*Chapter 2: A Change in Command*

In Mr. Plotz' office with Dr. Scratchansniff by his side, he and Buddy went through all of the Studio's documentation concerning budget, film input, payroll, net losses and so on and so forth. This was the one part of Studio functions that made Mr. Plotz very nervous to show Buddy since the toon boy didn't have a track record of management in general, let alone good management.

"Hmmmm, doesn't look so bad." Buddy said thoughtfully, removing his reading glasses. "Maybe just a few snags here and there."

Poor Plotz continued to sit nervously behind his desk, nearly sweating bullets and hoping like heck that Buddy knew what he was talking about or what he was doing.

"Nothing to worry about!" the smirking boy assured the stout CEO, patting him on the back. "I'm sure we can turn some of the snafus around."

"Uh-heh-heh-heh." Plotz chuckled weakly. "Of course."

Buddy's sheer positivity and optimism was rather catching, but his confidence didn't exactly give Plotz any relief. With his present position however, it was just better to smile and nod. The New York offices sent him after all, and if he screwed up in any capacity, he would have to answer to them, and Plotz would be able to say, 'See? I told you so!'

"So! Now that we got some down time..." Buddy began again. "...How are my old friends, the Warners are doing?"

Now Plotz was really nervous. He was afraid that Buddy would bring them up. Before he could utter in a word of protest, a large wooden crate with caution stamps suddenly dropped onto to the unfortunate p-sychiatrist. Its occupants simply opened the lid as if were a door.

"You rang?" Yakko quirked.

"Hello. Warners!" Buddy excitedly greeted.

"Buddy!" the siblings ecstatically cried back.

"Boy, it's so good to-"

The toon boy was abruptly flattened by the Warners' mallets.

"We smashed businessman Buddy!" the trio sang.

Buddy emerged from the floor with stars encircling his head, yet he laughed the whole thing off.

"Oh, you fellas." he chuckled heartily. "Just like the old days."

A few seconds later, as Mr. Plotz helped a dizzy Dr. Scratchansniff to his feet, the Warners' charge came in through the office door.

"'Sup?" she greeted.

"Hmph, at least one of them can still be sensible be enough to come in here like a normal person." Plotz whispered to Scratchansniff.

"Hello, who's this?" Buddy curiously inquired, a bit surprised to see the teen.

"Buddy, we want ya to meet our friend, Rem!" Wakko declared, as he and his brother and sister stretched out their arms and yanked Rem towards them.

"Heh-heh, a pleasure to meet you, miss." Buddy replied, extending his hand.

Rem for her part, also had a delighted curiosity on finally meeting this character in person after hearing a bit about him on more than one occasion. She eagerly and politely reached out with her own hand.

"Sure." she said with a genuine smile. "It's cool to meet y-"

Suddenly when she took the toon boy's hand, Rem was struck with an extremely negative aura from Buddy. All her senses and inner conscience was screaming at her that this boy had vastly ill intentions. But how was this possible? By all appearances, he didn't look anything like a threat. Nor behaved in a threatening manner.

"...nice to meet you too." Rem stammered.

"Why, I'd like to get to know you better." Buddy replied in a very friendly voice. "It's not every day I meet a new Warner."

"Actually, my last name is Roth." Rem murmured, completely turned off and putting her guard up. "And...maybe later ?"

"Why of course! After all we've got all the time in the world."

To Rem's great relief, her peers took over again.

"So, you're the big shot they sent from New York?" Yakko said, lounging on Mr. Plotz' desk. "The nut farmer thing didn't work out too well, did it?"

"That's right!" Buddy replied cheerfully. "I'd never pass up an opportunity to help my old Studio! Which reminds me, T.P., we should probably reevaluate the employees."

"B-but annual Studio evaluations aren't for another four months." Mr. Plotz protested.

"Not to worry." Buddy assured him. "Besides, New York's gonna want a report by the end of the week." Then he turned back to the siblings. "And before I go back there at the end of the month, we should have a get together!"

"Wakko still has the jumper from his last birthday that lets you jump all the way to the atmosphere." Dot quipped.

"Splendid! Hee-hee-hee-hee, hee-hee-hee!"

Although Rem was happy that her peers were reconnecting with an old friend, she still couldn't shake the awful feeling that something about Buddy that was terribly wrong. Dr. Scratchansniff certainly noticed that she was scrutinizing the toon boy.

"Eh, Mees Roth?" he said softly. "Ees everything quite alight?"

"...Huh? Oh yeah, fine." Rem replied hastily, trying to hide her uneasiness.

xxxxxx

Later that day, much to Rem's slight chagrin, she and her peers spent the entire afternoon with Buddy. That's not to say she didn't enjoy herself, but it wasn't as much as she wanted to. For one thing, she felt more comfortable in the presence of the Warners whereas with Buddy she somehow felt nervous. So much so that she was very reluctant to tell him very much about herself, yet she didn't want to come off as antisocial. At least he showed interest in what she did have to say.

