"Jesse!" I run up to him. He was lost in thought watching the girl. "Jesse?" I ask him again.
"Ah Neapolitan. What's up? Did you figure out where Donald is?"
"That's the thing. Professor Wiggle was blindfolded, so he has no idea where he was taken hostage. All he knows is that it was somewhere in Donald's Dock." Jesse frowned, then turned away from the glass to look at me.
"So you need her," he says.
"If you want me to save Donald."
Donald was a political higher-up. He was old and white-haired, with a beard that stretched to his chest. He was a politician who also fought in the world war, which gave him the toons' respect. After the war he retired as a sailor to help the toons travel. His wife, Daisy, spent her days tending to her famous Daisy Gardens. Unfortunately, she passed away some time before Donald started his sailing career. After her death people had noticed how fast Donald had traveled downhill- he was extremely affected by her death. A short time ago he had started to lose his memory, but he had insisted on continuing to sail. Nobody had interfered with his career partly because we needed a way to travel, and partly because he was had such an impact on Toontown and deserved to be happy.
"Of course I want you save Donald. You should get some sort of reinforcements for the girl though. She seems violent, and I can't have you dying on me."
"Gotcha," I say.
I had no idea where to begin. What would I need to restrain her? Handcuffs? Rope? She seemed to hate seltzer bottles, but they would run out. Perhaps some sort of rope to tie her hands together would be the best. Cogs used this extremely hard red tape on us toons- that would be the best way to go. But sadly if I wanted to get a hold of any of that I would have to make my way through a cog building. It was far too tricky and took too much time. But who would have rope? Perhaps nurse Nancy...
I made my way to the other corner of the room to where Nurse Nancy was. She was tending to a red-headed girl who had terrible cuts all over her neck and face.
"That's rough," I whisper to myself. Despite how quiet my voice was, Nurse Nancy looked up at me.
She was an older woman with sienna colored hair. She had visible wrinkles along her mouth and eyes. She often wore a purple colored shirt.
"Neapolitan, what are you doing here again?" She asked me, emphasizing the 'again.'
"I was actually wondering if you had some sort of rope. I'm running an errand," I tell her, leaving out as many details as possible in case Jesse wanted me to keep it secret.
"What kind of rope?" She asks me, not looking up from her patient.
"Sturdy. Something that can restrain movement." She stopped what she was doing and looked up at me.
"What kind of errand are you running exactly?" She questions.
"I can't really- I mean, I don't think I can-"
"There should be some rope imported from Tyrannia in my medical centre," she cuts me off. "Just please dear god don't get yourself killed."
"Right." Imported from Tyrannia? It was probably the rope used to restrain the dinosaurs in the battles. I had heard that they got their rope imported from Pangaea- the world's leading producer in dinosaur-related things.
"Hey Neo!" I half expected to turn around and find Sir Astro beckoning me, but there was only one toon who called me Neo.
"Professor Wiggle!" I replied, as I turned around.
"Where are you off to now?" He asks. He was sitting down in a seat, bandages wrapped all around his arms.
"Medical centre." He frowned at me.
"For what?"
"Rope," I say. He sighed. But he knew I wouldn't give up just because he told me to.
"Well can you do me a favor?"
"Yeah, what do you need?"
"Find Ned Slinger for me. He ran outside a while ago to get gags and hasn't come back since. I'm worried."
"Will do. Bye Professor."
I walked outside the door and was surprised to find the sun was fully set. Was it really the best time to do a mission? Oh well- I'll get the rope then bring it back to Jesse and see what he says.
"Neapolitan!" I turn around to find Nurse Nancy chasing after me.
"What? What's wrong?" I ask her.
"Can you get me some more bandages?"
"Oh...Sure." That seemed like a big fuss just for bandages. She ran back inside without a word of thanks.
Since the gag shop was on the way to her medical centre, I decided to search for Ned Slinger first. The lights were on and I could see silhouettes in the window. I approached the shop and opened the door.
Inside was clerk Clark- his eyelids were discolored due to the massive amount of work and stress. On the other side of the room, crouched beside a toon I didn't know, was Ned Singer.
"Ned!" He looked up.
"Neapolitan! Why are you here?" He asked me, suddenly turning serious.
"Wiggle told me to find you. He was worried. Said you left a while ago." Ned stood up and stretched.
"That I did. Trying to come up with a plan."
"I'll tell Professor you're alright."
"No need to," Ned says, taking his jacket from the rack by the door. He turned around.
"You coming?" He asked me.
