Muffin stood in front of the heated stove, managing several different pots of various different boiling foods. Glen had requested that the blue cat make spicy oil soup, a favorite dish of his and many cogs. He had even given her instructions on how to create the dish. Much to her surprise, it didn't smell as bad as she had anticipated. The oil, even when cooking, was mostly odorless, other than the various spices that were added. Muffin hadn't even considered the fact that cogs ate, or that they could taste. Although she didn't know they could kiss either, so it was all a learning experience. Bouncing back and forth, she spun a pot of spaghetti noodles in boiling water, switching over to a saucepan filled with red sauce. She was never a particularly big fan of cooking, but growing up without a mother and a father who was usually busy, she had to learn to make her own meals. As she began finishing up, the sound of the front door popped open and footsteps entering. "Mufffffffin. I'm hoooooome." The blue cat immediately recognized that her father had a sugar-high. It didn't happen often, but enough to where she could tell just by the tone of his voice. He always became very emotional and silly when he had too much sugar.

"Welcome home dad! I'm making spaghetti if you're hungry. Go ahead and take a seat and I'll get you a plate!" Watching as the orange monkey stumbled into the room and took a seat, Muffin walked over and planted a kiss on his forehead. "So, how were things? Did Master ever get his foot unstuck?"

"Ugh, Master. Yeah. Yeah, he's fine. Ha-ha, did you know that he got his foot stuck in a toilet? How does that even happen! What a silly world!" Laughing uproariously, the sheriff laid his head on the table. "Ugh, the whole world is spinning. Could you make it stop honey?"

Rolling her eyes sarcastically, Muffin lifted her father back up into a seated position. "The world isn't spinning dad. You just had too much to drink. What did I tel you about that?"

"Arrrgh, I'm the dad here. I should be lecturing you. Anyways, I just had a couple of root-beers at Rook's. Nothing I can't handle. Besides, I think I deserved it after the week I've had." Narrowing his eyes, Billy looked towards the hallway where the spare bedroom housed Glen. Leaning forward, he whispered to his daughter. "He didn't try any funny business did he? Didn't call up any of his cog friends or anything, right?"

"Come on dad. He didn't do anything. He's very sweet. I think he just spent the whole day in the room writing and resting. He's not going anywhere or hurting anybody. I don't know if you remember, but he saved me. We're just re-paying him for his generosity. He could have died! He didn't need to do that. He's a good cog, dad. Why are you so hesitant to believe that?" Turning off the burners, Muffin moved the pots and pans over to cooler areas. "I know that you don't like cogs, and I don't either, but he's different! He's not going to do anything to anybody. He's a total teddy bear!"

Billy closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. He had already been letting out secrets today, maybe it was time to finally let out one more. "Sweetheart, can you take a seat for a second. There's something I need to talk to you about."

As soon as the chimp started speaking in such a dejected tone, Muffin knew it was serious. Normally Billy would never talk like this, but when he was drinking? She knew he wasn't messing around. "Sure, dad." Grabbing a chair, the blue cat sat next to the orange monkey and softened her gaze. "Is everything okay? Are you going to be okay? You're not sick or anything are you?"

"Muffin. I'm going to be honest with you. There are some things I've kept from you. Not because I didn't think that you could handle it, but because I didn't think I could." Sliding his hand across the table he grabbed the gloved hand of the sorrowful expression Toon across from him. "I think it is time you know the truth about your mom."

"Mom? What do you mean? Didn't she die when I was pretty little? She was sick, right?" Muffin inquired, trying to play through the various reasons in her head she would be brought up. After all, it isn't like she knew her mother anyways.

Trying to smile, Billy shook his head. "Well, that is partially true. However, she didn't go from being sick. She was killed by cogs. It was a terrible, terrible thing." Pausing, the orange monkey choked up as he recounted the story. "Well you know that your mother was a Toontown Ranger right?"

"Yeah! You told me you met when she saved you from a pair of Big Cheeses who had cornered you while you were out one night, right?" Starting to get a picture of where it was going, Muffin bit her lip in anticipation.

