"Ok kid, time to have that talk." Slappy eyed a very uncomfortable looking Dee from across their kitchen table. It took some shrewd maneuvering to get him this far and she wasn't going to let him weasel his way out of it now, just because he didn't like being cornered. Regardless of what Yakko said, she wanted in on this whole thing. His words played back through her memory like a cheesy melodrama...
"Slappy you don't know what you're asking from him." Yakko had eyed the aging woman in his living room.
"Then why don't you tell me then? From where I'm standing all this is more than a little fishy. You get new family all of a sudden, they don't act like they want to be here, and I have to be the one to teach them how to act like 'toons? They should know this already! If you haven't noticed there, Sherlock, Peg is more than just zany. She's pissed. And don't even get me started on that little one there. I've stayed in the dark long enough. Either you owe me an explanation, or I owe you a bomb up your can." Slappy had found herself genuinely irritated for the first time in years.
It wasn't the task, or even the aggravation it posed. What was insulting about this whole thing is that no one felt they could trust her with whatever big secret these six felt the need to keep a lid on. She had gone out of her way on several occasions to help them out and all she asked in return, aside from being paid scale for some cameos, was honesty and some gratitude.
"Look kid, the grace period is over. I gotta know what you got me into." She'd narrowed her eyes at the shrinking Yakko as she stepped toward him.
"Look... ehhhhhh it's really not my place to tell you. That's Dee's job. I don't know everything anyway; just what he's told me and a little personal experience. I was kinda hoping to hear the whole thing to, so if you want me to come along..." Yakko had trailed off, holding his hands up attempting to placate the elder squirrel. He shouldn't be surprised by her reaction, honestly. No one had expected Peg to be as difficult to rehabilitate as she had been. She was more than angry. She was bitter and downright hateful.
Not long after her little episode with Plotz she had actually physically threatened him during an office meeting about that very subject. No pranks or mind games, just outright rage. Dee had yet to ever raise his voice in Yakko's (or anyone's) presence, but that day he had. Between his and Peg's screaming match, and Plotz trying to dodge the wild kicks she threw, even being restrained by Dee and himself, the day went pretty miserably. He was just glad the others hadn't been there to see it, lest they get any ideas about joining in. He knew how his own siblings felt about Plotz. As it was, they owed him a new desk since Peg had, in the course of her tantrum, thrown it across the room shattering it to splinters and sending the secretary screaming from the office. They were lucky Plotz didn't have a functional phone handy at that point to call security.
"Oh you'll be there. I'm tired of bein' out of the loop. I'm gonna find out what's goin' on here if it kills ya." She had poked the older Warner in the chest with her umbrella painfully.
It took some creative reasoning to get the others out of the house. Upon meeting Slappy at the foot of his bed of all places, and a hushed but heated discussion, Dee got them to relent to keep his own siblings out of this. The reaction puzzled Slappy and only made the whole situation more intriguing and infuriating. What could be so bad that he wouldn't even tell his own family?
Reaching behind him, Dee brought forth three thick folders bound together with string. The bundle looked as if it had been through a war. Tattered edges and coffee stains littered the covers along with David's illegible scrawl and some strange doodles put there long ago. With a deep sigh, he pushed them across to her, the bundle lying there like a physical manifestation of David's madness. His accusations came back to haunt him, his gravelly tortured voice almost real in his mind. 'I told you, little Dee-Dee, that you're a traitor. You know she won't stay quiet. You can't save them.' He shook the voice from his head, focusing on the faces staring back at him.
"After our talk you need to read these. It's all of David's animation notes on us, and then some. His journal is in there too, and some of the pages from his great grandfather's diary. Even Peg and Psykko haven't seen this. If I have my way, they never will."
Slappy's eyes went wide as details were forthcoming. It seemed so unreal. Experimenting on your own creations? 'Toons without psychological limitations? This was bizarre stuff, and the story sounded more miserable as it wore on. Yakko also listened intently, as much of this he hadn't heard either. But the more Dee talked, the more the picture filled in for him.
Slappy's face went from anger to disbelief to outright panic as both Yakko and Dee related the rest; their animator's spiral into madness, their arrival at the studio, and their ill conceived trip to the Loopy Acres asylum. Slappy groaned inwardly. Loopey Acres. She had an uncle go there once when she was a young woman, and knew it wasn't a pretty place. He came out of there a shadow of his former self, not an ounce of joy left. Even today he seemed as pale and sterile as the building from which he emerged. She couldn't guess how an emotionally fragile human would endure.
However, Dee was far from through, and saved the worst bit for last. She recoiled and nearly fell out of her chair when he told her the rest. He wasn't joking. She wished he had been, for it threw yet another ugly wrinkle into an already difficult situation. Slappy had to wonder what unseen hands were involved in this situation.
"I'm the one that did it. I called the cops, the hospital, the studio, everything. We are here because of me. My animator, my father, is in a 'toon asylum because of me. And you are going out of your way to try to help my sister who is pissed off because of me. I understand fully what all this means. I would have spared you having to deal with it." He hated keeping all this from her after all the trouble she had gone through to help, but again he repeated to himself that he would do it all over again.
"I need a drink...Yakko be a gentlemen and get an old woman something. I don't suppose you keep anything stronger than lemonade around eh?" Slappy rested her forehead in her hands.
Her mind couldn't wrap around it completely. What kind of choice was that? What kind of animator would put his creation in such a position? What kind of toon could make that choice without going insane? This violated every agreement the animators' guild had with toon town. It violated every code of conduct toons imposed on themselves. Near 100 years of animation tradition and toon law down the toilet. She understood now why he was so hesitant to say anything. In Toon Town he would be branded a traitor. Neither he, nor his family, would be able to set foot outside without bearing that scarlet letter. Outcast, even among outcasts. His own creator would face far worse in the human court system, insanity or not. Certainly, the details of his crime would be made public and throw a monkey wrench in human and toon relations. His incarceration in Toon Town made a lot more sense now. No one stood to gain anything by letting the situation play out, and likely both sides arranged this in the hopes it could be quietly covered up.
This was too big to allow out of this room. Ultimately Dee probably did the right thing. Politically and morally inconvenient, but the right thing nonetheless. He sacrificed everything he had to save his family risking life and reputation in the process. He was right to keep this under wraps.
"How many others know?" Slappy leveled her gaze at the oldest cousin as she took the soda Yakko offered her. She wished for the first time in almost 40 years she had some rum to accompany it.
"Just me, Yakko and his siblings, and now you. Plotz has some details but nothing linking the events to me or my family. I used different voices and called from different pay phones, so no one can trace it back to me. I'm certain I don't have to tell you what's at stake here." Dee watched the woman intently. If she was going to air this out, he had to know, now. Some toons would, without thinking. Any that did might be considered a hero by the rest. Ambition pulled as powerfully on the hearts of toons as in men, he knew.
Slappy waved his comment off, rubbing her eyes. "Look kid I'm not that kind of toon. I got no desire to be a statue, and I don't rat out a friend. Besides, I don't wanna be the one to turn society on its head any more than you do. But this makes my job a lot harder."
"If you mean Peg, don't worry about it to much. She's irritable, violent, and downright mean but she's no human. She's just as toon upstairs as you are." Dee replied tapping his temple for emphasis.
"That's not very reassuring." Yakko pointed behind them where Peg stood, quiet as a statue, her eyes boring a hole straight into her brother.
"Oh Fudd..." Slappy sighed, throwing her hands in the air in frustration. That girl never did listen to a thing she said and had been suspicious about her early morning visit from the beginning. This was bad. Knowing her temper, and the sensitive subject matter they were discussing, Slappy fully expected the dining room to be turned into a war zone the second Peg spoke.
Dee sighed inwardly, bracing for what he knew was coming. He should have anticipated this and taken their impromptu meeting elsewhere. His sister always had been the most headstrong of the three. Time and tide did little to diminish neither her stubborn streak nor her inflammatory temper. However it had, apparently, taught her stealth. He began to think it would take more than simple separation from their creator to bring her any semblance of peace. But how, and to what end, he would have to puzzle out later. For the here and now he had a storm to weather. One he had hoped in vain to postpone but a little longer.
Every inch of her felt like screaming. How in holy hell could he? This had to be a lie. It had to be some kind of sick fucking joke that she just wasn't getting. She waited for something. A sign, an explanation, anything to tell her he wasn't for real. That what she overheard wasn't what she thought. It wouldn't be the first time he shocked her with some con or another to get them out of a tight situation. But for the life of him, he just sat there, calmly returning her gaze, everything about his body language confessing his sincerity. She wanted to scream, cry, hit him with something heavier than most toons could hold... She wanted to ask him why, she wanted the one thing he would not easily let her have. But she was not going to back down from him. No matter how much his stare scared the hell out of her right now.
With a shaky voice, she gritted out through gnashing teeth, her eye twitching under the effort. "I. Want. To. See. David."
"I kept you in the dark for this very reason. You don't know what you're asking." Dee replied, his voice low and even as his stare. No one should be this calm in this situation.
Peg snapped, slamming her fist down on the breakfast bar hard enough to fracture one of the tiles lining its surface.
"Don't you dare deny me this, brother! How long have we gone along with everything you said? How often have we never so much as questioned you? And how do you repay us? You keep...this, of all things, from us? He's our father! My God... do you know how much Psykko looks up to you? Did you think for a second what this will do to him? Dammit, Dee, how could you!?" She fought hard to bite back the tears that now came unbidden as she threw the full weight of her rage at her brother.
Through it all, he said nothing and didn't so much as move from his seat, showing no sign of what could be going on behind those inscrutable, penetrating eyes. She screamed and cursed a blue streak, throwing every hurtful word that came to mind at him. Her temper broke against him with all the sound and fury of waves against a cliff face, yet within her, insecurities doubled and redoubled and she felt her mind retreating. She couldn't tell anymore who her real brother was. Was Dee the over protective older sibling that sang to his little brother and held her when she cried as they hauled David off? Or was he this man sitting in front of her now? She had to know, and seeing David for herself was the easiest way to find out.
Yakko and Slappy were caught between a rock and a hard place. Peg covered the only exit, and there was no place to go in the kitchen that was not in Peg's line of fire. Neither were they willing to get within arms reach of the raging teen for fear she would turn on them. The look on Dee's face didn't exactly make them want to cozy up to him either. In all their years, neither thought they had anything to really learn from the younger generations. They had seen and done it all. But in the span of just an hour, Yakko and Slappy both learned more ways to cuss someone out than they thought possible. Some were funny, most painful; they would cringe as some were directed at them. Their ears rang and the walls resonated with the full fury of a Warner slighted. Peg had an impressive temper and an even more impressive set of lungs.
Dee heard and felt every word she said. But, volume aside, it wasn't anything he hadn't said to himself a thousand times since the day they left. He had wished he could tell her, wished he could have shown her what David really was and know she could handle it. Perhaps the only way to move forward and be done with all this would be to do just that. She wouldn't just let this go. He would have to call Plotz again and endure asking that screeching, weaselly man dumpling for another favor. Another trip to a place he swore he would never return to. Another long night at le hotel du fly-paper, hopefully this time not inspecting the bathroom floor up close.
"Fine." He responded finally cutting her off mid sentence, punching a hole in the wall of sound Peg was building. The word hung frozen in the air for a few, long seconds, wrapping up even their unwilling spectators in it.
"Fine? What fine?" Peg shot back, though much more quietly than she had been. His look had grown darker, if that was possible, and something behind it stopped her in her tracks. Even for her, he was hard to read when he got like this.
"You win. You want to see David? You got questions? Fine. I'll even let Psykko come along. You both seem so intent on crucifying yourselves, the least I can do is show you what for." His voice held so little inflection or emotion it was difficult to hear. Yakko recognized it as the same tone he adopted shortly after their first meeting with David. Stress, hurt, he wasn't as good at hiding it from Yakko as his own siblings. Not when they had literally decades of experience on him and infinitely more control.
Though he may not be invited, Yakko decided to go back with Dee if Plotz would green light it. Someone had to be the objective one and wrangle that wild woman. Dee couldn't do that if he was passed out on some bathroom floor again. Besides, Yakko couldn't help but feel somehow responsible for this man and his siblings. More so in the months since their last trip. Another year of this and he would wind up as grey as Slappy.
In the span of a few seconds, Dee had managed to flip the entire argument on its head. Peg's pride bristled at the insinuation that she had done something wrong. Peg was the slighted one, and now she was supposed to feel bad for getting pissed? No, this dog won't hunt. She pulled her will up around herself, her voice once again resonating with a confidence it didn't possess.
"Damn right fine. I'm sick of this too, Dee. I'm sick of you hiding shit from me, I'm sick of you lying to me, and I'm sick of you airing out family business to everyone but fuckin' family. You want to play mister cool? You want to be a martyr? Fine by me, but don't drag us along without so much as an explanation. At least give me an option here."
Dee simply nodded once, and continued to stare down his belligerent sister who, despite her rage and bravado, shrank under the weight of it. His silence spoke volumes more than his voice and more often than not served as a more effective foil to her foul attitude than meeting her on her terms. The brevity of his response doused her like ice water, and rather than stand there and look foolish she stiffened her back and spun out of the room, slamming the door behind her as hard as she could, leaving the trio staring at her wake.
"Well that went well." Slappy finally spoke up, wiggling her pinky in her abused ears. "Look, kid, if you really are planning this little shindig then I'm comin' along. I wanna see this guy for myself. Besides, I got a score to settle with Loopy Acres."
The next week promised to be interesting to say the least.
Wakko paused a moment before knocking on the scarred and painted door. He knew he wanted to be alone but after three days without so much as a sighting he worried that his cousin may be dead. Well, not that you could kill a toon but starvation still hurt. When they finally told Psykko everyone expected him to...well no one knew really but Wakko thought more would happen than what did. Staring off into space as Dee reluctantly told him everything, Psykko simply stood, and stated that he needed time to think. With that he quietly vanished and no one had seen him since. Dee told him not to worry, that his reaction wasn't that bad considering what he just learned about himself and his father. To hear Dee tell it, things could have been much worse than even when Peg found out.
For her part Peg seemed to be much calmer now. More embarrassed than angry that she blew up in front of her cousin and teacher the way she did. She admitted some time that night to them that she realized she needed more control than she had. She even apologized to Yakko and Slappy which was something no one had heard her do until now. Wakko never got a chance to hear the rest of the conversation since, with a much softened expression, Slappy shooed everyone out of the tower so they could air out the rest without an audience. Wakko figured Peg had a lot more going on behind her bitter facade than she let on.
Hesitantly he knocked, uncertain of what to expect from his fragile cousin if anything. "Psykko? Psy are you ok? I brought you some snacks." Snacks always made him feel better when something had gone wrong in his life. It had become his catch all solution over the years from breaking the ice with a stranger to covering awkward silences. He hoped in this case it may work but he wasn't sure. Until a few months ago Yakko and Dot were the only family he had. They never had to tip toe around each others emotions since they largely shared the same experiences.
Wakko was brought from his musings as the door cracked open and stopped. He figured that was about as much invitation as he was going to get so cautiously he pressed forward into the dimly light space. Psykko's room had changed again. He kept himself busy apparently decorating his walls and floor with graffiti and mural's. His bed was a mess of shredded sheets and broken springs, covered in claw and teeth marks, the wall behind it similarly scarred. Wakko knew now what Dee meant when he said it could have been worse.
Psykko sat huddled hugging his knees to his chest in the far corner of his room his dark eyes reflecting the few sources of light in his room as he regarded Wakko. He understood why Wakko hadn't told him. He wasn't angry at any of his cousins really. Dee however, and even more David. The more he thought about it the more his thoughts turned to their tormented father. He knew the moment Dee told him that everything he said was true. He could feel it. He had known that on some level something about the three of them wasn't right. Other toons never had this much trouble coping with their emotions. He wished he could be more like his cousin. He never let anything get to him. Everything seemed to roll right off him no matter what people said or did. He wondered if Wakko even had a temper. He wondered what would it be like to be normal instead of Frankenstein's monster. He watched as his cousin approached and sat on the floor in front of him setting an armful of bags in between them and smiling, his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth.
"I thought you might be hungry..." Wakko smiled shrugging his shoulders.
Wakko never so much as cringed at Psykko. Even at their first meeting he was just as at ease with him as his own brother. Nothing seemed to get to him, even with all the world falling in on their collective group. Psykko thought that maybe he should be. He certainly felt nothing approaching the calm Wakko exuded. Especially with the way Slappy drove. He gripped his seat a little tighter and watched in horror as they drifted slowly toward the eighteen wheeler she had been racing to their next exit, feeling as though they might be sucked underneath.
Slappy grunted and took another sip of coffee before slamming it down in it's holder and flipping off the irate truck driver to her left. "HA! Beat that ya road hog! Take yer freight and stick it! Heh heh heh heh heeehhh!" She cackled as they swerved in the exit lane, moving to and fro as she over corrected one way then the other. She heard people in the car gasp or make small startled sounds but for the moment ignored them. They had been complaining since they packed and pulled out of the lot. Slappy didn't know what they were so afraid of. In seventy four years of formal driving she had only had ten or eleven accidents. Only five of those were her fault. Tickets were another story, but she didn't worry about trifles like that. Besides, the sooner they got this over with, the sooner she could get back home and sleep in her own bed again.
At first Plotz hadn't been to sure about her going with the kids. Diplomacy won out in the end, heh, it didn't hurt that she threatened to blow up his office if he didn't agree. This little shindig wasn't all about them or that nutty hack Dave, or whatever his name was. She had other reasons for going along, and not all of them involved Loopy Acres. She had a lot of things to cram into their three day weekend and she wouldn't let that stunted little toad, some dirty truck driver, or speed limits for that matter get in her way. Slappy wasn't certain about a lot of things lately but of one thing she was. Their tiny circle had gotten a lot louder recently and she was damned and determined to shut it the hell up again. If that meant dealing with their issues head on then so be it.
She sneered and jerked the wheel to the left jinking around a slow driver while blowing her horn. Buzzing through traffic as they were they would get to Toon Town a full hour early, provided they didn't hit any traffic jams along the way. Skippy got her one of those new whiz bang GPS things for Christmas last year to help her avoid those, but damned if she knew how to use the thing. Besides, if she wanted someone to tell her how and where to drive she would get married again. Skippy wanted to come along but she had to refuse the poor boy. He was old enough now sure, but she still didn't want him exposed to the places or people they would, inevitably, be exposed to.
Slappy soon spotted the tell tale sign notifying drivers they would be approaching Toon Town. It had been ages since she had been here. Not that she didn't like that place, one town was as good as another, but the politics and noise drove her insane. Besides the idea that toons should or would want to live separately from the humans stunk of segregation to her. She had her fill of that from the twenties to the sixties. Or was it the fifties? Eh ether way she didn't care to be on the receiving end of it. Intentional or not. She jerked the wheel to her right dodging in front of some yuppie jerk in a convertible gabbing on one of those infernal cell phones, taking the last exit off the beltway leading into Toon Towns center. For the first time since they pulled out Dee looked up noting the exit number cutting her a quizzical look.
"I aint goin in the same way that quack Scratchandsniff did." Slappy answered his unspoken question. "Got other places to go besides Sing Sing there." This seemed enough for the only Warner in the van to have remained quiet throughout the trip as he returned to his previous position of quiet introspection. Peg and Psykko had been mopey to at first to but got over it quick enough once she hit the highway. She thought for a moment about slowing down, but nah. They deserved a little terror once in a while. Kept em on their toes. Put things in perspective real quick to. Maybe they would remember this for a while the next time they let some little thing send them flying off the handle.
Soon enough the speed limit lowered and the structures around them grew more dense. The crowd noticeably changed to as she saw a toon in an orange jumpsuit picking trash up from the side of the road under the gaze of a police officer. Poor shmuck probably got caught stealing or some other minor thing. Prison sentences was less common in toon town than good old hard labor for petty stuff. For the most part it worked. Oh there were still nasty bits here and there where you shouldn't walk around with your wallet in your back pocket, or your purse unprotected. Still it was a far cry from human neighborhoods like Oakland or Compton. At least no one here got shot, not that kill them anyway. Blackened perhaps. But dazed and a few bucks poorer was still a bad day over all as far as she saw it.
Finding her turn, Slappy continued directly toward the center of town. Traffic quickly thickened to a noisy snarl and slowed to a snails pace, seemingly coinciding with the height of the buildings. They were in the wealthier parts of town now and toons thickly lined the sidewalks moving about their daily lives oblivious to the world around them. None to soon for Slappy's taste they found their destination, and she pulled in front of the Hilton Toon Town. Again Dee looked up and shot her an incredulous look. Yakko, Wakko, and Dot seemed to take it in stride watching as a valet approached her rented van.
"I'm old! I'm not sleepin on some concrete mattress in no roach motel." She answered Dee's expression again. "And stop cuttin me looks. You got somethin to say then open your noise hole and say it!"
"Looks...expensive." Peg spoke up as the crowd trickled out of the van. Slappy surrendered the keys to the valet as porters unloaded their luggage. They all addressed her by name in a formal manner Peg was not accustomed to hearing applied to the elderly woman.
"Perhaps you forgot there kiddo, but I'm rich. Better be, I’ve been in the game long enough heh." Slappy smirked watching the youngest stumble out of the van and cling to his sister wide eyed, the last to emerge. She didn't know what went on between him and Wakko, but it seemed to do the trick. He hadn't been completely himself but at least he was talking and eating again. She had known a few humans like this one. Eventually she would drill it into his head as well that the world didn't exist solely to torment them. In the grand scheme of things no individual is that important. Toon or not you could be dead tomorrow. Wallowing in self pity and angst is no way to spend what time you have. Get mad sure, but deal with it and move on. All this emotion and pathos was enough to make her gag.
Slappy approached the front desk tapping the metal prong of her umbrella against the counter top edge gaining the attention of the toon behind, a domestic dog of some sort with a stiff practiced demeanor."Hey Mister Belvedere, some service over here!" He turned toward the motley knot of toons and nodded his head slightly, the motion almost seemed as forced as his attempt at a smile. Turning to the computer beside him, he pulled up their information.
"Ah yes, Miss Squirrel. I have your reservation here. You will want the double suite as usual I presume?"
Yakko fought hard not to laugh at the poor toons speech. He talked and moved like he had something jammed sideways up his ass. He wondered if they made him act this way or if he was like that all the time. He felt a great swell of pity for this mans wife and clapped his hands over his mouth to late to contain a quick bark of laughter at the images that sprang to mind, his siblings smiling up at him knowingly. Slappy glanced back at him and smirked, shaking her head as if she knew exactly what he was thinking. But then again she had always been good at getting inside their heads in a way few people could.
"You're way to pure to be thinking those thoughts young man." Slappy nudged Yakko in the elevator on their way to their room.
He grinned mischievously half heartedly attempting his innocent act. "I don't know what you could possibly be talking about."
"Yeah try that on someone that don't know you better." Slappy grinned. At least half the group seemed in good spirits. The cousins looked lost in their new surroundings however.
Peg had balked when they found out she had just taken what amounted to this hotels presidential suite. Initially she was only going to get a double room but decided it would be more fun to blow the cousins minds with this little indulgence. Besides this arrangement came with unlimited access to the spa, and she thought she could use a good massage from something tall dark and handsome. She was old after all, not dead.
Psykko simply looked confused and lost and Dee hadn't so much as cracked a smile. He simply stared blankly at the elevator door. That one Slappy reckoned would be a tougher nut to crack. This whole thing was a sore spot for him. Far to much so to be able to deal with his own feelings about it. Yeah she knew the type. Play it cool, stay in control, never let em see you sweat. He had all the practiced mannerisms of a card shark but none of the experience. She would crack him eventually to. Better to get all this crap out in the open and dealt with and stop beating around the bush.
The bed felt nice. Yakko sighed as he settled in to it remembering that sorry excuse for a bed he was on the last time they came this way. The room was the size of a house, occupying most of the top floor, with no less than four bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a Jacuzzi, and an impressive view of the Toon Town sky line. Granted it wasn't LA, but for a town comprised entirely of toons it was still a pretty good size. Enough so that the view was worth seeing.
"This is the life. Why don't we stay in places like this more often?" Yakko settled further into the plush comforter on the king sized bed he would be sharing with Dee.
"Something to do with people like that guy behind the desk?" Dee replied wearily. His shoulders slumped as he sat at the edge of the bed looking out over the multitude of lights that was Toon Towns skyline at night.
Yakko chuckled remembering the hushed jokes that were exchanged between him and his siblings on the way to the elevator. Moving on his knees behind Dee, he wrapped his arms around his shoulders hugging him gently. "Guys like him are easy enough to deal with. He's paid to kiss our asses no matter what we do. You think we're the only toons that ever gave this hotels staff a hard time? Remind me to introduce you to Daffy some time. When Bugs isn't around he's a real nut job. Oh speaking of Bugs he's pulled some doozies here to."
"You know Bugs?" Leaning into the hug, Dee looked over his shoulder cocking an eyebrow at Yakko. He seemed engaged for the first time today. They hadn't known about very many toons but Bugs presence was nearly impossible to ignore for the eldest. Yakko couldn't blame him. He was a great role model for any toon to look up to, and Dee needed all the role models he could get.
"Oh yeah, he even did a cameo on our show back in the day. We don't hang out much lately though, he’s been too busy. But we still stay in touch."
Yakko smiled, regaling his cousin with details about their associations with all the greatest toon actors over the years, dishing out some dirt on them in the process. In his own way he subtly tried to reinforce the idea that all toons were, on some level, irreverent screw balls. None of them really took themselves too seriously, none of the functioning toons anyway. They play their roles sure, but when things got too heavy even the biggest names in the business weren't above pranking an irritable director or flooding a producers car for a laugh.
Slappy popped her back with a grunt. Room service was running a little late. She hadn't felt like dragging the whole menagerie down to the restaurant and fussing over suitable clothes for the ragamuffins. Plus this gave her an excuse to lay on the couch and channel surf. Naturally there wasn't anything on. Even in Toon Town, ever since they took Looney Tunes and her own shows off the air, the boob tube had been in a steady decline. Nothing on anymore but reality shows news and fear mongering disaster predictions disguised as educational programs.
"Eh...maybe I shoulda brought Skippy."
"Whats the matter? We aren't entertainment enough?" Peg's sardonic tone broke her reverie. Slappy answered with a loud burp flicking through the channels uninterrupted.
"Thanks for sharing..." Peg responded sitting heavily in the chair across from the aging squirrel. Slappy was hard to figure. Sometimes she reminded her of her brothers. Sometimes she reminded her of things she shouldn't repeat. The old woman had her moments though, and despite fighting the sentiment tooth and nail, she had earned Peg's respect.
"Eh room service is runnin late. I'm gonna go see what the hold up is. Stay here and keep your brothers from destroying anything expensive." Slappy heaved and grunted hauling herself off the couch mumbling obscenities under her breath as she stepped out of the room followed only by Peg's amused gaze.
Stepping into the elevator and pressing the lobby button she was startled by a familiar voice behind her. "So that's them eh? There really is a family resemblance."
"So it's you then. I can't say I'm surprised. Who picks your wardrobe anyway? That disguise isn't foolin anyone." Slappy eyed the tall figure suspiciously. He smiled, his face hidden by a pair of corny sunglasses, and a wide brimmed fedora, his brown overcoat doing little to hide his feet or that ever present tail she knew was conspicuously peeking from behind it.
"Eh, people here don't care as much as they would in LA." He paused his expression changing. "You've been out of the loop too long Slappy. Things have gotten messy. We Didn't catch this one soon enough."
"I'll say. Whats going on here? Why dump this lot off on me? I wouldn't have taken this little project if you hadn't called when you did. We're even now by the way." Slappy crossed her arms scowling at him. She was tempted to let em have it right here and now but she didn't want or need the attention explosions in an elevator shaft would inevitably bring.
"Probably more than even Slappy." He admitted. "For this we probably owe you one. Things could have been a lot worse than they turned out to be. Still could be! Too messy, too many loose ends to tie up here. I hate to repeat myself but I don't think I gotta tell ya whats at stake."
"Yeah yeah save me the sermon." Slappy waved him off. It wasn't the first time she had defended the fragile agreements between toons and humans, and it wouldn't be the last. But he was right. Nothing had ever come this close to going public and throwing their whole world into chaos.
"This meetin with David, It's dangerous. We figured Dee was safe enough, and we were fortunately right. But his siblings Slappy..." He trailed off looking into space for a second, collecting his thoughts.
'He looks tired.' She thought, watching him lift his hat to run a gloved hand through his hair. She wondered how much sleep the rabbit had been missing in the past few days. The job, she knew, came with a price. And he was the latest chosen to serve. For a moment her heart softened and she, for a moment, almost caved.
"You know why they gotta go through with this though. How did you feel when your fathers passed away? Hell you were there when Yakko and the others lost theirs. They never even got to say goodbye. We, at least, did. Right or wrong he is their creator, and they deserve this much. You would never forgive yourself if they didn't."
He sighed as she spoke nodding slightly. He knew that this, like many of the facts of life often clashed with what was most expedient or logical. "I know. I won't try to stop ya-"

