"Alright, time for bed, Johnny," Mother said, closing the book.
"Aww, come on, really? I want to hear more! You can't just leave me at a cliffhanger!" Johnny blurted out. Mother just chuckled.
"Another chapter for another night." Mother said soothingly, her voice as smooth as butter.
"All right, fine... good night, Mother," Johnny grumbled, pulling the sheets over his neck. Mother got up from her rocking chair and walked towards the door. She turned her head for one last look at him and then flicked the light switch down. She gently closed the door, removing any traces of light from the adjacent hallway.
So many questions... but so few answers, Johnny thought to himself. Maybe the answers will never be known... With that thought, he had given up on the possible answers of tonight's chapter. He succumbed to his heavy eyes drooping down and went to sleep.
Johnny woke on a cold, hard floor. The surrounding area here was pitch black. You couldn't really see much, other than the expanding blackness that signaled a huge space, and everything was silent.
"How is our investment?" a deep, metallic voice boomed from behind Johnny, breaking the chilly silence and making Johnny whirl around to face it; it's speech echoed across the room. It was a giant figure that looked like a Toon with exaggerated features, although it sounded like a robot... maybe it was...?
"Don't worry Boss." Another, organic voice started from Johnny's original direction. It was quite a short figure, with what looked like a rather large hat being worn, and he sounded a lot like a mob boss you'd see in old noir films, except a bit higher pitched. He must be a Toon; there was no electronic residue in his voice.
"Operation D. Skies is going smoothly," The mob boss Toon assured. "In a few minutes, they'll be in full swing and ready to ship out. And who knows? We might finally use our new and improved 'Positive Reinforcement" on da candydates." The mob boss Toon walked over to the third figure. "Of course, I can't forget dat all dis wouldn't be possible wit'out our good ol' genius friend who made us all this. You made us somethin' we needed, but now, we have no need for you." The mob boss voice chortled.
"W-what do you mean? I-I don't know what you're talking about..." A more normal voice wavered from the taller figure, emitting a nervous laugh.
"We weasels are pretty smart... we already, eh... reverse-engineered da invention you made. There's no need for you or your blueprints anymore. And besides, they're better than yours will ever be. Speaking of us being better than you..." There was a metallic click, kind of like when you pull down on the hammer of a revolver...!
"N-no! Please! I'm a good toon! Don't kill me! I'm of use to you! Please don't-" The... professor yelled, now on his knees.
"Say goodbye to Gearloose for me..." The mob boss cackled. As Johnny looked away, there was a loud bang that briefly lit up the room with a green glow, and time seemed to slow down. From what he could see, Johnny could make out an expansive laboratory with a conveyor belt at one side that appeared to be mass-producing... figures of some sort. What they could be? Next to it, a podium with broken buttons and dials on it was emitting sparks and smoke; a possible control panel to the machine that somebody didn't want stopped.
When Johnny turned his head back, the professor was slumped on the cold, hard floor, not moving.
Suddenly, the professor emitted a green glow that lit up a general area, and, with a small pop, vanished like he was nothing, taking the glow with him, returning the surrounding area to darkness.
"Good... when will they be ready, Lieutenant?" The deep, robotic-sounding voice praised.
"I told you already, they'll be ready in a few minutes, Boss," The lieutenant replied. The darkness seemed to lift a little bit to reveal a long, brown snout ending in an olive-shaped nose, right in front of Johnny's face. The snout had a mouth with 2 rows of sharp, yellow teeth. Johnny could also make out the brim of a hat, but it didn't appear to have any color. Why can't he see me? Johnny wondered; he was already close enough to smell the weasel's stinking breath that made him gag.
"And when they're ready... all hell will break loose." The mouth smiled a coy, but sinister smile, and seemed to stare directly at Johnny, making his heart skip several beats with terror.
"Perfect... my army is almost ready. Now that they're in the suits, they will be invincible. I will give the order when all of them are finished, which should be any moment now. We're running a little behind schedule, but no matter; they're probably wasting time with unnecessary pre-show events anyway." The robot walked away, his metallic footsteps pounding on the floor. He paused, and turned back around.
"One more thing. Did you capture that McDuck character that just so happened to intrude on our... experiment, and douse him with our Positive Reinforcement?" The robotic figure asked.
"Yep and yep. He vanished like he wasn't there, boss." The weasel boss replied nonchalantly, twirling his revolver.
"Excellent. I'll arrange for you to be richly rewarded." The robotic figure turned to the now finished line of suited figures, standing there perfectly still. The weasel boss suddenly looked uncomfortable, which, from what Johnny assumed, was a very rare occasion based on what just happened.
"Boss?" He nervously asked. "Can I ask you somethin'?"
