"Lord Commander Clear – there has been a collision in the iceberg area." Sally Wondersplat informed the red dog through the speaker.
"Are there any cogs out in the open?" Clear inquired over the radio. He hoped it wasn't a Goon or a Big Cog entering the area. Or Clarke destroying his newly developed vehicles.
"I'm uncertain – I'll send Ugly Frizzy and Duke to investigate." Sally Wondersplat was a college-aged duck who had been a part of the Toon Resistance since the first closure. A bright pink duck with red arms and legs wearing a Storm Sellbot outfit, gathered some Whole Fruit Pies, pressing the button on the radio near by her tools. "Duke Seville and Ugly Frizzy – please report to the Iceberg site." She sighed at the visual of the tall, frosty stone. Every cog had flown out of the sky and tried to land on Resistance Grounds. Luckily, the snow arrived in the nick of time and slowed down the impeding invasions.
"Ehh…" a nasal voice came on the line. "Did Santa Paws have a little too much sugar during the ride?" There was squeaky laughter running on the line.
"Please get to the iceberg." Sally ignored the joke and casually returned to her tinkering with the old Race Kart. The duck was really not in the mood for any nonsense, as were several toons in the condition they were in. Like everybody, Sally wanted to be open and silly when it came to Cog-busting and creating new equipment against the robots. But she had always been serious from the start. Her focus on the ideas of developing new cog-vehicles and weapons kept her busy than the average day toontasks.
When she joined the Resistance, Sally carried high ambitions toward equipping the Resistance with advanced transportation, rainbow-like liquids and animatronic toons for infiltrating the Cogs. But all her desires had been put aside after the closure was announced, leaving her as Lowden Clear's second-in-command. When she wasn't on watch, Sally would tamper with the damaged Skelecogs and gears, often building mini-tools for the soldiers.
Her father was a mechanic wizard – he always spent time repairing cars from Goofy Speedway whenever someone had a bad accident or wanted to create modifications. Although Sally's father didn't mind her watching the expert rebuild and repair – the man wanted Sally to get involved with Toon Politics and fight back against any clients from the Chief Justice. But after her father disappeared under mysterious circumstances, she took over the job and fell in love with the mechanics.
"I'll never understand why Sally has us head out in Candyland when the Resistance could just fix up the machines and plow through the roads, y'know?" Duke complained, trying to get a response from his friend.
"Perhaps…brrr, Lowden Clear doesn't want to rely- neighh- on the machines and get moving…" Ugly Frizzy neighed, muttering out his last sentence.
"Forget what he says, man! All 'squeak gotta do is get a look at this layout on paper and-" The mouse slammed on the brakes at the sight of a small junkyard by the ice tooth. The storm slowed down in the mouse's short field of view when a dark blue figure popped out of the Hummer. "Well, I'll be squeaked! Clarke destroyed the last vehicle!" Duke had sarcastic enthusiasm in his voice, disgusted at another destructive complaint. He was about to radio Sally, but ran out of the car, leaving footprints on the frosty ground. Ugly Frizzy just sat and observed the teal mouse dash to the wounded hound.
This is not brrr- safe, this is not safe, this is neigh neigh safe, Ugly Frizzy mumbled nervously. His foot was out of the car and shivered at the tiny white particles landing on his legs. The brown crawled back into a ball, prone to low temperatures.
"Frizz! Give me a hand here! I think the dog captured a new cog!" Duke exclaimed.
"It is not my obligation to head on out to the negative temperatures- "
"Don't be a yellow belly! Get your jacksqueak over here!"
Ugly Frizzy couldn't move. A new Cog? Sure, there were always Oilbots, Computer Jockeys, and Bronze-Bots, but what Duke had said couldn't be believable to the horse. It had been ages since the horse himself had seen real cogs outside of the Resistance. He just bursted out of the vehicle and his feet landed in Hell's Snow once again and ran with his legs dangling in the air.
Silver was carried out by both Clarke and Duke, bloodied and unconscious. The tall figure's hair looked like a cyclone created a crop circle and his arms were bruised and scratched from impact. Some of the black oil melted on his pants and armor.
"Clarke! Under neigghhhhhh circumstances are you to bring-"
The dark blue dog ignored Ugly Frizzy's complaints and limped his way to the vehicle. Ugly Frizzy just stood in the snow, watching Duke and Clarke open the doors and toss the young man in. Clarke sat in the driver's seat while Duke called out to the horse. "Frizzy! Let's go!" The horse waddled his way back to the car, shivering while the snow needles pierced his shoulders. As the vehicle backed away and accelerated towards base entrance, Duke and Clarke were arguing.
"What in the squeaky are you doing?!" Duke argued. "I get that you take pleasure out of extreme adrenaline trips and gathering new Cogs for interrogation, but if you think about bringing this man to base, either you or that Cog will be shot on sight!"
"I don't have a choice, Pip-Squeak. That Cog is a User like me, and he is my friend."