"That's wise." She interrupted.
"-Heh, just be careful with this Slappy. We will be around to help after this. My term is ending soon anyway, so I'll be gettin more involved myself. I’ve kinda missed the kids anyway. Gettin ta know their cousins could be fun to." He smiled donning his fedora again as the elevator doors opened on the lobby. "See ya around Slappy."
"Yeah." She waved half heartedly. "See ya around Bugs." She mumbled as the doors slid shut between them. Since the call she had known the toon council was involved, but she didn't suspect it would be this intimate. The semi autonomous toon government, that in her time had strove for a modicum of anonymity and unobtrusiveness, had apparently changed. Though so to had the times.
She was brought from her thoughts by the gentle beep from the elevator, the doors sliding quietly open on her floor. She discovered as she reached their room that room service had, conveniently, just arrived. She had to wonder if the delay was intentional. This was going to be a strange, trying weekend.
"Are you sure this is what you want Doc? Do you have any idea what you're doing?"
"Just help me get in will ya?"
"Your funeral. Don't say I didn't warn ya."
"You! Stop!"
"This is where you scream...father."
Dee woke with a start, sitting upright with his heart pounding in his ears. Oh, what had he done? No, David. Images returned unbidden. Bloody hands about the throat of his creator, his father. His hands. His own twisted laughter reverberating off the walls of his fathers sundered cell. The sound of boots, and panicked voices thundering behind, his every step dogged by the cries and incoherent wails of an endless score of maniacs through the dank, dimly light corridors, reality warping as walls seemed to curl toward him as if to consume him, claiming another soul for it's cells. Alone, barred windows, too clean, no smell, no sense of time, reality as close yet just as unreachable as the light that shone in. Smug robotic doctors, and technicolor pills to make you sleep, make you quiet. Gigantic brutes for when you weren't.
Dee ran a shaking hand through his hair, the sound of his ragged breath abating as reality slowly, as if to prolong his torment, filtered in, the features of his room filling the void. His mind teetered on the knifes edge of consciousness, the only sounds reaching him were the rustle of crisp sheets and soft breath that wasn't his own. He started before memory and reason became his again. The trip, the hotel, the snooty desk clerk, the promise he made to himself and to David that he had no means of keeping, all of it.
'Why did I even bother saying that to him? I should have known she wouldn't stand for it. I should have planned this out better.' Dee sighed rubbing his eyes, willing the images from his mind. 'It's not that easy Dee Dee.' A familiar voice reached his mind penetrating his thoughts. 'You know you won't be rid of me that easy. You can't escape what I made you to be. Your failure to stop it was inevitable child.' Dee clasped his hands to his head his fingers digging into his scalp as pain bit into his temples. The headaches had been getting worse over the past week, but this one hit so suddenly, and with such force, it made his vision spin.
'Dammit go away! I'm nothing like you!' His rational mind screamed as shadow descended on his conscience like coal tar.
'Of course you are little Dee Dee. You are exactly as I made you. Eventually you will come to accept this. Struggle all you like but in the end you are-.'
"Are you ok?" Yakko mumbled softly, stirring in his linen cocoon, sliding a hand up Dee’s back. "I thought I heard you cr-"
"Yeah. Yeah it was just a nightmare." Dee released his grip on his skull.
"Are you sure-"
"I just need some air." As quick as it came, the voice was gone again. For once Dee was grateful for Yakko's constant intrusion on his introspection. The voice slipped back into the recesses of his mind, the sharp pain behind his eyes going with it until the next time he lost control. The prospect of more sleep was beginning to make him ill. He would be damned if he relied on some pill to put him back in that place. At this rate he would wind up an insomniac.
Slipping out of sweat soaked sheets, Dee made his way to the balcony, thankful for this extravagance at least, though the pomp of his surroundings still left him feeling out of place. Silently he slid the glass door aside slipping out into the cool air that prickled against his nude form, bringing with it goose bumps and shudders. He was cold, he was here. It felt nice. It felt real. The skyline was unchanged from when he last saw it not but a handful of hours before. This was real, he reminded himself. Not that other place, not that other person. Here he was just a down on his luck musician. Here he was his own person. He had control over his actions. Here he wasn't a monster.
Dee sighed, folding his arms against the cold metal hand rail resting his chin on them as he looked out at the flickering lights and the seemingly unending flow of traffic. From here everything seemed somehow smaller, less significant. The only thing that existed was the light cool breeze, and the dull white noise of the constant buzz below. Despite its relatively small size compared to LA, Toon Town never seemed to sleep. Idly he wondered where all those toons were in such a hurry to reach at this hour. What was so interesting to do at this time of night? Dee closed his eyes inhaling the night air willing his mind to be still. Things couldn't keep going this way. Never had he so desired to put an end to a thing. Or a person.
"Care to clue me in?" Dee shook his head at the familiar voice behind him, warm arms encircling him, a comfortable familiar weight on his back. He didn't move to dislodge him. At this point Dee would take all the comfort he could get. Anything to feel whole, real, alive.

