"Hey? Have you seen Bendy?" James asked, looking around, as he stopped leaning on the wall.
"You lost Bendy? Some father you'd be," Trickster said folding his arms.
"Hey! I just... lost him, it's no big deal. We can find him."
Both James and Trickster went to look for Bendy, thankfully, they saw him over at one of the nearby buildings. "There he is!" James said and quickly got to him.
"So... what are we going to do? We still have to ask around," Trickster said, as he walked up to James.
James nodded, as he picked Bendy up. "But, maybe we should find something to eat since you said you are hungry..." He said.
"Eh, that can wait—" Trickster began, only to be interrupted by his growling stomach again.
Blushing, James looked away. "Ok... um... Well, maybe we can find you something while we walk around," He said, then he looked back at his Toon friend. "You suspected it could have been Gargamel, let's-," He saw that Trickster was looking at him with his an arched eyebrow.
James felt his face heat up. "W-What?" He asked, his tone sounding nervous all of a sudden.
Trickster just giggled, then shook his head. "Nothing... So, yeah, let's just find that one magical Toon,"
James nodded, then walked forward. "Um. Where does he stay?"
"In one of the Toon buildings, here in Toon Town," Trickster said.
So they made their way through most of the Toon, to find where the villain of the Smurfs lived. As they were walking through the animated town, they realized they made their way to the edge of it. They came up to a tunnel, that led to the second portion of Toon Town. The 3D animation segment was added in 1995, when Pixar and Disney released the film, Toy Story.
"Hey... That's CGI Town through that tunnel right?" James asked.
He's been to CGI Town a few times. But prices differ from Toon Town and CGI Town. Entry to Toon Town costs about $50 for a day pass, but CGI Town is $100. Alternatively, one could get a bundle with both for $140 and save $10.
Game Town, is the most expensive, sitting at $130, and never is available in any bundle. You have to buy the tickets separately.
"I haven't been to CGI Town in a while," James said to Trickster as he walked past him, into the tunnel, then up to the turnstiles.
"I can see that CGI Town and Toon Town aren't affected by the invisible wall..." Trickster said.
James nodded. "Yeah, Adrien was over on the 2D side," he said.
They both stood there, staring into the tunnel, in the small view position of seeing the 3D buildings in the distance. "Do you think it could be a CGI Toon?" Trickster asked.
"Didn't... You say only older Toons can use powers?" James asked.
"Oh, that's right... CGI got invented in the '80s or something," Trickster said. "Definitely after the '40s when the whole dip situation went down," He said shaking his head. He leaned on the turnstiles.
Trickster stopped leaning on the turnstiles and then looked behind him.
"Hey, if we find Gargamel, or if we don't, you wanna visit CGI Town?"
James heard Trickster say
"Huh? But, I don't have a ticket..."
Trickster shook his head. "Who cares? There's no one to bust you. All the humans vanished..."
"Well..." James said, thinking.
"Maybe we can also raid a snack cart while we're at it-," Trickster suggested, rubbing his hands together with an over-exaggerated menacing look, "Toon style,"
James just chuckled. "Ok, now you're going too far."
"Look! Is that him!?" James yelled, pointing to a building. There was a Toon in a black robe walking up the steps.
"Yeah, that's him alright," Trickster said.
James took off. "Gargamel!" He called out.
"Hey! Wait!" Trickster said, then ran after him.
The old wizard stopped for a second, then turned around to see James walking up to him. "Oh? Hello? Wait... A human? So the workers haven't disappeared!"
Trickster heard what he said, as he came closer to James. "No, they're still very much missing," he said.
Gargamel sighed. "Oh no... Do you two have any knowledge of what is going on?"
"No... We don't... but we came to-," James started, but Trickster cut him off.
"We actually are making you a suspect of this," Trickster said bluntly.
"T-Trickster!" James said with an annoyed expression, then shoved his friend in his arm. "At least let us tell him what's going on."
Gargamel looked confused. "Suspect? Me? Of this? Why would you think that?" Then he looked annoyed. "Look, just because I'm a villain in my old show, does not mean that I—"
"I know," James said. "But, hear us out... Do you know about an old wizard spell book...?"
Gargamel blinked at him. "A wizard spell book? You mean, the... book I lost yesterday?"
James blinked at him, then looked at Trickster.
Trickster looked at Gargamel. "... You... have the book?"
