Chapter Two. If nothing else, an adventure.
Wakko had been (forcibly) calmed down, and made to sit on the couch. Dot sat to his left, and Yakko to his right, as they slowly weaned intelligible information from their excited brother. His hands were held to the couch to stop him from leaping all over the place, so he bounced quietly in his seat.
"Now slow down, and think about each word before you say it." Yakko repeated wearily for the fifth time.
"Ages ago." Wakko rolled his eyes, frustrated with the lack of understanding his siblings were showing him. "I entered a competition. All you had to do was write a short story, and if you won you could go to the prize giving. In London. In England." Wakko grinned sarcastically at Yakko, whopulled a face back.
"Yes, we know where London is. I-"
"I won the category for 8-12, so We get to go to the prize winning, where we'll find out who the overall winner is."
"You won?" Dot raised her eyebrows, skeptical. Wakko winning a competition for a piece of literature? It seemed unlikely to her. What had the other entries been like. Wakko shot a glare at her, and Dot realised he was not amused. "I mean..." She smiled sweetly, changing her tone, "you won! Our own dear sibling whom we cherish and adore..."
Yakko bit his lip, trying and failing to keep a straight face. Wakko looked from one to the other, and sniffed, crossing his arms.
"Fine then. I'll give your tickets to someone else. Maybe some of the Tiny Toons gang want to come... I know Babs said she liked England..."
"Oh, come on Wakko."
"We were only kidding!"
"What's that? Did I hear an apology? Oh, no, guess not." He sniffed dramatically again, and stood up, taking the tickets out from underneath his cap. "I guess I will ask Babs and Buster then... I hope they like five star hotels with all expenses paid."
"Five star?" Dot gasped, her eyes bright.
"yeah, and we get free sightseeing tours of London."
"Free tours!" Dot didn't know her voice could go so high, as she imagined all the things she could see and do in London... And if this competition was giving away free tours and all expense paid hotel stays, it must be pretty high class... think of the english celebrities who could be there...
"Yeah..." Wakko grinned as his ears perked up, noting how close Dot was to begging at his feet for her ticket. He scratched his chin as he delivered the final blow. "Plus I won £500. That's like 600 so we could have gone shopping, but-"
He was cut off mid sentance as Dot had leapt to his side and was crushing all the air out of him.
"Oh I'm ever so sorry big brother!" She gushed, anoyed that even in a vice grip, Wakko could keep the tickets out of her reach. "Please say I can come too? Pweeeze?" She gushed, fluttering her eyelashes.
"He's bluffing!" Came Yakko's skeptical tone from the sofa. Yakko laughed as he produced a book from the side of the couch and began to read. "No way the competition can offer all that as a prize. Besides, what's so great about England?"
Wakko, expecting synicism from his brother, had come prepared. Reaching into the pocket of his jumper, he produced the leaflet in which he'd first heard about the competition. On the back, there was the picture of a very pretty, young, blonde woman, smiling happily. He dropped it in front of Yakko's eyes. He scanned most of the information, but became heavily distracted when he reached the picture.
"Who's that?" He managed to stammer, after a little bit of gawking.
"That's a lady called Sophie Dahl." Wakko grinned, winking at Dot. "You remember those bedtime stories we used to read? Charlie and the chocolate factory and James and the Giant Peach? They were all written by Roald Dahl. That's his daughter. She organised the competition and she's going to be at the prize giving..."
There was silence for a moment as Yakko took in this information.
"Sibs." He smiled, clapping his hands and standing up. "We're going to England!"
There was a short walk between the Water Tower and the Toon Town gateway, held in a high security soundstage. Long enough, though, for the Warner siblings to start listing all the things they wanted to do on their trip. But, as Yakko reminded them, they couldn't just up and leave. Wakko had won four tickets and one of them had to be for a parent or guardian. It was with this in mind that they had journeyed to the Toon Town gateway, to seek help from one Verity Faye.
Verity Faye Jessop had probably one of the more colourful jobs at Warner Brothers. No one was entirely sure how or why the portal into Toon Town had opened up seventy years ago in a disused soundstage, and the few that knew about it decided not to think about it. All actors, executives and animators, and anyone else for that matter, that came into contact with Toons from the Toon Town gateway had been made to sign a lengthy legal contract, swearing them to absolute silence. This was a gateway to a goldmine of cheap and willing toons for all animation studios who could pay enough for Warner Brothers to let them use it. And Verity had the job of checking all the Toons that came in and out, and taking care of any that made a stop on the humans side for any l;ength of time, say a movie shoot or making a TV series. Verity was a sort of Border control and Social services all rolled into one twenty five year old, brunette package. In her opinion, she had certainly the most entertaining, if not the easiest of jobs. This last point was proven when the Warners entered the soundstage and Dot instantly leapt onto her back, making her drop her clipboard.
