<Caption on black screen: NINE YEARS AFTER THE THIRD SEASON...>
<Scene: Inside the living room of the Lane house, now home of TRENT and DARIA. The music of Mystic Spiral is coming from the basement. The phone is ringing. Enter DARIA.>
DARIA: <Answering phone> Hello?
HELEN: <On other end> Daria, this is your mother.
DARIA: Hi, Mom. What’s new on your end?
HELEN: We have terrible headaches.
DARIA: <Sarcastically> Gee, Mom, why don’t you and Dad just take some aspirin?
HELEN: Because the cause of our headaches is that noise that you and the rest of that band are making.
DARIA: We’re three blocks away, Mom.
HELEN: I know. That electric harmonica you play carries way too far. Why did you waste your college education on building such an annoying thing?
DARIA: <Sarcastically> It was all part of my master plan to drive you and Dad insane. Right along with my marrying a neo-rock musician. The next step in my master plan is to take over Sweden.
HELEN: <Frustrated> Just turn down that racket before I call the police!
DARIA: OK, OK. You don’t have to outdo Dad in bursting blood vessels.
<Scene: The Lane basement. No one is present, though the music of Mystic Spiral can still be heard. Enter DARIA with a tiny spy camera.>
DARIA: <Presses her free hand against a wall> Queen of Brazil nu eta six. <Hidden door opens in front of her. She enters the opening.>
<Scene: A CIA top-secret laboratory. TRENT, JANE, and JESSE are working on sophisticated equipment. DARIA and TRENT’s infant daughter LOIS is sleeping peacefully in a crib. Enter DARIA.>
TRENT: What was that all about?
DARIA: Just my mother complaining about the noise. I think her response time is going down.
TRENT: Then we’re in trouble. Lois starts crying every time I turn the music off.
DARIA: Oh, Jesse, you left this upstairs. <Tosses the camera to Jesse> You ought to be more careful. We don’t want our cover blown accidentally by the mail carrier.
<Mission: Impossible opening theme, graphics and text modified appropriately>
<Scene: The Lane top-secret laboratory. The same characters are present as before, all working on the same stuff as before, except LOIS, who is sitting on TRENT’s lap and peacefully listening to music through headphones.>
DARIA: <Looking at printout being printed> Uh-oh.
JANE: People in Washington having trouble finding new idiots to sell my paintings to?
DARIA: Worse. Upchuck’s heading straight for Lawndale in his private plane. According to this flight plan he just filed, he should be here in a matter of hours.
JESSE: Isn’t he supposed to be working for the Swiss now?
DARIA: Definitely. I’m hoping he’s gotten less ostentatious, but I’m not holding my breath.
TRENT: Are our standing orders concerning him still the same? I still have a guitar with his name on it for what he did the last time we had to deal with him.
DARIA: Who doesn’t?
TRENT: Good one, Daria.
DARIA: This will probably be the biggest thing this CIA installation has had to deal with ever since this installation was created twenty years ago. As we all know, Upchuck has a long history of learning other people’s secrets and then selling them to their enemies. Some of his suspected informants in Washington were recently uncovered, and they confessed to having sold embarrassing information about the President to a masked man who called himself Feistophilius, which is believed to be an alias for Upchuck. As such, it is critical we apprehend him before he divulges any information to his latest client. As usual, we have to maintain our cover as a neo-rock band.
JESSE: Bogus. I really wanted to bash him over the head with a guitar during a gig.
DARIA: Stick to reconnaissance, Jesse. That’s too risky. Our drummer got himself killed the last time he tried that.
TRENT: It’d be much safer to shoot him in the neck with an anesthetic dart and then pose as emergency medical technicians.
JANE: But it might make a good backup plan if he’s still as good at staying protected as he’s been before. He always sits near the entertainment at Chef Pierre, and we could make it look like an accident.
DARIA: Hmm.
JANE: And Lois does love the sound of instruments breaking.
DARIA: True. I’ll take it under advisement. We definitely can’t sick Beavis and Butthead on him again.
<A series of clips showing the operatives preparing various pieces of equipment and LOIS banging on a set of drums. In one clip JESSE is having trouble getting a machine to work, so JANE kicks it, at which point it starts functioning>
<Scene: An airport. JESSE is hiding around the corner from a gate where people on an arriving flight will come through. Enter QUINN (dressed in black) passing JESSE and joining a group of people waiting for others to arrive.>
JESSE: <Speaking quietly into his watch> Mazola to Queen of Brazil.
DARIA: <Through watch> This is Queen of Brazil. What’s going on over there?
JESSE: <Into his watch> I’m in position. Nothing unusual here but the presence of your sister, Pea-Brain.
DARIA: <Through watch> Pea-Brain? What’s she doing there? She’s supposed to have dropped off the face of the Earth. <Sighs> There goes my chance for eternal happiness.
TRENT: <Through watch> So we have someone else to spy on when we’re done with Pinhead. Is Pinhead there yet?
JESSE: <Into his watch> Wait a minute.
