Chapter 16
"Mr. Moon! She's here!" Miss. Crawly says, completely terrified.
Outside, Nana's car pulls up. Hobbs opens the door for her. She regards the building remembering the times long ago. Buster bursts through the doors. "Nana!" He walks up, ready to hug her.
"Oh! Do not even think of embracing me." Nana says, waving her fan in front of her.
"You got it. Eddie, please show your Nana to the royal box." Eddie offers his arm for her.
"Oh, for heaven sakes. I'm perfectly capable of walking." She walks in alone.
"You nervous?" Eddie asks.
Buster's normal expression starts to crack before shattering. "Are you kidding? Haha haa, I'm absolutely terrified." He answers before they also walk in. Not a moment later a yellow 4x4 hummer truck skids to a stop.
The gang of bears look out the windows at the sight of Mike's red lamborghini. "Boss! That's his car, isn't it? Right there!"
"Pull over...." The Boss orders. They all look up at the theater.
Eddie and Nana take their seats in the royal box as Miss. Crawly offers tea. "Lapsand souchong, coursesty of Mr. Moo-moo-m" Miss. Crawly sneezes, splashing tea all over Nana.
"Wonderful." The sheep gorans out.
Outside, Mike is still talking to his girlfriend. "Honey, Honey, the show is starting alright, I can't talk now, I gotta go......Of course I love ya. You think I'd buy you diamond earrings if I didn't—--AAAH!" Mike is cut off when he is grabbed and lifted up by the boss.
"Where is my money?" The boss growls out, bearing his teeth. (Not a play on words)
"Okay, okay, listen, listen...I just uh, I just maybe kind of uh, spent it all, you know?" Mike answers. The bear opens his enormous jaws and starts to lower Mike into his mouth. "AAHH! No, no, please, please wait! I'll give you the money, I'll get ya- I'll get ya $100,000!!!" The bear pulls Mike out of his mouth and hears him out.
"Where are you going to get that kind of money?"
"Moon. Okay? Moon's got my money." Mike answers, gesturing to the theater doors.
"Who is this 'Moon'?" The bear growls again.
On the stage, Meena starts the music for the introduction, as planned. Miss. Crawly points a spotlight at Buster who descends on the moon. "All creatures great and small! Welcome to the Moon Theater! I am your host, Buster Moon, and–WHOA!" The moon slips on the way down but Meena quickly regains control. "Okay, behold! The very first stage lit entirely by..." Buster hps off the moon when it stops at a safe height from the stage. The main beats of the song kick in. ".....Squid power! Yeah!" It's like liquid fireworks. The squids move and change color in perfect synchronisation with the music. A dazzling sight. "Beautiful work guys. Now just follow me on the beat." He whispered to the squid. "And as you can see, this is no ordinary theater! This is a palace of wonder and magic." Eddie and Nana lean over the balcony a bit to see the stage. The rest of the cast look from the wing in awe. "Now welcome our first contestant—whoa!" The auditorium doors fly open to reveal three bears, the one in the lead holding Mike in his fist. They all storm down the aisle.
Johnny unconsciously places his arm in front of Karla. "Johnny?" She questions.
The gorilla looks at her and realizes what he did. "Sorry it's just they are a gang as notorious as my dad's." He quietly tells her.
"Which one of you is Moon?" The boss asks.
"Hey, hey, hey! You can't just barge in here!" Buster states.
The boss holds up Mike who now has claws almost penetrating his throat. "You know this guy?"
"Mike?!" Buster asks, shocked.
"Right, Mike here says you got his money and it's in that box." Everyone looks at the mouse with different expressions.
"No no no no no, just hold on a moment here! That's prize money and it's not Mike's unless he wins it fair and—"
The bear starts to squeeze Mike. "G-give 'em the m-money!" Mike stutters.
"Okay! Okay! Hey hey hey, take it! The whole chest! It's yours. Okay? It's all right here." Buster quickly says.
"Open it." The boss orders.
"Open it? I–I– Me?" Buster repeats, terrified that his secret will come out.
"Open it!" Mike confirms. The bears step on the stage.
"Okay, no, I–I just don't have my keys so maybe you could come back later." Buster backs up against the chest, hoping to buy himself some time. Karla cocks her head in confusion, 'Why is he stalling? Is he hiding something?' She wonders.
"Get outta the way!" The boss picks Buster up by the ear. Johnny moves both him and Karla back as this happens, and the bear tosses Buster aside along with Mike and smashes the chest with his baseball bat. All the cast cover their faces to avoid breathing in the dust.
