*Hey guys! I'm back with another chapter on the same freaking day! WHOO!!! This is published on September 25, 2021. If you guys like this chapter, don't be afraid to vote and comment, that would be greatly appreciated! Warning: Dark themes such as hanging and crushing bones. Enjoy!*

*Edit: The wonderful artist who made this masterpiece art in the middle of the story is named @virusartzz! Please go and follow her! She's an amazing and talented artist!*

The next morning, Mizuki wasn't present on the bed as Buster was sleeping peacefully through the day for once in his entire life.

Mike climbed up on the bed and saw Buster's back turned over, covered by a blanket. He tilted his head with a small smirk.

"Moonster," Mike called while Buster groaned deeply. The mouse rolled his eyes. "Rise and shine, sleepy beauty."

Buster groaned some more while curling himself up.

Mike could assume that Buster must've had a good dream to be waking up now. He smirked to tease the koala. "Moonsty."

Buster moaned while snuggling his head up against the pillow.

Mike was about to reach his back until the mouse noticed something odd. There were scars on the koala's back. At first glance, Mike thought he'd been flogged by some random person in the past. The mouse got into the covers just to look at Buster's back to see they were words.

"Why do you have the word 'stripper' on your back?" Mike randomly questioned, immediately waking Buster up when the mouse lightly touched the scar.

Buster immediately tossed the covers and turned around to face Mike, hiding his back from the mouse. Mike popped out from the covers with a small unsure smile.

"Hey, look at that, he's awake so quickly," Mike pointed out.

"What the heck, Mike?!"

"What the heck what?"

"Why are you tracing on my back?!"

"Uh...because you have scars on your back. Besides...I barely touch ya."

Buster growled while putting his shirt on. "Don't do that again. And don't tell anyone about what you saw."

Mike blinked for a moment and then nodded his head in understanding. "Okay."

Buster sighed deeply while realizing that he took his anger out on Mike. "Sorry."

"It's fine."

"No, it's not fine. I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you. You were just curious is all."

Mike tilted his head. "Well, yeah. Where did you get those scars on your back?"

Buster didn't answer that as Mike bit his own lips.

"Not going to answer that, huh?" Mike probed sadly.

Buster continued to get ready for work in the morning.

Mike gazed up at the koala showman sympathetically. "Is that where the real you hides?"

Buster stiffened up when Mike ask that. He turned to see Mike staring at him softly.

The koala sighed heavily as he straightened his suit jacket and noticed a mirror, staring into his reflection. His blue eyes were paler than they had been in the past few weeks. He had bags under his eyes from the lack of sleep while his fur was ruffled from sleep.

When he stared into his own blue eyes, he could vividly remember the pain and the torment his body went through. There was nothing that could ever repair him from the past trauma. The koala looked down at his hand to see the word Mizuki wrote last night with a black sharpie.

Friend.

Of all things that were written on his back, that one word written on his hand was more weightless than any of the scars left on his back. Buster looked back at himself, now full of determination to push on and get this show on the road.

Buster turned to Mike. "It doesn't matter, Mike. Let's get ready for the show."

Mike had his eyes widened in shock at the change in Buster's expression from depressed to determined.

~.~

No one had any idea that the famous actress, Nana Noodleman, was going to visit the Moon Theater just to see what they were up to. Not even Eddie, her own grandson, knew that she's going to show up. Eddie knew that she's going to visit eventually but was never told when.

Nana stood outside of the theater, decaying and grand, just like her. The old black sheep was poised and elegant, gazing up at the dried painted theater and soaking in the memories of her younger years.

Nana reopened her eyes and headed inside the theater with elegant steps up the stairs. However, she didn't notice Mike and Buster walking up to her, with their eyes widened in pure shock.

"Is that Nana Noodleman?" Mike uttered in recognition.

Buster nodded his head with heavy breaths. "Holy cow...she's here. Quick, backstage entrance!"