<Enter UPCHUCK (dressed pretentiously), BRITTANY (dressed oddly conservatively), and several unimportant people through the gate. UPCHUCK and BRITTANY stop in front of QUINN.>
UPCHUCK: Good to see you again, Quinn. Of course, you know my bodyguard Brittany.
QUINN: Hello, Charles, Brittany. Did you have a good flight?
UPCHUCK: A little turbulence, but I do like it when the sky is feisty.
QUINN: Shall we head straight to Chez Pierre to conduct business?
UPCHUCK: <As the three of them walk away> I think I’ll go to the hotel first. We can meet for dinner at about, oh, seven?
<Exit UPCHUCK, BRITTANY, and QUINN.>
JESSE: <Into his watch> Oh no! Pinhead and Bubblehead just left with Pea-Brain. No way we’ll get him alone over here.
DARIA: <Through watch> There goes plan A. Have Tiffany Duke return the limo and then you two should return to Wonderland. Rooster and I will try to implement plan B. Prepare for plan C, just in case.
<Scene: Inside the van, outside a hotel. DARIA and TRENT are looking through binoculars to locate UPCHUCK’s room. LOIS is sleeping in a car seat.>
TRENT: I don’t see them.
DARIA: A little to the left. He’s lying on the bed. He has a contented smile on his face.
TRENT: I see him now. Room 506, I’d say. Time to make the kill.
DARIA: Torture would suit him better. Whose turn is it to watch Lois during the raid?
TRENT: Mine. You going to climb up the side of the building and break through the window?
DARIA: Naah. I’m taking the elevator.
<Scene: The lobby of the hotel, in which stand several angry maintenance personnel on strike. Enter DARIA, who rings for the elevator and enters it.>
<Scene: Inside the elevator. DARIA presses the button for the fifth floor.>
DARIA: <Looking at the floor indicator> Uh-oh. <Into her watch> Queen of Brazil to Rooster.
TRENT: <Through watch> Rooster here. What’s up?
DARIA: <Into her watch> The elevator’s stuck.
TRENT: <Through watch> That’s too bad. Now what?
DARIA: <Into her watch> Keep an eye on Pinhead and make sure he doesn’t escape. I’m going to use the emergency phone. If I don’t report back in five minutes, call Mazola and Tiffany Duke and tell them to get over here.
TRENT: <Through watch> Sure thing, Queen of Brazil.
DARIA: <Picks up the emergency phone and speaks into it> Hello? Is anybody there?
voice: <Through phone> Front desk. What can I do for you?
DARIA: <Into phone> The elevator’s stuck, and I’m in it.
voice: <Through phone> Hmm. This could take a while to fix. The maintenance personnel are on strike.
DARIA: <Into phone, groaning> How long will this take?
voice: <Through phone> Finding someone who can fix the elevator, sneaking him-or-her past the strikers, actual work... er, about three or four hours.
DARIA: <Through phone, groaning> I think I’ll try some heroics. <Puts down the phone. Climbs to the top of the car, exits through the port in the top, climbs up the shaft, pushes open the doors, and exits at the fifth floor. Then speaks into her watch.> Queen of Brazil to Rooster.
TRENT: <Through watch> Rooster here.
DARIA: <Moving, speaking into her watch> I’m on the fifth floor. What’s Pinhead doing?
TRENT: <Through watch> He’s putting something together on the balcony outside. Looks like a kite or something.
DARIA: <Into her watch> What?
TRENT: <Through watch> He’s testing the air with a finger. He’s getting on the ledge. Looks like he’s going to jump.
DARIA: <Into her watch> He must have acquired a new psychosis. <Reaches room 506 and kicks open the door.> What the?
<The view rotates so that the audience can see UPCHUCK hand-gliding away from the hotel.>
UPCHUCK: Yeehaw!
<DARIA’s watch beeps.>
DARIA: <Into her watch> Go ahead.
TRENT: <Through watch> Pinhead’s flying. I haven’t seen anything this weird in years.
<Scene: Chez Pierre. DARIA, TRENT, and JESSE are setting up their instruments. Waitresses (formerly the Fashion Club minus QUINN) are running around waiting on tables. Various guests are sitting at the numerous tables. Enter QUINN, who is led by SANDI to the table nearest the band.>
QUINN: <To DARIA, as discreetly as possible> What are you doing here?
DARIA: Nice to see you too, Ms. Not-In-Lawndale-Since-She-Graduated. I joined a band. Bands get paid money to play in front of people, such as in restaurants. It so happens that this restaurant hired us to play here regularly, right after another restaurant paid us to come here and drive all the customers away.
QUINN: Well, I’ll pay you double what Chez Pierre is giving you if you’ll just leave. I have a meeting in a few minutes with an important business associate, and whenever you’re around, everything goes wrong!
DARIA: I hate to disappoint you, but you know I love to disappoint you, so I’ll be staying here.
<Enter UPCHUCK, giving his now-folded-up hand-glider to STACY.>
DARIA: And if that charming man who just walked in is your business associate, I think you’ll be staying too.
