James finished brushing his teeth and headed out of the bathroom. Trickster was waiting outside for his turn. James' face went that tint of red again, as he looked at him. He quickly diverted his eyes from him and went over to the beds.
There were two beds in the room. It seemed like the left bed, was Trickster's because a lot of stuff was on it. So, James just went over to the bed on the right.
He sat on the bed, then lay down. At least it was comfy.
Laying there, he started to ponder. 'Geez, I hope... David is okay... and Mark... and Mom and Dad," He said out loud, but not loud enough for anyone else to hear. "I wonder what they're doing? Geez, they're probably so freaking worried..." He started to feel sad. "I don't want them to worry about me, I'm fine. I'm in Toon Town, one of the safest places,"
He turned to his side and faced the other bed. He just lay there, listing to the lock in the room tick.
"Was Merlin right? Some Toons really can go bad?" He said out loud.
He turned on his back.
"Judge Doom... People say he looked human. Why would he try to hurt his own?"
Then he pondered more. "Well... Why would humans want to hurt their own..." He sighed. "I guess it's hell no matter what race you are,"
At that moment, after him finishing up that last thought, Trickster came out from the bathroom.
"Geez, already in bed?" Trickster asked.
"Well, I am tired," James said.
"Well, I don't doubt you," Trickster said as he took some of the stuff off his bed, then lay in it.
"Well, goodnight!" Trickster said then turned off the light.
Now, the room was pitch black.
But even though James was tired, he felt like he couldn't sleep all of a sudden.
"Trix?" He called out to Trickster.
"Hmm? Yeah?"
"Um... Would you ever go bad?"
There was silence for a while.
"Go bad? What... What do you mean?"
"Like... How Judge Doom went bad. Would... You become that?"
He heard some rustling, then heard Trickster get up. Then he felt the bed sink a little next to him. "Now why would you think that?"
James looked up and saw Trickster looking at him concerned. James sighed, then sat up. "I dunno... The story with that twisted Toon always freaked me out,"
"Well, he was a pretty gruesome Toon. He hurt both Toons and humans. Toons are meant to be a trusted race. Most Toons have a lot of power," Trickster said.
"Yeah," James said.
"Well, if it makes you feel better... Ever since that incident, it changed a lot of things for us Toons," Trickster spoke.
James arched his eyebrow and looked at his friend. "Huh? What do you mean, changed?"
"Most of the newer Toons with powerful magic, who have yet to gain anyone's trust, have their powers taken away when they're off-set," Trickster explained. "Luz told me that, since she's been new for a few years. I won't tell you who it is-, But since he's new in her show, and wouldn't want to spoil it, but, there is a character that has a lot of power. Disney even got mad at Dana for making such a character. I'm sure he wouldn't have used it, but no one wants to take any chances of a Toon going Rouge and ending us all, having that amount of power."
James listed to him. He was wondering who this new character is, since he's a big fan of Luz's show. But he was a little confused about something. "Then... How do Toons such as Superman still have powers?"
"Well, Supes is an old Toon. He's been trusted for generations," Trickster said. "If there was a new Toon made yesterday to be Superman's son or something, he'd definitely not have powers to use for a while. He'll only be able to use his powers on set, or for meet and greets. And even those are iffy with companies,"
"Holy shi... I didn't know a Toon's life was that complicated," James said.
"Trust me, it's more than that. Luz tells me it's not easy. At least, for her as a modern Toon,"
Trickster saw James yawn. "You need sleep, I'll let you sleep, alright? Get some shut-eye for me,"
He got off of James's bed and went to his. "Goodnight, for real this time," Trickster said with a giggle.
James just smiled at him. "Goodnight Trix."
"Do not leave Toon Town,"
James woke up with a slight gasp. He looked around. "What? Where am I?" There was a misty clouds all around them. Well, it looked like clouds. "Where the... where I am?!"
He quickly stood up. It was dark all around him. "Hello?! Anyone?!"
There was a slight rumble. But it sounded... Sci-fi.
"Did... I- No... How could I have reached there?" He knows that Toon Town and CGI-Town have 'pocket' Towns. Something like a 'pocket dimension'. What they are, are worlds made up to accommodate some shows and worlds. They're fake dimensions. Most cartoons don't use them, because they're expensive. The Owl House uses one. Dana wanted to go all out and got Disney to make a fake world, The Boiling Isle.
James thought he was in one.
But how could he have reached here? He would have remembered coming here. He couldn't even figure out what Toon world would be in a place like this.
"Hello?!" He called out again.
But then, he saw a light in the distance.
"Someone!"
He ran towards it.
The light came closer, and closer. But when he saw what it was, he slowed down. "W-What?"
The light was coming from a letter.
"It's... That thing again," he said to himself.
