Animaniacs 1. What's the secret?

**Chapter 1 – What's the secret?

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_It's a common fact that Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca the third – a.k.a. Dot Warner – is the cutest living creature on the face of the earth. With those two darling eyes; that cute little nose; that pretty pink dress; so sweet and cuddly, innocent, neat and trusting . . . oh yeah, Dot is simply a goddess. She can't help it. She was born that way. No matter how hard you try, you can never **ever** top Dot when it comes to cuteness. Sure, many people (and toons) are cute in some way, but Dot is cute in every way!_

That was written in some newspaper/magazine. Actually, it was written in many of those. It had to be done. A _huge_ drama had taken place a few weeks before. . .

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Out of the blue, Dot felt a cold chill go down her spine. Sometimes when that happened, it meant that she was excited or that something fun was about to occur. This time, though, she wasn't quite sure what the reason was. She stepped outside her room, only to bump into Wakko.

"Ow!" Dot whined. "You did that on purpose!"

Wakko didn't reply. He only rubbed his head and ran off. Funny, why did he do that? Dot didn't bother to think about it and went in the living room where Yakko was reading a paper. When he saw her approaching him, he quickly closed the paper, curled it into a ball, and threw it away.

"Hey, Dot," he said nervously. "What's up?"

"What was that all about?" said Dot. "Why did you throw the paper away? I was about to read it."

"Oh, sorry," said Yakko. "It's just that . . . well, you know how tense I can get. The sur-- I mean music scores weren't like I wanted. How can people vote for such a boring song? I mean, come on: 'Grace Kelly'?" He scuffed. "Give me a break. And the CDs weren't _any_ better! You should have seen the top three! Norah Jones' 'Not too late', Nelly Furtado's 'Loose' and Korn's 'MTV unplugged'! Talk about trash! Okay, so I'm being a bit harsh, but I hate people's dull music taste!" He said all that at maximum speed.

Dot stared at her brother for a while. "Um, Yakko, do those things you mentioned even exist?"

Yakko stared back. He then shrugged. "Nah, probably not." (Note: it's still 1997!)

"Well then, why did you _really_ throw it away?" Dot asked.

Yakko looked at his wrist as if there was a watch there, and then slammed his hands on his sides. "Alright! I'll tell ya!"

At that very moment, Wakko came to the scene out of nowhere. He grabbed Yakko's arm and whispered something in his ear. Yakko shook his head frantically and mouthed: "No way!" Dot was getting annoyed.

"What was that all about?" she asked again. Neither one of her brothers replied, but both turned away. Yakko reached to his pocket – which had suddenly appeared on his slacks – for a paddleball, while Wakko simply took a soda bottle from his gag bag – reached from behind his back – and began sucking on it.

"You guys!" she said while waving her hands. "It's not nice to whisper in front of others! Especially not me! You can't say no to me. I'm too cute!"

Yakko missed the ball for the first time in ages and Wakko spat out soda and choked on it. Then they both gave her a thumb up and said: "Right!" in unison.

Dot put her hands on her hips. There was definitely something going on. "This story hasn't even begun properly, and you're already making the readers think? What kind of main characters are you?"

She looked at her brothers. Yakko had a sheepish grin on his face (as usual), but for some reason, Wakko was avoiding eye contact. What was his problem? Sudden fear of his own sister? Maybe he had had a nightmare about her . . .

There was a knock on the tower door.

"I'll get it!!" the three siblings said. They all ran towards the door and fought to be the one to open it. Yakko reached it first, but Wakko was quick enough to be able to push him away. Dot didn't want to give up without a fight, so she reached for Wakko's hand, which was heading for the door. Instantly, Wakko pulled back and let Dot open. She eyed him. Even if his face had an extremely scared look, he tried his best to smile, though it didn't seem very convincing. Dot ignored him and opened the door.

"Yeeeeeesss?" she said with a cute voice.

"Yeah, hi," said a nerdy delivery boy. "I was supposed to give you this." He handed out a big envelope. Before Dot could accept it, Yakko snagged it.

"Thanks for that and have a good day!" he said. "By the way, you really need to work on your skin, pal."

