“O-oh, okay,” the Repairman sighed, in a bad falsetto. He knew that dressing as a Boy Scout wasn’t going to work, but some Toony part of him had to try it.
He left, putting some distance between himself and the facility before taking off that stupid getup. He wondered how that shop had ready-made disguises for inkblots.
Well, he had to get to that break in the Wall somehow. Plan B: package for Cortex Power. He prepared a crate.
Smithy turned back and eyed the Repairman. “And WHAT would THAT be?”
Bowyetta tried to continue despite her “tears”. “It is being much priceless artifact! We are going far away to-”
Smithy gave Bowyetta one last shake, causing more of her possessions to drop from her hair. At this point she looked like she was about to faint. “Do you REALLY think I’m that stupid?! That thing has no value to us here!” And with that, Smithy turned away once more to carry Bowyetta off to the furnace.
“Bowyetta is feeling like is going to being sick…”
From the back of the room, there was another voice. “Hey now! I saw that! Smithy killed our brother AND made off with Bowyetta! And we’re not gonna stand for it!”
Several more of Bowyetta’s arrows gathered from the edges of the room, swarming around the group.
“W-whoa!” Beepsumu covered her screen.
“Chill out, Beepy! We’ve burned out now, and only Bowyetta can ignite our souls again! To most Bowyers, we’d be disposable, but she never threw us out!”
“Yeah, and we want revenge for what Smithy did to our brother too!”
The arrows seemed to be implying that they wanted to be carried with the group. The girls looked at each other before Beepsumu answered. “W-well, you can’t ride around inside MY head. I can’t afford to damage my circuits.”
When the arrows looked at Bonkakira, she replied with “Bonkakira doesn’t think all of you would fit in her hair.”
Jingletooth’s response was “I don’t even HAVE hair!”
Well, he should have expected that the paddleball wouldn’t have worked. But he was a Toon; he had to have tried it.
What he didn’t expect was an army of arrows to surround them, rallying to aid Bowyetta and avenge the squashed one.
“All right,” he sighed, “get in.”
As they clambered excitedly into his hammerspace, he heard something crunch. Apparently he was going to go and find another vinyl after all this.
Once all the arrows were there, he continued pursuing Smithy. Not like there was much else he could do to help.
And then he realized he had no idea where Smithy was.
Wait a minute…
The Repairman still knew where the house was (thanks to the breaks in the Wall). Didn’t someone say that that led to Smithy’s room?
He decided to take a total shot in the dark and rush that way. Hopefully, an arrow could correct him if this was wrong.
“Nega…..Minnie?” I asked incredulously. “What……is that…..I mean………”
Stupid just blurted out “HUH?!”
“Yeah!” Piped up Greasy. “What he said!” said Wheezy
“I would of expected Nega-Mickey! Not Nega-Minnie…..is she really that evil? Got that whole "mythic bitch” thing going on that cause of how the normal Minnie is super good and whatnot?“ I asked.
Psycho cut in, "Uh….question!! If she’s really bad, does that mean the Nega-Us is super good? Did we already have this conversation or am I thinking of something else??? I don’t know, man! Don’t look at me! Everything in my head is screaming!!”
“Um…..” I began, “let’s….lets get back on topic here. Repairman,” I asked, spinning around towards the 4th Wall Repairman, Esq. questioningly, “You’ve been a constant in this sh–show….do you know what’s going on around here??”
-Smartass
”…I’ve never seen your counterparts,“ the Repairman politely answered, "but, uh, yeah, Nega-Minnie is as bad as you think…”
He cringed as the Breaker gave a thumbs-up. He quietly brought in his cart and began working on the crack.
“Look, you can go and find your Nega-counterparts if you want. I don’t think you should, though,” he said, glaring at the Breaker. “It doesn’t turn out well.”
He shook his head.
“Anyway, I want this over as much as you do, so can we just cuff the guy and leave?”
The Breaker shrugged. Hey, it was free entertainment, and he could still break the Wall if he felt like it from behind bars.
“K-k-key?” She echoed, closing her eyes to try and remember WHAT a key was, let alone WHERE it was. If it was the thing that opened the cage though… She could see, in her mind, the little golden key glinting in her captor’s hand. When he was done he put it… She opened her eyes and pointed to a drawer of a desk not far off. “The-e-er-re.” She pointed to the top drawer of the dark brown desk across the room.
Oh. Well. That was easier than he thought.
“All right,” he said, moving over to the desk, “let’s get you out and abou–”
He stared into the drawer. There was no key. He riffed through some papers, opened some other drawers, but no, there didn’t seem to be any key. Figures.
“Well,” he sighed, pulling his tool cart from stage left, “there’s always plan B.”
Beepsumu continued. “T-there was… A-a fire! In… One of the rooms…”
Bonkakira stepped in, tripping over Beepsumu and Jingletooth in the process. “But it totally wasn’t her fault. Uh-uh. She had nothing to do with it. At all.”
Even Jingletooth spoke up. “It was ALL ME! I was ATTEMPTING to UPLOAD myself to the INTERNET!”