"Ah. That again eh? Look, I've said this a thousand times already." Yakko’s hands slid up to his chest, mutual nude forms, small and fragile in the night, dragging his attention to the here and now. "You can't keep shutting the world out Dee. Believe it or not I do know where you are coming from. I seem to recall a certain sibling-"
"Look it was just a dream ok? It doesn't mean anything." Dee interrupted growing annoyed.
"-was always interrupting cool stories to, and feeling sorry for himself." Yakko continued, his hands still distractingly sliding along Dee’s exposed torso. "You're soaked by the way. Did you wet the bed?” Getting little more than a grunt in response he continued. “Funny how they work. Emotions I mean. I heard self pity was moist. I wouldn't know mind you-"
"Were you always so annoying?" Dee stood, turning to his cousin, pulling him closer. "Or has it taken this long to master?"
"I like to stay in practice. Much like you and angst. Unusual for a toon, but honestly I think you have it down. Kudos." Yakko tossed his head to the side flippantly. Just as sudden his mood turned sober as he regarded his sullen cousin. Misery wasn't an emotion toons were prone to experience under normal circumstances, let alone dwell on. Though Dee could hardly be called normal, and his circumstances weren't something to his memory any toon had to endure. Sometimes Yakko forgot just how chronologically young he really was. And different. More like a human in some respects than a toon really, though he could see the familiar glimmer in his eyes even now. For a moment he had to wonder just how successful David's experiment had really been. It wasn't fair for any toon Dee's age to be thrust in the position he was in. It was no surprise he was beginning to crack. Still, there was hope. Though he was at a loss of how to show him.
"What am I supposed to do huh? You tell me, you know every damn thing." Dee growled. "My creator is a mad man that wants me to kill people, my sister hates me, my baby brother is a head case I can't take my eyes off of, or he might hurt someone, my community would tar and feather me for what I've done to save the two of them, oh and by the way, we're as good as fucking slaves to a company that wants me to do things I'm not even certain I'm capable of! Am I leaving anything out, or are there some new wrinkles I haven't anticipated? Cause I would really love to fucking know!" Dee's fur stood on end as he stepped back from his cousin leaning against the rail. It seemed like everything was falling in on him at once, and he couldn't keep the words from tumbling out. He knew none of this was Yakko's fault and it wasn't fair to take it out on him, but dammit if he wouldn't stop meddling.
"You have no idea what it's like! How am I supposed to explain it when even I don't even know?" Dee finished, looking back out toward the skyline as he gripped the hand rail so tightly he vaguely feared it might give way.
"Don't I?" Yakko responded lowly, his voice acquiring a tone that gave him pause. He looked back toward his cousin, his dark eyes reflecting something Dee couldn't read, his expression blank.

