Animaniacs is owned by Warner Bros. I don't claim any of them as mine, same as with any other franchise I use in here, they're not mine either.
Toontown outskirts, at the unknown animation studio, 4 PM
Bradley was running through the halls of the studio, following the inky footprints left behind by Bendy. He ran as hard as he was able in trying to catch him until the footprints ran out.
"Where'd he go..." The human mumbled to himself, looking side to side.
Bendy popped up behind him. "Peek-a-Boo! Gotta be faster than that!" He said as he ran off again.
Bradley grumbled a bit and ran off again, trying to get faster. Running wasn't working, so he tried throwing down his toon hole when Bendy jumped up to the balcony, popping up in front of him and tapping his head with a smirk. "Got ya!"
"Oh, so you know how to use our stuff? Not bad." Bendy said with a smirk. "Now try again without it!" He added, snatching the hole away before jumping off and running again while he laughed.
"Hey!" Bradley shouted, hopping off as well and rolling out of the landing, following those inky footprints and getting frustrated.
Outside the door
The group could hear noises coming from the room they were in. "What in toon's name are they doing in there?" The suited feline said.
"Didn't that book say he'd be mischievous or something like that?" Rick said. "Maybe he's giving Brad a hard time..."
"Ah, the ink never falls far from the pen then." The feline said.
"Hey, I was gonna say that!" Yakko said with a huff. "Taking my good lines like that..."
"Sorry, next time I'll let you say it." The suited toon cat said with a smirk.
"Yeah, you better." Yakko said with a huff again, but knew they were joking. "You're not the one with top billing."
"You get the most anyway cause you're the oldest." Dot pointed out.
"I thought it was you cause you're the cutest." Wakko said.
"Hmph! No one can deny I'm the cutest thing anyone's ever seen! Anyone else wanting that job's waiting over in the ER." Dot responded with a hand to her chest, all proud and haughty. The other brothers let out a groan in response.
"Well we should still keep an ear out, who knows what's going on in there." Shannon said. The toons agreed, leaning in to press their ears to the door. Since they weren't trying to actively get in, the suits guarding it didn't do anything to stop them yet.
Back inside
While that was going on, Bradley tried some new tricks to maintain momentum to catch Bendy. He ducked and slid on the inky floors, kicked off the walls during said slides and so on while the devil toon kept on running and hopping, spinning around the occasional support beam. "Wheeee!" Bendy exclaimed happily. "Come on, I'm not that slippery am I?"
Bradley kept an eye on Bendy as best he could, at least keeping him in a big room he chased him to and using that momentum to leap for him. He narrowly slipped through the human's grasp more than once, but he didn't just give up. "Come on, you could keep up with those other friends of yours, I should be a piece of pie!" Bendy said.
"Wait, how do you know that?" Bradley asked as he kept running, getting tired.
"Oh, my own friends here tell me a lot of things." Bendy responded, flipping once after a last big leap before landing right in front of the human. "How do you think one of them told you the game I had planned when you managed to take them?"
Bradley slowly recovered his stamina and breathed slowly to get his energy back from all that running. "Besides, it looked like a lot of fun anyway." Bendy said, the excitement building in his voice. "A big Toontown car chase, fishing hooks, William Tell Overture music, danger all around? It just made me more excited to get to see you in person!" He added and hopped over Bradley's head.
Bradley watched him go over as he tried and failed again to catch him. "Well why did you want to see me then?" He said curiously, panting a bit more before finally resorting to normal breathing when he recovered.
"Gotta catch me and then I'll tell ya!" Bendy said as he spun around the support beams, laughing along the way and having his fun at Bradley's expense.
Bradley was getting more aggravated and tried to come up with an idea to catch him. He looked down at his shoes and got an idea, reaching into his hammerspace jeans pockets. After feeling around for various items like his phone and other gags he packed in there, he finally found some springs. He smirked and put them on the bottom of his shoes and started hopping around to catch up with Bendy. The devil toon yelped as Bradley had the idea to bounce from wall to wall, confusing Bendy before the human reached out far, enough to grab his wrist to bring him down.
"Hyah!" Bradley screamed out as they landed back on the ground, taking the springs off with his other hand to put them back in his pockets. "Got ya, again! Now tell me why we're here!" He said, getting annoyed.
