The Battle on the Bus
The driver looks over her shoulder with a witch-like smile. "Time for a battle." Her evil eyes glow with an off-putting joy. Maniacal laughter bubbles from a pool within her too deep to be mortal.
Panic sets in.
"With who?" Top Hat shrieks.
"Is the bus under attack!?!" Lint braces himself and eyes the other passengers frantically.
Bluey freezes in caution and confusion. Her friends always look out for her. Top Hat sticks beside her at every twist and turn. Lint surrounds her with care, almost giving pieces of himself. Even Little Army Man is distant but fierce in protection. They can solve this together.
But none of them could expect an attack within an attack. Top Hat sees it just a second too late. A hand descends toward her candy form, almost god-like in its unstoppability. Powerless to save herself, in an instant she is gone.
Silence.
But this deific murder is almost cosmically irrelevant. There is no time to mourn. Two flanking and nameless enemies? How could they even have prepared for that? One foe all-powerful and gone in an instant, the other still unannounced but ever present. The battle is still waging. Who is this second combatant? How is Bluey gone so fast? There's no time for any of them to process.
Top Hat is spiraling. Bluey, his love and best friend, has been ripped from him without so much as a word of warning. This doesn't make any sense.
Lint is gutted; his love and best friend was torn from his life in a flash. She probably never even knew of the depth of his feelings. But that was always his problem, right? He never takes initiative. He doesn't act. And now he couldn't act to save her.
Little Army Man bubbles with silent rage. Calculating, she knows just how to channel that. Now, who is this invisible enemy?
Air. It's the air. It's the only explanation.
How do you fight air? You can only hold your breath for so long. Top Hat tirelessly tries to reason his way through the problem. If he can find an explanation, he can act. Lint rationalizes. He bargains. There has to be a meaning. This can't be for nothing.
Little Army Man however has the laser focus of her rage to aid her. She needs this. Emotions are difficult, but violence she could do. For Bluey. For all of them. In an odds defying move of old-fashioned plastic on plastic violence, she attacks, and she destroys the bus. The offending air is dispersed harmlessly. She feels a cheer from the great beyond, from her friend.
Abandoned and alone on the freeway, three friends plus one in spirit must make their way to LAX. But how can they without a bus? I suppose, we'll have to find out next week.