"So now you take it upon you that this guy isn't a machine nor can he go sad like the rest of us?"
"The only thing he does is breathe, walks, eat, sleep, and die – just like all of us and all humans."
"You know what else will happen if Lord Commander-"
"Fuck the rules, okay?! I trust him, and I promise you he won't do harm to the community."
"Watch your tounge, mutt. If he has no gears and a certain trait-"
"Drop it." Clarke barked. "This man means no harm and even if I risk my position for all this, I'll still be happy to know we're saving ToonTown and getting the most important matters with the Resistance quick and clean."
Ugly Frizzy had sat in silence by the two toons arguing and jumped in. "..Clear is always putting- brrrr neigh neighhh- toons and missions first-"
"Check his pulse and tell me if he's still breathing." Clarke wasn't in the mood to keep the debate going, turning the wheel and approaching the entrance.
The pale, brown horse put his fingers on Silver's neck and shut his eyes. A tiny kick flew out of the young man's carotid, vibrating Ugly Frizzy's fingers. The pulse beat a paradiddle, Silver's boy barely responding to the warm touch from the horse's fingers. "His breathing is poor! I'm going to neighh brr brregh check for blood loss!" Ugly Frizzy reached for the red box on his left and brought the defibrillator by his knees. He ripped open the young man's armor and revealed his chest exploding with veins and scratches. The horse snatched the pads and activated the machine. Setting the shock value to 50 joules, Ugly Frizzy rubbed the pads and then pressed them to Silver's chest, jolting the body. Silver didn't awaken and only lay unconscious. He pressed the buttons again and shocked the man. The young man shook on the floor and some of his breath escaped from his lips. "I'm uncertain how to neighhh!…I have never experimented on a speciemen like this!" Ugly Frizzy panicked, twiddling his thumbs and observing Silver's quiet breaths.
"No shit, sherlock! Just draw some of your blood!" Clarke grew irritated at Frizzy's hesitation. His hands stiffened and clutched the wheel but were shaken from the accident, the dog's blood imploding with pain inside the wrists. Clarke's foot crunched as he slammed on the gas pedal with whatever force he had left, releasing a ferocious growl. The vehicle's tires rolled down the hill, scraping the ice beneath the vehicle. Clarke used his other foot to firmly press the brakes but the vehicle kept sliding down. Then the truck spun right and toppled.
"Clarke...! Maybe I'll take the wheel from here!" Duke cried out, nauseated at the spinning sight outside, squirming inside his seat. His feet barely touch the floor and he squrimed out of his seatbelt, leaning over to the wheel, arms turning the opposite side.
"Hands off, pip-squeak!" Clarke snapped, veering in the opposite direction. His fingers loosened and the dog's brain was about to shut down.
"You're badly hurt and this time we won't get out alive!" Duke ejected the seatbelt, turning the wheel to his left and flew, trying to plant his feet with Clarke's unconscious body.
Ugly Frizzy kept dropping the pin from his fingertips and panted when he fell to the side, the truck spiraling into a tornado. The horse held onto the seatbelt and pinched himself, readying the needle. He stuck the syringe in his arm and exhaled, drawing blood. Pulling back on the button, he held onto the young man's arm only for the horse to strike him in the heart. The needle pierced inside the organ, blood flowing inside the young man. Frizzy's jaw dropped, watching Silver blink and cough but shocked at the young man's fate.
"Clarke! The brrrrruman is taking the blood!" Ugly Frizzy yelled. There was no response. The world slowed around him, the truck continuing to whirling, Ugly Frizzy's brain rattling with the tornado. A sudden halt froze the vehicle and the bodies crashed to the roof. Clarke lay next to the normally breathing Silver, Duke keeping his hands on the wheel, gagging down at the windshield.
"Gentlemen…" a husky feminine voice blared from the speakers. "What did I tell you about crusing outside in the snow?" Sally Wondersplat smiled through the tiny screen, pulling a lever in the background. She pressed a button and a zap emerged from the distance.
"Oh, thank Slappy for Wondersplat…!" Duke exasperated, vomiting and lying his head backward.
Loud humming and vibrating deactivated the vehicle, green auras holding the truck in place. Sally had caught the four in her tractor beam and was pulling them toward the gates. Behind the screen, Sally noticed Silver's hand. What turned out to be a victorious nourishment turned into bitter disappointment. "Gentlemen…did you bring in a Cog against my orders? Did you commit an unauthorized rule of the Resistance Code?" The duck gritted her teeth, almost to the point of yelling. "Lord Commander Clear will not be pleased. I will have to lock him up and relieve the three of your for your recklessness and disobediance!"
Silver put his head back at the tilted prompter, focusing on Sally through his groggy state. "I'm not a threat…" the man slurred, the words barely escaping his lips. He slowly faded out from the mayhem as Sally's words echoed in his mind.
"Lord Commander Clear – our toons have captured an unusual Cog and made the decision to compromise our location. Send down some of your men immediately. The Guild will decide what to do with our new guest."