The security guard led the Warners into an office. A man was sitting at the desk. "Yes Joe? What is it?" the man asked.

Joe the security guard said, "These three kids were running around on our property but we caught them in the water tower. Turns out they are here to audition. I'd keep an eye out on them; they're real characters."

"Good," the man said, "because that's exactly what I haven't been getting. You may leave, Joe."

Once Joe left, the man said, "Okay. It's nice to meet you. My name is Steven Spielberg. What are yours?"

"Hi, Steven," said Yakko. "My name's Yakko Warner."

"I'm Wakko!" said Wakko, grinning insanely

"And I'm cute!" said Dot.

"That's Dot," confirmed Yakko.

"Yep. Call me Dottie and you die."

"You guys are great! I think that I just might hire you right now."

"Go ahead," said Yakko. "It took us so long to get here, and so much trouble…"

Steven still looked excited. "As you probably know, I've been looking for actors for a new TV show. We had a huge hit with Tiny Toon Adventures, but it'll be canceled next year and they want me to have a new show ready by 1993. I didn't know what to do! We found the Tiny Toons by complete accident. Buster and Babs just wandered in, they were huge fans of Bugs, and wanted to meet him."

"Hold it!" said Wakko. "Bugs is real?"

"He is very real," said Steven. "Maybe you'll meet him."

The Warners grinned, each thinking of meeting their heroes.

"Anyway, " continued Steven, "Tiny Toons is a hit, but when we heard that it was canceled we knew that we had to think of something."

"Who's we?" asked Yakko.

"All of the Tiny Toons team. We didn't want humans, and that's about all that have come in. And we wanted something recognizable about the new characters. You know, how Tiny Toons were like miniature Looney Tunes. You three almost look like those old 30's cartoons… and your last name is Warner! This is great! You're hired."

"Hooray!" cried the Warners. They all grabbed hands and danced around in a circle. Yakko suddenly pulled off. "That was easier than I thought it would be."

Meanwhile, Steven pulled out a piece of paper and a pen.

"Now I'll just need to ask some questions. Only one of you has to answer. Whoever's most comfortable talking."

Wakko and Dot immediately stepped back and Yakko immediately stepped forward. "Okay," said Steven, "please tell me your names again."

"Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner."

"Alright…" He scribbled it down on the piece of paper. "Now could you tell me your birthdays, and how old you are."

"But you could figure that out by subtracting—"

"Your birth years from 1991, I know," said Steven. "But I don't feel like doing the math."

"Don't blame you. I'm nine, and I was born on February 1st, 1982. Wakko is seven, and he was born on March 1st, 1984. And Dot's five, and she was born on April 1st, 1986."

"So you are each exactly two years and one month apart!" marveled Steven. "Odd." He looked at what he had written down. "Yakko, could you check that I spelled your names right?"

Yakko walked over and peered down on the paper. "With Wakko's name it is K K, not C K. Otherwise, you got them right."

"That's an odd spelling," asked Steven. "Why is that?"

"Well, Wakko has never been very good at spelling," said Yakko, glancing over at his younger brother who was trying to get comfortable in a chair. "The first time he ever wrote his name down, that's how he spelled it. I thought it was funny, so we kept it like that."

"Works for me. Who are your parents?"

Yakko's face fell slightly. "We don't have parents."

"No parents? Then who did you live with?"

"We took care of ourselves."

"Well, then who were your parents?"

"I… I don't remember. As long as I can remember, we've just been… vagabonds." Yakko had recently found that word in his pocket dictionary, which was defined as, "A homeless person who wanders from place to place; a tramp". He had thought that fit them pretty well.

"So how did you get here?"

"Well, for the last two months we were staying with this guy named Tony. He was nice enough to take us here."

Steven grinned. "Didn't think you'd end up in a water tower, did you?"

Yakko laughed. "We sometimes stayed in water towers, actually. But that was only temporary, just like today's episode was."

Steven didn't answer. He was thinking hard about something. Finally, he said, "You know how I said that you Warners look like 30's cartoons?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, we could… we just could… we could say that you three actually were created in the 30's. Early 30's. Back then cartoons were simple and slow-paced, almost sluggish. But you three were just too CRAZY for that time period. Thus, you were locked in the water tower. But in the 90's, you escape!"

Yakko sighed. "That's a neat idea, but I don't exactly look 60 years old."

"So? You're a cartoon character. Who says that cartoon characters age?"

"Alright. Let's go with it. I'm willing," said Yakko. He looked at his siblings.

Wakko was sitting sideways in the chair, his feet dangling over one armrest. He looked rather bored and probably wasn't even listening to what Yakko and Steven had been talking about. There was a loose thread on the cloth armrest and Wakko was picking at it.

Dot was climbing all over her chair. In fact, she was almost to the top, but she suddenly fell off. The fall didn't hurt her much though. In fact, she rolled on the floor and giggled and shrieked the way you would expect a five-year-old to. Often, Dot acted much older than her age, but now she was acting the way a little girl just getting out of preschool would.

"Dot seems a little young," noted Steven.

"Actually, she usually acts much older than you would expect a five-year-old to," said Yakko. "Right now, she's just having the type of fun that she won't find fun pretty soon."

"Hmm, a growing girl?"

