The Bubble Popper

Chapter 1

In a dark, dusty room, there was a small window. A slight amount of light would shine through it for a limited time during the day.

The window was at street level from the outside, but inside it was high from the floor. It would be completely ignored if one didn't know it was there. Not far away from the window stood the many high-rise buildings of the city, blocking the light from reaching the small room that was on the other side of the window.

The city itself was bright, clean, and prosperous. The complete opposite of that dark room. If you were to ask the citizens of Cloud City, they wouldn't even believe such a place existed in their city.

In a similar corner of the city, but far away from that little window, a bubble was crouching down. He picked up a strange object that glinted as the scarce light that wormed its way through the buildings hit it.

He had never seen such an object. It was thin for an object yet long in shape. It had a smooth and cold texture. On one end, it had a small sphere that was connected to a long, silvery, solid line that became narrower as it reached the tip. It was smaller than Sud's hand and easy to carry around.

Very strange.

Few things in Cloud City had sharp ends. Most were round to prevent accidents. Sud had only seen such objects in bubblevision.

He wondered what it was, where it came from, and who left it there.

He picked it up and inspected the object closely, immersed in his thoughts.

"What do you have there?" A voice came from behind, startling him.

"Nothing." He said instinctively, as he quickly picked up the object and stood up to face the intruder.

The neighborhood, although relatively safe, had its dangers. Mostly troublemaking bubbles. Besides, Sud didn't want to show anyone the treasure that he found.

Yes, it was his. A treasure that was his and only his. If it was left here, the owner didn't want it, so he was the new owner.

"I said, what do you have there?" Repeated the bubble in front of him.

The bubble was taller and more robust than Sud. With little effort, the object was snatched away from his hands.

"Give it back. It's mine!" Angrily shouted Sud as he tried to reach for it.

"Sure, if you can reach it, it's all yours." Teased the other bubble as he lifted the object high in the air.

Compared to the average bubble, Sud was on the petite side. All his life he had always been teased for it. Now that this bubble took away his treasure and was mocking him, Sud was enraged. He felt helpless. He wished there was something he could do to teach them a lesson for mocking him.

Sud jumped but couldn't reach the treasure. He punched the bubble, wanting to get him to lower his hands. But it only served to anger him.

He indeed lowered his hands and dropped the treasure, but his hand's attention was now on hitting Sud.

"You really think you can beat me? I'll teach you a lesson today." Said the bubble as he proceeded to punch Sud.

Sud fell to the ground with the first punch. He curled himself, wanting to protect his body as much as possible. An instinctual reaction learned from many similar encounters.

As he curled his body and tried to cover his head, he could clearly hear the chantings of young bubbles surrounding him, encouraging their leader to continue their weekly routine of using him as a punching bag.

Help! Was his silent cry for help. It used to be a loud cry for help, but help never arrived.

As he was being punched, he opened his eyes just enough to catch a glimpse of his treasure laying on the ground not far from him.

Seeing his treasure so close to him Sud didn't care he was getting punched. Something told him he needed his treasure. The wounds were something that just needed a good soak in water. While the pain was nothing new to him, it would go away in a few days. He reached his hands and grabbed hold of the treasure.

He finally had it in his hands again!

Sud was engulfed in the joy of having his treasure in his hand when it was suddenly pulled. He clenched his hand around the treasure, thinking that the bubble wanted to take it away again. He closed his eyes and mentally prepared himself for the pain of the next punch.

POP!