"What?" was the only thing the boy managed to say before Yakko slammed the door on his face.

"What did he bring me? What did he bring me? What did he bring me? What did he bring me? What did he bring me?" Dot repeated while bouncing up and down. "Is it a letter from a fan? Did I win something? Is Mel coming for a visit? Mmmm . . . Mel . . . " She sighed.

Yakko opened the envelope and revealed an antique-brown piece of paper. He read it over and then looked at Wakko. "Aaaaaaaahh . . . " his voice slid, "I think that guy got the wrong address."

"Why?" Dot asked, snapping out of her daydreams about Mel Gibson. "What did the letter say?"

"Something about frogurts," said Yakko and put the paper back in the envelope.

"What's a frogurt?" said Wakko.

"Frozen yogurt," said Yakko and handed Wakko the letter. "Send this back. We don't need it."

Wakko took the letter, but instead of sending it back, he ate it. A big belch followed. "Sorry," he said and giggled. "I was hungry."

Dot frowned and crossed her arms. "I didn't even get to read it! What's gotten into you two? You're acting . . . I don't know, weird!"

"If you think we're weird, you should take a look outside," said Yakko and led his siblings on the tower balcony. Dot heard screaming and cheering. She was curious enough to step outside as well, followed by Wakko. The second the two got on the balcony, the crowd below cheered even louder. In between, Dot heard numerous people shout: "Oh my god!" and: "It's the cute one!!!" and: "I love you!!!!"

"Yakko, do you think this is a good idea?" Wakko asked worriedly.

"What? Showing you our fans? No way!" Yakko said and blew a kiss to the crowd.

"They love us!" said Dot. "They even said I'm the cute one. Well, not that I'm not used to that," she added and flipped her hair.

"That's not what I meant!" Wakko said behind grinned teeth. He grabbed his siblings and dragged them inside again. Dot could hear the crowd groan in disappointment.

"Why did you do that?" she said. "I was having a good time there!"

Wakko ignored her comment and whispered something to Yakko again. This time, though, Dot could make something out:

"You shouldn't . . . she'll know . . . about . . . me and . . . her!"

Dot gasped. Wakko Warner, her brother, the silent one, the emotional one; was in a relationship? How could that be? _Who_ could it be? When did it happen? Why was he the first? She was the cutest after all . . .

"No way!" she accidentally said out loud.

"What? What? What did you hear?" Wakko asked hurriedly. For the first time in a while, he looked at Dot in the eye. But as soon as he did, he ran away again. When he reached out of sight, Dot looked at Yakko.

"What's with him?" she asked, hoping that Yakko might spill something about Wakko's secret relationship.

"No idea," said Yakko. "Probably just paranoid. Could be that he's shy too, I can't tell."

"You mean you don't know about his new girl?" Dot asked, putting up her puppy eyes.

"New girl? What's that supposed to mean?" Yakko said, giving Dot the strangest look.

"Duuuh! I heard him say that you shouldn't show me the crowd because if you do, I'll find out about him and her!" Dot explained. "I'm not stupid, Yakko. I know _exactly_ what he meant. So, who is it?"

Yakko sighed. "That's not what he said, Dot. The only thing he mentioned was that I shouldn't be so hasty on letting our fans see us all together. There's this girl who's . . . really ugly, and she's kinda persecuting him. So, he made a little lie up. He told her that he couldn't date her because he was already seeing someone: you."

"_What_?!" Dot shrieked. "How could he have said that!! I'm his sister!! Speeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!!!!"

"I know!" said Yakko. "But get this: she believed him! But Wakko thinks that if that girl sees the three of us together, she'll find out that we're siblings – you know, we all look the same. She'll just do her biology."

For some reason, Dot was starting to picture what it would be like if she and Wakko _weren't_ siblings . . .

She shook her head. Dear god, what was she thinking! It was bad enough to make a lie, but a fantasy was even worse! She had to get that thought out somehow.

"Wanna go outside?" she asked.

"Well, that was random – but I give!" said Yakko. "Let's at least take a little stroll."