"Hey, hey there ya go! Big guys with the bat! Who needs keys, right?" Mike comments as he stands up and brushes the dust off his jacket. "Alright, let's get this thing squared up now." He makes his way to the busted chest as the dust settles. "What the....That's it? That's all there is?" The cast all move a bit closer to see broken junk inside. "He lied! Moon lied to us all!" The cast gasps and Karla starts tearing up at the fact.
"Wait a second, I can explain—okay there's—" Buster tries to talk as most of them advance on him.
"He's your problem, not me..." Mike states.
"This is just a prop!" Ash growls out.
"So, where's the hundred thousand dollars?" Johnny asks.
"You're kidding!?"
"I don't believe this! What's the big idea?"
"You wasted everyone's—" All the squid blink red.
"Buster! Look out!" Eddie screams from above.
*Boom* The entire glass stage explodes, releasing every bit of the water out, and washing everyone on stage away. The wave smashes through the pillars, causing them to splinter and buckle. Water and the cast flood out of the auditorium and rushes down the foyer steps towards the exit. Everyone is disorientated from being spun around in the water.
"Aaahh! I'm stuck!" Meena comments as she is thrown into the ticket stand. All the pipes she and Buster set up to fill the stage burst from the pressure, flooding the rehearsal rooms and the entire backstage. The strength of the water forces the curtain rod to fall.
Johnny, who was lucky to grab hold of the back of a chair, prepares himself before letting go and makes his way to the surface. As he takes a breath, he looks around for the pup he has come to strongly care about. "Karla? Karla!" He calls out before being shoved back under the water.
As soon as he does, Karla surfaces looking around for him, "Johnny! Guys!" While she looks around, the bears get swept into a column, causing them to break, sending the upper level crashing down and pinning the pup to the floor. Buster is slammed into the fallen balcony. He climbs up the seats to the entrance doorway of the level.
"Buster! It's falling! Let's go!" Eddie yells as the royal boxes start to crumble. He pushes his Nana through the curtained doorway to save her. Buster finally makes it through his own doorway just before the balcony collapses completely.
Gunter breaks through the surface in the foyer in front of Johnny, but only for a second before an overhead light breaks off from its hinge, nearly crushing Mike; sending out another wave. Meena, who is still stuck in the ticket window, raises her trunk to keep receiving air.
Buster scrambles across the 2x4 created bridge above the stage to get to his office. He rushes to the window, avoiding the falling items, that include a flood light and a ladder. He pats the window, still letting out comforting words. "Okay, okay steady girl. Steady!"
Back in the foyer, Johnny looks around before swimming to the rising surface. He grabs hold of a pole to get a breath and his berings before diving back down and using the pole to kick off the wall and uses the momentum to push Meena through the opening. The elephant shoots out like a cork. The entire entrance breaks apart, releasing the built up water all at once, shattering all the glass doors. Miss Crawly rides one of the chairs like an intertube, Mike and the squids flow straight into the sewer drain, while the rest of the cast flow out letting the water carry them like they are on the lazy river. (Sorry for the references, I miss my annual trip to my favorite water park.) They all start to stand up, Buster coming out, asking if everyone is ok before he calls out for Nana, seeing her, disheveled, as Eddie helps her into her car. She stops to address the koala but words weren't needed, the glare on her face said it all. "I, I, I, I- I'm so sorry I just– no, no, no don't-don't go!" The car door slams and Nana is driven away.
"Has anyone seen my glass eye?" Miss. Crawly calls out grasping at air.
"Oh, it's–it's right here Miss. Crawly. I've got it." Buster picks up the glass ball in front of him and runs after her.
"Has anyone seen Karla?" Johnny asks, looking around for the pup. The moment he asks that they all hear a creak and turn around to see the theater sink a bit and let out a tremendous roar before collapsing in on itself. Johnny has a terrified look on his face. He doesn't really want to tell Mr. Klein that he couldn't protect the pup.
"Look out!" Buster yells and everyone covers their faces again. When the dust settles for the final time, everyone is holding on to each other, covered in dust and sees the only thing still partially standing is the top arch of the theater. "No.." He mutters seeing his dream turn to dust. He trudges through the wreckage with Johnny behind him. Buster finds his father's bucket. "Oh, dad. I'm so sorry." Buster hugs the bucket.
"Karla? Karla!" Johnny calls out, going through the rubble. The rest of the cast join him, calling out her name.
