The Present Day

As the Mall was starting to come to a close for the day, many people from various aspects of life had made it to the exits of the Mall, carrying bags of whatever purchased goods they gained throughout the day. Mostly clothes, toys, and electronics. But strewn across the Mall were various advertisements depicting the sale of a brand new video game console: The X-Station Unlimited. In the Main plaza of the Mall there lies a display setup showing off the X-Station.

A smooth, sleek, dark gray design with the X-Station's Logo engraved on the side. Sitting right next to the console itself was its wireless controller, dawned with four buttons on the right side with an analog stick on its left with trigger buttons decorating the very back. Right above this display console was an electronic countdown depicting how much time was left before the console in question was available for sale to the public.

6 Days

8 Hours

43 Minutes

22 Seconds.

But one slightly elderly-looking man was wheeling a hand truck down the main hall. He looked at the countdown clock and scoffed with annoyance. He knew that once this console launched, it was going to throw off the whole mall economy and could even quite possibly put him out of business. But Hopefully, this new shipment of product he had received after months of being on the waiting list could put a change in that.

The man walked into 'Mr. Wonder's Toyland' while humming an old-school tune. He parks the hand truck near the front window and cuts the box open with a box cutter. He opens the box and reaches into the pile of packing peanuts as a fully poseable toy figure. The Toy figure in question was that of a cartoony-looking handyman. The handyman was wearing a detachable light blue hard hat helmet on his head covering his plastic brown hair styled in a somewhat spiky look. One of the spikes of his hair dangling out from under his helmet. The figure also wore a button-up blue flannel collared shirt with gray overalls and dark gray boots on his feet.

The man cleared off the display window of the 'Cryptid Critters' Toy Line and placed them all on the clearance sale shelf. Marking them all down from 10 dollars each to 2.99. He then adjusted the arms and legs of the handyman toy figure to pose him to look more heroic. His right hand balled up to a fist resting on his hip while the left hand was posed to grip his included monkey wrench accessory and rested on his shoulder and tilted his head upwards to look up with his black, cartoon catlike eyes and his big bulbous nose and his painted on smile giving a look that said 'No Evil too big! No Job Too Small!'

That was the slogan of this new toy.

The man set up the rest of the display, from the handyman's Garage playset to the assortment of tools at his disposal.....each sold separately.

Before he turned the toy handyman to face the outside window of the display, he sighed and said to him.

"Hopefully....you can be the hero to save my store...and maybe even bring this mall back from the brink...." He turned the toy around and locked it up for the night. As he left the toy store....he walked past an old framed picture of the man who looked thirty years younger....he was cutting the ribbon to Mr. Wonders Toyland.

He and the rest of the store owners and managers left for the night as the security guard locked up all the mall's exits and walked to the security office...

The Mall was deathly quiet after the guard left...But we went back to Mr. Wonder's Toyshop as the Mall immediately roared back to life. The lights turned on, the musical ambiance resumed as well, and the main fountain began to artfully spurt water once more.

Then as the mall finished roaring to life, the metal shutters opened up once more as characters from all around the mall began to move about their business.

The Handyman toy took a moment to realize it ... but then he started to move....he started by moving his vinyl-haired head, then his hard plastic arms and legs... and opening and closing his articulated fingers. He put the plastic monkey wrench he was holding into his pocket and looked at the mall from inside the display window. Whole long halls full of many different stores for all of your shopping needs and even a second floor only accessible by an escalator or elevator.

"....Woah....." Said the Handyman toy as he looked around. But noticed at the far distant end of the mall....was a dark...store? That had nothing but the eerie glow of TVs inside. He could only make out three colors. Red, Blue, and Green.....

Before the handyman toy began to wonder what that glow was. He heard whispers behind him... He turned around fast and saw nobody there. He promptly slowly walked towards the edge of the display window shelf and jumped down to the wooden tiled floor below. The 9-inch tall toy handyman slowly inched towards the shelves of the toy store he was in....and he heard the whispering again...

"H-Hello?" asked the Toy Handyman as he slowly drew near to the whispering's source....

"Ahem!" coughed a voice right behind him.

The toy handyman looks at the shadow looming behind him as he turns around....he sees a hooded figure at least a foot tall! The handyman's fight or flight was triggered as he now wields his wrench like a weapon!

"Calm yourself, newbie. I'm not your enemy." The looming hooded figure with a deep but commanding voice. The Hooded figure removed his hood to reveal ... .a metallic green, old school humanoid robot toy with parts of a helicopter mixed into his design.

"Welcome to your new home friend, you may call me Greenbolt. Leader of the Herobots.....or as my story tells." He turns around and shouts out. "You can all roll out now! He poses no threat!"