Bendy smirked and slid right out thanks to his abnormal inkiness. "Hm... I think you certainly proved yourself to keep up, let's walk and I'll tell ya, promise!" Bendy said, heading down one of the halls as if that chase of theirs never happened. Bradley sighed a bit, but followed closely.
"The reason why I wanted to see you was because... Well, you're such an odd case!" Bendy started now that things calmed down. "You're human yet you live with toons. Yet not just with toons, some of the craziest toons ever put to paper! You saved a town full of things you never thought could actually exist, I wanted to see that magic happen again!"
"And with doing that, you kidnapped all sorts of toons and almost broke that trust between them and us?" Bradley said with crossed arms.
"Oh, is that what was happening?" Bendy said, looking downward. "I just thought it'd be a good test for your limits, I didn't know that'd end up happenin' too. But you got your friends, so that's why I set up all that stuff in those studios!"
"A puzzle test?" Bradley said right after. "No wonder it needed a group to solve. And yeah, I have good friends, I'm proud to be with them."
"Yup, and honestly I'm kind of jealous about it." Bendy said, stopping. Bradley stopped shortly after, looking down at him. "Do you know why I'm out here and not in Toontown?"
"Not really..." Bradley said, leaning on a nearby wall. "Why ARE you way out here?"
Bendy looked around. "Hmm... Not here." He walks to an elevator, urging Bradley to follow with a "C'mon!".
Back with the group
As they descended, the group outside could finally enter the room when they heard nothing else, the suit given permission to once they were gone.
"Where'd they go?" Mom said as they looked all over.
"They must've entered somewhere different." The unnamed cat said. "Perhaps a different room or an elevator, since I picked up a whirring noise."
"Oh, that's Wakko's blender, he was making a smoothie." Yakko said.
Wakko puts the blender behind his back. "Sorry, I got thirsty." He said with a bashful smile.
"Well that's a new one." Dot said, crossing her arms.
"Well come on, we gotta go after them!" Rick said, looking for the elevator or a vent or anything to sneak through.
In the elevator
"If you really oughta know..." Bendy said as the elevator creaked and descended. "I'm honestly a bit ashamed. Ashamed that the person that created me wasn't, you know, right."
"Right how? Who was it?" Bradley asked.
"I really don't wanna say their name." The devil toon said softer, looking away as he dripped ink on the floor of the elevator. "When the toons found out and saw me, they just wouldn't look at me after that. Nothing's worse than a lonely and sad Toon you know." He explained, poofing up a thought bubble for them to see.
"Any time I tried to talk to them or show them a trick to show off or get attention, they just left and kept talking to themselves." Bendy explained. One trick he tried to show them was juggling and another was whistling a tune, almost like what the group heard when they entered the studio. But the groups of toons did their own thing and ignored the thought-Bendy. He definitely looked better back then, without all the dripping ink on the ground.
"Maybe I wasn't that well-known yet, but a 'hi' wouldn't have hurt! Much." Bendy said. "So I turned to pranking but things ended up getting worse. My only other friends ended up leaving as well cause I may have gone, you know, overboard with some of them." Bendy continued, two shadows appearing in the thought bubble. They looked like an angel and a wolf shape, and they turned and walked away, fading shortly after.
"Sure I got a few cartoons out of it and an amusement park, but things still went wrong." Bendy added, the elevator stopping and the thought bubble popping and disappearing. "Soon enough I stopped being maintained, and had to keep up with myself on my own. All this dripping ink didn't happen back then." He said as he lifted his arm, dripping more ink off it as an example. The elevator door opened shortly after.
"So if you don't have any more friends, how come you have all these suits around? What was your plan with kidnapping all the new toons?" Bradley asked, hoping to get some real answers.
Bendy managed a little chuckle. "I'll show you." He said as he left the elevator. Bradley followed him down into a hallway, soon coming across a little machine on the side.
"What's this?" Bradley asked, looking at it.
"Oh, that's what makes ink into lots of shapes." Bendy said, perking up. He dripped some ink into it and turned it on, twisting the dial to a ball-shape. Soon enough, a ball came out the bottom, bouncing a little. "Cool, huh?"
Bradley nods a little, picking the ball up and looking over it. "The coolest, for sure." He said with approval, and to Bendy's happiness.
"Wanna play catch then while we walk? Bendy asked, looking eager for a positive answer.
Bradley thought a moment before nodding, smiling back at him. "Sure."