"Yes, you have a fantastic memory. Gosh, that big brain of yours... it ain't fair. Anyways, well your mom was a very high ranking Ranger. She was usually sent on the highest-risk missions. Undercover stuff directly into the most dangerous cog and Anti-Toon bases. She had nerves of steel. I've never seen anything like it. She could be surrounded by a thousand of the highest level cogs and she wouldn't sweat a bead. Well one day she was sent on an undercover mission to Sellbot HQ... and she was caught. When nobody heard back from her, I went looking..."


"So, my intuition was correct, as it always is of course. You are indeed a Toon." The Glad Hander walked around the dark blue cat, restrained into a chair sat at a small table. "You know, it is getting quite agitating for you Toons to be infiltrating our headquarters. Disguised as a cog of all things, too. It's frankly disgusting. However, I should be thankful. Because now that I have you here. Your capture should surely lead to some great details about the Toon resistance. Now, whether you want to talk or not, that's up to you. You can try and be strong, keep your mouth shut... but that isn't going to get you very far. The only way you're getting out of here is with adequate information." Cracking his knuckles, the balding cog grinned his everlasting flashing teeth at the fidgeting feline. "So, why don't we start easy? Tell me what you were doing here."

Fluffy stared aggressively into the cog's eyes. Unblinking and unphased by his threats. "As if I would ever help a cog! Especially not a stupid, bald, short, fat cog like yourself!" Spitting, a small blob of saliva landed directly onto the Glad Hander's cheek.

Sighing, the robot pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his face, disposing of the cloth into a trash can on the side of the room. "You know, Toon. I have dealt with your kind many times. Do you think you're the first one that has sat in that chair? Your lack of faith is disappointing, cat. However, there is ways of getting one to speak. There is always ways. I'm sure a few days without food would be enough to make you talk. Or..." Kneeling next to the cat's left side, he grabbed Fluffy's hand and ripped off the glove, revealing exactly what he was looking for. "Oh, would you look at that. A wedding ring. You silly Toons have such obvious tells. Why you would consider wearing something like that while going out to battle is such a Toony thing to do."

"Oh, shove off! I guess you cold, robotic, trash cans wouldn't understand love! You can starve me all you want, I would never turn on my kind!" Fluffy spoke bravely, unimpeded by anything the cog could throw her way.

"Very well. We will see about that." As the Glad Hander reached into his pocket, a second cog entered the room. A level two Cold Caller, dressed in an unusual black suit and plastered with a large frown. "Chris, what are you doing here. I asked you to go and scout out for any resistance that may be coming to find this prisoner."

The Cold Caller rubbed his hands together and turned his frown upside down. "Mr. Gary, sir, you're not going to believe it, but a Toon was spotted outside in the lobby. An orange monkey. He was quite belligerent and was yelling about finding somebody. It took me and seven other cogs but we were eventually able to tie him down and he's in interrogation room B."

"Great work. I will see to it that you receive a promotion for your efforts! In fact, I think if all goes well, the VP will be giving all of us a promotion!" The pair of cogs grinned evilly. "Now, make sure that Toon isn't harmed. He may be helpful to us later. Did you happen to get his name? I might send out a message to Toontown knowing one of their imbeciles stormed and was caught. See if we can get a ransom for him."

"Oh yes, I believe his name is Bill or William, or something like that. Not a typical Toon name, so maybe it is a fake." As soon as Fluffy heard the name, in conjunction with the description she knew immediately that they were talking about her husband. How could he have been so reckless as to come looking for her? After all, trained Rangers would come looking for her soon.

Cursing under her breath, she caught the attention of the Glad Hander who stood up and winked to Chris. "You're excused. I will send a memo regarding any further action needed." Once the Cold Caller was gone, Gary shrugged and shook his head. "Hmm. Sounds like this William has some sort of relevance to you."

Narrowing her eyes, Fluffy bit her tongue. She couldn't give away their relationship. She couldn't risk him being used against her. "No, however any Toon that comes here and gets themselves caught is troubling. Unlike you soulless cowards, I actually care about my kind. It won't make me talk. Now, just whisk me off wherever so we can get this over with, I'm sick of your ugly face."

