Six hours and two gas stations later, Mike and the Bots were brought into Minnesota.
They watched the bus as it turned around and head back.
"Aw, shoot!" Tom said angrily.
"What?" Gypsy asked.
"I left my gum under the seat!"
The others glared at him.
"Let's go," said Mike, who was reading a map. "According to this map, we still got a long ways to go. It's gonna be a long walk."
"What?! Walk?!?" Crow gasped.
"Yes, we're gonna walk," said Mike, folding the map and putting it in his jumpsuit's pocket.
Crow's eyes suddenly started to bug out and in, and suddenly, he collapsed to the ground. In the process, his net popped off again.
"Crow?!" Mike asked, getting down next to him.
"Ooh, Michael! Oh, Tom! Oh, Gypsy! Oh, Cambot!" Crow wailed. "I'm dying! My foot's twisted! My claws are weak! My elbow rivets are loose! Give it to me straight! Will I ever play the drums again?!"
"Crow, you big sissy," Tom sighed. "Get the hell up and stop your whining."
"Spoken like a robot without legs," said Crow scornfully.
"Come on, Crow. Just until we can get a little further along," said Mike, reconnecting Crow's net to his head.
"But what about when the Gizmocrats show up?" Crow asked frantically. "We'll never be able to outrun them!"
"We'll worry about them when they show up," said Mike, helping him up.
POW!
A laser had just barely missed them.
They all stared at the source of the beam.
It was a helicopter with a device aimed right at them.
"And now, lady and gentlemen, we worry," said Mike.
Mike and the Bots tore away from gaping and ran.
In the cockpit, Dr Paul was directing Dr Mickey.
"Zap them!" he ordered.
"Well, I'd like to, Sam, but I'm quite busy with my patent papers," said Dr Mickey.
Dr Paul glared at him.
"Don't…ever do that again," he snarled.
"Sorry."
Dr Mickey leaned the helicopter down a little lower towards his targets.
"Oh geez!" said Tom, revving his hoverskirt to full power.
POW! POW! POW!
Gypsy shrieked and Cambot dodged some more blasts.
"Look!" said Mike triumphantly.
They saw that freight train slowly lumbering by.
"I didn't know there were railroads on the Minnesota border," said Tom.
"It's called a deus ex machina," said Crow.
"All aboard!" Mike crowed.
The tail of train was slowly traveling away from them.
Mike and the Bots tore after it.
It was easy for Cambot, who quickly flew up to the roof.
It was incredibly difficult for Gypsy. She had no appendages and a long tube for a body. I won't go into how she did it.
Crow, who was built rather similarly to a human, ran down after it and grabbed the ladder on the last boxcar with his claw. He managed to climb up.
Mike followed directly after in the same fashion.
Tom was hovering as fast as he could to catch up, but he was rapidly falling behind.
Frantically, Mike reached out and grabbed Tom's hand, and the slinky arm stretched.
"MOMMY! MOMMY! I DON'T WANNA DIE! OW! OW! OW!" Tom shrieked.
It was difficult for Mike to climb up the ladder and hold onto Tom at the same time, but he soon reached the top.
"TOM! ADD MORE POWER!" Gypsy cried.
Tom revved harder and harder until his hoverskirt pushed him forward and closer to the others.
"Phew! Thanks," Tom gasped.
"Quick!" said Mike. "We need to get closer to the front of the train."
The gang ran as fast as they could down the boxcars, leaping them all as they went.
"And we're at the 30, the 20, the 10! No one can catch us!" Tom riffed.
"Now this is true Olympics!" said Crow. "Eat our dust, hurtle jumpers!"
"Over the boxcar and around the train to Robinson's house we go!" Mike sang.
The helicopter dipped a little closer.
Tom dared to look back.
"RUN!" he yelled frantically.
Mike and the Bots put a little 'oomph' in the sprints.
"ZAP THEM! NOW!" Dr Paul hollered.
Dr Mickey frantically typed in some passwords into the CT.
Unfortunately, he put the wrong coordinates in, and the little laser aimed at Dr Paul instead.
"FIRE!" Dr Paul said, pointing at Mike and the Bots.
ZAP!
Dr Mickey looked confused.
Then he looked to his left.
A little wisp of smoke was left floating where his evil overlord had been sitting.
"Whoops," said Dr Mickey.
Dr Paul wound up being transported, molecule by molecule, down to the train.
Darn.
POW!
Mike and the Bots whipped around.
Dr Paul looked very dizzy, but still had an angry glint in his eyes.