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It was nice to get some fresh air, and even if it was a little windy, that just made it fun. As the siblings walked in Griffith Park (well, maybe running, skipping and causing havoc would be more defining), Dot was constantly imitating Marilyn Monroe when a big gust blew at her and that made by passers cheer. But she couldn't help but notice a slight strange behavior in people. They were constantly giving her comments on how cute she was. She got it all the time, but it was suspiciously often this time.

"Hey, congratulations! You're so cute!"

"Wow! It's true! The cutest one is adorable!"

"I can't believe I'm seeing the cutest one with my own eyes!"

"The other two may be cute, but _the_ cute one is the cutest!"

"I've got a cute obsession after that!"

"They're all cute! Not as cute as the cutest, though."

"I'm so going to take part next time! Great win there, cutest!"

"The cutie contest isn't until next month, and I've already gotten lots of fans!" Dot said happily.

"Don't you think they said 'the cute one' a little too much?" said Wakko.

"Nah, I wouldn't say that," said Yakko. "Some people don't want to look stupid and show others that they know us. But then again, they do look stupid by not saying our names."

Just then, a group of middle-school girls came running towards the siblings, all squealing like a rusty door.

"Oh my god! It's them!"

"I wanna see! I wanna see!"

"I can't see the cute one!"

I wanna look at the winner!"

While the girls approached, the Warners looked at each other, then all shouted: "Run away!"

And a big race started. The Warners had to get their way out of the park, run across streets, jump over fences, smash trash cans, parody the Beatles, and hop on people's heads before they managed to get back to the movie lot. They didn't want to go back to the tower just yet, so they decided to pay a little visit to Scrathansniff.

"Helloooooooooooo nurse!!" was – of course – the first thing the brothers said, jumping into the arms of Hello Nurse. She, on the other hand, dropped the boys immediately and went straight to Dot.

"Hey, cutie," she said. "How's it going with you?"

"Uhh . . . okay, I guess," said Dot.

"That's so good to hear!" said Hello Nurse. "I just made some drinks. You want some?"

"No thanks," said Dot. How strange. Why was Hello Nurse suddenly so nice to her?

"I was a little worried about you," said Hello Nurse. "I didn't think you'd take it so well. Knowing you, I thought you'd totally snap! But here you are, like nothing happened."

"Oh, come on!" said Dot. "What is _wrong_ with you people? If there's something up, then say it! I don't care what it is!" She turned around and pointed at Wakko. "You, for example, could have told me about that ugly admirer of yours before, but nooooooooo! You had to make Yakko do it for you because you were too nervous!" She turned to Hello Nurse again. "And what about you, huh? What's with this sudden 'be-nice-to-Dot' thing? It's all so fishy to me."

Yakko, Wakko and Hello Nurse could do nothing but stare at each other. The only thing was that while Hello Nurse had a puzzling look on her face, the brothers had perverted grins on theirs.

"Okay, don't tell me anything!" Dot said coldly. "But I'm gonna find out what's going on. I think I'll ask Scratchy. He'll tell me. I'll just use my cute charms."

With that, Dot went into the doctor's office. There was a stack of paper lying on his desk, which he was carefully scanning. When he saw Dot, he made an attempt to hide the papers, but to no avail.

"What'cha doing there, Scratchy?" said Dot.

"Nothing important to you," said Scratchansniff. "Just the day's reports."

"Aren't there a bit many papers?" said Dot and walked to the doctor. She caught a glimpse of a newspaper's headline: ' . . . the cutest . . . ' and that's all she could read before Scratchansniff snagged the paper and placed it among the others. "I've felt so left out today. Everyone's been talking about something I know nothing about. I wanna know what it is. I wanna take part in the conversations!"

Scratchansniff sighed. He pressed a button on his phone and said: "Ms. Nurse, get in here right away."

Dot was excited. Finally! Someone was going to tell her! She knew Scratchy wouldn't fail! Hello Nurse came into the office after a short amount of time and stood right next to Dot.

"Do you want to know what everybody's talking about?" Scratchansniff asked. Dot nodded fast. "Trust me, you don't."

"Whyyyyyy?" said Dot. "I'm so curious! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease, tell me?"