Smithy didn’t even blink at Jingletooth’s answer. “Ho! So you think you’re one of MY workers, are you? You think I don’t know about this one? You think I don’t know that SHE’S been causing these fires, and that SHE came back just to trash the place?!”
He gave Bowyetta another hard shake, this time knocking several things out of her hair, including another arrow. This one, however, had something to say about all this. “Yo, Santa Claus! Quit shakin’ our master around! She’s not-”
Before it could finish its sentence, Smithy slammed his hammer on the ground, crushing the poor creature under it. The girls could only stare in stunned silence, except for Bowyetta, who screamed at the sight. “This one’s defective, that’s what she is! And defective products get send BACK TO THE FACTORY!” Smithy then turned away to carry Bowyetta off further into the factory.
The Repairman flinched as the poor arrow was crushed. He, too, said nothing, but noticed he could finally move. Must’ve been the jolt.
As Smithy was shuttling Bowyetta off, the inkblot went up to the pancake of an arrow. He picked it up carefully, then shook it like a rug. Within a second, it popped back into a more proper arrow shape. It still looked battered, and it wasn’t exactly conscious, but at least it wasn’t flat. He carefully put it into his hammerspace, then picked up his dropped items and started heading towards Smithy.
“Um, sir,” he called out, “aren’t you forgetting something?”
He waved the paddleball from before above his head as he rushed towards the mechanical monstrosity. Hopefully, by some miracle, this would work…
Smithy took his eyes off of Bowyetta to look at the Repairman. “Oh, a mix-up?” he demanded, shaking Bowyetta around a bit. “THAT’S what you call a mix-up?! Some DEFECTIVE PRODUCT TEARING UP MY FACTORY?!”
Bowyetta yelped as she was shaken about. “Eeep! B-Bowyetta is not wishing to be harmed! Please to be-”
One look from Smithy was all it took to quiet her. “Eh?! I haven’t heard that name since…” He gave Bowyetta another shake, this time enough to shake one of her dog-arrows out of her hair. “Haw! So it really IS you! And I thought we took care of you a long time ago!”
Beepsumu was starting to panic even more, and decided to speak up. “W-wait! You can’t throw that Bowyer away! She’s… Uh… She was only… She did that because… S-someone help me out here…”
“…She was just trying to get their attention,” the Repairman cut in. “As your…loyal…maintenance worker….I had to check up on the Bowyers. Must’ve startled them when I got an alert from…someplace…else…”
He moved his eyes upward, indicating the light that was still blinking on his head.
“Bowyetta there knew better, though, because…”
He trailed off, and turned his eyes towards the others meaningfully. While he was beginning to get feeling in his blobby form again, he still couldn’t gesture quite yet, and hoped they got the message anyhow.
“They sure are cute, aren’t they?” Sparky whispered, trying not to interrupt the song. “We’ve been earthbound for a while, so we’ve gotten to watch them grow up. They’re pretty much always this adorable, I really hope they figure out how much they like each other soon!” he said, still watching Zelda as she twirled and leaped, at one point cursing the carpet that had caused her to stumble.
“Yeah, they’re cute, but don’t be fooled, they’re a pair of scamps. That girl is definitely Wind’s and Tetra’s descendant. She has this one family friend that the two of them are always pulling a prank on- one time they managed to sneak into his house and turn his dresser inside out! At least all the pranks are pretty harmless.” Green snickered. By this point the two friends had reached the part of the song where Zelda had gotten stuck, and Link was trying to recall what exactly his thoughts had been when he’d written it. Zelda nodded at the explanation, pursing her lips as she considered the choreography, and ran through several iterations of poses and tumbles before she settled on something that suited her. They started running through the whole song again so that Zelda could see how well her new choreography fitted with the rest of the routine.
“They’re so talented!” Sparky gushed, unable to contain his affection for the boy that was his successor and the girl that was his descendant. “Zelda’s been a dancer for years now, and she’s so naturally graceful and so well suited to it! I love watching her… she used to ice skate too but apparently she decided she hated the cold. And Link, well he’s pretty much a musical prodigy- that kid’s been making music ever since he figured out that an armful of pots and a spoon could make a song. I’ve lost count of how many instruments he plays… I think he owns like… six? seven maybe? I think the only music class he doesn’t do is choir, which is a shame really, because he has a nice voice!”
“It’s probably because he considers that more his brother’s thing, same as why he doesn’t really play that… what’s it called… um the one that looks like a guitar but with four strings and the pitch is lower.” Vio interjected, a sad sort of smile on his face. “Anyways, we should probably go and leave them alone now… usually we’re invisible unless we show ourselves to someone on purpose, but we have stronger tie to Link because we’ve all got the Hero’s Spirit, so the possibility that the invisibility might slip is a bit high. Plus it looks like they’re wrapping up now-” he pointed out the two friends who had finished their impromptu practice session, verbally hashing out a few of the leftover kinks in the program while they gathered their things. “-and I don’t know how likely they are to see you. They’ve got enough to worry about later, I don’t think they need to be burdened with the knowledge of the Fourth Wall just yet.” Vio flinched as he heard a tiny cracking noise somewhere behind him, and turned around to see that he had indeed put a new, tiny crack in it. A quick glance around the room told him that at least no one else had noticed the results of his blunder. He smiled sheepishly at the Repairman “Ah, sorry… I forgot not to mention it directly…”
The Repairman kept bobbing as he listened to the ghosts.