"Ah, no. I have to run an errand." Ned snorted.
"Run an errand." He started walking towards the door. "SO pretentious," he said, as he walked outside the shop. After a quick frown to myself I turned around to Clerk Clark.
"Clark! I need some Seltzer bottles." He reached under the counter and handed me 2 of them. I reached into my pocket to get some jellybeans.
"No need to," he says, yawning.
"Are you sure? I have more than enough."
"It's fine. Please, just go." I would've thought that as a rude thing to say, but he was obviously tired and overworked. Plus he was a nice guy, so I knew he didn't really mean it. But I still left him be anyway.
I walked outside. Nancy's medical centre was on Punchline place. That was probably the best street in Toontown for a medical centre. As I walked towards the tunnel to Punchline place I opened up my backpack and stuck the bottles inside.
Rope... Check... Bandages... Check. I got everything I needed. Except I ran out of room in my backpack. I frantically searched her office- trying to find anything that could carry anything else in.
After some searching I found a blue drawstring bag. It was a darker blue- darker than my hair color. I stuck the supplies into the bag and swung it onto my back, over my backpack. I started making my way back to the headquarters.
When I walked into the headquarters almost everybody was asleep in groups. Towards the corner where Nurse Nancy had been tending people, Ned Slinger and Professor Wiggle sat in chairs, asleep. Across them was Sir Astro reading some type of magazine. He saluted me without looking up. I set down the bandages on the small table where Nurse Nancy had been working. She was now fast asleep in her chair. I made my way to the other side of the room where Jesse had been earlier.
If he wasn't asleep, he was on the verge of falling asleep.
"Jesse?" I ask him quietly. His eyes shot open.
"Ah... Neapolitan. What do you want again?" He asked, unsure of what I was doing. I pointed to the black haired girl.
"Oh. That's right."
"Do you still want me to go? Even though it's nighttime?" I ask him. He nodded.
"Yeah... Just be careful." He rubbed his face. I walk up the stairs and to the door that led into the glass room.
"Oh and Neapolitan!" His voice hinted that he was more awake now.
"Yeah?"
"Be back by sunrise. That's when we're leaving." I nod.
"Alright." Jesse disappeared to some other part of the room.
After a deep breath I opened up the door.
She was asleep against one of the walls. I opened the drawstring bag that contained the ropes and took it out. I had already cut a good sized piece in the medical centre.
Very quietly I walked up to her and started tying her hands together. She rustled into consciousness. I expected her to say 'what the fuck', and that was exactly what she said. After I tied her hands together I held the other end to make a sort of leash.
"Now you're going to show me where Donald is," I told her. She turned her head slightly to the side.
"Only if you don't bring me back here. I don't want to be in a glass case like some kind of animal." I stopped to think about that. Would Jesse let me do that? He said that we were leaving by sunrise. I highly doubted he wanted a penguin to join us.
"Fine," I said reluctantly.
I led her down the stairs and across the headquarters to the door. I saw Sir Astro eying us.
We crossed Toontown central, then Punchline Place, then Barnacle Boulevard, and finally Donald's Dock.
"This is where you lead," I tell her. She jerked forward and started walking towards the headquarters in Donald's Dock. She led me inside then into a backroom.
In the middle, tied to a chair, was Donald. I dropped the rope and ran to him. I heard the door slam behind me and turned around to see that the girl had left. I started to undo the knots and took off the tape covering his mouth. It was red tape. Cog tape.
"Donald!" I yelled. He opened his eyes. They were bloodshot. "Donald I'm here to save you, okay? I'm going to bring you back to Toontown central, I'm going to bring you to the hea-"
"Get me Daisy, will you?" I looked at him.
"What?"
"Where is Daisy?" I stared at him. It must be shock.
"I understand you're in shock, but we have to go," I tell him. His expression angered.
"Get me Daisy." He insisted it a few more times.
"Donald, do you not remember?" I ask him, suddenly very afraid that he didn't remember her death.
"Daisy is-"
"She's dead isn't she?" He asked.
"Yeah." What? So he did remember? What was going on? He suddenly broke into a coughing fit.
"Donald-" I stopped myself to stare at him. Was he dying? I had never seen a toon die...
"Are you-?" I didn't want to completely finish that sentence, if I was wrong that would be pretty embarrassing. Through coughs he nodded.
"Do you want me to-? Do you want me to go? Or?" God, what was I supposed to say? He nodded once more.
"O-okay? I'll just leave then. I- Are you sure?" I say, standing up. He was frozen.
"I-uh-a-alright."