Everything was quiet in the Robinson household. An unusual event, given the family's average affairs. Generally the house was full of sounds from every corner of the building varying from the clashing of cymbals to the bouncing of springs yet at this very moment everyone had decided to take the day to enjoy more relaxing activities like sunbathing or completing a puzzle backwards (which Bud insisted was achievable to his wife Lucille when she decided to watch him undergo the task).
Yes, everything was quiet.
Or at least.
It was.
For unbeknownst to the Robinson family, an intruder had just slipped undetected through a crack of an open window from the upstairs hallway. And it was slowly making its way to the kitchen in search of a sweet smell it had caught in its tiny little nose...
Fumbling and bumbling, the trespasser sneaked about almost lazily through the endless twists and turns of the house. Its only goal was food and with that one goal in mind it barely acknowledged the people it passed, even if they themselves felt bothered by its presence.
Tallulah, for example, was just fixing her eyelashes in a hall mirror when she felt like something had flown right by her. She hadn't quite heard anything, really, but the sudden feeling of something brushing past her arm caused her senses to heighten and she turned to look around. Spotting her brother across the room, she gave him a puzzled eye.
"What is it, sister?" Laszlo asked in an uncaring manner as he fiddled with the gadgetry on his paint gun.
"Did something just fly by?"
"Besides me? I didn't see anything."
"Well, that was strange. I swear something just brushed past my arm."
Laszlo grinned and jokingly pointed his gun at her.
"Wouldn't be the first time you were seeing things!"
"I'm telling you, I felt something!"
"Yeah, sure."
"I did!"
And they were off, arguing over the smallest of things while the "something" Tallulah had felt continued on its way. It appeared that it would be successful in its mission of food+escape. Or at least, that's what it believed, anyway. But of course, not all things happen the way we want them to. And in fact, just as it made its way down to the first floor of the house, right before the kitchen door, the inevitable happened.
"Since when did we run out of pepperoni?!" Art yelled, slamming the kitchen door open and shouting to no one in particular. "A great catastrophe, indeed! We can't have pizza without pepperoni!"
Little did Art know that his woeful cries and large movements caused the poor little intruder to be struck with the door and fling backwards into a nearby plant with a soft plump.
As it lay there, seeing stars and trying to gather itself, a rustling came from between the leaves of the plant it was sitting in. And who should pop out his head and spot the trespasser but an eagle-eyed Spike who was investigating what had smacked into his leaves. With a loud gasp and a shocked expression at what he found, Spike immediately threw back his head in alarm and screamed,
"BEEEEEEEEE!"
And with that, the household was up in arms. No longer was relaxation a key part of the day. Calm actions was tossed to the wind! Spike's loud screams of terror carried throughout the house until everyone had perked up at the sound in concern.
Meanwhile, so startled was the little insect by Spike's yelling that it fell over off the leaf and onto the floor. Art, who was equally in shock from his family member's distressed calling, appeared frozen to his spot, too confused over what a bee had to do with a sudden decline in pepperoni stockage. It all became clear, however, when the bee finally became clear-headed enough to flee from its current place of standing and zip across the room.
"BEE! Oh, A BEE!" Art cried, pointing dramatically. He raced for a speaker located on the wall with an attached radio and crouched with it in his hands, speaking quickly and seriously.
"Attention, Robinsons!" he called as his voice was suddenly carried throughout the house for all to hear. "This is a deadly emergency! Far greater than the last mission of sector 2.7 of Wormhole Squadrant 4. To battlestations! Bring your nets and bug spray... it's an infestation!"
And with that... the entire family had been brought to the front hall.
Lucille and Bud were carrying the same net, big enough to hold each other. Both were wearing goggles and both were keen on being the ones to capture the pest first, turning the entire affair into a competition.
Art and Gaston were prepping a cannon, agreeing that filling it with jam would most certainly create a perfect sticky situation for trapping the insect.
Tallulah had conveniently grabbed a hockey stick from Wilbur (whom was being carried by a flying Laszlo) and was putting her roller skates to perfect usage.
Aunt Billie had decided to ride upon one of her trains and zoom around the house spraying all kinds of bug spray in every direction that her train went (which ultimately proved ineffective but everyone agreed it was a creative attempt and thus still was given praise).
Franny decided catapulting herself around the room in an excellent display of karate along with a handful of chopsticks would be the best way to capture the bee, having been influenced by the Karate Kid movies and believing she had waited for this moment her entire life.
Fritz had wanted nothing to do with the bee, claiming it was simply an innocent creature who made the mistake of entering the house, but he was dragged into the situation by Petunia, who considered the situation a challenge. Nobody questioned her extreme tactics or her incessant demands that the bee be turned into a trophy for her room after she caught it, but Fritz did admit a flamethrower seemed a bit extreme, even for her.
Carl was the first to execute forward thinking in grabbing one of Cornelius' many inventions from the closet and was now attempting to track the bee so that everyone who was trying to capture it could be sure on where the insect was located.
And finally, Uncle Joe, who had a paralyzing fear of bees, tried his best to avoid the situation by hiding in his room and covering his own head with a newspaper.
All in the all, the entire scene looked rather ridiculous. Everyone was madly rushing around, chasing after a very traumatized bee, whom despite being tiny and rather clumsy, seemed to successfully avoid capture at every turn. They rushed all about the house, causing havoc and making quite a mess from knocked-over furniture. From the front hall, to the living room, to the parlor, to the drawing room, and to the first set of bedrooms, they traveled. Up and down each hallway, never ceasing the amount of energy given into the task.
That is, until they cornered it.
Defenseless and no where to turn, the poor bee sunk slowly in the air, staring up with large eyes at the family who was slowly closing in. Each wanted to have the glory of being the one to capture the bee and yet all were moving gently and carefully, wanting to be sure that the bee was truly trapped.
"I've got him... IIIII've got him..." Bud cooed.
"So close..." murmured Art.
"Time to pay, bee!" Gaston threatened, aiming his cannon more accurately.
And just as the party closed in on its prey, just as the bee was starting to realize it was a goner... Juuuuust as everyone pounced...
A door directly behind the bee opened and Cornelius stepped out just in time for his parent's giant net to plop down on top of him.
Groaning, everyone sighed in frustration as the bee escaped out the door and left a rather confused (but not surprised) Cornelius in its wake.
"So... what's going on?" he asked with a playful smile, not daring to move from under the net in case he was disturbing something important.
"Way to go!" Petunia exasperated, completely bummed that she didn't get to win the bragging rights of bee-slayer.
"Awww, we were so close!" Bud sighed.
"So much for that." Wilbur commented.
Bummed, but not about to leave her husband in the dark, Franny lifted the net off of Cornelius and explained.
"There was a bee in the house."
"Ah-ha." the inventor replied, sympathizing now that he properly understood the situation. "I'm sorry I spoiled the fun."
As everyone mourned the loss of their fun afternoon, Carl stepped forward and pointed at the door.
"Uhm... Guys..?"
Turning towards the light of the sunshine, everyone looked up in time to see a ladybug fly in, passing over the heads of all of them. There was a long pause, then an even number of exchanged glances.
"Are you ready for Round 2?!" Art called out to Cornelius. The inventor grinned.
"I wouldn't miss it for the world!"