Fear was now saddled with the seemingly impossible prospect of running all the way around the wide chamber. He knew that he was the fastest of the five emotions, but even at top speed, he calculated that his chances of arriving at the Train of Thought before it departed would be slim to none. The long way guaranteed his survival, though, and that's what mattered. So he broke into a sprint, keeping his eyes peeled wide open for a way past the metal wall.
After a minute of non-stop running, he saw it. A gap in the wall wide enough for him to pass through. The purple emotion cheered, but it was short-lived when it dawned on him that Joy and Bing Bong may have likely reached the train by then. Unwilling to let himself be left behind, he sped through the gap and dashed onward, spotting the train slowing to a stop up ahead.
—
High above Riley was a beehive, with one of the bees hovering next to her food tray. Disgust pressed her hand against the console, her nerves completely on edge. Riley pulled a face upon seeing the bee land on her hot dog. To the green emotion's horror, the girl attempted to swat the insect with her hand.
"Riley, you're supposed to run from those things, not fight back!" Disgust gasped.
"Geez, we should've been faster!" Anger grunted in frustration.
Sadness's legs were quivering from dread. "Oh no…we just provoked it!"
In the bee's head, alarms were blaring in her Headquarters as three bee-like emotions freaked out.
"Waaah!" the bee's Fear hollered. "We're under attack!"
"There is an intruder right beneath our hive!" the bee's Anger shouted. "Drive them back!"
The bee's Disgust, who served as the leader of the bunch, nodded. "Initiating the counterattack."
"Call for backup! Call for backup!" the bee's Fear yelled.
The bee's Disgust yanked the levers, and the yellow insect flew towards the human's left hand, readying her stinger.
What followed for Riley was pain. A sharp burst of pain stabbing through the back of her left hand. The bee tried to yank her stinger out of the skin, but the barbs got stuck, and the entire stinger ripped away from the rest of the bee's body.
"Oh sh—" the bee's emotions all gasped in unison just as they all felt faint and collapsed as the console and the rest of HQ shut down.
—
He made it.
Against all odds, he had beaten Joy and Bing Bong to the train station. And that was…very much not a good thing, actually. What happened in that dangerous chamber to set them back?
A yellow, triangle shaped leg sticking out of the door from the other side answered that question for him. Wait, no it didn't.
"HUH?" Fear shouted, startled from the sight. "Who are you?"
"Fear! We need your help!" a familiar voice cried out to him, shaking her leg.
The purple emotion's eyes went wide. "Joy?! What happened to you?!"
"We got turned into these…things!" Joy struggled to find the right words to describe her blocky appearance. "Grab my leg! We can't fit through this door!"
The unnerved emotion stiffened, pressing his arms against his chest. He wanted to save both of his companions, but if he wasn't strong enough, there was a chance he'd get yanked in there, too. And that would mean certain doom for him as well.
"This isn't the time to stand there!" Bing Bong shouted desperately. "If you don't pull us out, we'll be stuck here forever! And the train will depart without us, too!"
Right after the imaginary friend said that, his body morphed into a pink trunk, while Joy transformed into a yellow star. The purple emotion began to sweat profusely, staring at them in sheer terror as his legs grew weak. Before he knew it, he had collapsed onto his knees, a sickening feeling of harrowing hollowness overtaking him. Somehow, it scared him more than Jangles ever did.
"We're not gonna make it!" Bing Bong exclaimed as he attempted to squeeze his trunk through the door, only to get stuck.
"Save us!" Joy screamed, shining erratic bursts of light. "PLEASE!"
—
The buzzing grew louder as Riley looked up, seeing that several more yellow and black insects were flying towards her way.
"Gah!" Anger leapt towards the console, his pulse elevated. "I'm gonna give those bees a piece of my mind!"
"Anger, stop!" Sadness called out to him. "You're gonna provoke the entire hive into stinging Riley!"
The fiery emotion immediately stepped back, frustrated, but recognizing that Riley's entire well-being was at stake. If neither he nor Disgust could get Riley to safety, then it all had to come down to Sadness.
Riley felt her vision blur up. The stinging pain had gotten to her, and now there were more bees that were about to hurt her. She remained glued to her seat on the bench, resigned to her fate. All because she felt like she didn't belong with the rest of her classmates.
"No, no, no!" Sadness sobbed, face-planting on the console. "I can't keep Riley safe! We're doomed!"
In an instant, the teacher ran up to Riley and pulled her away from the bees with one swift motion, leaving the three emotions stunned in silence as the tearful emotion pulled her face off of the console.
Thankfully, the bees didn't continue their attack, instead opting to remain nearby the food left behind.
"Are you okay?" the black student asked, concerned.
