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When Yakko first heard the news, he thought it was a joke.
A hilarious, horrible, poorly-timed joke.
Warner Brothers studios was iconic. Hostoric. It was an integral peice of American cinema. Utterly priceless.
There was no way Warner Brothers Studios could go up for sale!
And there was absolutely no way in hell they could possibly be bought by Netflix of all studios!
Paramount at least sounded plausible. Those two had been fighting for eons. Pratically since the invention of the camera. Though if Paramount bought them then they could all kiss CNN goodbye.
But Netflix? The same people who invented the 8-episode season? The originators of the password-sharing police? The very people constantly lamenting how much money they lost when users canceled their 30-day free trials on day 29? That Netflix was now gearing up to buy their entire studio?!
There was no way!
It was impossible!
It had to be the set-up of some ridiculous joke.
It had to be...
But the longer things went on. The more the Warner siblings realized just how serious this deal might be.
Miss Norita stopped taking any and all calls. And when they did catch her walking out of her executive office, she wore a tight-lipped frown. Warning the Warners that they may have "new representation" in a few months.
Movie deals were getting canceled. (But then again, the Warner Brother executives loved canceling films at the very last second, so that really wasn't anything new.)
Directors and Producers all over Hollywood began pushing back, speaking out against the potential merger. Like it was a very-real thing. That it could happen any day now.
But the literal-nail in the proverbial-coffin finally came one morning when the Warner siblings were suddenly awoken by the sounds of an industrial drill.
Screeching right against the metal of their precious water tower.
Yakko, Wakko and Dot were all startled right out of their beds.
And taking the lead, Yakko hurried to pull on a robe and stomped over to the nearest wall. Banging on it and shouting.
"Hey! Cut that racket! There's sleeping child actors in this water tower you know!"
"Professional sleeping child actors!" Wakko said.
"And we need all the beauty-sleep we can get!" Dot added, giving her brothers plenty of side-eye. "Some more than others..."
But whoever was outside didn't respond to any of their quips. They just kept hammering and drilling away.
Grumbling, Yakko headed for the door. Gearing up to give all the construction workers outside a peice of his mind. Muttering under his breath as he went. "Lousy sons of... collar's blue but their necks are red..."
He gripped the doorknob, ready to throw it wide open.
Only the door didn't budge.
"Weird..." Yakko frowned. He tried again. He could feel his side of the doorknob move but the door still wouldn't open.
As if it was sealed off from the outside.
Yakko's veins turned to ice at the realization.
They... were they trapped?
Yakko tried not to let his panic show. The last thing he wanted to do was freak out his sibs. He angled himself away from Wakko and Dot. Jerking the doorknob a little more harshly.
But even when he tried to hide it, Wakko and Dot could sense something was wrong.
"Big Bro?" Dot asked, her words coming out quick and small. "You can open the door, right? They wouldn't... they wouldn't lock us in here. Not again. Would they?"
"I don't think I can go through that again." Wakko said quietly.
"No! You won't have to! Not now, not ever!" Yakko snapped, now fully reeling back to slam his whole body into the door. Again and again. "We'll be out! Of! Here! Before you know it! I just! Have! To! Get! This! Stupid! Door! OFF ITS STUPID HINGES! AHHHHHHHH!"
Thankfully, with one last hit, the door finally slammed open. And all three Warners felt like they could breath again.
The human costuction workers on the outside however looked suprised. Jumping back as all three Warners came barreling out of the water tower.
"Oh, what the hell?!" One of them startled. "No one told me there'd be toons up here!"
"Of course there'd be toons up here." Yakko said, quick to imitate the construction worker, pointing a harsh finger towards her. "This is our house!"
The team-lead among the workers was quick to intervene. And she looked at the Warners with pleanty of annoyance.
"Look, we're not here to ruffle any feathers or whatever you kids got. We're just here to do the refurbishing."
"Refurbishing?" Wakko frowned. "Refurbishing of what?"
"Whattya think?" One of the other construction workers frowed. Holding up buckets of red paint in each of her hands.
The team-lead spoke up again. "Look, we're gonna be here all-day. So is there anywhere you kids can go?"
Yakko wanted to argue more. Claiming that they shouldn't have to go anywhere. And that nobody was allowed to mess with their water tower.
But before he could say anything, he heard a familiar voice call out.
"Oy! Pipsqueaks! Can ya come down here?"
The Warners looked down and saw Bugs. Standing right by the base of the water tower. Daffy Duck and Porky Pig were all close by. They and Bugs were each wearing large sunglasses and had suitcases with them.
"Yeah! We'll come down!" Yakko called out before ushering his siblings to follow him over to the ladder.
