At Fort Burbank, Ivan was sitting in his office and watching his workers through a small window, proud of their work. However, he was starting to wonder if that was why he felt like crap all the time for no good reason. He was always tired and had low energy, although this could contribute to the fact that he had a poor diet and didn't exercise at all. Ever since Nancy died, he pretty much didn't have to the will to take care of himself.
Hoping to get in touch with Maya once more, Ivan dialed her number and called her. The phone rang, and rang, and rang.
"Come on, Maya, please answer." Ivan muttered in haste.
The call went to straight to voicemail. Disheartened, Ivan hung up the phone and stepped out of his office. "I might as well see if the new hostages arrived."
Ivan walked down the hallway and into the main room. It was gigantic, filled with control panels and everything.
One guy came into the room and escorted in Pinky and the Brain, Mindy and Buttons, Rita and Runt, Chicken Boo, and Mr. Skullhead. Like the others, not one of them said a word and were all frowning.
"Sir, I brought in the new arrivals like you asked for. I think they'll all enjoy their stay here." The guy said with a hint of sarcasm.
"Excellent job, Pierre! I couldn't be more proud." Ivan said.
"Thank you, sir. It's a pleasure to work here." Pierre said.
Ivan gave Pierre his paycheck and he walked off.
"I'll show you all to your rooms." Ivan said. He escorted Pinky, Brain, Mindy, Buttons, Rita, Runt, Chicken Boo, and Mr. Skullhead to their rooms. "Oh, by the way, you'll have to put on scrubs. It's for regulation purposes."
"You're a real scumbag, you know that?" Brain said with a scowl on his face.
"Yes, I get that a lot." Ivan simply said, not caring about being insulted. He walked back into the lobby.
"Now all I have to do is take care of some personal business." Ivan muttered to one. He pulled out an airhorn and used it to get the workers' attention. They all turned around.
"Attention, everyone. I have to leave for a little while since something has come up. I'll be back in thirty minutes to an hour. Try not to mess anything up while I'm gone." Ivan said.
"Yes, sir!" All of the workers yelled at the same time.
Ivan nodded, waved, and left the building.
Over at his station, Pierre was sitting down doing work. He then got up and went to the rooms where Dot, Newt, Bobby, Pesto, Squit, Slappy, Skippy, Dr. Scratchansniff, Hello Nurse, and Mr. Plotz were in.
"Hey, guys, I'm going need you all to follow me to the lobby please." Pierre said.
Group #1 did as they were told. They walked into the lobby in a straight line.
"Perfect! Now, hold still. I'm going to have to make this shot as clear as possible." Pierre said, pulling out a camera and aiming it at the group.
"What are you doing?" Dot asked.
"You see, we do this thing called Picture Day. It's when we take pictures of our arrivals and print them in the local newspaper." Pierre explained.
"But why?" Newt asked.
"For publicity, of course! Now, hold still." Pierre said, aiming the camera.
The group didn't move a muscle and stayed still the whole time. They didn't bother to smile, however. How could they?
And just like that, Pierre took the picture. "Great job, fellas! You're free to go back to your rooms now."
Group #1 went back to their rooms and shut the doors on the way in.
"Ivan's sure going to love this photo once it's printed." Pierre said with a bright grin.
[Maya's house]
Outside Maya's house, Ivan pulled in into the front and got out of the car. He went up the front door and knocked.
Hearing the knock, Maya answered the door and frowned upon seeing who it was.
Ivan had a combination of guilt and sheepishness on his face.
"Well, well, well, look who decided to come crawling back." Maya said with her arms crossed, clearly unhappy to see her father.
"I just want to talk to you. May I come in?" Ivan asked.
"It's a free country." Maya responded.
"I'll take that as a yes." Ivan said. He entered his daughter's house and took a good look around. "My my, I see you've decorated the walls quite nicely."
"I do it once a year when I'm in the mood for it." Maya said.
Ivan got right to the point. "First thing's first, why haven't you been answering my calls?"
"I have nothing to say to you, that's all." Maya said with a shrug.
"Maya, please. I said I was sorry. You've gotta cut me some slack here." Ivan said.
"Saying you're sorry will not take away what you did. You said you were ashamed to call me your daughter, and that pissed me off." Maya said.
"I didn't mean that! I didn't mean that at all. When we're mad, we sometimes say things that we don't mean. It happens with everyone." Ivan said.
"Yeah, well, I'm afraid it's too late, Dad. You had your chance and you blew it. I know you'll never change. I know it for a fact." Maya said.
"Just give me some time, Maya. Nancy's death was hard for me, too. You have no idea how much I bawled my eyes out day and night. And that same recurring nightmare comes back to haunt me. It's almost like God's making me pay the price." Ivan said.