Buster turns slowly when he hears a slight groan. He could barely make out the dirty white fur in the pile of concrete. "Karla?" He says to himself. Him and Miss. Crawly move over to a stage lighting rig and find the missing pup underneath a chair, unharmed, well almost. The rig kept the concrete from hitting her. "I found her. She's over here!" He calls to the rest of the cast.
Johnny is instantly by her side. He moves the rig out of the way. He notices she's not moving but she is slowly breathing. He looks her over before seeing that her left back paw was underneath the balcony wall. "Hey, guys come over here, help me lift this." The entire group, aside from Miss. Crawly gather around and, on Johnny's count, lifts the wall off of Karla. "Karla, hey can you hear me? Come on, open your eyes." He coaxes, his hand lightly grazes her face.
She groans out again, slowly opening her eyes. "Johnny! Ow! What happened?" SHe asks, looking around in a daze.
"The theater collapsed, Love." He says, his accent coming out in the last word. "Are you ok?"
Karla blinks a few times, the fog starting to leave her mind. "Johnny, I love ya, but I feel like I was hit by literal concrete. I'm pretty sure my leg is broken or at least fractured." She says, then her eyes widen as she realizes what she actually said. 'I love ya....oh you idiot.'
'Wait did she just say....' Johnny wonders. His thoughts are cut off as he and everyone else start hearing the sirens of an ambulance. The sirens cut out as they arrive, a crowd growing around the remains of the theater. The sound of scampering paws come closer to the cast.
"She's right over 'ere." Johnny waves the ferret EMT over.
"Alright let's see what we have-Karla? Is that you?"
"Hey Edna. Nice seeing you again."
The EMT sets down and starts to examine the injured pup. "Why is it whenever we meet, you're the one who's bleeding?"
"Just lucky enough to have you helping me out."
"You should still know the drill. What hurts and rate it on a scale of 1-10?" Edna, ask, already feeling around for breaks.
"My left leg hurts when I move. I'd say it's about a 7."
"Okay don't worry, I got you." Edna turns to Johnny. "Can you lead my partner and the stretcher through the debris?" With a nod the gorilla turns and runs through the remains of the theater to get the Paramedic. "Alright girly, who's the guy that was sticking to you like glue?"
"That's Johnny. He was......uh a, uh someone who checked on me after the crash." Karla says, blushing as she does so.
"Uh huh, just 'someone who checked on me'." Edna repeats with a mischievous tone. "I know that look, you like him, don't you?"
"No, I mean yes, I mean....I don't know." Karla stutters.
Edna starts to tease the pup even more, but is quieted by the sound of the stretcher's wheels. "Well, talk more about this one our way to the hospital."
"No, please." Karla says. "I don't need to go to the hospital, I'm fine, see." She stands up on her good leg and slowly puts pressure on her hurt paw. She muffles a yelp when her paw is completely placed on the floor. " See totally ok." She whimpers out.
"Come on Love, let them check your paw out." Johnny says in a soothing tone. He wraps his arm around her to help her stand up. Edna grins at the sight.
"Johnny, you know what's going on with my dad. I can't put another bill on top of it." Karla looks at him.
"We'll figure out something. Come on, I'll drive you to the hospital if it will make you feel better. If she is stable enough to go , that is." Johnny looks at the paramedic. The young first responder and Edna look at each other.
"If she refuses the ambulance, we can't really force her. You can follow behind us." Edna explains, as her partner loads up their equipment into the truck. Johnny carefully helps her into his truck and off they go.
Mike, who was swept into the sewer along with the squid, shivers against the wall as the bears stand outside. "Where is Mike?" The boss says sternly.
"He must be dead. Come on, let's go!" One of his minions prophesied.
Rosita, wrapped in a shock blanket, trudges up to her apartment building and is alerted to the cries for help from her family. "Mommy, where are you? Help! Help!" She looks up to see everyone hung out on the clothesline, the contraption she made still moving.
"Oh my gosh! Hold on! Mommy's here!" She throws off the blanket and rushes to the door.
Meena is cradled by her mother and grandmother as they watch the news, talking about the devastation at the theater.
"I'm standing at the scene right now, Judy, and I can tell you it is a miracle anyone survived this unbelievable disaster. I am getting word that one animal is in the hospital in stable condition."
Meena's grandpa sits down on the couch with a plate of cookies and a mug of hot chocolate. His daughter and wife both glare at him for his incompetence.
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