text: [Themes: fan fiction]
  
  Your sacred quest for the Holy Grail has begun! Where do you want to look first?
  
  > The Castle Anthrax
  And so, you and your knights set out towards the legendary Castle Anthrax. The days turn to weeks, the weeks turn to months, the months unexplainably turn into hours and The Hours turns into a 2002 drama film starring Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, which I've heard is really good.
  
  Anyways, you find yourself at the Castle Anthrax, where you are warmly welcomed at the door by eight school young blondes and brunettes, all between the ages of sixteen and nineteen and a half. Their's is a very lonely life of bathing, dressing, undressing and making exciting underwear, and they are utterly thrilled to meet so many handsome young knights.
  
  "Greetings to you maidens. I am Arthur, King of the Britons!" You tell them, "And I have come here on a sacred quest to find the Holy Grail. Do you know where it is?"
  
  "Oh your majesty, you must be exhausted, come, come! Rest in one of our beds!" Their leader Zoot suggests.
  
  "I appreciate your hospitality young maiden, must I must find the Grail! Now is it here or not?" But every time you bring up the Holy Grail, Zoot changes the subject.
  
  "But you are weary and you must rest!" She insists as she takes your arm. "You may sleep in my bed. It is a very big bed. I'd say it could fit say... A King and at least fifteen scantily clad young women. Just come up stairs with me and we shall tend to your wounds." You are lead to Zoot's bedroom where you find a rather kinky looking nun costume, which you slip into your inventory because... Uhh... Because it's a clue! Yes, that's why! A very vital clue to finding the Holy Grail... Yes.
  
  "Now you lay there and let us do all the work." Zoot tells you. "I've been told by a very reliable source that the best cure for aching muscles is to cover yourself with melted chocolate and have three beautiful virgins lick it all off!"
  
  At that moment, Sir Lancelot bursts in the room and pushes the women out of the way. "My Leige, we must escape this place! They do not have the Grail and these foul temptresses are trying to distract us from our holy mission!"
  
  What will you do now?
  
  > save your men and heroically sacrifice yourself to these... Ehem... Foul Temptresses!
  Getting out from the bed you heroically try to shoo Sir Lancelot away. "Do not worry Sir Lancelot, I'll put these wicked wenches in their places!"
  
  "Oh yes!" Zoot agrees. "Let him put us in our places!"
  
  "Get away from him ye bride of Lucifer!" Lancelot yells, pushing the women back with his mighty shield.
  
  "Oh, don't worry!" You tell him. "I can tackle this lot single handed!"
  
  "Yes, please!" Zoot begs. "Let him tackle us single handed!"
  
  "No sire, I shall not leave you!" Sir Lancelot insists as he starts to drag you out of the castle.
  
  What do you say?
  
  > No, no! You can handle them! Save yourself!
  "Yes, he'll beat us easily! We haven't a chance!" Zoot calls as Lancelot pushes you down the corridor.
  
  "No sire!" Lancelot yells. "We must leave now! You are in great peril!"
  
  > look, let you go back in there and face the peril
  "No, it's too perilous!" Lancelot tells you as he drags you out of the castle.
  
  > look, it is your duty as King to sample as much peril as you can
  "No, we've got to find the Holy Grail. Come on!"
  
  > Oh, let you have just a little bit of peril?
  "No, it's unhealthy!"[Themes: fan fiction, puzzle, quiz, humor]
  
  "Gumshoe! The World Cup is the world's most popular soccer event. Every four years, the men's national teams of 32 countries from all over the world come together to play each other in a tournament. The winner receives a solid gold trophy depicting two human figures holding up a globe, and their name and year etched onto the bottom of the trophy. The first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930 and won by the home team. In 2010, South Africa will become the first African nation to host the World Cup. At least it was - until today!
  
  "Sue Aside, Carmen Sandiego's youngest and most melancholic henchwoman, was passing by the World Cup in South Africa when she pathologically pilfered it from Nelson Mandela's hands.
  
  "We believe she copped the World Cup trophy so she could have something to scrawl her angst-ridden poetry on. Now, it may have been awhile since you've last worked for us, so Special Agent Greg Lee will brief you on how to track her down. Gumshoe- your mission is to arrest the crook, and return the loot. Score a goal for ACME, and send Sue Aside off the pitch!"
  
  (Outside the Chief's office, you meet Greg Lee, Special Agent in charge of training new recruits.)
  