"It's not just about Mom's death. It's about what you do for a living. You capture innocent toons and throw them in your little military base all for what? And then you have the nerve to call them dangerous when in actuality, you're the one doing the dangerous deeds." Maya said.
"You don't understand." Ivan said.
"You're right, Dad. I don't understand. If Mom were still alive today, I bet she wouldn't understand either." Maya said.
"She wouldn't need to understand because if she were alive, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now. I have to avenge her somehow, Maya." Ivan said.
"Oh, how the grass is always greener on your side, huh? You've been avenging Mom for too long. Way too long. It's time to move on." Maya said.
"Moving on has never been my strong suit, dear." Ivan said.
Maya narrowed her eyes. "I think you've said enough. Now, if I may, will you please leave?"
Ivan reluctantly nodded. "Sure, Maya. I'll leave. But just remember, I wouldn't treat anyone the way you're treating me."
Maya said nothing.
Ivan left the house and got back in his car. He started it up and drove off.
Back in the house, Maya sat down on a chair. She looked at a framed picture of her and her father when she was little. In anger, she grabbed the picture and tossed it against the wall, leaving a loud noise. All Maya could do was let out a sob.
Yakko and Wakko had just got done making flyers to post all over town. They made at least a hundred of them to be safe.
"Gee, Wakko, I can't believe we made all these flyers so quickly." Yakko said.
"I know, and it only took us two hours in total." Wakko said.
"Welp, we should probably start putting these all over town now." Yakko said.
"Agreed." Wakko said.
Yakko and Wakko gathered together the flyers and left the tower. They climbed down.
"Alright, so, where do we start?" Wakko asked.
"Anywhere. I wanna make sure these flyers get noticed. This is probably our best chance to finding Dot." Yakko said.
"It better pay off. I don't wanna do this all for nothing." Wakko said.
"Trust me, Wakko, as soon as we get these flyers put up, people will come swarming in like a pack of bees!" Yakko said.
"I'm not sure if 'pack' is the right term to describe a group of bees, but whatever. In the meantime, let's get these flyers posted!" Wakko said.
Without hesitation, Yakko and Wakko began putting up flyers all of town, stapling them to every tree bark and telephone poll they could find.
[Evening, Burbank Park]
Stapling the last flyer, Yakko wiped off a bead of sweat from his forehead. "It took all day, but we did it!"
"Wahoo!" Wakko cheered.
"I didn't think any of this was actually possible, but we pulled through and achieved our goal. Part of it, anyway." Yakko said.
"Now all we gotta do is wait for people to call us, and we'll have our sister back in no time." Wakko said.
Yakko and Wakko high-fived each other in victory.
Noticing the sun was setting, Yakko responded, "Let's go home. It's already six o'clock and we need to eat dinner."
"I'm with you on that one." Wakko said.
The brothers left the park and went back home. They decided on pizza for dinner since it was the easiest meal they could think of.
[9:30 PM]
Yakko and Wakko were fast asleep. They were exhausted due to all of the flyers they post all around town.
Sometime later in the night, Wakko began grunting. He was tossing and turning, and he had rapid eye movement, indicating dream state. But in his case, it was nightmare.
Yakko was awaken by this. He looked to the side. "Uh-oh, looks like Wakko's having a nightmare." He whispered.
Wakko's noises started to become louder and louder, but his eyes were glued shut.
[Wakko's POV]
I couldn't stand to see that helicopter cause destruction in our home any longer. Despite Yakko and Dot's objections, I just knew I had to destroy it.
"Wakko, please don't!" Dot begged.
"I'm sorry, little sis, but I gotta do what I gotta do." I said, raising my mallet in the air.
"Wakko, if you do this, that's one-hundred dollars you're throwing out the window." Yakko said.
"I don't care." I said, with my mallet still in the air.
"NO!" Yakko and Dot both screamed at the same time.
I took a swing and smashed the helicopter to little pieces. I wiped sweat off of my forehead and set my mallet down on the ground. To my luck, neither Yakko or Dot was happy with me.
"I can't believe you." Was all Yakko could say, shaking his head in utter disappointment.
Dot, on the other hand, fell to her knees and bawled. "YOU'RE THE WORST BIG BROTHER EVER!"
That statement hit me so hard, I became sad. "I'm sorry."
Dot just ran to her room crying, shutting the door on the way in.
"What have I done?" I asked, completely disappointed with myself.
"Alright, Yakko, that's it! You're grounded! Go to your room now!" Yakko yelled, giving me strong orders.
I hung my head down in shame and walked to my room. I closed the door, not ever wanting to open it again.
[Third-person POV, reality]
Wakko sporadically woke up in a daze. He looked around the room to see if he was still dreaming.
"Am I awake?! Is this real?!" Wakko asked for reassurance.
"Yes, this is real. You're awake. Must've been some dream you had." Yakko said while turning on the lights.
