Well, guys, here's a rapid update. I've decided to make it to where we get a view of the other characters every three chapters- just to add in enough action for everyone.
~5~
She ran as fast as she could, her ankle aching as she had a slight limp, though she could not use her cane to help her balance- she had to use it for defense. The snarling increased behind her and she turned sharply, zig-zagging through the trees until she stopped behind one to catch her breath, careful not to breathe too loudly. Ever so carefully, she looked out the corner of her eye at the creature that was chasing her… seeing it turn its head, facing her.
"ZEKE!"
"Whoa!" Ezekiel gasped, looking around, realizing he had slipped into another vision while the others were explaining what was going on. "I'm sorry, I appeared to have drifted into an interlude,"
"What did you see?" Kassy asked.
"It was a bit dark, but apparently it was either Liz, Alexia, or Luna in a park, running from something vicious,"
"Well, I'm right here, so it wasn't me." Alexia scoffed.
"Whoever it was, they must be in trouble," Kite said.
"Not yet, Kite. Like I said, it was a vision- a glimpse of what is to happen," Ezekiel clarified. "If we can find our friends in time, it might just change."
"Well, what the fuck are we standing around here for?! My husband and twin are missing, lets go find them already!" Brielle snapped, and it was obvious she hated how the plot was slightly paused for such a short conversation, granting her lack of patience. "…And watch what you're typing, ATF. Just because you're WG's brother doesn't mean I won't shove my dagger through your ear,"
"To tell the truth, you wouldn't be the first one."
"I'm with the feisty chick, lets find these missing friends of yours." Mugsy said.
"You think we should change into werewolves to help track them down?" Kite asked.
"Uh, bad idea, Kite." Aaron answered. "Here, in reality, people wouldn't take to seeing werewolves walking about- unlike in the tooniverse, they'd most likely panic and shoot you on sight."
"Not to mention animals are often the first to get OOC in reality," Alexia added. "Found that out when we saw what happened with Scooby,"
"What happened with Scooby?"
Everyone looked at Scooby, who looked like a real-life Great Dane with brown fur and three black spots on his back, wearing his trademark collar… and looking nothing like the CGI image Hollywood made. He sniffed along, deciding to find the scent, then began to bark, then lifted his paw and stuck his head outward (a dog's way of 'pointing').
"He can't speak?" Kassy guessed.
"The vocal cords are the first to go," Ezekiel sighed. "Luckily, he can still think like a human… but it's only a matter of time before he starts to become a real dog, and then fade away to oblivion. …But on the positive side, he has a trace on our friends,"
The group followed Scooby, who lead them toward town. "So you're werewolves, huh?" Danny asked Kassy. "Zeke did say something about that when he first showed us the toon-world,"
"You took them to the tooniverse?" Kite asked Ezekiel.
"Yeah, but at a bad time." Peewee answered. "We're stepping through this portal one minute, but just as it closes a giant one opens in the sky and sucks us into this creepy place, full of hallways and secret passages and spooks of every kind!"
"I'll say- I even spotted Jason Voorhees stalking around," Skinny added, giving a shudder.
Kassy, Brielle, and Kite paused. "How long ago was this?" Brielle asked.
"I'd say, maybe… 15 years ago, or something like that?"
"During Missing In Fiction, Part One." Ezekiel added. "We were sucked into Darkarai's temple,"
"How come we never saw you before?!" Brielle asked.
"Dude, it was a big temple! You could have fit the whole population of Australia in there!"
"And it turns out we ended up separated," Mugsy added. "I managed to find Glimpy, and we walked around looking for the others… along the way we saw a bunch of weird black creatures with no eyes, kept hearing evil cackling, and kept falling through these trap doors into different floors. I think the only time we saw anything human was when we bumped into these two cartoon guys- a tall skinny yut and a short jerk who I didn't want nothing to do with."
Aaron, Alexia, and Ezekiel rolled their eyes, deciding not to say anything… just yet.
"By the time we managed to get back together, the whole place started caving in, and we barely made it out alive," Scruno added. "And boy, I tell you what, I was never happier to see Zeke open a portal back home. He didn't want us talking to anyone else about it, them thinking we'd be crazy, and I agreed not to say a word- I never wanted to talk about it, so I wouldn't have to remember it."
"You have to admit it was pretty fun," Ezekiel said with a shrug.
"Yeah, as fun as jumping into a pit of snakes," Mugsy sneered.
Scooby stopped just then, sniffing to the left, then to the right, unable to decided which way to go. "Looks like Scooby needs us to split up," Alexia figured.
"We'll take the left, you guys take the right. We'll meet in the middle in an hour,"
"Sounds like a plan, lets go." Aaron agreed, and he, Ezekiel, Alexia, Kassy, Kite, and Brielle went down the right path with Scooby, while the East Side Kids went left.
~5~
Glimpy kept running until his legs began to ache, leaning against a brick wall that was part of what used to be a tall building, now demolished. "I thought I'd never lose those cops," he wheezed, then looked around. "…Looks like I lost Mugsy and Danny along the way… *gulp* I'd better find 'em before Mugs finds me first and pummels me for outrunning them,"
"Ohh… what hit me last night?" came a groan from behind the wall.
Glimpy looked over, seeing a teenage boy with short black hair, wearing a red shirt, brown pants, a gray fedora… and looking very familiar. "Mugsy! Hey, I was just looking for you!" he walked over to him, helping him to his feet. "I thought I outran you, but I guess you ran ahead of me… and changed your clothes all the while- how'd you do that?"
