Title: Emily's Favorite Game
Characters: Buckaroo Banzai, Pecos, Perfect Tommy, Rawhide, Dr. Hikita, and OC's.
Summary: Created for Word of the Week Challenge. Week 4 Challenge Word, "Head Conk". Improbabilities run amok on the Institute's grounds.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to any characters in the Buckaroo Banzai universe. Any OC's created are mine.
"Stay calm? STAY CALM?!?! How in the hell am I supposed to stay calm at a time like this?!" exclaimed Perfect Tommy.
He and Pecos were running along the main gray stone wall surrounding the Institute's property. Buckaroo had instructed them to do a quick security check to make sure that no one else was affected by the small blast that occurred in one of the lab room's in the northwest corner of the building.
Pecos thought of Buckaroo's parting warning. Oh, and you may want to take care not to be seen by the public. It may cause them unnecessary panic.
It may cause them unnecessary panic. The words reverberated in her head. She quickly glanced over to her companion. His eyes were unusually wide with fear and they anxiously darted around. She briefly wondered if hers looked the same to him. She shouted as loud as her new voice would let her, "It could be worse! At least we have something productive to do!"
Perfect Tommy shook his head. They were nearing the end of their sweep and fortunately no one else seemed to be affected by the blast. It appeared to be confined to the inside of the lab room and the immediate area outside of it. Having no further business outside, they both headed back to the lab room.
Perfect Tommy and Pecos walked in to the lab. Fortunately the blast amounted to nothing more than a concussion wave. The only damage was the mess caused by papers and any other lightweight objects being littered about. They found Mr. Greiner sitting on the floor next to his wife.
"Is she injured?" asked Pecos.
Mr. Greiner turned his attention away from his wife and looked up at her. Through his wide eyes there was a mixture of concern and resentment. "I think that she's fine," was his terse response. Pecos bit her lip to prevent herself from making any snide remarks about his recent behavior and instead turned her attention to the others in the room.
Mr. Greiner's son Frederick, Buckaroo, and Dr. Hikita were huddled around the far lab table. Dr. Hikita was speaking rapidly but in a hushed tone, and he was pointing out something to Buckaroo. In return, Buckaroo was nodding in agreement to everything that was being said.
Perfect Tommy started to pace back and forth across the lab. Pecos sensed the frustration in him and when they made eye contact, made sure her silent look said it all. Cool it.
They didn't need to have another round of the shouting match that occurred earlier in the afternoon. Accusations had flown freely and ranged from one encampment faulting the Institute for lack of supervision to the other encampment accusing Frederick's parents of pushing him to overachieve. Was there a neutral ground? If there was, it didn't exist in that room at that particular moment.
Peco's thoughts were interrupted by Rawhide's question.
"Guys… when was the last time you saw Greiner's daughter?"
Everyone froze and turned their attention to him. He was intently staring outside at something in the courtyard below the lab.
"And what was she playing with before you got here?"
Frederick whispered, "Emily wasn't playing anything. But she loves to play Whack-A-Mole when we're at Boardwalk Boulevard Arcade."
The silence was deafening until Perfect Tommy started to laugh, quietly at first then it grew in intensity. He laughed so hard that he started to cry.
"Tommy, its not that funny," snapped Pecos.
He wiped the tears from his eyes and drew in a deliberate deep breath, causing a whistle. "Look at us," he gestured at his furry body with what used to be his hands. "Boy Wonder over there reads Douglas Adams' book and takes it to heart." He glanced over at Frederick and then to his parents. He added sarcastically, "Maybe they'll love me if I make my own stinking improbability drive."
Mr. Greiner jumped up from the floor and took a few threatening steps towards Perfect Tommy. "I won't have you speaking like that about my son!"
Pecos, with arms stretched out wide out, interceded between the two men. "ENOUGH!" she screamed. Out of the corner of her eye a shadow crossed in front of the windows. "We have bigger problems to deal with. Ain't that right Rawhide?"
With her question, Mr. Greiner and Perfect Tommy gave one last parting glare to each other and then looked out the lab windows. Mr. Greiner replied, "I don't see anything."
Rawhide slowly backed away from the window. "You will in a second or two. It seems like that little improbability drive, while it didn't transport anybody had another lasting after effect."
