The rain falls down as there's a storm occurring. Sheldon holds up a puppet of himself, smiling as he holds it and an Amy toy. He had just finished created his own puppet. Nora is hard at work, using protective glass over her eyes. She's working on a teapot. "Voila," She smiles as she moves the glass away. "The bioprocessor is in place." She clears her throat. "Teapot, pour me tea," She points to the teacup nearby and the teapot activates. It spins and then hops across to pour tea. "It works!" She cheers happily and then takes a sip of tea. Her eyes widen and she looks angry now. "Oh, this isn't tea; it's mango chutney" The teapot spins around rapidly, causing a mess. "Simmer down," She grabs hold of the teapot, placing it on the table. "Oh, dear. Well, no one said animating the inanimate was going to be easy," She pats the teapot on the head. "I'd better get to Radio Shed to replace these parts," She walks away to dry herself off.
Lightning strikes from outside, showing a small figure looking on from outside. Sheldon puts down his own puppet and the same figure looks inside. He notices the puppet and then opens up the window. The Sheldon puppet sits up, looking at the shadow overtaking him. Sheldon comes back into the room and then looks up ahead.
"Oh no!" He gasps sharply as he sees his puppet gone, the window blowing in the wind. He looks down and sees two tiny pairs of footprints.
"I hope I'm not too late," Nora walks down the sidewalk, holding an umbrella and wearing a raincoat. She glances to her left to see an alleyway. "Hm, this dark, ominous alley might make a good shortcut," Her boots squish as she walks down the path. She glances behind her as she feels someone watching. She takes a few steps forward, stopping. She does the same thing again and then glares a bit. She runs in place, and when she stops, she can hear feet tapping in the distance.
"Who's there?" She demands while turning around, seeing a shadow behind her. "No. He's come back," She says in fear, falling backwards. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She cries out in terror.
"Oh, beans, beans, the magical fruit," Tuck sings while holding a puppet show in Jenny's kitchen. "The more you eat, the more you toot!" He then makes a farting noise, Brad, Amy, and Jenny looking on.
"Wow, great," Jenny murmurs in fake praise. "Nice...sound effects."
"What sound effects?" He asks in confusion, their eyes widening.
"Oh! Okay," Amy waves a hand in front of her face as she can smell it, trying not to gag out loud.
"Thanks a bunch," Brad stands up first to leave.
"Gotta go," Jenny leaves next as they go in opposite directions.
"What they said," Amy smiles sheepishly while backing away.
"Wait!" He pleads with the three, stepping away from the cardboard box.
"Tuck, you told us an hour ago we could have a bathroom break," Brad reminds his little brother.
"But you'll miss the big finale!" He whines at them before Nora screams and rushes in.
"Mom?" Jenny asks in alarm.
"Mrs. Wakeman?" Tuck wonders and once she sees the puppet, she freaks out.
"Mom!"
"Mrs. Wakeman," Tuck says and she screams again.
"Mom!"
"Mrs. Wakeman?" Brad holds up a finger and she lets out another scream, falling into Jenny's arms.
"Mom!"
"Mrs-" Amy puts a hand on Brad's mouth to stop him from saying it.
"Okay, we get it, can we drop this? It's getting old," She says in annoyance and he pushes her hand away.
"He's after me. He's coming to get me," Nora says in a panic, sitting in a chair.
"You're safe with us," Tuck approaches the woman. "We'll sing you a song to cheer you up," He smiles while holding up the puppet, but she pushes it away.
"NO!"
"Hey, what did Lucretia ever do to you?" He remarks while walking away from her.
"He's following me. He was right behind me."
"Whoever it is, he'll have to get through me first," Jenny flies off and Amy taps her brooch to become Ms. Mecha.
"I'm right behind you!" She flies off after her friend. Together, they make a moat, grabbing some water filled with sharks to fill it. It also has alligators and Jenny rushes in, moving the fridge to the window. She moves it away so that Amy can fly in, the brunette holding up some planks and nails.
"Don't worry, Mom. We'll protect you until we find out who it is," Jenny walks over with bubble wrap.
"But girls, I know exactly who it is," Nora speaks up, Amy flinching and turning around.
"Who?" They all ask in unison.