"Prove me wrong." He responded, his hackles rising. "Ok, you've been through some things, you've lived a long time, but at least you were-"
"What?" Yakko interrupted. "You were going to say 'drawn right'? How do you know, huh? Tell me, do you even know what right is? No, of course you don't, because you refuse to sit down, shut up, and fucking listen for once! I'm not out here for my health Dee! I'm tired, I'm cold, and I'm hungry. I have shit to do, I have my own siblings to worry about, and my own concerns that stretch back nearly a century! The last thing I want is to be out in the cold arguing with a naked man that should be in my bed holding me instead of feeling sorry for his self!" Yakko clinched his fists and looked away breathing deeply before looking back to Dee, once again under control. Toon emotions were much stronger than their human counterparts, but with practice they could be controlled much more finely. Even so, it took him a long time to learn how, and it served him well over the years. He was going to drill it into Dee's head to if it killed him. You can only run on instinct so long before it yields.
Yakko sighed and ran his hand through his hair collecting his thoughts. He couldn't keep holding back his own history and expect to have any real effect on this obstinate jackass. Maybe it was past time he clued him in to his families past, and some of their less than shining moments. Though, if he was being honest with himself he didn't really want to. "Look, just humor an old man will ya? Come inside, and at least listen. You don't have to cry on my shoulder, but you could at least learn from my mistakes, and brother I've made some doozies."
'It's gotta be here somewhere. I hate when things go missing for no reason.' Wakko cringed at the sounds coming from the bathroom and redoubled his efforts. It had seemed like such a simple thing. He could have sworn Psykko would have no trouble with it. It was only a nightstand after all, and he was certain Psykko was an eater like himself. He had seen him bite through things that would give even Wakko trouble, and he seemed to have the appetite for it, so he tried to show him how he managed to swallow the things he did when asked. His attempt seemed successful at first, as the nightstand vanished in a cloud of splinters and horrid shredding sounds. Though an hour later his stomach started cramping and sure enough he wound up in position he was in now. It seemed like such an elementary lesson to.
"Ah! Found it! Acme lil' glutton stomach relief. When your belly is to full of grub, drink this down you greedy shlub." Wakko grinned as he read the bottle. Acme may have made a lot of duds in their time, but their pharmaceutical department wasn't one of them, and made some of the most effective medicines for toons in the world. He always kept a bottle or two of this around just in case he got carried away at some buffet, or swallowed something mildly radioactive. Time would tell if it had the same effect on Psykko. Poor kid. It seemed for the time being that his only talents were music and wanton destruction.
"The next person that tries to make me swallow a table is gonna get it." Psykko croaked as he downed half the bottle of pink chalky fluid Wakko thrust at him. It tasted like crap. Chalky crap. And it looked like Dot's wardrobe had a bowel movement in a bottle. Wakko was right though, as his stomach began to settle almost instantly, though he still felt unsteady from his labors. Dammit why couldn't he do this? What went wrong? He hated his limitations more than he did his situation, and the sense of vulnerability it gave him put him in an ever worsening mood. He wanted to punch something, but he felt like if he stood he would lose what little fluid his body yet retained. Psykko swore to himself he would get this. He would be damned if he let some silly kids prank beat him.
Wakko beamed as his charge began to settle down, happy for once that he managed to actually fix something. He noticed Dee stood in the door watching as Wakko fish out a second and third bottle, going through his entire stash of meds with a strange look on his face. Wakko would need to stock up again before they left Toon Town. He noticed Dee had been acting strangely the whole morning. In fact everyone had been. Yakko wasn't talking his ear off, and just lay on the couch napping, Slappy for once wasn't cussing or grousing about random things, and just sat in the living room sulking about something, he didn't know. He wished he knew what every ones problem was. He hoped they weren't mad at him, he was fixing it. They couldn't still be that pissed off about the whole David thing. Could they?
Though thinking back on it he supposed it was possible. It had been a long time after Lon's death that the pain went away for them. It still hurt to talk about, or even think about really. But it was nothing like it had been in the beginning. He wanted to share what they had been through with his cousins, but Yakko asked he and Dot not to till he breached the subject with them first. At the time he still didn't fully trust them, but that was months ago and Yakko hadn't said anything about it since. It was all so complicated, and he was really bad at talking about all this emotional crap. He would just be happy to have the whole thing over with, and get to know his cousins better.
"What? No. Slappy Squirrel! Yes. Yes already! What do you mean no? You can't deny visitation, it's a families right to- Stop interruptin me ya mug!" Slappy shook her fist at the unseen nurse on the other end of the line. Permission forms, scheduling conflicts, short staff, a million excuses and none of them would hold water if submerged. All this passive resistance felt like a bunch of rabbit nonsense. She thought it might happen though. One new Warner seeing David they could possibly trust, or at least control. All three of them they feared might present a problem. She couldn't say she blamed them, but this subtly crap was getting on her nerves. It certainly wasn't getting her any closer to her own bed or back to Skippy. He had grown into quite a handsome young man, and with all the strange girls that had been hanging around lately she was worried he might get into something she would rather not deal with. Like babies. Shuddering inwardly, she turned her attention back to the phone just in time to hear the line disconnect. Bastard hung up on her! Maybe it was time to force the issue.
With the youngest being ill there might be problems with an impromptu road trip though. Ideally she would rather wait a day till he recovered, but they might not have that much time before they start putting in road blocks or posting agents all over the place, if they hadn't already. Leaving him here wasn't an option ether. Even sick she feared what trouble he might get into. He had already vanished on them a couple times. Mostly innocent things like the aquarium grabbing his attention, or getting a bit to curious about that one guy in the lobby for his comfort, but she wouldn't want to play the odds on how long it would take for someone to get cross with him and wind up on the business end of all those teeth and claws. Kid had all the cuddly personality of the Tasmanian Devil but God only knew how much more intellect. Wakko had long since filled her in on his budding engineering ability. A talent that might someday rival his own. He would be hard to stop when he got older. Speaking of older she was getting too old for this crap. If this pace kept up she was going to have to find a good animator to shave a few years off just so she could bust some heads. She was loathe to toy with her shtick, it made her a lot of money in the nineties, but if that's what it took, then dammit she would.
Pulling herself back to reality, she began to formulate a plan. She tried to put herself in Bugs position. He might have anticipated something sudden and rash from her if he thought she might feel pinned in. Slappy would have to call in some favors. Picking up the phone again she grinned inwardly. He might expect something in return, but she knew a certain toon that was old hat at delicate situations. Though it might take longer than she would like. Patience wasn't her most practiced virtue.
"Bout time you got here." The grey squirrel grinned as the raven folded his long coat and doffed his fedora. He settled into the booth across from her without a word, an amicable grin on his beak. Slappy knew that grin could mean any number of things, and rightly never trusted it. Back in the forties when she first met him, Ray Raven was the dangerous sort. A free agent, thief, and enforcer for various mobs both toon and human since the twenties. He was the kind of toon you never usually associated with. The years hadn't changed him much, except that he had grown a few morals. But only a few.
"Slappy, it's been years!" Ray puffed the short stub of cigar clinched in the side of his beak grinning wider as he looked her over. "You changed lady."
"It's called old, and it happens to the best of us. You mind puttin out that stogie there? I aint here to turn my lungs to leather." Slappy fanned the fowl smelling smoke aside with a scowl. It was a disgusting habit a lot of older toons picked up from the humans of the age. It never made sense to her even back then. Tobacco had no effect on their kind.
Chuckling, he ground the stub into the ashtray shaking his head. "Nice ta know some things haven't changed. Lemme buy ya a drink, looks like you could use one." The hotels bar was perhaps not the most tasteful place to meet. She abhorred alcohol, and everything that it had done to her, but it was dark and private. Patrons minded their own business, and she didn't want a lot of eavesdroppers.
"Nah, gave that up a while back. Some things do change ya know." Slappy waved off his offer shuddering inwardly at the memories it brought forth. She had never been a subtle woman but at least when sober she had some self control. In her youth alcohol had been the cause of a lot of problems, a lot of regrets she still tried to make good on. It never brought the comfort it promised.
"Suit yourself sister." Ray shrugged and snapped his fingers at the waiter till, with a scowl, the young toon took his order. "Bourbon mac, on the rocks. Don't hold out on the bourbon, see?" Nodding stiffly the human toon made his way to the bar and returned shortly with the wide squat glass filled nearly to the rim, turning away without a word.
"Now there's a sight for sore eyes." Ray grinned, unperturbed, taking a long swig before sighing and leaning back against the booth. He leveled his gaze at her, his eyes as dark, smoky, and unreadable they had always been. He was as dangerous, and alluring as she remembered. It was enough to make an old woman swoon.
"Now leave us get ta business. What can I do for you?" His half lidded eyes gazed into her as much as at her. It had always set her nerves on end when she was younger, but with the years it phased her little.
"Right to the point eh? Fine. I filled you in on most of it already." Slappy leveled her own gaze back at him, their mental tennis match begun.
"Yeah yeah, nutty kids, nutty dad, possible...obstacles. Though in the details department I find myself wanting. If ya want our help I need ta know everything. Don't hold back on the gory parts for my sake." He grinned again running a feathered finger round the rim of his glass, the ice clinking against the side as it melted.
The meeting went surprisingly well. He did after all owe her for her refusal to testify. If things went the way she hoped then by tomorrow every agent in the county would be on his ass and not hers. It was a rotten way to call in a favor, but it was the best they could do on such short notice. Besides Ray said he enjoyed keepin 'The coppers on their 'big flat feet'. She really hated to do this to Bugs. She considered him a friend. But he really ought notta get in her way.
"Who was that enigmatic gentleman you were just speaking with?" Slappy's instincts had, predictably, been right. She eyed the rabbit toon, with a sour expression. One of Bugs’s goons. He had all the markings of an agent alright. Snappy black suit, ear phone, dark glasses, bulge under his coat that could only be a side arm, it was all so corny. If he was trying to blend in it wasn't working. He stuck out like a sore thumb, all pretense at stealth forgotten in what would normally be a reckless display of curiosity. Everyone in the lobby seemed to give him a wide birth, staff included.
"Just an old friend mac. I still have those you know, friends. Remember what those were like? Since when is that any of your business there?" Slappy poked the stiff rabbit in the chest with her umbrella eliciting little more than a less than satisfactory wince. "Aint you got somethin better to do then followin me all day? Like your job?"
"Following you around all day, Ms. Squirrel, is my job." The rabbit responded, raising an eyebrow.
"That include harassing an old lady in the middle of a hotel lobby? Heh! You tell that meddling hare to stay out of my business, or I'll blow you both to kingdom come." She glared at the agent getting too close for his comfort, and drawing the attention of passers by. She waved her hands dramatically in his face shooing him away. "Now buzz off! Go stalk something your own age."
'Annoying twit. Still, he won't stop just because I embarrassed him. I'll bet my AARP card he's not the only one ether.' Slappy groused in the elevator. 'Who do these lack wits think I am anyway?' In her day you would never even have spotted them. The Agency was the unseen unheard invisible hand the Toon Town government used to break the organized crime that ran rampant since before prohibition. In her day most Toons or Humans for that matter never even knew of their existence. Where were the disguises, the misdirection, the training? These kids, over confidant and reckless to let themselves be so visible. Just made them easier to step around. If this was the state things had degenerated to then she pitied every other branch of Toon Town government. How far had they fallen? It's no damn wonder some goon like David slipped under their nose. Maybe all this would do them some good then, show these rubes how vulnerable you made yourself when you stood on a pedestal.
Slappy nodded to herself in resolution as she snatched up her umbrella stepping out of the elevator. The die was cast, the path was clear, and now all that was left is to wait. It wouldn't take long, knowing Ray it wouldn't be small ether. He was mum on the details and she was glad of it. She didn't want, or need to know. Plausible deniability was another skill the agency lacked. She hadn't forgotten though.
At least he wasn't hurling anymore. Peg sighed as she gently stroked her baby brothers ears. He was currently asleep in her arms, his face the picture of innocence. She knew that was both true and false. Psykko was a hard one to figure. Violently defensive of himself and his family one moment, sweet and loving the next, and recklessly curious and playful in between. David had always said he had great potential, but she never knew what he meant till now. It can't be true, no one would raise a toon just for that. They would be caught, imprisoned, worse even. It made no sense to her. No one was so cold or heartless to bring a life into this world just to throw it away. Were they? No, there had to be a misunderstanding. This wasn't the David she knew. Was it?
Psykko stirred beside her nuzzling into her side with a soft grunt. She couldn't help but smile as she ran her fingers through his wild hair. Despite what might be wrong with him, he was still a child, still her baby brother. Everything else took a distant second seat to her family, even that proud, clumsy dick head Dee. 'Humans are what they are.' Peg recalled her conversation with Dot the night before, one of the few sincere ones they had since meeting. 'They don't stick around very long, no matter how much we might want them to. Your brothers will be there as long as you are though. Do you really want to spend that much time alienated from them? Pride has a high price sweetie, and the payoff isn't worth it by a long shot.'
Maybe she was right, but this still stuck in her craw. He should have told them, he should have trusted them. It isn't protection when you lie to your family just to save some hurt feelings, or a screaming match. Peg was loud, she would grant her brother that. That was just who she was. She had never had Dee's level of control and never desired it. What was the point? It will just come out eventually. Scream, throw things, feel bad, let the whole world know how much it sucks, and get over it. There is no point in hiding it just to get along. It felt silly and fake. She was a lot of things but never a liar.
Then again, maybe that's why Dee felt he had to be. He had always tried to be the sensible one. 'You can't fight the world Peg, We have to live with these people Peg, Put that man down Peg.' Is there anything she did that he approved of? Maybe if she followed his advice, and stopped letting every little impulse go straight to her fists he wouldn't have so much to bitch about. Dammit, why did she have to pick now to grow a conscience?
"So that's the plan. It'll take a little longer than I wanted, but with so many eyes on us right now it's our only option." Slappy sat back eyeing Dee. He seemed to take most of the information in stride, his expression never betraying more than casual disinterest. There were tells though, however subtle. Finger tip threatening to rub a hole in the table top, twitchy tail, ears drooping just so when he heard something he didn't care for. She would have to show him how to cover those. Yakko by comparison was more animated, firing a barrage of questions whenever she stopped to breath or think, or pelting Dee with pretzels or gold fish from the massive bowel occupying most of the center of the table when he wasn't talking, aggravating the hell out of Dee in the process. Never had she seen such an appropriately named boy.
"Can this guy be trusted- Dammit stop that." Dee finally spoke, batting away yet another barrage of flying food glaring as Yakko snickered. He was having entirely to much fun at Dee's expense. He would pay for this later, Dee swore darkly to himself.
"Of course he can't." Slappy stifled a grin as Dee's eye twitched, nearly staring a hole in the center of the table. Bless him he was trying. "But he'll do what he said he would." She assured him, holding up her hand and cutting off his response. "We need a distraction, something to get some people off our backs. Ray will do that much. Toons aren't policed like humans. We don't have as many agents, since generally laws here are more relaxed about some things, and toons aren't as prone to overstep the boundaries of what we consider fair play. We're using that assumption to our advantage kiddo."
"Who the hell came up with this hare brained scheme again?" Dee's expression soured. This seemed like a lot of trouble to go through just to be able to visit one crazed human, even if it was his father. Why the obstruction? It was stupid, and over complicated, and it was...just like a fuckin toon.
"Sun Tzu." Slappy grinned. "A human. Don't you ever read those books I gave you? Strike where your opponent isn’t."
"It's a tactic some gangs used in the early nineteen hundreds through the twenties, back in our more rowdy days when there were fewer of us in the first place, and no solid code of conduct. Back then humans and toons hadn't sorted out how their laws applied to us, or even what rights we had, if any. Sort of like our wild west." Yakko added, toying with a pretzel, wondering if he could get it to fit around the end of Dee's ear. "I thought all those guys went legit though."
"Nah, some of them just went underground. Ray is one of em. Don't worry about it, like I said the guy owes me a favor. It took me seventy years but I guess this is as good a time as any to collect, heh." Slappy rocked back in her chair eyeing the pair. She couldn't give any details, but she had stressed early on that was part of it. They didn't want to be connected to any other party any more than they already were. Her own sense of frustration had begun to match Dee's. It was an awful lot of trouble. She hoped Peg appreciated the effort they were going through, let alone what all this was doing to her brother. Slappy would make sure Peg understood if she had to beat it into her with her own mallet. This song and dance was getting old.
"You can say one thing for Ray, the man don't waste time." Slappy grinned watching the local news. Every channel had the same thing. Three Banks, several pawn shops, two electronics stores, a toy store, and an adult novelty store, dozens of other businesses small and large all reporting break-ins, or having been completely cleaned out. Security footage was vague and no one could accurately describe the perpetrators except that they were tall, wore long black coats, and no one could make out their faces. Slappy stifled a chuckle as the reporter she was watching flailed his arms wildly, wailing about the bad old days and a loss of morals. Her grin widened as the same reporter interviewed an agent. Another rabbit toon with a thick Brooklyn accent who declared they would spare no expense in finding "doze wise guys" and "trowin da book attem".
"This is sad. Why do they always pick the least articulate people for stuff like this? " Slappy mused as everyone filtered into the living room for once dressed and quiet and ready to move.
"Looks like we got our window." Dee muttered and jerked his head toward the door. "Leave us scram before they figure out what happened."
Despite the situation he couldn't help but feel a little excited. Perhaps finally they could get some closure and put this nightmare behind them. He wanted to get this over with and go...home? Heh, funny how that place had so quickly become home. Enough so that he looked forward to getting back to it and restarting his routine at any rate. Perhaps even normalizing his relationship with his sister, though he didn't know how long it would take. Ether way, with all this behind them they would have time. No more holding back, no more lies. He just wanted his family back.
Slappy turned the television off with a nod, snatching up her umbrella. The valet had been called ahead of time, their route planned out to avoid as much attention as possible. The air crackled with anticipation as they filtered out and with a barely audible click Slappy closed the door behind them.
'Well so far so good.' Slappy mused as they pulled up to the gate to Loopy Acres. The ride there hadn't been to eventful. They only had to duck under the windows once or twice and lose a couple agents, skirting around a nasty traffic jam, and turning an alley way into a disaster area in the process, but they were there. Strange though that the gate was wide open. Shouldn't it be closed? Something was off. They knew better than to compromise their perimeter with so many dangerous toons in their care. As they slowly drove past, one look told her why. The gate hinges were bent, the pleasantly bland white paint over the wrought iron scuffed a black and grey, the bars bent inward, the gates askew. What the Fudd was going on here?
She got her answer soon enough as they followed the winding road up the green wooded hill. The evil lego had company, and lots of it. The front of the facility was packed with black vans, and plain cars, the spaces in between filled with humans in dark suits, the door a veritable wall of humanity, and all of them had plenty of time to see Slappy's rental van coming. 'FBI. Shit.' That damn rabbit anticipated this somehow. The air in the van was thick with dread and unease. No one had any idea what these people would try to do once they arrived. If they tried to grab them there would be a fight. One the humans couldn't win, but would no doubt attempt. To late to turn back now, and if they tried they would no doubt be chased clear around the planet before they stopped. No way they were getting inside with these goons in the way ether. This move made no sense. Toons had never relied on humans before to solve internal matters, and Bugs opinion was no different than hers on the matter. Why now? Thinking quickly, she tried to compose options, think of some way out of this, a bylaw, regulation, jurisdiction issue, anything.

