‘Dougal. There’s a report coming in of trouble in the Windy City’
‘Michty Me! Again…. mair trouble. Was there no trouble there aboot 5 years ago wi a bairn who’s balloon got stuck up a tree?’
‘Ah think this is a bit mair serious Dougal………ah might mair serious.
‘Mair serious???? Ooh. Isn’t this jist magic. Ever since we joined the maist secretist secretist government agency in the world, it’s jist been great. I mean, t’was so secret I didn’t even realise Ah was in it until you telt me Donald’
‘Well, Donald, the FB Aye needs to stick to it’s motto ‘Secretus Nae Kenna’ – If Na’body kens yer their, Naebody kens’
‘Aye….it makes ye swallow yer pride when ye hear it’
‘Aye Dougal Aye…..it does’ *raises eyebrow and frowns* 🙂
‘So, Donald, is it a weans balloon that’s stuck this time or don’t tell me, it’s thae #TeamTartan yins again. They’re a bunch of troublemakers richt enough’
‘Neither, Dougal. Have ye ever heard of the PseudoAvengers?’
‘You mean like thoan Marvel comics wi spiderman, Thor and thoan yin that looks like a rock?’
‘Aye, sort of. They’re like them but they don’t quite have what you would call ‘super powers’.
‘Whit dae they have Donald?’
‘Well, Spiderman produces spider silk stronger than steel which he can jet onto things, enabling him to leap tall buildings and get to the supermarket a lot quicker than you on your moped. Whereas the PseudoAvengers have the likes of PhotoCopierMan for example’
‘Whit can he dae – use a photocopier? Wi can aw dae that – hee hee’
‘No, PhotoCopierMan can take a picture with his eyes and produce good photocopies and bad photocopies’
‘Good and Bad. Whit dae ye mean?’
‘Well Dougal, the good photocopies come out of his mouth…..’
‘….Och……ye don’t mean that bad photocopies come out of………’
‘Exactly Dougal, we also have MoonMan who lights up when it gets dark. Another useless talent which only comes in handy when a torch isn’t available or KnitterWoman who can knit a jumper in 0.8 of a second or MarmaladeMan who’s bright orange, sticky and got bits’
‘Jeezo Donald, whit a useless bunch!! So, how could they be causing trouble?’
‘well Dougal, there are loads of them for a start, we don’t know where they all are, what useless things they can do. Even worse, they think they are just like the Avengers and are starting to try to fight crime, save children’s balloons from trees and other things that the police and the FB Aye are here for’
‘So, what trouble is there down in Edinburgh then……?’
‘Well, there are reports from FB AYe agents that, MoonMan, MarmaladeMan and ScrabbleMan have been seen together in the Meadows. There are reports that people have been fleeing the scene, reports of sticky stuff being dolloped on people and buildings alike. Perhaps these PseudoAvengers are not only useless but they’re troublemakers as well. We need to go down there and find out……’
100 miles down the A9 and a bit beyond, ScrabbleMan, who could not only make words from seven scrambled up letters, but could tile a whole bathroom in five minutes, was hiding behind a bush in Edinburgh’s Meadows……..
‘WOAH! – I WISH you wouldn’t do that MoonMan, always scares the crap out of me, lighting up like that just when you least expect it!’
‘I can’t help it…..it gets dark – I light up…..I wish I could stop it happening but it’s the burden I pay for being ‘special’. ‘
‘Well, it’s not much bloody use when we’re trying to hide is it? You’d have been better staying in the van! It’s all gone quite anyway, we might as well head towards the Castle and see what’s been going on’
They hadn’t gone far when they found a large dollop of white stuff hanging from a beech tree.
‘Well, what is that my friends? Either the seagulls around here are getting scaredly ginormous or that mad Putin has unleashed some mighty weird chemical warfare on Edinburgh……… DON’T TOUCH IT MOONMA…….’
Too late, MoonMan, shining more brightly by the second, gave it a sniff, stuck a moonbeam enhanced finger into the mix, licked it and turned…….’
