Ralph escorted the Warners into the administrator's office. After the three entered the building, the officer left. The trio stood around and waited to be led into the testing room. It didn't take long for Plotz come up to them.

"Glad to see you three are on time." Plotz said through a forced smile. It was clear he was expecting the three to goof off. "Please come with me. The room has been prepared for you three."

"Prepared, like did you make us some baloney sandwiches?" Yakko smirked.

"Where?!" Wakko looked around excitingly. Upon hearing Yakko's laugh, Wakko's ears lowered. "Oh...no sandwiches? But I'm hungry!"

Plotz glared at him and said through gritted teeth. "You'll get your sandwich after the test!"

"But I didn't eat breakfast..." Wakko whined.

"Too bad!" Plotz whipped his head away. He walked for a few steps only to look back at Wakko. Seeing his puppy-eye dog look, he let out a groan. "Oh I'm going to regret this..." He whispered to himself. "Okay fine, how about you three take the test in the cafeteria? You can eat whatever you want..." Upon seeing Wakko's expression, he quickly added, "That doesn't mean eat everything in the cafeteria! You hear me?!"

Wakko nodded his head eagerly. "Yes sir!"

"Good!" Plotz adjusted his tie. "You three can head to the cafeteria. It's down the hall to the right. I will go get your exams and pencils."

"Pencils?" Yakko asked.

Plotz raised an eye brow. "Yes. Pencils. To take the exams with. Don't you know that?"

Yakko let out a light chuckle. "Yeah of course. How silly of me!" He held out his hands innocently.

Plotz said, "Whatever. Just head to the cafeteria and don't do anything zany! Just...just for this test, please keep yourselves under control!"

Yakko saluted him. "Will do, doc!" His siblings followed suit.

"I'm not a doctor!" Plotz shouted.

"Really?" Yakko grinned. "Maybe you should see one."

Plotz clearly had enough. He turned around and stormed down the hallway, muttering words that should never be heard by young ears. The trio did a mock gasp and oooh'ed as Plotz disappeared down the hallway. They looked at each other, smiled widely, and made a mad dash to the cafeteria. Wakko, being Wakko, was well out in front of them, with Dot and Yakko about two feet behind him.

Within minutes, they were in the cafeteria. Due to the time they came, very few people were there, which meant there was no line to wait in to get food. Yakko and Dot already knew what they wanted, but Wakko had a hard time picking. He held up the line of siblings, taking so long to decide. He finally settled on getting one of everything.

The three, now with plates filled with food and drinks, went down to a table and sat. Dot and Yakko couldn't help but stare at Wakko's plate. It was so tall it nearly touched the ceiling. And of course, seeing how this is Wakko, the little boy was undaunted by how much he had brought. He quickly began eating it all, sucking it up like a vacuum.

"I really wish I knew how he can eat that much..." Dot pondered.

"The boy has a blackhole for a stomach." Yakko said, pointing a fork in Wakko's direction. "That's my theory."

As the Warners ate, they heard the cafeteria doors swing open. Plotz came in, carrying three somewhat large piles of paper. He struggled a little with the papers and nearly fell over. But he managed to keep his balance and reached the Warner's table. He sat a pile of papers in front of each Warner sibling, along with a pencil for each of them.

Plotz wiped his hands together and said, "You three have four hours to finish. That should be plenty of time." He turned and started to walk out of the cafeteria. "When you three are done, bring the papers to my desk, and then get out!" He left the cafeteria.

Wakko, whose mouth was so full it stretched to double his size, swallowed and said, "That guy is a bit of a grouch."

"Well you heard him." Yakko said as he picked up the first sheet of paper and placed it in front of him. "We need to get this done."

"Aww...do we have to?" Wakko whined. He puckered his lower lip in a pathetic manner. "I didn't get a chance to finish my third hotdog."

Dot smiled mischieviously at him. "So would you rather have our show canceled and never returning to television, thus ruining the childhoods of many and depriving everyone of our brilliance?"

Wakko stared at her for a few seconds. Then he reached up to grab a paper. "Gimme that!" In seconds, he was scribbling on the paper frantically with the pencil.

Dot smiled, proud of herself. "I knew that would work." She then began work on her own exam.

An hour passed as the Warners worked on the exam. Little by little, the food had disappeared, been eaten, mostly by Wakko of course. They were almost finished by this point. The exam didn't take as long as they thought it would. The questions weren't even that hard. Pretty simple, with no wrong answers.