By the time she got to the entrance she was frantic, a strange barely audible keening noise emanating behind her made it hard for her to concentrate. Dee may as well of been a statue, and Yakko had long since forgotten his vocabulary cussing a streak that would make a sailor blush. As she pulled to a stop, a hundred pairs of human eyes fell on them, none friendly in the slightest. On the contrary they looked mad enough to spit. The atmosphere was tense, fists balling, hands slipping into inventories to find any weapons they had on hand, the sound of fabric ripping as Psykko drug claws up the sides of his seat, teeth bared, his face twisted in a rigor of naked rage. Slappy herself was mentally preparing to throw a few bombs having already taken a rough head count, when from out of the sea of hormones and emotion a familiar face stepped out of the crowd, a pair of ears picking its way through, pushing men aside here and there, those arrogant eyes, that smug expression. Slappy's anxiety turned to anger, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the steering wheel so hard it creaked in protest. The van grew quiet once again as a white gloved finger tapped on her window.
"You." Slappy growled through clinched teeth.
"You were expecting maybe David Duchovny?" Bugs responded, glib as ever. "Eh, since you're here and all, what say we head inside and have a talk. This aint exactly the place for it, see?" Bugs cast a side long glance at the humans through narrowed eyes. Looking about Slappy noticed details that at first eluded her. The door was jammed with toon asylum guards menacing the human agents, the facility head doctor, and a few other administrative officials, all appearing flustered and embarrassed. The humans didn't appear much happier ether, with some talking animatedly into their cell phones. Others milling about and generally looming in front of the only door in or out. 'So they didn't expect us. Interesting.'
"As always, your sense of timing is impeccable." Bugs quipped as they made their way to the administrative offices amongst a tight knot of toon agents and doctors fluttering their hands, as they admonished the council to do something. Dee hadn't been to this part of the facility on their last ill fated visit. It still lacked personality but it wasn't as cold or overly sterile as the rest of the place. Still, he suppressed a shudder and resisted the urge to knock a hole in the nearest wall and get the hell out of there. He knew, just a few feet in any direction he would be back in those same hallways that haunted his dreams. And a few feet in a certain direction was him. Thinking about it made his head hurt. He knew this wasn't going to be pleasant even if they allowed them to see him. Considering the current situation he didn't think that would happen now, but Peg was persistent. Things were complicated beyond his imagining at this point. Let alone his ability to control. No that ship had sailed days ago.
'You have gotta be kidding me.' Peg fumed as she glared at the toons milling about, jabbering in near panic. Psykko clung to her side pulling closer to her whenever someone got to close, the movement drawing her attention as he hissed or snapped defensively at them. Looking down at him, her expression softened and she ran her fingers through his hair which comically sprang back into place in their wake. She could tell he was trying to be good and not hiss and growl at the adults around them but it wasn't easy and impulse control was never his strong suit. She was in the edge herself, so she couldn't imagine the effort it took him just to keep from jumping the nearest nurse and clipping his head neatly off his overly muscled shoulders.
That he hadn't was nothing short of a miracle. Wakko had managed to do with him in six months what they had failed to do in the few short years they had been alive. She had to wonder what those two talked about when they weren't around. She had to admit they are all changing a little at a time though. Dee said it wasn't a bad thing. Peg had to wonder if that was true. She chose, for now, to trust her asshole brother. His tactics aside, he really was trying to look out for them. 
He was going to have to learn to return that trust however, and start discussing these things with them. For the tenth time in as many minuets she replayed their argument in her head. It still stung that he hid so much from them. For what? All to save a few hurt feelings, a screaming match? Or maybe he was afraid she would go to David with all this and tip him off? No. He trusted her further than that. He didn't want her to be involved so if their betrayal did come to light he would be the only one held responsible. She understood that much, at least after her last talk with Slappy. None of these toon laws had meant anything to her, nor was she familiar with any of them. But Dee had known. He had tried like an idiot to carry the burden himself. Chivalry wasn't dead, it was stupid. Peg huffed and stroked Psykko's ear, swearing to herself that she would make Dee trust them even if that meant embracing the change she had resisted all this time.
"Wadda ya mean we can't see him!?" Psykko narrowed his eyes at the tall bunny baring his teeth, at the unimpressed authority figure.
"Look kiddo I've already explained it twice. We can't move him out of his cell with half the states FBI agents outside, ready to beat the door in. It's to big a risk, the doc's say too much stimulation could send your David over the edge and besides-"
"Bullshit!" Psykko snarled, his sister not far behind. "They're outside, how the hell will they know? You keep comin up with excuses, but it's all bullshit!" Dee restrained Psykko by his hood as he flailed his arms and kicked at the desk clawing the cheap plastic veneer to pieces in the process.
As Psykko ranted and threw the sum of his frustration against the implacable toon Dee sighed and inwardly agreed with him. Since they had arrived, nether the agents or the doctors had made a move against them all on Bugs orders. He had to give him credit for that. But nether had he budged thus far on allowing them to fulfill their whole reason for being here. This wasn't the Bugs Bunny he was hoping to meet. This bureaucrat was not the irreverent rebellious figure he had come to know. No, this Bugs Bunny was tired, pulled in different directions, and if he was reading him right conflicted about what to do with them. This Bugs could very well do something stupid if he wasn't reminded of who he was and soon.
"Is this what your fathers taught you?" Dee finally uttered, his brother and sister stopping mid sentence looking up at him. "To abandon them when everyone else said so? To ignore your responsibility-"
"Do not pretend to tell me what I'm responsible for!" Bugs hissed as he stood eye to eye with the elder Warner. "I've been doing this job since before your twisted little daddy in there was even born! Every toon in the country is affected by everything I do, so don't you dare lecture me about responsibility! You put him here!" The rabbit roared shoving the desk aside like it was made of paper his eyes red, his teeth bared as months of stress, so uncharacteristic of a toon, was released in a matter of minuets.
"To save my family!" Dee roared back, his own temper breaking as his sister weaved in and snatched up her baby brother before the two started swinging. "Tell me old man, what does all your experience have to say about that? That's right, not a god damn thing! You didn't even know David existed until I told you! You didn't know where he was until I told you! None of you mother fuckers had any idea what the hell he was doing until I! Fucking! told you! I'm supposed to be the bad guy here, but I've done more to keep your precious balance in check than the rest of you blind shit heads put together!"
In the back of Dee's mind he willed himself, begged himself to shut up, but he couldn't. He watched almost detached as his vision narrowed on the enraged face he idolized, his hands about his collar shacking, him like a rag doll on each syllable spoken. 'He's lighter than I thought he would be.' His detached self mused as his vision began to go dark. He didn't know why or how but be half heard half felt the thud as he hit the ground in slow motion.
'I told you little Dee Dee, they don't understand you. They will hate you, oppress you, oppose you simply because they fear you.' The needling voice chimed at his subconscious as his head swam with images, half formed, incoherent, moving too fast to register. He stood before a shadow, enveloping him on all sides, narrow eyes, wide drooling smile, crooked hands about his chest. Strangely enough he felt no fear for this apparition, just...pity. And shame for him, that he had fallen so far. 'And I told you David. You don't own me. You can't sway me. You can't blame me. The sum of your ambition ends here. An impotent voice inside my head, where no one else can hear or see. No fame, no attention, no glory. No not even infamy. Soon David, soon you won't even have that. You can feel it can't you? Despite all your whispering, all your fury, all your petty attempts to sabotage me, I'm winning!'
He felt more than heard the scream of frustration in his mind as the images faded to the recesses, his consciousness slowly returning though his mind was still a haze. Sharp pain behind his eyes. It bite into his skull like a thousand angry insects eliciting a groan, as Dee clamped his hand over his eyes pressing his thumb into his temple. He opened them braving the searing fluorescent light overhead, shapes coming into focus. Faces, some worried some strangely satisfied, some scowling.
"What happened?" Dee pursed his lips, his tongue felt thick and unresponsive. He couldn't form a cogent phrase if his life depended on it. It was Peg who answered first propping him up slowly as she did so.
"You and Mister Bunny over there got in a fight." She smirked as Dee gingerly turned his head and raised an eyebrow. "You know how many times he kicked you in the head while you were shaking him like a noisy infant?" She snickered, or was that Psykko? Ether way, someone found this terribly amusing. He barely registered as she continued. "I'm surprised to stayed upright as long as you did. You even threw him clear across the room before he knocked you out. Heh! Didn't know you had it in ya."
Dee narrowed his barely functioning eyes at his sister for a moment before looking down in his lap, his ears slumping. "What I just did...could get us in a lot of trouble. Don't...don't let me catch ether of you..." He couldn't finish what he was about to say. At this point he felt like the biggest hypocrite on the planet. The look of admiration his little brother gave him stung. Of all the stupid times to lose it, of all the people to lose it on...
"Don't worry about it to much kiddo, that ain't the first time someone's given that hare the business. Hell if you hadn't done it I would of!" Slappy patted him roughly on the back eliciting another groan as the needles in his head returned. She cackled like a mad woman as she addressed an equally deflated looking rabbit. "Hey Bugs, did you see how far you flew? I thought he was gonna fling your sorry ass clean back to Albuquerque! HA! Lookit the hole your noggin left in the wall! They're gonna have to tear the whole damn room down and start from scratch!" Bugs threw her a sour look and waved the cat calls off holding an ice bag to the considerable lump on his head. Slappy laughed even harder at this slapping her knee.
Slappy was having way to much fun with this even she had to admit, but it was worth it. She had seen Dee begin to break, and she could have done something to stop it, but damn it all if that arrogant hare didn't deserve a good pounding! And she had to admit she was impressed with Dee's restraint. Anyone else would have flattened him on sight for what he said, probably pounding him straight into the sub basement in the process. The worst he got out of Dee was whiplash and a concussion. In his place Slappy had to admit she would of blown the whole damn wing up if someone uttered a single word about her animator. Let alone what Bugs said.
"He shoulda known better kiddo. He wouldn't have taken that from anyone else, he shoulda known you wouldn't ether." Slappy did her best to quell her amusement and soothe the boy. He probably thought they would get thrown in the slammer because he beat up another toon. He had the instincts, he just didn't know what to do with them. Poor kid may as well be on another planet, for all he knew about his own kind.
Dee looked around him confused at the levity, and lack of being hauled off somewhere cramped. Half the toons around him were snickering or giggling like crazy people, and the other half were trying and failing to appear disapproving. What was with this joint? "S-so I'm not…"
"In trouble?" Slappy finished for him. "Nah you're fine kiddo. Like I said, this ain't the first time someone has tried to turn our intrepid leaders brain into play dough. Shmuck never did learn to keep his big mouth shut." Slappy grinned elevating her voice for the last part directing it at Bugs who simply flipped her the bird.
"Ah, you wish rabbit. In my day, I woulda broken you. I aint no Fudd." Slappy grinned slapping Dee on the back again. The room erupted in snickers again and Bugs ears flushed dark as he muttered something nasty and x rated under his breath. The rabbit always did have a dirty mouth on him.
"Alright I get the point Doc. I'll see what I can do, but no promises! I don't run this joint, and I aint no shrink, so the docs get final say on what he can handle." Bugs sighed pinching the bridge of his nose. 'I cant believe I'm doing this. Nothin about this situation has been desirable since I heard the name David Borax.' He would never be so happy to relinquish his title to someone else. Even, or especially, Daffy.
"You guys go on ahead, I got business of my own here too." Slappy urged the group as they assembled in the hallway leading to the visitation chamber. She had been asking subtle questions of the staff the whole time they had been there and she finally found him. The doctor that had been in charge of Uncle Screwy's therapy. She hadn't forgotten and intended to make good on her promise even while helping fulfill the Warners.
Dee stifled a gasp as another stab of pain shot through his head, trying not to breath any more of the over sterile air than he had to for fear of...something. Irrational phobias and nightmares came back to him as they padded silently to the room, the key pad functioning with the same ominous clack as before sending a shudder down his spine and making his little brother grind his teeth in irritation. As far as Dee could tell, everything about this place pissed Psykko off. Maybe it was because David was here, maybe he didn't like the color. It was always hard to tell with him what would trigger one mood or another. Dee didn't foresee his mood improving much after this.
The lot of them were shown into the room, unchanged since his and Yakko's last visit. The two shared a glance as Peg tossed herself into the seat in front of the reinforce window her gloved hands curled into fists in her lap, not knowing what to expect. It didn't take them long as another click was heard and two nurses escorted David in. They actually appeared nervous, but why Dee didn't know. There wasn't a human alive that could beat a toon hand to hand, so he had more to fear from them than the other way around.
'His hair grew back in.' He mused as they showed the cuffed and shackled human to a chair. The same gaunt face though. The same cold hollow eyes stared through them as much as at them as he wordlessly leaned back in his chair. The mumbling had stopped, no more ranting, he was just...empty. Dee didn't realize everyone was holding their breaths till Bugs broke the silence.
"Your kids are here doc. They fought, colluded with criminals, nearly incited a riot, and threw me though a wall to get here. You gonna say anything or just sit there like a lump?" Bugs clinched his jaw as Dee watched him. 'He's pissed again. And not at me. I wonder what these two had to say when they met.' He could only imagine. David had always had a knack for getting under someone's skin, even before the breakdown. Even toons had their limits.
"Kids." David muttered. His voice was clearer than before, but still dripping with contempt for everyone and everything around him.
"David its me...Peg" Her voice sounded pleading, fragile. It didn't become her. Too unlike her normal tone and posture. It pained Dee to see her prostrating herself like this but something told him she needed to do this as much if not more than he wanted to deny it to her.
"Kids..." He repeated in the same tone. Bugs fists balled at his sides his lips curling in contempt. He hated this guy. He could spit he was so pissed off at him, and he didn't even know why. Something about this goon just pressed his buttons. Toons weren't supposed to feel like this, not for this long for a single person. What was it about this David person that made everything around him twist into something hateful?
"David please-" Peg began.

