Animaniacs is owned by Warner Bros., I don't claim any of them as mine, same as with any other franchise I use in here, they're not mine either.
This is a one-shot. This will be an attempt to build up Bradley's character too, all positive criticism and help is welcome.
Varied theme song line of the day: Yakko, Wakko and Dot in a boat, with Bradley on the steering wheel speeding around a whirlpool: "Speeding 'round the drain-y!"
Saturday, 4 PM
Bradley softly sighed as he was left alone in the Water Tower this time. Scratchansniff had recently gotten into trying to cure the Warners again, so Yakko, Wakko and Dot were in his therapy room right now, and had asked Bradley to wait for them until they came back. The human sighed a bit as that was already an hour ago, looking out a window out towards the rest of the lot. "Heh, I know they're hard to work with, but come on..." He said to himself.
Getting a bit feisty, he decides to go out and do something on his own for once, getting his backpack and starting to load it full of some of the Warners' gags and items. Once the backpack was full, he put it on and opened the tower door, heading outside and looking down at the ground. He decided to try something and threw a mattress down onto the ground, then jumped down directly from the top of the tower. He landed on the toon cushion with an "oof" and bounced off a bit, rolling a little off the mattress and onto the ground before finally getting back on his feet.
"Whew, didn't think that'd work." He said to himself with a laugh as he headed into town, brushing himself off. Since this world was made by toon logic, he'd do well to remember what it'd allow him to do now opposed to being in the real world.
4:15 PM
Bradley sighs a little as he walked into Toontown, thinking to himself. During his time so far, he's done the stuff that the Warner Siblings have done along with them, going with the plans they think up, and that was all well and good. But he hasn't done anything to prove he can really be a part of the group with his own talents yet. Yakko had his wit and charm, Wakko had his hunger and general wackiness, and Dot had her cuteness and sass. So what could Bradley do to add something new to the group since he was staying with them?
The human boy softly hummed as he thought that over, feeling rather hungry for a snack, but noticed a toon kid getting kicked out of the nearby candy store, grumbling as he walked passed the human with his parents. "I said we're closed to children, now go away!" An accented toon said before slamming the front door.
Curious, Bradley decided to head to the candy shop after a minute, looking inside. He notices how empty it was, not even any staff were there anymore, they must be somewhere else. "Feels really weird in here, especially without the Warners..." He said to himself after entering the shop silently, it did feel strangely quiet. Then he heard some arguing in the back room between two people. Both of them sounded familiar, especially with the one having the accent.
"Carl, how many times have I told you to not let those brats have any candy from this place?!" The accented toon said from the back.
"B-but they were really weird, and they paid this time..." The other man said.
"I don't care, that ban is placed for a reason, not so it can be undone with their money! They get nothing, end of discussion!" The accented person added.
Bradley wondered who that voice belonged too, and just as he was about to get into the big part of the store holding all the candy, they both came out the door. One was a blue anthro anteater, and the other was the same human-looking guy that he saw his first time in Toontown.
The anteater toon cleared his throat, making the human boy turn to see him while he was browsing. "Can I help you, boy?" He said in that thick accent.
"Heh, just wouldn't mind getting some candy is all." He said a bit nervously.
"Oh you wouldn't mind, eh?" The anthro anteater said. "Well I'm sure you'd mind when I say we're not selling any of our candies to children, didn't you read the sign?" He added, pointing to the "closed to children" sign with a frown. Bradley looked over and indeed noticed.
"Huh. You know that thing's put too high, I can't see that. Clearly that's your fault." Bradley said with crossed arms and a frown of his own. The anteater let out a hmph while the new guy stammered a little bit, wanting to say something, but couldn't yet. "Can I just please have some candy, like a chocolate bar or something? I'm starving..." Bradley added.
"Well if you're so intent on buying some, I've got a little proposition for you. Carl, get the big jar." The accented toon said as he brought over the ladder. The new employee, Carl, gulped a bit and slowly started climbing up to get something.
"Don't forget to not fall and break yourself!" Bradley said up to the new guy.
