Chapter 4
“Somebody, help!!” the pink cat cried. Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT! Four Cream Pies flew through the air from behind Tyler. Two of them landed on the Cog holding the pink cat, while two more landed on the one carrying the chubby green dog. It was enough to finally make them go down, and they blew up in a shower of gears and metallic parts.
“What?!” the bird-Cog carrying Tyler cried, doing a full 180 turn so quickly, it made Tyler dizzy. A few feet away was Gustavo, fire in his eyes. He was holding two Cream Pies in his hands.
“Gustavo! Wha—where—?” Tyler stammered.
“Let my friend go. Now!” Gustavo growled. The bird-Cog just glared at him.
“Enough of this, Toon. You are in violation of the law—” Whoosh! SPLAT! The bird-Cog was knocked back by the impact and let go of Tyler, who fell to the ground with a heavy THUD.
“Yowch!” he cried as he landed hard on his arm. Behind him, the pink cat had gone back to expertly dodging the Cogs and throwing pies at their faces, taking down two more. The chubby green dog threw pies in rapid succession, nailing a few of them right in the face. Gustavo threw two more pies at the Cog that had been holding Tyler hostage, and it exploded. Five Cogs had gone down, leaving only 5 left. They scrambled around, trying to avoid the pies but two of them were cornered by the pink cat and the green dog, taking down both of them with two swift pie throws from each of them. Three left. Tyler struggled to get to his feet, using his arm as support, but a sharp pain from it made him go down with a cry.
“What’s wrong?!” the pink cat cried, looking at him from her peripheral vision as she tackled another Cog, who dodged away.
“My… my arm. I think I sprained it,” Tyler groaned as the arm throbbed in pain. He got to his feet, using his left arm for support this time. He took out a pie with the hurt arm, which was his dominant, and tried to throw a pie but sharp pain ran through it again.
“Yowch!” Tyler cried as the pain shot up his arm, and the pie fell to the floor again, this time face down.
“Ty, look out!” Gustavo warned as one of the Cogs made a grab for Tyler. Gustavo jumped in front of Tyler and pushed him out of the way with his left hand, throwing a pie at its face with his right simultaneously. The Cog was knocked back by the impact and it exploded. Now there were only two Cogs, and the pink cat, the green dog and Gustavo surrounded them, glaring at them with looks that would petrify anyone.
“Get out of our town, you metallic menaces!” the pink cat growled, throwing a pie right one of the Cogs’ face. It tried to dodge, but the green dog had also thrown a pie at the same Cog and hers connected. Gustavo finished it off with his own pie, leaving only one Cog left. All three Toons turned on it angrily, pies raised. It held up its hands in surrender.
“Nope, I am done, you win—" SPLAT. Gustavo didn’t let it finish and splatted in the face.
“That is for trying to hurt my good friend, Ty,” he growled as the Cog exploded into dozens of pieces. The pink cat, the green dog and Gustavo looked at each other, panting hard and broke out laughing.
“We—we did it!” The pink cat gushed, tears of joy in her eyes. She turned to Gustavo.
“That was amazing of you, coming in at the last minute to rescue us. You’re my hero! Literally!” she walked over to him and gave him a quick kiss on his left cheek, which caused Gustavo to blush.
“Aww, it was nothin’,” he said shyly. Tyler scowled at the sight, and stomped closer quickly.
“Hey! I came to help you first,” he growled, stepping in front of Gustavo, blocking him from her view. The pink cat frowned, looked him up and down, her gaze settling on his face, then her lips formed into a smirk.
“Yeah, you sure did. Guess you deserve a kiss, too.” Tyler grinned, and she leaned in, but instead of kissing him on the cheek, she gave him a kiss on his sprained arm, which sent a huge wave of pain through his body.
“Yowch! What the heck?!” he cried angrily, fuming. She smirked.
“Ohh, you poor, poor baby. You’re hurt,” she teased. The green dog snickered. Tyler’s cheeks turned red as he realized she played him, and really well. She turned back to Gustavo, and Tyler fumed even more.
“As I was saying, before being rudely interrupted… you’re my hero. I’m really grateful for your help.”
“Did you go back for those pies or were you carrying them around the whole time?” the green dog asked.
“Uh, neither. As soon as I saw you wielding those pies and noticed they were highly effective on those creatures,” Gustavo answered, looking at the pink cat, “I wanted to help. I was super scared, but you didn’t show any fear. I didn’t know what to do, though. I didn’t have any of those pies. But then Tyler’s pie dropped to the floor and I grabbed it, wanting to help him. As soon as I grabbed it, I felt more pies land in my Gag Pouch and right then and there I wanted to be the same way as you, fearless, brave. So, uhh, well… I helped.”