"I have no kids." David interrupted. "Why did you bring me here again Dee Dee? You said we were done. Are you a liar to?" He looked through Peg leveling his gaze on Dee who mirrored his hollow stare. "Or perhaps have you come to make good on your promise? As if you could kill me. You can't even keep your noisy little sister in line. You never could. It's funny really, she always was such a loud mouthed bitch. Maybe I should have erased you three after all-"
David was interrupted as Psykko was at the window in a flash, his hair on end, a sound emanating from his throat that even Dee had never heard before, as he drug his claws down the glass partition, cutting deep channels in it with an ear splitting screech. "Oh David you silly stupid little boy..." He ground out between his teeth. "Is it us you have so little faith in? Or is it your own skill as an animator you doubt? Well permit me to relieve you of that fallacy..." Psykko menaced digging his fingers deeper into the glass, forming cracks where he ground weak spots into the surface. "If I were here to kill you, really here to kill you, father, believe me when I say that there is nothing you, nor God in the sky, or a person in this room could do-" Before he finished the sentence he ground the last words out from behind David, his teeth fractions of an inch from his ear clicking as his jaw worked to and fro with the pent up storm of emotion behind his eyes. "- to stop me."
'H-He flashed! That took me years to master!' Bugs stood stunned, the anger gone at the quiet ones sudden burst of speed and talent. There were only a limited number of circumstances where it was even feasible, and none of them were present here. Only when it's funny. You are only supposed to be able to do these things when it's funny. How the hell could an angry toon manage...'Oh God, he's gonna-'
"Psykko." Dee's voice cut through the tension like a knife. "It's enough. Come here."
To everyone's surprise he listened. Over as quick as it had begun, he was back at his brothers side, acting as if it never even happened, the only evidence that he moved at all were the grooves carved into the security screen and the hurt look on Pegs face. David for his part looked as surprised as anyone else, bleeding lightly from three tiny pin pricks on his right shoulder where the youngest Warner held him fast to his immobile chair.
"You once told me David, that there is no bad music, only bad players. You are a bad player David. You are a disharmonious cacophony. A shrill voice in an opra house. A stain on a masterpiece. So we are leaving you here, so your voice can bounce off these four walls and no one else need hear it. If you manage to get out, and you see us again, you won't like it. Peg, have you seen what you needed to see?" Dee asked his sister. Her shoulders slumped and her ears sagged as she nodded, taking Dot's hand, she rose from the blank metal chair and turned to walk out the door without a word.
"I think we're done here." He spoke to Bugs this time, his eyes empty, his posture stiff. Bugs only nodded and exchanged a silent glance with the shocked nurses, who, rapidly composing themselves drug David bodily from the room, his eyes still conveying the shock of his first real reality check. 'Everything has a consequence doc. And I think you just met yours.' Bugs thought as the room emptied behind him.

