Through the Looking Glass: Chapter 6-A
Tooty: Chapter 6
"So, let me get this straight; some woman that you've been seeing in your dreams brought back your long-lost sister through her dreams?"
"That's pretty much it, Mr. Silver."
The grey hedgehog nodded at this. Banjo and Kazooie had forgone the hundred laps that morning; they were so happy that Tooty was finally back home that they had pretty much forgotten about that. When the she-bear had noticed Silver, however, a long story-telling session had ensued that went on even as Banjo was preparing breakfast.
"I see..." replied the grey-furred hedgehog as he rubbed his chin. "I think the emeralds might have had something to do with it..."
"Well, that doesn't really matter, now does it?" asked Kazooie from where she sat, hugging Tooty with her wings. "What matters is that she's back!"
"Yeah!" said Banjo. "We should head to Showdown Town and tell Mumbo and Bottles the news!"
At this, Tooty gave a confused expression. "Showdown Town?" she asked.
"Oh, the latest adventure we had?" replied Kazooie. "That's where we had it. And it's run by a computer head."
Tooty was quite confused by this. "Computer head?" asked the she-bear. "Are you saying he has a computer for a head?"
"You better believe it!" replied Banjo as he came with the prepared breakfast and placed it on the tables. "Eat up, guys; we've got a fairly long day ahead of us!"
Silver was hesitant with the meal, but Tooty dove right into her breakfast. The sheer ferocity with which she ate her food was something that threw Banjo and Kazooie off quite a bit. Nevertheless, they were glad that she was at least eating at the same table again after all those years and Banjo simply smiled before beginning his own breakfast.
A few minutes later, Banjo stood in front of the portal to Showdown Town with Kazooie in his backpack as Tooty and Silver looked at the portal. Silver was for the most part relying on his telekinesis for a crutch, and so far he had found no problems trying to move. However, he told Banjo to prepare to act as a crutch in case they did not get the cast before he had been tired out by his own abilities. He knew that time would come very slowly, though, since he had levitated much heavier objects than himself.
"So, this leads to Showdown Town, huh?" asked Silver with a small sense of wonder.
"Yeah," said Banjo. "I think you'll love the place."
Tooty gave the portal an odd glance. "This is here Mumbo and Bottles went to?" she asked unbelievingly. "Why'd they move here?"
"Well, goggle boy's family left him after he came back to life," replied Kazooie, continuing as she got an incredulous glance from Silver. "Long story, don't get me started. So then after that, he moved here. As for skull face..."
"Whatever, it's not that important," said Silver as he moved towards the portal. "Let's go see what this place is about, yeah?"
Banjo walked forward. "You might want to be careful," said the bear. "There's a slope that leads down to the town, so you might want to slide around on one side of your body..."
"Huh," said Silver as he released the telekinetic hold on his own foot. He then bent down on the ground, laying down on his back as he slowly slid towards the portal. "Thanks for the heads up!"
"No problem!" said Banjo. "Now, let's go!"
And with this, the four of them entered the portal, Silver in a sort of half crawl and Tooty entering uncertainly. The hedgehog ended up seeing Banjo's point, as then all four of them were sent sliding down he slope into the town proper. Tooty was greatly caught off guard, and if it was not for the fact that she had slipped she probably would have tumbled down the slope instead of merely sliding down. All four of them touched down at approximately the same time; however, Silver suddenly felt something hit him hard in the stomach, and before he could figure out what it was he suddenly felt somebody else's body weight being flung down on top of his own.
The figure was still down when Banjo and Kazooie had stood up from where they had slid down the slope, Tooty joining them as the man Silver had bumped into stood up, brushing himself off apologetically as Silver stood up frantically.
"Aw, hell," muttered Kazooie, shaking her head as she saw the familiar blue hair and sunglasses. "Pride man never never learns, does he?"
Before Tooty could ask who the cheetah was, Silver had stood up, nearly stumbling on himself due to his twisted ankle. "Oh, I'm so sorry, sir!" said the hedgehog apologetically. "I--"
"That was not cool!" retorted the cheetah angrily as he thumbed through his blue hair. "You almost broke my legs, you almost broke my face, you almost ended my life... But no, you went the extra mile! You ruined my beautiful, beautiful hair!"