Riley wiped her tears away with her arm and tried to give the other student an annoyed glance, but winced instead. "I'm fine."
"We need to treat that sting right away," the teacher informed the blond girl, pulling out her credit card from her wallet. "Give me your arm."
Once Riley did so, the teacher flicked the card across, removing the stinger from her skin. "Let's get you to the nurse's office."
—
Fear continued to watch the yellow star and the pink trunk, trying desperately to think of something, anything to save them without getting himself killed in the process. Judging by how they were running, no, moving about, they had been turned into two-dimensional objects, unable to fit through the doorway.
…two-dimensional…wait a moment.
This idea was a long shot. But if it saved them, then that's all that mattered.
"JOY! BING BONG! Fall on your face!" Fear hollered at the top of his lungs.
The star and the trunk froze up and fell forward, turning into thin lines of yellow and pink. Joy let out a surprised gasp before crawling forward like a worm. "Come on! Let's get outta here!"
Once they managed to exit the chamber, they reverted into blockier versions of themselves. However, the Train of Thought sounded its whistle, starting its engines up.
"Wait! WAIT!" the yellow emotion cried as she and Bing Bong ran forward to the vehicle. All Fear could do was stare at the train taking off without them, unable to lift his feet from the sheer amount of stress.
She facepalmed herself with her still blocky hand. "This was supposed to be a shortcut!"
"It was!" the pink elephant affirmed, shifting back into his normal fluffy self. "But dang, talk about a dangerous place we went through! There really should've been some kind of warning sign."
Fear shot the imaginary friend a withering glare, now frustrated at his idiocy. "There literally was a sign that said 'DANGER' up there."
Bing Bong gave the purple emotion a confused look in response.
"How do we get to the next station then?" Joy got the group back on track, turning back into her usual appearance.
"Oh that part's simple!" the fluffy creature declared, pointing to his left. "We head on to the next station in line! It's right through those gates!"
"So…another 'shortcut', then?" Joy deadpanned.
Bing Bong flashed a triumphant grin, strolling forward to the gate up ahead.
"I'm definitely glad I took the long way around…" Fear managed to get out, swaying back and forth on his feet. All the stress that came from running nonstop combined with seeing his companions almost perish had caught up to him, and he fell onto his stomach.
The bright emotion was about to make a frustrated expression, but something crossed her mind, and she gave him a curious look instead. "How did you know that what we did would save us from that place?"
"I…I'm not sure. I just realized that you two were two-dimensional and I spoke the first thing that came to my mind," Fear gave his best explanation.
"Well, in any case, you just saved our lives," Joy gently smiled. "Thank you, Fear."
The exhausted emotion dragged his face up to meet her smile with his own. Then his neck gave out, and he collapsed on the floor again.
"Sorry to make you do this again, Joy," he mumbled, slowly raising his hand.
Joy didn't feel nearly as annoyed dragging Fear behind herself this time. Perhaps it was because she owed him her life. Perhaps it was because she knew that he was right to not go into that dangerous shape-shifting chamber. Perhaps it was because they were about to head into Imagination Land, a place she had always wanted to visit, with Bing Bong leading the way.
Or perhaps it was all of those reasons combined.
—
The teacher brought Riley to the nurse's office, with the black girl following them. She brought her to the sink and had her rinse her left hand with water and soap while she retrieved an ice pack from the freezer. The swollen spot still hurt to the touch, causing the blond student to quietly hiss from the pain.
As Riley held the ice pack against the back of her left hand, the black student took the moment to speak up. "Why were you sitting underneath that thing? You could've been stung many more times by those bees!"
Riley felt herself going numb again, and not because of the ice. "Why do you ask?"
The black girl paused, taken aback by the other's borderline apathetic delivery. "I saw you just sitting there, and I got scared. I asked the teacher to do something since I wasn't sure how else I could save you from getting hurt."
"Okay," was Riley's only response.
"Try not to put too much pressure on your left hand," the teacher advised. "I'll make sure that both of you aren't marked tardy once we get back to class."
"Please be more careful next time, okay?" the black student asked urgently.
"Alright…" Riley trailed off, returning back to class with the teacher and the other student. This day was already off to a far worse start than before, that's for sure.
—
"Welcome to Imagination Land!" Bing Bong introduced the two emotions to the vast landscape that laid ahead of them. "I come here all the time. I'm practically the mayor."
"Hey, you guys hungry?" He directed them to a forest made out of French fries in boxes and gobbled down on one of them. "Geh a low o dish!"
"No way!" Joy enthusiastically took a bite from the fry, savoring the saltiness.
"Are you sure we should be eating food that technically isn't real?" Fear doubted.
