Infinity Train: Bryce's Story

Chapter III: The Beach Car

A/N: Hello. :) I had an awesome day this Monday since I got to see "Steven Universe The Movie". For those of you that haven't, please do. It's simply amazing. Speaking of, I just had a crazy idea to add one of the characters from it into this story, though it won't appear until next chapter, so please be patient. Until then, here's chapter three of my story. I hope you like it.

As their journey progressed, Tulip, Bryce, Penny, and One-One have been on one car after another since the Grid car. But even then, they were still as far away from the engine as ever. Bryce knew the journey wouldn't be so easy, but he never thought it'd take so long. On the plus side, though, at least he was going somewhere with someone else. However, that didn't do anything to shorten his list of worries with Penny being on it.

He'd always wanted a little sister, but it's already proved to be more work than he thought. The creature that attacked them was just the icing on the cake, but the other general dangers of the train was another factor. Each door that opens here takes them either to a world that's safe and creative or one that's chaotic and dangerous. By now, the train, from its length to its unpredictability, was becoming more than he could take. He had to think of something to keep him from losing his mind. Then, he got to thinking about how much he really knew about Tulip.

They didn't exactly start off on the right foot, but he knew some things about her since then, her name being one of them. Another was that before she boarded the train, Tulip was planning to go to OshKosh. But he still wanted to get to know her more, to know for sure he could count on her. So, while they were in the Crossword Car, as Penny and One-One were on the ground, Bryce and Tulip were inside a giant machine that had jets on the sides of it while a mechanism underneath it had the letters to stamp them down in ink, making letters on the spaces to fill them up as Tulip spoke to herself.

"46 down. 7 letters..."

As Tulip tried to figure it out, Bryce tried to come up with how to ask her a question. However, he can't just pick one off the top of his head. He needed to be subtle. That's when he remembered the game he always played. It was shortened as "20 Q" in his family, but in truth, it was known as twenty questions. It was always a rage with his family since his parents felt that it encourages deductive thinking. With how long the train proved to be, Bryce couldn't imagine a better time to try it as he spoke.

"Hey, uh, Tulip? Do you wanna play a game?"

"Not now, Bryce. In case you didn't notice, we're actually busy."

Right at that moment, Tulip and Bryce took notice of One-One and Penny drawing on the otherwise blank squares. One of them seemed to be the robot's handiwork as one of those drawings said, "You can bet on One-One". As for Penny's drawings, she just drew pictures of herself, Bryce, and Tulip along with One-One. Bryce found it touching, and he would've okayed it if they didn't take up the whole squares as he and Tulip spoke.

"Penny!"

"One-One, Penny, how long have you guys been doing this?"

To answer, One-One spoke up to Tulip with his glad voice before his sad one while Penny finished up on her work and turned to them with a smile, chiming in after One-One.

"I've been helping since the start!"

"I think it's a pretty powerful message."

This made Tulip and Bryce make a slight groan as the machine lowered itself, the jets slowly turning off as two parking brakes lowered themselves to land on the crossword floor before they exited the machine. Of course, Bryce can't really blame Penny. She is just a little kid. But One-One should at least know better than to mess with the structure. The rate he's going, One-One might be as unpredictable as the train itself in spite of his two designated voices. With that, Bryce picked up Penny while Tulip gave One-One a talk as she set him on her lap.