“Yeah…” he admitted to Sparky. They really were kind of cute together!
He stifled a chuckle as the pranks were being described, and nodded to agree with Sparky. The kids sure had the talent. As a Toon, he had to at least bob to any music that was above decent.
“Wow, that’s quite a bit,” he said, impressed. It was expected of some Toons to know most instruments, but he didn’t know that Links were known for playing music, too. He just presumed they shot magic bolts, swung swords, and not much else during their adventures.
“You mean a cello?” asked the inkblot, who was not expected to know his instruments.
The Repairman just shook his head and stuck a wad of ACME Pre-Chewed Bubblegum into the new crack in the Wall.
“Yeah, we should probably get going,” the Repairman replied, “but, uh, where to?”
Oddly enough, he still wasn’t getting any other alerts on the Wall. Must be a slow day…
Damage control? thought the Narrator.
He cupped his hands around his mouth, looking aggressively childish, and said, “Who are you talking to?” His voice was muffled, distorted by the makeshift megaphone of his hands. Are you talking to yourself – or are you, perhaps, talking to the unnamed content-consumer, viewing our interactions from beyond the fourth wall?”
An idea seemed to strike him, then, and he crossed his arms and began walking around the limited space of the office. His leather shoes made a faint noise against the cheap carpet. “There’s conflict between us,” said the Narrator, thinking out loud. “Definitely conflict – what we need, if we ever wanted to form an unlikely partnership, is a larger, overarching evil that will unite us…”
“I was talking to you,” he said, pointing right at the Narrator’s chest, “And I’d appreciate it if my stay here was as short as possible, thank you very much.”
He turned towards a nearby desk and started to smear cement on a crack in the Wall. It was oddly close to one of the computers…
“You think?” he said, sarcastically. A bit here, a bit there…
He continued to ignore the Narrator, even as the latter began pacing. And then he said something that gave the inkblot cause for alarm.
“Wait, what?” he asked, turning around. “Why would you…I mean, you would be willing to destroy…Is there any other…What would…?”
He trailed off, still staring at the Narrator incredulously.
At this point, Bowyetta wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. “All of this is all being Bowyetta’s fault…” Her lip twitched slightly, and some sort of liquid began to fill up her eyes.
Beepsumu tried to approach her, but the dog arrow from before stopped her. “Excuse me, miss~! It isn’t a good idea to get near her right now~ She’s about to-”
Without another word, Bowyetta began rapidly firing arrows from herself. She meant to aim for the crowd of Bowyers, but being one herself her aim wasn’t exactly the best, sending flaming arrows in every direction except straight ahead.
Even Beepsumu was starting to get a bit panicked. “Whoa! Hey- Bowyetta- Just- Calm down- Uh-”
Bowyetta didn’t seem to be listening. She was too busy desperately trying to save her new friend- Too busy to even notice when a very large figure appeared behind her.
“What IS going on in here?!”
At the figure’s voice, all the Bowyers dispersed. All except Bowyetta, who continued shooting arrows. She didn’t even notice until she got grabbed.
“Eeek! Please to be putting Bowyetta down! Please be saving Bowyetta!”
As the Bowyers scattered, they forgot all about their prize, who fell to the floor and splattered onto his back.
He still couldn’t move, but he could see a giant metal king-like character with a beard that would flow if it wasn’t forged. This must be the “Smithy” Bowyetta was talking about. He certainly sounded the part, all booming and scary, and it was clear from his looks that he wasn’t about to offer anything nicer than a cold dungeon stay.
He watched in shock as Smithy grabbed Bowyetta. His mind was racing, trying to figure out what to do. He was now more of a mess than any form, but he still couldn’t move.
“Um…sir?” he tried. “I-I can explain, sir!”
After a moment, he added, “Sorry for not saluting, but there was a mix-up with the Bowyers, sir!”
“Why, my destination does not matter to me.” the blue lady said with simple and gentle head bow.
“You see, my home roams everywhere in space. Even though it may stays in its proper place, it has its motivation to wander as my Lumas and I can gaze upon every stars and cosmos.”
While the stranger focused on his work, Rosalina turned and stared at stars. In fact, there are millions-no, zillions of stars far from her and her starship. “Space is very extraordinary huge” she hummed, before turning back to him.
“And may I be curious: what brings you here in outer space, sir?”
The Repairman nodded. A wanderer. He understood that…
After willfully ignoring the talk of the vastness of space, he turned back to the woman, making sure to keep eye contact. No need for him to be reminded she was floating.
Well, the inkblot was in no condition to dodge the question.
“I fix the Fourth Wall,” he said, “and apparently someone around here looked into a camera or did a tutorial or made a referential joke or something. I don’t know, really.”
Siblings-a-Fixin' 