Buster and Mike quickly entered the theater backstage. When they entered the backstage, Eddie was teaching Gary, the dachshund Eddie befriended the other day, the ropes of handling the stage while Johnny and Ash were choosing their wardrobe.

Johnny playfully showed Ash a pink dress, to which Ash just gazed at it in pure disgust. The gorilla giggled and hung it back up while Ash just rolled her blue eyes at him.

"Is there anything black?" Ash probed the gorilla.

"No, I don't see anything black. But I see a pride flag," Johnny pointed at the rainbow clothes with rainbow flags.

"Eh, I'm not wearing multi-colored stuff for the performance. It'll look weird on me," Ash replied with a shrug.

Surprisingly, Rosita came into the picture while glancing at the teens. "What are you guys looking for?"

"I'm trying to find something black," Ash responded while searching through the clothes. However, she perked her head up and saw Rosita just standing there with a small smile. "Rosita!!"

"Rosita!!" Johnny exclaimed as both of the teens hugged the mother pig happily.

Rosita laughed while hugging the gorilla and the porcupine back, careful of her quills. "Oh my gosh, I just came back."

"We thought you were going to quit the show," Ash uttered happily.

"ROSITA!!!"

Rosita turned to see Gunter zoomed over towards her and hugged her. Nancy, Ms. Crawly, and Meena noticed this while Nancy was wearing a black dress.

"Oh my gosh, Rosita, you're back!" Nancy exclaimed excitedly.

Ash groaned deeply. "How come they let smaller animals wear black dresses but not the bigger animals? By the way, you look good in it, Nancy."

"Thank you, Ash," Nancy accepted the compliment.

"Rosita!!" Buster shouted excitedly. "You came back!"

"Yeah, I have some unfinished business here," Rosita said with a smile.

Gunter broke away from hugging her. "Are you going to try again?"

"Yep!" Rosita replied.

Gunter clapped his hands with a little squeal in excitement.

"Good to have you back, Rosita," Mike responded happily. When Mike glanced at Nancy, his face immediately turned red in an instant as he tried to hide it.

Buster looked around backstage to see everyone except for one person. "Wait, where's Mizuki?"

"Everything seems to be in working order, Buster." Mizuki walked backstage from the lobby upstairs with a bright blue silky dress on and blue eyeshadow that enhanced her beauty. Buster just stared at her, lost in a trance of her beauty.

Mizuki blushed a bit. "I thought it would fit in the theme we're going for today."

Everyone backstage noticed Buster staring at her in a trance.

"Moonster," Mike called while Johnny snapped his fingers in front of Buster's face.

Buster shivered and glanced around to see the group smirking at him for staring at Mizuki in awe. "Uh...sorry. You look good."

Mizuki smiled softly at Buster's compliment.

Buster continued to talk, "Um, well, we got one audience out there today."

"Wait what? Who?" Ash questioned the koala.

"Nana Noodleman," Buster replied in a whisper.

"She's here already?" Eddie gasped in shock. "I mean, I knew she's coming but I don't know what day."

"Okay, okay, Gary, did Eddie teach you all that he knows?" Buster looked up at Gary in determination.

"I think I got the jest of it," Gary answered hesitantly.

"Awesome!" Buster shouted and turned to Ms. Crawly. "Ms. Crawly, assist him. Eddie, keep your nana company so that she wouldn't grow bored."

Eddie nodded his head as he exited out through the backstage door to go around the theater to visit nana. Ms. Crawly and Gary went around backstage to get it ready.

Buster looked to the group. "Alright, I got everyone in order. Johnny and Ash, you're up first. Mike and Nancy, after Johnny and Ash. Rosita and Gunter, you're after the mice. Meena, you're last but certainly not the least. Do you think you got this, kid?"

Meena nodded her head. "Yeah...I-I can do it!"

"Great!" Buster shouted happily. "Okay, Mizuki, make sure the performers get their clothes from the wardrobe."

"Got it, boss," Mizuki nodded her head.

"Oh shoot, I forgot my saxophone in Glassy Eye's apartment," Mike gasped in realization.