"Well, I did... All of us magic folk here have one. If... I am not mistaken, Merlin is also supposed to have a copy. But, I can't find mine anywhere," Gargamel said. Then, he looked at the human and the Toon. "What do you both want with it? The book isn't a toy, just to let you know. Besides, only magic Toons can use it. You look like a rubber hose animated Toon, I can already tell you lack any form of magic," Then he turned his head to James. "And you are a human, you undoubtedly cannot use most Toon-based things,"
But, that was a lot of information already.
"Wait... Hold up, you have the book?" James asked.
"A book, as I said," Gargamel said. "Merlin and I, and possibly many more wizards from cartoons of my time have one."
"And... You're also missing it?" Trickster asked.
Gargamel squinted at him. "Also? What do you mean, 'Also'?"
"Something is really weird here..." Trickster said, looking at James. "Merlin lost his, and so has Gargamel? Who's taking them?"
Gargamel gasped. "Merlin has also lost the book?"
"Yes!" James said. "And whoever has it, seems to have blocked all entrances to leave the town!"
"And, also got rid of all the humans," Trickster said.
Gargamel had to process what he was hearing. "B-B-But, there is a human right next to you! How is he here if that's the case?"
"Don't know," James said shaking his head, looking down.
Trickster looked at James, then back at the wizard. "But, he's also stuck here with us."
Gargamel sighed. "In all my years of being here in Toon Town, I haven't seen anything as crazy as this since—"
"I haven't seen anything as crazy as this since the DIP incident, " Trickster chimed in.
"Ooh..." Gargamel said, shaking his head. "That was around like 30 years before I was drawn," Gargamel said. "Well, I best be going now. I hope you two find answers to what is going on,"
Then, he went inside the house and closed the door.
James sighed, then looked over at his friend. "Well... According to Gargamel... Other wizard Toons are losing their books... Who is taking them?"
Trickster shrugged. "Beats me," he said.
It was very weird. Whoever it was, wasn't doing anything but blocking them in. Was that what it was? Blocking everyone in, then unleashing some powerful spell on everything to hurt the Toons? Or the opposite, and keep the toons in so they can hurt humans on the outside? Doing so, Toons with powers like Superman wouldn't be able to help people.
"Um... Would any Harry Potter things be wrapped up in this?" James asked.
Trickster shook his head. "I don't think so, Harry Potter was from the early 2000s. No doubt they also removed those powers,"
But that made James interested in something. "Wait... how do they film live-action movies like that?"
They both started to walk off as James asked that. "Hmmm... You mean the CGI?"
James nodded.
"Well, as far as I know, they grant the humans with Toon power, just to film,"
James's eyes widen a little. "Woah? Seriously? I didn't know that... So... The Marvel movies... it... really...-"
"Is happening? Yeah. It's a new tech. It is to make movies more immersive. They opened a Fake Dimension of New York and had that Tom Holland guy wear a Spider-Man suit, he was really swinging through New York!"
"Seriously?! Geez, no wonder everyone wants to be a movie actor! They get to live with powers for a day!"
Trickster chuckled. "Yeah. But, after the days are over, they turn in the powers. They can't use them off-set. Only one set, and at some meet and greets,"
"Right, right... just like the Toons," James said.
They were walking through the town, not really knowing where to go, but then they saw Luz and Amity coming toward them. "Hey, Luz and Amity are in front of us," James said, pointing.
Luz noticed them. "James! Trickster!" She said.
"Luz!" Trickster said, as they walked up to each other. "Hello Amity," James said smiling.
"So... Did you guys find out... anything?" Amity asked.
"A little..." James said.
James and Trickster told them both what happened with Gargamel.
Luz sighed. "Still not a big breakthrough,"
"Definitely isn't," Trickster said.
"I guess James is going to have to stay here a little longer," Amity said.
James sighed. He just wanted to be home. He loves Toon Town, but he needs to be home with his family.
"Have you two found anything?"
"Nah, we went back to our fake dimension, our friends were getting worried," Luz said.
Trickster looked at James. "You want to still as around?"
James sighed. "What's the point... They're just going to say the same things, plus, I can't remember most wizards at the top of my head,"
"What we do know, is that this thing loves to be sneaky. We haven't seen anything at all," Amity said.
Trickster looked at James. "Hey, lets go to CGI Town, since I promised to take you,"