"Help! Help!"
The muffled cries of Pesto were lost on the wind. He couldn't cry out while carrying the check in his beak. His once trusted friends were now after him with bloodlust in their eyes.
Down in the studio below was pure chaos. Sound stages and office buildings were now going up in flames. A broken fire hydrant sprayed water across the lot, causing SWAT officers to slip and slide, landing in puddles contaminated with Warnerium and soon passing out from radiation poisoning. That is, if the half-toons didn't get to them first. The abominations seemed to be ripping apart officers and civilians who had been trapped in studio with no concern. The sounds of gunfire from the officers slowly thinned out until there were only a few sounds of firearms coming from scattered areas in the studio. The officers were losing to the perfectly engineered half-toon monsters. Pesto couldn't watch the scene. It was far too grisly and violent.
Something snatched at Pesto's tail feathers. Squit had grabbed one of the feathers and pulled it out. While Squit was preoccupied by the feather, Bobby swooped in, laughing maniacally. Pesto screeched and dove into the chaos below in hopes of losing his pursuers. In between pillars of burning movie props and the blasts of gunfire and tear gas, Pesto rocketed through. He flew between a SWAT man firing his last rounds at a large part woman, part cartoon dog. He dove between the legs of a rampaging bird-toon-man and narrowly missed being crushed between his feet. A sign bearing the Warner Brothers logo, burning like a beacon, fell directly in front of him, forcing him to pull up at the last second.
Pesto shot back up, away from the massacre going on in the middle of the studio. He panted, barely able to hold on to the check as he flapped and made his way back to the main gate.
"Where you going, Pesto old pal?!"
Pesto glanced back and shrieked as he saw two pairs of blue eyes rocketing out of the smoke. Squit and Bobby had only been slowed down briefly. They were still hot on his tail. With his last remaining bit of strength, Pesto shot forward, heading straight for the gate. He grabbed the check in his talons and screamed as loud as his New Yorker windpipes would allow him.
"HELLO NURSE! SCRATCHANSNIFF!"
Pesto made it over the gate and caught sight of his companions. They stood up and started to panic as they realized what was going on.
"Pesto, look out!" Hello Nurse called.
"Wha?!" Pesto was suddenly tackled midair, causing him to drop the check. Squit and Bobby had seized him in midflight and were scratching and pecking at him. An inky substances started oozing from Pesto's body, mixed in with the Warnerium bleeding from Squit and Bobby's growths.
"Help! Get 'em off! Get 'em off me!" Pesto cried, sounding genuinely panicked, "They're hurtin' me! Help!"
Slappy pulled a stick of dynamite from her purse, "Hold you horses! I gotta do everything around here, don't I?!"
"Wait!" Hello Nurse stopped her, "You'll hurt Pesto! Look at him!"
Pesto managed to get free from his attackers by angrily punching them in the beaks. His body was streaming with a shiny black substance, seeming to melt the color from his body. Even by toon standards, he appeared heavily injured. It was unlike anything any of them had seen.
"That looks like... Ink!" Brain exclaimed, "It's as if his very molecular structure is corroding! How-?! How is that possible?!"
Pesto flew off, screaming obscenities and sounding on his last legs. He flew back into the studio with Bobby and Squit in hot pursuit before any of them could do anything to help.
"He's in trouble!" Hello Nurse cried, "We need to help him!"
Brain waved away her concern, "As much as that situation seemed to be dire, we can't do anything until this antidote is complete." He pointed to a small chemical set he had set up, where an unknown liquid was being brewed, "What just occurred confirms my fears... Half-toons can damage toons on a physical level. None of us will stand a chance if we storm in there without some means of defending ourselves."
Scratchansniff nodded, "Brain is right. We can help Pesto when we can stop the half-toons!"
Hello Nurse clenched her fists, "Pesto has helped us so much! We can't just abandon him!"
Slappy rolled her eyes, "Hey, you're the one who stopped me from tossing some good ol' fashioned TNT at them all."
"He was injured!" Hello Nurse shot back, "And not in the funny toon way, he was severely hurt!"