Back with the group
"I'm sorry, but you can't get in the elevator, you're gonna have to wait." One of the suits blocking it said when the others found it.
"That's our friend down there, we gotta make sure he's okay!" Shannon said urgently.
"We said no!" The suit shouted. "Now stay back until they return." He added in a calmer tone.
Shannon grumbled in annoyance, walking back to the others around the corner. "Now how're we gonna get down there?"
"Little do ye know you're talking to the masters of outwitting, missy." Yakko said in one of his accents, bringing his other siblings in close. "So, are we bringing out Operation Telegram?" He whispered.
The other two siblings nodded. "I love that game!" Wakko said with a happy tone as well.
After another moment, Yakko and Dot were in disguise, dressed up as mailmen with mustaches and uniforms and everything. "Telegram!" Yakko said, handing said slip of paper to the suit.
"What's this... A present for our friend? What is it?" The suit said with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, we just assumed they'd love this nice little gift. Paula Deen worked overtime to make this just for them!" Dot said as Yakko went back and wheeled in a giant cake, easily as tall as the suit.
"Hmm, impressive." The suit said.
"Ohhhh, wait until you taste it. Wanna sample before we wheel it in?" Yakko offered. The suit nodded and leaned in close.
Just as he was about to take a bit of the frosting, Wakko jumped out of the top of the cake, mallet in hand! "Surprise!" He said before bringing the hammer down, stars showering off the impact spot and knocking the suit out cold.
"No wonder you love that plan." Yakko said to the middle sibling, who soon ate the whole cake in one bite and belched.
The others heard the commotion and peeked around. "Are we good?" The feline said. The siblings nodded and gave thumbs ups. "Alright, let's head down." He added, the others following closely.
"They really still impress and surprise me, no wonder my son's friends with them for this long." Mom mused to herself.
"Is this thing gonna even fit all of us?" Stan said as the elevator was called up.
"Just don't bounce in it, dude." Shannon said as a warning. They all bunched up and the elevator creaked, soon going downwards.
In the lower floors
"I can only entertain myself with pranking and showing tricks to those things for so long." Bendy said as they were playing catch with the newly-created ball, tossing it back to Bradley and vice-versa as they walked. "One of the reasons I took those toons was that I thought I could play with them, so they can actually see that I'm just a normal Toon like them." Bradley raised an eyebrow at "normal" when he caught the ball. "You know what I mean." He added, with the human tossing it in the air towards the toon again who easily leapt and caught it too. "But then I heard you were rescuing them and I didn't expect it, so I decided to make another game out of it."
"A game out of taking toons, huh?" Bradley said with a soft sigh.
"I haven't gotten to that part yet! Geez." Bendy said with crossed arms after tossing the ball at Bradley, hitting his arm. He rubbed it a little and picked the ball up, apologizing before resuming their came of walking catch.
"Don't worry 'bout it. Anyways, they were just toons no one's heard of yet, recently made with nothing attached to them yet. No show, no movie, no game, nothing. Fresh off the paper! I thought those were best because..." The devil-toon thought for a moment. "Because they haven't had any big plans for them yet. They haven't known anyone to be disappointed by. I guess I didn't want any of them to end up like me, or take that kind of risk of being forgotten or dropped or anything like that." He said with a sigh, holding the ball in his hand this time.
Bradley listened on with a little frown. In a way he could understand why: Bendy didn't want the same thing to happen to them like what happened to him. He wanted some friends back but thanks to whoever made him, he was basically ostracized. "Well, I could've been your friend if you came out and wanted to. You didn't have to do all of this to prove a point." Bradley said.
Bendy softly sighed. "I don't know... I was just so caught up in-" He started before he gasped. "Something just went dark." He said before hearing the elevator whirring. "Grr, my friend's knocked out, they're coming!" Bendy exclaimed with concern and worry filling his voice now.
"Then hurry, what did you want to show me?" Bradley said. Bendy said nothing, just grabbing his hand and running to the big door, dropping the ball that was in his other hand. They went through and the door closed while the group left the elevator, following the inky footprints with the Warners in detective suits and magnifying glasses taking the lead.
"Whew... Anyways..." Bendy started again. "Do you know why those suits look alike? Why they look real like humans?" Bradley nods, then the toon uncovered what looked like a machine, then hopped up on the top. "I present to you, my ink machine! Works better than that smaller one by a country mile with interest! With some new additions over the years to boot!" Bendy said, sounding proud. It had a big nozzle on the front and ran with many pipes on the bottom, as well as a big barrel on the top.
