As night fell, Hello Nurse, Scratchansniff, Pesto, and Brian all met up at the studio. Brian instructed them to go straight to the water tower while he and Pesto went to the sound stage entrance. He made sure their radio was tuned into the right frequency before he left with the pigeon behind him. Pesto had since recovered and had his bandages removed, meaning he could fly again. Therefore he could go for help if one of them got in trouble.
With everything stuffed into bags, Hello Nurse and Scratchansniff headed into the studio. They took a side entrance that wasn't being manned this late at night to avoid confrontation with the guards. Once a couple of guards had walked out of sight, Hello Nurse and Scratchansniff rushed to the water tower, climbing as quickly as possible. They reached the top, already out of breath.
"Hey punks, can you hear me?" Pesto's voice crackled on the radio stuffed in the bag, "Hey! I'm talkin' to you!!"
"Don't scream you idiot!" Brian growled from the radio as well, "But yes, please let us know if you can hear us."
Hello Nurse dug for the radio, pulled it out, and spoke into it, "We hear you loud and clear, Pesto, Brian. We're here at the tower now."
"Excellent." Brian replied, "I'll be investigating the sound stage entrance shortly. I suggest you both start looking around. Put those suits on and keep the Geiger counter on the entire time. It'll help you avoid high radiation areas as well as the half-toons. And don't forget the oxygen tanks. There's no telling what kind of poisonous chemicals and gases the Warners have been dumping in those corridors. I'll be in touch."
Hello Nurse and Scratchansniff did as they were instructed. They put on the orange jump suit, protective gloves, boots, and helmet over their regular clothes. They then helped put on each other's oxygen tanks, connecting them and making sure they were properly functioning. Once that was finished, Scratchansniff grabbed the taser and Geiger counter. Hello Nurse took the baseball bat and magnet.
"Brian, what's the magnet for?" She asked over the radio.
"To stop ghost Dot." Brian explained, "From my observations, she's an apparition made of electricity. That is an electromagnet capable of disrupting the very flow of electricity. It will stun her."
Hello Nurse nodded, though Brian couldn't see her, "You're talking like we're almost certain to run into the Warners."
"Just get to work." Brian growled, sounding frustrated.
Scratchansniff was shaking as Hello Nurse grabbed the edge of the tower logo and pulled, slowly prying open the door to the tower. She then grabbed a flashlight and shined it into the pitch black entrance of the tower.
"Are you ready, Dr. Scratchansniff?" She asked the trembling psychiatrist.
Scratchansniff gulped, "N-n-nein...!"
Hello Nurse swallowed her fear as well, "Me neither. Let's go."
Deep underground, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot sat back and watched the camera feed before them. The camera was fixed inside the tower, pointed at the entrance. So when the door cracked open and the psychiatrist and ex-nurse came stumbling in with their awkward hazmat suits, they all giggled.
"Are these morons joking?" Dot asked, pointing to the screen and laughing, "What do they think they're doing, breaking into our home like that?"
"That's an invasion of privacy!" Wakko roared. He pulled out his mallet and brandished it above his head, "We ought to go clobber them!"
Yakko sat in a relaxed position with his feet kicked up on the console, "Sibs, sibs, settle down. What did I say when we found out that bird escaped?"
Dot sighed in annoyance, "We wait for them to come to us."
"Exactly." Yakko nodded in approval, "Let's see if these so called doctors can even figure out how to get in!"
Wakko tugged on his brother's coat, pointing at one of the other monitors, "Uhh, Yakko! There's another guy coming in the sound stage entrance!"
Yakko turned to gaze at the other monitor. There on display was another man he didn't recognize walking down the same corridor that Pesto had invaded before.
Dot snarled, sparking with electricity, "It's that Magenta guy! I hate him!!"
"It looks like they're trying to pull a fast on on us." Yakko said, rubbing his chin, "Which means we'll have to split our resources. Wakko, do you mind uhhhhh... Meeting Dr. Magenta personally?"
Wakko cocked his head to the side, "You mean you want me to kill him?"
"Yes Wakko, that's what I meant by meeting him personally."
"You could have just said you wanted me to kill him."
"Just go smash his skull in for Pete's sake!"
Wakko saluted before he ran off to the other entrance. Yakko and Dot turned their attention back to Hello Nurse and Scratchansniff.
"Sister sib," Yakko started, an evil grin forming on his face, "What say you about having some fun with these future human test subjects before we toonify them?"
Dot perked up, "Ooooh! You mean it? That sounds like fun!" She squealed and clapped her hands, "Can I chase Scratchy? He's so funny when he gets scared!"
"Of course you can!" Yakko giggled with her, "I'll go after the leggy blonde. We'll have so much fun terrorizing them, I'm sure!"
Their gleeful laughs echoed through the laboratory as they waited patiently for their victims to come to them.
Hello Nurse went straight for the kitchen while Scratchansniff followed close behind, frantically waving his flashlight around the water tower. In the kitchen sat the fridge, still chained up. It had seemingly not been touched since the last time Hello Nurse had been there.
"Goodness, why would they chain up the fridge like this?" Scratchansniff asked.
"Unless they're hiding something." Hello Nurse replied, "Yakko said it was to stop his brother from sleep eating, but after what we've seen..."
Scratchansniff gulped, "I don't know if I want to see what's inside it."
"See what the Geiger counter reads on it." Hello Nurse said, pointing to the refrigerator.
Scratchansniff turned on the Geiger counter and pointed the meter to the fridge. The counter was supposed to crackle if there was any reading of radiation. However, it was silent.
"That's not a good sign." Hello Nurse sighed. She approached the fridge closer and looked at the lock keeping the chains tightly wound around the appliance. "It has a keypad. But we don't know the code."
