A Toon stood on a raised platform at the front of a huge hall, filled with other Toons, who were eagerly watching, hardly daring to blink, taking in the image of this Toon. Mumbling filled the crowd as they watched two armed guards bring in a sienna dog and push through the crowd, placing him next to the Toon. More Toons started to speak as they realised who the new arrival was, and speculated on why they had been brought to such a large event. Some suggested that they had obtained victory, and this agent was the one who had struck the final blow to their enemies. Others said that perhaps this agent was being given as huge promotion to leader of an important squad. More still believed that perhaps he was going to lead each one of them to battle. But none of these were the reason for him being there, nor was it the reason they had been dragged out of bed at 3.00 AM in the morning.

The Toon in the front raised his hand to indicate silence. At once the Toons shut up, knowing that punishment would be served if they didn't. They treated this Toon like a God.

"Thank you." The Toon said. "I have gathered you all to witness a revolutionary event. Know that when the future members of our organisation look back, they will mark this as an important milestone in the history of this group. For today, we will renew our absolute power over Toontown, and those who inhabit it. Those who choose to act against us will find that they are not, as they had hoped, more free, but instead completely under our control, not only in this life, which they will find is short, but in death. And those who remember this Toon will not remember them as a person, but as an object controlled and ordered by the Itoonimati. We must preserve this, if we are to crush resistance against us."

The crowd cheered at the speech.

"Yes, thank you, thank you." The Toon said. "But despite this, we must continue to find new ways of fighting our enemies, of crushing those who do not deserve life as we do! We must purge Toontown of those who turn away from our path, who are not worthy of the life we allow them to have! And we must, therefore, evolve! Create new ways of showing them who truly controls this world! Who will we not tolerate?"

The crowd shouted back, "Traitors! Weaklings! Rebels!"

He nodded. "Yes, that is the truth. Remember our ancestors, who when capturing one of these Toons, would strap them to a chair and burn them alive? We would make them feel the flame that would carve us in to their souls, as they should?"

The crowd all cheered, knowing of the ancient execution technique, which was actually still carried on today.

"Well, today we will erase that! Create a new method of destroying our targets! And we have a traitor here," – he indicated the sienna dog – "who will test out our new idea!"

The sienna dog shook his head desperately. "Please, my brothers, my sisters! I have not betrayed you! I stayed strong in the face of the outsiders! You must believe me! You must save me!" He begged.

"Shut up, Sleepfish!" The Toon yelled, and kicked the dog in the face. "I will show you agony!"

He then turned to the crowd. "I know some of you will dislike this new technique and method. However, you must give this a chance. It will still carve us in to their brain! Allow me to demonstrate!" He yelled. He then strapped Sleepfish to a huge chair. He pulled a dagger out of his belt. Then, he carefully carved a pyramid, then an eye inside the pyramid, on the dog's stomach. "The symbol of our All Seeing Eye." He commented once finished.

He then took a syringe from his belt. "This is a small syringe of a chemical that is found in one of the uninhabitable regions of our world. It is poison that, as soon as it enters the bloodstream, will kill your blood cells and clot blood up. It will burst veins and damage the heart. As the blood cells die off, the heart is also attacked, and will burn up. Finally, the heart will no longer be able to function, as blood vessels burst. This will result in a painful, slow death!" The Toon explained. "The less poison injected, the less pain there will be. Let's try a small amount first." He said, and injected the chemical. The dog's face contorted in pain, but he managed to keep from crying out. The Toon grinned fiendishly. "He's in pain, let's increase the dosage."

Sleepfish shook his head. "Please, please, not like this. Not like this." He sobbed.

"We are too far in to end it now!" The Toon laughed, and injected more poison.

Sleepfish cried out. Agony coursed through his body, and he shook his head. "There's an antidote, there must be. Give me it, please."

The crowd laughed as the Toon injected more. He screamed out as he felt unimaginable agony take over. Finally, his screaming was cut short and he slumped in the chair.