Bradley immediately remember that one of the suits dripped something off their arm when they were questioning him, letting a gasp out when he put it all together in his head. "You mean those suits are-"
"Yup, ink and toony like me, like that cat, and like your other inkblot friends. With a little drip or two from me for personality." Bendy explained as he turned a dial or two and kicked the thing to jumpstart it. "And with boxes of masks laying around of course. I just teach them the basics and off they go." He added, making the machine chug with another turn of the dial. "As for why I'm dripping all over the place, I use this to put ink back into me too. I've been doing it so long on myself, that it doesn't stay... I never really knew how to keep myself, you know... Stable. I still haven't got the settings right on this thing..." Bendy said with a grumble as he walked around the machine. "But it's not all bad, cause it's easy to, you know, put a bit of myself into each one. We're all connected in a sort of way." He added with a little smile gracing his features again, with Bradley listening in silence as he crossed his arms.
Bendy then grew serious again. "Look, the big part of my plan was to have them think the humans' side of those studios and companies took them for themselves, saying that they owned them. It was gonna get so confusing and fun to watch on who owned what." The devil toon said with a giggle of glee afterward.
"But... You weren't really gonna... With those taken toons?" Bradley said, assuming the worst.
Bendy looked at him with slight disdain at such an accusation. "Of course not, we still got more than enough ink saved up here!"
The human immediately apologized. "Sorry, sorry!" He said in a rush. "Gotta stop jumping to conclusions..." He mumbled to himself, rubbing his own head.
"It's fine, I can understand why with showing you this." Bendy added, his expression relaxing. "But honestly, it hasn't been the same. I've been trying to tinker with this in going to various places. Like in that factory in the human world, all over Toontown and stuff." He said as he removed the nozzle and closed it off. "You've seen those three siblings in different time periods on their show, right? Yeah, I keep up occasionally." The devil toon assured him. "I've been trying to make this thing do that too, putting in other stuff than just ink. I can't just learn it, you either have it or you don't." Bendy said, glancing to the side and frowning, looking pensive even.
Bradley understood now, especially after hearing that story before. "You want to go back, don't you. Back to before you ended up like this. Like a second chance?" He guessed, to which Bendy nodded.
"Yeah, but this thing's always been janky no matter what I do to it." Bendy said, kicking the machine again. "Leaking, clunking, I don't know how to completely fix it myself. Think of this as my big project, my last big game, learning my own rules no less! I think it could be almost ready too!" The toon said with a bright grin at him again, hopping up and pouring something else in. "Oh, I need to get something, be right back." He said a little fast as he walked somewhere to find it.
Bradley watched him and sat down on a box. He almost felt sorry for Bendy, just wanting friends but having reaching down to something desperate like taking them to get them. He had no idea what happened when he was made, but he assumed if it was that bad that he had to go back and fix it, he didn't know whether to stop him to give him another chance or let him do his thing. Would it be worth it to let Bendy just do this, consequences be darned? What would even happen, where would he end up going?
Not long after, Bendy got his object, pocketing it in his own hammerspace behind him. "What was that you got?" Bradley asked.
"Oh, we'll leave that a surprise. It's not anything hurtful if you're still worried about that." Bendy assured him, soon getting a ladder. "Listen, Brad... I didn't mean to make Toontown worried. I just wanted to have a little fun again, and I thought the new toons wouldn't be, you know... Missed that much. And I was worried that the worst would happen to them too, even the big ones made mistakes, just look at Woody Woodpecker."
Bradley sighed lightly. "Well they did worry." He said as he hopped off the box he was sitting at and walked over to the ink-dripping toon. "Toontown always needs new toons to keep living and growing. They can't all just have the same old toons again. What you did almost broke up the toons and humans after trying to build up that trust."
"But what if they all get forgotten like me? Or even be brought back as a monster or something even more hated?" Bendy said worriedly. "Aren't you worried that could happen too?"
"It's a risk they all take when they're made. Even the Warners took that risk too, and they were brought back as something even better." Bradley said, kneeling down to be closer to Bendy's eye level. "Just cause something bad hasn't happened to them yet doesn't mean it won't happen. But it's just a part of life like how everyone lives. You gotta look at the good parts like I do too. Without those new toons, Toontown and all these other places in this world turn to nothing. You just gotta let them grow, let them learn their own way."
