Toy Against Toy

Chapter One

Hamm and Mr. Potato Head were playing Yahtzee with Totoro. Buttercup was chatting with a Fluttershy McDonald's toy that Bonnie had gotten recently. She was a little small for him, but boy she could flirt! Mr. Pricklepants was training the aliens for a performance of Measure for Measure. Woody was moodily watching Buzz and Jessie holding hands and watching the sunset out the window. It had finally started to Dawnn on Woody that life without a girlfriend was depressing, especially when your best friend had a girl of his own whom he spent a lot of time with.

But being moody did not suit Woody much, despite the eye rhyme between his name and that adjective. Instead he started saying to himself, :"Oh, Bo."

Rex was conked out after a night of video-gaming. Trixie sat before the computer. She was ignoring the e-mail flash message from the "dinosaur down the street," whom she had never told Rex about. And she never would tell him about Ferragus. Ferragus was what she needed before she met Rex, and Rex being in her life ended the need for Ferragus. Trixie had set up a block from Ferragus sending her e-mail but his owner must have gotten a counter-block because now Ferragus could get a message through. Luckily Rex was usually too hung up on his video-gaming to notice, but Trixie still worried he would find out.

Though Rex did have a very forgiving personality, so maybe he would understand…

All the same, she felt the need to type "Counte-blocker blocker" in Google to find a way to stop Ferragus' messages from getting through.

A pop-up message appeared on her screen just as she was about to download the Fixmeister 9000. Trixie was thinking of ignoring the pop-up but it took up the whole screen.

URGENT!: You are wanted for the 76th annual Hunger Games! We need toys, and we are sending this message back though time so that toys from centuries ago in the first decade of the Century of Discontent can compete with children chosen for this event.

When you and all that are coming with you are gathered in front of the computer, hit the flashing green button below and you will be INSTANTLY transported to our time zone. Don't miss this once in a toy's lifetime opportunity!

"Guys, guys!" Trixie shouted, but everyone was so busy in their activities that they didn't hear her. "Attention! Guys, you gotta come see this!"

Woody came over but the other toys remained intent in their work. "What is it, Trixie?"

"Read that," the triceratops said.

Woody read the message. "Are you sure this is not some kind of prank?"

"Hold on, let me try something," Trixie said. She hit a number of keys. The screen did not change. "Oh, my."

"What is it?"

"This pop-up isn't in binary code."

That meant didley-suat to Woody. "And?"

"It's not even reverse binary. There are some programs made where all the binary codes are switched around. This one has some of the 0's and 1's in the right place, but there are things intresspered between these 0's and 1's that look like lower-case versions of the letter A."

"I don't see anything except the message."

"You don't? But I've put the computer in binary form. Only this program isn't binary or reverse binary. But if you can't see the binary symbols on the screen, then…"

Trixie punched a button and a creature in a black cloak appeared. It raised a skeletal hand as if ready to remove its hood.

"What is that?" Woody asked.

"A dementor from Harry Potter and the Dungeon Seeds. Which at first I thought was a hacked game, but I don't think so anymore."

"Why not?"

"Because when Rex was playing it, he said that it asked him to punch keys a couple of times and exhibited a design that does not exist on any computer in the known world."

"So what are you saying?"

"This message could not exist with present-day technology."

"What is that hooded creature doing?" Woody asked.

"Looks like its about to give us a Kiss."

Woody got a sense of foreboding, though he didn't know what it was from. "Delete it!"

"I'm trying. There. I hit alt, ctrl, and del at the same time."

"It's still there!"

"Oh no," Trixie said, staring at the screen. "It's asking me to hit a key that doesn't exist yet!"

Woody say the symbol. It looked like a pyramid with a fish fin and had a blue outline. But the keys on the keyboard didn't include any symbols like that.

"So, what's about to happen?"

Would you like to see me explode this computer? read a speech bubble above the dementor.

"It can't do that, can it?" Woody asked.

"Let me see," Trixie said, punching more buttons. Then her features froze. "It can. We only have one option. Hit the green button, or die."

Woody whistled. "Staff meeting everybody!"

All the toys came near, except Chuckles who was still in the windowsill.

"Chuckles, you are needed to," Woody said.

The clown came down.

"There is an invitation here to go to the future," Woody said.

"The future?" Hamm asked.

"That's preposterous!" Mr. Potato Head said.

"I know this sounds insane."

"We should all read it," someone said.

"We don't have time for that!" Woody said. "Buzz, would you get up here and do the honors?"

"Buzz read aloud what was written on the message. The toys in the front nodded to the ones in the back, indicating that Buzz was reading what was written there verbatim.

"What's that right there?" Mr. Potat Head asked.

"What's going on?" Rex asked groggily, having just woken up.

"Tell us what that hooded figure is," Mr. Potato Head said.

Rex looked at the screen. "Oh, that's the dementor from the hacked Harry Potter game."

"Sweetheart, it wasn't hacked," Trixie said.

"Yes, it was."

"No, it was from the future."

"You are all lonny," Buttercup said appreciately.

"But—how can it be from the-?" Rex came forward and read the message, then roved over to the dementor. "It's counting down!"

25…24...23

"But it wasn't couting down before!" Trixie exclaimed, frantically typing keys.

"Buzz, what do you think we should do?" Woody asked.

"If it were up to me, I'd press the green button."

"Guys, I think it's best we go," Woody said. "The future is safer than being killed by an exploding computer."

"What about Bonnie?" Hamm asked.

There was a murmur through the toys.

"She isn't here right now, so I doubt she'll get hurt," Woody said. "Except that we won't be here when she wants to play with us."

It was a sad moment, as all the toys had their heads bowed. But there was no time for dilly-dallying.

Woody nodded to Trixie, who roved the cursor over the green button and was about to click on it when one of the three aliens spoke up.

"Teach, if you don't mind, we would like to stay here," one of the aliens said. "We need to practice our Shakespeare."

"Too right you do," Mr. Pricklepants said. "I almost rather'd be here than go. I'm not sure I'll have any time to go through my motions."

"You'll be on vacation. No need to work on vacation," said Mrs. Potato Head.

"I think you'd three better hide in the hallway," Woody said to the aliens. They dashed for it. The door shut behind them and Trixie hit the green button just as the dementor reached 02.