"What do you want we should do with him?" The burly nurse asked the harried doctor. The whole place was abuzz since the arrival of the humans, come to claim their own. A matter of jurisdiction they said. He didn't know nothin about that, he just kept the crazy people from getting out or hurting anyone. As long as he kept his head low and did his job he was happy.
"I-I don't know, stick him in the craft room for now. Let him make...snow flakes or something I don't care." The doctor fluttered his arms as he rushed down the hall, his instructions echoing off the bare walls. The nurse shrugged and did as he was told escorting the patent to the room indicated, then standing in the doorway to make sure he didn't make any mischief. Not that he could do much with safety scissors and comically thick pencils made for toon hands. He kind of looked silly sitting there doodling on a blank sheet of paper.
"You did what!?" Bugs flew out of his seat rushing to the door the doctor in tow. "You just gave the only human animator within a hundred miles access to art supplies?! Get him out of there! Put him-!" He stopped mid sentence, barely out of the door as he heard the dull thud and felt the building rumble, fire alarms sounding as a sickening feeling settled in his stomach. The doctor behind him fluttered and flailed apologizing for his most grievous oversight. Dead pan, and cold inside, Bugs took out his cell phone and spoke, his tone grim. "I want everyone at Loopy Acres now. Don't ask questions, just move. He's escaped."
The hole they managed to make was quite impressive. How David had managed to survive the blast became apparent as the smoke settled and the last of the new toons he created were wrangled into an isolation room, minus the weapons he had given them. Tables stacked in the far corner lashed together with jewelry wire stuffed with rolls of cloth and stuffing used for dolls, the outer surface covered in doll heads that had been relieved of all their hair and taped into place. The unconscious nurse was the first one recovered and was in the first aid office with a standard mallet induced concussion. He would bounce back within the hour, maybe sooner if he saw it coming.
This was still fixable. The grounds had an outer wall with only one opening and that was choked with agents, both his own and FBI that were hoping to score a coup in their little jurisdiction spat. 'Jurisdiction my fluffy ass, they want to use him.' They would spirit the son of a bitch away somewhere, and try to pick apart what he did, recreate it, perfect it. They had always wanted, to use toons in their little national security games, but couldn't until now. If they thought they could accomplish what David had tried to do...no it couldn't happen. Everything they had worked so hard for would crumble overnight. And the only way to stop him if they failed to capture him was unthinkable for any toon here, save maybe... Ah hell. At least the area they needed to search was small.
'It's your duty, he said. You're the only one that can do it doc, he said. Stupid rabbit, stupid humans, stupid fucking bush!' Dee snarled in distaste as he picked his way through the undergrowth. What he wouldn't give for a machete. Or enough rope to hang all these mother fuckers from a tall tree and play moron piñata.

The grounds were vast. Having only seen it from the front and sides Dee never knew just how much territory Loopy Acres covered. Partly it was in the hope that patients, if escaped, would run themselves ragged before getting remotely close to the enclosure wall. Partly because the facility was once much larger in the past than now. Yet like so much dealing with toon town and government in general things had deteriorated. 

Behind the main facility the grounds was over grown and dotted with long forgotten ramshackle buildings that hadn't seen a soul since the twenties. The manicured gardens and paths long over grown, turning what had been a sprawling detox and anti addiction center into a tight thicket occupied only by the wild life that sought to reclaim their habitat.

 Predictably he came this way. It's one of the few places on the manicured grounds with vegetation thick enough to hid him. The signs were all over the place. Broken branches, foot prints, stray threads or hair and clothing. A blind monkey could find him, provided he wasn't wearing a badge.

Of course he tried to tell the others this, but with them still squabbling over jurisdiction and custody they were crippled to do anything about it.

Idiot politicians and their petty concerns. It's no wonder so many nations rose and fell in humanities history. They seemed perfectly incapable of doing anything for the greater good, and God help them the toons were taking after them. 

Thinking back on it, as he signaled Yakko, silently approaching a grotto formed by gnarled tree roots, he should have known they would be on their own. If it wasn't so predictable it might be funny. The events replayed in his head for the tenth time in as many minuets.

-----

Dee laughed. For the life of him he couldn't think of another way to cope with the sheer stupidity of it. Falling into hysterics as Yakko and Bugs looked on with various degrees of concern and amusement. It was all too fucking much.

Between gasps and tears he berated the lot of them. He couldn't stop himself from verbally flaying every doctor, nurse, politician, the building it's self, the humans who were now inside and scurrying about trying to organize anyone big enough to help.

This was bad comedy. Never in his short life had he seen so few in such high positions screw up so badly and so consistently. There had to be someone here with the slightest shred of competence.

Leaning against the nearest wall, Dee wiped moisture from his eyes. His shoulders heaved, gulping for air, his chest burning with the exertion of emotional release. Many passers by looked on him with pity, distaste, or flat out hate but he didn't care. They didn't even exist to him. And if David truly escaped that might soon be the case.

"Really now you wouldn't think it would be so hard to find a cackling mad man in a building that echoes so much." Yakko smiled laying his hand on the taller Warner's shoulder, nudging him from his revere. "You would be surprised how many times this happens with us. Cleaning up someone else's mess I mean. But are you ok with this?"

Honestly he couldn't blame Dee in the least, and while his reaction left a bad taste in many of the humans mouths, it was a very normal thing for their kind. It gave him hope for his damaged cousins, that someday they might approach something close to normal.

"Do we have a choice?" Dee's demeanor changed as he spoke, hilarity gone, the somber artist returned.

"Not really. If it helps, they are pretty sure he is still on the grounds, but they can't find him. The humans, and staff here are still fighting over who gets to keep him. You know him though. Even if they could stop the infighting it's doubtful they could find him quick enough. You know how he thinks, where he would go. Out of all of us you three have the best chance of finding him before he gets out. I don't need to remind you what'll happen if he does." 

