Author's Notes: Welcome to yet another story, and the second time I've attempted a Toontown fic. I'm not alone this time though. This idea is the brainchild of Carreract, and together we hope to make this story special. The first chapter is just an easy going introduction to let everyone get to know the characters, but eventually this will turn into a fic full of world exploration, drama, and adventure. Hope you guys enjoy, and if you want to please review :)

Chapter 1

All Work & No Play

Pete the mail dog was making his appointed rounds through the estates outside Toon Central. He enjoyed his job of delivering mail to different Toons since he got the chance to socialize and see what all was going on all around town. He also made Toons happy, which was vitally important for both survival and fulfillment. The estates resided in a safe and joyful neighborhood, and the sounds of children and their parents laughing filled the air.

As Pete made his way down the street he passed by another dog going in the same direction. Pete knew this kid, a teenage Toon named Frank Deppin Loper, but most Toons just called him Frank. He didn't really talk as far as Pete could tell, but the lanky dull green pup had the most expressive face in town. The local mimes were eager to recruit him, and Pete could see why.

"Hey Frank, how's the weather up there?" Pete asked casually.

Frank cracked a sideways grin and made a pressing down motion with his hand; his way of calling Pete short.

"Fair enough," Pete replied nonchalantly, "You goin' to see that little friend of yours? What's her name, Winnie?"

Frank just shook his head incredulously. Her name was Wendy Jinxsprinkles, but he couldn't speak so he couldn't correct the innocently insensitive mail carrier. Instead Frank just looked ahead of himself and shifted the weight of his golf bag from one shoulder to the other.

"You goin' to Acorn Acres?" Pete asked, and Frank nodded, "I tell you what, that place ain't what it used to be. It scares me if I'm being honest, that golf course. Nobody hardly goes there no more since those awful Cogs put their Bossbot HQ next to it. They say even the trees have no color there, and the ground literally sucks out your Laff like chocolate milk through a straw."

Pete then shivered, accidentally scaring himself with his own story. For Toons their Laff was basically their soul, and Cogs knew how to wreck their Laff with little effort. Frank didn't offer feedback on the subject, and Pete didn't ask. The older Toons were free to pursue their own happiness and safety if they wanted to, but Frank and Wendy loved to golf and nothing was going to take away their time together. Frank just hoped that when he got to Wendy's house that she would be able to come out and play.

Pete followed Frank until they got to the estate of Sophie Moggytom and her husband Leo. Their home was always spotless, and painted a minimalist white. White was a weird color for a house in Toontown. Most houses were purple, blue, green, orange, or some other fun color. This one however was white, and Pete always wondered how they managed to do it. Sophie and Leo had three kids, including Wendy Jinxsprinkles, and that was who Frank was eager to see.

Pete stuffed a package into the mailbox, and then noticed Leo was sitting in his side yard in a lawn chair, drinking a soda and staring off into space.

"Howdy, Leo!" Pete greeted the grey cat warmly, "How's the family?"

"Uh...'s good, I guess," Leo drawled listlessly without turning to look at Pete.

Leo had once been a vibrant blue cat and one of the best Cog crushers in all of Toontown, but time and family life had gotten the better of the old grey cat, and these days he seemed checked out while his wife Sophie did all the heavy lifting for him. Pete sometimes wondered if Leo never recovered his Laff from the Cogs, because he pretty much acted like a lifeless husk all the time.

"So, I heard you and Sophie had a baby," Pete said awkwardly, trying still to be friendly to the unresponsive cat.

"Yeah," Leo rasped, "Sophie wanted me to watch her draw it, but I was busy. She named it Wacky or Macky or something like that. I forgot..."

"Oh, um...okay," Pete chuckled nervously while Leo continued looking up at the clouds.

There was a long pause, during which Frank did the smart thing and left the two adults to continue their scintillating conversation. He had better things to do than watch those two, like find Wendy and go golfing.

When Frank made it inside the house, he wasn't exactly surprised to find a short fat orange cat in a rumpled nightgown barking orders at a tiny white mouse in a pink dress.

"Make sure you scrub those floors right this time!" Sophie Moggytom shouted at the petite mouse, who happened to be Wendy, "My knitting club is coming over later today, and this place needs to be perfect!"

"Yes, Mother," Wendy's tiny whisper of a voice replied.

