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After another exhausting day of Mike duties, Battat stood in front of his evidence board. New information on the Mike Mystery was running dry.
Battat sighed and looked at the clock. Pluey was on Mike shift and Jongler was doing their normal zapper job. Battat groaned and grabbed his keys. He snuck out the Mike Room.
'Might as well go to the Greenroom and get a drink.' He thought.
______
The Greenroom was relatively empty. Elnina and Lanino sat on one of the couches, Ramb was behind the bar cleaning a glass, and a small gamble of pippins were playing games.
Battat sat at the bar. Ramb was washing a glass. "Hard day, luv?"
Battat huffed. "You have no idea..."
Ramb hummed and gave Battat a glass of battery acid. Battat took a sip and winced but went back to drinking. Once he finished the drink, Battat got up to pay. As he was about to leave the Greenroom, the gamble of pippins waved him over.
"Heya, Greenie! Wanna join in?" Ace said, still sporting her signature sunglasses.
Battat sighed. "Fine. One round." One round turned to two, which turned to 5. The pippins all parted ways. Battat walked to the Mike Room and froze. There, by the door were three neatly wrapped gifts. Upon closer inspection, they weren't addressed to Mike. They were addressed to the Mikes themselves. By name.
The small pippins grabbed the boxes and slipped into the room. Pluey was still in costume, rolling on his back and playing with a ball of yarn. Jongler sat on the couch, humming softly as they crocheted a cowboy hat for Pluey. They looked up as Battat walked in. "Hey, boss. What you gots there?"
Pluey perked up from hearing the door close and nearly tackled Battat until he saw the gift boxes. Battat put the boxes on the coffee table. "Someone, uh... left us some gifts."
Pluey tilted his head and let out a small questioning note. 🎵"Who?"🎵. Battat shrugged.
Jongler set aside their project and picked up the box labeled "Jongler." They shook it and whatever was inside it made a *dnk* sound. "Should wes open dem?"
Pluey nodded, letting out many excited notes. 🎵"Yes! Yes! I love gifts!"🎵. He grabbed his box and it made a jingling sound. He tore the wrapping paper open. Inside was __. Jongler smiled and opened theirs. They got a new cowboy hat and some new crocheting materials.
Battat looked at his box. It was smaller than the others. He gently opened it and froze. It was a pocket watch. Brand new, imported from Card Kingdom. He took it out of the box and flipped it over. On the back were little spades, diamonds, hearts and clovers. Pluey looked at Battat's gift and hummed. 🎵"Fancy. Whoever our secret admirer is, they're rich."🎵
Battat put the watch in his pocket. "We need to find out who sent these." Jongler and Pluey nodded.
______
The next day, Battat got into his Mike costume. Jongler and Pluey were still asleep as he left for the morning shift as Mike. He made Tenna's coffee just the way he liked it. He walked to Tenna's office as his mind swirled with theories on who the secret admirer was.
Battat Mike knocked on Tenna's door. "Oh, Tenna! I've got ya coffee! Just how ya like it!"
Tenna opened the door and smiled. "Mike! Perfect timing! I need to talk to you about something."
Mike walked into the office and, standing on tippy-toes, put the cup of coffee on Tenna's desk. "Whatcha need to talk about, Tenna?" Mike noted the grin on Tenna's face.
"I want to give some employees a raise." Tenna showed Mike a list of names.
Chip (pippins)
Ace (pippins)
Pip (pippins)
Battat (pippins)
Gizmo (zapper)
Gadget (zapper)
Jongler (zapper)
Kazoo (shadowguy)
Pluey (shadowguy)
Ramb (plugboy)
Mike looked at the list. Once. Twice. Three times. Tenna's voice snapped him out of his stunned silence. "Mike?"
Mike looked up at Tenna. "Uh, yeah! The- uh why do you want to give these special people a raise?"
Tenna smiled. "Well, they work so hard! And I owe Ramb I suppose..."
Mike slowly nodded, silently telling Tenna to continue. Tenna, however, did not catch it. He stood up, grinning. "Oh, Mike! It seems it show time!"
Mike nodded. "Of course, Tenna! Can't forget about ya show!"
____
After his Mike shift and switching places with Jongler, Battat decided to wander around for a bit. He heard his name from a small gamble of pippins, the same that had wanted to play games with him yesterday. Battat hid behind the couch to listen in.
"All we had to do was distract him and boom! We gotta raise." Chip downed his drink.
Ace laughed. "It was so easy too! So worth it. Wonder why Mr Tenna wanted Greenie to be distracted though." She sipped her drink. "Oh Ramby! A refill!"
Ramb grumbled under his breath. "I ain't your damn servant." But he still refilled the drinks. Pip smiled and thanked Ramb.
Chip and Ace snickered. "That zapper friend of yours is making you soft, Pip." Ace said from behind her hand.
"That zapper is my partner and you know it." Pip said back, grabbing their drink. "A sweet, perfect partner."