"Can it, ego boy," replied Kazooie as Banjo and Tooty both walked towards Silver, the male bear being the crutch he said he would be to the hedgehog. "We've got much bigger fish to fry."
"Besides, your hair doesn't even look that great anyway," added the grey-furred hedgehog.
However, Trophy Thomas had noticed the she-bear standing by Banjo's side, and so he missed the comment from Silver. He smiled at her, hoping for a positive reaction as he nodded to her, holding his arms out in an offering position.
"Hey, there, cutie," he said in a suave voice. "How're you doing?"
This look and phrase from the cheetah, rather than chaming Tooty, distressed the poor she-bear greatly as it reminded her too much of... them... Letting out a horrified scream, she ran behind Banjo, surprising even Kazooie as she screamed into her older brother's back.
"Banjo, keep him away from me!" she cried, her voice cracking in fright as Kazooie turned in her bag to see tears pouring down her face. "Keep him away! I don't wanna go with him!"
Kazooie glared at the cheetah before turning her attention to the she-bear. The cheetah, overly surprised, shrugged, and even Banjo could see the surprise behind the dark lenses of his sunglasses.
"What's up with her?" asked the cheetah.
Banjo shook his head, finally being fed up with Thomas' habit of hitting on every woman he saw. "First of all, that would be my long-lost sister I told you about," said the bear. "Second, L.O.G. seems to think she was raped in the ten years she was gone. So if you scare her again, I swear I'm gonna find some way to hurt you!"
The cat looked at the bear, and he saw it fit to remove his shades, revealing deft teal eyes to those that cared to look (which was almost nobody at the moment). There was a silence for a good four minutes as the cat's shock wore off at Banjo's threat. Finally, he looked at Tooty with a soft expression on his face before going over to the girl. Here, he took off his shades and knelt down next to Banjo's sister. He offered the friendliest smile he could to her, and in a rare gesture of prudence he nodded to the bear, brushing a small bit of dust out of his hair as he regarded the little she-bear.
"Hey," he said softly in a tone that Kazooie didn't think the tigercat was capable of talking in. "You're Banjo's sister, huh?"
The bear nodded quickly, cobalt eyes sparkling in fear as the cat regarded her. Nodding quickly, she then noticed that the cat was nodding as he touched her shoulder. Strangely, there was nothing suggestive in his motions at all. "I'm sorry about that," he said. "I'm the best there is, but... I didn't think I'd scare you like that... Well... I just wanted to let ya know... that being the awesome guy that I am means that I can't hurt any girls that don't want me to touch them, okay? So don't worry; I'm not gonna touch you. Okay?"
Briefly, the bear nodded at this reassurance. With this, the cat patted Tooty's shoulder softly and stood up. When he walked away and saw that the female bear was coming out from behind Banjo, he smiled broadly.
"There ya go!" he said. "It's great to see you're not so shy there! I'm Trophy Thomas, by the way!"
With this, the cat turned to Banjo and Kazooie, leaving them both bewildered. "Well, now that you're sister's here... We've gotta hold a party!" he exclaimed to Banjo. "Because you're just that awesome! I'm gonna go get Mumbo and Humba and Bottles, and... well... I'll see ya at Mumbo's garage in a few hours!"
The cat turned to leave with a small smile. Unfortunately, what he did not count on was the fact that Silver's good foot was right in front of him. So, he tripped again, Silver backing away slightly as the tigercat stood up.
"Damn it, man!" shouted the cat. "Stop messing up my hair! You're gonna make the party less fun!"
As he turned to leave, though, Kazooie did not follow this up with one of her infamous quips of sarcasm. Confused, Banjo looked at Kazooie. Noticing the shocked look in her emerald eyes, he rose one of his eyebrows.
"Did he just..." asked the breegull in disbelief. "Did he... Was that prudence I just saw? From Trophy Thomas?"
Somewhere very far away, a diminished chord was heard playing as this question was--
"And don't answer that with whatever damn musical device you call that!" cried Kazooie into the sky, raising her clenched wing in the air.
Oh, come on! It's dramatic effect! I can't have a dramatic revelation without dramatic music, yeah?
"This isn't a Flash movie!" shouted Kazooie. "Now go back to narrarating the story, nerd boy!"