QUINN: <Seeing that UPCHUCK has entered the room> <Growls discretely>
UPCHUCK: <Approaching> Hello, feisty ladies! Are we, perhaps, having a cat-fight? <Growls>
DARIA and QUINN: No.
UPCHUCK: That’s too bad. Shall we begin, Quinn? I have much to sell and, oh, so little time.
QUINN: Please.
<QUINN and UPCHUCK sit down and begin discussing business in Esperanto. TRENT discreetly presses a button on the side of his custom guitar.>
<Scene: The attic above Chez Pierre. JANE is monitoring UPCHUCK and QUINN’s conversation below with sophisticated electronic equipment via headphones. LOIS is lying in a portable baby chair and sleeping peacefully.>
JANE: What are they speaking down there? Anything they should know ought to be covered by the standard translation package.
<Enter BRITTANY>
BRITTANY: It doesn’t matter. You ought to know better than to listen in on Mr. Ruttheimer’s private conversation.
JANE: All this is part of Mystic Spiral’s stereo system. Just making sure nothing goes wrong.
BRITTANY: I’ve dealt with worse than you before. Nosy FBI agents, trying to entrap my boss for trivial reasons. You’re not going to get away with this alive!
JANE: Care to find out?
<JANE and BRITTANY fight, martial arts-style. LOIS is oblivious.>
<Scene: The dining room of Chez Pierre. The band is playing some sort of fusion of classical and heavy metal music.>
UPCHUCK: Excuse me for a minute. I just remembered that I have to make a quick phone call. <Exits room>
<TRENT discreetly presses a second button on the side of his guitar.>
<Scene: The attic. JANE and BRITTANY are still fighting. LOIS is still sleeping peacefully.>
JANE: <As a machine starts beeping> Uh-oh.
<BRITTANY takes advantage of the distraction to knock JANE unconscious.>
BRITTANY: <To LOIS> Time to go for a ride, little one. Mean old Auntie Jane and friends won’t dare hurt me and Mr. Ruttheimer as long as we’ve got you.
<Scene: The dining room. QUINN is sneaking out. The song is just finishing, and JESSE smashes his guitar on the floor.>
DARIA: Didn’t I tell you not to do that? We’re not paid so well we can afford it.
JESSE: Sorry.
DARIA: Take five. I’ll go see if there’s a spare guitar in the van.
<Exit DARIA>
<Scene: The attic. Enter DARIA.>
DARIA: What’s going on up here? We were supposed to get a signal from you confirming that you were going after Pinhead, and... <Sees JANE lying unconscious on the floor.> What happened? Are you OK? And where’s Lois?
JANE: <Weakly> Brittany. Go.
<Exit DARIA as fast as possible>
<Scene: The parking lot of Chez Pierre. UPCHUCK and BRITTANY, the latter carrying LOIS, are making a getaway. Enter DARIA behind them.>
DARIA: <Leveling a gun at UPCHUCK’s head> Freeze. CIA. You’re under arrest.
UPCHUCK: <As he and BRITTANY turn around> Ooh, feisty. But I know that no mother would dare risk hitting her daughter.
DARIA: This is a new low, even for you. You know that the government won’t let you get away with this. You’ll be hunted down by every agent between here and Japan.
UPCHUCK: Assuming they can shoot me without risking hitting your daughter Lois. Which is very unlikely. No one is that good a shot. And so Charles Ruttheimer the Third wins again.
<A shot is heard. UPCHUCK collapses unconscious on the pavement>
voice: I am that good a shot.
BRITTANY: <Putting LOIS carefully down on the pavement and then raising her hands> I surrender!
<QUINN walks into view. She has a gun leveled at BRITTANY.>
DARIA: What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be working in a beauty salon in Jamaica or something?
QUINN: I’m with the FBI.
DARIA: I didn’t know they lowered their standards that far. I’m with the CIA. Too bad you had to shoot him. In this condition we won’t learn anything from him.
QUINN: It is a shame. If you hadn’t been around, I might have gotten some intelligence on Switzerland from him before I took him into custody.
DARIA: What? He was a Swiss agent.
QUINN: He was a traitor to both sides. And your interference cost us making any use of him!
DARIA: How would you know anything like that? You couldn’t reason your way through a simple syllogism.
QUINN: I’m not as stupid as you think I am. I spent years manipulating both of our parents and you as well, which takes plenty of intelligence to do well. <Knocks BRITTANY unconscious as she tries to escape.> And as for you, you should have known better than to bring a baby with you on a mission. If you hadn’t made such a sloppy mistake, Upchuck and Brittany wouldn’t have had a bargaining chip, and I might have gotten something out of him. Now he’s going to refuse to say anything without twenty lawyers in the room! And it’s all your fault!
<Scene: DARIA’s bedroom. DARIA screams, sitting bolt upright in bed, waking from the dream. She is shocked.>
DARIA: That was too weird to have been anywhere near real, even in Lawndale.
UPCHUCK: <Flying past DARIA’s window on a hand-glider> Yeehaw!
La la la la la... la la la la la...
