It was a sunny day in Toontown Central, Toon Valley. It was nearing the famous holiday we all know and love, Christmas. Toons were caroling out in the snow. Decorations were hung. Mickey Mouse himself was taking time out of his busy schedule to greet festive Toons and give them tips on how to stay safe in the winter.
Stay safe from what, you ask?
Well, Toontown had a problem. Aside from murderous robots trying to bust into the system, the Cogs, Toontown was in trouble. It was being infiltrated. And it was having trouble defending itself from the vicious onslaught. Toons themselves were causing the trouble. Most of them were just in it for the drama, but some of them meant serious business.
One of these Toons walked down the stairs of the patio leading up to Toon Hall. His name was Anonymous. He was a member of the secret society preparing to rip Toontown apart at the seams. He was a modest blue cat, a common species of Toon, which helped him blend in. His name didn't do much to conceal the fact that he was an infamous espionage expert, but he thought it was fitting. He didn't do much but watch. He was always watching.
Except for today. You see, today, he was sent on a diplomatic mission. He didn't like this at all. He was being sent into a dangerous enemy headquarters where he could be terminated at any time they chose. He wasn't a much liked person there, either. Nor, agile as he was, could he escape from the gauntlet that was L.E.A.F. HQ.
The L.E.A.F. clan wasn't a new clan, but it was a younger clan than the Anonymous's. That didn't make them any less annoying. They constantly opposed his clan at every turn. They didn't exactly know what they were doing, but it wasn't a problem until recently. The L.E.A.F. clan had grown it power so much that it might threaten some… plans. And that couldn't stand.
Anonymous sheathed his stone knife. It wouldn't be picked up by the metal detectors. He sighed. It was a bloody business indeed. It was the business of the Anti clan.
Chaos Control watched from high in a tower nearby the L.E.A.F. clan base. The green dog sighed as Anonymous entered the building. This was ridiculous. The L.E.A.F. clan? Please. They haven't been able to make it in for years. Even with the Glitchmagician's new ideas, she wasn't sure that this would work.
…Still. The Glitchmagician had pulled off stuff like this before. It wasn't the first time he'd proved his worth to the Family. His inventions had saved many a life time and time again, though he never was around to see them work.
Chaos received a call from her Communication Device, codenamed CD.
Anonymous's voice answered the call. "I'm at the gate. Wish me luck."
"Already am," Chaos answered. "How long?"
"Doesn't matter. You know the signal that means I'm in serious trouble," Anonymous said.
Chaos nodded, though she knew that Anonymous couldn't see her. No one could. The signal was another of the Glitchmagician's innovations, but nobody completely understood how it worked.
"Just make sure you're prepared. They're coming up to frisk me now. See ya." Anonymous's CD dropped off the radar.
Anonymous was escorted into the L.E.A.F. clan hall. Pictures of noble Leafs adorned the halls. An elegant picture of those who fell in the Great Battle was spread across the ceiling. They appeared to be frowning down upon Anonymous. No wonder. The Great Battle was where the Sunset Patrol was destroyed in a counter-attack by the Antis. It was a short battle. They never knew what hit them.
The guards carefully watched Anonymous, and with good reason. No matter who was there, no matter what precautions they made, someone ended up dead every time Anonymous was allowed into base.
Every time. Every single time.
The only reason Anonymous was allowed in after all of this was that they could never—strictly—prove that Anonymous was the culprit. And Anonymous wasn't about to fess up anytime soon. It was too much fun.
Anonymous folded his arms as he settled in for the wait. The L.E.A.F. clan was probably pelting him with all sorts of scanners and X-rays and metal detectors. The slightest violation would lead to instantaneous murder. No-no in the great book of L.E.A.F. rules that was, Antis weren't welcomed into the L.E.A.F. base at all usually. When Anonymous came, they took extra precaution. Anonymous was the Antis chief assassin. You can imagine.