"You're quite the bold one, pussy-cat. I guess if he is just some normal Toon then, you wouldn't care if we used him as a test subject. You're a spy, so I'm sure you're already aware. Our best scientists have been developing a formula that once injected would immediately drain Toons of all laughter. Now, I'm certainly not smart enough to understand how any of that works, but I do know they have struggled to find Toons to use. Unfortunately, you are too important to us, but this monkey is of no concern to you... So I guess I can just skip sending him back home."

"You're a worthless coward, you know that? You're not going to Was get out of this unscathed! I promise you, if it is the last thing I do I will stand on your grave and do the victory dance. You're never going to break me!" In her mind, Fluffy was panicking. Was Gary bluffing? Could she even take the risk? However any information she gave would potentially lead to the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of other Toons. She had sworn an oath to die before giving away essential information. The cog was right though, she had run across information on the deadly serum. She knew what it was capable of, and that Billy would be in serious danger without her intervention. She was just going to have to lie and hope that it worked. "Fine. Fine, I'll talk. But only once Billy has been safely released. You have my word, cog."

Exaggerated clacking his feet on the floor, Gary feigned his potential interest by rubbing his chin. "Ah, you Toons are such a wild bunch. Do you really think I would fall for such an obvious trap. We'd let him go and you'd go back to your stubborn ways, or worse... feed me disinformation. No. I will verify the information I need before I release you two. But remember, if it isn't accurate, then I guess he's going to be taking a long nap.

The next two hours were filled with Fluffy attempting to pass of just vague enough information that couldn't actually be used, intertwined with enough lies that there would hopefully be enough time bought that the rest of her team could track her down and rescue her. Once Gary was satisfied, he wrapped up his notes and stood up. "Thanks, Toon. I assure you that if this all goes to plan, you will go down in cog history as a legend. Heck, you might even have a career as an Anti-Toon. Think about it." Winking, Gary elbowed the Toon, backing off as she gnashed her teeth at the Glad Hander. "You better hope that this turns something up. Otherwise. Well you know what will happen."


Muffin had tears forming in her eyes as her father continued with his story, breathing deeply, she covered her mouth to hide her horror. "Well, it turns out that her plan worked perfectly. While the cogs had left behind a few goons to guard us, they were no match for the Rangers. They had used her whisper device to track down her location eventually." Billy stopped talking as he struggled to finish the story.

Scooching her chair over, Muffin wrapped her arms around the emotional monkey and rested her head on his shoulder. "It's okay, dad. You don't need to finish the story."

"No. No, I think you deserve to know the full story. Well the Rangers came and they rescued me. Sent me off with one of their top guys to get out. Promised me they'd get to your mom and they'd all meet us out somewhere. I was stupid to think that I could save her, that I knew more than them. Well apparently one of the Toons who had gone to save her was working both sides, and had tipped off the cogs that they would be there. To this day, I'm not sure why they let me escape. Maybe it was out of empathy, knowing I had you at home? Maybe it wasn't on purpose. I will never know, and it something that haunts me. Well apparently once they reached your mom's room, they were blocked in with a horde of cogs that would put that invasion to shame. Hundreds and hundreds of the highest level cogs, and one Anti-Toon vs six Toons with limited gags."

"Oh my goodness..." Muffin had opened the floodgates as Billy had as well, tears streaming from his face. He pushed on, as he would not allow his wife's bravery, and the rest of the Toons who had gone to save her to be forgotten. "They fought bravely, and from what I know they destroyed hundreds of cogs. Resorting to re-using gags they could pick up from the ground, and anything else they could find. Eventually though they were overwhelmed and captured. For their actions, they were sentenced to immediate death by the Glad Hander.." Wiping his face, Billy clenched his daughter tightly to him. "Well, by some miracle, one of the Rangers had faked his own death during the battle and was discarded. He was able to escape back to Toontown and get more Rangers together, but by the time they got back... They were already gone. The bodies were brought back to Toontown and given a proper burial... but ever since that day. I don't know. I just remember that Glad Hander. Seeing Glen, as well as that invasion, it brought up something in me. Something I never wanted to face again." Standing up, Billy rubbed his face and tried to smile. "Anyways, enough of the tears. I smell a delicious spaghetti dinner. Why don't you invite Glen out here to sit with us? After all, if you're vouching for him, I guess he deserves a chance. After all, Anti-Toons exist, why can't there be Anti-Cogs?"