"So, Frankeninni huh?" Buddy said thoughtfully. "Well, I shoulda guessed as much. Did'ja know that crazy goob wanted Walt Disney's brain?"

Rem using her past skill to suppress her emotions to keep from laughing, arched her brow.

"...No." she replied with a reserved tone. "But that sounds interesting."

While whatever conversation wasn't directed at her, Rem spent every second trying to read the toon boy without a sliver of success. It was almost as if each time she got close enough for some results, he'd quickly change his behavior to something a bit goofier, change the subject, or directed the Warners' attention to something else so they would drag her along.

...What IS it with this dude? He seems like a nice enough guy, but why am I getting such a bad vibe from him?

In spite of her great reservations, Rem was still willing to hold her peace. Her peers were having a blast reuniting with an old costar for heaven sakes, she'd feel like a huge jerk if she ended up ruining it for them. After all, if they weren't worried about anything and remaining completely confident, why shouldn't she?"

...Besides, what's the worst he could possibly do?

XXXXXX

Two days later, nothing seemed to have changed or be out of the ordinary within the studio, much to Plotz' relief and satisfaction. Though there was a twitter amongst the employees about the early evaluations and gossip going back and forth about what this all meant going forward. Some veteran and seasoned staff members just saw this as probable studio shuffling. Nothing new there.

Rem even was about to let go of her wariness regarding Buddy when out of the blue, she got a rather unusual request from Slappy Squirrel. She headed towards the Studio's film archive with a long list of cartoons that the elderly cartoon made for her to retrieve from the vaults. There to greet her at the archive, was a familiar face.

"Hey there."

"Hey yourself."

"So, have things been?"

The cloned mouse arched a brow at her as if she didn't know.

"Smooth as silk...until a few days ago." Roman muttered.

Rem blinked in surprise.

"Why's that?" she inquired.

"Some new suit with a creepy grin is making things...rather complicated."

"...you mean Buddy?"

"Interesting name. Anyway, everything was clockwork until he showed up."

Rem frowned. Not quite something she wanted to hear.

"You wanna talk about it?" she asked softly.

"Not here." Roman replied, cautiously before dropping his voice to a whisper. "You never know if they're watchin' on camera."

Rem's eyes shifted towards the security camera on the ceiling.

"...Right. Anyway, you think you can grab these for me?" she said, handing him the list. "Ms. Slappy Squirrel has need of them apparently."

"Hmmm..." Roman murmured thoughtfully as he read through the list. "I'd say Ms. Squirrel is a smart cookie."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, I'm assuming that this is a sizable portion of her own filmography, yes?"

"Sure, I suppose. The better ones anyway. Her words not mine."

"She's probably caught onto what Mr. Buddy has got planned for the archives."

Rem had to make a double take at that.

"Okay, now you've sort of lost me." she said.

"Let's just say that the new 'exec' is either an idiot and doesn't know what he's doin'." Roman replied, using air quotes. "Or he's doing this very intentionally."

From the tone of his voice, Rem sensed that his suggestion was pretty ominous. But it wasn't much for her to go on in putting dirt on Buddy's rep. Being the eccentric that he was, perhaps he didn't know what he was doing and was getting in a little over his head.

...Just smile and nod.

xxxxxx

Rem ended up having to take a motorized cart to Slappy's tree house in order to transport what turned out to be twelve boxes worth of film cans. She was surprised and relieved that she was able to leave the studio with them in tow without having any studio authority bar her way. The teen tried not to think about it too much on her way to the tree house.

"THERE YOU ARE!" Slappy exclaimed, popping out of her residence when Rem arrived. "Where are they, where are they?"

"Ummm, right back there?" Rem sputtered, pointing her thumb behind her.

Slappy rushed over towards the back end of the vehicle and quickly inspected the cans of film.

"Perfect! You've done well, young lady." she said, patting Rem affectionately on her head. "That goob can have the rest of 'em. Come on in for some walnut cookies!"

Rem sat silently in the cart for a moment.

"So...I suppose Roman was right to say that Buddy's is in way over his head?" she murmured carefully.

"Are ya kidding me? That ol' nut wants to 'clean house' in them vaults." Slappy said in disgust. "I guess ninety years' worth of material don't mean nothin' no more. Sure glad Bogart ain't around to see this."

"You think maybe you oughta tell Plotz about your concerns?"

"Sure, if he actually answers his phone instead of that other yutz."

"Well, being that he's the freaking CEO of the Studio, he gotta answer it at some point."

There was a tense moment of silence between them.

"Listen kid, you just be careful while you're at the Studio, ya hear? Just keeping stickin' to Warners as much as possible." Slappy ordered. "I for one don't believe any of that rut about comin' from New York. I know most of those coots, and I don't see them sending Buddy of all people under their watch."

"...Any particular reason why you want me to do that stuff?" Rem inquired, not liking that this was the second person who shared her great reservations on the toon boy.

"Eeehhh, don't worry your head about it. Just do all that and you'll be fine."

Somehow that wasn't really comforting.

"So what are you gonna do?"

"Me? Gonna file a grievance at this so-called upcomin' 'evaluation'."