"YOU!" he howled. "YOU'RE STILL UNDER ARREST FOR STEALING AND CRASHING A SHIP!"
"Hey, you're the first doctor after the so-called heart failure of Dr Lyle!" Tom said.
"Yeah, I thought you'd only have a bit part in this story!" Crow added.
Dr Paul glared angrily at them.
Mike gulped and looked back at him.
The Bots huddled behind him.
"What if he sets us on fire?!" asked Gypsy.
"Then Mike will put us out!" said Tom.
"But what if he has a weapon?!"
"Then Mike will unarm him!" said Crow.
"But what if he knows karate?!"
"Then Mike will die!" said Tom.
"And then we'll have to take over," added Crow.
Cambot simply nodded.
Mike looked back at the Bots.
"Okay, guys," he said. "I think we've seen enough movies to know what to do here."
"We run away?" asked Tom.
"Bingo. On Mitchell. One…two…three!"
"MITCHELL!" everyone said.
They turned and tore down the freight train.
"GRRR!" Dr Paul growled. He hobbled after them, still woozy from his journey.
Dr Mickey followed on in his helicopter, stilling trying to learn the ways of the CT.
"Press any key to continue…," he said, reading a new window. "Which key is Any Key?"
Mike and the Bots bravely leaped over the gap between two boxcars.
But now there were some flatcars just ahead.
Mike prayed for someone to smile down on him as he jumped down the ladder and started to climb over.
Crow and Tom helped poor Gypsy along the way.
"Oh my stars!" Gypsy wailed, feeling as though she could cry.
"Hang on, Gyps. You can do it," said Crow, helping her keep her balance.
Dr Paul leapt dramatically down from his flatcar…
…only to fall into a crate.
"Ow!" he shouted.
Mike and the Bots struggled as quickly as they could across the train, finally reaching another boxcar.
As they helped Gypsy up the ladder, Mike saw Dr Paul jump over onto their flatcar.
"Now I'll get you, Nelson, and your little robots too!" he yelled.
"No you won't because the magic that you refuse to believe in will get the better of you!" Mike retorted.
Crow and Tom stared at him.
"I dunno…," Mike replied.
Crow and Tom scurried Gypsy and themselves up the ladder, and Cambot followed closely.
Mike followed them as fast as he could.
Dr Paul almost got him, but then Mike kicked him in the face, knocking him down and giving him a black eye.
"DAMN YOU!" Dr Paul shouted, holding his swelling eye.
Mike made it to the top.
"Come on, guys!" he said.
The Guys scurried along.
Dr Paul regained his senses and hurried after them.
They hopped up and over gaps and hung on during the curves.
Then Crow saw something.
"Tunnel!" he yelled.
Indeed, a tunnel was coming.
It was very low.
"Duck!" Mike shouted.
Mike, Crow and Gypsy jumped down onto the boxcars.
Tom got down on his back as well, praying his gumball machine head wouldn't get hurt.
Cambot attempted to sit still on the roof, but his round body caused him to roll to the side.
Crow reached out and saved him just in time.
Then, just to be safe, Mike reached over and turned Crow's net around so that it wouldn't get knocked off.
"Thanks, Mike," Crow said.
Dr Paul finally caught up.
"Ha!" he snorted. "Cowards!"
"Hey, buddy! You might want to get out of the way!" Gypsy warned.
"Huh?"
Dr Paul looked up.
The tunnel was almost on them.
"Oh."
WHAM!
Mike didn't dare look back. He knew he'd get killed by the ceiling.
Besides, he knew Dr Paul had just been smacked by the tunnel.
Dr Paul was thrown off the boxcar and into the gap, only to grab onto the ladder on the way.
"Ouch," he moaned.
Up above them, Dr Mickey piloted the helicopter over the tunnel.
He had finally gotten the CT working.
"Okay, four robots up for transporting," he said.
And he waited for the train to exit the tunnel.
At the bottom, the train rocketed out of the tunnel, and five boxcars later, Mike and the Bots emerged.
Everyone got up again.
Mike helped Crow turn his net back around.
"Phew! That was close," Mike gasped. "Good work everyone. I think we shook him."
"That's what you think!"
Everyone looked back.
"Whoa!" said Tom. "So that's a broken nose!"
Dr Paul was holding his nose in agony and fury.
"You just wait!" he said in a nasal voice. "I can still strangle a man even with one hand."
Just then, the helicopter came in lower and closer.
"Mike, I've got a feeling that that guy isn't a train spotter," said Crow.
"Yes!" Dr Paul shouted. "Get them!"
