A short one-shot I wrote back when I was twelve, in August 2013. No changes have been made except for some spelling/grammar corrections.
I do not own Disney's Toontown Online or Toontown Rewritten, nor do I want to.
It was a bright, sunny day in Toontown Central, as usual. The butterflies were flitting in the warm, calm breeze, and the happy chirrups of birds could easily be heard in the lush green treetops. The hot, yellow sun bore down its light on the Toons gathering below, its illumination lighting up the creature's technicolored furs.
All the Controllers knew about the closing of Toontown, which just happened to be on that beautiful, flawless day. They gathered their Toons in large clusters, obviously waiting for the end. The Toons grimaced and attempted to break out of the Controller's grasp, to no avail. This caused a lot of lag among the playground, and the Controller's computers were slowed down, to their frustrations. The Toons were worried. They had liked when their Controllers had put them among the large crowds before, but that was when they were looking for game-shows, Clans, rides to Nutty River, and such. Fun stuff. Now, there was a silent tension in the air, which made the Toons restless. The usually happy creatures did not like this.
Among the cluster of multicolored animals, there stood a short, lavender Toon, her heart racing as she waited for something bad to happen. A Cog invasion... on the playgrounds? No, no, it was unheard of. What about those strange, mysterious Toons, the ones her Controller called a Hacker. Could they be attempting to destroy the lively world again? The cat's light green eyes flit about nervously, her gaze resting on a royal blue dog, standing a ways away from her. She could sense her Controller typing something to the dog. "I can't believe this is happening. : ("
"I know! ive been playing this game for such a long time, now its all over... im gonna miss you, Katiana." The blue dog's Controller typed back a message.
Katiana's head reeled. What was all this? What was happening? What was all over? Hundreds of "whats" churned around in the light-violet cat's mind, giving her a headache.
ADMIN: Attention, all Toons! Toontown Online officially closes in ten minutes. Please start saying goodbye to your friends and logging off. It's been a great run, everyone! Thanks for playing!
The Controller stared at the message, tears brimming in her eyes. She had been playing this game for countless years, and now it was all ending. She would never see her best friend, Nighttime Puppy, every again. The pair- and thousands of others- had tried everything to keep Toontown up, including signing petitions, creating raids, and spamming Disney's e-mail to their heart's content. Nothing worked. The Controller pinched herself, hoping it was all a dream. She knew her efforts would be futile. She was awake. But her childhood game was slowly drifting off into an eternal sleep. A death.
The Controller turned away from the screen, away from the purple box that held the text of her worst nightmare. Now sobbing, she ran from the room, not being able to bear seeing Toontown Online closing forever.
Katiana stood still, stuck to the ground like superglue to paper. She was aware that her Controller had left, or else she would have been moved by now. Why couldn't have she just told me what was happening? Us Toons would be able to figure it out. The residents of Toontown took down whatever evil had thrown at them. Surely, they could have taken down this unseen threat?
Another purple message box popped up at the corner of the screen. Katiana strained her eyes to read what it said, but couldn't, as her glasses had been knocked off by the suffocating mass of Toons. She knew it had to be important, because a sudden outburst of meows, barks, oinks, squeaks, and other sounds erupted from the crowd. She could make out what some of the Toons were saying:
"goodbye, everyone!"
"ill really miss this game : ' ("
"Disney has failed us all."
"At least we tried our best."
Tried our best for what?! Katiana nearly began to cry as she thought about what the other Toons were saying. She should feel her laff points dropping with every tear welled in her green eyes. Why were the Controllers keeping this such a secret?!
Suddenly, another purple box appeared. It was closer to Katiana this time, so she was just able to make out the words. What she read shocked her.
Toontown Online is now officially closed. Please log off. Thank you for playing! - For the last time, the Toon Council
Before she could realize what was happening, the purple cat was knocked out.
Katiana woke up, her gaze meeting with a dark gray. She sat up, looking around. Hundreds of Toons were around her, in the solid gray void. They were standing up, with their arms stretched out on either side of them. Their usually happy faces were now lifeless, as they stared out blankly into space. The waking violet cat was used to seeing one Toon like this, but now it seemed like the whole population of Toontown was in this scarecrow pose. It terrified her.
The Toon looked around, hoping to see a fellow animal that was unaffected by this strange phase. However, it looked like she was the only one who was not stuck. "Hello?! Is anyone there?" She whimpered. Or at least, she tried to whimper. No sound came from the short cat's mouth. She frowned, put her gloved hand to her neck, and yelled again. She could feel vibrations coming from her throat, and air passing her lips, but still, no sound was heard in the gray sea of silence. With a jolt, Katiana realized she couldn't hear anything.
"H-help!" She screamed, knowing nobody would probably hear her if she couldn't hear herself. Stumbling to her feet, she ran through the endless void of muted colour, tears forming in her eyes. "Please, please help me!" Pain came quickly in her legs, and her breath came in ragged gulps. However, adrenaline kept her going. After what seemed like forever, she collapsed to the ground, her muscles screaming for mercy. Her tears dripping on the hard ground, the violet Toon soon passed out once again.
When Katiana woke up this time, she found that she couldn't get up again. Her adrenaline rush had faded, and she couldn't find the strength to lift herself off the ground. She felt like a 1-ton weight gag. Propping herself up on an elbow, the cat looked around. The scarecrow Toons still surrounded her. Tears filled her eyes for what seemed like the thousandth time as she recognized a dark blue dog, a yellow dress and bow donning her figure. Nighttime Puppy. Not wanting to spend eternity with her emotionless, statue-like friend, Katiana struggled to get up. She took one last sad glance at the blue canine, and then began to turn around...
What the Toon saw as she broke her gaze away from her friend nearly made her already broken heart explode from her chest. A wave. A huge, black, eerie wave. It towered easily above any Toon, even any Cog, including the VP and the other big bosses. It advanced towards the small, speechless Toon, swallowing up innocents in its dark, unforgiving wrath. With a jolt, Katiana realized it was coming towards her.
"No... No! NOOOO!" A sharp adrenaline rush once again cascaded through the exhausted young cat, sending her heart into a crazed race. She began to run, sprinting through the gray, thick forest, swerving away from the frozen Toons. Even at the speed she was running, the black wave easily came upon her. Although the cat knew the retreat was hopeless, she continued forward, crying. Just yesterday, she was laughing, joking around with her friends as they battled Cogs of all shapes and sizes. How did it come to this, so quickly?
Lost in her thoughts, Katiana did not notice a fallen backpack on the ground. It was probably thrown off a Toon as they had become unconscious. Are YOU Toon Enough? was printed on the orange, paint-splattered bag. The speeding Toon didn't see it until it was too late.
"Oof!" The cat stumbled on the discarded backpack. She struggled to stay up, knowing that if she fell, she very likely wouldn't get up again. However, momentum was not her friend that day and her adrenaline rush fading off did not assist in the situation either. The Toon tripped, landing on the smooth, nearly non-existent gray ground.
Tears brimming in her eyes, she watched the black wave tower over her. Her mind searched wildly for a plan to escape, but her spirit knew that there was nothing she could do. The battle was lost.
Quietly, Katiana shut her eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks. She whispered one last word as the wave fell upon her:
"Goodbye..."
I hope you enjoyed the story. If it wasn't clear enough, two of the paragraphs (the ones in italics) were in the point of view of Katiana's "controller," who is really just the player of the Toon.