“Oh, yeah!” the pink cat cried, snapping her fingers. “The pies are filled with special Auto-Fill cream filling, or something like that.”
“They are?” the green dog asked in wonder, and Jenny nodded.
“How do you know that?” Tyler asked in awe. She was amazing, and knowledgeable, to boot.
“Dr. Surlee told me, in the playground—” her eyes went wide and she turned around abruptly. “The playground! Kit! Rosie! Chim! I forgot all about them, they’re still there!”
“Uhh, who?” the green dog asked.
“These toons I met earlier. They were caught in the all chaos. We have to go help!” She started to run towards the playground.
“Wait up, you can’t go in there. There are tons of those things!” Tyler said matter-of-factly. She stopped and turned to look at him.
“All the more reason we should help. They need us!” she frowned at his I-don’t-really-care expression, then smirked as an idea popped into her head.
“You’d definitely be my hero then if you came to help us,” she purred, batting her eyelashes. Tyler beamed.
“Let’s go help some Toons!” he cried triumphantly, running past her. Gustavo followed after him. Jenny and the green dog shared a look, and both of them rolled their eyes.
“Boys,” the pink cat chuckled.
“Tell me about it,” the green dog muttered. Both of them followed after Tyler and Gustavo, who were nearing the tunnel that led back to the Toontown Central Playground. Suddenly, a loud wailing sound filled the street.
“Heeeeelllllpppp meeeeee!” a loud disembodied voice wailed. Everyone turned towards the noise, which seemed to be coming from further down Silly Street. The pink cat’s fingers twitched, and she looked toward the playground, then back toward the noise.
“We can’t just leave that poor toon out there,” she said to the others. Tyler stepped forward immediately, without missing a beat.
“I agree. Wherever you wanna go, I’m there,” he said. The pink cat’s eyes rolled, knowing full well he didn’t truly mean it, he just wanted to impress her.
“Wherever Tyler goes, I go too,” Gustavo said, standing next to him. The pink cat smiled at that, and Tyler noticed. He scowled.
“I guess I’ll help, too, might as well,” the green dog said.
“By the by, I still don’t know your names,” the pink cat said with a laugh as she turned around and headed down the street, the others following close behind. “I’m Little Jenny Hulaswirl. Everyone calls me Jenny for short, and you can, too.” Wonderful name. I love it, Tyler thought.
“Princess Mary Electrogadget, at your service,” the chubby green dog introduced herself. “I prefer people call me Maria, though.”
“I’m Cool Tyler Electroboom, Tyler for short, and that’s Master Gustavo Funnymooch, Gustavo or Gus for short,” Tyler said, gesturing to Gustavo, who simply nodded.
“Oh, now I know why you seemed familiar,” Jenny said, turning around to face Tyler and snapping her fingers. “You’re that rich spoiled brat I keep hearing about, right?” she asked with a smirk and a wink. Tyler’s face flushed.
“Um, well, actually—”
“Rich, spoiled brat is totally right,” Maria grumbled, rolling her eyes. Jenny laughed.
“Can’t say it’s nice to meet you, then,” she said to Tyler with a smirk. Pain stabbed at Tyler’s heart as she turned away.
“Great, we all know each other then. Now, enough time wasting, let’s go find out what’s going on,” Jenny said and continued down the street. Unbeknownst to them, a floating orb with a blue cap and a camera lens for an eye was silently watching them from above, and it silently followed them as they ran.
****
Turns out, there wasn’t much going on when they got there. A small group of tiny brown-suited Cogs surrounded a tall green duck, but they were covering their ears as the green duck shouted into a megaphone.
“Ayyiiieeee!” he shouted, causing Tyler’s ears to ring. He saw Jenny and Maria covering theirs, too. Gustavo didn’t seem to mind. Interestingly, the Cogs surrounding the green duck seemed to be hurt by the loud sound, and not just uncomfortably covering their ears; they shuddered and short-circuited at the sound. The green duck shouted into the megaphone one more time, and this time the Cogs did their usual exploding routine, gears and pieces flying everywhere. Tyler, Jenny, Maria and Gustavo reached the duck as the last pieces flew, and he was panting hard. He did a small, quick dance in joy.
“Whew! That was too close! Who knew joke megaphones would be so useful?” he said to himself.