"Verity!" Dot squealed, fiddling with Verity's hair, which came down past her shoulders. "Have you done something different with your hair."
"Hi, Dot." She sighed, putting the wriggling toon down on the ground and picking up her clipboard. "No I havent changed my hair, and what do you want?"
"I'm insulted." Yakko sniffed, turning away from her. "Can't we three, sweet little children come and see one of our only friends, someone we see as a role model, without being accused of such shallow-"
"Give it up Yakko, you only come here when you're bored or you want something, and I know for a fact you dont grin that big when you're bored." Verity grinned, flicking him on the back of the head but hugging him all the same.
"Well, actually Verity-" Wakko began, but was cut off as several kids pushed past him.
"Hey Verity, just passing through." Said one of them. Wakko, who had been knocked to his butt as they walked into him, looked up to see five tall, humanoid toons.
"Hey, watch where you're going!" He exclaimed, dusting himself off. "Manga toons, think they know it all..."
"Did you say something, little man?" The biggest one said, looking like he was ready for a challenge. now he was upright, Wakko could see them more clearly. He bit back a laugh.
"Nice spandex, little late for halloween, arent you?"
"Ugh." One of the girls, who was wearing a big cape, rolled her eyes. "Can we please just get out of here?"
"No way, I like the little guy. I think he's funny." A green kid wearing a black and purple jumpsuit spoke up.
"Little?" Dot laughed. "Look who's talking."
"Come on." Sighed the spiky haired one. Yakko recognised him.
"Yeah sibs, leave the boy blunder to his mission. Spoken to Val Kilmer lately?"
"Why you little-" He started for Yakko who sidestepped neatly out of the way.
"Kids, please!" Verity protested, breaking the two groups apart. Sh turned to The Warners. "Wait over there. I have a job to do."
Snickering, the Warners walked off to the side, watching as Verity filled out different forms, before letting the Toons pass, each glowering at the Warners.
"Dweebs..." One of them snarled.
"You know what you can do?" Yakko grinned. "Please, Please, just GO!" The Warners fell about laughing, until Verity cast her shadow over them, at wich they fell silent, accompanied by guilty smiles.
"Oh come on, they deserve it." Yakko huffed, defensively.
"Yeah, they make themselves easy targets." Dot nodded. "They've been bitter ever since they got cancelled."
"You were cancelled too..." Verity muttered, instantly regretting it.
"We weren't cancelled!" Dot shrieked, crossing her arms. "They just decided not to make any more. But dont you worry, we'll get back soon."
"Yeah..." Yakko muttered, a little trademark sarcasm flitered into his voice. "You seen all those petition and fan sites on the web? I mean that must accomplish something..."
"Are there honestly fan sites about us?" Wakko raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah. some people even write their own stories..." Yakko shrugged. "I guess some people just really need hobbies..."
"Alright, enough!" Verity looked at them all. "What do you want?"
"Well..." Wakko figured he should talk first. "YOu remember that competition I told you I was entering?"
And so the conversation continued.
"Oh come on Verity, you said you needed a vacation!"
"And you can't ask me to go shopping in London with these dweebs!"
"What if we-"
"No, guys!" Verity held her hands up, caught between the Warners pleas and several toons, now queing to be allowed through. "You're property of the studio. If I wanted to go with you... which I'm not saying I do... You would have to get permission from the C.E.O, then theres questions of whether I'm qualified or even legally allowed..."
"So we'll go see Plotz!" Yakko exclaimed, grinning. "We'll get his permission. But all we're asking is, when we get his ok, can you be our accompanying adult?"
"I... don't know." Verity looked from one pleading puppy-dog face to the next. "Oh, stop making those faces..."
"Pweeze?" Came the chorused reply.
"Oh... alright. Only if you get the go ahead from the boss though." Verity smiled as the Warners skipped off. As some of the first toons she had met, and certainly the ones she checked up on the most, Verity had formed a bond with the Warners, almost becoming like an older sister to all of them. Not that another Warner sibling would do anyone any good, but an unofficially adopted friend could certainly help smooth out certain kinks.
"Don't worry, we'll go talk to Plotz now!" Wakko grinned, tongue hanging out the side of his mouth.
"We'll make sure of it." Dot smiled, with her cutest face.
"We can be very convincing." Yakko grinned, before running off with the other two.
"Yeah, sure..." Verity muttered, distracted by another toon. "Hey... hey wait, what are you kids going to-" The note of panic in her voice was clear, but the only sounds that could be heard were the warners laughing as they were already half way to Plotz' office.