"You don't need it, Mike," Buster replied hurriedly as he was making his way up towards the lights.

Nancy took out her phone and texted somebody. "I texted Darren. He'll bring it over."

"Thanks, Nancy," Mike replied with a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, back at Ms. Crawly's apartment, Darren, Nancy's brother, had just received the text. He knew his sister began to have some sort of infatuation with this guy named Mike. Mike's not much of a person at first but after he saved them from getting sold to the cats...just to be eaten, Darren was eternally grateful, even though he wouldn't show it sometimes.

Darren began to make his way towards the theater with Mike's saxophone case just to bring it to him during the performance. It was a nice morning for some fresh air but not a nice enough morning to draw in the cats. The cats noticed Darren just walking down the street as they gasped in recognition of that mouse.

The cats began to walk up to Darren and cornered him before he could progress further.

"There you are! We were wondering where you've been hiding!" one of the cats hissed with a snicker.

Darren gasped in shock while he stiffened up like a board. "Look, if you want me, you got me but leave my sister alone."

"Oh no, we don't want just your sister. We want her lover as well. If you show us where they are, I promise that no one will get hurt," the other cat snarled.

"I'll never tell you where they are!" Darren refuted.

"Well, that could be arranged," the lead cat responded while taking his claw out. He had his claw up against Darren's chin like a knife that was about to dig into his skin.

The ringing sound suddenly came around from Darren's phone. One of the cats swiped the phone quickly to see a text from Nancy that said:

"Hurry, the show is about to start."

The cats glared at Darren. "Where's the show?"

Darren breathed heavily, more in fear than he had ever been in his entire life.

~.~

Buster took a couple of deep breaths as the spotlight shined on him. He stood on the plastic crescent moon that had seen better days with a grand smile. "All animals, great and small! Welcome to the Moon Theater! I am your host, Buster Moon!" The moon was lowering down gently as the red curtains covered the stage. Buster noticed Eddie sitting next to Nana on the booth on the far right as Nana was fanning herself, growing bored. Buster took another deep breath and faced the invisible audience in front of him. "Behold, the very first stage lit entirely by...squid power!"

On cue, the red curtains depart and the duvet was uncovered as it showed a stage of glass containing water absorbed from the great powerful rain the other day. The squids that were mentioned flashed different colored lights all around the crescent moon, earning gasps from Eddie and Nana.

Eddie smiled brightly. "Look, Nana, he pulled it off!"

"Goodness me!" Nana awed in pure fascination, not expecting this to be as grand as it appeared to be.

From the corner of Buster's eyes, he saw his theater gang clapping and cheering in joy to see the entire stage for the first time in their lives, awed and fascinated by all the different color lights created by the squids.

Buster noticed Mizuki smiling up at him as he threw her a tiny little smirk from the corner of his mouth. The koala jumped down while looking at the squids that were lighting up the ground.

"Beautiful work, guys, now follow me on the beat," Buster whispered to the squids as he began to take little steps to dance to the music playing in the background. Everyone gasped in fascination as the squids were flickering colors in the beat. "You see this theater is no ordinary theater. This theater is a palace of wonder and magic!"

Mizuki smiled brightly at Buster's statement and turned to Johnny and Ash. "You guys ready?"

Both Johnny and Ash nodded their heads happily.

"Alright, now we welcome our first duet performers--"

Before Buster could introduce the first animals on stage, the doors opened abruptly, disrupting the music and the performances altogether. Nana looked at the familiar stranger with a brow arched up.

However, Eddie recognized the male antelope instantly, his eyes red and the anger was shown in his body language.

"No way," Eddie gasped in shock.

The theater group had their eyes broadened as Mizuki was standing in front of them with a concerned gaze at her ex-boyfriend.

"Babeesh?" Mizuki uttered with sudden fear in her voice.

Johnny put his arm over her to protect her from what her crazy ex was about to do after all the abuse Mizuki went through with him.

"It's time to end this, Moon!" Babeesh yelled while holding up a gun to point at Buster.