Bendy huffed after a moment of thought, like he was trying to process the advice. "I know, I was just really worried cause I didn't get that chance. You sure about all of that, even if other toons may not get a chance either?" He asked as if wanting some kind of confirmation.
The human gave a little nod, smiling and clearing his throat again. "Of course. Nothing and no one is perfect. Not me, not my friends, not the other toons. But the best thing is just to let it happen and learn from it. But you still want to fix what happened with you at least, don't you? Even if you don't know if it'll work?"
The devil-toon nods in response, walking away from Bradley and towards the ink machine, while the human stood back upright. "I need the proper chance I couldn't get. I'm not out of ideas yet, ya know."
Bradley shrugs a little. "If you're really sure..." He said, sounding a little worried. But the last thing he wanted to do was to keep Bendy from trying to achieve his second chance to be accepted.
"I am sure. Give or take 10 percent." Bendy said with a little giggle afterward and made a "so-so" gesture with his hand as drops of ink dripped off his fingers. "Now just to pour this in..." He said as he got a jug of very old paint, but soon there was some knocking on the door.
"Ah jeez, not again!" Bendy said with a groan, that must've been the others! Wasn't hard with the trail of ink drops on the floor to follow. "Bradley, please, they can't take me now! If you really wanna be my friend, then don't let them take me away from this!"
"Hello dear, you in there?" The voice of Bradley's mom said from behind the door.
"Come on, open the door man!" Stan said.
"Should we do the telegram trick again? We got a spare cake after all!" The voice of Wakko sounded too.
"No, we're here to give back the ball we found!" Yakko's voice said. "Or else we can use it to teach Wakko to play fetch."
"Please, I beg you..." Bendy pleaded before running to hide behind the machine, which was chugging more and more than usual. Bendy was so panicked that he thought nothing of those noises yet. "It needs this last thing, then I'll be out of your hair for good, promise!"
Bradley thought a moment before Stan's voice rang out. "We're gonna run this door down if you don't open it, whatever you are!"
Bradley thought Bendy deserved to answer for the stuff he did and almost caused Toontown to become empty and a shell of itself. All those toons kidnapped to prove a point, and framing the humans for it cause of those suits and ink making them look like the real deal... But after hearing Bendy's story and why he did what he did, it'd feel like he'd betray the toon if he just just handed him over, and would likely vow revenge on him and everyone else. With a little grunt after leaving his train of thought on what to do, he goes to the closed door, looking behind him at the chugging machine Bendy was hiding behind before looking back to open that door.
"Jeez, there you are!" Stan said, the Warners bouncing in right after in boxing outfits.
"Where is he, lemme at 'em!" Yakko said, throwing a punch or two at the air along with Wakko. Stan smirked and let out a "heh" when he saw that enthusiasm, they had the right idea according to him.
"Calm down, it's fine, I'm okay." Bradley said with a laugh, rubbing the back of his head.
"So, where's this Bendy guy?" Stan said, getting straight to the point. "We gotta make him answer what for!"
Rick sighed and nudged him. "Will you stop it already? Anyways, did you talk to him?" He asked Bradley.
The teen nods in response. "Yeah, I did." The Warners noticed the inkiness on his shirt and pants disappearing.
"Got into a scuffle of your own, huh?" Dot said. "Look at ya, all smudgy before your headshots."
"Yeah, you don't rock the ink look and even your clothes know it." Yakko said with Bradley looking down at them. He didn't even know, but he was thankful for his toon-woven threads absorbing it like that.
"Anyways, guys!" Shannon shouted before they got off on a tangent.
"And girl." Dot quipped before the human girl could say another word.
"Yes, and girl." Shannon added, rolling her eyes. "What did you two talk about?" He asked Bradley before the others got on another tangent.
Bradley sighed a little and did his best to explain. "Honestly? Bendy just needed someone to not be alone anymore."
"WHAT?" Stan shouted, now full-blown angry. with his hands balled up into fists. "That was it?!"
"Well hold on, hold on!" Bradley yelled back to bring Stan back down. Meanwhile, Bendy slowly got the jug and started to quietly climb up the chugging machine, trying to be as quiet as possible.
"Yes, let's hear what he has to say." The cat said. "What did you find out?"
