Beep thought she caught a glimpse of the ceiling falling apart again, but she said nothing, and instead looked away with a guilty expression. “I-I’m sorry, I don’t understand…” Well, she actually DID understand, but the less she said about it, the less likely things were to fall apart. So, she continued to work on the arrows in silence, until..

“Excuse me! Beep, Mr. Sir!”

Another arrow came down the stairs, with the bungee cord wrapped around his “head” like some sort of ridiculous hat. “Um, how are the arrows coming? I’m asking because… Well, Vinny’s having some trouble with Bowyetta, you know how she gets when she’s upset…”

“Oh, you know, when–” the Repairman started to explain, before slapping a hand over where his mouth would be. “…Ah, right. Never mind.”

The Repairman had trouble seeing the chaos that resulted when he was paralyzed, so he had little context for what the arrow was saying. Still, it sounded bad.

“Um…” the Repairman replied, looking at the pile of eight or nine arrows he still needed to fix. He had just finished fixing the first one to get smashed, or at least not dented.

“It’s gonna be a bit, but we’re working on it,” he finally said, not unkindly. “I’m sure they’ll all be fine after this…”

The Repairman couldn’t help but wonder how Jingletooth managed to fit an entire mech suit in her closet. Well, obviously, it was hammerspace, but how long had that thing been collecting dust in there?

Whatever the case, Jingletooth’s maniacal laughter suggested this mech wasn’t a good thing. What was worse, a small red magnet had taken all of the Repairman’s possessions, except for a plastic toy screwdriver. Oh, boy…

The Repairman wasn’t even sure how he got roped into a duel with Beepsumu. They had just been discussing the fabric of reality. Then debating. Then arguing. Then feuding. Eventually money and dignity rode on the answer. Not having any other way to check, they had to battle. One a hardened mercenary, and one who never fired a legitimate gun. He just hoped he didn’t blow his own arm off…

Wha…Why was Bowyetta looking at him like that…? Her arrows didn’t seem all that friendly, either… And what was with the accusations leveled at him? Was it mind control, an imposter, or what? In any case, the Repairman hoped he’d be able to get out of this with minimal damage to either side…

Well, clearly, Bonkakira was no stranger to a good ol’ bar brawl. The Repairman discovered this firsthand when he accidentally sat in the same seat as one of her beloved cardboard cutouts. One thing led to another, and now the Repairman was holding up a chair defensively, hoping he could calm her down before they both got arrested..

The arrow nodded. “Any friend of Bowyetta’s is a friend of ours too!”
 And he quickly scooped up the rest of the damaged arrows, neatly placing them in a pile in front of the two.

Beepsumu picked up another arrow, and continued speaking, though she seemed… Concerned. “A-anyway, that was when we found out we could travel between dimensions. We developed the mechanism inside our house to make it easier. We may not know exactly where we came from…” She trailed off there. “I-I’m sorry. I’m just… I’m worried. About Bowyetta, about her arrows, about you… We’re not keeping you too long, are we?”

“Thanks,” the Repairman nodded, grabbing another hurt arrow. He couldn’t help but smile at the fact he was now a friend to a six-foot-tall metal caterpillar monster.

“No, I’m fine, I have to do a bit of work around here anyway.”

He looked upstairs. “…I’m sure they’ll all be okay,” he tried to assure her, “they just need a bit of time. Maybe a fade to black if you want them to recover in a hurry.”

He winced before waving the welding torch up at the tiny fault he just made. Then it was back to fixing arrows.

Vinny looked over the items. “Um, I’m not sure~ Usually we’d use a certain type of material we arrows produce ourselves… But Bowyetta hasn’t really had much damage occur to her lately, so we haven’t had to make any in a long time~” He finally decided to pick up the bungee cord. “It’s different than her usual, but it should work just as well~” He stuck his “head” into Bowyetta’s hair for a moment, and another arrow quickly joined him to attach the cord.

Already Bowyetta was starting to feel better- Well, sort of. At least she could see again, and her head stopped spinning long enough for her to get to her feet, though she was still a bit disoriented. Bowyetta took a moment to get her balance, then spoke. “T-thank you, Mr. Sir… Bowyetta is going to be laying down for a bit…” She then fumbled her way up the stairs.

Vinny turned back the the Repairman. “Thank you very much for helping Bowyetta, Mr. Sir~ She should be okay after she gets some rest~ But, I should go make sure she eats something~” Vinny then followed her up the stairs.

The Repairman watched the two go, before finally turning back to Beepsumu.

“Let me know when she gets a regular string,” he said. “I’d kinda like that cord back.”

With that, he called over the nearest good-condition arrow.

“Hey,” he said, bending the dents out of the arrow he was holding, “could you bring the other guys that were hurt?”

Fortunately the Wall wasn’t in any peril at the moment. This could take a while.

Beepsumu looked a bit confused. Fourth Wall? Fix things? She had no idea what he was talking about, but she began to explain anyway. “To be honest, I’m not exactly sure how I got here myself. I sort of… Fell through here one day. After a while of walking, I found Bonk passed out on the ground. Pretty soon Bowyetta and Jingletooth joined us, and that was when we found out that we could-”

She was interrupted by Bowyetta, who attempted to get up only to fall forward again, letting out a yelp as she went. Her string was still broken, and Vinny was the first to notice this. “Bowyetta~! Your string- You- Does either of you know how long she’s been like this~?” He was beginning to look distressed.

Bowyetta could only mumble, “Beepsumu? Vinny? Mr. Sir? Everything’s… spinning…”

“Hmm…” the Repairman nodded. He had seen stranger things, he had to admit. Heck, given the many worlds he visited, this story seemed borderline par for the course.

He jumped as Bowyetta suddenly fell.

“String…?” he echoed. “OH! Hang on!”

Grabbing the blue toolbox, he began digging before laying out a pair of jumper cables, a bungee cord, a ball of twine, some rubber bands, and ACME-brand escape-proof Toon rope.

After finding little else under everything he had, he looked up and asked, “Will any of these work…?”

Bowyetta began to look a bit sad. “Bowyetta could not have left them anyway. Most Bowyers would find their arrows to be disposable, but not of Bowyetta. They are much her friends.”

Beepsumu looked up. “Well, if you know how to do it… The trick is to heat them up, then hammer out the dents. Don’t know how I’m gonna replace Bowyetta’s string though…” She then shook her head. “Can’t say that ya did. So if you weren’t here for Bonk… What were you here for?”

“Oh,” he said, pulling a blowtorch from his toolbox, “I’m the Fourth Wall Repairman.”

He began to heat up the unconscious arrow.

“I just came here to fix up a few things…”

He looked around.

“How…did you get between worlds? I’ve never had someone break the Wall in a place like this…”

Bowyetta gave a bit of a nod, as much as she could at least, and smiled slightly. She had never thought of Smithy that way before.

Her eye widened as she saw the smashed-up arrow. “Oh, Mr. Sir. You have not only saved Bowyetta, but also her arrows as well?”

“Let me take a look,” Beepsumu responded, reaching with her free hand to get a closer look at the arrow. “Heck, shouldn’t be too much harder than fixing up Bowyetta here. They’re a lot smaller, but the process should be the same.”

“Well, yeah,” the Repairman replied, matter-of-factly. “I didn’t think they could have just come back here on their own.” Quickly, he added, “I mean because of the teleportation. No offense.”

As Beep inspected the arrow, the Repairman asked,“Hey, um, need help with the other damaged arrows? I mean, since I’m gonna be here for a bit anyway…”

His eyes widened after a moment, and he chuckled, “Wait, I never got to say why I was here, did I?”