Well, two of them were almost done. Yakko hadn't filled in a single answer. He hadn't even picked up the pencil. He stared down at it, his eyes a little wide. He reached down and tried to grab it. His hands were trembling too much and as soon as he would touch the pencil with his finger tip, he'd pull his hand away fast.

Yakko looked up at the clock. He bit his lip. He would run out of time at this rate. He took in a deep breath. He wasn't going to let his fear take him over like this. He narrowed his eyes, stared down at the pencil, and grabbed it in a tight fist.

Writing faster than he ever had in his life, he literally left behind a trail of pencil smoke as he caught up with his siblings. They coughed and wheezed as the smoke cleared. They stared at him, wanting to know what the heck that was about. Yakko merely shrugged it off with an innocent grin and continued to work.

Moving the pencil fast, answering as quickly as he could, that seemed to help ease Yakko's tension...for a time. Soon, the sound of the pencil scraping against the paper was starting to get to him. The scraping of his siblings' writing, it was growing louder and louder in his mind.

Yakko gulped, trying to keep his eyes from widening, trying so hard to subdue his shaking. As he was writing the answer for the final question, he felt himself lose grip on the pencil. His hand was so covered in sweat, it actually leaked through his gloves.

He finished the last question, just in time for his siblings to finish as well, but he continued staring wide eyed at the pencil in his hand. He could barely hear his siblings' calling his name, voices filled with concern. His eyes slowly dilated, his face becoming covered in sweat.

Without so much as a warning, Yakko threw the pencil onto the ground. A loud crack was heard as it broke into two. Wakko and Dot stared at their older brother in shocked silence. Yakko was breathing heavily and looking like he had seen a ghost.

"What's the matter, Yakko?" Wakko asked, his ears flat against the back of his head.

Yakko shook his head, stared at his brother and sister, and looked away. "N-Nothing is wrong with me!"

"Yakko, don't lie to us." Dot said in a soft voice. "We know something is wrong with you." She reached a hand out towards him.

Yakko slapped it away. "Nothing is wrong with me! I'm just...in a hurry that's all!"

Dot frowned at him. "Yakko..."

Yakko folded his arms and said, "I told you, I'm fine!" He almost yelped in surprise when Wakko hugged him from behind.

Now dangling along his brother's shoulder, Wakko put his face close to Yakko's and said, "Pretty please tell us? Is it a secret?" Using the hand that still held his pencil, Wakko touched the side of his own face. "You know it isn't nice keeping secrets from your siblings."

"Wakko, get down from there!" Dot scolded him.

"Aw come on! I just wanted a piggy back ride, you know, like the old days!" Wakko said to her.

Dot rubbed her face and moved her head from side to side. An exasperated groan escaped her lips as she opened them to retort,"For the last time, Wakko, that was a dream sequence that was cut out! It never really happened!"

"Daww..but..." Wakko stopped himself as he saw the look in his brother's eyes. "Yakko? What's wrong?"

Yakko's white pupils were focused on the pencil Wakko held in his hand. Every second that ticked by, Yakko's pupils seemed to shrink by a centimeter. Soon they were just tiny dots in his black sclera. He barely uttered a whimper as he suddenly pushed his brother off of him, using an unusual amount of force, and took off.

Puzzled by his behavior and very concerned, his siblings ran after him, calling out his name. Yakko didn't hear any of it. He just kept running. His surroundings had become a blur. His heart was beating so fast, he swore it was going to burst from his chest.

Before he knew it, he was running into the CEO's office. Plotz saw him coming and said, "Done already? Where is your paperwork?" Upon seeing Yakko wouldn't stop running, Plotz leaned back in his chair, eyes wide as he expected a full on collision. "Yakko Warner! Stop right there!"

And stop he did. Yakko was barely able to avoid hitting against Plotz's desk. The short fat man took a few minutes to catch his breath. He felt his heart beating fast in his chest. He took a few seconds to calm down before he jumped out of his seat, raising his arms as he started to rant at the tall Warner.

"Yakko! What is the meaning of this?! I told you to keep yourself under control! Instead, you tore through the hallways and almost crashed into my desk! How do you explain yourself?!" Plotz yelled at him. Upon seeing Wakko and Dot come in, he pointed at them. "And you two! What is the meaning of this?!"

"Sorry, Plotz, but there's something wrong with Yakko!" Dot cried.

"I'll say! He has some nerve coming in here and..." At that moment, Plotz looked over at Yakko. It was then the short man realized something really was wrong. Yakko's entire body was trembling, like it was losing its strength. "...Yakko?" He said, concerned.