Just then, Pesto flew back by them. He was even more damaged than before. Bobby and Squit grabbed him by the wings and fought with him viciously. The sounds of pigeon violence echoed down the street as the three tussled, shouting expletives and New Yorker nonsense.
Hello Nurse picked up a stick from the ground and hurled it at the birds. It hit Squit's Warnerium covered wing and caused him to fall to the ground. Pesto got the upper hand and punched Bobby in the chin. The two locked talons and started pecking and cooing angrily at each other.
Brain suddenly pulled on Hello Nurse's skirt. She looked down to see the small white mouse carrying a gun of some sort. He handed it to her and pointed to the pigeons.
"I managed to get enough of the antidote brewed for one charge!" He said, "Take that and fire it at Bobby! It might be our only chance to safely test its effects!"
Hello Nurse nodded and took aim at the fighting pigeons. It was difficult to focus on Bobby alone, as the two were erratically fighting. Hello Nurse focused as much as she could and pulled the trigger.
"OUCH!" Bobby cried. A small needle had hit him square in the rump. Suddenly, he paused and let Pesto go. They both dropped to the ground as Bobby's Warnerium growths slowly dimmed and turned black. Pesto collapsed on the ground, covered in the black substance and appearing barely alive. The three laid there in the road, not moving.
Scratchansniff gulped, "Are they... Are they okay?"
Suddenly, Bobby sat up. His eyes were back to normal. He no longer had a creepy smile on his face. He glanced around, confused.
"Where the heck am I?" Bobby asked.
"He's back to normal!" Brain exclaimed, "The antidote worked!"
The group approached the pigeons and kneeled down to take a closer closer. Bobby looked at them, his squinting eyes full of befuddlement.
"Hey, it's you guys." He said, "What happened? Where am I? Wait... Hey! I ain't in that stinkin' cage no more!" He jumped up and started celebrating, "No more getting cut open by that kid with the crazy eyes!"
Brain studied the pigeon closely, nodding in approval, "So, I was correct in my hypothesis. The Warnerium seems to be linked to whatever is causing the half-toons and those injected with Warnerium to lose control of their bodies. Thankfully, the antidote suppresses the influence of the Warnerium and allows the person to regain control. If we can make more charges we can-"
"Pesto!" Scratchansniff yelled.
While the group was busy looking at Bobby, they failed to notice Pesto being dragged away by Squit. As soon as he was seen, Squit lifted Pesto in his claws and took off over the gate. They tried chasing after him but he was already gone back into the studio.
"Pesto, no!" Hello Nurse cried.
"There's nothing we can do." Brain said, "I don't have another charge for Squit. We have to make more."
"Then we need to get back to work immediately!" Hello Nurse argued as she rushed back to the tiny lab she and Brain had set up in the bushes. Brain guided Bobby and the rest of them back to the bushes where they took cover. Hello Nurse started up another batch, following Brain's instructions and started brewing more antidotes as quickly as possible.
"Bobby," Brain said as he studied the pigeon, "Can you remember anything that happened before you lost control?"
Bobby seemed to be racking his brain, "Well... I remember when I was still imprisoned in that underground place. Those Warner kids let us all out and forced us into the lab. I remembering seeing a pile of junk in the middle of the room... And then... I can't remember anything after that."
"Pile of junk?"
"Yeah! It was like a bunch of microwaves and radios. Looks like one of them fancy-schmancy art projects, y'know?"
"Microwaves and radios?" Brain stroked his chin, looking deep in thought.
The group was silent as Hello Nurse worked on the new antidotes, Scratchansniff had bravely left the bushes and was trying to observe what was going on at the entrance of the studio. Things had gone... Oddly quiet. No gunshots, screams, or roars from the half-toons. Scratchansniff became unnerved and quickly returned to the bush, but not before stepping on a piece of paper, dotted with ink spatters. It only took a quick scan for him to panic and rush back to their hiding spot.
"Ms. Nurse! Brain! Slappy!" He cried, waving the piece of paper around, "Look at this!" He showed the paper to everyone in the hideaway, "It's a check! A check made by Mr. Plotz!"
Hello Nurse squinted at the check and gasped, "Wh-! Look who it's made out to! Yakko Warner?!"