"It was a long time ago. I was 14 and already considered a science prodigy." A younger Nora pressed a button from a robot to make it fire a laser. She flinched in alarm as it hit a potato and made it fried instead. Someone grabbed it for lunch, much to the dismay of the kid behind the project. Nora slowly backed away and then glanced outside to see other students gathering. She joined them, gently pushing them away. "When one fateful day, the siren song of the stage captured my heart." Everyone was looking at a poster for talent show try-outs. "I had to be a star." Stars shined in her glasses.
She sung so loud and off-pitch during her audition that she made the director's glasses and clipboard break. She also broke a fishbowl, several wine glasses, and other fragile equipment. A cane approached to take her off the stage. She then tried a magic trick to stick knives into a trap onto a student...and then that student ended up going to the hospital. She tried high-diving, something with a cat, yo-yo tricks, but nothing worked out.
"It became apparent that I didn't have the same talent on stage as I did in the lab. But science saved my dream," She glanced up at the little robot while in her bedroom. She beamed as she got an idea. "With a few modifications, my defense droid made the perfect dummy for a ventriloquist act."
Later on, she sat on stage with the robot now dressed as a puppet. "What's with this audience? Haven't they seen stiff and wooden performances before?"
"You're not so bad," Nora smiled down at him.
"I was talking about you," He remarked and everyone laughed.
"You seem upset, Little Acorn. What's eating you?"
"Termites," He stated in a blank tone and everyone laughed again. "I'm just tired of lumbering from club to club, logging so many hours, and was hoping to branch out."
"Doing what?" She asked the puppet curiously.
"Feeding woodpeckers," He joked, Nora looking away with a smile. Once again, everyone laughed. "And on that note, it's time to make like a tree and leaf."
"I just pretended to throw my voice," Nora and Little Acorn danced on stage together. "While Little Acorn did all the work." Everyone stood up while cheering, Nora looking happy at the praised. "They loved us. But as our fame grew, so did Little Acorn's ego." They performed at school, theaters, and even a giant stadium. "He became abusive, threatening me with the worst thing imaginable." The curtains closed as they had just finished their performance. "And I was too scared to stand up to him."
Nora turned away once the curtains were done, holding Little Acorn upside down. She reached out to the power switch, but he reached behind him to stop her. "Get your hands off me. And don't you dare touch that switch, not today—not ever again." He jumped out of her arms. "I'm the star of the show. You're just holding me back."
"But I created you. I won't let you go."
"Don't push me, Nora," He threatened her angrily. "Unless you want me to sing."
"No!" She pleaded with him.
"I'll sing the song," He called out in a playful way.
"No, anything but that; anything but that!" She sat in the stool crying from her situation.
"My dream of stardom died. And soon after, Little Acorn took the stage by himself for the first time." He stood on stage as there was a full house, a spotlight on him.
"Feeding woodpeckers. And on that note, it's time to make like a tree and leaf." He tapped his feet around, everyone staring at him in shock.
"That dummy has no ventriloquist. It's not right!" One of the customers pointed up at him.
"It's an abomination!" A woman cried out and unbeknownst to everyone, Nora was sitting in the way back.
"Unnatural freak!" Everyone started throwing tomatoes at him. He stood up with a glare, as he was expecting praise.
"Infuriated by the rejection, Little Acorn became the monster they accused him of being." Little Acorn jumped off stage, terrorizing people in the process. Another tomato was thrown at his face.
"Horrid humans!" He summoned a claw hand, but all it did was make a balloon dog. He turned around to Nora sitting there quietly. "What did you do to me? Where are my defenses?" He demanded the girl as people ran around in fear.
"You're built for comedy now," She explained, an angry mob approaching the puppet. He glanced around and ran out.
"Don't let him get away!"
"Torches, we need torches!"
"And pitchforks."
"Pitchforks, torches," A waitress walked up with those specific items in hand. "Get your pitchforks and torches here." They all ran after the puppet, who ran out into the streets. He raced to the forest, eventually slowing down.
"My...battery..." He murmured as he was losing power.
"Where'd he go?"
"He's gone!" He was actually hiding behind a tree nearby.
"Uh, anybody wanna go grab a burger?"
They all agreed as they left him behind. "Ha," He sighed in relief. "I lost 'em. I..." He then powered down, his eyes going from yellow to black. A gopher came over to him.