The darkness covered being looked at him. "Did you hear what I said?" It said to James.
"W-What?" James asked.
"Do not leave Toon Town. Not at the moment at least. Listen to me. You do not want to go out there,"
"W-Who are you?" James asked staring at this thing. "Are you one of those weird creatures from Paranormal Activity? That black viney thing?!"
The creature sighed. "No,"
"What cartoon do you come from?"
"I'm not from any. But... You really need to listen to what I'm saying. Do not leave Toon Town," it said.
"B-But why?!"
"Because... The dimen-"
James woke up with a gasp. A gasp, because he felt someone shaking him.
"Oh! Oh geez, you're awake! You had me worried James!"
James quickly sat up, then saw that Trickster was over him. It was bright in the room. The sunlight was shining into the room. He looked back at Trickster.
"You were kinda twitching in your sleep! Are you alright?"
But James's eyes diverted back down to Trickster's body because he was shirtless still. He had a soft-looking, paper-white tummy, seeming like his cartoon style was supposed to be chubby, and his belly button was an innie. Big, but not too big. It just had cartoonish proportions
"Geez, what is with you?" Trickster covered his body bashfully. "What, you have never seen a shirtless Toon before? Perv,"
James's face went entirely red. "W-What?! I... I wasn't looking at you in that way!"
"Sure you weren't," Trickster said rolling his eyes, with a slight smirk on his face. "But seriously, are you ok?"
James blinked. He wasn't sure. He saw that thing in that back ally just after meeting Bendy- Who was sleeping on the floor at the moment.
He doesn't know what it could be.
'It doesn't want me to leave... Could he be the one who used the spell?'
But James didn't want Trickster to worry. He didn't want to worry.
It was probably nothing. He has weird dreams all the time. He probably got startled by seeing that dark Toon in the dark ally and had a bad dream because of it.
But he could see Trickster was awaiting an answer. "It's fine Tricky, I just had a weird dream, nothing serious. I'm okay,"
"Are you sure?"
"Well, yeah? I mean, it was a little freaky and I'm still recovering from it, so..."
Trickster came closer to him and opened his arm. "Wanna hug?"
James blinked, blushed a little, then nodded. "Uh... um... S-sure,"
Trickster smiled, then put his arms around James, and pulled him closed. Trickster's soft body pressed into James, and James felt like he was going to die from blushing.
"So... You're going to hug me back? Or you're just going to stand in place?" Trickster asked giggling.
James blushed, then put his arms around him.
Merlin had made them both breakfast.
When James got out of the room, the smell of freshly fried eggs, and sausages, hit his nose. It made his stomach make a loud growl.
"Holy... that smells so good," James said.
"Doesn't it?" Trickster said. "Since Merlin is from The Sword in The Stone, he loves to make English foods. Especially English Breakfast,"
Both Trickster and James sat at the table.
"Alright, you two, here is some breakfast to start the day!" Merlin gave them both plates packed with eggs, sausages beans, and toast.
James's mouth was watering.
James took a few bites. "This is so good!"
Trickster giggled. "Well, it seems like James loves the 2D food,"
James just continued to stuff his face with the eggs.
He saw Merlin set down three extra plates. He assumed one of them was his own and for Bendy, but... there was an extra plate.
"Merlin? You're going to east two breakfasts?"
"Hm? Oh good heavens no, this is for Arthur,"
"Arthur? Who's Tha-"
"Morning Merlin!" A kid randomly ran out of a room. "Hello, Trickster!"
James noticed and nearly choked on his beans. It was Arthur, King Arthur. The little boy from The Sword In The Stone.
"Oh- Are you alright?" Arthur asked, noticing James coughing.
"Y-Yeah! I'm fine!" James said.
"Wait a minute... You're a human!" Arthur yelled smiling. "I haven't met one of you in such a long time!"
"O-Oh? Y-You haven't?" James asked.
"No..." Arthur said looking a little sad. "Not much people talk about the movie I was in, all that much anymore,"
"He's right," Merlin said. "They talk about me more than anything, but not him. Even though he was the main character,"
James sighed. "Yeah... Older cartoons tend to always just fade from existence,"
"At least we got James, here, who claims he knows about every cartoon in existence," Trickster said putting his arm around James, which just made him blush.
Arthur gasped. "Oh, really~? You know everything do you? There is no way you know the nickname I was called in my movie,"
"Your nickname? I do. It was Wart,"
Arthur blinked. "W-What?! How do you- Woah!"
James just smiled.
"See? He knows everything," Trickster giggled.
"Well, not everything," James said blushing.