Brain snatched the check from Scratchansniff, "And that is no simple lump-sum of cash. Thaddeus was paying Yakko top dollar."
"Who in their right mind would pay that kid a single cent?" Slappy growled.
"Unless..." Hello Nurse started. She gave another gasp, "Remember when Yakko said he had an investor?"
Scratchansniff's face fell "It can't be!"
"Thaddeus was funding the Warners this entire time." Brain snarled as he ripped the check in half, "That certainly explains why he was so cagey about the half-toons and why he kicked us out."
"It was to stop us from investigating!" Scratchansniff cried.
Hello Nurse clenched her teeth, "That lying old man! How could he?!"
"He played us all for a fool this entire time..." Brain stuffed the check away and stomped over to the small chemistry set, "Well, we'll see how he feels when his empire of lies comes crumbling down at the very foundation!"
Hello Nurse gulped quietly, "If the Warners didn't already get to him first."
From the cold steel operating table dripped a mix of black fluid, glowing Warnerium, and a sickly reddish-purplish fluid. Yakko drew a sheet over the body of his brother. He dabbed his forehead with a dry rag and sat down on a table opposite to his brother.
"You killed him, didn't you?"
Yakko yelped. His ghostly sister had appeared next to him with no warning.
"What?!" The elder Warner exclaimed, "I didn't kill him! He's just resting right now!"
From the table, the body of Wakko shifted. He let out a small, pained groan and went silent again.
"See? Still alive!" Yakko shot back, smirking victoriously.
Dot rolled her eyes and went over to investigate. She lifted the sheet and grimaced slightly.
"He looks even uglier than usual." She sneered.
Yakko rolled his eyes and stood up again, "Sister sib, you miss the point. Once he's had adequate rest, he'll be able to become whatever he pleases. His current form is simply a base form. You'll see what I mean once he wakes up."
"If he wakes up." Dot said.
"He will, don't worry. I was measuring his vitals the entire time. He's perfectly alive and healthy. He simply needs to recover for a while."
Yakko left the room, trashing his coat and gloves in favor of new ones. Dot followed him out, still looking over her shoulder at Wakko's motionless body. Yakko made a beeline for the limp body of the half-toon on the other side of the room, still currently imprisoned in the painful H-TIEM machine.
"How ya doin', Plotzy?" Yakko teased.
The body of the toonified Plotz did not reply. Black, red, and blue stained the table, dripping down into a reservoir below and joining the rest of the fluids being drained from his body and into the collection container. The second container was nearly full already. Yakko turned off the tubes into the container and took it from its place, shaking the sickly reddish liquid around with interest.
"Well Dot, what do you say?" Yakko turned to her, "Want to fix your cadaver once and for all?"
Dot looked pensively at the container and her brother's maniacal grin, "Are you sure I can be whatever I want to be after the surgery? I'm not gonna be stuck looking like Wakko, right?"
"If not," Yakko began, "I promise you can whack me with a mallet."
"Make it two whacks."
"Deal."
The two made their way back over to Wakko. On a nearby table laid another body, this one completely motionless. Yakko set the container on the floor and ripped the sheet off. There laid the motionless body of Dot, her fur still singed, spots of her toon skin showing underneath her fur. Streaks of white dotted her fur, while her eyes were closed in deadly peace. Signs of Yakko's previous tampering could be seen, as there were various stitches, scalpel cuts, and pen marks scattering her body. Dot cringed at the sight.
"I can't even look at it." She groaned and turned away.
Yakko took a syringe and injected the body with it. He turned to his sister and seemed hesitant to start, "Alright, now if I'm going to go through with the procedure, I can't have you hanging over my shoulder like this. It makes me nervous and more likely to mess up."
"Like heck I'd leave you with my body unsupervised!" Dot sneered back at him, "I wanna know what you're doing at all times!"
Yakko sighed with annoyance and cracked his knuckles, "I was afraid you'd say that." Without warning he grabbed Dot by her ghostly tail and shoved her back into the body. She protested loudly but eventually disappeared into the cadaver silently. The body seemed to regain some life to it as it drew its first breath in many years, but it failed to wake up.
"Good thing I already sedated your body." Yakko chuckled to himself, "Now sister sib, let's make you beautiful again."