"What is it? Do you wish to know what you'll be rewarded with?" The robotic figure didn't move to face him. "Because if so, you will only know immediately after every other Toon in Toontown is destroyed."
"It's not dat, I just wanna know..." The robotic figure now turned it's head. "What if... some Toon manages to kill them all? We'd run out of firepower."
"That's preposterous. No Toon could get through the metal lining of these suits even if they tried. And the control panel for the machine has been destroyed; nobody can stop this process now. However, if things could go wrong, then all we would need to do is just produce more. We have an infinite number of resources; we'd take the remains of our brothers and use them to create new ones. Ingenious, I say."
"Seems a bit morbid to me, but all right... oh, I think we're done." The weasel boss pointed at the rows upon rows of suited figures standing behind the conveyor belt.
"Perfect. Come here, W-00001." A brown-suited figure with broad shoulders and a huge, stationary smile walked forward.
"Your mission is simple: fly to Toontown Central and introduce yourself to the new leader of Toontown. When the time is right, your supervisor, the Director of Ambush Marketing, will give you the signal to use the Positive Reinforcement. We will send in backup to eliminate the witnesses once you do so. Do not fail me."
"Yes, sir." W-00001 affirmed, it's smile solid as a rock as it spoke.
"Go!" The robotic voice boomed, it's metallic clang ringing across the lab and into Johnny's ears.
It was at this point that Johnny sat up in bed, now wide awake, his heart going a million miles an hour. Johnny had had nightmares before, but none this vivid. He checked the clock on the nightstand next to he bed: 4:19 AM. He tried lying back down, but he couldn't. His pillow felt like a brick, the mattress like concrete, and the sheets like sandpaper. His entire body wanted to get out of his bedroom and look for the professor, but he needed to be quiet.
He slowly shifted out of the twin bed, his webbed feet gently landing on the carpeted floor. He changed into his Toon Scouts uniform that was in his dresser, knowing he would be out for a while, and took a deep breath.
He tiptoed toward the door, dancing around the various things scattered around the bedroom floor. He reached the door, gently turning the doorknob. When he pulled the door open, it creaked more than he wanted to, but apparently (and extremely luckily), Mother didn't notice, because there was no trace of her yelling at him to get back in bed. Maybe she just had the covers up over her head; it was quite cold in the house... but whatever; it was a lucky break.
Like the feathers on his body, his feet barely made a sound against the hardwood floor as he gingerly walked down the hall. Down the stairs he went to grab a flashlight from the utility closet under them, and he was ready to go. Johnny had only left the house a few times during his life for anything other than schoolwork, but only during the day. This was to be a whole new experience for him, and he wasn't quite sure if he was ready.
No, the professor is waiting for me, Johnny reminded himself, shaking away his fear. He breathed in a deep breath, and opened the surprisingly unlocked front door. I suppose Mother forgot to lock this, Johnny thought absentmindedly, taking one of his rare steps outside of the house, and his first without his mother's consent.
Johnny had never seen his neighborhood in the middle of the night; all of the windows shed no light, and the sun was not up yet. It was a new moon, so there wasn't any light to illuminate the streets; quite scary for a thirteen-year old who barely knew what the other side of his front door looked like. Speaking of his front door, Johnny idiotically left the door wide open, and hastily went to close it, and then turned to gawk at the ever-so-slowly paling night sky, the faint glimmer of milky white stars still hidden away by various clouds.
Hey, Copernicus, save the stargazing for later, we've got saving to do! Johnny's subconscious slapped him back into reality. Now the tough part would be actually locating the professor's lab. Then he realized he was running blind, both figuratively and literally; he had no idea where it would be, until a familiar name flashed in his mind: Doctor Surlee. He had heard the doctor of science's name somewhere before, but he couldn't remember where; possibly the television. But he did remember an old interview he had watched when he was younger, which showed an under-construction house sitting on top of a hill.
Now that he had an idea of where it would be, he could actually see if he was correct, although it would take some experimentation: the house that overlooked Johnny's own house.
Johnny had seen the hilltop house before; after all, it was one of the only things Johnny saw outside his bedroom window, other than a rather unusually placed willow tree that blocked most of the view. It wasn't run-down, yet it wasn't lavish either; it looked like any other suburban house that Johnny had seen many times on the way back from school.
And yet it seemed the perfect candidate to hold the dark secrets that Johnny only saw in his dreams. Something about it's normality disturbed a feeling lodged deep in Johnny's subconscious, a feeling that prompted him to investigate further. It was the kind of house that looked like it didn't have anything to hide, but in reality was sweeping something huge under the rug. He would solve the mystery of his dream, whether it was fictional or not, and this would be the perfect place to start; the scene of the crime depicted in his dream.