"I've heard that song and dance before, boy." The anteater said irritably at the bottom of the ladder, holding it steady. Carl stopped and clung to that ladder a bit as a little helicopter flew by to come in and hover around before flying past him. The height and fear was making him shake and made the ladder rattle.
"Heh, you think you're high enough up there to cover traffic?" Bradley asked up to the new guy with a wave, with the anthro toon anteater holding the ladder letting out another "hmph" and rolling his eyes. Carl looked down at how high he was as he wobbled around, then ended up falling off the ladder, down into a barrel of lollipops with a scream and crash, destroying the barrel and the lollipops spilling everywhere too.
"Grrr, must I do all of these tasks myself?" The anteater said angrily as he climbed up this time and brought down a giant jar of gumballs back to ground level. The cylinder must've been 5 feet tall and 6 feet around. "I've got to learn not to put these jars that high..." He grumbled to himself. Carl got up and brushed himself off as well, joining his boss again.
"Now then, if you guess the right number of candies in this jar within an error of 10, you'll get your candy, heck, you'll get it free for a week." The toon anteater said with a sort of sinister chuckle despite being tired from carrying that big container down. "If you're not, then out you go!" He added with a smirk.
Bradley hummed a bit to himself and looked at the container, getting a measuring tape from his backpack.
"Umm, boss Flaxseed sir?..." The new guy, Carl, said. Bradley froze a bit again from hearing that name, confirming what he thought had that voice before.
That gave the kid a rather mischievous idea and smile on his face, thinking. This could be just what he needed to prove he could keep up with the Warners even without them around, and with his own talents to boot. He looks at the container and measures all around it, looking closely at the tiny gumballs inside it. It didn't look full either, so that'd make it slightly tougher to guess.
"Not now Carl, I want to see this boy utterly fail! It'll give me at least SOME enjoyment today." Flaxseed said a bit loudly to his employee. Guess the new guy wasn't a temp anymore, Bradley thought.
After a minute of examining the container, Bradley had his answer. "A thousand, four hundred and..." He gave it another close look. "...Eighty-two."
"I'm honestly surprised you can even count that high, boy." Flaxseed said unimpressed. He went to counting each gumball in the jar to see if he was close, ending up being distracted from anything else.
"Umm, Mr. Flaxseed?" The new guy said, poking his shoulder.
"WHAT?! Can't you see I'm busy about to prove the boy wrong and laugh at him for it?" The anteater shouted angrily. "Gah, now I've lost count! This had better be important!" He added. Carl then whispered a bit into his ear, making Flaxseed grow even more angry from what he heard.
"Excuse me? You're saying he was WITH those Warner brats and got them their candy? On your watch?!" He said with a slowly building rage, turning to the human boy... Who was already gone, a dotted trace of his body flashing where he should've been. Bradley must've gone into the main area where most of the candy was while they were distracted.
"Why that little tripe...! Get him!" Flaxseed shouted, heading into the area as well, with Carl following.
They both went in and didn't see anything at first, so they both split up. Carl passed by the gumball barrel Bradley was hiding in. He looked out to check, then hid back inside it to try and relax so he can think of a plan.
"Hmm, now what tricks do we wanna show off to them..." He said to himself, getting his backpack and opening it, looking through the gags he brought with him from the Warners' water tower.
He saw he had several escape holes to start with, the same ones back from Halloween and from the first time he met the Warners, along with bags of marbles, coils of rope, and extra small items for distractions. He tried to think of a way to use them, then he heard footsteps heading towards him and the barrel he was in. Bradley took out one of the escape holes and dropped it down on the floor of the barrel after thinking of a destination within the candy store, dropping down inside with the hole disappearing soon after.
The person making the footsteps was Carl, who looked into the barrel and ended up finding nothing. "I thought I heard a voice in there..." He said nervously. "You don't have ghosts in here too, do you? You never told me that." He added.
"Oh come now, you know I keep this place haunt-free as well as child-free." Flaxseed said a little ways away from him. "Now stop your dawdling and find that kid!" He shouted, making the employee yelp and scurry away to look for the human again.