Buster immediately had his hands raised. "Whoa, whoa, Babeesh, you need to calm down."

"No! I will not be calm! You took everything from me!" Babeesh accused.

"No, he didn't, you prickly cactus!" Mike yelled from backstage.

Babeesh threw the aim of the gun and fired at the wood next to the glass, almost hitting Meena in the process. Meena yelped while hiding behind the group. Rosita checked to see if Meena was okay as Gary and Ms. Crawly came out from the stage to see what's going on. Gary realized that Babeesh was carrying a gun around with horror shown in his eyes.

Gary immediately took out his phone to call the police, bolting outside just so that Babeesh wouldn't see that he's calling the police on him.

Buster jumped in front of the theater gang while spreading his arms out to defend them. "Look, Babeesh, I'm getting sick and tired of being nice to you! You are banned from this theater since you cannot be reasoned with and you've hurt one of our members!"

"You don't get to tell me what to do!!!" Babeesh barked at Buster. "I'm tired of you taking stuff away from me!!! I'll be getting it all back by killing you!"

They heard doors open again as they looked to see the cats coming into the auditorium with Darren being held hostage. Darren was clutching on Mike's saxophone case.

"Darren!!" Nancy cried out.

Babeesh waved his gun around and pointed at the three cats standing behind him with mean glares at him.

"Move!" the lead cat growled.

"Get out! This is between me and Moon!"

Buster turned to the animals. "Guys, get out of here."

"No, we're not leaving you here," Johnny hissed.

The theater group nodded their heads firmly in agreement with the gorilla.

Babeesh turned back to Buster and his theater group. "You are not going anywhere!"

Meanwhile, upon the balcony, Nana dialed the emergency number to call the authorities.

Eddie growled at the male antelope. "Hey, leave Buster alone!!!"

Babeesh waved the gun aimlessly while pulling the trigger, letting the bullet hit Eddie in the shoulder. Eddie fell back with an 'oof''.

Nana gasped in shock. "EDDIE!!!"

Eddie covered a bullet hole on his shoulder as Nana added in the information that her grandson was just shot.

Mizuki narrowed her brows together while charging towards Babeesh. "Babeesh, that's enough!"

Babeesh turned and smacked Mizuki in the face for approaching him.

Buster gasped in shock while there was something boiling in his heart. The koala tried to hold it together but his anger became more powerful than his optimism. His best friend was shot because of this...idiot in front of him! And his crush tried to defend them from her crazy ex-boyfriend. Buster was getting sick and tired of being nice to him all the time. He's sick and tired of letting Babeesh rummage through the theater and hurting his friends in the process.

When he saw Mizuki getting punched in the face, Buster just snapped.

"Mr. Moon?" Johnny called, noticing Buster's inner rage unleashed.

Buster charged towards Babeesh from behind and jumped on his back, wrapping his small arms around him the same way the male antelope had his hands wrapped around his throat a few nights ago.

Buster pulled Babeesh away from Mizuki so that he wouldn't hurt the doe again as Mizuki glanced up at Buster with shock in her hazel eyes.

Buster bit Babeesh's ear while growling aggressively into his flesh like a feral animal, causing Babeesh to scream out in pain. The theater gang was shocked at Buster's anger, never really knowing that the koala had in him all this time.

"Mental note to everyone here, never get on Moonster's bad side," Mike uttered to the group, to which they nodded their heads in agreement.

Eddie was more in shock to see Buster going on the full attack mode than anybody in the theater. He's still bleeding but he didn't feel like he's dying.

While that was happening, Darren kicked the cat who held him hostage in the pink nose and sprinted out of the theater for his dear life, leaving behind Mike's saxophone.

Buster pulled Babeesh's head back so much that Babeesh raised a gun up. The antelope was trying to shoot Buster off of him but instead, he ended up pulling the trigger and breaking the glass on stage. The squids were flickering red color as a way to give a warning sign of what's about to happen as Babeesh managed to grab Buster from his back and threw him onto the glass stage, with the tip of his ear torn off completely and causing the antelope pain. Buster tumbled onto the stage and lifted his head up with a dangerous glare at him. He spat out the tip of Babeesh's ear onto the stage with a bit of blood on his usual pearly white teeth.