Clutching his chest, Yakko fell to the ground.

sss

"Yakko?"

"Come on, Yakko, wake up!"

"Wake up zis instant!"

Yakko's eyelids trembled as he managed to open them. A bright light shined in his eyes. He grimaced and looked away.

He looked at his surroundings. He realized he was in Dr. Scratchensniff's office. He was laying on a low red couch thing. He wasn't sure what it was called. He sat up and rubbed his head. He felt like he had smalled it into the cold, unforgiving floor.

He then noticed the looks on everyone's faces. He was surprised that even Plotz was here and looking worried. "Why are all of you looking at me? Do I have a boogie?" He said, smiling. When no one smiled back, his own smile faded. "Seriously, what is wrong?"

Plotz was the first one to respond. He walked up to the boy. "Yakko, you...fainted in my office."

Yakko's eyes widened. "I did what?!"

Plotz nodded grimly. "Dr. Scratchensniff has determined your heart beat so fast that you...well long story short, you lost conscousness. Your siblings and I tried to wake you up and when you didn't, we took you here." The short man gave a slow nod do Dr. Scratchensniff to continue.

Dr. Scratchensniff went over to his desk and grabbed a piece of paper. He went over to Yakko and sat down by his side. He showed him the paper. Yakko could see that it was his heart beat. He was shocked to see how sharp the lines were and how wide they were.

"Thiz waz your heart rate when you came in, Yakko. It took uz a half hour to bring it back down. We were lucky it went back to normal before it got any worse."

Yakko gulped involuntarily. Was it really that bad? He felt his chest, and was glad to hear that his heart really was beating normally now.

"There iz more." Scratchensniff said. He turned to Wakko, Dot, and Plotz and said, "I waz waiting for Yakko to wake up before I told zis." He looked back, practically feeling curious, demanding eyes on him. "Zee, Yakko, I took a blood sample from you and it is high in..." He rubbed his head. "It's too scientific...I'll make it zimple. You had an usual amount of adrenaline in your blood."

"Adrenaline?" Yakko asked.

Scratchensniff nodded. "Given the amount that I found, there is just one question I need to ask of you." Yakko stared at him, waiting. "What iz it you were terrified of?"

Yakko stared at him in surprise. "I wasn't afraid of anything..."

"Oh yes you were. Don't lie!" Dot said. "You freaked out over pencils! Don't try to pretend we didn't see it!"

Scratchensniff blinked. Pencils? That sounded odd. But given the tone of Dot's voice, it sounded like she wasn't lying. He looked down at Yakko. He seemed to have frozen at the word. The idea seemed ridiculous. Yakko, terrified of pencils? That was absurd. He almost laughed thinking about it.

But being a doctor, he had to be open minded to different possibilities. To test Dot's accusation, he picked up his own pencil. He brought it close to Yakko's face. Seeing the boy's pupils shrink and leaning back towards the wall, like he wanted to get away, Scratchensniff knew Dot was telling the truth.

"See?" Dot said. Her voice was slighlty accusatory, but there was a hint of sisterly love in it. "Please, Yakko. Just tell us what happened. We want to help you."

Yakko realized what he was doing. Almost in an instant, his usual happy demeanor was back. "Come on guys, it's nothing more than acting! Come on...you believe me right?"

But he knew, in his heart, they did not believe him. Even with acting, with the way his heart was going and the adrenaline levels...there was no way that could be faked. He became silent and stared at them.

Should he tell them what happened? Did he really want to cave in and confess to them what he did...what that...monster did...?

What could they do to help? No one could help him now. No one...

Scratchensniff leaned towards Yakko. He gently placed a hand on his head. He normally didn't pet the Warners. He treated them like young people. But he could see Yakko needed something to help calm him. "Tell uz what happened to you, so we can help."

Yakko's response was not anything anyone expected.

The Warner jumped from the seat, his tail straight out, his fur bristling in shock. The scream he let out was too inhuman, even for a toon to make. He screamed, "I don't want this!" As soon as his feet touched the ground, he bolted out of the building.

Plotz let out a soft sigh. He turned to Scratchensniff. "That boy is to come back here tomorrow to be re-examined. Do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of what is going on with him. I am counting on you." Scratchensniff was silent, only nodding.

Wakko and Dot walked towards the exit. Wakko's head was lowered. Dot's ears were folded back. For a few seconds, neither of them spoke.

Wakko broke the silence. "Sis...what is wrong with Yakko?"

Tears starting to come up, Dot said in a soft, almost inaudible voice, "I don't know..."