Yes, feather face. And before you say anything, you deserved that one. Anyways...
After this episode, Silver looked over to the breegull, both in confusion over why she had just been shouting at the air and why she was so shocked in the first place. Somehow deciding that the first set of concerns was not important, he moved closer to Banjo, using his telekineses to walk normally again.
"What're you so surprised about?" asked the grey-furred hedgehog, amber eyes narrowed in confusion.
"Mr. Trophy Thomas usually has too much ego..." replied Banjo with a shake of his head. "I can't believe he just knelt down and said all that!"
Tooty shrugged before looking at her older sibling. "In character or not, I'm just glad he did that," she said with a shrug as she rubbed some dry tears from her fur. "It makes me feel better."
Silver nodded as he placed a hand on Tooty's shoulder. "That's good to hear," he said.
"All right," said Banjo. "Let's go to Mr. L.O.G. and let him know!"
"Okay!" replied Silver and Tooty.
All four of them then moved to the L.O.G.'s video game factory, where Banjo was sure the creator of all games would be more than happy about this news that Tooty had returned.
"Yes, Satoru, I get it. Okay, okay. Well, I dunno how that would work, I mean, Microsoft is a little pushy, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't... What do you mean, take the Sega approach? They're not hurting that badly on the console market! Sega was stupid with how it handled its console marketing at the end! Okay. Oh, really? Huh. Okay, I'll see what I can do. All right. Goodbye."
The L.O.G. hung up, feeling a little less stressed than he did when he had told Banjo the remarkably awful news two days prior. Now that he had been contacted by Nintendo offices about the next Smash Brothers game and trying to get rights to Banjo and Kazooie for use in that, he wondered how Microsoft would take it.
This was interrupted by a small buzz, however, and then he looked to the buzzer.
"Yes, Andy?" asked the omnipotent computer.
"Oh, uh, you have a Banjo and Kazooie to see you, sir," said his secretary nervously. "And they say they have some... Tooty person... I dunno."
The L.O.G. violently convulsed upon hearing the name 'Tooty'. The convulsion was so bad he almost got a blue screen of death from how shocked he was. Looking down at the speaker, he hesitated before replying to his secretary.
"Bring them in..." said the L.O.G. uncertainly.
A few minutes later, knocking was heard on the door to his office. "Come in!" shouted the omnipotent computer.
And when the door opened, Banjo waltzed in with Kazooie in his backpack. However, when he saw a young female bear and a silver-furred hedgehog follow the bear into the office, he gawked. He was even more shocked by the fact that the female bear matched the description of Tooty that Banjo had given to him during their last adventure. Surprised, he teleported to where the female bear stood, and he leaned in, the shock showing in his otherwise usually emotionless screen face.
"You're... Tooty?" he asked, flabbergasted.
"Yes, sir," replied the female bear softly. "Are you the Lord of Games Banjo's been telling me about?"
Shocked as he was, the computer knew he had to keep up the conversation. "Oh, of course!" replied the computer as he looked to Banjo. "What I want to know is, how did you get back to your brother?"
"Oh, well, it's a long story, Mr. L.O.G.," said Banjo with a hand gesture. "It'll take a while to tell..."
"Oh, don't worry about that," said the creator of all games with a certain sound in his voice. "First, though, before you tell your story, why is Silver the Hedgehog in my office?"
The silver hedgehog was jilted out of a relatively calm state rather quickly, and he would have cut his psychic connection to his foot if not for the fact that he was using all of his willpower to keep that thing running. "How do you know who I am?" he asked.
"He knows everything, how could he not?" asked Kazooie flatly.
The grey-furred rodent nodded at this before looking at the Lord of Games. "Well, Kazooie found me somewhere," replied the hedgehog. "They say I could really use a cast right now; I twisted my ankle earlier."
Without a word, the omnipotent computer teleported out of the office. Silver and Tooty were both extremely baffled by this, but before they could comment the computer had teleported back in, and he dropped a foot cast on the ground. The hedgehog was surprised by this, and so he looked at the cast and at the computer back and forth.
"Well... uh... thanks..." he said, wondering to himself how people considered that thing safe as he looked at it.
"Now, how did you get Tooty back?" asked the L.O.G.
Banjo nodded as he put his hands in his pockets. "Well, it started when I got that emerald," he began.