They all knew that whatever Rawhide saw couldn't be good.
Buckaroo placed his paws on Frederick's shoulders. "You've told Dr. Hikita and I everything we need to know in order to reverse this. You better go over and help your dad get your mom out of here. Understood?"
Frederick stood up a little bit straighter in response but fear was still clearly etched on his face. "What about Emily?"
"Don't worry about Emily," Buckaroo replied. He pointed over to Rawhide, Pecos, and Perfect Tommy. "They'll go get her and we'll fix her. We'll fix everyone. Okay?" After watching Frederick run back over to his parents, he was ready to further elaborate on his plan but was interrupted by a rather large head with huge blond curls peering in through the window.
"EMILY!" screamed Mrs. Greiner. She tried to pull away from her husband but both he and Frederick held her fast.
Emily's giggle at hearing her mother's voice echoed through the lab.
Buckaroo turned around to face Dr. Hikita. "Take the Greiner's and the improbability drive down to your lab to make the reversement. You should be safe there. When you're done meet us in the courtyard."
Dr. Hikita placed his paw over Buckaroo's heart. "Be careful." Then as quickly as he could he made his way to the door where the Greiner's were still standing.
"So what's the plan?" Rawhide asked without taking his focus off of Emily. She was still staring in the window looking for her mother. He wondered how long it was going to take her to realize that her mother wasn't there and how long after that the meltdown would take place.
"We need to keep Emily occupied until Dr. Hikita is done," Buckaroo answered.
Perfect Tommy rolled his eyes. "Sure no problem boss. Should be a piece of cake since we look like a bunch of fluffy furry moles and her idea of a fun time is to carry around a large hammer to smack 'em."
"Is that what you're really thinkin' Buck?" Rawhide asked with all seriousness. He knew that it was an obvious question with an obvious answer but he said it aloud anyway. In their current state there wasn't much more that they could do.
Buckaroo signaled his agreement with a simple, "Let's go."
Both Rawhide's and Perfect Tommy's assessment of Emily were well founded. As they were running down the stair steps to the courtyard they heard Emily's scream of frustration. It resounded through the Institute. Pecos off-handedly commented, "Mrs. Robinson's going to have her hands full with the news calls now."
It didn't take long for Emily to catch sight of them after they entered the courtyard. Her crying turned to giggling then to joyous laughter.
It was then that all four took notice of her full height. The top of her curls easily matched the height of the large oak trees. Then they saw her large plastic hammer. In disbelief, Perfect Tommy stopped in his tracks and exclaimed, "Oh no! Oh hell no!" Rawhide gave him one hard push from behind and said roughly, "Better get moving Scrappy."
Frederick walked over to where Rawhide sat on the ground, holding an ice bag to his head. "I'm really sorry about what I did Rawhide. I should've asked Mr. Banzai first."
Rawhide looked up at him. It was just a 12 year old boy standing there who didn't know he did a bad thing until after the fact. He didn't need to add insult to injury by belittling him any further. As gently as he could given the throbbing pain from his head, he replied, "Its okay Frederick."
"What do you think will happen to Frederick now?" Pecos asked Rawhide as they watched Frederick run back over to his mother and sister. Nearby Mr. Greiner was gesturing wildly at Buckaroo, Dr. Hikita, and Perfect Tommy.
Rawhide looked over in the same direction. "I don't know Pecos. Frederick was the youngest intern we ever had around here and I told Buckaroo that we might be asking for trouble, parents permission slip or not."
Perfect Tommy sauntered over to Rawhide and Pecos. "How's your head big guy?"
"How 'bout you help me to my feet first and then I'll let you know," he grumbled.
Pecos saw the Greiner's walk back in to the Institute with Buckaroo and Dr. Hikita in tow. As she and Perfect Tommy helped Rawhide to his feet, she asked, "So what's going to happen to Frederick?"
"Leave it to Buck to work out some sort of probation period. He's going to be allowed to continue to work on his other project one day a week."
Meanwhile, from his back pocket, Rawhide pulled out Emily's large plastic hammer. In one swift motion he hit Perfect Tommy as hard as he could on the back of his head. A loud squeak came out of the hammer.
"Ow!" Perfect Tommy cried out as he rubbed the new sore spot.
Rawhide grinned. "One point."