Chapter 2: Discovery

Sellbot HQ was deserted. Not surprising considering most, if not all the occupants were dragged along behind the Chief Justice and the Chief Financial Officer. The CJ, taking the lead, whether this was intention or not, scrutinised every corner of the building, hoping to find some kind of clue as to what event had overturned the order of SBHQ.

The CFO, instinctively sticking close to his companion, glanced back at the mass of Sell, Cash and Lawbots that were following them. The Sellbots had stopped struggling, seeming to have been rendered catatonic from fright. Not that they had been forthcoming before, but they certainly were not going to get anything out of them now.

The CJ halted. "I've just realised something. There are no goons patrolling."

The CFO looked around. He was right. "We should head for the VP's Office. If he's still here, that's where he'll be."

He raised an eyebrow. "That is to say, if he is not the cause of this."

"What makes you think that?"

"It would explain a lot. And I can think of nothing else that could terrify a Cog to such an extent as we have seen today."

---------

The Cashbot looked up. "Well we're here. Should we knock?"

"Well of course, have you no manners?" The CJ lifted one hand and rapped sharply on the door. A pause and then a loud crash from the other side could be heard. They both jumped back in surprise.

"What-?" The CFO began. Before he could finish, several things happened in the space of a few seconds; the doors were thrown open. Open sighting his closest friend, the VP flung himself at the Cashbot with what sounded suspiciously like a delighted squee, colliding with him as he threw his arms around the CFO's neck in a hug, or more specifically a glomp.

"-Are you doing?" He finished.

The VP let go and gabbled at them in a voice that sounded like a fast-forwarded tape and gesticulated so fast his arms became a blur. The two Chiefs stared at him with opened mouthed horror at the monstrosity that had replaced their colleague.

Chief Justice stared down at his shaking hands. "I've-I've been struck to the core with pure fear. Amazing. But what could possibly warrant such a reaction?"

"I'm shaking," and so was his voice. "I've never been this frightened in my life."

"Curious. None of the Cogs after a certain point seem to be affected."

"You mean it's radial?"

"I believe so."

"Listen, VP, if you can understand me, move back."

He looked heartbroken.

"No, I didn't mean it like that. Just. . . for now."

He sulked but moved, or rather zoomed back, hitting the wall.

The CJ sighed. "That's better, now I can think straight."

"What do we do? We can't leave him like this."

"First we must ascertain what "this" is. Then we should determine the cause."

"All right, good plan. If we have anything on "this", then it should be in the Archive."

"Indeed. Providing the Sellbots have been keeping their Archive up-to-date, there should be no difference in content between mine, yours and the VP's."

"Do you have any ideas?"

"It must be Toon related, or more precisely; caused by the Toons. We'll start in the Toon Research section."

"And if there's nothing?"

"Then we'll just have to move straight onto the cause." He turned to the VP. "Now you stay here, understand, until we say you can leave."

The Vice President gabbled angrily in response.

"Come now, you've no control over yourself. How many Cogs, Skelecogs and goons have perished today because you accidentally ran them down?"

He looked stung by the comment and dropped his gaze to the floor.

"Exactly. Now are you going to stay here?"

He nodded.

"Good."

The two Cogs headed towards the exit.

"I've just had a thought. This is exactly the reason why we should have seconds in command," the CJ remarked.

"I was thinking the same thing."

"On the spot promotion?"

The CFO grinned nodded.

They picked out their best Cogs and sent the rest home. With the reassurance that the VP would remain in his Office indefinitely, the Sellbots returned to their duties.

---------

Bigwig Lawbot 159-2 thumbed through the book, skim-reading the contents. His Cashbot counterpart, Robber Baron 284-9 had just finished his book and was choosing another.

The quartet, also consisting of the CFO and the CJ, were skimming through books dedicated to the documentation of Toon reactions to certain materials. Unhelpfully, the books were mostly padded out with theories as to why and not actual facts.

The CFO sighed. "We really need to look into a way to make information more immediately accessible."

159-2 double taked, flipping back to the page he had just skimmed, reading it again this time with a great deal of care. He was on his feet. "I've found something!"

The trio stopped what they were doing to listen.

"The Sugar Rush; categorised by hyperactivity and irrational behaviour."

His boss nodded. "Sounds promising."

"It is caused by an ingestion of excessive levels of sugar, or foods that contain it. It has been noted that there are two types of Sugar Rush, one that Toon observers find amusing, the other is found to be terrifying as opposed to funny."

"That must be it. Good job 159-2."

159-2 beamed with pride.

"What else does it say?" The CFO asked.

"In both cases, the symptoms are the same; hyperactivity, extremes of emotion and unusual, if irrational behaviour that often transcends the boundary between in character and out. It comes in three phases. One. The High, in which the subject displays the symptoms as previously described. This is followed by two. The Addiction. The subject loses all concepts of sanity in their need and desire to obtain and ingest more of the substance that gave them the Sugar Rush. As subjects are in the process of descending for The High, they lose their hyperactivity, but retain the extremes of emotion and irrational behaviour. However the manifestation of these symptoms becomes sinister and hostile in this phase. It has been observed that subjects in phase two are locked away, or are otherwise prevented from ingesting the substance as it has been proven to make the final stage even worse.

Finally three. The Fallout. Having come out of an overly happy state of mind, this must be opposed by one of extreme depression. Subjects display lethargy and generous amounts of woe. It has been recommended that the subject sleep this phase off."

"Is that it?"

"That's it, Sir."

"Hmm, so it seems there's nothing we can do but wait until he comes out of it."

"Uh, Sir?"

"Yes, 284-9?"

"How long has the VP been in Phase 1?"

Just then a Mr Hollywood ran into the Archive room. "CFO!" He gasped. "CJ! The VP. He's gone mad! Er!"

The quartet exchanged wide-eyed looks.

"Oh my," said the Chief Justice.