"It's Imagination Land! Everything that Riley thinks of is real here!" the imaginary friend proclaimed.
They proceeded towards a town full of trophies, where he kicked a ball towards the net. A bunch of Mind Workers cheered, showering him with several medals and ribbons.
"Haha! I won first place! Here, everyone's a winner!" Bing Bong cheered.
"Let me try!" the yellow emotion let Fear's hand go to set down a ball, kicking it right into the net.
"Yippie! Me too!" she beamed upon receiving a 1st place medal.
Fear continued to lay there on the ground, so he got something different instead.
"Participation award? I didn't even participate," the purple emotion gave a puzzled look at the ribbon.
"Is that–" Joy pointed towards a town made of clouds and let out a squee. "Cloud Town! That's my favorite!"
She dashed over to one of its buildings and ripped out a piece of fluff, laying herself across the solidified surface. "Oh, so soft!"
"Wait for me!" Bing Bong called out, tearing a hole open in the wall in his quest to create a cloud bed for himself.
"Hey! What's the big idea?" a cloud man floated up to the pink elephant. "You better fix that up, or you'll be sor–"
Bing Bong let out a sneeze, blowing the cloud man away. This made the nervous emotion let out an appalled gasp, having caught up to them.
"W-what the heck? You just killed him!" he exclaimed, only for Bing Bong to awkwardly walk off from the scene.
"If anyone can hear me, we're sorry!" Fear apologized hastily before dashing off to catch up to the others, who had arrived at a pit full of lava. Several couches, cushions, and tables floated in the molten rock.
"Oh no! Lava!" Joy grinned, bouncing across the furniture without a care in the world.
"Whoop-dee-doo! Imagination Land is the best!" Bing Bong cheered, springing from his feet with every step.
Fear felt himself sweat, not just from the sweltering heat, and he gathered his courage before taking his first leap across. He started to lose his balance on the cushion, rapidly flapping his arms to align himself.
"You can do this Fear, you can do this…" he mumbled to himself, preparing for his next crossing.
When he landed on the last table before the other side, it sank from the force from his jump, and before he could even register the panic, he shot up in the air from the lava, crashing to the other side.
"AAAH! NOT AGAIN!" Fear screamed, about to rush to his feet. He quickly remembered what he did the last time this happened, and fell onto his stomach and rolled around, extinguishing the flames.
"You okay, Fear?" Joy asked him, concerned.
"Uh-huh," he replied, dusting himself off and fixing his tie as the three companions arrived at a house made of cards.
"And this is where I've been keeping…" Bing Bong announced, opening up the garage of cards.
He did a double take upon seeing that there was nothing inside.
"WHAT?" he exclaimed, throwing his arm out and accidentally knocking the house of cards over.
"Great," one of the Mind Workers grunted.
"Oh, sorry," the fluffy creature hastily apologized.
"Bing Bong! What's wrong?" the shining emotion ran up to the suddenly distraught elephant.
"My rocket! It's gone!" he answered in between short breaths. "I know I stashed it there for safekeeping last time!"
"Your rocket?" Fear questioned.
"Yeah! How am I gonna take Riley to the moon now?" Bing Bong put his hands against his forehead, growing more worried by the moment.
Fear started to approach the pink elephant, but Joy pulled him back. "Wait, I've got this."
She walked up and gave Bing Bong a reassuring smile, trying to cheer the imaginary friend up. "Hey, it's going to be okay! Just because your rocket's missing doesn't mean that it's gone forever! I'll help keep an eye out for it, okay?"
Bing Bong returned her smile, feeling a bit more at ease. "Thanks. We won't find my rocket if we don't try, after all."
Walking onwards, they saw a giant machine creating what appeared to be a teenage boy.
"Who the heck is that?" Bing Bong inquired.
"Imaginary boyfriend," the Mind Worker attending the machine answered.
"I would die for Riley," the boy boasted in a deep voice.
Joy pulled a face at the imaginary boyfriend while Fear cringed.
"I really hope this is just a phase for Riley…" the nervous emotion muttered.
"Let's go to Preschool World!" Bing Bong indicated the area in question. "My rocket's gotta be there, and we're nearly to the train, too!"
"Two birds, one stone!" Joy beamed. "Riley, here we come!"
A/N: I decided to play around with canon by having Bree from Inside Out 2 show up here early. However, she's not name dropped in this chapter since Riley's not exactly in the best mental state right now, meaning that they aren't friends just yet. And perhaps something similar will happen in the next chapter as well? You'll see.
Also, don't mess with bees, wasps, or hornets. I know bees in particular are very important insects to the ecosystem, but all of the flying insects with stingers scare me for good reason.