STAVE SEVEN - THE END OF IT
Christmas came and went, and so did New Years. The young toons soon returned to school, and everything proceeded normally. Valentine's Day passed, then spring break, then Passover, Memorial Day, and Mother's Day. School closed for the summer, allowing the young ones to relax and have fun. Many families were happy that summer, tough not all of them. Summer ended, and with it, vacation, and the toons returned to school for another academic year. Thus came September, then October, at the end of which many toons celebrated Halloween. And shortly after that came November, and with it, Thanksgiving.
Nearly a whole year had passed since Dakota's encounter with the three spirits. During all this time, she became distant, even to her parents. She rarely talked to anyone, much less The J, The M, The Fourteen, or their friends. Whatever time she didn't spend at school, she spent in her mansion, never going outside, but apparently engrossed in a very involving project. The Fourteen didn't know what to make of her: she never attacked them once throughout the year, never played a prank, or even hurled an insult at them, not a single unkind word. Some thought that she had decided to stop being a villain and turn from the Dark Side, but others weren't sure that was the reason. Even her father wasn't completely sure what was going on with his daughter.
During the summer, Dakota spent every day in her basement, working and working and working non-stop on whatever she was planning, and it was on a summer night that a small exchange took place. The girl was working at a table, testing chemicals and containers, repeatedly dipping one of her hairs in a liquid to watch it dissolve, when she heard the door behind her open, and then footsteps approach her.
"Hello, father," she said blankly, without turning to look at him.
"Hello, Dakota," he replied. His voice had deepened over the years. He looked at the lab coat that covered his daughter, in contrast to his charcoal business suit. "This is a big project you're working on, isn't it?"
"Oh, yes, very big. So big it just might even surprise you."
"It might, it might," he pondered, looking at the project table, and all the notes and computers nearby. Many reminded him of his antics with Buster, Plucky, and all their friends, but the complexity of whatever she was doing went beyond anything he did.
"Is it time for dinner?" she asked.
"No, no, it isn't. I just came to tell you that I'll be going to Aruba this week with your mother. If you wish to come, you can. You look like you could use some sun."
For a while, she just kept working, but then replied, "Thanks for the offer, Dad. I might be taking a break soon."
With that, the older toon turned and left. Just before he shut the door, he stopped and turned. "Dakota?"
"Yes, father?"
"I don't know all that's going on with you and those you deal with, but I know plenty more than you think I know, and I have some idea what you're doing now. And you will carry out what you're planning, and I will say that it just might work." His daughter replied nothing at that. "But just remember this: toon villainy is something that's easy to dismiss in the courts. The best defence you have is that you're acting in character. True evil, though, usually involves evidence, forensics, alibis, and eye witnesses; you know, all the stuff that the real world has to deal with." Still no response. "Just think about that as you carry out your plan."
At that, the teenager finally stopped, and slowly turned. "I'll keep that in mind, Dad," was all she said. She resumed her work, and Montana Max left.
Several weeks and many experiments later, she held up a flask of liquid, and scowled at it. Then she plucked out a hair from her head, and dipped it. Pulling it out, she saw that it remained intact.
She smiled, at last.
Finally, it was Christmas time again, and all students left school for two weeks. On the night of the final school day of the year, in a lair somewhere in Acme Forest, a black jaguar cub padded up to his father, a properly spotted jaguar in a black t-shirt, who was calculating some invoices on the living room table, with his wife, an African American human.
"Hey, Dad?"
"Yes, J?"
"The Bunnies invited us to a party!"
"A party?" he asked, both parents looking up. The cub handed his father the invitation, which he opened and read. "Well, what do you know? So we have! Hmm—I think we can make it, our party won't be until next week. I wonder why they're having their party earlier—"
"Hey, Mom?" A tall female African-American human teenager, with jaguar-print hair and orange eyes, entered the living room. "I just got an e-mail from Buster and Babs! It seems they're holding a party and they're inviting us!"
Mary Melody M. turned to her. "Another? It wouldn't happen to be this one, would it?"
The M read J's invitation. "Well, what do you know? It is!"
The J.A.M. smiled, "Well, it looks like we're going to a party!"