The theater group stared at the tip of the ear that was just laying on the stage and then at Buster, noticing the koala breathing heavily from the tense fight. Before anyone could say anything, everyone heard a crackling sound as they all gazed up to notice water spurting out bit by bit.

"Guys, look out!!!" Eddie immediately shouted but he was too late.

The water immediately broke through the glass, flooding the auditorium. The pipes that created the water coming in broke as it added more to the flood in the theater. The theater animals were pushed back through the auditorium. Meena was the first to be pushed through the theater as the strong water thrusted the teenage elephant onto the booth, her body stuck on it and blocking the water from going out.

Meena screamed and wiggled but she couldn't get out. "I'm stuck!!!"

Ash, Mizuki, Ms. Crawly, Gunter, and Rosita were washed into the entrance to see Meena stuck in the booth.

"Hold on! Ve'll save you!" Gunter shouted while they all tried to push Meena out of the theater so that the water could go through.

Meanwhile, the cats were trying to swim around but they couldn't as the debris from the theater fell right on top of them, instantly crushing them from underwater.

Eddie witnessed those deaths with a gasp as the balcony both he and his nana were on was beginning to collapse as well. He tackled Nana away from the balcony so that both of the sheep could be safe from what's waiting for them down below.

Buster was hanging onto the seats for dear life on the front row of the stage while Johnny was hanging on the curtains, watching the building coming down. The gorilla gasped in shock as he noticed Mike and Nancy trying to swim through the currents that were carrying them over to the entrance of the theater.

"Nancy!" Mike called out to her.

"Mike!!" Nancy cried out as she was pushed away from the male mouse, separated from him.

"NO!!" Mike screamed as she was pushed into the theater entrance while the doorway towards the entrance collapsed, blocking the water more into the auditorium than in the theater entrance. Mike was slammed against the debris dividing the auditorium and the theater entrance. Another debris fell on Mike's ankle, causing Mike to scream out in pain. The water came above his head as he tried to pull out from the rock crushing his foot.

Buster turned to notice Mike in pain while realizing that the debris above the mouse was going to collapse on top of his small body next. The koala let go of the seat and swam up towards Mike to help him out. Buster held his breath as he clenched his teeth to lift the debris away from Mike. However, Buster noticed another pair of hands helping. The koala turned to see Johnny helping him out. Both of them lifted the debris away from Mike as Johnny's fingers got underneath the rock crushing Mike's foot.

Johnny and Buster gave each other brief glances as Johnny counted to three with his fingers on his other hand. As soon as Johnny counted to three, the gorilla lifted the rock just barely that Buster was able to pull Mike out of it.

Mike smiled in relief to get help from both the gorilla and the koala. The mouse hung onto Buster's shirt as Johnny swam up quickly to get his breath back. Buster swam up to follow Johnny until someone grabbed his ankle and pulled him down, causing him to yelp and bubbles going out of his mouth.

Mike was floating in the water while seeing Buster getting held back by none other than Babeesh himself.

"Moonster!" Mike yelled but his mouth was forming bubbles, making him incomprehensible.

Johnny noticed this as well as he grabbed Mike first and swam up to the surface. The gorilla reached the surface, gaining his breath back. Mike gasped heavily as Johnny placed him on the banister.

"I'll be right back!" Johnny shouted as he inhaled deeply and held it, jumping back into the water to help Buster out.

Meanwhile, Eddie and Nana were running down the hallway and came downstairs and noticed Meena stuck in the booth with Ash, Nancy, Ms. Crawly, Mizuki, Rosita, and Gunter trying to push her. Everyone submerged to gain a breath as the water rose up towards the ceiling. The animals went back underwater to push Meena through.

Gary noticed the theater flooding from outside as he was trying to pull Meena through the booth from outside.