Pesto's voice suddenly crackled in on the radio, "How are you punks doin'? Dr. Magenta just went in the sound stage."
Hello Nurse took the radio and spoke, "We're in the tower right now. I'm looking at the fridge and it has a keypad. But I have no idea what the password is."
Pesto was silent for a moment before he spoke, "Try 1-9-3-0! That's the code that crazy-eyed kid used for the toon jail!"
Hello Nurse punched in the numbers. When she put in the last number, the chains instantly fell away, allowing for the fridge to be opened.
"That worked!" Hello Nurse spoke into the radio, "Thank you Pesto!"
Pesto gave an approving chuckle, "No problem, doll!"
Brian's voice came in on the radio, "Now open it and tell us what's in it."
Hello Nurse took the handle of the refrigerator door. She could hear Scratchansniff shaking behind her; he could hardly keep the flashlight straight. She took a deep breath, bracing for the worst. A dead body? A dismembered corpse? A beheaded Warner Brothers employee? What could be so important that the psychotic Warner kids had to chain it up?
She opened the door.
She put the radio to her mouth, "It's... Just food."
Indeed, the fridge was filled with normal everyday groceries. Things like leftover pizza, a half eaten cake, a package of hot dogs, and some cheese. The grossest thing was some broccoli, which appeared to have fungus growing on it. Clearly the Warners didn't like their vegetables and chose to let them rot.
Scratchansniff approached cautiously, "It's just... Food?"
"It's just food." Hello Nurse repeated.
"It's just food?" Pesto repeated.
"For Pete's sake, it's food!!" Brian yelled, "Stop saying that! Is there anything important in there?!"
Hello Nurse moved food around in the fridge, looking around for anything out of place. It appeared to just be the average, everyday refrigerator with average, everyday groceries and leftovers.
"I don't see anything." Hello Nurse said into the radio, "Perhaps Yakko was telling the truth."
"That doesn't change that these children are hiding something." Brian replied, "Keep looking. I'm going down into the corridor."
Hello Nurse sighed. She reached for a cartoon of non-dairy milk in the back of the fridge and pushed it aside. Something caught her eye. There was a tiny, almost invisible piece of plastic sticking out of the back of the fridge. It appeared to be partially broken and exposing pieces of the refrigerator's inner workings. Out of curiosity, she pulled back the piece of plastic.
She gave a small gasp. There was a lever hastily welded into the back of the fridge behind the plastic.
Hello Nurse grabbed the radio, "Pesto, Brian, I found something! There's a lever in the back of the fridge!"
"Well whatcha waiting for?" Pesto asked, "Pull it and see what it does!"
Scratchansniff spoke up, "Wh-what if it's a trap?"
Hello Nurse sighed, "This is the only thing we've found. We might as well try and see what it is."
She reached for the lever and pulled it. Nothing happened. Scratchansniff breathed a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, it felt as though the entire tower began to shake. Hello Nurse and Scratchansniff grabbed on to each other in surprise. It felt as though the tower was going to collapse on top of them. With no warning, the ground slipped out beneath them and they found themselves tumbling into the darkness. They fell for a few seconds before colliding into a pile of something soft but smooth.
Hello Nurse pulled herself out of the pile. It was dimly lit by emergency lights, bathing everything in an eerie red light. She appeared to be in a large pool filled with plastic balls, like the ones found in children's ball pits. A few feet away Scratchansniff tried to get his upper half unstuck from the ball pit pile. His legs were flailing wildly in the air as his screams were muffled by the ball pit. She waded over to him and pulled him out.
"Oh, thank you Hello Nurse!" He breathed a sigh of relief, "I thought I was dead!"
Hello Nurse looked up to see an open trap door above them. The door slid shut, blocking their only known exit.
"It looks like we fell." Hello Nurse said, "It was a trap door. I think... We might be in the underground lair."
Scratchansniff started shaking again, "Oh dear...!"
Hello Nurse pulled herself out of the ball pit, just as the radio in her back pocket started crackling: "He...! Wh-...! Bzzzz Are y-...?! Bzzzz!"
She pulled it out. The radio had appeared to have broken her fall and was now partially bent in the middle. Pesto's voice was barely audible through the static and sparks.
"Pesto! Can you hear me?" She shouted into the radio, "We fell into a trap door, but we're okay!"
"I...! Brian-! Bzzzz He t- Bzzz!" Pesto tried desperately to get to them, but the radio was far too damaged, "Brian is-! Bzzzz! You nee-! Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz!"
The radio blew out, causing Hello Nurse to drop it on the floor. It sparked a few times before the static went silent.
Scratchansniff gave a panicked whimper, "We lost our failsafe!! We're doomed!!"
"No no, don't panic!" Hello Nurse chided, trying to keep her voice steady, "We're fine, calm down! We'll make it out of here. We just have to find another exit, right? We can do that, we just have to stick together and stay calm."
Scratchansniff's breathing calmed, signaled by the sound of his oxygen tank slowing down. He took a deep breath, "I... Okay, you're right. I... I lost myself there for a second. Thank you Ms. Nurse."
Hello Nurse helped Scratchansniff out of the ball pit. The flashlight and Geiger counter were luckily still working, meaning they could still safely navigate the underground lair.
"Let's just start walking." Hello Nurse suggested, making sure to keep her voice nice and calm, "If we see anything, we have weapons. I promise we'll be okay."
Scratchansniff nodded, "Hopefully Pesto will go for help." He started shaking again, "And we won't run into a half-toon or the Warners."
Scratchansniff turned on the flashlight once again. They found only one corridor leading out of the ball pit room. With anxiety running high, they started down the corridor, keeping a firm grip on their weapons.