Normally the Warners loved giving any source of authority in their lives a healthy dose of opposition. But they could make an exception for Bugs. He was like an Uncle to them. Plus he was the true master trickster, he pratically perfected the art. And that at least earned him some respect with the Warners.
Though as they slid down the ladder, Wakko couldn't help but frown at the other toon's get-up's.
"They got their bags packed. I don't suppose they're going on holiday?"
"Wouldn't be the first time." Dot replied. "Remember that trip to Cancun?"
Yakko nodded back! "Si! Estuvo increíble!"
Wakko still looked worried. "But if they're going on holiday, then why do they look so sad?"
None of the Warners had a good answer for that. Especially not as they came face to face with the older toons.
"S-s-sorry ah you'ah kids had-ha-had to'a had to wake up to all- all-ah-all that racka-rackety-racket." Porky stuttered to say.
Bugs continued. "We were gonna try getting you three sooner but we got held up at the distributor's office."
"The distributor's office?" Dot questioned. "Why on Earth would you need to go to a grubby place like that?"
Porky, Daffy and Bugs all shared a silent look before turning back to the Warners.
"We're... we're gonna go spend a few months at another site. Just for a little while." Bugs tried to say.
"Another site, or another studio?!" Dot gasped.
"Who is it?!" Yakko demanded.
Bugs bit the inside of his cheek. But he eventually answered. "... Tubi."
Yakko could hardly beleive what he was hearing.
"TUBI?! Come on Bugs! You guys are too good for Tubi!? Why on god's green earth would we all go to Tubi?!"
Daffy didn't say a single word. Just folding his arms across his chest and looking away.
"It's-ah it-it-it's not ideal-ideally-ididdaly ideal. But it's- it's-ah it's-"
"It's good for now." Bugs finished Porky's words for him. "Only thing is you can't come with us. They're only streaming our older works and the Merry Melodies. They won't even let Lola come with us..."
Yakko and never felt more small.
"But... but where will we go?" Wakko asked.
"We're gonna take you three to your parents." Bugs replied, looking up towards the water tower with a sigh. "Things around here are about to get real ugly. They tellin' toons with any other places to be to head out. At least until the dust settles."
"It-ah-it-ah it'll only be temp-ah-termper-idilly-idia-temporary." Porky added. Patting Wakko on the shoulder. "We'll be-ah be-ah be all right back-et-ah before y-y-you-ida you know it!"
"That's right!" Bugs agreed. Trying to sound supportive. "And you know? We might come back and find out none of them mergers even happend. And we can all go back to the way things are supposed be!"
Yakko tried to keep his breathing from going out of control.
He was use to adults lying to him. Directors and producers who made false promises of getting another big break. Dr. Scratchensniff telling him his flu shots would only "hurt for unt second". Even his own parents, Oswald and Ortensia Lucky Rabbit, who had spent years hiding their identities from the Warners.
He never thought Bugs would lie to them too.
But there wasn't much he could do. He felt numb. Like he was a scared little kid all over again.
And all he could do was silently follow the older toons as they guided them away from the water tower. All the way to the secret-backstage exit from the Warner Studio Lot. Heading for Toontown.
Though, as they left the studio behind, Yakko spared a single moment to look back.
He felt his heart jump up into his throat when he spotted the construction workers painting a hideous red "N" where their original logo use to be.
Yakko counted himself lucky that only he had been dumb enough to look back. That Wakko and Dot hadn't looked back too. Otherwise Yakko knew for sure his sibs would never leave their tower behind. They'd run right back to it. Kicking and screaming.
A part of Yakko still wanted to do that. To go back and fight, and never stop fighting. Not until they got their studio back.
But as the eldest sibling he knew it was his responsibility to keep his siblings safe. And while times might have changed, studios were still surprisingly the same in some ways. WB had locked the kids away before, hidden them away for years at a time. And Yakko knew they could do it again if they wanted.
At least if they were away from the studio, that wouldn't be such a big risk looming over them. At least Yakko hoped so...
When they got to Disney studios, the mood wasn't much better.
There was an uneasy, tittering energy that seemed to follow every toon and cast member they passed.
When they arrived at the front gates, that's where Bugs, Porky and Daffy all took a step back. This was as far as they were allowed to go.
"Well... I guess this is goodbye for now?" Yakko asked. He still couldn't beleive this was really happening.
"I suppose so." Bugs said. All before leaning in and giving the Warner Brothers and Warner Sister one more, extra-long, extra-tight hug.
As he did, he leaned in, whispering earnestly, "Be sure to Give'em all hell, kids! For me."
