Buzzster's threw down his shovel. That sound had been metallic. He'd hit something expensive. "I never thought of my name as being metallic, but it makes sense," he said, digging away at the sand with his hands now to uncover the strange object.

It was blocky and silver and very heavy.

"Or it could be a safe!" Buzzster postulated. "If I really wanted to hide something I'd lock it away then bury it, preferably just before a rainstorm. Really throw off those sniffer dogs." He chuckled. Buzzster was definitely more of a cat person. When was the last time a cat had ratted anyone out to the police? No. Felines were friends and canines were just another dog in the machine.

He finally got his hands under the object and heaved it out of the hole. It thunked onto the sand and slowly righted itself. Its eyes opened. "Oh hey it's the car guy!" Buzzster said.

Varoom attacked him.

Buzzster fled between the cracked and shattered walls of the amusement park. He passed splashes of graffiti, worn with time, and some far newer than expected. Had players been coming here to leave their own notes? Their own messages in the face of eternity?

Behind him followed the low churn of an angry motor.

"Why is he so pissed?" Buzzster asked the Petal on his shoulder.

"I think it may be because you disturbed his sleep?"

"Huh? When?!"

"When you dug him up. Maybe you accidentally hit him a little bit with your shovel."

"Oh! No not this dumb little chugger chasing us. I'm talking about car guy! Why didn't he come back? Is he pissed with us or something?"

Petal turned as white as a blanched bean. "Oh. Oh Buzzster I'm so sorry."

"What did you do this time?"

"Car guy wanted to come back with us. I'm sure he did. It's just that he was..." he drew a long, slow breath. "He's in the Everworld."

There was a long pause as Buzzster absorbed the information. He darted around a corner, slipping on the sand but regaining his footing. He thought furiously. He wasn't going to stand for this. Not at all. "Okay. Then we'll go and get him."

Petal looked at him in surprise. "Really? That's wonderful!"

"Yep. And the sun's going down, so we don't have time to waste with this joker. Time to turn and fight, Petal."

She nodded at him. "Just say the word."

Suckle's soft, fuzzy tentacles curled across the sand like a basket of cat tails. Its head poked out of the top hole and swiveled around to look at Buzzster. Suckle's cat ears twitched. "Nya?" it asked, questioningly.

"No time for your show-cat attitude, Suckle. We're in battle! Get that stupid motorist!"

Suckle slithered swiftly across the sands and lashed Varoom. It dragged the motor down into the sand like an octopus drowning its prey.

Petal helped, slapping the undercarriage of the mechanical menace with her vines. "This! Is! Not! Your! Fault!" she said, whacking the enemy with her vines.

Varoom ripped free and fled across the sands.

Suckle followed.

At first it flip-flopped, tentacles patting the sands tentatively. And then it galloped, slapping a rough rhythm on the hot dunes. And then it pulled it limbs in and rolled. Suckle raced across the sands, its predatory instincts flaring as it thundered after its fleeing prey.

Varoom was nothing more then another catch. Another scrap for the fresh catch pile. Sand flew as Suckle closed on her prey with furious speed. When she was barely two Fennekin-lengths away she lunged, kicking off the sand with her back tentacles and colliding with Varoom. They tangled on the sand, all hissing, toothless mouths and gleaming chrome.

Varoom slammed into Suckle and she saw stars.

They split apart, circling each other and waiting for an opening.

Suckle sensed it before a moment before it happened. There was a change in the tone of Varoom's engine, and Suckle found herself moving to dodge the attack before it came. She grabbed the charging Varoom with four tentacles and used the momentum to swing the creature up and over herself. She slammed it down face-first into the sand, sending up a shower of grit.

"Suckle!" Buzzster yelled. He raced over and picked up the fainted body of his pedigree, calico Shuckle. "Quick! Where's Charlie Sheen!" Buzzster sent out Surskit and pressed the Pokemon's nozzle into Suckle's mouth.

"Poor little guy," Buzzster said, as he fed Suckle with one hand and petted her fuzzy head with the other. "Spending so long out in the desert heat. You must have lost a lot of electrolytes." He smiled proudly. "But I bet you gave as good as you took, didn't you?"

Suckle let out a weak 'nya' and went back to drinking.

Buzzster turned to Petal. "Okay we've got one more shot at this. Throwing it away didn't work, slapping it with vines didn't work, throwing up a hairball on it barely weakened it at all-"

"I think it may be immune."

"-and a long chase through the sun didn't even slow its motor."

"It ran away, so we can leave if we want."

"Huh? Oh. No I changed my mind and I want to catch it now."

"Oh okay."

"So that means we've got to lure it back here. And what do all cars love?" Buzzster chuckled to himself, amused by his own brilliance. "They love drag races. So here's the plan. We send out car guy and challenge this imposter Varoom to a drag race through the desert."

"Car guy is in the Everworld," Petal reminded him gently.

"FUCK!"

Buzzster and Petal strode victoriously over to the fallen enemy. It had been a majestic battle. Hard-fought and truly difficult, but deeply rewarding.

Once the Varoom was safely caught, Buzzster raced to the top of the pillar just in time for the first stars to spot the night sky. He marked the first and brightest star. "That one. Keep an eye there," he said and he watching, waiting for the other stars to fill their seats in the celestial ballet.

A shooting star sizzled across the sky, and Buzzster barely saw it. It was only until the sky was truly full that he started counting. "One, two, three stars," he said, and marked the heading with a thick finger. "That one right there Petal. Underneath the constellation that looks like a swan with two heads."

"I see it!"

"Fantastic. Well off we go then." He returned Suckle and the pair set off across the dark dunes.

"Where are we going?" Petal asked after a while.

"To the Everworld, silly!" Buzzster replied. He grinned. Of course he knew how to get there. Everyone did. "It's just like in the movie. Third star to the right and straight on till morning."