Chapter

From inside Al’s bag, the toys heard Al cut the engine. He got out of the car and slammed the door behind him.

“He didn’t take the bag!” said Rex from inside.

New Buzz hopped over Rex and jumped out of the bag. “No time to lose,” the space ranger said. He tried the door handle, but it wouldn’t open.

Peering through the car window, the toys watched Al enter the building and get into the elevator. “He’s ascending in the vertical transporter,” said New Buzz, opening his wings. “All right, everyone! Hang on! We’re going to blast through the roof!”

“Uh, Buzz…,” said Rex.

“To infinity…and beyond!” boomed New Buzz. The other toys just stared at him. As they worked to pop open the door lock, New Buzz kept trying to blast through the roof. He scratched his head. “I don’t understand. Somehow my fuel cells have gone dry.”

New Buzz accidentally leaned against the Unlock button, and the lock suddenly popped up. The car door opened and New Buzz ran to the front door of the building. He watched through the glass doors as the elevator needle stopped at the twenty-third floor.

“Blast!” cried New Buzz. “He’s on level twenty-three.”

“How are we gonna get up there?” asked Slinky.

Rex looked up. “Maybe if we find some balloons, we could float to the top.”

“Troops! Over here,” called New Buzz. They all turned to see him taking the cover off an air vent. “Just like you said, Lizard Man—in the shadows, to the left. Okay, let’s move!”

The toys followed New Buzz into the duct. He spoke into his wrist communicator. “Mission Log: have infiltrated enemy territory without detection and are making our way through the bowels of Zurg’s fortress.”

Hamm turned to the others. “You know, I think that Buzz aisle went to his head,” he whispered. The others nodded, but they all followed New Buzz through the shaft.

Soon they came to an intersection with another duct. Slinky looked in both directions. “Oh, no. Which way do we go?” he asked.

“This way,” said New Buzz, running forward. Then a noise echoed through the duct. “We’ve been detected!” cried New Buzz. “The walls! They’re closing in!”

“Guys, look! It’s not the walls, it’s the elevator,” said Rex. He pointed to a different duct, where they could see the elevator heading down.

They walked to the elevator shaft and peered up. “Come on,” New Buzz said. “We’ve got no time to lose.” He put on a pair of suction-cup gloves and reeled out a line and hook. “Everyone grab hold.”

“Huh?” asked the others.

“Uh, Buzz?” asked Hamm. “Why don’t we just take the elevator?”

New Buzz began to scale the walls with his suction-cup gloves. “They’ll be expecting that,” he explained.

Meanwhile, an orange traffic cone made its way to the entrance of Al’s building. A weary and frustrated Buzz peeked out from underneath. He noticed a trail of footprints in the soft grass, leading to the vent. He hid beneath the cone once again and followed the trail.

Inside his apartment, Al was pacing back and forth in the living room, yelling into his phone.

“I’ll have the stuff waiting in the lobby, and you’d better be here in fifteen minutes, because I have a plane to catch. Do you hear me?”

On the floor, the Roundup gang was packed into special foam trays. They weren’t being shipped to Japan—they were going on the plane with Al in a green metal suitcase. When Al left the apartment, Woody, Jessie, and Bullseye sat up in their trays.

“Woo-hoo!” yelled Jessie. “We’re finally going! Can you believe it?”

Bullseye excitedly sniffed his thick foam packaging.

The Prospector chuckled. “That’s custom-fitted foam insulation you’ll be riding in, Bullseye. First-class all the way!”

“You know what?” said Woody. “I’m actually excited about this. I mean it. I really am!”

Jessie jumped next to Woody, and they began to square dance. “Yee-haw! Swing yer partner, do-si-do! Look at you, dancin’ cowboy!” she said.

Bullseye began to chase his tail as the Prospector rocked his box back and forth. “Look! I’m doing the box step!” he cried.

Back in the elevator shaft, New Buzz climbed slowly, pulling the others behind him. Hamm grunted. He tilted, and some of his change began to drop out of his coin slot. “Uh-oh. Hey, heads up down there!” he called.

“Whoa! Pork bellies are falling,” said Slinky.

“My arms can’t hold on much longer,” complained Rex as he began to slide down New Buzz’s towline. Rex bumped into the other toys and pushed them down with him. They all clung desperately to the end of the towline.

“Too…heavy,” panted New Buzz. Suddenly, he got an idea. “What was I thinking? My antigravity servos!” He pushed a button on his utility belt.

“Hang tight, everyone,” said New Buzz. “I’m going to let go of the wall.”

“What?” the toys cried.

“One…,” called New Buzz. “Two…”

“No, Buzz!” exclaimed the toys. “No, don’t—”

“Three!” shouted New Buzz. He pushed off the wall and went into his flying pose, one fist jutting forward. The toys stayed frozen in space for a second. Then they began to plummet. Luckily, they landed on top of the rising elevator after only a short drop.

“To infinity…and beyond!” called New Buzz, unaware that his attempt at flying had failed. The elevator began to slow down. “Approaching destination. Reengaging gravity,” New Buzz said. The others looked at each other and rolled their eyes. The elevator stopped right at the air vent on the twenty-third floor. New Buzz leaped into the vent and scanned it for danger. “Area secure,” he reported to the others. They groaned and panted as they climbed into the vent.

“It’s okay, troops. The antigravity sickness will wear off momentarily. Now…let’s move!” said New Buzz.

As they followed New Buzz through the vent, none of the toys realized that the real Buzz was clinging to the bottom of the elevator, determined to find Woody and reunite with his friends.