Norman and Herman arrived at the scene, their eyes wide in shock to see their loved ones trapped in the flooding theater. Herman got out his tools while Norman went back to his pawnshop to get his own tools.

Gary noticed Herman trying to use his tools to pull Meena through the booth. "Hey, Lizard Guy, get those arches up there!"

Herman nodded his head while pulling at the arches to get the elephant unstuck while Norman came back with his own tools and helped Herman with the archway of the booth.

Gary noticed Eddie standing there as he motioned his sheep friend to help the others. Eddie nodded his head while diving into the water, despite his nana's protest.

Eddie noticed the archways of the booth were getting torn to loosen up the grip on the elephant as he tapped on the animals' shoulders and motioned them to back up with him. They immediately did as they were motioned to do. All the animals backed up as Norman and Herman were able to get rid of the arches of the front booth. The water was able to squirt out over Meena's head but it's not enough to drain the whole theater entrance.

Gary looked at the animals. "NOW!!!"

Eddie and the theater animals charged towards Meena, pushing her abdomen through the booth finally after several attempts while breaking down the entrance. Everyone gained their breaths as they tumbled into the street in front of the theater, water flowing free and over the concrete of the street.

Everyone coughed from holding their breaths for too long as Nana exited out of the theater quickly and checked on Eddie, who's on the ground and breathing heavily.

Ash groaned while looking around her. "W-Wait...where's Johnny?"

"Mike's missing too," Nancy added, out of breath.

Mizuki gasped in realization as she turned to the building. "B-Buster."

~.~

Buster was fighting Babeesh underwater as Babeesh tried to wrap his hooves around the koala's throat again, suffocating him. However, Johnny came to the rescue as he socked Babeesh in the face and shoved him away from Buster. The gorilla quickly grabbed Buster and dashed upwards through the water to submerge into the surface. Both of the animals gasped as Johnny lifted Buster and climbed onto the banister of the balcony. The gorilla picked Mike up and placed the mouse on his broad shoulder.

Babeesh popped his head out of the water with bloodthirsty eyes filled with vengeance.

"Hang on!" Johnny shouted to Buster and Mike as they hung onto the gorilla and Johnny made his climb up towards the ceiling drafts.

"Hey, I'm not done with you!!" Babeesh screamed as he swam up to the surface and climbed up after them.

Johnny warily walked on the planks of wood that would easily break if he took one misstep. They heard gunshots as Johnny stumbled and collapsed on the drafts. The three animals glanced up at Babeesh in horror as he's coming towards them. The building shook as the wires above Babeesh came down, wrapping him around his body loosely like a jungle of vines.

The gun was dropped in front of the three animals as Buster went and picked it up, aiming it at Babeesh.

Babeesh gasped to see Buster had the upper hand to shoot the male antelope. The angry antelope growled with teeth clenched.

"Go ahead! Shoot me! Show me that side of you that you've been hiding for so long!" Babeesh barked at Buster as he struggled against the wires wrapped more tightly around him the more he struggled.

Buster softened his gaze, his mind instantly flashing back.

Flashback:

Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!

The pistol was shaky in his grip. Fifteen-year-old Buster was missing the target that was standing more than a few feet in front of him.

"Try again," a familiar voice spoke.

Buster bit his lip ragged as he pointed the gun again at the target. Time lapsed two years later when Buster was shooting at the targets flawlessly, even the moving targets. However, there's one day that a live hyena was tied up in a chair with a sack over his head and his mouth tied. Buster aimed the gun at the hyena, now his grip on the gun shaky.

The young koala breathed heavily, his finger on the trigger. This was wrong. That much Buster knew. He lowered his gun and let out a few stray tears of fear for the hyena sitting helplessly in front of him. However, a dark figure picked up Buster's gun and aimed it at the hyena, pulling the trigger not once, not twice, but three times. Buster breathed heavily more as he saw the hyena's lifeless body on the chair.

The dark figure turned to Buster. "You're a coward."

Those words echoed in his brain as he was trembling. He felt his back getting scratched, carving words that he could never look at but only for the world to see to shame him.