"I never saw him again," Nora finishes the story. "But I feared that he someday might return, that awful, loathsome puppet," She squeezes her eyes shut at the memories.
"You don't have to listen to this, Lucretia. Come on, Brad," He storms off, being insulted for some reason.
"Evil puppets—what has this world come to?" Brad wonders while following after Tuck.
"Mom, I'm gonna patrol outside. Amy, you stay here and watch over her. No way Little Acorn is gonna get past us," Jenny smiles confidently, Amy smirking as she makes some weapons appear.
"I guess I'll go back to the lab, and work on my bioprocessors," She jumps off the table to leave.
"I'll make you a cup of tea and a snack," Amy offers the woman, who smiles gratefully at her.
"Thank you, dear."
She opens the door to her lab, turning on the lights. "Hello, Nora," She flinches in surprise as she looks up ahead. She gasps sharply at seeing who is in the room.
"Little Acorn!" The puppet robot is more rusted, however, and he has no eye. She glances to the side to see the Sheldon puppet closing the door. He glares at her in a threatening way.
"Have a seat," He tells her and she backs away to sit in a chair. "You've noticed by now I have a partner. I call him L'il Sheldon thanks to what's on his back." L'il Sheldon turns around as Sheldon's name is stitched to the back. "He's not a talker, though."
"Where have you been all this time?" She couldn't help but wonder.
"Laying powerless because you abandoned me," A roach crawls into his eye. "Alone for decades until someone found me." A little boy looked happy to see him. "He took me home, the fool." The boy flipped the switch and Little Acorn came to life. The boy screamed in terror, the puppet jumping down. He laughed while spraying string to capture the boy. An explosion occurred and Little Acorn made his escape. "After so many years on my own, I yearned for companionship. That's why we have unfinished business, you and I."
"Don't hurt me," She recoils back in fear of him.
"Oh, I'm not going to hurt you," He denies to his old creator. "I need you...to make us brides." He then laughs evilly, his mouth falling off. "Drat." He picks it up and puts it back on.
"No, no; making you was a mistake that I will not repeat," She denies to him angrily. A knock is suddenly heard at the door.
"Mrs. Wakeman? I'm coming in with your tea!" Amy calls out from outside.
"Oh no," Nora's eyes widen in realization.
"Mom, are you in there?" Jenny calls out next.
"The girls!" Nora panics and before she can warn them, Amy opens the door. She holds a tray of snacks and tea.
"I made it the way my mom does it, I hope you like-" She turns to the puppets and opens her eyes in shock.
"What the-?!" She drops the tray and prepares her weapons, just as Jenny comes in from behind. She's in the shadows, so the puppet doesn't see her.
"Still making defense droids, eh, Nora?" Little Acorn threatens Nora by holding a large glove to her face.
"Careful, girls. He's unstable," Nora tells the duo. "And I did not create Amelia, she's wearing a suit-"
"Shut up! I have eyes. She disappoints me," He narrows her eyes at Amy, who scoffs.
"Like you're a looker ei—wait, is that a puppet of Sheldon?" Before she can question it further, Jenny steps out behind her, and Little Acorn is immediately smitten. L'il Sheldon freezes upon seeing Amy and his eyes form into hearts.
"Nora, you don't have to make me a bride. You already have!" Hearts surround Amy and Jenny, both of them confused.
"Bride? In your dreams, blockhead," She glares at him.
"Get in line, I already have enough love problems," Amy jerks a thumb behind her in annoyance. Both of them dive forward, attempting to tackle them. But the two just dance on their heads.
"A woman with spirit; I like that," Little Acorn says happily while L'il Sheldon wolf whistles at Amy.
"Wow, already bringing back uncomfortable memories..." She drags a hand down her face.
"Spirit this, little man," Jenny tosses Little Acorn and he slides to safety.
"Think about it, ladies," He leaps forward, knocking Jenny on the head with his cane. L'il Sheldon extends an arm to punch Amy in the chin. "We could make beautiful music together. Hey, if you prefer tall guys, we can do that," They extend their legs to make themselves the same height. Then a pie hits Jenny in the face. "Why fight when we can dance across the world stage?" He knocks Jenny off her feet with his cane, L'il Sheldon jumping up to push Amy to the ground. "I can make you a star."