"It was a nightmare, Yakko. And a really bad one at that." Wakko said.
"What was it about?" Yakko asked, getting back on the bed.
"You, me, and Dot were all in the living room. I was getting ready to smash her helicopter. You guys begged me not to, but I didn't care, and smashed it anyway. Dot, understand upset, ran to her room crying while you grounded me." Wakko said.
"Oh. Well that's pretty much what happened in real life." Yakko said.
"Yeah, when Dot was here. She was there in the dream, too. Oh man, I miss her so much." Wakko said.
"I miss her, too. Wherever she is, I hope she's okay, and hopefully nobody's giving her trouble." Yakko said.
"I wonder why she hasn't wanted to come home yet. You'd think after being gone this long, she'd be back by now." Wakko said.
"I don't know, Wakko. Tell you what. First thing tomorrow morning, we'll go down to the police station and report to them that Dot's been missing for a few days. Maybe they can help us find her." Yakko said.
"Why didn't we do that sooner?" Wakko asked.
"You could say we got distracted by the breakfast we had at Ralph's, plus we spent all day putting up flyers indicating Dot's absence, so I guess those two things got in the way." Yakko said.
"Hmm, maybe they are it. I never thought of that before until now." Wakko said.
"Well, now you have! Anyway, let's try to go back to sleep. We don't wanna dreary-eyed in the morning for the police to be looking at us all strange." Yakko said.
"Alrighty then." Wakko said.
Yakko turned off the lights and laid back in the bed. "Good night."
"Good night." Wakko said.
Yakko and Wakko both went to sleep. All three Warners were able to fall asleep fast, a trait they've had their whole lives.
Jordan lay awake in his bedroom. He was unable to sleep due to what happened earlier today. To make matters worse, Barbara had to call a tow truck, which was expensive, and rent a rental car, which was even more expensive. Needless to say, a lot of money came out of her pocket.
I failed. I had one job, and I failed. Tons of innocent people had the chance to get freed, and I blew it. How ignorant of me.
Jordan sighed and glanced over at the digital clock on his dresser.
As if the night couldn't get any longer.
The teen closed his eyes and relaxed, hoping for a good night's sleep.
In the morning, Jordan woke up. He yawned and stretched. To his surprise, he managed to get a good sleep, despite feeling down about himself. Glancing at the digital clock, it read '9:00 AM'
Wow, I slept pretty good last night.
Jordan got out of bed and walked into the living room. Barbara was sitting at the coffee table drinking coffee.
"Hey, Mom." Jordan said while rubbing his eye.
"Hi, Jordan!" Barbara said.
"I slept great last night, to my surprise." Jordan said.
"That's good." Barbara said.
Jordan sat down at the coffee table and sighed. His face showed that he was still down.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" Barbara asked, concerned.
"I feel like we failed. Yesterday when the car ran out gas and we had to call a cab to come pick us up, and then we went to the wrong address. We had one job and we blew it. I'm upset about that." Jordan said.
"Oh, honey, we didn't fail at all. Sure, we ran into some problems, but that doesn't mean we failed." Barbara said. Her tone of voice was sympathetic.
"Are you sure?" Jordan asked.
"Positive! If something goes wrong, we can always try again. It's like Aaliyah said, and if at first you don't succeed, you can dust yourself and try again." Barbara said.
Jordan couldn't help but smile. His mother was always so optimistic and cheerful, and unless the situation was dire, she always looked on the bright side.
A loud thud could be heard against the front door.
"Must be the paper!" Barbara said.
"I'll get it." Jordan said. He opened the door and grabbed the rolled up newspaper off the ground. He then went back to the table.
"Anything worth reading in there?" Barbara asked.
"Let's see." Jordan said. He unrolled the paper and stumbled upon something horrifying. "Oh my God..."
"What?" Barbara asked, curious.
"Take a look at what it says here." Jordan said. He read a portion of an recently published article:
"Newest arrivals at the Fort Burbank military complex include a little girl of unknown species named Dot Warner, a dog named Newt, three pigeons named Bobby, Pesto, and Squit, two squirrels named Slappy and Skippy, and three humans by the names of Otto von Scratchansniff, Heloise Nerz a.k.a. Hello Nurse, and Thaddeus Plotz. Other recent captives are two lab mice named Pinky and the Brain, a toddler named Mindy and her dog Buttons, a cat named Rita, a dog named Runt, a chicken named Chicken Boo, and a humanoid skeleton named Mr. Skullhead."
"My god, Jordan! These people are in serious danger!" Barbara said with high worry in her voice.
"I know! They're probably being put through hell right now. Poor toons. I feel so awful for them." Jordan said.
"Me too. Somebody has to save them soon. They're lives are on the line." Barbara said.
Jordan thought of something. He realized there was somebody to go to for help. Somebody they could trust.