Just as Greenbolt shouted all the other toys from the shelves to the back storage area to the display models all began to move and go about their day once more. Some of them gave the handyman toy a bit of a sour look.

"I'm terribly sorry. It's usually the job of the window display toy to tell the rest of us when the coast is clear. But first, an introduction is in order. What is your name?"

".......H-Handyman Hank....." Hank said, a little nervous, still gripping his wrench.

"Handy Hank......I have not seen or heard of that name in any of the toy catalogs Mr. Wonder reads through....where in the mall did you come from?" Greenbolt wondered as he looked at the display setting on the window.

"I...I don't know...That old man just pulled me out of the box and said I hoped I could be a hero....." He answered as he looked at his wrench. He held onto it as if it was his last possession in the world.

"Well ...if you are the new display toy chances are you're very new and new to the life of our toys. Let me show you around." Greenbolt then signaled Handy Hank to follow him through the store. They walked along the aisles seeing all the various toys and playsets along the shelves. Some of which were artfully on display to show off what kinds of uses or adventures the toys have.

First, they walk to a small plastic playhouse with a crude drawing of a blue cross

Taped onto the front of the door. Greenbolt knocked on the door and a smooth, feminine Russian accent said on the other side "Just one moment darling.....!" after a few moments. Of various crashing and banging noises clanging against the small plastic playhouse. The voice on the other side answered. What came through the door was a slim but tall ragdoll girl with cyan blue buttons for eyes and brown hair made of yarn styled to look like it was curled into a bun. She wore an old-school cyan-blue nurse uniform with plastic nurse shoes to match.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Ah! Greenbolt! Are you finally here to get that loose plastic out of your-" Before she finished that sentence, she looked and saw Handy Hank standing behind him.

"Ah! You brought company ....is he the new display toy?" she asked as she immediately started to look Hank over. Examining his every joint and point of articulation. She even removed his hard hat to check if his head was well-painted or not. While she did that, Greenbolt continued.

"Yes actually. He calls himself Handy Hank, but for some odd reason he doesn't know his own story and he's not in any catalog Mr. Wonder keeps in the back storage..." Greenbolt said as he started to wonder if she was even paying attention.

"Ah, I see.....well Newbie Hank, if you want to impress the children with story you have...I highly doubt you'll do it with torn clothing." She raises Handy Hank's left arm to reveal his sleeve is slightly torn.

"Wait. What?! When did that happen!?' Handy Hank exclaimed as he looked at his torn sleeve.

"Not to worry, It is simple fix. A mere popped seam. You probably got it when Mr. Wonder posed you. He does not have gentlest hands at his old age." She then dragged them both into her playhouse sat down Handy Hank on a small play chair and rested his arm on a play table.

"You may call me Patchy Ruby, Or as everyone here calls me...Nurse Ruby." She grabbed a needle and from a nearby shelf sorted through various threads to match Handy Hank's flannel shirt until she found a dark blue thread. With one skillful act of dexterity. Which was impressive since Nurse Ruby had no fingers to begin with. She pushed the thread through the needle hole. As she began to sew his sleeve, she then asked "Why hasn't Mr. Wonder set up his brethren for sale?"

"No idea. I think he is set to go on sale this week....." Greenbolt said as he looked at the small basket of buttons eyes in the corner....he hoped those weren't meant to be eyes...

"Oh!....Oh...You must be the unluckiest Toy alive right now...." Nurse Ruby said as she stopped sewing for a few moments.

"W-why?" Handy Hank asked. He didn't like her sudden change in tone.

"In about six days. That damned console will...as children say....drop...and it may put Mr. Wonder and many other places in the Mall...out of business....." She raises her needle and points to the dark store at the end of the hallway

"On the other side of Long Hall...is an electronics store that will be first in the country to release the accursed console...." She resumed stitching up Handy Hank's torn sleeve and finished.

"All right. Good as New!" she happily exclaimed. Handy Hank looks at his now fixed sleeve and moves his arm around to make sure it stays.

"Wow...thank you. It feels so much better now!"

"Do not thank me newbie. If a fellow Toy is ever broken. You will come to me for immediate first aid." Nurse Ruby happily, yet with a hint of seriousness in her voice. Then bursting into the playhouse was none other than Doughboy Jack.

"Nurse Ruby! Requesting immediate medical treatment!" He tried to give a salute with his left Arm...but it was completely detached.

"At ease, soldier. Please wait in the operating room...." She sadly said. Nurse Ruby knew who was responsible for the arm loss...

Greenbolt and Handy Hank left the playhouse...no...Healing Office.