"Duh! All of us are growing. By the time the show starts in 1993—that's when you said, right?"

"Right."

"We'll, she'll be seven going on eight then. But she is definitely capable now, trust me."

"Well, to get to business…" Steven pulled out three contracts out of his drawer. "Wakko! Dot! Come and sign these contracts, please."

Wakko and Dot got up and walked over to Steven's desk. Yakko took a pen and signed the contract. "Remember to put Warner on there too," he said. When Steven gave him a strange look, Yakko explained, "We just got our last name two months ago."

Steven sighed. "You kids are getting stranger by the minute."

…………

That night, the Warners were given a room in the apartments that were located on the Warner lot. "I can't help but say this, boys," said Dot, fluffing her pillow, "but I really liked the looks of that water tower. I mean, we're going to live in it in the series, why don't we live in it in real life?"

"Maybe we'll ask tomorrow," said Yakko. He was too tired to do anything but sleep at the moment. "Good night, sibs."

"Uh, good night," said Dot. Yakko had ended that abruptly.

Wakko had noticed that Yakko didn't go into detail like he usually did, too, but he also was too tired to care. "Good night," he said. All three of them went to sleep almost instantly.

…………

No, it isn't the end of the chapter yet. Wakko and Dot slept very well that night. Sure, they had dreams, but they were nice ones and the two younger Warners had no recollection of them. I wish the same could be said for Yakko, but this isn't the case.

Yakko's dream was pulled from memories that he didn't even know he had. Memories that had long since been hidden from his memory, and for a good reason…

…………

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"I'm sorry Dot, I know, I'm hungry too," soothed the four-year-old Yakko to his baby sister Dot. Pangs of hunger from not eating in two days were the source of Dot's cries.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Shh," whispered Yakko. "Everything's alright." Completely untrue, of course. He rocked Dot and sang softly to her in an effort to calm her.

Dot's cries became weak whimpers. There were still traces of tears in her tiny eyes. Yakko pulled at a corner of his clothes and dried them off. That piece of cloth was wet anyway, since it was raining, so it didn't do too much. The alley they were hiding in wasn't good cover from the rain.

The sounds of footsteps in puddles could soon be heard. Two-year-old Wakko entered the alley.

"Did you get anything?" asked Yakko, although he knew the answer.

No! cried Wakko silently. Had he have been able to talk there would have been fright and anger in his voice. Most people didn't even see me. Those that did, well about half of them ignored me and the other half didn't know what I wanted. I wish I could talk, Yakko! I wish I could tell them what I want!

Yakko pulled Dot a little closer to him. "We need to do something soon, Wakko. I'm not sure how much longer Dot can take it."

I'm not sure how much longer I can take it! cried Wakko. I'm just as hungry as Dot is!

"And what, you think that I'm not? Look, I wish that I could do something about this, and I'm trying my best—"

Well, it isn't good enough, snapped Wakko.

Yakko had had it. "Oh, just shut up! You don't know anything! And I'm getting sick of you acting like you do!"

Wakko's face froze. It looked like ice. Then it looked like stone. Well, guess what, Yakko? I'm sick of you, too. I think that I might just do us both a favor and leave, right now.

Yakko was scared and angry. He loved Wakko, and hadn't really meant to yell at him like that. Nor did he want Wakko to just walk off. Still, Wakko was being too stubborn for his own good.

"Fine, Wakko." He shoved Dot into Wakko's hands. "You try taking care of her. By yourself. Then you'll understand what I have to go through. In fact, I have to go through twice as much, because of you." Yakko walked out of the alley and turned the corner. He meant to walk away but he didn't get more than a few feet away from the entrance to the alley.

Meanwhile, Wakko was left in the alley. Dot's whimpers turned to cries. I can't take care of a baby! thought Wakko. How does Yakko do it? I guess that I was being a little hard on him…

Meanwhile, Yakko sat by the entrance to the alley and cried silently. Oh, he was such a jerk. Now he was all by himself, and he knew that Wakko and Dot couldn't possibly survive on their own. He could hear Dot crying in the alley. Oh, he was so STUPID!

Just then a man walking home from the super market, muttering to himself, "I should never have walked to the store, I should have figured that it would rain," walked by Yakko. The man's heart was filled with pity as he saw the young boy slumped against the wall and sobbing quietly. He reached into his bag and pulled out a loaf of bread. He set it in Yakko lap. Yakko looked up at the man suddenly.

"Oh, no sir, you don't have to—"

"But I want to," he interrupted. "You look like you need something to eat." Then, very quickly, the man left.

Yakko looked at the loaf of bread dumbly. Then he suddenly jumped up and yelled, "Hey, Wakko! We've got food!"

Wakko ran out, holding a wailing Dot. We do?

"Yes, we do!" Yakko gave Wakko an apologetic look. "I'm sorry I yelled at you."

I deserved it. I was being a jerk. Wakko gently set Dot down and sat down next to her. Dot immediately stopped crying when she saw the food. The three siblings got what they had been wanting that whole time—food.

…………

With a gasp, nine-year-old Yakko shot up in bed. Breathing heavily, he glanced at the clock. 2:27. Clutching his heart, he tried to get the terrible—yet true—memory out of his head. To no avail.

He had trouble getting back to sleep.