And then he pulled away.
Hand in hand, the Warners all walked into Disney Studios.
Never in all their years did they think their biggest rival could be considered a second home. But between discovering they were related to the Lucky Rabbit himself, plus the disney+/hulu/espn bundle, the studio had become much more familiar to them over the past few months.
And now it seemed it was their only escape from Netflix.
And it was only when the kids were finally out of sight did Daffy Duck finally move. His head pratically fell on top of Porky's. He still didn't anything, never took off his sunglasses, but his breaths started coming out much quicker and whispier.
"Oh don-dona-don't you start again!" Porky started to blubber too, tears spilling out from under his own sunglasses. "When when-ita you cry, I-ah, i-ita I cry!"
Shaking his head, Bugs stepped over to pat both his old pals on their backs. "Come on fellas. It'll be alright. Just you wait and see..."
For a moment he took off his glasses, his eyes were still bloodshot after nearly crying all night. But now he was trying to face this day with a brave face. For his own sake and the sake of all his friends.
He wiped a smudge off his glasses and put them firmly back on his face. He still had appearances to keep up.
"We better get going. We got those negations with Tubi later this afternoon."
"But..." Daffy said, speaking up for the first time all morning. "But... those kids are right! I'm too good for Tubi!"
All before breaking down in very loud, very dramatic sobs.
And the only thing Bugs could to was rolls his eyes and drag both his friends back to the car before they made an even-bigger scene.
Once they were inside the Disney property, the Warners were quickly greeted by their Uncle Mickey.
But before Yakko, Wakko or Dot could even say hello to the mouse, they noticed someone strange following closely behind their Uncle.
It looked just like Mickey. But not quite exactly. The proportions of his face were all off. Ears too small. Smile too wide. Even his nose was wrong.
"Uhhh, whose that Uncle Mick?" Yakko said, pointing to the other figure next to his Uncle. "Looks like ya got a twin there."
"An evil twin." Dot added with a shudder. "Real ugly too."
All three Warners jumped back out of survival-instinct when the fake-Mickey suddenly waved his hand. Speaking in a chopped, unnatual voice. "Hello! Childrens! Welcome to the wonderful world of Disn- Here's seven ways to slimdown fast for the holidays!"
"Oh would you quit that already!" The real Mickey lamented, shoving the clone away. He turned back to the kids with regret. "I'm real sorry kids. I know you had to get away from your other studio, but now's not really a great time."
"I'll say." Yakko huffed, glaring at the fake-mouse. "Who even is this guy?!"
"That would be Sora-Mick." Mickey said. Even with decades of PR training, nothing could hide the pure contempt in his eyes as he glared at the AI-based creation. "The Board insists that he follow me around all day. So he can learn."
The Warners noticed that every step Mickey took, Sora-Mick would take as well. He even copied all of Mickey's hand movements and finger-quotes.
"Learn what?" Wakko asked.
Before Mickey could even speak, Sora-Mick spoke for him. "To be the very best mouskatool I can possibly be! M-I-C-K-E-Y! M-O-U-S-"
"Sora-Mick? Override code 3-14. Begin listing the top four-hundred highest grossing films of Botswana." Mickey finally said. Cutting the annoying AI-look alike off.
Much to the Warner's suprise, Sora-Mick began to list off movie titles. Exactly as Mickey had instructed.
With the AI distracted, Mickey pulled the Warner siblings away so they could talk in private. "I sure am lucky Gremlin Prescott showed me that trick. That should buy us a few minutes to talk before the programmers get suspicious."
"Mickey! What the heck is going on here!" Yakko demanded. "Bugs sent us here cause he thought it'd be safer!"
"Trust me, I wish he was right." Mickey said, looking frazzled. Sadly seeming more like that mouse they met months ago. The one who struggled with having everyone and everything appear perfect.
Yakko wondered if his Uncle felt just as panicked and powerless as they felt.
"When we first found out Sora was stealing our data, the execs promised they'd help protect our image." Mickey sighed, glancing back. "In all my years, I never thought it'd come to this... Sora's been making copies of everyone."
"Even our old man?" Wakko gasped, eyes wide.
"And our reasonably-aged mother?" Dot asked.
"Well, not yet. Sora's AI-system has just been focusing on the main-faces such as myself. And all the princesses... Here, I can take you to Oz's place. While S.M. over there is still trying to reboot."
As Mickey and the Warners all walked away, they saw how Sora-Mick began to glitch-out. Struggling to keep listing movies. Until he just started doing the hot-dog dance instead.
"hOT d-d-d-OG!"