Several days later, the family climbed on their dark green pick-up truck, and drove to the city. They followed the address to a rather lone area of Acme Acres, one in the early stages of development. There were a few finished buildings around, and most were barely on their way up. Finally, they stopped at a large dark blue unit that proclaimed in its façade:
SALON DE FIESTAS
"A party salon?" asked Mary, translating the sign literally, from what Spanish she had acquired from her husband over the years.
"A party 'hall', actually, a building specially built for having parties, especially kids parties. Those are common in Mexico, but this is the first one I've seen here."
"Maybe Buster and Babs found it and wanted to be the first to hold a party here?" asked The M as they all stepped out.
"That sounds like something Babs would do," replied her mother. "She always did like breaking things in. And speaking of her, here she comes!" A line of dirt zigzagged between the sparse pavement and concrete, and stopped right at the corner where the hall was. The ground burst open and Buster and Babs hopped out, holding a baby carriage that held four squirming kits. Their fourteen older kits hopped out moments later, with Junior, Alexi, and Miriam holding the paws of three toddlers.
"Hey, you're here!" exclaimed the mother doe.
"Yes, we are," replied the jaguar father, as-a-matter-of-factly, and he ushered the lagomorphs inside. The hall was also light blue on the inside, it had a stage on the far wall, and the ceiling was rather high. There were balloons and streamers all around, but the place was empty.
As they entered, Anni quickly hopped over to The J to kiss him hello, but stopped at the last moment, wincing. "What?" he asked.
"Nolan," she replied. He raised an eyebrow and curled his tail, then turned to see that Nolan was indeed approaching the group.
"Hey, chaps!" he hollered. "Rather out-of-the-way place to have a party, ey wot?"
Bekki hopped over to receive him, happy, yet confused. "Nolan? How the (CENSORED) did you know The M's were going to have a party here?"
"The M's?" he asked, as he entered the hall. "Bekki, your mom invited me."
"I did?" asked Babs.
"Yes", replied Mary. "You invited us as well."
"Huh? Wait—I thought you invited us!" said the father buck, bewildered. All the rabbits were wincing in confusion.
"Say what?" Babs checked their invitations, then Nolan's. "Strange, all of these invitations are from each other!"
"But at different times," noted Mary. "We were invited at 5, you at 4:30, and Nolan at 5:15."
"Uh—if we were all invited at different times, how is it that we all arrived at the same time?" asked Buck, slowly.
(SLAMSLAMSLAMSLAMSLAMSLAMSLAM!) Every toon jumped when every door and window slammed shut with steel. Many of them screamed as the interior structures folded up on themselves, pulling the decorations in, and leaving them standing on a concrete rectangle next to a steel floor. Then, the steel floor opened, revealing a huge pit of a green foul smelling liquid.
At this, every toon screamed, "DIIIIIIIIPP!" Some tried to whack open the doors, but they were too thick. Flamethrowers didn't work on them, either. Jackhammers didn't work. Not even machine guns worked.
Then, as a panicked lull came over the toons, a speaker high above them boomed, "Isn't it amazing what you can learn by just observing others? I knew all of you have different notions of punctuality, so I gave each of you a different time to arrive to make sure I had all of you here at the same time!"
"DAKOTA!" spat Anni at the speaker, ears stiff like never before. "GET IN HERE AND FIGHT, YOU COWARD!"
"Oh, no, Anni. Neither you nor your stupid brothers will make my plans fail again. J, you made the stupidest mistake of your life by choosing her." The cub bristled at that. "And now, you will die with your friends and family, and no time machine can help you! No one is coming from the past or future to help you!"
"HA!" replied Junior. "Do you actually think we're going to stay here?" He jumped, grabbed the scenery, and pulled down.
(CRASH!)
And the scenery snapped off its supports and came crashing down on him. Seeing that, The J.A.M. tensed and prepared to warp, hoping to reach the unusually high ceiling and then try to find a way out. Right then, a panel on the wall opened, and a mechanical hand shot out, holding a mallet—
(WHACK!)
—which suddenly smashed on the jaguar's hip, knocking him to a wall. He roared in pain, but before anyone could assist him, more panels opened from the wall, and with no time to dodge them, J, M, Mary, and the Fourteen were also whacked, and essentially rendered warpless. "You know, it's amazing what you can do with a screwdriver and a few well placed blows, don't you think?" Nolan yanked out a cell phone and tried to call for help, but all he heard was static.
