Buster
Buster checks his watch. It's about time he gets to the rehearsal rooms to remind everyone that they are going to leave for the garage soon.
Eddie's already there for the final checks on the lighting and sound system, and from the last text he sent Buster, everything seems to be working just fine.
Buster sighs. The last weeks have been so eventful, he barely got any time to rest, yet he wouldn't have missed them for the world.
He's positive the charity concert is going to be a success. They have some of the greatest local talents around the city performing, plus Meena's new popularity as the girl who always sings added an extra spotlight to the concert.
Johnny, however, looked like a nervous wreck when he arrived this morning. Which probably is understandable because it's primarily his project, but no matter how hard Buster tried to convince him that everything was going to be fine, Johnny didn't look convinced.
So Buster told Ms. Crawly to check on Johnny every thirty minutes and provide him with hot chocolate.
So far, it seems to be working because Johnny didn't have a mental breakdown. Yet.
Buster checks his watch again and gets up. He puts on his jacket and leaves his office.
"Okay, Cia," he says to the snow leopard who was on phone-duty all day, "let's round them up."
Cia just nods and follows him.
While Cia is getting Johnny, Rosita, and Gunter, Buster checks on Meena first, just in case.
Her nervousness could have made a comeback. But he's pleased when Meena just smiles at him and gets the clothes bag containing her dress for tonight.
Next up is Mike, and as always the mouse plays it cool.
"Time to go already, Mr. Moon?" he asks. "I'm ready."
That moment, Mike's phone rings.
"Sorry, Mr. Moon," he says, checking the caller-ID. "That's my girlfriend. I better take that."
"No problem."
Mike answers the call.
"Hi there, sweetheart!" he says, and Buster is about to turn away to give Mike some privacy, but there something in the way the mouse tenses that keeps him from doing it.
"Wh-who's there? … No, no, please. Please don't hurt her! … I'll be right there!"
And with that, Mike makes a beeline for the door, just stops to tell his bodyguards go go home when they try to follow him.
"Mike, where are you going?" Buster calls after the mouse, but he doesn't seem to hear.
Buster turns towards Meena, but the elephant already set after Mike.
What's going on? Buster asks himself. This can't be happening! We're two acts down already!
And then he sees how Meena stops to talk to the group of the Rosita, Gunter, Johnny, and Cia. They just share looks, and then they follow Meena.
Okay, okay, Ash is still left! Buster thinks.
In that exact moment Johnny runs over to Ash's rehearsal room, telling her something and the two of them run off.
"This isn't happening!" Buster calls out. "We're down to zero acts!"
And because he doesn't know what else to do, he runs after the others. He almost bumps into Ms. Crawly who's just leaving Johnny's rehearsal room.
"Ms. Crawly, call Eddie!" he tells her. "Tell him we're probably going to be a little late. He might have to entertain the guests till we get there!"
"Wait, what?"
"Just do it!"
And then he picks up some extra speed.
He doesn't know what's going on. He only knows it must be something big and terrible or not all of his acts would have left within two minutes. If he ever had any doubt, seeing Johnny leave with the rest wiped it away. Johnny would never have left so soon before his concert if hell didn't break lose.
Buster reaches the street the moment Johnny starts his truck, with Rosita and gunter sitting on the passenger seat and Ash, Meena, and Cia on the truck bed.
Buster jumps on the hood, spreading his arms as a sign to stop them.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asks. "We have a concert coming up?"
"Something's wrong with Mike!" Meena explains. "He might need some help."
"You are not going anywhere!" Buster calls out to them.
"But, Mr. Moon…" Meena replies.
He doesn't let her finish.
"You are not going anywhere!" he repeats. "Without me!"
And with that he moves over to the window on the passenger side and climbs inside, telling Rosita and Gunter to move over while he does so.
They catch up with Mike when he stops his car in front of a building.
Buster doesn't know how Johnny did it, how he managed to keep up with Mike's super-special sports car in this old truck of his, but he did it.
Although Buster did get flung around quite a bit, not to mention the gasps coming from the truck bed whenever Johnny took a quick turn.
Buster quickly looks back. Yes, Meena, Cia, and Ash are still there, although they do look a bit whacked.
He gets out of the truck as quickly as he can, following Johnny as he runs up to Mike.
Mike has opened the trunk of his car, trying his best to haul a big bag out.
"Mike, what's going on?" Buster asks.
Mike freezes for a moment before he looks at them.
"What are you doing here?" Mike asks them in return. "You are not supposed to be here and you have to leave right now!"
"We won't!" Meena replies, and a look around tells Buster that the others have caught up with them. "Not before you tell us what's going on."
"They have her!" Mike calls out. "The bears! They have Nancy! And if I don't show up on this roof," - he points up the building - "within the next five minutes, they're going to hurt her! Or worse!"
If Buster remembers correctly, Nancy is the name of Mike's girlfriend. As for bears, he immediately thinks of the bears who barged in when they did the special performance for Nana Noodleman.
"You have to leave now!" Mike goes on as he continues trying to get the bag out of the trunk. "They said no police and no bodyguards!"
"We're not going anywhere," Johnny says as he grabs the bag and flicks it over his shoulder. "Besides, you need someone to carry that bag for you."
Then the gorilla smiles down at Mike, and as surprising as it is, Mike replies with a smile of his own, a weak and thin smile, but a smile nonetheless.
Buster doesn't get why Cia insisted on waiting by the cars, but Johnny just nods and there was no time to question anything.
And the moment they step out on the roof, Buster's premonition is proven right.
Those are the three bears from back then.
And one of them is holding a female mouse in his big paw.
"What are they doing here?" one bear wearing a hat asks, his voice heavy with an accent, just like Buster remembers it while nodding at Buster and the others. "I said you come alone!"
"No, you said no police and no bodyguards," Mike replies. "And those are my friends!"
Buster isn't sure if he heard that right. Did Mike really just call them his friends?
Somehow, this makes him want to smile, somehow, it has a wrong ring to it. All in all, it seems weird.
"Besides, I needed some help with the money," Mike goes and nods at Johnny who throws the bag at the bears' feet.
One of them bends down and opens it, showing it to the bear with the hat.
Said bear holds out his hand and the other hands him the bag.
"That's twice the amount I owe you!" Mike says. "Now let Nancy go!"
The bear with the hat shakes his head.
"Oh, Mike, Mike, Mike," he says, tossing the bag over the roof edge, sending dollar bills flying. "You don't get it, do you?" This isn't about the money any longer! It is about destroying you!"
He nods at the bear next to him, the one who's holding Nancy in his paw and he stretches his paw holding the mouse over the roof edge. Then he opens his paw and Nancy falls.
"Nooooooo!" Mike screams, running a few steps ahead.
He stops looking at the bear's paw, and Buster follows his gaze.
And then he sees it. There's a cord wrapped around one of the fingers of the bear, and from the silent scream he can hear coming from below, Buster presumes that Nancy is dangling on the other end.
The bear with the hat walks over to his companion placing one sharp claw at the thread.
"Now, come on, Mike," he says. "Beg."
"Let her go, please!" Mike calls out. "She has nothing to do with this! Take me instead!"
"Oh, we will come to you!" the bear replies. "But you can do better than that, can't you?"
Mike sinks to his knees. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry! I shouldn't have cheated at cards! I should have given you your money! I'm sorry! Please let her go! Please!"
"Not bad," the bear says with a silent chuckle.
Then he cuts the cord.
Buster gasps.
Next to him, Mike is screaming.