"Well you know all the suits we saw in town?" Bradley said. "They were all made by this thing here." He said as he pointed to the ink machine, making Bendy freeze and tense up. He wasn't about to sell him out after confiding in him, was he?
"A-ha... This I haven't seen for a long while." The cat said with a curious expression, walking closer. "It looks incredibly ill-cared for however. It's chugging constantly and... Is it getting louder?"
Shannon walked over while the cat was investigating. "I don't think that's worth touching. I don't think it should be making those sounds..." She warned. Behind the machine, Bendy felt relieved that Bradley didn't squeal yet and he wasn't mentioned, taking a risk and climbing up a little more to the barrel full of ink, the machine's shaking making him grip tight to not fall off it. The inky hands making it slippery didn't help.
"Oh don't mind me. Bradley, continue." The cat said.
"Thanks. Anyways..." Bradley resumed. "He wanted attention no one else wanted to give him when he was made. He wouldn't tell me who or what did make him, but it looked like it kind of hurt him to talk about it. He made all the suits, but he wanted actual people and toons to talk to." He said, his tone growing a little softer.
"Aww, it's like if we were villains!" Yakko said. "How charming."
"I already told him why that was wrong." Bradley said as Bendy continued climbing up the machine, almost at the top of the ink barrel. "I think he was misunderstood, that's all. He wants to go back, before being ignored by everyone and actually make friends again or find his old ones, rather than just make them for real with this machine."
"Well that's all well and good dear." Mom finally said. "But do you know where he went off to?"
That was when the teen froze this time. It took him a good 5 seconds, with Bendy silently hoping he still wouldn't out him. "He... He told me he had to get something for his machine." Bradley finally said, voice cracking a little at "machine". But he didn't say he was in the room, picking his words carefully.
"Hmm, is the puberty kicking in?" Wakko said, poking Bradley's side. "I hope he's not breaking!"
The feline hummed and looked at the dials while Bendy silently sighed in relief again thanks to Bradley not pointing out that he was in the room still. He finally reached the top of the barrel, looking into the container full of ink. The suited cat thought he heard something, his ear flicking.
"So where'd he get off to really?" Stan asked.
"You're not beating him up." Bradley said, almost defiantly this time. "He wanted friends, not someone to fight."
"So? How else is he supposed to answer for taking all these toons?" Stan shouted a bit louder, getting angry once more, punching into his hand.
"I never realized you cared that much for us." Dot said. The Warners soon chanted "He likes us, he likes us!", dancing around him in a circle.
"I do not!" Stan shouted, finding it hard to swing at them the more they annoyed him.
"SHUSH!" The cat soon shouted to the group, his ear flicking again. "We're not alone."
Bendy froze again before he got to pour the paint into the barrel. Oh no... "Well we're all here, so of course we're not alone." Bradley stated.
"Well if that ain't clever." Yakko said with crossed arms and a smirk, looking impressed. Stan couldn't help but to agree, and Shannon also nodded.
"No, not us." The cat said, slowly looking around the machine. Bendy shimmied a little to the side, but the cat kept on looking around slowly, about to corner him. He was running out of room and time...
Bradley ran over to the cat. "Um, I think we've done enough looking, he already said what he was gonna do to fix this and it didn't involve any more toon-napping." He said as he pulled the suited feline away from the machine. Its chugging only got louder. "Let's go before this thing gets dangerous."
"Why?" Shannon asked.
"Yeah, you're acting odd now Bradley." Rick said, and Mom agreed.
"Is there something you're not really telling us?" The cat said, raising a brow.
Bradley searched for the right words to say, but was struggling. He stammered a little trying to find a good excuse, but Bendy had enough. He was trying so hard to hide him, but he was so close to breaking, he couldn't stand it. So he finally climbed up and stood above the barrel. "Brad, that's enough! You don't have to hide me anymore." The devil toon proclaimed.
The group looked up at him and gasped, finally seeing who the culprit was. "You're Bendy aren't ya?" Stan said angrily. "Come on down, you're gonna-" He started, but Rick bapped the back of his head. "Ow! Hey!"
"Sorry, but you still won't stop saying that." Rick said.
"Shame, we would've gone bigger." Yakko said with a shrug, showing a big foam hand he had on a la Spongebob.
Bendy frowned at Stan's anger. "It's okay, I'll get out of your hair soon enough." He said as he got the jug of old paint and opened the cap, ready to pour it all in.