They were truly trapped.
"You don't have any escape left, Nolan, so just enjoy your last moments on this planet."
A green buck painfully sat up and cried, "DEE! Don't do this! If you destroy us with dip, the police will know it was you! Everyone KNOWS you hated us!"
"Oh, no, my dear Tex. I already have a plan of neutralising and breaking apart the dip—once all of you dissolve in it—and whatever's left will quietly be dumped in the ocean. And IF someone finds out about this, the paper trail I left behind won't point to me, but to my father. Everyone also knows he hates Buster and Babs, AND The J.A.M. and his family…maybe even more than I hated YOU! He will go to jail, and I will take over his businesses, and his estate. I'll finally be able to put my factories where the Looniversity is! And the best thing of all—" she paused, "—is that absolutely none of this will go into my, hee hee, 'permanent record'."
"Huh? What permanent record?" asked Shotsy.
"Oh, I thought you knew about that, rabbit! You see, about a year ago, I had a very interesting—'dream', if you wish to call it that. There, I learned some very interesting things about your religion. Basically, I learned this:" They heard some shuffling, as Dakota pulled out some notes. "I learned that 'if the evil one turns from his evil and does what is lawful and right, gives back what he stole, and is guided by the rules of life, doing no evil, he will certainly live, and will not die. None of the evil that he did will be accounted against him: he has done what is lawful and right, he will certainly live'. Therefore, once I get rid of all of you, and acquire my holdings, I'll join your religion, and essentially start with a clean slate. Nothing I did before will count against me! Isn't that wonderful?"
"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" screamed Anni, unable to stand.
"THAT'S MANIPULATION!" added Mary. "YOU CAN'T MANIPULATE GRACE OR MERCY!"
"Hey, I didn't make the rules, 'Mary', and by the way, I know that it was you, AND those rabbits, who spoiled my plans. Don't ask me how I know, let's just say that—a little birdie told me, hee hee hee." The African-American and 14 lagomorphs paled and shivered at the Elmyra-like giggle, which dripped with evil. "This time, Mary, there's nothing you can do to stop me, because everything has been set into motion. Once I watch you all die, I'll go cash in on some stock I bought last year. I'll have to thank whoever sent me that 'dream' for letting me see the stock market holdings one year ahead of everyone else! So, like it or not, I can have it both ways. I can have my cake and eat it too. And now, I will watch you all DIE!"
The dip slowly began to rise. In a few minutes, it would overflow and reach the concrete ledge. Quickly, Buster and Babs huddled their youngest seven kits in a corner. Tex painfully stood, and cried, "But Dee! What about our youngest brothers? They haven't done anything to you! The youngest four can't even talk yet! Please, let them go!"
"Now, now, Tex, I thought you were smarter than that. I can't leave anyone behind, no matter how young, to take revenge later on!"
"THEY WON'T!" screamed Buster. "You can have them! You can raise them and make them your employees, servants, sidekicks, ANYTHING! But they don't deserve to die here!"
"Interesting offer, Mister Bunny, but I have a better one. Tex! J!"
"W-what, Dee?"
"Tex, J, I have a proposition for you two: renounce your religion, surrender all your assets, holdings, and properties, whatever they may be, to me, sign a contract to be my exclusive employees, and I'll let you two live. You two are very good business toons, so I'm giving you one last chance to use your talents for me. Do it, and you will live. Refuse, and you will die."
J bristled, laid his ears back, bared his teeth, and puffed up his tail. "I'D RATHER DIE BEFORE RENOUNCING MY BELIEFS!"
"Too bad, J. You had such promise. And what about you, Tex? You're much more of a cream puff than any of the rest. What do you say?"
The green buck lowered his head, and sighed, "I—I'm sorry, Dee. I can't do what you ask. You can ask me for anything you want—but I can't betray Him Who I Wait For, either."
"Too bad. Well, I may have failed twice, but third time's a charm, don't you think? Oh, one more thing: J, since you're going to die, it's a bit irrelevant that you should still keep your real name a secret from me. Do you and your family think you can stop being blockheads for a moment and just tell me all of your real names?"
The cub growled, "I never forgot that oath you made, Dakota. You may curse our names and our beliefs, but we won't give you the satisfaction of getting our names from us!"
