CHAPTER 6: The Toons Assemble


The Acme Looniversity P.A. system crackled to life for the noontime daily announcements to the students: "Hello everybody, and welcome to your May 26th announcements. This is the last week for students to turn in their applications for next year's priority enrollment classes. Forms are to be dropped off in the drop box outside the administration office."
Normally Wile E.'s voice would be echoing though the halls and classrooms with the day's tidbits, but due to an urgent matter of science, the coyote had been called away. So, on that day, everyone's ears were treated to a new voice--that of a certain fox. "Final exam grades for the Literature and Art departments are now posted on the bulletin boards. Ah, let's see." The voice stalled briefly while the rustling of paper sounded. "Ah. Will the toon who wrote 'Down with Disney' on the south wall of the library please report to Bugs Bunny's office after lunch."
"So Andy is here," Buster whispered to Babs, recognizing the voice on the intercom. Babs nodded back and shrugged. The two rabbits sat attentively in Foghorn's Advanced Biology class along with about twenty other students. Foghorn himself sat slouched at his deck, an elbow resting on the desktop and cheek resting on hand. He made lazy circles in the air with his free hand, waiting impatiently for the announcements to end.
"Maybe he eez here to tell ous zat our show eez back een production," Fifi whispered to Buster and Babs.
"Ya think?" Babs asked, perking up slightly.
"Yeah, right," came Buster's sarcastic reply.
"Well you're a kill-joy," Babs scoffed.
Elmyra sat doodling a picture at her desk. "Maybe the cute cuddly foxy- woxy is just here to see the cute doggy-head dean," she spoke up, displaying a surprisingly well-drawn rendering of the fox to her neighbors.
"I'd be happy if he's here to tell us we get to graduate a week early," Plucky quipped. "These final exams are killing... hey, not a bad picture, Elmyra."
The announcements continued to drone on with the normal type of news: upcoming school events, football practice reschedulings, and a message of an unclaimed mallet and four sticks of dynamite that had been turned into Lost & Found. There was a brief pause before the final announcement: "Attention all Tiny Toons. This is a reminder that afternoon classes have been suspended and that you are to assemble in room 301 at 1:30." Andy concluded the announcements with the traditional scripted farewell message, wishing the students a good day and happy anviling, before switching the microphone off.
The fox gave a sigh of relief and tilted back in Wile E.'s office chair. He closed his eyes, trying to ignore his nervousness and prepare himself for the afternoon's events.

Ninety minutes later Andy opened the door to room 301 and was greeted with the ruckus babbling of over a dozen toons, all talking at once to each other. It was the complete Tiny Toons group: Buster and Babs, Plucky and Shirley, Furrball, Calamity, Elmyra, and a dozen more, all present and accounted for. It was an entire generation in one room, a rare and wonderful sight to behold.
The chattering died to a quiet murmur as Andy entered the room followed by several of the Looney Tunes. Babs spotted Andy and leapt up, pointing a finger at him. "Hey, everybody, look! It's our agent who hasn't gotten us any work in six years!"
Andy coughed awkwardly and eyed the pink rabbit. Behind him, Bugs covered his face with a hand to hide a smile. Andy nodded and gave a toothy grin to Babs as he walked past her, motioning for her to return to her seat. Babs grinned back nervously and sat back down, giving the fox her honest attention. Andy walked to stand in front of the class, his presence commanding a gentle but required authority as he began the lecture.

+ + + + + +


"Well, this isn't good," Wile E. commented. He and several other scientists were examining Lab Room 3 at Tetra Dimensional, the last known location of Pinky & The Brain. Aside from a few scraps of paper containing some scribbled notes and formulas written by The Brain, and a child-like drawing of a horse drawn by Pinky, the only evidence as to their location resided in the electronic readouts that Wile E. and the rest of the scientists were now studying.
"This matter transducer has been fed a complex matter/energy adjustment matrix," an orange cat commented to Wile E. "Looks like it might have been unstable," she added thoughtfully.
"Run a hardcopy of it and all other data you can find," Wile E. directed.
Ed Puma, Tetra Dimensional's lead scientist in the field of multi- dimensional physics, was making his way slowly around the room holding a small measuring device, while a portly alligator sat at computer terminal running a diagnostics test on the equipment. Ed's device began to beep and blip noisily as he held it over the dais in the center of the room. "Definitely evidence of a dimensional disturbance here," he commented. "Eeeeah, Whatever those two mice did, I don't think it was quite what they had in mind."
"How the heck did that mouse cause a dimensional disturbance with a matter transducer?" asked the alligator, scratching his head. "It just isn't possible."
Ed waggled a finger at him. "For shame!" he scorned. "Nothing is impossible for toons! Have you forgotten your basic science lessons, Dennis?"
The alligator shrugged and smiled meekly. "Well, I didn't mean..."
"Not impossible," Wile E. agreed, punching some buttons on a large, intimidating piece of equipment, "but not easy either." He began to chuckle. "Actually I'm a little impressed. Frankly I didn't think the little rodent had it in him."
The orange cat handed Wile E. a printout she had just run. "This is from the data tracking station."
Wile E. scowled at the printout. "I hate trans-dimensional mechanics," he muttered, the numbers on the paper swimming into a jumble of squiggles before his eyes. "C'mon, Samantha. Let's you and I try to figure this out. Ed, why don't you join us with this when you're done here."
"Eeeeah, no problem, Wile E," Ed commented, engrossed in his instrument's readings.
Wile E. shrugged at the puma and left with Samantha to ponder over the data they had gathered.