Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen: Another Bright Idea

 The OTHER upshot of the Insurance Siege was that Demon decided that if his insurance company was going to be at risk, he should probably invest some more into his metalworks as a bit of an insurance policy.

Of course, he did this in the most underhanded way possible, including multiple attacks on Charlies metalworks business. These attacks weren't only performed by the Haunted Maze Troupe, but they were also some legal ones too.

“I hate him! I wish he'd go shove his head in a toilet! REPEATEDLY!” Charlie threw the latest contract as far as he could. It flew back and hit him in the face. “I HATE him!”

“I don't understand how he could legally do this to your suppliers. This is severe conflict of interest and any legal fight would throw this out and burn it.” Belle replied, taking the offending paper away. They were sitting in Charlies room, after a rather underhanded move by Demon to go for Charlies suppliers. “Throwing fines at these suppliers for the most inane things…”

“Yeah, but he's the fricking Mayor and has nearly every legal eagle in Pleasantville under his thumb, present company excepted.” Charlie grumbled.

“Yeah, well, unfortunately there's no chamber of commerce in Pleasantville.” Belle said, reading the contract over. “Good LORD he's anal.”

Charlie froze. Belle slowly lifted her head from the contract and looked at her best friend.

“Charlie…this had better be good…” She warned him.

“I think…it's time…for a BUSINESS REVOLUTION!” Charlie cried.

Thomas Begly stuck his head in the door. “Did I hear the Improbability Clause?”

“Oh boy…” Belle sighed.

“And so,” Charlie said as the hairdresser looked extremely bored. “This is why I believe that the business owners of Pleasantville need to get together to ensure fairness and equality for all of us.”

“Are you done sugar?” The hairdresser asked, annoyed. “I have customers to get to.”

Charlie opened his mouth.

“We're done here, we'll just leave you an information pack and be on our way.” Belle quickly jumped in. She left a small envelope full of leaflets on the counter and pushed Charlie out of the salon as quickly as she could.

“WHAT?” Charlie cried.

“You say I'M bad for exposition! You just told your life story and then some!” Belle walked with her best friend down the street.

“We have to get people on our side!” Charlie pleaded as Belle headed towards the ice-creamery.

“Yes, and boring them out of their skulls won't work. You should know that.” Belle walked into the ice-creamery and immediately felt her stomach rumbling.

“FINE.” Charlie groaned as they approached the counter. “Hi, I'm Charles Begly, owner of Begly Metal Services. We've noticed recently there's no real path for communication between the business owners of Pleasantville and the Council, and we would like to propose a Chamber of Commerce to help facilitate this. We at the Business Revolution Organisation propose that all business owners in Pleasantville should have a place to go for advice about various laws and regulations, as well as a place to settle disputes. Especially -,”

“Here's our information pack, can I get one scoop chocolate, one scoop toffee, one scoop mint, one scoop hazelnut…” Belle started, mouth watering.

“You get up ME for taking forever! How long did that ice-cream order take?!” Charlie cried in fury as the pair walked out twenty minutes later, Belle with her rather large ice-cream bowl.

“DON'T YOU JUDGE ME BEGLY.” Belle growled, making her friend back off.

“They're a cute couple aren't they?” An old lady mentioned to her partner as they walked past.

“I don't think they're dating?” Her partner looked confused.

“Anyway, I think we're done canvassing this street, how about we tackle the Industrial Zone?” Belle continued to scarf down her ice-cream.

“Sure. Hey, do you think we should try and canvass Jones Metalworks?” Charlie giggled as they got into the busted old Elantra that Belle refused to part with.

“Are you serious? He'd find a way to get rid of both of us!” Belle grinned back.

Then her eye began to twitch.

“I am the textbook definition of an enabler. Every single one of your lame ideas, and I just follow along like the sheep I am.” Giggles groaned as she and Chuckles walked up to Jones Metalworks.

“You're still alive and thriving aren't you?” Chuckles said with authority as they approached the entrance.

“Alive, yes. Thriving, debatable.” Giggles replied as they walked into the building.

“IT'S CHUCKLES AND GIGGLES!”

“ATTACK!”

“THIS IS YOUR FAULT!” Giggles screamed as they both bolted out of the building with bullets at their backs. Unfortunately, Haunted Maze Troupers blocked their path – and all of them were armed to the teeth!

“UP!” Giggles cried as she grabbed Chuckles and flew them onto the roof of the building. Both of them gasped for air.

“Oh NO!” Chuckles cried as they heard a door banging, and they looked up to see more employees opening the roof door and rushing towards them.

“Time to go!” Giggles grabbed her best friend and they flew away, dodging thrown knives and a rain of bullets as they left.

“Like I said, you're still alive!” Charlie tried to cheer Belle up as they walked home from the tip.

“BARELY, Begly!” Belle snapped. “My helmet is now more chips than actual helmet!”

“Well, your birthday is soon, I can buy you a new one?” Charlie suggested as they passed Bills restaurant.

“Just so you can get out of buying me a proper present.” Belle smirked.

“At least I remembered it!”

“Our birthdays are exactly six months apart, of course you're going to remember!” Belle chided him as they walked past the lake.

“Anyway, we've got a lot of work done today, the Business Revolution Organisation is off to a great start!” Charlie pumped himself up.

“Maybe we should talk to some of the people from the PRO. They'd be interesting in getting things off the ground.” Belle thought out aloud.

“Yeah! Then we'll be a PRO BRO!” Charlie cheered.

“I walked right into that one.” Belle sighed.

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