“They are?” asked Jenny, curiosity in her voice, eyebrow raised. The green duck turned to her in surprise, noticing the group for the first time.
“Oh yeah, totally. They don’t seem to like loud sounds for some reason.”
“Are you sure it’s not the jokes they hate? Most people who use those things tell terrible jokes,” Tyler quipped, and Jenny laughed. Not a giggle, as most girls he knew did, but a full-fledged hearty laughed. He beamed, happy he got her to laugh. Progress. The green duck chuckled.
“Oh no, I tried the jokes on them, they weren’t fans. Technically joke megaphones amplify sound, so I simply shouted into it for help hoping someone would hear me, you know, like the classic gag of shouting into someone’s face with a bullhorn. Turns out, that seemed to stop them in their tracks, as well as damage them.”
“And so, you just rinsed and repeated,” Jenny mused. The green duck nodded.
“I am Nathan, Nathan Bananaboom,” the duck introduced himself, holding out his hand.
“Bananaboom?” Tyler asked incredulously, eyebrow raised, holding back a snicker.
“Yep, Bananaboom.”
“I think that’s a great last name,” Jenny gushed, though she wasn’t 100% serious. She was testing. Sure enough….
“So do I,” Tyler agreed immediately, the snicker in his lips disappearing, and his face growing serious. Jenny held back a laugh. The things guys do to try to impress me she thought, rolling her eyes. Can’t they ever just be genuine for once? She looked at Gustavo, who’d been silent the whole time, eyes curious, silently watching. She smiled, noting his sincerity from before when he’d told her she inspired him to want to help. Someone like him, for example. She tried catching his eye, but he didn’t look at her.
“Thanks, guys. You’d certainly be the first to think so.” A few seconds of awkward silence followed. “Anyway, I was on my way from Daisy Gardens to try to catch what I could of the Election when I was attacked by those tiny Cogs. I laughed at first and tried to step over them, but they got furious and threw me back in with their hands. Surprisingly strong little buggers. What are these things, anyway?”
“I think I remember Dr. Surlee calling them “Cogs” or something like that, Jenny said, fingers on her chin in an L shape, tilting her head sideways and looking up slightly, trying to recall. The big cheese-head had called itself a Cog, too, Tyler remembered.
“Dr. Who?” Tyler asked.
“No, not him. Surlee. He’s a Loony Lab scientist.”
“And how do you know this? When did he say this?” Nathan asked. Jenny’s gaze went blank, and her expression turned sad.
“I was there…. During the Election. I saw Slappy vanish,” she murmured.
“What?!” Nathan and Maria cried, mirrored expressions of shock and horror on their faces.
“Yeah… one of those Cogs came down from the sky and did something to him. He… he shrunk away and vanished.” she explained. Nathan frowned.
“Shrunk away? What expression did he have on his face, did you see?” he asked
“Yes, he looked super sad. He also did a 180 turn right before vanishing and a weird sound came from his direction.
“What sound?” Nathan asked softly, as his face blanched.
“Erm, it kinda sounded like.. erm… wah wah wah. Something like that. Why?” Nathan went even paler, and he froze.
“What?” Tyler asked, nudging him.
“That… that can’t be,” he murmured. “If what you’re telling me is true--
“It is,” Jenny interjected.
“—then it sounds a lot like he went sad. But that’s impossible. That’s only a myth. No Toon has ever gone said, it’s practically impossible because almost nothing brings our moods down enough to do so.”
“Going sad? I’ve never of that. How do you know of this?” Tyler demanded. Nathan’s eyes went blank and he got a faraway look in his eyes.
“I’m a Historian. I work in the Toontown Library. Toons going sad is a myth that sprung up many ages ago, but it has never been proven to happen.”
“We should tell someone about this! Do you think they know?” Maria cried. Nathan shook his head.
“It is unlikely. The myth of a toon going said is so old, hardly anyone knows about it. It’s become an obscure subject only us Historians know about. I’m the only Historian in this area, so the chances of anyone else knowing the symptoms is really low.”
“Is there a cure? A way to un-vanish him?” Jenny asked, a haunted look in her eyes. Tyler frowned. It must have been hard to witness that. Especially because it sounds like the Cogs invaded immediately after that. Holy geez. His heart skipped a beat. He hated to see that look on her pretty face. Not cute like that, he thought.
“Legend says the only way is make them happy again.”
“And how do we do that if he’s gone?” Maria asked. Nathan’s eyes went dark.
“Well, that’s the problem here, isn’t it?”
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