The one saving grace about Dee had always been that he could be reasoned with even in his most manic moments. Yakko hoped it was still true. 

The other two were fuming. Peg was ready to beat the David into a crater, and the more she ruminated over his words the angrier she became. Psykko was bouncing off the walls, the high emotional pitch, and people racing about only serving to agitate the sensitive boy further. They needed their brother to give them a direction to vent toward.

With a sigh Dee heaved himself off the wall. He was really getting tired of being lectured on things he should already know. 

-----

Psykko snarled, untangling yet another thorny vine from his arm. He swore if he found David first he was throwing him head first into this thicket. Initially he had been elated to find out they would finally be able to escape that boring sterile bland place. But the thick undergrowth was ripping his favorite hoodie to shreds and he had things stuck in his fur he was pretty certain would take weeks to get out. When Dee decided it would be faster if they split off into three pairs he hadn't paid much attention to where they were tasked to search. He made a mental note to thank his brother for the special hell he sent him to.

For her part Peg stared blankly at their goal, the doorway to a vine tangled dormitory. The crumbling victorian facade choked with vines, thorns, and other evil looking things that made Psykko yearn for a flame thrower, or at least a machete.  She hadn't said or done anything without swearing or punching someone since their ill fated meeting, giving little more than grunt of acknowledgment when Psykko pointed out the structure. And they called him the violent one.

At least now her anger was properly focused. For as long as Peg had been in denial, Psykko had known Dee was right. It only served to make things worse, so he hadn't wanted to admit it ether. He instead chose to funnel all his hurt and anger at Plotz.  Besides being an easy target, he was completely devoid of any redeemable traits in the first place. 

Had he succeeded no one would have shed a tear for the Napoleonic knob. But he would have also proven that everything David said was right. He wasn't a monster, and he refused to let anyone, father or not, dictate his life.

He would never admit it to Wakko, but he was the reason the Plotz-a-pult never worked, and the Plotz cannon exploded on it's test run. As much as he disliked the man, and as much as he treasured the look of terror in the pudgy pimples eyes, he couldn't, wouldn't do anything to jeopardize their family. Besides, he couldn't protect them if he was in prison.

Heaving a sigh, he followed his sister into the structure picking their way through gaps in the life that threatened to drag the whole place to the ground, both doing their best to stay silent.

-----

The toon squirrel twisted fruitlessly in the grasp of the large nurse's single massive hand, getting little more than an irate snort from the moose. Bugs watched bemused while the squirrel struggled and gnawed on the hand restraining him, the nurse staring stoically into space, his inscrutable facade no doubt concealing a keen desire to fling the jumpy creature into his grasp into low orbit.

"Lemme go ya ignora-moose! I aint done nothin, see! Ya got nothin on me! I'm a citizen! I know my rights! I aught ta-"

"Do ya now?" Bugs interrupted, drawing the squirrels attention. "Know your rights I mean. Considerin how ya just got here an all, I doubt ya know much of anything, doc. Except one thing. Where did he go?"

"Go? Who?" As quick as a breeze his mood shifted, regarding the rabbit curiously, his captor forgotten. 

"The one that drew you. The human? Strange pale guy, talks to himself alot, makes no sense, wearin a fuckin orange jumpsuit!? Who do ya think I'm talkin about!?"

Slipping easily out of the nurses grasp he paced up and down the thick arm muttering to himself, hand upon his chin, deep in thought. 

"Hmm. Hmmmm. Mmm hm! Tallish guy? Black hair? Pale skin? Looked like Dracula? Rants like Manson?"

"Yeah, yeah that's him, now out with it." Bugs fumed.

"Eh, aint seen em-HERK!" The squirrel shrugged before being apprehended once again by the burly nurse and squeezed till his eyes bulged like a stress doll.

'One things for sure, this guy aint abnormal. Guess David didn't have time to fiddle with em much.' Bugs peered at the fluff ball and he was squeezed repeatedly by the annoyed brute, squeaking like a dogs chew toy, his eyes bulging to impossible size. 

If this kid wasn't altered then there was no way any amount of persuasion would get him to sell David out. This was pointless. He was going to have to get personally involved.

-----

"I'm getting tired." Dot whined, fanning herself. 

"You haven't done anything." Wakko retorted, shifting her leg as she rode astride his shoulders. 

He was covered to his knees in thistles mud and God knows what else that the little princess couldn't bare to expose her perfect feet to. 'Tear your dress my ass.'

Wakko scowled finally sitting her down in a clear spot his back creaking under the stress. There was nothing out here. They searched every crumbling building, every ditch, drain pipe, tree top, and crumbling fountain. Not so much as a footprint. This was pointless, and Wakko was beginning to think Yakko intended it that way. Damn it they were just as old as he was, just as capable of taking care of themselves. He was always doing this, trying to keep them away from the good stuff. Wakko wanted to see some action to!

Dot leaned against a nearby tree scanning the horizon with a sigh. It was highly unlikely he had ever been this way, as it was nearly the opposite direction of he means of escape. They were on the far side of the grounds now, and there was little to no cover for him this way. 

There was a time when Yakko would have relied on them, however reluctantly, to be his eyes and hands, but David was different. Yakko was afraid of him, or perhaps what he represented, she was unsure, however he was adamant that she and Wakko stay as far away from him as possible. She figured if they weren't going to see any action, she may as well have some fun at her brothers expense. 

Feigning a dramatic sigh she sat back wiggling her toes at her disheveled brother. "Massage my feet?"

She barely had time to dodge the pie that answered her request.

-----

‘Flee!’ Branches lashed at David’s face and tore at his clothes as he ran as fast as he could down the hill. But even for a human it was a miserable pace. Months of incarceration, and years of self neglect had not left him in ideal condition for athletic pursuit. And even if he had been, he was still sane enough to know he stood no chance at all against a toon. Let alone the two who stoically watched as he bolted from the squat dilapidated maintenance shack he was squatting in. It was all happening too fast. He hadn’t had time to catch his breath just reaching this far, and now he was on his feet again. He felt like he was being toyed with. And by the look on their face,  he was.
Yakko glanced at Dee as they watched him flee. Terribly technique really, arms flailing, back hunched, constantly looking over one shoulder then the other as he moved seemingly in slow motion through the underbrush panting and groaning with the effort. This was the third time they had done this. Letting him escape just far enough to feel it safe to stop, only to make their presence known and elicit another blind flight, slowly herding him towards the facility. He was so blind with fatigue at this point Yakko doubted David realized what direction he was moving in.
“You going to let him go again?” Yakko asked as Dee watched, expressionless. Dee tilted his head slightly watching as David fell, rolled, flailed his limbs as he rose again, and paused to gulp air before plodding forward again. 
“No.” He said simply, and just as abruptly he wasn’t there.
His legs felt like jelly, his lungs burned, his head swam with an exertion and a primal terror he was unaccustomed to. ‘This isn’t how it was supposed to be! He was to cause the terror! To the people that deserved it! To get what they were owed! All he wanted-’ He never saw the forearm that clocked him in the head and spun him head over heels before landing face down in the dirt and leaves. A flash of white, then time and space ceased to exist.
When he came to he was on his back, and surrounded by demigods. Bugs sneered in distaste as no less than four of his agents and two of the asylum’s nurses shackled his arms and legs and bodily carried him back toward the asylum. He dared not move. Few humans understood the danger these beings posed like he did. And the ones who did worked in places that didn’t have names, for people that didn’t have faces. If that happened…
“You can’t let me live.” He told Dee as he followed beside him. “You know what the feds will do with me. It’ll happen again. They’ll-”
A mechanical click and a cold mass pressed against his forehead cut him off, as without looking Dee spoke. “You think I haven’t thought of that? Or that I couldn’t? Because I can David. I really can. And moreover, I want to.” He growled, as agents and nurses alike froze. “After everything you tried to do to us, did you really think I wouldn’t have thought of that?”
“So you kept it after all.” David’s eyes focused on the stainless steel revolver Dee pressed between his eyes. The only human weapon he had given them. Not that they needed them. He had intended to gift it to Psykko, but Dee wouldn’t have it. His unintended over protective streak always had been obstructive. 
“Dee.” Yakko placed a hand gently on his forearm, looking up at him. “I won’t say it’s not worth it. You already know he’s just trying to goad you into proving him right. You’re smarter than he ever gave you credit for. So I don’t need to tell you why you’re going to put that gun down now, and let Bugs take care of this.” As he spoke he gently, but firmly pulled his arm away from David, pointing the gun aside, away from the only person in this small group that it could possibly hurt. Dee’s arm started to shudder under his grip, as his jaw muscles clinched, and his breath shuddered, his composure finally cracking.
“He’s right doc.” Bugs spoke from his other side, slowly prying the weapon out of his hand. “Let me.” He nodded to the asylum nurses prompting them to escort the two back to the facility. He and his agents were more than enough for this. He turned the weapon over in his hands several times as minutes ticked past. “Let me take care of it.” He spoke softly as he looked down at the human where the nurses had deposited him. 
---------
Numb. Everyone in the hotel room felt numb. Slappy watched them silently as the events of the day were digested, and just lay there. Dee and Yakko were in their bedroom. His composure completely fractured he was inconsolable from the moment they arrived back from the asylum. They had been the last ones to regroup, and Yakko had a haunted look on his face while Dee passed out as soon as they had been brought to a waiting room.
Things progressed quickly from there. Bugs arrived, oddly cool, declaring that David was now in the councils custody, and had been removed from the grounds. The feds, none too pleased acquiesced, for the moment, and left the facility in orderly fashion. It all felt a little too easy to Slappy. But she hadn’t been privy to what he said to them. Whatever. Her own business there had been fulfilled and her long held grudge, and an indelible message left in it’s wake. And so long as things were wrapped up she was content to put all this behind her. She never wanted to see the inside of an asylum ever again.
Dot and Wakko and Psykko had all fallen asleep leaning on Peg, who gently stroked their heads as they snoozed. A touching scene, considering everything that she had endured. Slappy knew that on some level she was reevaluating her priorities till this point. Character growth as far as Slappy was concerned. She wondered though how Dee would handle things in time.
----------
Sleep. Finally. Yakko held his head in his lap, stroking his hair. It had grown long since their arrival, even messier than when they first met. He would have to get it trimmed at some point. Yakko was content to leave it be at the moment. He watched in silence as Dee’s face, till now twisted in agony, was finally calm. ‘His shirt is wet. He hates sleeping in his clothes.’ His mind wandered in the dark. The only sounds to pass the time were Dee’s breath, and the faint sound of traffic. Toon Town bustled about. Just another day. People commuted home from work, restaurants geared up for their evening rush, somewhere a bakery began to wind down as closing time approached at a glacial pace it’s employees wished would arrive faster, a nightclub swung into full gear as toons lined up around the block to enter, to drink, to perhaps take someone home that night and do something life affirming.
But here, this was a time for triage. The battle was over. But the wounds it left behind would take untold time to heal. But they would heal. They had time now, and a safe place for it. And Yakko and his sibs would be there. They wouldn’t turn their backs on them after everything that happened. Leaning back against their nest of pillows he drifted slowly to sleep, chasing tomorrow like a beacon of hope.