"How's that for seeing stars?" She kicks him into the wall. Amy tosses up L'il Sheldon and then uses a sticky substance to trap him in. "Now a big hand to wrap up your performance," She swings her arm around and then tosses it to trap him. "Sorry, Acorn," She smiles while reforming a hand. "This girl is staying solo."
"And I don't do puppets," Amy crosses her arms.
"One way or another, XJ9 and Amelia, you will be ours," Little Acorn declares angrily. "Puppets, assemble!" More puppets pop up, including a Pinocchio one. "You can thank your mother's new bioprocessor technology for the creation of my puppet army." L'il Sheldon stares up at him and he clears her throat. "Fine, our puppet army." The puppets surround them while the two puppets break free. "Just look at them. They all have that special someone in their lives. Punch has Judy." Judy knocks him over the head. "Ert has Bernie." Ert and Bernie snuggle each other. "Lola Girl has Knuckle Hand. So why not me?" He asks bitterly while stepping past everyone.
"Little Acorn, stop, please," Nora pleads with him from behind the chair.
"Nora, do you want to hear the song?" He threatens the woman.
"No, not the song," She pleads and hides again. If she tries anything on him, she might get the song again.
"Puppets, attack!"
"Bring it on," Jenny challenges the army.
"We're not scared of a few puppets," Amy cracks her knuckles just as one appears on Jenny's back, pecking her head. Amy kicks it down and Jenny cuts off its strings with her own scissors.
"Ha! That all you got!" A large hand puppet lands over her face, Amy going over to help pull it off. The puppet screeches at her and she recoils back in alarm. Jenny stumbles around and touches the wall. She hits her own head trying to get it off, falling to the ground. The Pinocchio puppet appears, using its sharp nose as a sword. L'il Sheldon appears on top of Amy's head to pull at her hair and she yelps while trying to get it off. Jenny makes her swords appear, and then four more follow. The Pinocchio puppet is alarmed at first, but fights back. They clash before Jenny spins it around rapidly to tie it up. A king puppet tosses string around her legs, a monkey puppet doing the same. L'il Sheldon hog-ties Amy and pulls her down. All the puppets surround the girls and start beating them up. Once they're defeated, they lift the duo up and walk off with them. Little Acorn laughs at his victory.
"Prepare the brides for our wedding," He pulls off his clothes to reveal a tux. L'il Sheldon spins around his whole body to reveal a suit. "Huh, you just...you just had that on you the whole time?"
He decides not to question it though as the puppets watch the double wedding. Jenny has a veil and is held by strings. Amy is the same as L'il Sheldon had managed to tap her brooch to change it into a mechanical wedding dress. A puppet minister appears, punching both puppets in the face. "Do you take this robot and...robot or human to be your wives?"
"I do," Little Acorn says in annoyance. L'il Sheldon grabs the fist coming from the priest and then rips off the arm, tossing it away.
"Ahh! Why would you—ahh!" The minister glares and turns to the girls. "Do you take these dummies to be your husbands?" The strings holding their heads move so that the two nod yes. "The rings?"
"Ah, yes," Little Acorn holds them up. "Two of Wakeman's bioprocessors wrapped in unending bands." There are also some light bulbs on top of them to make them look like diamonds. "These rings will provide me with complete and total control of our new wives." Nora watches from behind a chair. "Once we place these rings on their fingers, they will be ours forever!" The two are about to put on the rings when Nora jumps in.
"No!" She tackles them both to the ground.
"Release us, Nora, or else."
"Not this time; I won't let you take my daughter! Or have any of her friends married off to a puppet!" She glares down at them.
"This...is the song that goes on forever!" Little Acorn starts singing the dreaded song. "Cause it doesn't ever end," Nora covers her ears in agony, backing away. "We will finish singing it never, cause here we go again. Everybody!"
"This is the song that goes on forever," All the puppets except L'il Sheldon sing. "Cause it doesn't ever end." Nora lays down on the ground as it's pain to her ears. "We will finish singing it never, cause here we go again. This is the song that goes on forever, cause it doesn't ever end," Nora, with all her might, crawls over to Little Acorn. "We will finish singing it never, cause here we go again," She reaches up and flips the switch from Little Acorn. L'il Sheldon sees this and rushes forward, but she grabs him and turns him around. She flips his off switch as well.
