Hazel stretched out in the throne chair that was much to big for her and snapped her fingers. "Goulash. Bring me more M&M's." She ordered.
Goulash - who had learned long ago not to question his queens orders - duly trotted off. He took a while actually, Hazel realised, after nothing arrived for 15 minutes. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a magic-two way mirror, which she'd been gifted a few days after her gaining control of the castle, and snapped into it "Goulash!" No answer. The green witch sighed heavily and pushed herself of the throne. "If you want something done properly you have to do it yourself." She muttered as she stomped of to find her second-in-command.
She shoved her way past various guards on way to the kitchen. In the kitchen she demanded the head chef tell her where Goulash was. He reported that Goulash HAD come down here but then ran off when there was an 'horrible noise' coming from the direction of the dungeon.
Hazel's eyes narrowed. The dungeon. She should have known. She turned on her heal and strode off determinedly.
Meanwhile in the dungeon as soon as the other toons heard the clickidy-clack of high-heels coming down the stairs, Bugs signalled for the others to look as angelic as possible.
Hazel arrived at the bottom of the stairs to see her fellow toons with literal halo's round their heads. She frowned and took a step towards them.
Bugs suddenly yelled. "Now!"
Hazel jumped and looked round but couldn't see anything because there was a hurricane of dust round her and all she could hear was "Arriba, arriba!" Disoriented, she stumbled a little and then there was a pain in her head and she fell to the floor.
The dust cleared and Speedy gave a thumbs up to Bugs. "Senor Bugs, we have managed it. Shall we see if she has the keys on her?"
Bugs nodded and Speedy, in turn, nodded at Tweety who carefully flew close to Hazel and removed the keys from where they were hooked on a belt round her waist.
"Will she be alright?" Penelope asked, as Tweety freed them.
"She'ww be fine." Tweety assured then. "She was onwy hit with a hammew. Not wike it was an anviw."
"Yes, but she wasn't expecting it!" It was always easier for a toon to absorb the impact of being hit if they were expecting it.
There was a beat and then Tweety shrugged. "She'ww be fine."
"Lets get her back on the ship." Marvin said, taking control once again. "Then Granny can check her over. Now, siblings, let's remove ourselves from this wretched castle."
The quickest and safest way of doing that was to teleport back onto the ship. Once on Marvin whipped up a make-shift med-bay and stood aside to let Granny and Tweety - the resident medics - take over.
They looked Hazel over and prodded and poked at her a lot. "She's unconscious." Granny explained. "But she should regain consciousness in a little while. I'll have to have another look at her then, but there's no obvious injury. I think we should return home and she can go to the actual hospital."
Marvin nodded. "Understood. I'll turn the ship around. How much longer have we got, Bugs?"
Bugs checked his watch and did some quick calculations. "Just over 12 days." He said, feeling confident. "And we've only got Lola and Elmer ta get. Dis should be a piece of cake!"
Penelope whisked a plate under his nose with two slices of cake on it. "Vanilla or Chocolate?" She asked, smiling.
Bugs rolled his eyes. "No dere's a debate." He took both and eat them, appreciatively. "Delicious! Now-" He gave a thumbs up to Marvin. "Les get dis thing goin'."
"I don't actually need your permission for that, Earth-Creature." Marvin said, pointedly, as he launched the ship. "Now I suggest you sit down and shut up."
No one could ever say that Bugs Bunny couldn't take a hint. He sat against the walls off the ship, closed his eyes and reminisced about the good times he'd had over the years with his family. Running from Elmer, annoying Daffy, getting advice from Porky, annoying Porky, meeting Lola...oh Lola...
[Back in 1993]
"Eh...what's up Doctress?" Bugs said, smiling.
The new toon - who went by the name of Lola - looked at him suspiciously and folded her arms. "Who are you?" She demanded.
Bugs smiled wider. Contrary to popular belief this hostile attitude wasn't unusual in a newly created toon. The majority of them were confused and a bit disorientated at being essentially just brought to life, then handed over to older, more experienced toons to learn how toon life worked. Which is what he was tying to do with Lola now.
