Chip wiped his forehead as he climbed up the small dune up to the road where the van was parked. The blistering heat was made worse by the physical strain placed on the pair as they had gone through the effort to dig a makeshift grave for their short-lived friend. "We're coming back for him and giving him a proper burial when all of this is over." Chip had repeated that constantly over the forty-five minutes the pair had worked. Quentin had dropped off to watch the monkey finish shoving a few sticks into the sand to help them find the corpse later. Neither one could really comprehend what had just happened. Neither had actually witnessed somebody's death before. Chip had not included what had happened to the dummies that had died in front of him now that he knew they weren't alive.

"What difference does it make? Where are we going to take him? Back into Funny Farms? He said he didn't want anybody to know what happened to him. Taking him back to Toontown I guess is possible, but do you really want to be cooped up in a hot car with a decaying body for hours at a time? No thanks. He was a Funny Farms Toon. and I think this is where he belongs. He's dead, he's not going to argue with us." The black cat adjusted his baseball cap and wiped his forehead. Leaning against the van, he watched as Chip skimped by and jumped into the passenger side seat. "So, what do we do now?"

"I'm not really sure. I was really counting on Mike here. He knows more about Jack and that quack's powers. Although I did steal his staff as I got away. I remember Mike mentioning that it was important or something. Maybe this is the secret and we just need to use it against him. Isn't that what they do in movies? You're the big shot director!"

Quentin pulled open his door and hopped inside, throwing his arm around the headrest he looked into the a grate that opened to the back and stared at the staff. "I think you're giving me a bit too much credit. I am great, don't get me wrong, but I'm not some supreme being. I just came here to make a movie, and this idiot ruined everything."

"Oh yeah, you did mention that. Mind if I ask about it? I'm a bit curious what an esteemed director such as yourself would travel all the way out to Funny Farms for. Was it a western? I bet it is a western!" Chip clicked in his seatbelt and waited for Quentin to start driving off. "Wait, why am I putting this on. I don't even know where we're going."

"Yeah, actually it was a western, if you must know. It is about a Toon in a small town who falls in love with a cog. She becomes shunned by her town and then her lover gets called to a squirt gun duel by the Toon who loves her. Well the cog knows that he is basically going to his death, but he's stubborn and wants to prove to her that he loves her. He goes out and he ends up getting shot and dying in her arms. Was going to be a real tearjerker. Well at least until my entire crew was kidnapped and hypnotized."

Chip rubbed his head with the palm of his hand and sighed. "Geez, just when I thought I couldn't get any more depressed. Can you actually imagine a Toon and a cog falling in love?" The brown chimp gazed out the window and watched as the pavement took a dusting from the breeze blowing bits of sand. "So, what are you going to do after we rescue everybody? Are you going to keep making the movie?"

"What do you mean? Of course I am. I've already paid for everything. If these cheapskates think they can get out of work by being hypnotized and kidnapped, they're fooling themselves. I managed to get myself out of it, why couldn't they?"

"Well, I did that." Chip interjected, pretending to slap the black cat in the head. As the pair sat in silence, Chip turned back around and stared at the staff. "Hey, don't drive off. I want to get another look at that. There has to be something special about it, and maybe we can figure out how it works." Unbuckling himself, he hopped out of the van and ran back behind their vehicle. Pulling open the doors, he reached in and grabbed the large, yellowish-brown stick. "You know this looks really familiar."

Sighing, Quentin stepped out of the car, feeling the burning pavement on his unsheathed feet. "Let me take a look at it." The staff had smoothed, hexagonal sides. The bottom had a rubbery, pink edge. "Hey, doesn't this look kind of familiar to you?"Reaching up, he touched the sharp, pointed graphite tip. "This kind of looks like..."

"...A pencil! It's a giant pencil?" Chip exclaimed. "Wow, I don't know how I didn't realize it. Funny how things like that work. This is definitely a pencil. But why would Jack use a giant pencil as a staff? What's so magical about this?" The pair laid the large pencil flat onto the ground and moved it around, examined the sides, and checked for any sort of hidden openings. The pair tried casting magical spells, and much to their surprise, nothing happened. "I don't think this thing actually works."

"Well, that's probably because Jack has some sort of magical powers or something. Of course it wouldn't work for us. Reason ten million for us to just get out of here. We'll take this back to Toontown and and bring it to the Rangers. I'm sure somebody would know about it." Quentin rolled the pencil back and forth with his foot, waiting for his partner to give in and come with him.

Unwilling to give up, Chip continued to ponder. "I don't think it is that. If it was just his own magic I don't think he would bring it with him everywhere. I remember now. In that story Mike told us, Jack gave the horse the staff. He said to use it to bring back her husband or something? Well we know that he has these dummies that he has brought to life. Doesn't that remind you of something else. Something you might have seen in Toontown?"