"Always the hot-head, just like your girlfriend. Too bad I won't be able to make a pyjama out of your hide now—"
"DAKOTA!"
"You roared, M?"
"Dakota, I don't know how, when, or why, but I can tell you without a doubt that your plan will fail! You can't manipulate your way into the Light! You have to be sincere, and your repentance has to be REAL, with EVIDENCE of it being real! No matter what you say later, or even if a church lets you in, it won't be real, because YOU know it isn't real! This plan of yours won't work! You have to make restitution once you join—how do you plan on making restitution to our families? Or will you lie to them and tell them that your dad did this? You're only deceiving yourself! You won't make it if you hide the truth!" Despite their doom, some still worried more for Dakota's soul than for their own destruction.
"Listen, you freak! I took EVERY precaution to make sure my plan works, AND I added plenty of safety nets for me as well! Did you notice that while I told you my plans, I wasn't actually there with you? No, I'm right outside the door watching you all. And even if by some freak accident or a last-moment rescue I should fall into the dip, it won't affect me. I spent the last year creating my own special mix that will dissolve ANYTOON—unless they have my DNA and aniplasm! Education works wonders, doesn't it! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"
The dip was about to overflow the pit. In desperation, every toon started to empty their pockets, trying to find something to escape, or at least hold off the dip. Nolan tried to use plungers to climb up the wall, but it had a stucco finish, rendering the plungers useless. The M pulled out a grappling hook and threw it at a beam on the high ceiling, but well-placed lasers cut off the hook and shot down the rope. Anni pulled out pistols and lasers of her own, but the laser guns above her were mounted on a ledge, making it impossible to hit them from where she was standing. She could wear down the ledge, but there wasn't enough time to knock out all the lasers. Nothing they threw or shot could get past them. And the walls were too thick to smash a hole or blast them open before the dip reached them. With the dip flowing closer, they took all their pocket contents and formed a rickety barricade between them, trying to hold off the dip as long as they could. That didn't help at all, for when the dip reached the barricade, it slowly began dissolving the objects.
They were trapped.
Painfully, the two families huddled against the right corner; the adults hoisting the children on their shoulders, and the children lifting up the youngest seven as high as they could.
But all knew that it was futile.
At this, an obscure memory flashed through one of The Fourteen. "Oh, no!"
"I know, Buck! We're all going to die!
"Nooo, Chuck! Someone else is going to die! Our other guest is going to be trapped in here as well!"
"What?" asked Babs. "What other guest? Only us, The M's, and Nolan knew about this!"
"Yeeeeeah, but since it was a party, I invited someone who really liked parties!"
Outside, Dakota, again in her lab coat, was standing in front of a podium, where she had a monitor and console that controlled the Hall. When she heard Buck's comment, she raised an eyebrow. "Someone else? Who?" She was so engrossed in the monitor in front of her, and in the screams of terror of her victims, that she didn't hear a rising tone coming from behind her—
—until it was too late.
"BLEPHBTTTBLARGHHTRLPPEPHBTTTBLARGH!"
She turned just in time to see a purple tornado pounce on her and smash her on the front doors. They didn't stop Dizzy, for he burst through the doors, steel and all, and finally wound down to a halt in the middle of the concrete platform. "BLEPHBTTTBLARGHHTRLPPTTPARTYYYYYYY!" The brunette didn't have a chance to scream, as his sudden stop flung her toward the far wall, right above the pit of dip. She smashed on the wall flat on her back, spread eagle, and stayed there for a moment, before starting to peel from the wall.
The families stood there in silent shock. All the ropes and poles they had were being dissolved, so no one could throw anything to save her. Dakota couldn't grab on to anything, and gravity kept peeling her from the wall more and more. But even in this moment, she kept her scowl, and her defiant glance. After all, this particular batch of dip had no effect on her. But just before she lost her hold on the wall, she screamed with all her might:
"YOU'RE A LOUSY KISSER, TEX!"
(SPLASH!)
It was as if she fell into the dip in slow motion, and no one could do anything to save her.
Painfully, they set all the youngsters back on the floor, and stood. Tex limped as near the pit as he dared, hoping against hope that Dakota had been right about the dip.
Then, he saw her hair emerge.
And that was all that emerged from the dip.