He then proceeded to relate the story of how he had met Rouge in his dreams and how his friendship with her had resulted in Tooty's return to Spiral Mountain. Somehow, the mentioning of Rouge brought some of the bat's conversations that she had had with Tooty back to the she-bear, and the recollection was very welcome to the bear. Banjo's narrative had ended almost too, soon, however, for then there was a strange silence hanging in the air where the L.O.G. regarded the narrative.
"Wow..." he said with wonder in his voice. "And here I thought my intervention would actually do something..."
"Well, I appreciate what you did anyways," said Banjo. "I mean, if I hadn't met her, I would've still needed something to fall back on, yeah? I'm just so glad she's back."
"I can imagine," replied the computer. "Now I'm gonna have to call off the search."
The older honey bear nodded as he walked over to his younger sister and draped his arm over her shoulder. "Still, thanks for everything," replied Banjo with a smile on his face.
"So, was that all you wanted to come here about?" asked the L.O.G. simply.
Kazooie nodded. "Well, we got the cast for Silver, so that was the only other thing we needed. So, yeah, we're done, pong face."
There was a brief silence where nobody really said anything. However, at the sound of plastic softly patting another piece of plastic, all eyes went to the hedgehog from the future, who was holding the cast in his hand, confused over what was supposed to be done. There was a four second delay or so where he failed to notice everybody's eyes were on him, and when he finally noticed everybody looking at him he cast a confused glance, holding his hands up in his own defense.
"What?" he asked. "I don't know how to put this thing on!"
Kazooie glanced distastefully to the side as Banjo walked over to the hedgehog, took the cast out of his hand, and got down on his knees.
"It goes something like this," replied the bear. He lifted Silver's foot into the cast and then proceeded to close the thing up.
As soon as he did, the hedgehog released his foot from the telekinetic hold it had been on for almost the entire morning. He then took a few experimental steps to test how his foot fared in the cast, and when he saw that the footsteps he took were a little clumsy but in perfect condition, he nodded to them.
"Not as bad as I was expecting, that's for sure," he said insightfully. "Thanks!"
"No problem at all, Mr. Silver!" replied Banjo as he gave the hedgehog a thumbs up.
"Yeah, I think we're done here," said Tooty. "It was good to meet you, Mr. L.O.G.!"
The computer looked at Tooty with his screen sparkling in happiness. "Likewise," replied the computer. "I do hope things go better for you from here on out."
The group of four then turned to the door, Silver opening it with his hand and walking out. "Thanks again for everything!" replied Banjo as he and Tooty both walked out of the door.
When the door closed, the L.O.G. sighed contentedly, thinking about how great it was that after ten years Banjo had finally been reunited with his sister.
When Banjo, Tooty, and Silver had walked out of the L.O.G.'s game factory, Kazooie suddenly thought of something. She then leaned over Banjo, facing everybody.
"Hey, you know, I think sun face said something about a party when he left..." she said suddenly. "I wonder..."
Banjo looked over to Kazooie. "Why do you say that?" asked the honey bear.
The breegull simply shrugged, crimson feathers gleaming in the sun as she did. "I dunno," she said. "You wanna check out Mumbo's warehouse?"
"Sure," said Banjo. The male bear then walked off.
This left Tooty and Silver to glance at each other. The hedgehog simply shrugged before they both followed behind the male bear. Tooty was still bewildered by many things, including the appearance of Showdown Town and the fates of everybody she had known being entirely different from what she had remembered them to be. As she thought of this, the four of them then moved over to a rather large garage in one end of town, where Banjo and Kazooie had accidentally crashed their cart full of files into the wall a few days prior. Looking at the garage door, the bear knocked on it with three distinctive raps on the metal door.
"This is what Mumbo did after turning you guys into bees and stuff?" asked Tooty, bewildered by the size of the garage. "I mean... I didn't think he was a mechanic."
"I didn't think so either, Tooty," replied Kazooie as she crossed her wings in front of her. "And yet, here we are, knocking on his warehouse door."
"What else changed?" asked the female bear innocently.
"You'll see soon enough, Tooty," replied Banjo with a shrug.