"Well, what do you know?" Nora says bravely to her creation. "The song does end."
"Wow...the bosses are down for the count. What do we do now?" Ert asks his friends.
"Anybody wanna go grab a burger?" The monkey puppet offers and they all agree, leaving.
"I kind of feel like a ham sandwich," A pig one states from behind.
"Mom," Jenny and Amy walk up to the woman. "You saved us. Thanks."
"Yeah, if it wasn't for you, it would've been torture," Amy adds in while removing the strings from her suit.
"You're welcome, girls. Now to dispose of these nuts forever!" She glares down at the puppets.
"Wait. We can't; he's one of your creations. And this one here is Sheldon's," Jenny protests, pointing down to L'il Sheldon. "Deep down, he's just sad and lonely. There must be another way."
"And besides, they might find a way to come back and try to marry us again," Amy rubs her chin in thought. Nora looks away, thinking as well. The girls did have solid points...
Little Acorn seems to be on sand, all alone. "Where am I?" He sits up as there's a lake nearby. "Not again. NORAAAAAAAAAAA!" He hears giggling and turns around to see L'il Sheldon flirting with a puppet version of Amy.
"Actually, it's Lucretia," The sock puppet speaks up and Little Acorn turns to her in shock.
"Thank you, Nora," Little Acorn says gratefully while looking happy. Lucretia kisses his cheek and fireworks go off from his head. The two couples walk off towards the sunset.
"This is the song that goes on forever, cause it doesn't ever end..."
Nora, Jenny, and Amy were cleaning up the lab when Sheldon comes barging in. "Guys, I need your help! My puppet—oh..." He rubs his neck as he sees the mess. "I see he was already here."
"Sheldon, did you make a living puppet of yourself?" Amy raises a suspicious brow and he darts his eyes around as she stands up. "Why?" She asks while placing her hands on her hips.
"N-No reason," He stammers awkwardly and she sighs knowingly.
"Did you do it to play with the Jenny and Amy dolls?"
"...Maybe," He answers meekly with a blush and she sighs heavily.
"Don't worry, we'll tell you all about it another day. Although we're gonna go back to the puppet thing," Jenny points down at him since if he hadn't done that, Amy wouldn't have been almost married. Sheldon laughs nervously as his friends give him weird looks. He's got a lot of explaining to do...
Angel: Someone asked me to write Be Cool Scooby Doo, and uh...no? I don't think I need to explain why doing that show is a big no go for me. But I'm gonna anyway. One is that if I start doing Scooby Doo, there's a WHOLE lot of tv shows, games, movies, and content with the franchise that I could never keep up with. Even if I did one show, the franchise is not exactly one of my absolute favorites. I mean, I've seen some shows and movies, but it doesn't scream that I absolutely need to write something from it. And don't say Mystery Incorporated or What's New Scooby Doo, I've seen those and they're good but I have no desire to write them. Two, not to mention, Be Cool Scooby Doo? Really? If people do genuinely consider it one of their favorites, I wish them the best. But for me, I haven't even seen it and I don't plan to. I don't like the animation, reminds me too much of Family Guy. Which...already is not a great comparison. Don't like the characters unlike other shows because they're too different—mostly. There's a reason why when I wrote the TMNT franchise, I skipped both the 80s show and Next Mutation.
Not because I hate them—well, I only hate Next Mutation. But because I can't get as invested in them, which is the same feeling I have for Scooby Doo. The 80s show is important overall to the franchise, but I could never write 10 seasons as a story, no matter how many episodes per season. But also, the humor is just hit and miss for me, and the animation when I watched the first season wasn't winning me over. And Next Mutation...is just a failure on all fronts that I don't want to revisit ever.
For me to write anything, I need to be invested into the characters or the story. If I start writing stuff that I myself consider mediocre, even if it's a show that a majority of people like, it's gonna feel pointless and then I'd just completely lose interest like halfway through. There are stories I haven't finished, not because I feel that way towards them, but because I'm just busy. So yeah, if I write Be Cool Scooby Doo, I'm gonna lose interest real quick and then I'd just delete it. Plus I'd have to get used to the character designs, so that show is a no for me.