Chapter Fifteen:
Dreams And Screams.
Yakko and Wakko sat on the couch watching T.V. Annie played happily on the floor with an assortment of dolls, action figures, and other miscellaneous toys. Dot had just stepped into the room from the kitchen, when suddenly, the tower door flew open with a thunderous sound. And in walked Steven Mills with his gun drawn.
He fired three shots. The first two hitting Yakko and Wakko, the third taking Dot off her feet. All three Warners lay motionless as he slowly turned his attention to Annie. He pulled the trigger, then suddenly, she woke to find herself back in bed, nestled comfortingly under Dot's arm. She was safe. The whole thing had been nothing more than a bad dream. One of many unfortunatly.
They had seemingly stopped altogether in the three days that had passed since the arrest of Dr. Lemming and his asociats. But clearly, they were back once again. And this one had been the worst of all.
She took at least some comfort in waking to find her Mommy there to remind her it was all just a dream, but that didn't stop her heart from racing. She felt sick and off balance as well. And for some strange reason, hungry. She wanted to get up and find something to eat, but quickly found that it hurt to move even a little bit. She gave up and attempted to go back to sleep in hopes of feeling better in the morning, but the pain seemed to return on it's own. Soon, every inch of her was begining to hurt. She shifted about uncomfortably as the pain grew more intence, waking Dot in the process.
"Wha...? ...Annie?" Dot said sleepily. "What's the matter Annie?" She asked with growing concern, despite being only half awake. Annie's only response was a terrible whine, followed by a dreadful cry that left Dot fully alert.
Annie's cries continued as her body began painfully stretching it's self, pausing only briefly every few inches she grew. Dot looked on horrified as the process continued. Annie was in terrible pain and she didn't have a clue what to do about it. She panicked and called for Yakko.
"Yakko!!!!!!" Dot cried at the top of her lungs. The sound of both Yakko and Wakko falling out of bed was immediatly heard from the other room, followed closely by the sound of them rushing to her door.
"What happened? What's the matter?" Yakko asked as they entered the room, nearly toppling each other in the process. He quickly spotted the answer to both questions.
"Annie?" Yakko said as he looked on in disbelief. Her transformation had come to a stop just before he and Wakko had entered the room, but it was evident even still. Her head would've been just below Dot's chin had they been standing next to each other. She was bairly conscious and looking terrible at the moment. Her unfocused gaze briefly settled on Yakko at the sound of his voice. She started to say something.
"Hungry..." She barely managed to choke out. Her withered tone pierced him like a javelin, causing his reflexes to fail him.
Seeing that his siblings weren't moving, Wakko rushed down to kitchen, quickly returning with a tub of ice cream and a spoon.
"Here ya go Annie." Wakko said as he began feeding her. After slowly taking a few spoons of ice cream and regaining a bit of her strength, Annie took the entire tub and began messily devouring it without a spoon.
"I'll go get more." Wakko said as he got up to make another run to the kitchen. His temporarily immobilized brother briefly stopped him at the door.
"Could you get the phone while you're at it? I think we're gonna need a little help on this one." Yakko said.
"On it." Wakko replied, giving an affirmative nod. Then he was off. Less than half an hour later, they were meating with Natasha at the studio's ever so convenient genetics lab.
"So what do you make of it?" Yakko asked as she examined Annie.
"I can't make anything of it. I've never seen anything like this." Natasha replied. "A Toon's growth cycle can be triggered by their desire to grow up, or pretty much any prolonged negative emotional state. But at worst, they would start to age at the rate your average human would. There's simply nothing to account for this kind of growth." She said.
"I believe that I may be able to shed some light on this particular topic. I am, after all, partially responsible for the child's existence." A familiar voice said. All eyes turned to it's source as none other than the Brain stepped from the shadows, with Pinky not far behind.
"You?" Yakko asked, sounding a bit puzzled.
"Strange as it may seem, yes." Brain replied. "The events that led to her birth occurred during one of my many attempts at global conquest." He continued.
"Oh! Oh! Are we going to do a flash back now Brain?" Pinky asked excitedly.
"Indeed Pinky." Brain replied as the scene grew blurry.