"Please, don't hurt him, he wants to do this." Bradley said worriedly, as if ready to hold everyone back himself.
The feline put the pieces together, from the churning of the machine to Bendy's position and plan. "Wait, you're not actually going to-" He assumed. "We can fix this without him jumping in, we don't even know what it'll do." The cat said with concern. "We can make them give him another chance, we won't say it was him that did it."
"Definitely, he can be our best special friend!" Wakko said happily.
"We can help him fit in with a misfit group like us!" Yakko added.
"And clean him up too, dripping black isn't a good look." Dot criticized.
Bendy sighed as the machine clunked and shook. "I know, I know, but it's too late here. The real way is to just start over and try again. I can't pop in through time like those three." He said, pointing to the Warner siblings. "So I have to make my own with my machine like with making everything else, tinkering until it's ready." He said, tipping the jug and starting to pour the paint in.
"Bradley, come on, stop him!" Stan shouted.
The teen just looked at him, still unsure. But he wasn't doing anything yet, what if Bendy was right about this? There was always that chance, right? But as the paint was poured in and Bendy pulled out the toon hole he took from Bradley from behind him, the machine sputtered even harder and shook as it groaned, making Bendy lose balance. The hole fell into the container and Bradley ran up to Bendy to jump and climb onto the barrel and grab him before he fell inside. The others ran up and also grabbed Bradley to keep him from falling in too, holding him by his ankles.
The whole jug fell in and mixed with the ink, the tainted mixture in the container starting to spiral and drain into a whirlpool, the toon hole it was draining into leading to who-knows-what given its ingredients and attempt at harnessing toon logic.
"Don't worry, I got ya!" Bradley shouted over the rushing sounds of the swirling ink, holding onto Bendy by the gloved hand.
"And we got you too!" The Warners said as well, holding onto Bradley's feet. The humans and the feline also formed a line holding each other to keep them grounded, from Yakko, Wakko and Dot; to Stan, to Rick, to Shannon, and finally to Mom and the feline in the back. The cat slammed his cane through the floor to anchor themselves better, with Bradley looking into the spiral of ink and paint before his eyes fell back onto Bendy dangling.
"Please Bradley, let me go!" Bendy shouted to him, not bothering to hold onto Bradley's hand in return as if wanting to slip out and fall in. "I don't care where, when or how I end up! I need this!"
"No, bring him in, we can help him, like you helped- Gah! -Helped meeeee!" The cat shouted, grunting as they all held each other for support.
"Listen, you can't help everyone yourself Bradley, as much as you did in trying to find me." Bendy said, his gloved hand starting to slip away from the human's grip. "I'm sorry for everything I did to ya, but I gotta do this. I can't just stick around here and keep doing nothing and hide, ya know?"
"You don't even know what it'll do to you, is this even worth it?" Bradley asked, panicked.
Bendy nods after a short moment. "I need to prove I can get through this myself. And everyone is gonna put the pieces together soon anyway." He said, the calmest of the bunch right now. "They're gonna hate me for it, and that's not worth living through for me."
The chain of people and toons started slipping, the Warners' arms stretching slowly and making Bradley and Bendy get ever-closer to the whirlpool. "Brad, if you're gonna do anything to help him, do it now!" Rick shouted.
"Let me go, Bradley." Bendy said simply, looking up at him. "Wherever I'll go, when I'll go or what it'll end up making me, I'll manage. If you want to be my friend, then trust me." He continued, looking sincere, if also having a sad smile on his face. "Please..."
Bradley was torn between these two choices, what could he do? Trust the word of a toon that worked to kidnap the other toons for mischievous games, or of a toon that wanted friends that could've kept that from happening in the first place?
"Any time now, man!" Stan grunted out, feeling his strength starting to give out as they tried keeping the Warner siblings from sliding into the barrel too, his grip starting to slip too.
The teen closed his eyes, wanting to pull Bendy up, but what if he could be right? If not, it could turn out terrible in the long run for a lot of people, the choice made Bradley freeze in indecisiveness for a moment, trying to think and process. But after a few more seconds, Bradley ultimately made his decision, opening his eyes.
"I... Alright... Alright, I trust you." Bradley said finally, making the decision to let Bendy go. "If you think this'll work, then I won't stop you."
Bendy cracked a genuine smile at him at hearing that. "And don't try and recreate or re-draw me. If it works, it wouldn't feel right seeing myself again."