‘It’s Mr Whippy Ice Cream…….delicious……’
‘Mr Whippy Ice Cream, twelve feet of it, hanging from a tree in the Meadows……..what’s going on’
‘Yep. He’s right. It’s creamy dreamy Mr Whippy ice cream – marmalade flavour I would guess’ said MarmaladeMan, who’d forgotten, most things he licked with his finger, tasted of marmalade’ 🙂
Suddenly their newly found communal desire to find a large spoon and get tucked in, was shattered by a noise over to the right. The three PseudoAvengers walked over to the path. the sight that met them made the large blob of ice cream hanging from a tree seem as mundane as finding an odd sock in your laundry. There, lying on the path was, what looked like, a large glace cherry with a pair of womans wriggling legs sticking out the bottom.
‘Well, I’ve seen it all now. Ok I think I’ve worked it out’
‘What do you think’s happened ScrabbleMan?’
‘Ok, I think our lady friend here has been advertising Mr Whippy Ice Cream in a very badly designed costume. Lost her bearings whilst dressed in a large glace cherry, banged into a tree, losing her ice cream and toppling over onto said path for us to discover’
‘That would be a great theory but for several reasons…..’
‘What’s that old moonbeam me son?’
‘Those, that and that over there….and that’
As MoonMans light became brighter, the sight that unfolded in front of them in the dim Edinburgh light was baffling. There were two more giant glace cherries, one with legs and the other without. Further over to the left, near some park benches were what looked like giant smarties and a 99 flake.
‘Right, so let’s go through that theory of the woman advertising ice cream again……..’
‘Well, it was just a postulation’
It took them nearly ten minutes to free the petrified woman and a twenty something male rollerblader from their sweet prisons. They looked slightly sticky. Well, a LOT sticky, but otherwise, unharmed by their ordeal. Now they’d get to the nitty gritty of WhippyGate……..
‘So, one minute you’re heading towards the Grassmarket, the next a giant glace cherry lands on top of you and that’s the last thing you remember?’
‘Yes. it wouldn’t have been so bad but I’m a type 2 diabetic…..’
‘What about you son…do you remember anything before you…..ahem, were abducted by a cherry?’
‘Well, I remember three giant frisbees coming towards me through the air. I skated to the right, then to the left, then to the right again. I was just about to spin and take off along the path when I spotted it……’
‘Spotted what?’
‘A giant Mr Whippy’
‘A giant Mr Whippy???’
‘Must have been thirty foot tall. firing giant smarties and glace cherries in all directions. I tried to turn back, but it spotted me, next thing all i can see is red all around me and that godawful smell of glacier cherries. I’ll never eat one again’
The PseudoAvengers looked at each other. As the saying goes ‘this was pure mental!’
‘Okay, I know you’re dazed and traumatised. How many fingers am i holding up’
‘Three’
‘Where are we standing?’
‘In the Meadows, Edinburgh’
‘Okay son, get yerself home……’
‘Thanks for getting me out of the cherry’
‘Aye, nae bother son.
As the dazed woman and rollerblader headed home the PseudoAvengers gathered their thoughts.
‘I’m glad normal humans can’t see what we really look like, as getting trapped in a giant glace cherry only to be rescued by a torch and a bright orange sticky mess, might have been enough to send the poor souls over the edge. Anyway, bizarre though we are, they were a pair of loons …..a giant Mr Whippy giving out free, but bizarrely dangerous, free sweeties…….mair like some marketing campaign that’s gone squeegy…….’
It was about that point that the hundreds and thousands started falling on top of MoonMan’s head…….
‘Sheesh, that’s sore…..and that’s sore as well…..run for cover boys’
They’d just made it under the trees when they saw it. At the far end of the meadows, there was indeed a thirty foot tall Mr Whippy shooting hundreds and thousands into the air like there was no tomorrow.
‘THAT, is either the best manually operated object since Warhorse, OR, it’s a feckin giant Ice Cream monster set on carnage…. I think we might need to call on some help…….’
The next morning Dougal and Donald, the secretist secret agents of Scotland’s most secret Government Agency, the FB Aye, arrived in Edinburgh. There had been reports of several incidents across the city overnight, including a Japanese tourist who’d felt sick and been taken to hospital after trying to eat her way out of a giant glace cherry, four american tourists who’d rolled down the Royal mile on a sea of hundreds and thousands and a Venezuelan woman who’d become pinned against the Scott’s monument by a giant smartie.