Bradley ended up on top of one of the shelves with a few gumballs from the barrel thanks to the escape hole he threw down, overhearing that and thinking to himself. "Ghosts, huh?..." He said quietly, getting an idea. Maybe he can end up scaring them around the place while being sneaky like this.
Meanwhile, Flaxseed and his nervous staff person kept looking around the area, with Flaxseed getting more aggravated. "How slippery can one child be?" He said out loud. Carl kept looking through different barrels and shelves for the human too.
Suddenly there was a rolling of marbles across the big room, making Flaxseed look towards it. "A-ha! I've got you now!" He said in triumph as he ran over, with Carl following. Bradley however was several aisles away, having tossed one of the bags of marbles he had, which spilled and rolled all over the floor. Flaxseed didn't notice due to his eagerness to catch him, and ended up stepping and slipping on them, letting out a loud scream as he slid into a barrel of gumballs and sent straight into it, leaving him seeing swirling candy pieces around his head.
"Grrr, blast it all!" He shouted as he got out. He was definitely on alert now, with Carl rushing over asking what had happened. Bradley snickered a little bit nearby, and headed away for what to do next.
"Grr, this boy is being rather crafty, even if his tools are childish..." Flaxseed said to himself. "We must be extra vigilant this time Carl, now pay attention. Consider this your next lesson in training should you find an intruder in this place." He said to Carl in his thick accent.
The new employee nodded a bit. "Without slipping into a barrel of gumballs?" He said nervously.
"Yes yes, WITHOUT slipping into the candy, you dolt!" The anteater shouted, making the human toon jump in fright.
Bradley chuckles a bit again to himself, having gotten a sheet from a covered barrel, which was again empty. It must've been a way to keep other people from jumping into some of them when the candy there was sold out so they wouldn't hide. He sneaks around a little more to find the right opening and follows behind Flaxseed quietly while he was alone. He then plopped the sheet right on top of the anteater and fled straight away, making the anteater toon scream out in surprise and fumble around with the sheet.
"Help, help, ghost!" Bradley shouted in a higher pitched voice to get Carl's attention before running off, having him run around the corner to bump into Flaxseed fumbling with the sheet.
"GHOOOOST!" Carl shouted in fright, slipping and falling a bit before running away.
"There's no ghost you fool, get this blasted thing off of me now!" Flaxseed shouted in angry annoyance. Carl didn't listen and ended up running somewhere else, leaving the anteater to shake the sheet off in frustration and following where Bradley's voice came from. The boy fled with one of the escape holes before he could be spotted, getting on top of one of the candy shelves again.
Bradley laughs to himself at that and grinned at his work so far, but he wasn't done yet. Yakko was right though, the new guy really was "easy". The boy grabbed the sheet after Flaxseed left and threw it on the ground in frustration, and decided to do something else with it involving the rope he brought with him. He stuffed the sheet with various candy nearby to make it have a head and tied the rope around the sheet to hold the candy in place. He also drew a rather frightening face on it, humming a little and smiling at what he did, the face making sure to have lots of teeth on it.
"Where are you, you little mongrel..." Flaxseed growled, looking through the shelves now. Carl was already really close to just getting out of the store out of sheer fright, so Bradley snuck over close to where he was, and threw the ghost over the shelf so it was right in Carl's face, with Bradley screaming as loud as he could with a "BOOO!"
"Yipe! Ghost, GHOST!" Carl screamed out as he ran off, slipping on the spilled marbles this time and sliding right into a chocolate fountain, crashing into it and getting drenched in the stuff. Flaxseed heard the commotion and ran right over.
"Now how in- CARL!" The anteater toon shouted at his new employee all covered in the chocolate from the fountain, shaking his head and getting up, groaning.
"Ugh.. You don't see Willy Wonka having to deal with this." Flaxseed said in an annoyed tone, pinching between his eyes and sighing. "If it's that blasted 'ghost' you keep screaming about..." He added, with Carl nodding.
"I saw it, it was really scary looking and had lots of teeth!" The new guy said frightfully, shaking his head and getting up.
"Are you six years old and daft, Carl?!" Flaxseed shouted, growing more annoyed by his ally's behavior.