Muffin leapt up excitedly. "Thank you, dad! I'll go get him right now! You sit there and I'll plate everybody!" The blue cat threw her arms up as she fled into the hallway to go get her new boyfriend. "Glen! I hope you're hungry!" Could be heard tailing off as she disappeared.

Billy smiled as he watched his daughter go. "Yup. Just like her mother."


As one orange monkey had returned home, a second one was now scrounging through the alleys and rooftops of the twilight lit Toonstone. Effortlessly bouncing from location to location, the silent Ninja scouted out for the information his employer requested. The evil Toon had never been to Toonstone, although he already despised it and its town of yokels. "Not a single gag shop in this entire place. These idiots are just asking to be invaded. Amazing it didn't happen earlier. How do you lose to these bumpkins?" Ninja cackled at the idea of a bunch of weak Toons beating a bunch of weak cogs. Ninja hated everybody and everything. He hadn't met a friend he wouldn't cross for the right price. Sometimes he would do crimes for free, just for the fun. As he searched the small town, he finally found what he was looking for. A small wooden building that was titled "Sheriff's Office."

"Well, that should just about do it." Casing the building, the chimp was satisfied that nobody was inside and slipped inside of an unlocked window. "Idiots don't even lock their windows. I probably could have gone through the front door." The one room building was nothing like the Ranger Resistance building in Toontown Central which was like a maze, and one that Ninja always hated going through. In the back corner was a large silver safe, similar to the ones that Toons would use while battling. "Aha, now this is more like it." Ducking down, Ninja placed his ear against the safe. As he began to turn the dial in an attempt to crack the code, he was caught off guard when his minimal effort of grabbing the dial had pulled open the door. Shaking his head in disbelief, Ninja smiled at his good fortune. This was going to be even easier than he thought. He wouldn't need to kill anybody, these Toons would all likely end up getting themselves killed anyways. Inside of the safe was a collection of gag pouches, filled to the brim with every gag imaginable. Shutting the door, Ninja dusted off his hands, leaving the gags intact. After all, he wasn't being paid to rob the place. Plus, he wanted to watch the inevitable battle between the cogs and Toons and watch them destroy each other.

Backing into a desk, Ninja knocked over a framed picture. Turning around, he lifted the photograph and looked at the contents and chuckled. In the picture was a family of three. A short, fat dark blue cat holding a baby Toon, and a slightly taller orange monkey with his arm around her. "Ugh, you give orange monkeys a bad name, Sheriff." Putting the frame back into place, he decided it would be best to find the sheriff's house as the intel may prove valuable for a potential cog invasion. Slipping out of the same window he had came in from, Ninja retreated into the darkness with no sign he had ever been there.

It hadn't taken long for the monkey to find the house he was looking for. Not only was the town a fraction the size of a playground in Toontown, there was only several homes near the sheriff's building and by chance the very first one had large windows that had been left uncovered. Slinking towards the house, he pulled out his camera. He was very thorough in his jobs and wanted as much as he could get to provide. Pictures of the sheriff and other armed Toons would make it easier to track them down. Standing on his tip-toes, Ninja was taken aback by the scene he saw inside. Inside of a small dining room sat the object of his search. In plain sight. However, next to him was the dark blue cat from the photograph, as well as... a cog? Seated at the table was a cog. A Glad Hander as well. Surely this would be fantastic information. Holding his camera to his eye, he snapped photo after photo. Silently laughing. "Well, Mr. Sheriff. I hope you're enjoying dinner, because you're not going to have a whole lot of them left."