"We won't, I promise." Bradley said with a smile back.
"Thank you." Bendy said, just fingers holding on now. "Thank you for listening, playing with me and for believing me. I'm glad I got to meet you, even if I may not remember you by the time this is over."
"Same here, Bendy. Same here." Bradley said with a nod, fighting back a tear or two.
Bendy closed his eyes and held that toothy grin for a little more, but then whistled his theme tune once again, as if surrendering to this. He kept whistling as Bradley let his grip slip at last after a couple more seconds, fingers outstretched still. He watched as Bendy whistled on his way down, the ink and paint mixture soon washing over him entirely. Not one trace of him could be seen anymore as he disappeared down the toon hole completely, transported to who-the-heck-knows-where. Bradley was left saddened, his hand still open and reaching with the faint, vain hope that he could still catch him despite being too far now. But he just muttered a "good luck...", and that was that.
The cat grunted loudly and pulled along with the humans to get the others out in a last feat of strength, the Warners and Bradley landing back on the floor with grunts and groans as Bradley landed and rolled onto his back. Just as quickly after that, Shannon twisted some dials and ended up turning the machine off, the whirlpool immediately stopping and the container drained and empty.
Bradley panted softly and held his chest. "Gah... Is everyone fine?" He said as he sat up and rubbed his head. "Jeez, that was rough..."
"Define 'fine'..." Stan said, getting up too.
"Hold on, I think I have that bookmarked." Yakko said as he flipped through the pages of a dictionary he got out of his slacks pocket.
While that happened, Bradley stands back up slowly and walked back to the machine, looking inside the container and saw it was completely empty. The toon hole was also completely gone, and no trace of Bendy was anywhere either. Looks like he'll need a new toon hole now...
"Why didn't you pull him up?" The cat said, huffing softly and looking slightly peeved at Bradley's choice to let the devil-toon go.
"Yeah, what made you want to let him do this?" Shannon asked next after brushing herself off. "We could've really had 'em!"
Bradley was still wondering that himself, trying to think of an answer for a second or two. "He wanted to fix his own mistakes, even if it could've ended up losing himself. He was just that focused, whether it was to find his real friends or go back to the beginning, whatever could've made him happy." He explained, looking down at the floor with a frown. He said both, but wasn't sure if Bendy could really accomplish both. He wasn't even sure if his friends would be happy to see him... But something told him that it was the right thing to do, to at least give Bendy that chance. If not, then they'd never know.
"Well, Plotz isn't going to like this at all with no culprit." The cat said.
"No, he'll probably yell at all of us." Mom responded with a nod.
"Who's that?" Shannon said, all tired now.
"We'll get there when we get there." Bradley said after, clearing his throat.
"Ah-ha! There's our word!" Yakko said, with Wakko and Dot crowding around to read it. "Yes Wakko, those are indeed words." He assured the curious middle sibling.
"Well either way, seems like everything's all wrapped up." Rick said while the Warners talked, starting to head for the door.
The others soon followed, seeing puddles of ink and masks where the suits used to be. "Guess they couldn't hold together after losing their leader." The feline stated.
"Bleh..." Shannon mumbled as they walked past. Rick understood her disgust.
As they left the run-down studio, Bradley looked at it one last time. "Should we let this stay standing, in case he comes back through that machine?" Bradley asked himself.
Mom heard his question and walked back over to him. "It's up to you if you want to mention it to our CEO friend, honey."
Bradley thought for a moment longer, then shakes his head. "I don't think destroying where he was made would help anything. I just hope we'll be able to see him again."
"A good choice, Bradley." The suited feline said, gloved hand resting on his shoulder. "Tearing apart Toontown history of any kind would be a great crime in itself, no matter how small."
"Come on, we already called shotgun!" Yakko shouted to the humans and cat toon, all grouped in the front seat of the van, which was still in its toonified form.
Mom already rushed to them to convince them to get in the other back seats while the others headed back in the van and strapped in, Bradley in the front while the others got in the other seats behind them.
Shannon leans in, hand on Bradley's shoulder. "You gonna be fine there?" She asked.
Bradley nods in response, giving a little smile. "Yeah... Yeah, I'll be fine. Come on, let's give 'em the news." He said, with Shannon smiling back as they drove back to the WB studio. It was almost over...
Author's Note: Almost done, just the epilogue left now!