Finally, the doors at the end of the great hall opened. The golden gate revealed a beautiful young woman; a green cat by the name of Rainbow.
Anonymous bowed as a show of respect. "It is a great honor."
"Indeed," Rainbow scoffed. She waved her hand, and a wind blew through the room, ruffling her rainbow dress. "Why are you here?"
"Right to the point," Anonymous laughed, "though I guess I'm not much in the way of small talk. The reason I am here is to negotiate the release of Ying."
"Never," Rainbow said. "Ying has committed an insurmountable amount of crimes against the L.E.A.F. clan and Toontown. We will never allow his release."
"We were wondering if you would take me instead," Anonymous said.
Rainbow thought about this, but said no. "Ying is indefinitely more dangerous. He has destroyed several sections of Toontown time and time again. We will never allow his escape. He is too much of a handful."
Anonymous turned his back to Rainbow. "I beg to differ."
"Pardon me?" Rainbow asked.
Anonymous took off his watch, and dropped it on the floor. "I can be indefinitely dangerous, also."
Rainbow took a step back. Her hands glowed with a warm energy. "What do you mean?"
"…You could say that I always come up with a plan B," Anonymous said.
Chaos watched the base from afar. She waited.
Of course, she wasn't really trying to hide. It was a special ability of hers. She could hide anywhere.
Nobody could ever see her, because she bent the light around her body. Thus, it never reflected into anyone's eyes.
She eyed her sensor. It was a heat signal. If it dropped more than ten degrees, it meant Anonymous had switched to plan B.
After some thirty minutes, it did. The signal dropped. That was her signal.
Silently, Chaos jumped toward the building.
After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Anonymous looked back up at Rainbow.
"What… what was that supposed to do?" she asked uneasily.
"Oh, nothing." Anonymous said. "Just didn't like the brand."
"Is this some trick to play with my mind?" Rainbow demanded.
"Yes," Anonymous said. "But given the trustworthiness of an Anti, why should you believe me?"
Rainbow grew restless. "I'm tired of this. Guards!"
"In a few minutes, you'll be very tired," Anonymous mumbled. "Very tired indeed."
A few guards rushed in to escort Anonymous out.
"In a few minutes, Rainbow, you'll see how dangerous the Antis can be," Anonymous said. "Maybe less."
The guards took Anonymous's shoulders. He remained expressionless. He let them drag him a few paces, then he said, "Program: Knockout."
Both guards fell to the ground, unconscious.
Rainbow was fed up. She thrust her hand toward Anonymous. "Program: Laser. Mod: Colossal!"
Anonymous managed to react in time. "Program: Block!"
A large laser, about as big in diameter as Anonymous himself and red in color, zoomed toward
Anonymous. It harmlessly bounced off his invisible shield.
Rainbow was clearly through with the games. Anonymous prepared for a fight.
Chaos Control glided through the corridors of the fortress unnoticed. Her job was simple: To make it to Anonymous and even the odds before he was disintegrated.
Rainbow was easy to predict; her Hack deck almost always consisted of light-based laser attacks with a few damages nulls. Effective, but boring, in Chaos's opinion.
Of course, her own Hacking deck was of a few instant-kill attacks, some agility maneuvers, some simple lightweight shields, and her trademark End All attack, which took several minutes to prepare.
Anonymous didn't give her the details of his deck, but his main job was to survive until Chaos arrived to balance the battle or escape if need be. So it would me mainly defensive. In a tight situation, Anonymous might take out his signature move, Blank Shot.
Chaos was using a special ability of hers to phase through the walls. It was a simple and easy way to dodge most fields of vision and powerful attacks. She used it frequently.
The long-term goal right now was to break Ying out of jail. The short-term goal was to stay alive.