Dr Mickey complied and leaned the CT out the window so that it wouldn't bounce back and take out the helicopter again.
ZAP!
The laser shot straight at Tom Servo's head.
"AAAAAHH!!" Tom screamed.
But rather than harm him, it bounced off his gumball machine bulb and headed for Crow instead.
"MIKE!" Crow wailed.
But fortunately, the blast ricocheted against Crow's net, causing it to jump towards Cambot.
Cambot reacted quickly. The blast hit him in his camera eye, and, acting quickly, Cambot turned slightly and redirected the blast in another direction.
The blast was redirected towards the gap between one boxcar and the other.
BRZAP!
Mike and the Bots ran to the gap and looked.
It had caused the connecting bolt between the two cars to vanish.
And slowly but surely, their half of the train was being left behind.
Mike and Crow quickly hoisted up Gypsy and hurled her across the growing gap, followed by Tom Servo and Cambot, who flew after.
"Mike, I'm scared!" Crow whimpered. "I don't think I can make it! I don't think—!"
"Crow, you don't have time to be afraid! You have to jump!" Mike said urgently.
"Yeah, yeah, sure," Crow said, watching the gap grow. "Uh, one for the honey, two for the road, three to get Freddy, and—OUCH! HEY!"
Mike picked Crow up and hurled him to safety.
Dr Paul was almost on him, but Mike dared to jump in the air.
"MIKE!" the Bots shrieked.
Mike felt as though time had slowed down. He reached for the boxcar that was still drawing ahead.
He missed.
Mike hit the ground.
Everyone stared.
"MIKE!" the Bots yelled again.
"MIKE, YOU FOOL! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT, YOU DUMB MAN?!" Crow shouted.
Fortunately, all Mike got was a lot aches and a cut on his forehead. He managed to find it in him to get up.
That's when the Bots had an idea.
Crow, Tom Servo and Gypsy formed a chain, and soon they were draped over the edge of the boxcar.
"MIKE, COME ON!" shouted Tom. "GRAB MY HAND!"
Mike stared at his robot friends.
Then, suddenly inspired, he tore after them.
Dr Paul stared.
It was then that he realized his half of the train was slowly backing away.
"Aw shoot," he muttered.
He was heading for the tunnel again.
This time, he got down.
As Dr Paul disappeared, Mike tore after the train.
Gypsy had Crow's legs around her tube, and Crow was stretched out on his back with his arms outstretched, holding Tom by his hoverskirt. Tom's slinky arm was stretched out for Mike to grab.
"Come on, Mike! You can do it!" Gypsy said encouragingly.
"Yeah, run for it, Mike, you puss!" Crow yelled.
"Come on! A little further! Come on!" Tom added.
But Mike was beginning to slow down.
"I…I don't think I can make it!" he gasped. "I don't think…"
Then he saw poor little Cambot, who was hovering nearby, nodding at him to hurry.
Then Mike saw that a trestle bridge was approaching.
Michael John Nelson suddenly felt inspired.
Yes, that's his full name. I checked.
"I can make it! I can make it!" Mike said determinedly.
Mike ran a little more and lunged forward. He grabbed on to Tom's little inanimate hand.
Immediately, Gypsy dragged the boys back onto the boxcar, and Mike climbed up the ladder the rest of the way.
"YAY! HOORAY!" everyone cheered.
Mike huddled around the Bots.
"Oh, thanks, guys. What would I do without you?" he sighed.
Everyone hugged.
Crow looked up.
"Hey, the helicopter's turning around," he said.
"Then we're in the clear for now," said Mike. "Now let's work on our alibis for if we get caught. Gypsy?"
"It was Servo," said Gypsy.
"Crow?"
"It was Servo," said Crow.
"Cambot?"
Cambot nodded towards Tom.
"Servo?"
"It was me," said Tom.
Dr Paul finally emerged from the tunnel, and he was rocketed down the tracks through the valley.
"Oh, this is just piling up the paperwork!" he moaned.
Then he saw one Hail Mary of a curve.
"Son of a…," he muttered.
CRASH!
The freight cars began to leap the tracks and pile up.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—"
Dr Paul's screaming was cut off by a ZAP!
Dr Mickey had fired the CT at him just in time. Dr Paul reappeared next to him.
"—AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaahhhh…," Dr Paul screeched as he slowly realized where he was.
There was an awkward pause as they watched the destruction settle.
"Uh, maybe we should leave," Dr Mickey suggested.
"Agreed. Take us away," said Dr Paul.