  "Alright Gumshoe- Sue Aside has stolen the World Cup from South Africa and it's up to you to recover it. You'll have to track down Sue Aside, and in order to do that you'll have to figure out where she is in the world based on the clues. You're going to receive some information from various sources at your current location that will point you to where Sue Aside went. When you think you know where the crook is, click on one of the links at the bottom of the page to fly to that location. But be careful, because every time you click a link, you will lose 10 HOURS of time. If you go to the wrong area of the world and the crook is not there, then you will have nothing to show for those 10 HOURS and have to try again. You only have 50 HOURSLEFT from right now before Sue Aside starts etching her poetry on the World Cup and ruins it forever, so you must catch her before then. If your HOURSLEFT ever reaches 0, then time has run out and you are too late.
  
  "Below are a few dossiers to give you more background information on the characters involved. Over the course of your travels we'll get more of them to you as soon as they're available. Don't try to Use the dossiers, just read the descriptions- Using them won't do anything. We also have agents all over the world and sometimes they will be able to help you in various ways during your quest.
  
  "OK, Gumshoe. That's about it. To get you started, we have a few clues to Sue Aside's last known whereabouts. The security guards at the World Cup facility recovered Sue Aside's diary, which she apparently dropped during her theft. It said that she was planning to visit the famous Great Wall, an object which can be seen from space, next. It also said that the country was the birthplace of Confucius, a great philosopher of the 5th century B.C. The diary also mentioned how much Sue Aside enjoyed reading the country's classics, such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Art of War, and Warlords: Strategic Conquest.
  
  "It's up to you now Gumshoe. Good luck!"
  
  Where will you fly to?
  
  [Author's Note: My interpretation of one of my favorite TV shows from childhood: Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? This work is primarily based on the TV game show version rather than the computer game, book, or cartoon versions. Author's note: Please do not cheat by using the Back button- just remember to Save the game every time you're promoted and Restore if you happen to lose. P.S. See if you can find all the Easter Eggs!]
  
  > China (-10 HOURS)
  You travel to China, a civilization that has been in continuous existence for 5,000 years. It is known to its citizens as the "Central Kingdom." One of China's most popular tourist destinations is the Forbidden City. It was home to emperors of the Ming and the Qing dynasties, the last two dynasties of China, from 1420 to 1912. It was known as the Forbidden City because commoners were forbidden to enter the home of the emperor, who was considered divine. Today the palace is dedicated to preserving historical artwork and artifacts.
  
  It doesn't take long before someone catches your attention. A sidewalk vendor is hawking watercolor paintings of tourists done in a brisk fashion. A few colorful strokes are enough to capture the visage of gullible tourists, including one who looks remarkably like Sue Aside.
  
  "Yes, she was one of my customers," says the painter. "This quiet girl was walking by yesterday, lugging a huge backpack carrying something very heavy. She asked me if I could draw a painting of her before she cut her wrists. I didn't understand what she meant, but she gave me the money to paint her- so I did. Just as I was about to finish the painting, she walked away to answer a phone call and never came back. I guess her painting will have to sit here until she comes back for it."
  
  Your cell phone rings. It's Greg Lee.
  
  "Hey Gumshoe, we just received a clue from ACME PresidentNet. Our agent said he had a vital clue to help you track down Sue Aside's next whereabouts. Let me transfer him to you- it's Barack Obama."
  
  "Greetings Gumshoe. The CIA has been tracking Sue Aside's communications ever since she stole the World Cup, and yesterday she received a call from someone we believe to be her father. Her father asked her to visit him in the largest city in Australia. It's located in the state of New South Wales. This city's Opera House is world-famous, and it was also home to the 2000 Summer Olympics.
  
  "Good luck, Gumshoe. America and the rest of the free world is counting on you."
  
  Where to next?
  
  > Melbourne (-10 HOURS)
  You reach the city of Melbourne, named after the 2nd Viscount Melbourne of Great Britain, William Lamb, in 1837. At the time, Lamb was the United Kingdom's Prime Minister and Australia was a colony of the U.K.
  
  A popular Melbourne landmark is Flinders Street Station, the main station of the Melbourne suburban train system. It has 14 platforms and 15 railway tracks. Approximately 110,000 commuters and 1,500 trains pass through Flinders Street Station every weekday.
  
  You ask several loiterers nearby if they had seen anyone resembling Sue Aside. None of them have.
  
  After several hours of questioning strangers yields nothing, you make a phone call to the local ACME agency to see if they have any leads to Sue Aside's whereabouts.
  
  "Nope. Sorry, rookie. We haven't seen Sue Aside anywhere in Melbourne. Our agents are usually pretty on top of things so you're better off trying somewhere else."
  
