Zahra found herself driving Fabian’s old patrol car to work every day. It was familiar, and it reminded her of Fabian. And it moved more slowly than the other vehicles the Samples owned, which suited Zahra just fine. Her reaction time wasn’t what it used to be, not that she’d admit it to anyone.
One afternoon as she was leaving the lab, her phone rang. It was the emergency ringtone that she had set for threats to the city or all of mankind. Mad scientists had to make allowances for those sorts of things.
The voice on the other end of the line was the Leader of the Free World. “Zahra Sample! Thank goodness we reached you!”
“Just a moment,” Zahra said quickly. “Let me put this call on million bit encryption.” She flipped open the hidden compartment on her phone and flipped a switch. It beeped. “All right. Go ahead.”
“We have reason to believe that Sean Flynn, the Emperor of Evil, is building a doomsday device in his lair. He could activate it as early as tomorrow. Help us, Zahra Sample. Simworld has never needed you more.”
“I understand, ma’am,” Zahra said. “I won’t let you down.”
A doomsday device. Of all the bad timing. She was getting too old for this.
She spent the afternoon reminding herself of the most common varieties of doomsday devices and their hidden weaknesses.
She had to face it. Simworld needed her, but she was not as young as she used to be. She would have laughed at facing down the Emperor of Evil in her prime, but at this time in her life, she could be defeated. If she valued her life, she should refuse this assignment, but that would be cold comfort if Mr. Flynn’s dastardly plan succeeded.
After dinner, she sat under the stars and contemplated her options.
Sky broke her out of her reverie. “Would you read me a bedtime story, Grandma?” she asked innocently.
All right then. If this might be her last night on the mortal plane, what better way could she spend it than reading to her only granddaughter?
She let Sky drift to sleep in her bed and gave the little girl a gentle kiss on the cheek. Her family couldn’t know what she was up against tonight, so this would have to be her goodbye.
Now she was ready to face danger and save the world.
Perhaps a police car was not the most stealthy way to approach the hideouts of the Criminal Overlords, but the truth was that disguise offered her little protection where she was going. She preferred to have the comfort of Fabian’s memory.
She drove to the edge of town, as close to Flynn’s hideout as she dared.
She had all her equipment. There was no reason to delay.
One does not simply go into the Criminal Hideaway by the front door. Zahra knew the path to take on foot to the back of the apparently-abandoned warehouse.
The path took her to the back entrance of the Flynn’s lair. She took a moment to compose herself, used her pocket scrambler to break the code on the door, and walked inside.
They say the sounds of the epic battle between good and evil could be heard from Bridgeport to Moonlight Falls.
Unfortunately, Sean Flynn himself escaped to fight another day.
When the doomsday device was destroyed and she had scrambled their ability to build another, Zahra emerged from the lair and dusted herself off.
A new day dawned over the warehouse, a new day that the Simworld might not have seen if not for Zahra Sample’s bravery.
Now it was time to go home and take a nap.
———-
OK, that was the most hilarious opportunity I’ve ever seen. What you see is pretty much exactly how it happened. The game was so lagged at this point that she arrived at the warehouse around 3am, so it was a happy coincidence that Sean Flynn happened to be leaving work at the time. The actual evil madman in the opportunity had a different name. Heh.
Then when Zahra completed it, she got a small amount of money and maybe a little bit of job performance (she was already level 10, but perhaps she could have gotten a raise). I guess saving the world really is a thankless job!
Since I haven’t played the criminal career yet, I’d never actually looked at the criminal hideout rabbithole. I’m glad I looked at it before we left Sunset Valley. I think it’s the most awesome-looking rabbithole in the whole town.
Yay, already another chapter!
The family really is full of heroes. Even if Zahra's saving the world didn't look that impressive from the outside, it was a giant step for simkind. When reading this, I thought Sunset Valley would get blown up now, so that they have to move immediately. But I like this version even better 🙂
Hee! And you were here to read it as soon as I posted it! How's that for instant feedback?
Nah, I didn't blow up Sunset Valley, though that's a funny idea now that you mention it!
I try to make the Samples a little bit heroic. The legacy trait is Brave after all!
I just happened to check all the blogs for updates and there it was – sparkling and screaming "I'm here! Read me!"
You managed to bring out the family trait really well, especially in the last chapters! 🙂
How are things going with your game issues and legacy boredom?
I didn't put the savegames back in yet, since I wanted to try Seasons first ( I love it!!!). So far everything in the new games is working just fine, but there is absolutely no part of me that wants to play with Julia and her family again, so I am still not sure what to do. I'll think of something and let you know 🙂
Aww. Well, I enjoy reading you write about your game, so I'll follow you wherever you go!
I think I may take the frightening step of starting an ISBI challenge while I'm still running the Samples. The Samples are a lot of work, and a challenge where you are only allowed to control one sim seems kind of, well, relaxing!
But like you say, these legacies are long, and even if you like what you're doing, after a while you want to do something different!
I really love the picture of Zahra sneaking up to the lair with her cane. It's just a little bit absurd!
The timing was great with Sean leaving the warehouse, it really adds to the story.
It's very sweet that she likes to drive Fabian's car around.
The women of this legacy are really impressive! Zahra's my favorite, though. 🙂 I'm sad that she's getting old, but really happy that she got to save the world (again?) before she died. 🙂
Of course, I'm hoping she sticks around for a lot longer!
Thank you, that's great to hear 🙂
Wow, good luck for that! I definitely will check it out as soon as it started – it's going to be great, I'm sure of that 🙂
This chapter amused me greatly. Zahra really is the coolest granny EVER!!! How did the bad guys not happen to see her hobbling up the back way with a walking stick? She totally reminds me of yoda … I can just picture her throwing down her cane, ninja kicking a few bad guys, dismantling a few ray guns and then picking it back up and hobbling out again … hilarious XD
It took Zahra something like two sim-hours to hobble from her car to the criminal warehouse with her cane. I'd go off and play another character, come back to check on her, go play a different character, and she'd STILL be walking. There's actually a more direct route she could have driven. I'm not sure why the game directed her to that route.
The opportunity was really pulpy and cute, and it was even funnier that Zahra hit level 10 of the science career halfway through adulthood, but she got this save-the-world opportunity when she was about 92.
Heh. Zahra's a pretty prickly character, but she doesn't back down from danger! Nice to see her get to make a difference now that she's elderly.
Hmmm…. clearly the scrambling devices she used to break their door security also scrambled their surveillance or something.
Zahra as Yoda. I love it!
Hmm, I wonder what faith sees in a guy that wants to end the world? He *was* kinda cute, though. Haha
The timing was really good so at least the lag was good for something while she crept to the evil lair.
It was aggravating to play, but the result was really fun :).