He introduced himself with a bow and Lola scoffed. "Trust me to get the Mr-Big-Shot. C'mon then, I was told I have to go to Toontown and see my house?"
Bugs nodded and gestured towards the door. "Right this way, Doctress."
"Don't call me that."
"How about 'Doll'?"
She glared and stalked off.
It took a while, admittedly, but things had only gone up since then. As the main Rabbit Toon Bugs had been mentoring her in how to dig burrows, how to tunnel and how to avoid Fudd's gunshot. Although he only did that when annoyed, as he tried to explain to Lola before she first met Fudd...
[A few weeks after Lola's creation]
"Oh look, dere's Elmer!" Bugs exclaimed, waving at his older brother.
Lola nose twitched and she 'hhmmed.'
Elmer waved back and headed over to them, Bugs gave Lola a sideward look. "Whaddous that 'hhmm' mean?"
"He is...nice? Isn't he?" She said, doubtfully.
Bugs gave a laugh. "Okay, Doctress, I see where ya comin' from but trust me, Elmer's one of the nicer ones of us. Only Petunia, Speedy, Porky and a few others are nicer. Jus' give him a chance, yeah? I keep tellin' ya you've got ta get the difference between on-screen and off-screen-" Bugs snapped his mouth shut as Elmer got closer.
They all exchanged greeting, well. Him and Elmer exchanged greetings while Lola stood back and watched them like a hawk.
"I've been baking." Elmer announced, out the blue. "With Petunia. Cupcakes." He laughed and produced them from hammerspace. "Do you both want one?"
Bugs licked his lips and reached forwards.
Lola jerked as if Elmer had offered her raw onions or something and exclaimed, clearly without thinking. "No thanks!"
Elmer's eyes narrowed and he abruptly took the box back. "If that's how you feew about it." He snapped and stalked off, nose high in the air.
Bugs waited until he had gone and gave Lola a light whack round the head. "De hell you playin' at!? Do you WANT any friends!?"
Lola glared and punched him on the arm. "I can make my OWN friends without your help." She declared.
Bugs rolled his eyes and facepalmed.
In fairness to her, Bugs reflected, after about six months she did settle down and start to be more friendly. She even made friends with Elmer during filming for 'Space Jam'; it took 12+ hour filming days and a few breakdowns, but they got there.
Bugs sighed and buried his head in his hands. He wondered if they'd ever film again. He loved filming, had been doing it literally since the moment he was created. He got a buzz, a kick out of it. He couldn't imagine NOT doing it, but if they didn't get this sorted out...
"Hey Bugs!" He looked up to see Penelope standing there with a pack of cards. "We're trying to decide what to play. Do you have any ideas?"
Bugs smiled at her and hauled himself up.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Pete was lightly hitting himself on the head as he agonised over what to do now. He knew he should tell Rhythm that his plan was going completely and utterly wrong, but he also knew that Rhythm would first hit the roof and then maybe throw the roof at Pete himself, so he wasn't keen on telling his boss anything if he could help it.
Unfortunately the fates were against him as Rhythm chose that moment to knock on the door and ask, unusually brightly. "How's it going, Pete?"
Pete looked up at him with watery eyes and indicated the screens, unable to speak.
Rhythm frowned and teleporting next to the blob, shoved him away from the monitors and accessed the situation.
Pete waited, chewing on his tentacles as he waited for the verdict. It took ages to come, Rhythm just kept staring at the monitors like his life was collapsing in front of him.
After about ten minutes Pete, concerned his boss may have frozen or something, gingerly reached out and lightly tapped his shoulder.
Rhythm hissed and slapped Pete's tentacle away while bellowing "Get OFF me, you idiot! How has it got to this point!? Why didn't you TELL me they've nearly succeeded!?"
Pete frantically apologised while Rhythm paced around the room doing a good impression of an angry buffalo. After a while he ran out of steam and, magicking up a chair from the wall, sat down and pouted.
Pete, already knowing he was in deep trouble, decided his best strategy was to just stay quiet. After a very tense twenty minutes Rhythm took a few deep breaths, steadied his thoughts, then announced, darkly. "Pete, I have the solution to your idiocy."