Frank knew nobody noticed him yet, and likely wouldn't for a while. Rather than try to call attention to himself he just put down his golf clubs next to the door and took a seat near the TV Sophie was watching. She was watching some trashy reality show about Toons painting their fur odd colors and whatnot. It wasn't to Frank's taste, but he wasn't one to complain about free TV.

For the next few minutes Wendy continued to do chores. A lesser Toon would have gone sad long ago from the demands Sophie placed on her daughter. Wendy was expected to clean the house, cook their meals, do the dishes, wash their clothes in the big metal bucket out in the backyard, walk her brother's pet Doodle, take out the trash, and mow the lawn. Sometimes Frank wondered how poor Wendy was still alive.

This reverie was interrupted by the sound of a crying mewling infant. Frank covered his ears and Wendy looked to her mother, who only scowled at her.

"What?" Sophie all but dared Wendy to say something.

"N-Nothing, Mother," Wendy timidly replied.

"Hey, Ma!" An annoyingly loud voice screamed, "Wacky Macky won't stop crying!"

"Just give her a bottle, you meowing brat!" Sophie shouted in reply, "Seriously Tom, it's just a baby! I didn't raise you to be this lazy, so take care of it!"

"I'm not touching that thing! She still wears a diaper!" Tom protested, "Make Wendy do it!"

Wendy moaned softly to herself, but got up to answer her brother's call. Only as she got up though did she see that her best friend Frank was there, and he was getting up to handle the situation. Wendy sighed in relief before going back to scrubbing the floors.

Once in the room Frank saw Tom; Wendy's older brother and major pain in the butt. Tom had learned from his parents that Wendy Jinxsprinkles, despite being adopted into their family, was little more than a slave. Following the example of his elders, Tom likewise treated Wendy like dirt. Frank hated these people, but there wasn't much he could do about it. They were Wendy's family, and nothing Frank did would help her long-term.

Tom saw Frank, and quickly handed over the baby like she was a bomb waiting to explode. As soon as Frank had her Tom took off running and went outside. Wacky Macky, finally in the arms of someone who didn't sound like nails on a chalkboard, rested comfortably in Frank's arms. Not knowing what else to do, Frank took the sleeping kitten into the living room with him so he could see if Wendy was ready to go golfing. Hopefully her chores wouldn't take all day this time.

A few hours later, with the sun still thankfully shining in the sky, Frank and Wendy were walking through Donald's Dock to get to the golf course, with Wacky Macky contentedly sleeping in Wendy's golf bag. The baby was only comfortable with them, so they had to take her with them.

As they walked past the fishing hole, Wendy saw a fishing pole flung carelessly to the side of the bucket where all the rental poles went, and she picked it up and placed it back in the receptacle before rejoining Frank. Frank raised an eyebrow, and Wendy blushed sheepishly.

"You know how I feel about messes," Wendy said somewhat bashfully, "I'm just glad we got the chance to hang out together today. I've been very busy with preparing the house for Mother's knitting club party. I wish she would have rented a party place instead of letting her guests destroy the house, but she said it would cost too many jellybeans. I guess she's right."

Wendy then let out a helpless sigh, and Frank patted her back comfortingly. She smiled up at him, knowing she didn't need to explain further.

"Um, Frank? I just noticed a pile of old boots near the dock," Wendy said as she pointed out the mess, "Do you mind if I organize them by size and color?"

Frank facepalmed, knowing this was going to take a while, but he also knew it would eat away at Wendy if she didn't take care of it. He sat on the dock while Wendy started sorting and just hoped a game of fish bingo didn't start while he was taking up perfectly good fishing space.

"Thank you, Frank," Wendy said gratefully.

Frank just tapped on his wrist where a watch should be, indicating they didn't have all day. Wendy wasn't offended by the gesture. She knew he would wait for her. He always did.

Wendy and Frank didn't need to say anything to each other to understand their respective problems, wishes, and dreams. They had known each other their entire lives, thanks to both being sent to the Homes for Lovely Lonely Children orphanage when they were first drawn. Neither knew what happened to their parents, but tried to look ahead to the future. Wendy had been adopted by a family of cats, and at the time they both thought she had been the lucky one, but as it turned out that wasn't the case.

Wendy's parents saw how organized and clean she was, and took advantage of it to turn her into their servant. Frank meanwhile never got adopted, but managed to make a life for himself anyway. He had a bed at the orphanage, a golf bag and fishing pole, and people enjoyed his dance skills and facial impressions of Cogs and other Toons. Through it all Frank and Wendy remained friends, because they were both quiet and understood how to have fun without getting in other people's way.