Johnny suddenly realized he was still staring at the night sky like a fool who had seen something rather amusing; in this case, it was rather mundane. He had to get a move-on before it was too late; after all, being late to anything tarnishes both your experience and the host's experience.
It was like he was sleepwalking and had only just now woke up; he found himself near the base of the hill already without even realizing he had moved. His bleary yet lucid state would not help him in the climb up, nor in the break-in that would be required for this mission.
After a moment's hesitation, he started to walk towards the point where the incline slowly rose. He tripped over a couple of raised cobblestones as he passed, whispering some humdrum comments as he did. The sloped surface that wasn't a flight of stairs threw Johnny off balance, and almost made him fall backwards a few times, but he managed to regain his center of gravity quite quickly each time.
Johnny triumphantly managed to make it to the top of the hill, and wasn't surprised about the house that lay before him, but he couldn't wait to get started. He had this to himself, and now was the time to strike.
He walked up to the birch front door and raised a fist to knock, but then thought better of it almost immediately. You wouldn't knock at the front door of a police station if you were a wanted criminal, so the same logic would apply here. However, this logic would require an alternative means of entryway.
He had heard some faint noises coming from the back of the house, and went to investigate. To his sheer luck, he had already found another entryway in the form of oak bulkhead doors, but they were restrained by a thick rope. Johnny, being a Toon Scout, pulled out his Swiss Cheese knife that had saved in him one of multiple situations; one being for an important arts and crafts assignment that saved him from repeating 4th grade, another for simply scratching one of the worst back itches Johnny had.
It took only a few minutes before the knot that locked the doors in place was no more, and Johnny was allowed access. After another deep breath, he opened the slightly creaking doors and alighted down the stairs that yawned before him.
He was greeted with the pungent odor of iodine and rubbing alcohol, along with the searing red light of a spotlight. As he narrowed his eyes to shield them from the blinding bloody light, he noticed a clothesline that took up most of the room that was hanging negatives. He was in a darkroom; an unexpected room, but the professor must be a Toon you don't expect.
Then Johnny realized, if this is a darkroom, then there's bound to be blueprints somewhere. Now giddy with excitement and furtiveness, he searched along the line for anything that resembled something in his dream- nuts. There were pictures of various brands of peanut butter being displayed; Panter's, Flippy's, Sniff... but why? Doctor Surlee was a man of science, wasn't he? Maybe he was having one of those "midlife crises" that Johnny had overheard Mother mumbling about.
Johnny had almost given up; he had put his hands on the table under the negatives, and he noticed a blue paper underneath the piles of paper with a mixture of printed text and frantic, barely intelligible handwritten notes. It had to be something. Careful not to rip it, Johnny instead decided to move the piles of paper weighing down on it.
He noticed a paper start to slip off the top of the stack, and, as Johnny idiotically tried to stop it from slipping, he ended up dropping the entire stack, making a loud racket that made him cringe with panic. Quickly, he looked around to see if anybody heard, then took a glance at the blueprints before anything else happened.
It was a muscular bipedal figure, with what appeared to be two faces looking left and right, one jolly and one stern-
Suddenly, a light flooded the room that battled with the red; white light. White light that betrayed the location of a shadow of a figure. Someone was home, and closing in fast. Johnny had to go now, or risk being caught. If Doctor Surlee had a fireplace, then Johnny's backside would be hanging above it. He eyed the still open bulkhead doors, the open early morning air still longing for Johnny to return.
Frantically, Johnny scrambled outside, skating across loose piles of paper along the way, sending them up into the air. He breathed in clean, natural breezes for the first time in what felt like half an hour, but was really 2 minutes. As he ran away, he glanced back at the bulkhead doors to see if anybody was on the chase.
Blinded by the rising sun in his face as he turned his head back, Johnny ran towards the point where he found the house. In his panic to get away, he forgot that he had climbed up a hill to reach his destination, and ended up tumbling downhill, the cobblestone path giving a checkerboard pattern in terms of bruises.
As he settled at the bottom, he struggled to get up, but managed to find his footing. Lumbering back home, Johnny gently opened and closed the front door, and tiptoed up the stairs. He opened the door to his room, not even caring if Mother heard. If he needed an explanation, he could just say he went to the bathroom before going back to bed. He checked the time on his clock again: 5:20 AM. One hour and one minute; good enough for him.
As he flopped back into bed, his mind whirled with enlightening revelations and mysterious questions about Doctor Surlee and the dream. If he saw the suits completed in his dream, then why was Doctor Surlee still designing them? Was the professor in the dream really Doctor Surlee? Why was the lab not a lab, but a darkroom?
So many questions... but so few answers, Johnny thought to himself. Maybe the answers will never be known... With that thought, he had given up on the possible answers of the dream. He succumbed to his heavy eyes drooping down, and went to sleep.