World of Disney 3

Chapter Eighteen: Battle Scars

Muppet Theater – 1982

              It was a quiet late summer evening outside the Muppet Theater. Only a few cars drove by the front of the aging complex, paying no mind to the marquee that promised a great upcoming show with special guest star James Earl Jones. This was Los Angeles after all – lots of shows with promise in lots of guest appearances. The Muppet Theater was no different.

              But if passing drivers stopped and looked more closely to the theatre's left side alleyway, they were certain to find entertainment beyond the parameters of the Muppets in a bright flash of light with resemblance to lightning above the theatre. It was not accompanied by any thunderous boom, which left it undetected.

              A pointy blue hat plummeted from the sky. The wind kicked at it a bit, directing its descent straight into a trash-filled dumpster.

              Another flash of strange, silent lightning.

              This time, there was a sound – two sounds, in fact – that accompanied the flash; neither of them thunder. They were the screams of two women, as they fell directly into the dumpster, landing onto the hat and burying it further into the trash heap. Bits of loose, shredded paper flew up in conjunction with their rough touchdown.

              Joanie and Vanessa might have been dirtied by the muck of the dumpster and its unsanitary contents, but they were nonetheless blessed to have escaped the wrath of the Emperor, Vader, and Yve Ette. Joanie's body still smoked and wracked with pain from the blast Palpatine unleashed, but she was otherwise alive.

              They crawled out of the dumpster, both wincing.

              "You O.K.?" Vanessa asked Joanie, hunched over.

              "Yeah, just...give me a moment," she answered, slumping against the dumpster.

              Vanessa was on the same page as her. Before she knew it, she slumped down right beside her. She rested her back against the rusted, metal green-and-brown hull, only to recoil and let out an agonized whimper.

              Noticing this, Joanie realized that she was more in pain than her. "Are you okay?" She returned the question asked of her just a second ago.

              Vanessa bit her lower lip, clinging onto the rim of the dumpster and struggling to pull herself back to her feet. "I'm cool," she groaned. "Just...need to walk it off...that's all." She left her place beside Joanie, moving to the right side of the dumpster and leaning against it.

              Joanie soon caught sight of something unsettling: a large blood stain on the spot Vanessa briefly rested on. She touched her right index finger to the stain – it was fresh.

              Disregarding the subsiding pain in her body, Joanie shot up to her feet to check on her companion. The redhead moved from leaning against the dumpster to slouching on the brick wall of the theatre.

              "You're wounded!" Joanie observed. "Lemme check to see how bad it is."

              Vanessa permitted her, leaning forward ever so slightly to allow her entire back to face the young blue-haired woman. Joanie's eyes bulged – Vanessa's back was practically coated with her blood! The leather in her jacket, the fabric of her dress, and her flesh had all been slashed open in simultaneous manner.

              She heard Joanie breathlessly whisper "Oh, god."

              "It's worse than it looks, isn't it?" She chuckled. "Yve Ette got me good. I wasn't fast enough to get both of our butts out in time before she got her lick on me."