After breakfast, both James and Trickster, and Bendy went down to the main entrance of Toon Town, the tunnel, to meet back up with Luz and Amity. As they got closer to the Tunnel, they could see that the force field was still there. "Geez, what is this?" James asked. Now they could see it better, and more clearly since it was broad daylight. The portal was pulsating and had a gold hue to it.
"I don't know," Trickster said. "It's nothing like I've seen before,"
James walked up to it. He placed his hands on it. It shifted to match the shape of his hand. "So... weird..." James said.
"And no matter what you do, you can't faze through?" Trickster asked.
James pushed his hand into it. But if he was going to apply more strength, his hand would probably break off. "No, I can't," he responded.
"Hey, there's Luz and Amity,"
Luz and her girlfriend were both walking over to them. "Hey, you two! And hello Bendy!" Luz said. Bendy smiled at her.
"Wheeh!" King was on top of her head and seemed like he didn't want Bendy there.
"Ugh, calm down King, Bendy isn't going to dethrone you from being the King Of Demons," Luz said.
"So... What's the plan?" Trickster asked.
"I don't know," Amity said. "I was secretly hoping that it was going to disappear overnight, but it seemed that never was a thing that happened, is it?"
"Nope, it's still here," James said.
"Merlin told us a lot of information yesterday," Trickster said.
"Oh? What did your dad say?"
Trickster pouted. "He's not my dad, s-shut up-, ... He.. well, he told us.. he told us that the spell in the spell book, can combat things like this-," He pointed to the pulsating transparent wall. "But, James said something that had everyone thinking. If there is a spell to make this disappear, there is also a spell to make it appear. And dad... I-I mean Merlin can't find the book,"
"Wait... So you're saying a Toon did this?" Luz asked.
"Has to be," Trickster said. "And they still have the book. Who knows where it is,"
"Then... we gotta track down magic Toons... someone from our show perhaps?" Amity asked.
"It has to be an older Toon," Trickster said. "Remember, newer Toons like you can't use magic outside of your show,"
"Ah, you're right," Amity said.
"But there are hundreds of magic-based old Toons! How are we going to narrow it down?" King asked.
"Alright... You three stay here, I'll go with James to the library, and see what we can find,"
Luz nodded. "Okay. We won't stay here though. Amity, King, and I will go back to the Boling Isle to just get some extra help with things because if a Toon is going Rouge, we need all the help we can get,"
Trickster nodded. "Come on James, let's go,"
"So... what is this library?" James asked looking around. "Holy hell... This is massive!" The library looked endless. There were so many books. "This could be a backrooms level," He said.
"That creepy shit that humans made up? No, thank you. That guy who made that animation tried to get the Toon Town workers to build a fake dimension of it, but they refused,"
"What? They were afraid it was going to leak into our world or something?" James asked with a snort.
"Well, after what happened with a few failed attempts at making fake dimensions like that, they didn't want to do em," Trickster said. "Anyways, this library has a note on every cartoon character in existence. Even side characters. Even extras,"
"S-Serously?!"
"Yep!" Trickster said.
"Why... Why are we here for then? Aren't we-"
"We're trying to get any information on Toons with magic abilities. Older Toons, anyways,"
"Then... ok... this is a lot of books. How are we going to even look at what we want without getting tried?" James asked.
"Over here, follow me," Trickster walked over to what seemed to be a computer.
"Huh? What's this?" James asked.
Trickster touched a few stuff on a pad, and a few words popped up.
- SERCH FOR -
DC Toons
Marvel Toons
Warner Brothers Toons
Terry Toons
Disney Toons
Dreamworks Toons
Nickelodeon Toons
Cartoon Network Toons
Blue Sky Studio Toons
Hanna-Barbera Toons
James blinked at that. He selected the random one at the top
- DC Toons -
A:
Ace the Bat Hound
Andrew Bennett
Animal Man
Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man
Aquagirl (Lorena Marquez)
Aquagirl (Tula)
Aqualad (Garth)
Aquaman
Ares (DC)
Artemis
Atom Smasher
Atrocitus
Azrael
Aqualad (Kaldur'ahm)
Arsenal
Ava Sharpe
Axel Walker
Atom
Amazo
Adam Strange
Amazing-Man
Amethyst Princess of Gemworld
Abel
Abin Sur
Abby Holland
Alfred Pennyworth
"Oh shoot-," James said. "This is a lot of characters I don't know about,"
"Huh? 'Mr. I know everything about cartoons' doesn't know something?" Trickster said with a giggle.
"Well, I wasn't too big on comics, all that much," James said. He really wasn't. He remembered being younger everyone had comics and whatnot, and all he wanted to do was watch black-and-white cartoons.
He kept on scrolling through the DC comics names until he found himself at T.