When the Warner's finally got to the Lucky Rabbit residence, they all let out a sigh in relief.
"Finally." Yakko spoke up, opening the front gate and letting his sibling walk past first. Their Mom, Ortensia, always had an amazing vegetable garden in the front yard. As the kids took a deep breath they could smell all the fresh herbs already.
It had only been a few days since they visited last, but after their insane morning, that had felt like ages ago.
"Well, I'll leave you kids to it." Mickey replied, leaning his elbows on the fence for a moment then pushing off. Before he left though, he turned back to tell the kids one last thing. "Hopefully when this all how-you-do's finally done we can spend some more time together. Maybe go visit old Toontown?"
"That sounds nice." Wakko nodded.
"With or without the rouge AI?" Yakko asked. "And if it's with, can we mess with Fake-Mick until it short-circuits?"
"Oh would you?" Mickey smiled. "Cause that would just make my day, haha! Catch ya kids later!"
After waving goodbye to their Uncle, the kids all headed inside. Immedietly being tackled by all their army of bunny-siblings.
"Oh my gosh! We heard about the merger on the news!" Their sister Opal cried out, hugging Wakko tight. "Are you guys alright?"
"You haven't gotten harassed by those kids from Stranger Things, have you?" Odile asked next. "Or The Kissing Booth teens? Cause if they did, I'll beat them all to a bloody pulp!"
Taking the lead Yakko tried to push all their siblings off of them. "No! Nothing's happened yet. The worst they've done is deface our stupid water tower. We're fine."
"We should be asking you guys if you're ok!" Dot spoke up. "Is it true you're all getting creepy-AI, deep-fake, body-snatching doubles?!"
"Not us." Orlando grumbled. "Apperently we're not as mass-marketable."
"Well for one I prefer it that way!" Ophelia declared, the honorary goth-member of the family. She even styled her long rabbit ears into big emo bangs across one eye. "Monocultures breed conformity and malcontent."
Yakko nodded sagely at Ophelia's counter-culture words. "We truly are related, huh sis!"
By then, Oswald and Ortensia finally made it through their swarm of kids.
"Alright, alright, make a hole people! They're my kids too!" Oswald shouted out. Lifting several of his rabbit-kids out of the way.
Ortensia came up first, checking over each of them. "Oh my poor babies! I called Bugs and demanded he get you kids outta there as soon as we heard! And I- Wait. Yakko, are you alright?"
Yakko was fully-ready to repeat what he'd said before. That they were fine. Just a little shaken up.
But Yakko had recently discovered that sometimes when a Mom asked you if you're ok. Those words can suddenly be like dam breaking. And Yakko suddenly felt every bit of horror and stress and anxiety he'd been bottling up all day.
And despite the wave of emotions crashing down on him, Yakko could hardly say a word. All he could do was quickly duck his head into Ortensia's arms while Dot and Wakko did their best to explain everything that happened.
"Well for starters we were all rudely awoken by some construction workers ripping out water tower apart." Dot pouted. "And when we tried to get out, the door got jammed! And that- that really wasn't fun..."
"Oh my, that sounds awfully scary." Ortensia sighed, petting Yakko's head.
Normally her son stood nearly a whole head-and-a-half taller than everyone else in the house, but now he was pratically curled up into a ball in her arms. Still refusing to make eye-contact with her or anyone else.
Wakko continued their tale. "Then we ran into Mister Bugs! He and his friends were all dressed to go to Cancun, but they ain't going to Cancun, they're going to Tubai!"
"It's pronounced Too-Bee." Yakko correctly gently, voice muffled since his face was still smooshed into Ortensia.
"Tubi. Roight." Wakko nodded. "Anyways. They said they couldn't take us. So they brought us over to Disney instead!"
"But it looks like you have your own problems to deal with." Dot frowned. "That AI-double following Uncle Mickey around gives me the creeps!"
"You and me both honey." Oswald agreed. "Man, I never thought this day would come. When the company got us back in 2012, I thought things would finally be different."
"So what do we do?" Yakko finally asked. Lifting his head away from Ortensia. "One wrong move and everyone could forget you guys again. And... and we could end up trapped in the water tower. Or locked in a safe. Or-"
"I promise you kid, I won't let any of that happen." Oswald stopped Yakko's ramblings before he really started to spiral. "I know exactly what you're going through. It... it reminds me exactly how it felt when I found out Walt and his team were walking away from Universal Pictures. Without me."
Yakko and all of his many siblings listened to their father's words carefully.
Oswald rarely talked about his past. He hardly ever even referred to Walt Disney by-name.