Anonymous was dodging the great majority of Rainbow's attacks, but his deck was thinning out. Right now he had his best dodging Hacks at the top of his deck in case of an emergency, and some damage regeneration Hacks after that. Rainbow's attacks took a while to charge, so the dodging was easy at first, and all he had to do was stand in front of a priceless painting to delay the onslaught. However, archers from arrow slits in the walls were firing unpredictable—and lethal—projectiles.
It was about two minutes from the start of the battle to where Anonymous was right now, which was a long time, if you're trying to stay alive and your enemy's really making survival difficult. However, Chaos pressed onward, for no other reasons than the dire consequences of failing a mission.
She soon made it to Rainbow's hall, the glamour and gleams being destroyed or defiled by Rainbow's lasers.
Wow, Chaos thought as Anonymous effortlessly dodged Rainbow's lasers, which seemed to hit only the priceless objects. Rainbow must really want Anonymous gone.
Chaos couldn't stay hidden for much longer. Her cloaking had already tired her out, and she didn't want to leave Anonymous hanging.
Rainbow readied her devastating Double Rainbow attack. She needed to charge for fifteen full seconds before she could blow up practically the whole hall, which gave Chaos the perfect opportunity to steal the show.
"Program: Smatter," Chaos whispered.
A glob of paint materialized in midair and struck Rainbow head-on. Anonymous complemented this attack with a few quick swipes to Rainbow's arm with his stone knife. No serious injuries, or else there would be consequences later, but enough to keep her distracted for a few more moments. And with her concentration diminished, her Double Rainbow preparations fizzled away.
When Rainbow wiped the paint away, Anonymous was gone. She hit the panic button on her watch.
"It ends here," she said.
Anonymous darted through the corridors of the fortress, deeper and deeper into the abyss. He was silently accompanied by Chaos, mainly for protection, because his own deck was nearly depleted.
They rounded the corridor and picked the lock into the prison.
Now understand: Anonymous and Chaos were risking life and limb over a jailbird. And not just any jailbird.
Ying the Eagle.
Ying was the current leader of the Anti clan, taken as a prisoner-of-war in the last Anti/L.E.A.F. war. He was the product of several different scientific tests that allowed him to move faster, see clearer, and fly. However, originally a young duck, his features had been mutated.
Hence the name, Ying the Eagle. The first of his kind, and if he had his way, not even close to the last.
Ying hadn't started the Anti Clan, but he was by far the most powerful member ever to walk its grounds, except for Freckleslam and sometimes Chandler, who were both high-ranking Antis and powerful hackers.
Freckleslam had been causing trouble in Toontown for ages. He could melt major buildings like candles, he could levitate and warp around, he could reverse gravity, and he could stop time. His deck was extremely confined; usually no more than ten Hacks at a time, but it usually didn't matter. If he wanted someone to be dead, they were usually dead by morning. He had recently stolen some cloning tech from a Toon lab, and the Antis had been using it ever since. The high-ranking ones, at least.
Chandler was a veteran Anti. He could manipulate illusions to make the background appear to be like anything he wanted it to be. He could create a meadow in the middle of a city. He could make buildings 'disappear.' All of their physical characteristics were the same, thus you could still run into a brick wall even if it didn't appear to be there. He could only do this on stationary objects, though; he couldn't transform a moving object.
Ying, however, was in a different category entirely. He usually had no need for a hacking deck, his claws and talons were usually enough to subdue an enemy. But when he had a use for it, his deck had a special ability: His deck entirely consisted of finishing moves, a little like Rainbow's Double Rainbow or Anonymous's Blank Shot.
They found Ying in a lone chamber, separated from the other inmates. His arms and legs were chained to the floor and ceiling without any slack, so he hung in midair with his head down.
Anonymous picked the lock on the cell. Chaos, being at a higher rank than him, stepped in to greet their leader.
"Your Antis have come for you, my liege," she said.
Ying slowly looked up. His eyes were full of rage and hatred, just as they always had been.
"It's judgment day, my friends," Ying grinned evilly… insanely. "Now release me from these bonds so that they can feel my wrath."