- DC Toons -
T:
Triple Girl
Timber
Talia Al Ghul
Terra
Thunder
Two-Face
Tom Turbine
Trickster
Trigon
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Toyman
Timber Wolf
Turtle
Tarantula
Talon
The Heretic
Tetch
The Thinker
"You know, maybe we should look at a different set of characters," Trickster suggested. "Because none of those look magic oriented to me."
James was looking through the names still. "Well, Talia Ah Ghul sounds magic to me," he said. He looked through until he saw something that made him look twice.
"What?" James said.
"Huh? What is it?" Trickster asked.
"What's this?" James pointed to a name.
Trickster blinked. "Wait... huh?"
'Trickster' was on the list of names.
James looked at his friend. Trickster returned the look.
"No... it can't be. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only Toon in the world called Trickster,"
But James had to make sure. So, he pressed it on the screen.
There was a loud sound. "Woah! What's happening?!" James said.
"The library is going to send us the book,"
All of the library shelves disappeared into the ground.
James noticed that there was a track. A track of what the shelves roll on.
Then in the far distance...
There was a shelf flying down the tracks toward them.
"What!? Is it going to stop?!" James was about to run, but then the shelf made a sudden stop at the end. James was panting. "Holy crap!"
He heard Trickster laughing.
"Shut up Trix!" He snapped
James looked up at the shelf. It had one book on it. James reached over, then pulled it out.
He looked at it.
- DC Comics: Trickster -
The front of the book showed the Toon. It was a Toon in a yellow suit, with blue sides. And yellow and blue plaid pants, and blue gloves. They had a blue eye mask on.
"Wow..." James said as he opened the book. "Apparently, he's a Villan to The Flash... Look! He uses bombs and different tricks to get at him! Like... slaspstick?"
James looked over at Trickster.
"What? Are... Are you saying this is me? It can't be. I'm not a part of DC comics. And even so, he's in color. I'm black and white,"
James looked back at the book. "But... what if this is you? Like, didn't you tell me when they reboot a Toon, they draw them over? DC Comics is affiliated with Warner Brothers, aren't they? What if they rebooted you? Just... without your consent which kinda sucks-,"
Trickster sighed. "James... come on. My 'legacy' that I never had, is gone. Long gone,"
"But... All I'm saying is that-"
"No! No James, my Cartoon was shit at the time. They scrapped it and that was final. Whatever you're thinking, never happened. This is just some random Toon they gave the name Trickster too. It's just another prankster. He clearly did better than me," Trickster said.
Trickster could see that James looked sad. "Look, James. I know you mean well," he placed his hands on James's shoulder. "But you need to actually know about cartoons,"
"B-But I do know about cartoons!"
"I don't mean in that way. I mean, you actually need to know what goes on behind the scenes," He said.
James blinked at him.
"It's not a bed of roses over here. They might paint it like that in the cartoons you watch, but it's not. Us Toons have a lot to fear,"
James arched his eyebrow. "A-A lot for fear? Like w-what?"
"Well, us Toons don't age. And that can cause problems for some. They're trying to develop a technology that can age us up, but for the last 100 years, it hasn't been like that. So if a Toon is a kid, they'll never get into a teenager or an adult. It's why Arthur still looks very young," Trickster said.
James thought. "B-But why is that a problem?"
"Because it can interfere with their life outside of cartoons. On top of that, when cartoons end... or get shut down, you can't have Toons going to be in another cartoon. That's not how it works. Humans have it easy. If a live-action show gets removed, no biggie. The actor can find another show to star in. But when a Toon loses a show, they can never act again,"
James gasped. "What?! I-I... I didn't know that!"
"Not many people do know," Trickster said. Then, he sighed. He turned around then faced and leaned up to the fence that parted the room they were in, to the tracks the shelf was on. "Luz... Her... Her show is getting canceled,"
James blinked. "T-The Owl House?! Why?!"
"I don't know. Luz didn't really want to tell me why. But... what I was talking about before- She won't have another show to go to. She'll be Cartoonless like me,"
James felt sad. Trickster noticed.
"But, don't worry, she won't be like starving on the streets or something. Toon Town doesn't treat Toons like that. Some people just hate the fact that they won't act again, Y'know? Us Toons were created to entertain humans. So... when some of us can't do that, it makes some of us wonder what's the point?"
"Geez... I... I want to help all of you so bad!"
"That'll be helping thousands of Toons, and that's impossible to do," Trickster said shaking his head. He opened his arms. "Come here," Trickster said. James walked up to him and hugged him.
Trickster rubbed his back. "You... You are one of the sweetest humans I've ever met,"
James blushed. "I-I... I am?"
"Yes, you are," Trickster broke from the hug and looked at him. "You are so nice, and caring... and funny," Trickster said with a giggle.
James blushed.
"Come on, let's see if we can find some magical Toons,"
James shook his head. "This is going to be so hard to do."