As they walked to their next destination, Handy Hank looked at his stitched-up sleeve. Then he realized something.

"Wait...Why do we need a Healer if we all just wait here to be chosen by a kid?" He asked.

That made Greenbolt stop walking for a second and sadly sigh.

"You know that console Ruby was talking about?...." Greenberg asked, looking down at the wooden floor. A sullen look on his robotic face.

"Yeah?" Handy Hank answered. Not sure if he's going to like the answer to this.

"Well....That Console wasn't always the only threat....its the newest one in a long line of consoles dating back to over 30 years ago.....In those days, we toys used to live as the arbiters of joy and happiness to children and we wielded the power of imagination with us to help them grow and believe the world can be better....That is until....the Arcadians appeared...."

Handy Hank felt a chill down his back when he said the word 'Arcadians'.

"There used to be a place here called an 'Arcade' where children came and played with the Arcadians in their wooden cabinet boxes and they only took quarters to boot...Four brave toys traveled far along to this Arcade to investigate...If only they knew what real danger they were in. They released the Arcadians upon our great land....Ever since that night we as the toys and other residents of our world have been constantly under attack by their pixelated and Polygonal power...When they first attacked I and many other brave Toys like me did everything we could to keep them at bay....but unfortunately, they had already taken so much of the power of imagination from the children, that we couldn't even touch them...literally."

Greenbolt reaches into his hooded cloak pocket and pulls out three metallic emblems similar to his but in different colors.

"I....lost many good friends during those times...." he clutches the metallic emblems tight.

"I...I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to-"

"Save your apologies, Handyman. It's best you know now before they come and attack again...." He said as he pocketed the emblems again."

"Again?....W-what do you mean again?" He said with worry arising.

"At least once a week they try to break through the shutters....but I and a select few only have enough power to keep our defenses up....." Greenbolt waved his hand in the air and a wavy polychromatic glow appeared.

"Every toy has some level of imaginative power within us all. This power we have, we all call it: Wonder Power. We can all manifest it in different ways. For me, well....." With one flick of his wrist joint. He pulls out his plastic axe and it becomes glowing green with imaginative power...and it goes from dull as....plastic to sharp as a real blade. He throws the axe at a cardboard cutout and instead of bouncing off like expected....it made a hole!

He walks over to the cutout and pulls his axe out as he does this he says "I can make my accessories actual weapons...."

"Woah....Can I do that!?" Handy Hank asked as he looked awestruck.

"Unfortunately no....If you're 'Fresh out of the Box' So to speak. You won't have any Wonder power to begin with. A child must play with you and you will feel the power course through you....so right now...You're basically at Level One. But not to worry, As the days pass and more kids get excited about your release, you will get that Power of Wonder through passing. Now...let us go to our next destination... This one is a bit of a climb so allow me to help you."

Greenbolt took off his hooded cloak revealing his full body, all robot with signs he's supposed to double as something else. But through a series of twists, pulls, clicks, and clangs.....He changes into a helicopter toy!

"Woah.....!"

"Impressive I know.....Me and the rest of my toy line did things like this all the time. The Herobots were the most popular toy for boys back in the day...Now stand back!"

Handy Hank stepped back as Greenbolt's helicopter blades began to spin very fast, but as they reached their top speed, that same green glow that surrounded his axe earlier now covered his helicopter blades. He began to rise off the floor like a real helicopter!

"Grab on Kid."

Handy Hank grabbed onto the landing skids of Greenbolt's helicopter mode and they took off high into the air and the taller shelves. As they rose higher, Handy Hank got a good look at all the toys going about their day on the higher shelves. He saw many of the Muffintop Kids playing and baking on one shelf with Muffintop Mary herself. On another shelf he saw Madman Mark pouring melted wax into plastic molds and activating the molding toy while laughing maniacally, finally as they reached the top shelf they saw an array of very old school toys in a makeshift town out of cardboard boxes and plastic play-place pieces.

Handy Hank looked at all the lights that decorated around the makeshift city in astonishment. Plastic eyes full of wonder and excitement.

"What is this place?" he asked.

"A place where those who never found their child to give the light of imagination to, a place where I and many others call home....a sanctuary. Welcome to Wonder City!"

They landed on a helicopter pad playset as various toys crowded around Greenbolt and Handy Hank. As they all individually crowded around Handy Hank asking him various questions....a red hooded toy was watching them from afar on another shelf.....she looked at them both through a kaleidoscope, especially at Handy Hank.....her plastic hand stained with marker zoomed in on him....and she grumbled with jealousy.....

"That's what passes for popular nowadays?.... We'll see about that..." She immediately ninja jumps away adding Wonder to her feet.