Present:

Buster breathed heavily from the flashback as his hold on the gun trembled. The koala lowered the gun, his finger off the trigger.

"I'm not a killer," Buster finally uttered and threw the gun away, letting it fall into the water.

Babeesh widened his eyes in shock while chuckling darkly. "You're such a wimp."

Babeesh struggled within the wires, trying to reach Buster, Johnny, and Mike but couldn't.

"Babeesh, stop struggling," Buster warned as he noticed the wires wrapping tightly around Babeesh's neck.

"I'm not listening to anything you say!!!" Babeesh said angrily as he struggled more, with the floorboard underneath him creaking.

"Babeesh, stop struggling!" Buster yelled, trying to warn him...however, it was too late.

Babeesh, blinded by rage and anger, took a misstep on the wood as it broke underneath him. The antelope fell with wires wrapped around his neck. He screamed all the way down until the wires were straightened out, hanging the antelope above the water and snapping his neck instantly.

Buster, Johnny, and Mike glanced down and saw Babeesh's lifeless body dangling above the water. Buster breathed heavily as Johnny and Mike were by his side to comfort him.

Before any words could be said, the water was drained out of the auditorium by the windows breaking and letting the water spurt out of the building, making it safe to come down. However, the ceiling creaked above them as the three of them glanced up in pure fear and terror.

The ceiling collapsed above them suddenly as Johnny hugged Buster and Mike to protect them from the impact.

From outside, the theater animals watched the theater collapsing right in front of them, creating dust in the air. When the smoke cleared, the animals gazed up to notice the collapsed theater right in front of them

"BUSTER!!!!" Mizuki cried out but there's no response.

"BUSTER!!!" Eddie called out his best friend's name, not receiving a response either. Before anyone could run in there to check, the firefighters and the police arrived at the scene.

Eddie was about to run in there after Buster but the firefighters stopped him from going towards the building.

"Y-You don't understand, my best friend is in there!! Along with Johnny and Mike!!!" Eddie shouted to the firefighters.

"We'll find them, don't worry," the dalmatian firefighter calmed Eddie down as more firefighters ran in after them, trying to find the three animals mentioned.

Within the rubble, Mike was the first one awake with a groan. His vision was blurry. He noticed Buster and Johnny passed out from the impact as he squeezed himself out. He heard sirens and urgent voices outside as he smiled in relief that help came just in time.

"HEY!!! WE'RE OVER HERE!!!!" Mike shouted but coughed and his voice was hoarse. The mouse limped over, having a small metal stick stabbed through his leg. He dragged his leg around the rubble. "HEY!!!"

Mike couldn't shout since his voice was hoarse. He cleared it more than enough times just to say something. The mouse glanced around and noticed his saxophone case just laying there right in front of him.

Mike dragged his leg over towards the saxophone case and the mouse opened it up. He saw that his saxophone was still in good condition after all the impact that it'd been through during the theater flooding.

The mouse mustered enough strength to pick up his saxophone and moved back towards Buster and Johnny.

"Guys...guys. Buster? Johnny?" Mike whispered to them but Johnny and Buster didn't respond.

Mike began to get teary-eyed for both Buster and Johnny as he became more determined and held his saxophone close to his chest.

The mouse turned back and faced the rubble. Licking his dried lips, Mike placed the mouthpiece of the saxophone and played the beautiful notes that can be heard a mile away.

Meanwhile, the theater animals heard a familiar saxophone playing in the air as Nancy smiled in recognition.

"Mike!" Nancy cried out as the firefighters ran through the collapsed theater to follow the saxophone music.

"Over here!!" One of the firefighters shouted as they were trying to dig up the rubble.

Underneath the rubble, Mike continued to play the notes with his eyes closed, hearing the firefighters digging through the rubble. The mouse was running out of breath due to the lack of air inside of the rubble as he collapsed on his knees. He squeaked out the last of the notes as he fell down on his side, the saxophone departing from his mouth. 

To Be Continued...