"What are you talking about, meathead? I've been wearing these clothes all day! And I didn't run nowheres! I was passed out! …And speaking of clothing, since when did you start wearing long-sleeved shirts and your cap forwards?"
"Um… as long as I've been here? You feeling okay?"
"Never mind, lets just find out where the others are,"
"Sure thing, Mugsy."
The teen gave Glimpy a look. "It's 'Pugsy', you dimwit! Sheesh, Fangs, you're acting a lot dumber than usual…"
Glimpy arched an eyebrow. Since when did he start calling me 'Fangs'? he wondered.
~5~
The others followed Scooby to a park, where Shaggy lied under a tree… though he looked closer to Nick Palatas than Matthew Lillard, his hair still its shaggy-style, and his eyes were more of a dark-green. "Shaggy! Are you alright?" Aaron gasped, running up to him and shaking him awake.
"Like, I'm fine…" Shaggy answered, a bit dazed. "That trip through the portal really takes a lot out of you, doesn't it?"
"Only the first time. You'll get used to it," Ezekiel told him.
"Shaggy, do have any idea how you got separated from us?" Kassy asked.
Shaggy rubbed his head. "Not really, I blacked out… but I have a blurred memory of being carried, and hearing this snarling sound, but when I opened my eyes, all I saw were you guys coming toward me." he replied. "Why?"
"Someone must have tried to kidnap our toon-friends," Aaron guessed, rubbing his chin. "Question is, who and why?"
"We can ask questions AFTER we find my husband," Kassy said. "C'mon, lets get back to the East Side Kids and see if they've found Fangs or Pugsy,"
~5~
The East Side Kids did find one of the toons… they just didn't know it.
It didn't dawn upon them that they didn't even know what the missing toons looked like, until they were back in town. "Dang it! We forgot to ask Zeke what those two toons look like!" Mugsy snapped.
"Well, they're cartoons, right? Just look for anyone who doesn't look like a real person," Scruno joked.
"Very funny. The only person I know who comes close to looking like a cartoon would be-"
"Glimpy!" Skinny gasped.
"…I was going to say Scruno, here, but I suppose he does too-"
"No, there's Glimpy, right over there!" Skinny pointed ahead.
In the middle of an alley lied a teenager with short, curly brown hair, wearing a red cap backwards… and looking a LOT like Glimpy. "Ooh, ooh, my head…" he groaned, sitting up. "Next time, we're taking a train…"
"Glimpy, are you alright? What happened?" Peewee asked once the rest of the gang ran over.
"I don't know… but I feel like I've been dragged two miles," he paused, looking at them all. "Um, who are you guys?"
"It's us, Glimpy, your old pals! Scruno, Danny, Mugsy, Skinny, Peewee…" Danny told him, motioning to himself and the others. "Don't you remember?"
"No… and how come you keep calling me 'Glimpy'?"
"Someone must've given him amnesia- he can't rememorize anything!" Mugsy figured. "C'mon, pal, we'll get your mind back in-order… maybe even fix it to where you can think straight, for once!"
The teen arched an eyebrow. "I remember who you are,"
"Hey, what do you know? His head is finally clearing up!"
"Yeah, yeah it is! But, I gotta know… who are the rest of these guys, Pugs? And what happened to the others? Huh? Huh? What's going on, Pugsy? What?"
The East Side kids exchanged glances. "Glimpy, I think you got your pronouns off. I'm 'Mugsy', with an 'M',"
"I think yours is off too. I'm Fangs… with an 'F',"
Mugsy rubbed his face. "Good grief, you nitwit, did a wrecking ball hit you in the head?! You're not making any sense!"
"You're one to talk- I keep getting confused!"
"That's no surprise. Enough with the jabber, we gotta get back to finding those other missing saps Ezekiel was talking about… maybe one of them is a psychiatrist,"
"Maybe we should get back to Ezekiel, and see if they've found anyone yet." Danny suggested as they walked down the street.
"Yeah, he can give us a good description," Scruno added as they passed by a demolished building… and Glimpy started following them. "He knows what they look like better than we do,"
"What who looks like?" Glimpy asked, curiously.
"Oh you know, those missing friends Zeke brought from the toon… world… place…" Scruno paused, looking at Glimpy behind him… then looking at Fangs in front of him. "What in the world?"
"What's going… on?" Danny asked, turning around, and he realized why Scruno was so shocked, as well as Peewee and Skinny.
"Hey, guys, you coming or what?" Mugsy asked when he heard the rest of the gang wasn't walking. He turned around, seeing them all staring at something, and rolled his eyes, pulling Fangs along and pushing through them. "Alright, what's the big deal all about?"
"Hey, how you stopped walkifying, meathead?" Pugsy asked, walking around Glimpy…
Within that second, Pugsy and Fangs were standing in front of Mugsy and Glimpy, standing as if they were looking at their reflections, all of them stunned. "Are you boys seeing… what I'm seeing?" Scruno whispered.
Fangs gulped. Glimpy blinked a few times.
Mugsy and Pugsy, on the other than, merely shouted, "WHAT'S GOING ON?!"
~5~
Wherever Girl gave me the idea… and yes I did make a reference to one of her stories, and yes it is going to be quite interesting from this point on.
As for the questions: Who tried to separate the toons? Will we ever hear Scooby speak again? What was the vision about? And how many more shocks await our heroes?
Answers… will come later. ^-^