The door suddenly opened, and there, much to everybody's surprise, they found Mumbo, Humba, Bottles, and Trophy Thomas all gathered around a small table where some assorted foods were left around. At seeing this, bear and bird both leaned forward, the she-bear's eyes widening in surprise as she saw Bottles and Mumbo there with the female shaman she knew nothing about. Silver, meanwhile, just stood there, quite surprised by how friendly everything seemed to be.
"Aha, I knew it!" said Bottles as he approached Tooty. "You are still alive after all these years!"
"B-bottles?" asked the female honey bear as the mole pulled her down to his level. "What're you doing here?"
"That's not really important, now, is it?" said Bottles nonchalantly as Mumbo also walked over to the female bear. "I just can't believe it! You're finally back after all these years!"
"Mumbo think that right," added the shaman as he looked at the female bear. "Bear sister finally back to bear. Mumbo think nothing else important."
"Yeah, we're just happy you're back!" Bottles chimed in. "We've all missed you!"
The bear could not help but smile at this, and before mole or shaman knew what had hit them they had both been hugged by the female bear as Banjo smiled on the scene. "Aw, I've missed you guys too!" she said, noticing that both Mumbo and Bottles had managed to put one arm around Tooty each.
"Humba not know new bear," said the female shaman. All attention was diverted to the shamaness as Tooty looked at the woman. Fear seemed to run through Tooty's cloudy blue eyes for a second, but she swallowed her fear as she let the two people she was hugging go.
"Oh!" said Banjo, running over to Humba as the shamaness looked at the female bear in curiosity. "Humba, that's my sister Tooty!"
The shamaness nodded as Tooty walked over to her. "And you're...?" asked the bear.
"Humba Wumba," replied the shamaness with a polite nod. "Nice to meet new bear."
Meanwhile, Silver had been standing just outside of the garage, nobody really seeming to notice him until Bottles had looked over to the silver hedgehog. Quickly, the mole went over to Silver and looked at him.
"And who're you?" asked Bottles curiously.
Silver was quite surprised, as he had been deep in thought during Tooty's introduction to Humba. Looking down at the mole, he tried to bend down but found that the cast on his foot made it hard to do so.
"Oh, me?" asked the hedgehog. "I'm Silver. Kazooie found me in some swamp place yesterday..."
"Oh!" replied the mole as jumped up and took the hedgehog's hand in his. No sooner was Silver able to say anything than he found himself being led into the garage by the smaller mole. This small thing did not evade Banjo's attention, and so as everybody looked at the grey-furred hedgehog the bear made a friendly gesture towards the psychic.
"Oh, Silver, you didn't come in?" asked Banjo.
"Well, you guys just seemed so happy that... well... I couldn't just butt in here," replied the hedgehog with a shrug. "You know?"
"Oh, come on!" replied Bottles, squinting behind his goggles
"Any friend of bear friend of Mumbo," replied the shaman with the skull face on his head. "Hedgehog welcome here too."
"Oh, thanks!" said Silver, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.
The cheetah that had greeted the four of them to Showdown Town with a less than in-character welcome gestured towards the table. "Well, everyone's all here," said the cat. "So why don't we chow down, yeah?"
"For once, I can't say no to that," replied Kazooie, rolling her eyes as everybody moved to around the small table. "Let's chow!
Tooty had never remembered a time where there was so much friendship going around. Mumbo and Bottles still talked to her with smiles on their faces, the shamaness who identified herself as Humba was also quite friendly to her even though they had never met prior to the events that had torn her away from Banjo and Kazooie. She found that even the tiger who had been unintentionally malicious to her earlier was also quite friendly, if a little prideful and the subject of Kazooie's most biting sarcasms as of late. Even Silver was enjoying himself, even if he was not ready to admit to such. However, it was Banjo and Kazooie that really stole her mindset during that small get-together with himself and his friends. The bear had lovingly doted out on Tooty even when she did not want it, and even then it was not entirely unwelcome from the female bear's end. After all, the food was, well, as decent as any food gotten together under a tight schedule could be, and the company was incredibly friendly.
When the two bears, the bird, and the hedgehog had both gotten home to Spiral Mountain that evening, Tooty looked around the house.
"So, where do I sleep?" she asked innocently.
Banjo froze in place as Kazooie and Silver both looked over to the honey bear. Kazooie groaned as Silver raised one of his eyebrows.
