FOUR:

UNSUSPECTED RESCUE AND AN INVITATION

Two puppies coward against each other under a short rock that jutted out from the side of a small hill, whimpering. They had just heard the ship crash miles ahead in the distance but they dared not venture out of their hiding place to inspect the noise.

King Rufus would kill them for sure if they did.

FRY

I was pinned. I could feel the weight of the ship crushing me as I tried to move but I couldn't.

"Fry? Where are you? Are you all right?"

Leela! I tried to call out to her but I couldn't even open my mouth to breathe. She kept on calling my name though, and I felt my eyes swell with tears. I've never been so scared or helpless in my life. I was going to die.

BENDER

I turned my head away from Leela as she started to cry, feeling confused. A part of me wanted to play hero and dig Fry out…but another part of me wanted to see her suffer, to make her see that she had something to loose

"Have you found Fry yet?" the Professor wondered.

I jumped. The old man had just crawled out from under some junk and into the cockpit, which was now nothing but a pile of stinking debris, debris under which my friend had been trapped.

"No!" Leela wailed, sinking to the floor and putting her face in her hands. I couldn't take much more of this…

"Don't worry, mon, we'll find him!" Hermes said.

I felt angry as he managed to crawl out from under the same pile that the Professor had been buried under. How could he get out and not Fry? Why couldn't my buddy live through this to?

"Can't Bender get him out?" Amy asked. She was lying curled up in the floor with Bruno, who looked pretty banged up. The girl was too smart for her own good.

"Yes, Bender, why don't you just do that," the Professor said.

I groaned, turning my back on them to dig through the debris.

The puppies were still safe but they were even more frightened than before since they had just watched Rufus stalk past them. He was heading toward the direction of the crash and looking as if he would love to eat them up.

LEELA

"Fry? Oh buddy am I glad to see you," I heard Bender say thirty minutes later. I looked up to see him pull a very frightened and shaken Fry out of the debris.

Delighted, I ran up to my friends, feeling glad they were both alive. I embraced Fry first, however, sobbing against him.

"Ow! Leela, that hurts," Fry rasped. I lifted my head off his heaving chest to look up into his bruised and tattered face. I wasn't the only one crying.

"I thought I'd never see you again," I whispered, smiling as he dug his face into my violet hair.

"Same here," Fry croaked. I realized how good it was to hear his voice again and how close I'd come to never hearing it again.

"You guys are making me sick," Bender said, but I could tell that he was smiling. "Though I did get your boyfriend out for you so don't I get a –"

Laughing, I let go of Fry and hugged Bender, showing him how I truly felt about him and Fry.

"Okay, you can get off of me now," Bender said after I loved on him for a second too long. "I can't take much of this mushy crap."

"Fry, it looks like you need some new clothes, mon," Hermes remarked.

I looked at Fry, finding that Hermes was right for Fry's ruby jacket was made an even darker red by the blood-spots dotted all over it and his shirt was completely in shreds, along with his tennis shoes and blue jeans, which could never be repaired.

"HeHe, I think you're right, Hermes." Fry swooned. I caught him just before he hit the ground and he clung to me like I was his mother.

"Why, isn't this cute," a new voice gushed.

Bruno went into attack mode.

Rufus had found us.

FARNSWORTH

In my mind I was cheering as Bender dug my nephew out because if he croaked wouldn't I croak as well? After all Fry himself had said that he had done much of the dirty-dirty back in high school so one of his son's son's would've created me, right? Of course I'm right, dammit, I'm always right.

When that Rufus snuck in on us though, I didn't feel so sure of myself. After all, what chance did I, a senile old man, have of winning a brawl with a fat, ugly bulldog such as Rufus?

"Why are you here?" Bruno barked, jumping in front of me to face Rufus, who had somehow climbed into the cockpit from the roof of my ship.

Rufus chuckled. "My alert system in my castle caught a single from my force field," he said, pawing him a way through the cockpit by tossing junk everywhere with his horrible meaty paws.

"Sounds handy, Bruno," Amy commented, walking up to my side, "Might want to watch your back."

"Oh, there's no need for that," Rufus said, much to Bruno's annoyance (the mangy mutt was snarling as his king spoke), "Because I have an invitation for you that you can't possibly refuse."

"Oh, and what's that?" Fry asked, his voice shaky. He was hanging on to Leela, who looked smug and bored, for his dear, useless life.

"After everyone has made their selves presentable enough to dine in my Dog Bowl," Rufus said, looking over everyone's disgruntled expressions and ruined clothes, "you will meet me at my castle but, until then, you shall wait here for my servants, who will be riding in carriages. Dig it?"

"Up yours, Rufus," Fry muttered. Leela clasped a firm hand over his big mouth.

"Don't mind him," she said, making me feel proud. "Just go and leave us alone for awhile. We'll come to you when we're ready."

"Very well, then," Rufus conceded. Everyone fell silent as the King hauled his big hairy ass out of there.