Oswald continued. "I was a younger toon then, hardly prepared for what was coming my way. And I made a lot of mistakes... so ever since then, my brother and I have been preparing."
"Preparing for this?" Yakko asked.
"Well maybe not this exact senario." Oswald admitted. "But just incase our family's deal with Disney went belly-up, Mick and I have been working on some fail safes. For the whole family."
Before any of the Warners could ask what their Dad meant by that, he decided to just show them.
He reached out, making a black spot appear in his hands. And after Oswald let it fall to the ground, that black spot quickly turned into a hole.
"A genuine black-spot tunnel!" Wakko marveled. "I haven't seen one of these since the 90's!"
"Does it really work?" Dot asked, poking the hole with her toe like she was dipping it into a pool.
"You bet it works!" Oswald replied. "Follow me, I'll show you where it goes!"
With that, Oswald dove right into the spot. Quickly vanishing from sight. As did Ortensia, and all of their siblings.
The last to go before the Warners was one of their brothers, Otis. Who always seemed to jittery, tapping his feet as he bounced around. "Trust me, you guys are gonna love it!"
Then he too jumped down.
And all that were left were Yakko, Wakko and Dot.
"Well, who should go first?" Wakko asked.
Dot reached out, taking both her brother's by the hand. "Why don't we all go on the count of three?"
Yakko smiled down at his little sister. "I like you're thinking, Sis! Ok here we go. One..."
"Two..." Wakko said next.
Until finally Dot yelled out. "THREE!"
And the trio all jumped into the black spot together.
For a moment, they were surrounded by a total, void-like darkness.
But then, slowly, they began to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
And when they finally got to the end. The Warners found themselves somewhere so familiar, and yet entirely new.
They were standing infront of an old house, one with tons of windows and fun hiding spots.
Their siblings were all running about the front yard, and they could see the beginnings of another herb and vegetable garden their Mom and started. It looked like this garden plot would be even bigger than the one she had in Disney, though this one was much earlier along. All the plants were still seedlings.
There was a big garage next to the house too. The perfect spot for all of Oswald's cars and trolleys and odd inventions.
And the house itself was lovely too. A strange hodgpodge of old 1920's elements like the stained glass above the front door and adorning the top of each window. And other elements seemed much more modern like the stucco-plaster of the outside.
But the oddest part of all. Was the tower that seemed to emerge right through the middle of the house. If the Warners didn't know any better they'd say that was a-
"A Water Tower?" Dot asked, eyes hopefully. "... For us?"
"If you want it!" Oswald replied, handing Yakko and each of his siblings their own sets of keys. "That and the whole rest of the house!"
"So that's the big suprise?" Yakko asked. "You got a second home? You and all the other upper middle-class americans. How does a house help us?"
"It's about where this house is." Ortensia tried to explain. "You do know where we are, right? Is it starting to look familiar?"
Yakko and his siblings took a moment to really look around. At the house and everything surrounding it.
Ortensia was right. This place was familiar. They way the grass seemed a little greener. The sun shined a little bright. It pratically seemed to be bouncing up and down.
Just like it had in-
"Oh my gosh, we're back in Toontown!" Dot gasped, finally understanding.
"That's right, sweetie!" Oswald said. "Mick and I are in the clear, but we know it's gonna be a few more years until everyone else we know will be public domain. But just incase things with these studios goes real south in the next couple months, we came up with this plan."
The Warners all gathered close as their father explained.
"Back in the day, Disney and Warner Brothers had a little truce for the filming of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. That way toons for all the studios could get featured. Even filmed together! Toontown became a neautral zone. A place where humans couldn't get to us."
"And we're gonna make it that way again." Ortensia explained. "So that way, no matter what happens with the studios, or who ends up belonging to what, us Toons will always be able to come back together."
"Even toons on Tubi?" Yakko had to ask.
"Of course!" Oswald said. "As soon as Bugs and his folks are ready, we're gonna send them their own black spots so they can all come and go too!"
Yakko thought it over.
He knew he had little say in what happened with his own Studio, or with any studio really. And there was no way he could ever go back to the ways things were before. But having this space. This neutral zone. A place where Wakko and Dot would always be safe and free to be themselves. It almost felt too good to be true.
"And... and we can always come here? No one will keep us away?"
"As long as we have hammer spaces and black spots, you'll always have us." Oswald replied with a smile. All before reaching up and pulling his three kiddos into a hug.
One that Ortensia and all the other bunny-sibling soon joined.
Things were getting stranger and stranger every day. And there was no knowing what tommorow would bring.
But at least here. Right in that very moment, Yakko, Wakko and Dot felt safe.
And they knew no one could take that away from them.