"Last call for Acorn Acres!" A duck announced to everyone in the Dock.

"Goodness! We'd better hurry!" Wendy exclaimed.

Wendy left behind a mostly well arranged collection of old shoes, and she scurried at a quick pace to catch up with her much taller friend Frank, who was already almost there.

The pair of Toons found themselves to be the only ones in the well manicured grassy area, and rode a golf cart to the hardest level on the putting green. It would be a nice quiet peaceful day, which poor Wendy needed considering how loud and cruel her own home was these days.

...

For the first few holes the Toons were pretty evenly matched, but as the game went on Wendy got more birdies and holes in one, while Frank mostly got par; making it so Wendy was winning the game. Their competition was never mean spirited though, and Frank didn't mind that Wendy was winning. He just enjoyed having someone to play with.

On hole 7, just as Wendy was about to hit a hole in one, Wacky Macky woke up and started loudly crying, which made Wendy hit the ball too hard and lose it far beyond the hole. Wendy sighed, and Frank took the baby and started rocking it so Wendy could play.

"I'll go find the ball," Wendy sighed, and Frank nodded to let her know he heard her.

Wendy ran off the green and into the woods looking for her ball. As she went through the trees the forest got darker and darker, but then just as Wendy was about to give up looking for her ball she saw it resting on the gnarled roots a dead grey tree. She took a step to fetch it, but then stopped when she heard loud perfectly-timed footsteps.

Looking over the trunk of the dead tree, Wendy gasped when she saw what was on the other side. It was Bossbot HQ, and there were hundreds of Bossbot Cogs; smartly dressed in their brown business suits and ready for work.

Wendy squeaked in surprise and then held her breath when she realized one of them could have heard her. There was a Downsizer close to her location, and it stopped when she made that noise. Sweat poured down the nervous Toon's fur as the imposing figure got closer to her hiding place.

Please don't find me! I'm too young to be depressed! Wendy wished she could simply will the Cog away, and feared that she would be captured and saddened with no gags to defend herself.

The Downsizer looked at her tree, and she hugged the other side of the trunk as if she could simply melt into it and save herself. Of course she couldn't, and this looked like the end. The Downsizer then bent down, and Wendy shut her eyes tight. Instead of grabbing her however, the Bossbot instead grabbed the golf ball. The Downsizer then pocketed the ball and walked away, back to whatever job it was supposed to be doing. Realizing she had gotten lucky, Wendy wasted no time and ran away.

So many thoughts ran through Wendy's mind, mostly scary stories her father had told her about Cogs. She was only 12, so she had never fought a Cog herself, but she had always heard that Cogs were monsters that saddened Toons, took all their stuff, and then made fun of them just for good measure. They were the worst of bullies, and everything they did could hurt a Toon, even so much as talking!

Wendy ran all the way back to the green, and saw that Frank had already managed to get Wacky Macky back to sleep. Frank looked at her questioningly at seeing how terrified she looked, and she breathed in and out shakily to try to gather her thoughts.

"I...I saw it!" Wendy whispered frantically, "It's real!"

Frank just shrugged, not knowing what she was talking about.

"Bossbot Headquarters!" Wendy clarified his unspoken question, "I saw them! The Cogs! They're huge, and ugly, and everywhere! We need to go! Now!"

Wendy made to run away, but Frank just grabbed her arm to stop her from running. Wendy looked at him like he was crazy, and he let her go. He put Wacky back in the golf bag, and looked Wendy straight in the eye. He pointed to Bossbot HQ, way over there, pointed to himself and Wendy, and then pointed to the ground where they were. He smiled as he bent down and rubbed the green grass, showing that the Cogs had not damaged the green and it still made them happy.

"I guess you're right," Wendy conceded, "The Cogs have never bothered this golf course, and they generally don't go too close to Donald's Dock's playground area. I guess we are safe after all. Okay. I'll concede this hole to you if you let me borrow one of your golf balls. Deal?"

Frank gave her a thumbs up. They had a deal.

The Toons grabbed the baby and their golf bags, and then moved on to a hole further away from Bossbot HQ. Wendy eventually forgot how frightened she was, but she didn't think she'd ever forget seeing so many Cogs. For some reason she never pictured their suits being brown. She always pictured Cogs as being taller, with blue suits and faces of purple and green. She shrugged to herself, not knowing where she would get such a notion, and hoped she never had to encounter another Cog again.