Author's Notes: Bet you wondered if you'd ever see an update from me again… I know, I'm awful. I lost all motivation to keep writing because of college and how crazy awesome and crazy difficult it is. Do you ever feel like you've forgotten how to write? I'm taking two major writing classes right now, but when I started to pick up this story again I felt like I'd completely forgotten how to form sentences. I'm working on it fellas, and once again I'm so sorry. I'd like to be pumping out chapters faster, and I definitely do not intend on leaving this story for so long again. Thanks for the support and reviews! :)
Everyone was in complete panic. Most were hunched over clutching their ears, but some struggled around just trying to get out of the building. Buzz led the others through the crowds through the door and to the lobby. They tore open the main doors and found themselves staring straight into an electric blue energy field surrounding the building, blocking any view of the outside world.
"We were set up," Woody said, clenching his fists.
Buzz turned to Mira. "You think you can phase through that?"
She grimaced. "Don't you remember the last time I phased through an energy source? I got addicted to it and I couldn't stop… I could go through the ground though. I'm probably only going to have enough energy to take one person with me."
The three others looked at each other.
"Take me, please," Woody finally said. "This guy is trying to get to Bo. I need to get her out of here." He looked at Buzz and Jessie for affirmation. They nodded.
"Ok, the only problem is we don't actually know where she is," Jessie chipped in.
"I can help you with that Rangers," added a voice from behind. They spun around and saw Nebula with his arms crossed. "It's not far from here. There's a local doctor's office around the block. She's being protected in a back wing of the building. You'll need this to be authorized." He handed Woody a key card. "After that there's a secret shuttle underneath the office to take you up to Star Command. If anyone gives you crap, tell them you are under the orders of the Secretary of Defense and it is a code 90460. Understood?"
Woody nodded. He looked at the others.
"We'll meet up with you as soon as Bo is safe. Mira, after you get out see if you can turn off this field and get our communications back up. Hopefully Booster and XR are alright," Buzz said.
"Ready?" Mira asked placing her hand on Woody's shoulder.
Woody looked at Buzz last before he felt himself sinking.
The streets were also in a panic, and the cowboy only had to look up to see what was casting the enormous shadow to understand why. There was a humungous ship in the shape of a pig above the city, with a giant tube causing the electrical field around the building next to him. Woody stopped to help Mira who had stumbled to the ground out of exhaustion.
"Are you going to be alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine! Go, you're wasting time on me!" she replied pushing him away.
He backed up and then activated the wings that popped out of the suit and flew off scouring the streets for a doctors office.
As soon as she saw he was out of sight, Mira let out an exhausted breath and popped open her wrist communicator. "XR? Booster do you read me?" A thick static noise still followed.
"Craters…" she mumbled under her breath. "Ok, just gotta take out that tube."
She stood up slowly and struggled to keep her footing, so she slammed the button on her chest and let the jets keep her upright. She flew up closer to the ship and tried to concentrate over the blaring electrical noise. She aimed her laser at the tube and shot a few times, only to find they ricocheted right off. Mira flew up to the outer shell of the ship, trying to focus her energy to phase through, but she was still drained and only managed to get a hand through.
This is gonna be harder than I thought.
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a red blob on the ground directing civilians that she recognized as Booster. She let out a little sigh of relief and quickly landed next to him.
"Booster what happened?" she asked loudly above the noise of the crowd.
"Mira! That ship had some sort of cloaking device! XR wasn't able to even get a read on it right up until it broke through the atmosphere, and then when it fired up that energy field I lost contact with everyone," he replied frantically.
"Woody and I made it out of the Meetinghouse, but Buzz and Jessie as well as everyone else are still stuck in there. We need to shut off that machine so we can contact Star Command for backup! It's impenetrable to our lasers, and I can't phase through it. It took a lot out of me to get out of that stupid dome with another person," Mira told him while stroking her temples.
"What do we do then?" Booster asked.
"I-I… I don't know… I guess we should search the perimeter around the ship, find some sort of weak point. Come on!"
Woody's blood was racing. Through all the chaos and panic on the streets, he couldn't hear anything but his own heart beating madly. He wished desperately he'd gotten more details on the office where Bo was being kept, because there was a dozen buildings that looked almost identical. He finally spotted a sign and landed at the glass doors and shoved in quickly. The building had been abandoned for the most part, with a long hallway leading to various rooms and a door requiring a keycard at the very back.
He jammed the card through the slot, rushing through endless hallways making his way towards the back of the building. There was another door, this time requiring a code. He punched in the number that Nebula gave him, praying it would work. It delayed for a moment, like the computer was processing code as if wasn't a regular number that was typed in.
As Woody waited impatiently sizing up how difficult it would be to get through the heavy door, a faint beep went off.
The entire building was blown to bits.
Before Mira and Booster could even reach the pig ship, they heard the explosions and the screams on the streets that ensued. A wave of terror washed over Mira. She felt completely helpless, only to watch the horrific scene to unfold.
And yet, as quickly as the explosions had gone off, the ship had retracted the tube and the energy beam surrounding the conference center was lifted.
"What are they playing at?" Mira managed to murmur before a crowd of people came pouring out of the conference center, including Buzz and Jessie. The cowgirl spotted Booster in the mad dash of politicians and the two made their way over to them.
"Good job guys, communications are back on," Buzz told them while examining his communicator.
"We didn't… we didn't do anything Buzz," Booster sputtered.
Buzz quickly exchanged looks with Jessie. Something was very wrong. And without warning, the pig ship began its ascent gaining speed exponentially.
"Get to the ship!" Buzz shouted as the four raced upwards with their jetpacks. But the Star Command suits could not compare with the enormous engines taking the ship out of the atmosphere. Jessie was the last to pull back as the ship disappeared out of sight.
"XR! XR do you read me? Are you still in ship 95?" Mira yelled into her communicator.
"Mira? Mira, it was blown up! I'm in pieces over here! Literally! Where are you? What happened?" the frazzled robot responded on the other end.
"Hang tight XR" she said sighing. "We'll be over in a sec."
"What about Woody?" Jessie asked as they landed back on the pavement again.
"He's not answering… Maybe he made it onto the ship?" Buzz replied with a twinge in his stomach. "Mira, you and Booster go get XR. Jessie and I will look around, see if we can find anything."
Mira nodded, but she lingered a bit. "Buzz, Booster and I didn't just hear one explosion. I- I'm so sorry that we weren't quick enough…"
"They caught us all by surprise. It's no one's fault. We'll sort this out," the old captain reassured.
But as the two groups split off again, Mira couldn't shake the feeling that she hadn't acted like Buzz would have in her situation. That was what made her angriest at herself, the fact that she'd tried to become a leader herself after Buzz left, and yet she still felt completely inept.
And although she had already coped with Buzz's decision to remain on Earth, part of her desperately wished he would come back to Star Command to lead their team.