‘I’m telling you Dougal, I knew these PoundShop Avengers would be trouble. Contact Agents Mellor and Taylor. Tell them to meet us at the coordinates as planned. Let’s show them what Highlanders can do when they’ve been starved of haggis for a day!’
It was just about then that their car was hit by a large wodge of raspberry ripple sauce………
At the PseudoAvengers Headquarters, deep underneath the centre of Edinburgh, FiloFaxMan was trying to organise some sort of plan…….
‘Hold on a second. My FiloFax is a bit over endowed at the moment. It’s here somewhere’
‘Why don’t you ditch that thing and use a computer like everyone else?’
‘Ok GadgetWoman….smartypantses…..one things for sure….you can’t hack a FiloFax’
🙂
‘Here it is. here it is. According to the information from ScrabbleMan, which is a bit disjointed, as, as per usual, he hasn’t used any words greater than seven in length, we have pinpointed some potential weaknesses in our Whippy friend.
First of all, assuming it’s a normal 99 cone, it’s not going to be very strong. We all know when cones get soggy, they tend to leak and drip all over the your hand. If it’s also filled with whippy ice cream, it’s going to be susceptible to rain, heat and being licked.’
‘So, we could arrange a flashmob session and lick it to death?…’
————————————————————————————————————————
‘Donald, can you open your door?’
‘I’m trying Dougal. I’m trying…….oops…….yeeuucchh…..maybe that wasn’t a good idea’
MeltedAs their blacked out DB9 filled with raspberry ripple sauce, Donald and Dougal panicked and jumped out of the car. Now covered in very sweet raspberry ripple sauce, they found themselves out in Princes St. moving very sweetly, but slowly….wading through a sticky mess. As a giant wodge of chocolate sauce hit them, Dougal and Donald realised this was not going to be a childs balloon stuck up a tree sort of day.
———————————————————————————————————–
BREAKING NEWS – Edinburgh – the Capital of Scotland is in chaos tonight after a giant Mr Whippy caused mayhem across the city. Reports are coming in of giant sweets enveloping tourists and city dwellers alike. Rumour has it that events are so dangerous, even the secret FB Aye may have been called in to rescue the city.
————————————————————————————————————
‘Okay, GardenHoseMan, HairnetGirl, ChewingGumMan and MarmaladeMan. We ALL know what we’re doing yes?’
‘YES’
‘Okay let’s go dae this’
————————————————————————————————————-
As Mr Whippy reached Edinburgh Castle, tourists scattered faster than a politician after a general election. Having clambered the wall, it continued it’s sweet but chilling mayhem within the castle walls. As he reached the esplanade a giant hairnet landed on top of him. This not only stopped him in his tracks, but caused large chunks of Mr Whippy Ice Cream to flop on to members of the public and soldiers of the 3rd Highland Regiment.
‘Ok GardenHoseMan – GO!’
GardenHoseMan got his sprinkler out and aimed it at the cone. At the same time ChewingGumMan ran at speed round the feet of Mr Whippy, dropping well chewed chewing gum on the ground. something he wasn’t proud of, but which came with the territory.
MarmaladeMan now stood in front of the now very attractively hairnetted MrWhippy.
‘Chase Me…..Chase Me’
As MrWhippy lurched forward his feet got stuck in some well masticated spearmint. His now soggy cone, gave way and he lurched on to the castle embankment.
As tourists clapped, minutes later GardenHoseMan was using his hose to clear up the last of the mess. The PseudoAvengers had averted a sweet disaster for the city of Edinburgh.
‘Dougal, whit are you doin?’
‘Ma Dad never let me have sauce on my ice cream’
‘Jesus…that’s not right Dougal…..we need to talk’
——————————————————————————————————-
Back at the PseudoAvengers headquarters………
‘Well done everyone. We may not silver surf, spin webs, get green and muscly when we’re angry throw giant hammers, lift trucks or leap giant buildings in one go, but…….what we have proved is we ‘useless’ avengers can save people and make a difference. We should not feel powerless or ashamed of our ‘powers’. Onwards and Upwards.
https://www.redbubble.com/i/sticker/MR-WHIPPY-MR-MEN-by-WolfOfWarwick/49172579.EJUG5
‘PseudoAvengers and Mr Whippy’ was brought to you by David Linden, qosfc1919 on Twitter and Dodo Productions © 2015
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Fifty Seven 