Quentin thought about it for a second, before giving up and shrugging. "Can't say I've ever seen a magical pencil before."

"It's an Animator Tool! You know, Animation Agencies? They use these when they are bringing new Toons to life. It's an Illustrator, or I think that's what it is called at least. They use these on the drawings that are submitted I think. Well, why couldn't that work on a dummy, right? isn't it possible that Jack isn't magic, but he's just got a powerful tool that he uses for terrible reasons?"

Skeptical, Quentin stuck his tongue out and scrunched his face. "That seems a bit farfetched. I've never heard of anybody doing anything like that. Don't you think someone would have tried using it on something besides an animation form at least once?"

"Maybe they have! Just because we don't know about it doesn't mean it has never happened. Maybe that is how Jack figured out he could do it. Although I guess that doesn't account for the entire city, the freezing time or anything. So, I don't know. Maybe he really does have some magical powers. Dude does seem pretty creepy. But at least if we've taken away his ability to create, it limits what he can do a bit, yeah?" Chip began imagining all of the different ways he could use this to his advantage. "But wait, what about those that ARE hypnotized? You were hypnotized for at least a little while. How did he do that? Is he magic, or maybe he's just good at hypnosis?"

"Well, we have hypnosis glasses that work on cogs. What if they also work on Toons too? I honestly don't remember what happened, but he must have done something pretty incredible to get someone like me. I'm not sure. So let's just ignore the dummies and focus on that. We're still dealing with a good number of Toons that we have to be careful with. We can't just kill them." Quentin held up the pencil and used it to scratch his back, nodding at his own genius.

Chip held out his hand and snapped his fingers. "Well, I think that is obvious. We just need to clock them in the head. You got hit in the head with a phone base and it knocked you out. I think a good clean hit would clear their minds, yeah?"

"I guess that's true. But that still sounds difficult. Anyways, now I can't stop thinking about it. Who animated the first Toons? Like, if we are drawn by somebody else, that means someone had to come first. But how did they get here?" Quentin dropped the staff-pencil into the back of the van and shut the doors. "Come on, you can't tell me you haven't thought about it. Also, who drew Jack? Why does he have all these special powers? Where did this town come from?" Pinching the bridge of his nose, Quentin shook his head. "Ugh, I'm just confusing myself now. Stop me from talking before my brain explodes."

"Alright, alright. Well why don't we back up a little. You know, recap everything so that we don't spin ourselves in an endless circle. So we have an evil duck with a magical pencil that he can use to bring things to life, including dummies. He uses these to enact his will. To supplement his forces, he uses some kind of hypnosis on living Toons, possibly through mind-control or other means. Toons who do not fall for it, or do not go along with it are sent to some kind of dungeon where they are locked away and I guess just kept there until they submit to him? He froze the real Funny Farms in a time portal and created a duplicate town using his dummies and hypnotized Toons where he lures in more victims all for the purpose of... something?" Chip smacked his forehead. "I just confused myself again!"

Taking his seat in the front of the van, Quentin slapped his hands together. "Wait, I think that's it!"

"What, what's it?" Chip bellowed back at his friend.

"Well, why can't we just do what he does? He can make living dummies? Well why can't we? We can draw our own army of doll-Toons to go and fight for us. Then once they're all distracted we run in and take down Jack! It's the perfect plan!" Quentin raised his fist in the air, celebrating himself.

Patting the other Toon, Chip shook his head. "I don't think that is a very good idea. We don't know how they would act for one. Plus, I don't know how to make a dummy. I do like the idea though if that's any consolation." Quentin turned and crossed his arms. "Maybe we can build on that?"

"How though? Plus what do we do about all of the Toons in real Funny Farms? What happens if the spell isn't broken? Do we just have to start pulling them out and showing them what is really going on? This is way above my pay grade. Can't we just go get the Rangers?" The black cat scowled.

"Trust me, if the Rangers were willing to come here, I wouldn't be here. They're just as scared to come here as we are to be here. Plus, like I have said fifty times, that is a long drive. Even if we are able to convince them to come here, explain everything and have them believe us, well who knows what could happen between then and now. Didn't you hear Jack? Apparently he's been watching us. Now, maybe he was just saying that to intimidate us. But what if he is watching us now? He'd be well prepared. I think we need to try and strike while he least expects it. We should go in now." Chip had given way to a face of anxiety and fear, letting his friend know that he wasn't messing around. "I think we need to go back."

Quentin scoffed. "Just drive back to the church and what? Start whacking everyone around with out giant stick? Run them over?"

"Nope, I have an even better idea. Just start getting us there and I'll explain on the way. Now, this is what we need to do..."