While they argued, Bradley started tying some strings around some of the candies and containers in another aisle, including big candy canes and lollipops and other containers, and even including the sheet ghost he made.
"Listen to me you scared little kitten, I won't tolerate your fear! There's no ghosts here whatsoever!" Flaxseed shouted. "Now if your sniveling is done, I suggest you get back to looking!" He added angrily, the search for Bradley and his coworker's nerves wearing on his own.
Just as they were about to resume the search, Bradley threw his last bag of marbles out, several of them hitting various glass containers and making lots more noise in one of the aisles he was preparing. "Over there!" Flaxseed said as he and Carl ran into it.
"Perfect." Bradley said to himself with a smile as they walked in, both of them avoiding the spilt marbles this time. He kept down and shook the shelf he was closest to, making it slightly rattle and the containers of candy it had shake and rumble.
Carl shook a bit as well from fright. "It's heeeeeeere..." He said with a nervous tone, starting to back up towards the end of the aisle. Bradley got some taffy from the "Mr. Taffy" stand and started running around the aisles with it, stretching it immensely and circling the two shelves and trapping them in the aisle before Carl could get out.
"It's not a ghost, don't be absurd, how many times have I told you..." Flaxseed said annoyedly. "I told you it's that blasted brat of a boy, where even is he?!" He shouted.
Bradley used some of the thin strings to lift some of the various empty candy containers and candy canes one by one, swinging them around in the air before tying them to more steady and heavy objects to keep them in place.
Bradley let out a rather sinister laugh, pointing it up to have it echo through the big room as he ran around as fast as he could and lifted more candy with more thin strings, with Carl getting scared and backing away into the taffy, getting himself all sticky and tangled up in it, making him stuck and immobilized. Bradley then brought the strung up sheet ghost right to Carl and laughed again from behind him, making the new guy more frightened and ended up making him faint as the human darted out of sight again.
Flaxseed was much less scared, but was on edge from what was happening. Bradley ran around some more and had the strung up ghost swing around while the boy pushed out some of the candies onto the floor, making it look like an unknown force was doing it and adding to how haunted it looked. The nerves ate away at the toon anteater more and more, the laughing, floating candy and taffy trapping them along with the swinging "ghost" was getting to be too much to handle, especially now that he was all alone.
Bradley made sure to keep out of sight by staying behind the candy and containers that weren't pushed out, and decided to finish the whole thing off with one last scare.
Just as Flaxseed turned around, the sheet ghost swung down towards him and Bradley let out a loud and big "BOOOOOO!" where he was right as it swung out of sight, making the anteater scream and run straight through the taffy, making his fur and suit all messed up and sticking, screaming that his candy store was haunted out into the streets.
As soon as he left, Bradley just collapsed in laughter and doubled over, that was so much fun for him to do! He laughed a good minute longer before he finally recovered and got up, sighing a bit deeply and brushing himself off. "I think that's enough fun for today." He said to himself with a bright smile, looking to the container he guessed on. He tilted it to look at the bottom and saw a number on it that said "1480, do not eat". He assumed that was the amount of gumballs that were in the container.
"Huh, I actually was close enough, who knew?" Bradley said as he decided to take 4 "free candy for a week" passes since he guessed close enough in that error margin(and wasn't told how many he'd get either), hopped up to turn the door sign to "open" and used the last escape hole he had to get out of the store and back to the tower, the store free for multiple kids to swarm in and get their candy too.
5 PM, at the Water Tower
As Bradley just popped back up into the tower through the escape hole and as it disappeared, he noticed the 3 Warners had just got back from their appointment and looking at him, making him yelp a bit in surprise. "Ohhh, hey!" Bradley said as he rubbed the back of his head, smiling bashfully.
"Ya really think we didn't notice?" Yakko said with his arms crossed.
"Heh... Notice what?" Bradley said in response with an innocent smile and shrug.
"You know, the thing you did?" Dot added, her arms also crossed.
"What thing exactly, what're you talking about?" Bradley responded, holding his nervous smile.
"Well what are YOU talking about?" Yakko asked.