"I am pleased. For countless weeks we have been working towards this new method of execution. This symbolises our continuing power over lives, while always staying ahead of those that resist our influence. I hope you all remember this day; for this new execution ritual will one day be recognised as one of the larger symbolic rituals, and will be used more than any of you here anticipate. But as we head in to our brave new world that we will create, we must take only the worthy with us. Those who are not absolutely dedicated to our organisation, those who are not worthy of the absolute power we will obtain over every single natural and unnatural thing in this world must be removed. Permanently. And, if you think you can leave, you are dead wrong. Those who try to leave will be executed on the spot. You cannot escape now. All you can do is go on more missions – mostly against resistance in Toontown Central – and hope that you can redeem yourselves. Now, you can go and get more sleep, or return to your guard post, but do not forget to turn off the sentry turrets that were temporarily activated in your absence. They use a lot of power rapidly just being active, which is why we don't use them permanently."

The Toons in the crowd slowly walked away, hoping to get a few more hours of sleep before waking up again and finding a mission to ensure their own safety over the coming weeks. Hopefully, some reasoned, if they were deployed to life-risking missions repeatedly, their leaders would see how loyal to the order they were.

Princess Bubbles sat at the table, having just woken up. Flippy was also sitting there. He had been awake longer.

"Where are we?" Princess Bubbles asked Flippy. "I'm sure this can't be right. He killed Salem. I passed out. What about you? Where are we? How are we even alive?"

Flippy explained, "Well, after Sleepfish – I'm assuming that's his name - killed Salem and shot you, I tried to grab the gun of him, but he was fast and shot me. But then, some sort of beeping noise came from his watch, and he looked at it. I guess he had to return immediately, because he didn't confirm the kills. I heard some running towards us, so I guess one of our allies got us and patched us up."

Princess Bubbles took it in, then nodded, and went to a large fridge. "I'm super hungry. I hope there's actually something in here." She said, and then opened it. She groaned.

"There's nothing in here we can eat."

Flippy smiled. "It's time to show my hidden talent. What's inside?"

She looked again.

"A pack of eight eggs, two big milk bottles, a bag of parsley, there's a bag of mint next to the parsley… oh, some cheese, too. Parmesan, I think. Lots of scallions in a little bag too. And for some reason they keep salt and black pepper in here too."

"That's just what I need. Explore this place a little, scream if you need help."

"Alright, leave it up to me." She snorted, and then exited the room that contained a stove, a fridge, two old beds and a TV. It was all you needed for a tiny house.

She walked down a hall and checked out the closest door. It was locked. She looked around for a key box, but there was nothing of the sort. Sighing, she tried another, which was also locked. Finally, she tried the third door, which was unlocked. The room was rather large; there was a light bulb, but it wouldn't turn on, so she was left to explore the room in complete darkness. She felt around and found a small chest. She opened it up and grabbed what was inside. Gripping it, she walked for the hall.

When she was back in the light, she saw what she was holding was a small toy car. She'd stumbled in to a child's room. Suddenly, however, it split apart and revealed a key. Grinning, she tried on the door she'd tried last. However, it was the wrong key. She tried it on the first and it opened. She entered and flicked on the light to reveal a small room stocked with first aid kits and syringes used for taking blood to donate.

"Hospital?" She guessed.

"Hey, Bubbles! Come on over here!"

Flippy was calling for her.

She entered the room and was surprised to find two cheese omelettes on the table. She licked her lips.

"That is a talent…" She muttered.

"I know." Flippy said, grinning. He went over to a small shelf with some cutlery inside, getting a knife and fork for himself, and a knife and fork for Princess Bubbles.

"Tuck in."

She started eating straight away. "Mm, this is yummy." She said between bites. "You can really make something out of nothing. You should be on a butter commercial."

She wolfed the rest down quickly, but Flippy, being a master at eating, was faster to finish the meal. Stifling a burp, he put the two plates in a dishwasher. Then, he exited the room.

"Where are you going?" She asked. "Wait!"

"What? I'm just finding a shower." He said. "It's not like I'm going off to have some grand adventure out at sea."

Princess Bubbles nodded. "Of course."

Flippy went to look for a shower, and Princess Bubbles smiled. Even during the chaos, they could still have twenty minutes of a normal life before being pulled back to the battle they knew they would soon be fighting.