A Taste of Judge Doom's own medicine.
The air inside the Acme Factory was thick with fumes from the dip as it was sprayed right into Judge Doom, and as he stared at the toon who had disguised himself as the gaunt judge who had killed Maroon and Marvin Acme, Eddie Valiant felt like shuddering as the toon underneath the rubber mask melted.
He didn't move from his spot as the toon howled and shrieked with agony as the dip melted it away. It seemed so hard for anyone who had met Doom to equate that the scary and weird judge with this toon with the burning red eyes, and the high-pitched squeak of a voice, but they were the same person.
A toon murderer hardly seemed possible, but he knew it was possible; the unholy mess where Teddy was murdered by that insane and mysterious toon proved it. Teddy had been crushed by a piano. Marvin Acme had been similarly murdered by that safe, and when Eddie had seen the flamboyant little joker and the crime scene, he had been stunned by just how similar it was to what had happened with Teddy. Only at the time, he had been stunned by what he had heard Roger had supposedly committed the murder and his head had ached with the repercussions of a toon committing murder while his brain had ached and spun from the hangover he was nursing at the time that he hadn't made the connection.
But when he had, he had been stunned by how similar the two murders were. But it had never occurred to him to think the same toon who had killed his brother was behind this latest murder. The toon had managed to escape into Toon Town, and despite Eddie's best efforts, he had never been able to find the toon. The toons themselves had been shaken by what they learnt, and even their natural insanity was pushed aside with the unthinkable act.
At the time, okay, he had felt Roger might have been the one responsible. When Maroon had given him the job of spying on Roger's wife, Jessica Rabbit, to see if the rumours about her were correct when Roger's recent poor performances were costing Maroon's studio thousands of dollars and when he had returned with photographs of Jessica and Acme playing patty cake, Roger had gone mad.
So yes, Eddie had entertained the thought of Roger being guilty, but even while he had gained a distaste for toons after what had happened to Teddy after the pair of them worked frequently in Toon Town and enjoyed every moment of it, he had been nauseated and disturbed by Doom dunking that toon shoe into that vat of dip. Eddie might not like toons but even he felt that was disgusting, and he would never forget the looks of terror on that toon shoe's 'face' as Doom sank it into the vat, and it melted to death in agony and he would never forget the nightmare of helping Roger out when he had nearly been dipped because the rabbit had not been able to control himself when Doom learnt he was at the bar.
Eddie and Jessica had come here and learnt of Doom's insane plans to destroy Toon Town with dip all to make something called a Freeway - a massive motorway of a scale that Eddie found hard to fathom, and he didn't understand, but not because he lacked vision as Doom had claimed. No, he just found it impossible to believe two men had been murdered and Toon Town itself was currently under threat. Why? What was the point? Why did it have to be through Toon Town? Surely the city council could have come up with a better route that would prove to be affordable. But what Eddie had found hard to refute was the insanity behind it.
The kind of insanity only a toon could come up with. Sure, a human could come up with the plans for a highway, but Eddie found it hard to believe that humans would destroy Toon Town in such a disturbing and dismissive manner. When Eddie learnt Judge Doom was a toon, he wasn't truly surprised; he had begun to wonder if there was more to the mysterious judge's attitude and past than everyone expected.
But even Eddie was shaken by the sight of the toons eyes and his high-pitched squeak of a voice.
The same eyes and voice which had haunted him from the moment he had heard that disturbing laughter in Toon Town on that terrible night where Teddy was killed.
The fight between him and the toon was, as he'd expected, hard; fighting toons was a nightmare at the best of times since toons came from a different reality which meant they didn't obey the normal laws of physics meaning they could conjure up whatever they needed like the bear trap Jessica had created when that weasel had shoved a hand to search her dress between her considerable cleavage, they could do those hundreds of times. They could transform their hands into chain or buzz saws, and their drawn, indestructible nature compared to how humans being in this reality were incapable of matching them made it virtually impossible for anyone to truly hurt a toon.
In comparison, a human would be killed in an instant, and they didn't have the ability to get extra weapons as if they were reaching into a coat pocket. Eddie knew it wasn't for that toon hammer that cop had used to taunt him when this whole investigation into the murder of Acme began then he would have been sawn in half by that unimaginably long and large golden buzz saw created by Doom - the only name he had for the damn toon - and used it to smash the valve in the modified fire engine Doom was planning on using to destroy Toon Town with. Doom had been caught by the deluge, getting caught in the face and chest with dip - it was ironic, really; Doom had used his knowledge of toon chemistry to come up with dip in the first place, and he was just another one of the victims.
As the toon melted in agony, Eddie couldn't find it within him to feel sorry for the toon. He had been deranged, a multiple murderer who had killed three humans and was planning on destroying his own home for reasons Eddie really didn't get while he worked with a gang of cackling idiots.
As the toon shrank down, melting from the dip, Eddie just looked on dispassionately, surprised by how unaffected he was by the bastard's death.
That's for you, Teddy, and you too, R.K, and Acme, Eddie thought to himself as the toon let out a whisper that sounded like "Oh no."
Author's Note - I used to watch Who Framed Roger Rabbit when I was a kid, and I remember Judge Doom as one of the scariest characters ever; it was kind of ironic considering the actor was Christopher Lloyd, but I've come to see he has the versatility to play not just manic scientists people write off as insane, but he has the means to present a menacing edge. That kind of versatility is becoming increasingly rare, I've found. When I saw the scene of Doom's death recently and the look on Eddie's face, it inspired me here.
Please let me know what you think.