Bradley sighs a little bit and decides to tell the Warners everything that happened while they were in Scratchansniff's office, from meeting Flaxseed finally and giving them a heck of a good scare and messing with for not giving candy to kids anymore.
"Ohhhhh." Yakko said once the story was over. "Well we were just gonna tell you about what happened to your socks cause they were left on the floor." He added, pointing at Wakko who put them on his ears.
"They make really good ear gloves." Wakko said with a goofy smile. Bradley just chuckled at that and sat down on his bed.
"Why'd you want to go that far to someone though like we do?" Dot said curiously with her arms crossed.
"Yeah, that was definitely impressive for someone 3D." Yakko added.
Bradley looked up at them and smiled a bit more relaxed now. "Well, because you all have your talents that make you funny and who you are... You've got your wit and quick quips, Wakko's got his hunger and kookiness, and Dot's got her cute looks and even her pet to back her up sometimes." The human boy explained to them. "I just wanted to show I can, you know... Hold my own, instead of just following along, you know? Since I've been here for a while, I figured I might as well try, right?"
The Warners all "awww"ed, and smiled again. "Well you got your talent now too!" Wakko said assuringly, climbing onto Bradley's back.
"From what you said, you were being really sneaky and clever and resourceful with what you do. Some of that ain't something we normally do." Yakko added with a smile in "big brother" mode now.
Bradley thought about that, then gasped a bit at a realization. "Hmm... You're actually right! Remember back at the factory with trying to save you? I think that's the same thing here, quick thinking and resourceful! Only this time it was being unseen and planning! And watching Home Alone so many times before paid off too." The human said with a more happy tone. "Clever and resourceful, huh... You know, I'll take it! Witty, crazy, cute, and now clever!" Bradley added, counting them off on his fingers.
"And different, but when has that ever hurt anyone?" Wakko said, looking upside down at Bradley after getting onto his head.
"Heh, true." the human said with a soft sigh as Wakko hopped off and onto the ground. "Life as a toon is really tough though..." Bradley added.
"But it sure is fun!" Yakko said happily.
"It'd be boring if it wasn't a challenge!" Dot said.
"Well the new guy was just as easy as before, for sure." Bradley responded with a laugh, with the Warners laughing too. "Oh, and I got something for you too!" He added as he went to his bag. The Warners did love presents, so they bounced right to him, doing their thing of having no idea what personal space was.
"Is it more ear warmers for the rest of us?" Wakko said eagerly.
"Ooh, is it a friend for my pet?" Dot guessed, about to bring out her white box, but Bradley shook his head and held up his hand before she could.
"Is it an autographed photo of Michelle Pfeiffer?" Yakko said excitedly as well.
"Or a dartboard with Zach Snyder's picture?" Dot guessed again. "I even brought my own darts!" She added as she brought out a handful of them from behind.
"Haha, no." Bradley said with a laugh as he backed up to get some room again and pulled out the free candy passes from his backpack. "It's these! How'd you like free candy for a full week?" He said proudly.
"Depends if it's different from a half week, you know I turn when it's full." Yakko said jokingly. "But thanks!" He added as the three siblings took the passes and Bradley pocketed his own, with all 3 siblings grinning ear to ear at the thought of free candy.
"Flaxseed's gonna have a big fit tomorrow for sure." The human said. "Once he figures out his candy store isn't haunted anyway. He could have a big mess to come back to though, I kinda flipped the sign to 'open' before I left too."
The Warner siblings nodded in agreement with bright grins again. Bradley then sighed and decided to relax for the rest of the day after that, popping a small bit of candy he brought from the store in his mouth, smiling proudly.
Ending line of the day from the Tower: Bradley: Don't let your dreams be dreams! / Yakko: But if they're not fat-free, leave them be!
Author's note: Well that was interesting writing Bradley like that, I assumed that'd be his best quality when it came to doing some of his own tricks. :)
Positive critique is welcome and I'm open to anything that could be edited to make it better and to make Bradley's character better. I'll try to write more of these every so often if they're received well, but for now, I'll still keep going with just the Warners. :)