"You mean you didn't plan out where she was gonna sleep?" asked the breegull in mild surprise.
"What?" asked Banjo with a shrug. "You really think that where my sister sleeps is first on my mind when she comes back home for the first time in ten years.?"
The female bear and the bird both looked at each other, the bear looking at Kazooie with an incredulous look on her face. With this, the bird turned back to Banjo. "Point taken," replied the breegull with a defeated expression on her face.
"Well, there is the extra mattress somewhere," said Banjo. "Let me get that out really quickly."
The male bear retreated into his room rather quickly, Silver looking over to the female bear as she looked after him.
"You okay after all that?" asked the hedgehog.
"It felt rather good, actually," replied the female honey bear with a shrug as she pulled at some strands of blonde hair. "I guess just talking with people made things a little better..."
Silver nodded at this, a pang of sadness suddenly hitting his being. "I... well, I wish my friends were with me right now. I just want their familiar faces in a land where I don't know anybody."
Their conversation was briefly interrupted as the bear came out of his room, dragging a mattress out of there with Kazooie helping him from he other end of the mattress. There, they set the mattress down by the couch as Banjo smiled softly.
"Yeah, we had to remodel the house when Grunty destroyed it this one time," replied Banjo. "So, we're going to have to re-add your room. Sorry about that."
The female bear shrugged. "I guess I'll sleep here until then?"
"Yeah, pretty much," replied the male honey bear.
"It's not that bad," replied Tooty as she shook her head. "Some people forced me to sleep on the floor in those ten years..."
Tooty looked down at the floor as she said this, and the mood darkened slightly as Banjo nodded solemnly. "I see..." said Banjo.
"Well, at least you'll be sleeping on a mattress tonight!" said Kazooie in an attempt to lighten the mood up again.
The female bear nodded at this information. "Yeah," she said, shrugging. "I still want bedsheets, though..."
"Of course," said Banjo, who retreated into his room again. He came out a few seconds later with a pillow and a few extra sheets in his arms. He then neatly set them down on the mattress that rested on the floor. "There we go!"
"Thanks, Banjo!" said Tooty as she yawned slightly.
Banjo chuckled good-naturedly as he gathered the bear into his arms. "Anything for you, Tooty," he said simply as he patted her back lovingly before letting her go. "I guess we're all kinda tired, yeah?"
Everybody else in the room nodded at this as Banjo let out a slight yawn. "Well, I'll see you guys in the morning. Good night."
"Night," said Tooty and Silver as the honey bear went into his room, Kazooie following him as he closed the door behind him.
The little she-bear then let herself fall on the bed, taking her shoes off and sliding her feet under the covers. Silver simply situated himself in the couch as he looked up at the ceiling of the room.
"So you come from the future?" asked Tooty, trying to be friendly to Silver.
"Yeah," he replied. "It isn't a very good future, though... I'm actually kind of glad I got to see the present."
Tooty raised an eyebrow at this. "Really?" asked the bear. "Why?"
"I'm not sure," replied the hedgehog. "I guess it's just that where I am in the future everybody was pretty much dead and the world was a wasteland. I never thought I'd see people having fun, let alone them not trying to scrape the ground for anything to eat."
The bear showed a great amount of surprise as he said this. Her expression then took on a more dismayed tone. "You know there are still some people that are scraping by trying to survive, right?"
Silver was silent for a brief period of time. "And why do you say that?" he asked.
Tooty shook her head, turning around so that she faced away from the couch. "I've been there," she said. "And I've seen so many others like myself trying to survive by doing things they shouldn't have to do. It's pretty terrible, you know. I was there, and it was... bad."
The hedgehog turned in the couch uncertainly so that he could look down on the bear with concerned amber eyes. "And you're out of that now," he said. "Just be thankful there's still a light in this place that you can escape to. I was in your situation, too, only I had no way of getting out of it except to go back to the past. So be thankful there's still happiness in this place."
The female bear listened to the hedgehog. She slowly nodded as sleep quickly overtook her. "Okay," she said softly. "Goodnight, Silver."
"Goodnight, Tooty," replied the grey-furred rodent as he turned back around so he was facing towards the ceiling again.
And the female bear fell asleep, taking Silver's words to heart as she did.