"Oh, goody goody!" Pinky chirped. "NARF!" He randomly exclaimed as the scene was slowly replaced by the image of himself and Brain back at Acme labs.
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"Behold Pinky, the nucleus of my latest plan for global domination." Brain said as he unveiled the machine in question.
"Gee Brain, it looks an awful lot like that clone thingy you made that one time. Only much much bigger." Pinky said.
"That's because it is, as you put it, that clone thingy, only much much bigger." Brain replied.
"But Brain, remember what happened the last time you tried to clone yourself? You were all, 'don't do that.' And all, 'NARF, and point!' And then he went away." Pinky said nonsensically.
"While it's true that my previous attempt at world domination through use of cloning ended in slight misfortune, this one shall not. For rather than attempting to clone myself, I will be cloning world leaders and other important figures. And rather than creating clones based solely on the genetic material supplied, this new machine is designed to construct only clones that bear three specific traits. Intellect, prime physical condition, and unyielding loyalty to me. The first of those two traits will be achieved through use of advanced genetic engineering, while the last will be thanks to microscopic implants installed in the brain of each and every clone. All I need do now is to complete the machine by connecting the injector component which will dispense the micro implants." Brain said. Then he was suddenly interrupted by the sound of someone fiddling with the lock on the lab's back door.
"Hurry Pinky, we must conceal ourselves at once." Brain said. Then he quickly threw a tarp over his machine and they both scurried out of sight. The lab's back door came open only seconds later, and in walked Dr. Lemming and his two masked cohorts who carried a strange looking metal case around the size of a large ice chest. They sat it down rather roughly on a wooden table that stood next to Brain's machine, paying little attention to it's creaks and groans under the pressure.
"Be careful with that you cretins!" Head said. "It's contents are highly fragile."
"Exactly what is this stuff you had us steal for you anyway Hedge?" Steven asked.
"That's Head, Dr. Head." Head corrected in a seething tone. "And if you must know, it is a vast collection of Toon genetic material. Samples which I intend to use in my efforts to create genetically modified humans with the abilities of Toons." Head explained. "Now if you'd be so kind as to disappear, I'd like to get started on that." He added.
"I think you're forgetting a little something doc. The other half of our fee hasn't yet been payed." Steven said.
"Yes, your money, of course. I'll go get it right away." Head said, his tone lacking urgency. Just as he had turned to go fetch the money, the sound of the table creaking was heard once again. Followed by the sound of wood splintering as the table gave way under the weight of the case. The case came crashing down on top of Brain's machine, spilling it's contents and knocking the machine online.
Out of all the shattered vials, the contents of only two made their way to the cloning chamber before it sealed and began the cloning process. The machine was shooting sparks and billowing smoke rampantly, but somehow managed to survive long enough for Annie to be born.
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"Like all clones made by my machine, your Annie is engineered to reach maturity in a relatively short span of time. Had she been a human, it would've likely taken only a month or so. But being a Toon, her growth cycle didn't begin before she had experienced weeks worth of negative emotions." The Brain of the present said as the flashback ended.
"So Annie could end up being even older than me if we can't keep her happy?" Dot asked, growing even more concerned than before.
"Under other circumstances, yes. But fortunately, I have developed a treatment that should stabilize her growth rate as thanks for ridding my lab of that so called 'Dr.' Lemming." Brain said as Pinky fetched the bottle of pills they had brought. "Make sure she takes one of these every day for the next thirty days. That should permanently stabilize her growth." He said. Yakko took the bottle.
"Shame we didn't have these a few days ago. Maybe Annie wouldn't have lost a chunk of her childhood." Yakko said.
"I believe I may have a solution in regards to that as well. A device I constructed known as the molecular regressor." Brain said.
"The what?" Yakko asked.
"The molecular regressor. A device I initially developed for use in a plan to take over the world by turning it's population into infants, then reeducating them using a series of conditioning programs. It's only flaw was it's inability to regress a subject's memories or extend their lifespan." Brain explained.
"In other words, it's the perfect thing for Annie." Yakko said.
"Correct." Brain replied. After a bit more conversation, it was off to Acme labs.
