At the end of the week, Bert went to the Elixir shop, as now he had some pay! Now Bert, readers, has an addiction to Elixir. He loved the Bliss one, and whenever he could would take a Bliss potion and simply slob in front of the TV for a few hours. For him, THAT was happiness.
Well, on sale there at the store was a chunk of raw tiberium. He had some vague memory of hearing it was precious. Scratching his head, he thought maybe one of the ghosts that had haunted his house had said something about her family's fortune being made by mining the stuff. It was quite cheap, and he could actually afford it as well as his Bliss potion, bought it and took it home with him.
But while he carried it around with him, it seemed to make him feel unwell. So he took it out of his backpack and left it lying around in the house, simply forgot about it. About a week later it had grown into a Spire Cut Tiberium. He took it back to the store to sell and got almost 90K - enough to keep him in Bliss for a long time.
He now had enough money to buy a good wetsuit. And then some. he was no longer a bum! "Nah, once a Labum, always a Labum," he grinned.
He popped back to the cemetery to visit his old friend and to thank her for the tip about the Tiberium.
"Don't spend it all at once, Bert. I know you."
Bert bought a job lot of orange paint and did a bit of work on the beachhuts. But he got distracted, so didn't finish the work immediately. The huts still had no doors.
And now he had a little money, it was time to get his own place. His own room would be better for entertaining, and he had his eye on one or two of the local beauties. JJ, his landlord, had become a good friend and they planned to keep in touch, meet up at least once a week for a natter and a drink.
"That's fine, Bert, I know Oliver Pitts is looking for a place to stay as well, so I won't even be without a lodger."
So finally, Bert had his very own house! With his very own green Christmas Lights!
One day on the beach, busy working on his snowman, it dawned on Bert that someone was shouting.
Someone in the water! A female! Quickly stripping off his wetsuit and wearing only his red uniform swimming trunks, he headed in...
First rescue! And pulled her out. This was, oddly enough, Trippy Rakenface, the Mayor, sister to Jelly, who had in turn rescued him.
She was grateful. And Bert felt like a Hero.