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Chapter 3: Worlds Beyond Ours

Now, before we can continue, we have to go back in time a bit. Long before the Blot got its deadly, drippy hands on Wasteland, and before the Jug fell into Wasteland, the world was quite peaceful… Except for one citizen. Oswald had been here for quite a while now, yet he was still desperate to see the Cartoon World again: he was in a state of major denial where he couldn't believe that the world had actually abandoned him.

So, he tried, with the Mad Doctor, to see if they could maintain a connection to the real world. It was difficult, for many reasons which are barely comprehensible, but a few can be understood:

1: Forgotten toons, as is common knowledge, cannot leave

2: The Wi-Fi couldn't reach up to the sky, and was this unable connect to the Cartoon world

3: As long as a forgotten toon was in Wasteland, they could exist safely anywhere

Now, this last one was where the weak point was. It was quite clear: as long as they were in Wasteland, they could exist in another place AT THE SAME TIME. And this is exactly what the pair were attempting together.

"Hey, pass me the wrench, Doc."

"Here you go, Oswald!" said the Mad Doctor, humming to a small tune. He finished fine-tuning the steel reinforcements on their machine, and gave it a knock. It was definitely firm. "We are almost done! I hope this will work, my friend."

"'Course it will, Doc! The luck…" Oswald took off his foot and rubbed it over him, "is on OUR side!" He popped his foot back on, and continued tightening the nut and bolt onto the processor.

He completed the last turn of the wrench, shut the hatch, and stood back. The pair high-fived and faced the machine they had made. It looked like a mechanical circle, attached to a blue platform that gave off rickety signs, yet the pair knew it was firm. Wiring stuck outside the hatch, and the paint wasn't all the same. And on top of that, they'd used all the metals they could find for something this big. But luckily, there were holes that appeared in the sky. They then turned their attention to the smaller, yet exactly as crucial, mechanism on the table. It was…

…a heart. Ok, not exactly a heart, but one made of a special crystal that was extremely powerful. It was powerful enough to search in any world for those who could just about remember the toon that time forgot. Oswald looked up into the Doctor's eyes.

"So… Are you going t–"

"No," replied the Doctor. "Alas, I am too vague a cartoon to be remembered enough. You deserve the fame and adoration that was, and is, rightfully yours."

A tear formed in Oswald's eye. "Doc… Thank you. For, well, all of this. Every part of it was thanks to you. This may – or may not – be the last time we see each other. But if it is… You will forever have my gratitude."

"Go, my friend and be freeee. Just promise you won't forget meeeee… " sang the Mad Doctor.

"Never," he said, voice sounding like a slush.

Oswald took the Crystal Heart in his hands, All of a sudden it levitated, shimmering, from its once red-to-blue colour wheel, into a bright red. It floated into the space in his chest, where his old heart had once been. He slowly started to feel something spread through his body. He felt… Well, he felt warm. He walked up to the hole, as he gave the Mad Doctor the all-clear. He nodded and flipped a large switch.

A dot appeared in the middle of the hole. All of a sudden it shook, glitching up and down and left and right. Oswald said, "Um, MAD DOC! I think there's something wrong here. Is it BROKEN?" Sadly, it was releasing an excruciatingly loud whizz, and the Doc couldn't hear him properly, so gave him a thumbs up. Unfortunately, Oswald took it as if there was no problem. He tried grasping the dot and he caught it. Its eerie gold flicker had disappeared, currently lying in his palm. Without any warning, he disappeared.

Oswald felt sick. He'd been spinning in circles for hours now. He was in a tube that seemingly went on forever. He wanted to turn back, to escape this torture, but he couldn't. There was no escape from this horrorful ride. He looked down at himself, shaking. He gasped as he saw the most frightening sight. His hands were disintegrating. He was turning to dust rapidly. Quickly, he threw what was left of his arm through the seemingly endless cylinder he was swirling in. On it was taped a small note, and if it could make its way through this tunnel of doom, it would help people remember him.

But as it hit the side of the tube, it altered Oswald. What was left of Oswald turned into multiple different shapes and dimensions, altering his structure as he rapidly lost body parts. He was a white rabbit, then a furry rabbit, then a 2D rabbit… Then, all that was left of his body disappeared into dust, flying away, until it was gone forever, never to be seen again. All that was left was the arm, grazing against the side of the tube. Then, it scratched and opened a hole in the tube and it disappeared through it, on its own bumpy route to who-knows-where.

Oswald, back at the lab, looked at the Doctor in hope. Yes, he was alive, as he had sent a copy of him into the Toon world. Or so he hoped.

The Mad Doctor looked at him, and shook his head. "I am so sorry, Oswald. However, we ca–"

Oswald looked down at the floor, sad. "It's ok, Doc. You tried. We all did. We don't need to try anything else." He raised his eyes up to the window. Looking out, he could see the world he had worked hard to create. It stood in glory and magnificence, hoping to impress Oswald, and it did so massively. The Crystal Heart, slowly moulding into something softer in his chest, swelled with affection, hope and, above all, love. "I was lookin' behind at what I'd lost when I shoulda looked at what was in front of me all this time. Thanks for showing me that, Doc. From now on," he said, his chest puffing up, "I won't forget what's more important."

"Oh, Oswald. You are a great leader. Every leader gets lost, but the good ones…" He patted Oswald on the back, "those ones, they fix what they broke, and clean up messes, intentional or not. They care. You are one of them." The Doctor turned back to the machine. "Hold on…" He stared at the screen, lines of code rapidly appearing, frowning. "The machine is telling me that the test subject disintegrated…"

Oswald simply said, "Uh-huh."

"But the code says… AHA!" He exclaimed in shock. Oswald ran towards him, and stopped beside him. "Part of you with the note, hit the side of the travel tunnel, grazing it, causing it to open a route into an unclassified area." He turned to face Oswald. "It may not have gone into the cartoon world… but it has gone into a multiverse of other worlds."

He carried on explaining, walking around the cramped storage room. "There are two theories of other life as we cartoons know. The first one: we–"

"–exist in parallel or alternate worlds, yes, yes, and?" hurried Oswald, as he already knew this. Everyone did.

"Be patient, my friend. And the second is, there is a whole world of cartoons, movies, things gone by and things yet to come. Villains, heroes, they all exist in worlds of their own, connected by forces of remembrance and popularity," he said, linking his index fingers together to show him. "They create links with their own fame, at least, that is what I believe it is."

"So, does that mean the message will get to someone from… another, completely different… world?" he asked, scratching his head.

"Possibly, my friend. Possibly."

Currently, in the present, Oswald was, once again, travelling down the crazy kaleidoscope. But this time, it was unstable. It was more jagged, like a path here had been forced. Like it wasn't natural. He was thrust from side-to-side, hitting the walls repeatedly, like a woodpecker hitting a tree. He felt really, really sick. Then, he felt gravity shift making him feel like he was sinking in quicksand. Oswald could have puked, but fortunately, he'd kept a few anti-sickness pills on hand. He'd made them years ago, and seeing as he was in dire need of them, swallowed all of them. If he had turned backwards, maybe he might have seen something following him…