing the case. But he saw the aftermath and it wasn’t pretty. The online system was the easiest as detectives around the globe simply logged in to pick cases. However there was a paper trail at ACME that had to be properly handled. The actual case folders had to be manually assigned based on who was picking them. Mistakes were sometimes made but they were temporary.

This was good news for Zack who was credited with solving a Jr. detective’s case involving the theft of a box of crayons. He received the same points however as his actual case causing accusations of favoritism and elitism to be thrown his way that not even his strongest jokes could deflect. Meanwhile the Jr. Detective was credited with stopping Carmens robbery of Divine Rubber Chicken LLC. A media blitz quickly ensued as did a whirlwind press tour. He adorably thought that it was all for finding the stolen crayon box. Even Carmen was intrigued as she figured this kid must have impersonated Zack and foiled her plans. Fortunately for Zack and Carmen’s pride; the error was discovered.

Zack came to Tenchi and told him Carmen had arranged a online string of clues he had to crack. But now she thought it was this 1st grader who solved the crime by pretending to be him online. He couldn’t do anything as people thought he was just jealous and becoming unhinged over being outdone by a seven year old. Tenchi agreed to help his friend and delved into the nightmarish labyrinth of file cabinets. Only the bravest detectives and interns dared roam those passageways. It was technically one large room but huge numbers of file cabinets and cardboard boxes were stacked almost up to the ceiling creating a maze that drove most almost crazy. This was mostly because if they knocked anything over it would take them weeks to sort it back into proper order.

Tenchi however chose to travel above the maze and descend down where he needed to go. Once he had the files all he had to do was show them to clear up the situation. He remembered trying to go on the ground was more trouble than it was worth for other reasons as well. He remembered coming across an over competitive Detective in the maze once and had tried to reason with him to no avail. These type of guys would always be arguing over who was better and were trying to one up each other.

This unfortunate soul had chosen to go into the maze and find the physical file of a case he solved to prove a point. When Tenchi came across him he was mumbling to himself about where the file could be and locked eyes with Tenchi. He asked Tenchi if he knew where his case file was only to be told no. Tenchi then told him he had been missing for 3 weeks. The detective in disbelief laughed and then screamed, “No! It can’t be! I’ve only been in here three hours!” The Detective was dragged out of the maze and sent to recovery.

Kylie said, “So that’s where this flashback was going huh?” Tenchi answered, “Yeah, that place plays with concepts of time. Past and present cases are all in there and they say some who wander it’s halls lose track of time.” Kylie said, “”They” who exactly?” Tenchi responded, “The detectives that hangout by the water cooler of course.”

Tenchi did know however it was these rumors that led to the eggheads in ACME creating the Chronoskimmer. It was located in the center of the maze and only top agents were selected for time missions. Kylie anticipating an annoying maze side adventure said, “So we have to go get the Chronoskimmer at the center right.” Tenchi nodded and the two headed upstairs to another room Kylie was confused as usually all equipment was gathered and given to field agents before a mission. But they had to do all the legwork this time round while the tournament was underway. Kylie huffed, “Where are we going? I don’t want to wander in that labyrinth all day.”

Tenchi reassured her they weren’t going into the center the usual way but rather the shortcut saying, “Worry not we’re taking the spiral staircase down to the center from a lab room on top of the maze.” Kylie relieved said, “For once we have common sense to thank. They made a stairway to the center to save time.” Tenchi however remarked, “Actually they were just lazy and after realizing they had to travel back and forth to get to the center; knocked a hole in the floor and hung a ladder down. Afterwards a spiral staircase was installed. Kylie rolled her eyes as they made their way to the stairs.

Kylie her eyes narrowing said, “Ugh, it’s one of those annoyingly tight spiral staircases. Why not just keep the ladder?” Tenchi reminded her that lazy people prefer stairs to ladders as they headed down. After reaching the floor they spoke with the receptionist, Ms. R. K. Vist. After giving a look there way once they explained a video game tournament was the reason they had to come personally they received the Chronoskimmer. Kyle said, “It’s about time.” As Tenchi replied, “That’s exactly what this device is my dear.”