  Where to next?
  
  > Sydney (-10 HOURS)
  You have barely arrived in Sydney when you are greeted by a spectacular view of the magnificent Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is the world's widest long-span bridge and the fifth-longest spanning-arch bridge in the world. It carries train, vehicular, and pedestrian traffic across Sydney Harbour, between the Sydney Central Business District (CBD) and the North Shore. Not far from the Sydney Harbour Bridge are the Opera House, Royal Botanic Gardens, Government House, and many other sights.
  
  While taking in nearby Bondi Beach, you notice a drawing of a broken heart in the sand. You also see shoeprints leading away from the drawing. On a hunch, you follow the trail of shoeprints to a house down the road.
  
  From the outside, it appears to be a small brick house. There are flowers growing in the front garden, a white picket fence on either side, and the porch is well-kept. The shoeprints lead up to the door.
  
  You ring the doorbell, and you could not be more surprised by who opens the door...
  
  It's RoboCrook- longtime ACME nemesis, former VILE henchman, and one of Carmen Sandiego's most loyal accomplices!
  
  RoboCrook speaks to you in his deep, robotic, voice.
  
  "Gree-tings. I am not sur-prised you are here. But me- no more thief. I- reformed. Recalibrated. Reprogrammed. Gone le-git many CPU cy-cles ago. Plant flow-ers. Water gar-den. Lis-ten to birds. In past life, many years guilty conscience. Meditation program initiated. Meditation program completed. I pro-cessed error of my ways. No more steal. Now live simple life.
  
  "I re-gret bad things, so I help you. A few days ago I found daugh-ter. Many years ago, when I was still thief, I met woman. We fell in love. Sparks flew at the be-gin-ning. Ev-er-y-thing was per-fect. We even had a lit-tle girl to-ge-ther. But I was internationally want-ed. I could not be there for them the way they need-ed me to. I did not want to be a bad in-flu-ence on my daught-er. I left one night and nev-er came back.
  
  "On-ly recently I was read-y to see her again. I con-tact-ed her and she a-greed to meet me here yes-ter-day. When she told me she be-came a VILE a-gent, I was shocked. She made the same mis-take I did. I tried to talk her out of it. But she was stub-born and got up and left, to an A-mer-i-can city located in the state of Lou-is-iana. It is home to Tulane University. Many people call it 'The Big Easy.' That is all I can di-vulge. Now, please- leave me to my sol-i-tude. And do not step on the daisies on your way out."
  
  Where to next?
  
  > Baton Rouge (-10 HOURS)
  Baton Rouge is the state capital. Commissioned by governor Huey P. Long in 1932, the Capitol Building houses the state legislature and the governor's office. At 34 stories tall, it is the tallest capitol building in the United States, and the tallest building in Baton Rouge.
  
  In 1935, Long—then a U.S. Senator—was fatally wounded by an assassin in the Capitol Building, where the bullet holes can still be seen on the wall. He died two days later as a result of his wounds and his remains are buried in the Capitol gardens.
  
  Leading up to the main entrance are a series of steps with the names of all of the states in the United States in the order of each state's admittance to the Union. After the first 13 steps (symbolizing the original 13 states), there is a small platform. Behind this platform, the steps continue again with the rest of the 48 states. The 49th step lists both Alaska and Hawaii, which were admitted to the Union in 1959 after the Capitol was constructed.
  
  You walk up the steps of the entrance and ask the security guard of the Capitol Building if he has seen anyone fitting the description of Sue Aside.
  
  "Nope, can't say that I have," replies the officer.
  
  You interrogate a few other possible witnesses.
  
  "Nah, man. I haven't seen the person you're looking for," says the LSU student.
  
  "Sorry, the person you are looking for wasn't here," replies the gardener.
  
  You pace back and forth inside the halls of the Capitol Building when an apparition coalesces before you. It's the ghost of Huey P. Long.
  
  "She's not here you dunderhead," says the ghost of Huey P. Long. "You'll end up like me before you find Sue Aside in this city."
  
  You leave the Capitol Building and decide on your next course of action.
  
  Where are you headed now?
  
  > Sydney (-10 HOURS)
  Sorry, Gumshoe. Unfortunately, you were too late. The crook has gotten away this time and the loot is no longer recoverable.
  
  Your have failed in your mission. But all hope is not lost.
  
  You can Restart the game in the upper right-hand corner, leave Comments, or even Restore a game that you have Saved in My Stuff.