"Come on, Scratchy," said Hello Nurse. "The girl has every right to know. How can you resist her? She's so adorable!"

"Ehem, that's 'cute', and don't you forget it," said Dot. Hello Nurse smiled back. Wow. It sure was nice to have her so friendly.

"I can't tell her," said Scratchansniff. "I think you should."

"Fine, I'll do it," said Hello Nurse. She reached for one of the papers on Scratchy's desk and handed it to Dot. "Flip to page sixteen and read it well."

Dot was a bit confused. All the things people were talking about were simply in a magazine? How stupid was that? Oh well. Dot obeyed and began reading. The more she read, the more shocked her expression became.

_Who do you think is the cutest Warner?_

_According to a survey that was made about two weeks ago, most people find Wakko Warner the cutest of the three Warner siblings. When the votes were counted, publishers were surprised to see that the winner wasn't Dot Warner, who is commonly referred to as 'the cute one'. Nevertheless, Wakko turned out to be the cutest. Of course, a survey doesn't necessarily have to be a fact, but since so many people were asked, it just has to be right. The results are thus:_

_1. Wakko 69_

_2. Dot 18_

_3. Yakko 13_

_Our next survey will hold the title: Who is the dumbest of the A! cast?_

Dot's jaw dropped and her eyes grew wider than ever. She read the article over again; just to be sure she had seen what she thought. It was bad enough to think that Wakko had won a survey that had the word 'cute' in it, but the results were terrible. There was such a big gap between him and her! Dot let the paper fall to the ground while she looked at Scratchansniff and Hello Nurse. It was all making sense!

"That letter . . . it was for Wakko, wasn't it?" she said. "For winning the survey. And when Yakko threw the newspaper outside . . . it was to prevent me from seeing the results! That thing about Wakko and the ugly persecutor . . . it was a lie! All those screaming fans . . . they were talking about him!" Dot felt her rage boil. "Okay, cool. So Wakko won a survey. Big deal, right? It's not like people really think he's the cutest. It's just a survey!"

"Actually . . . " Scratchansniff tried to say something, but Dot's scream cut him off.

"**I can't believe this!!!! You all knew how angry I was going to get and you still didn't tell be about this earlier!!! Who do you think you are?? I'm not going to stand!!! I am outta here!!!**"

Dot stormed out of the office, leaving the nurse and doctor behind looking horrified. Outside, her brothers were too scared to even move. They didn't go after her either. They stood behind as well, watching walls being cracked by punching, floors being shaken by stepping, and their ears aching because of her screaming. Dot was not going to be happy for the next few days; that was for sure.


	2. Beauty and the cutie

**Chapter 2 – Beauty and the cutie**

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Dot slammed the tower door open and marched into her room growling. She plumped onto her bed and punched her pillow. She had never been so angry in her life! How could Wakko have won that survey? It was as preposterous as Yakko being quiet for five seconds! Surely, she should've won! It was so unfair! And the results were ridiculous! Who would vote so much for Wakko of all people?

Suddenly, Dot began to hate Wakko with all her heart. That stupid, tongue flashing, Liverpool-accented moron! How dared he? He knew how sensitive she was about her looks! Being her brother and all. Yet, he still got away with it! Dot punched through the air and screamed. Why? Why did he do this? Why couldn't he just have continued to be called 'wacky'? Now _he_ was referred to as 'the cute one'. It was a horrible thought. What if people would stop complimenting Dot on her looks? Some day, maybe she wouldn't be considered cute at all! All because of him!

Dot heard the tower door creak open, even if it didn't usually creak. She assumed her brothers to be home. Well, she was _not_ in the mood to see them right now. Especially Wakko! That boy could eat his own tail for all she cared! He could do it anyway, having that killer appetite and a garbage disposal for a stomach. Dot sunk her head into her pillow and screamed her lungs out. Doing that didn't help. It only caused Yakko to come to the doorway.

"Dot?" he said calmly. "You alright?"

"Yeah," Dot growled. "I'm totally fine! What should I be? Pissed? Not a chance!!"

Yakko backed a little. He clearly didn't expect such a harsh reply. He slowly walked inside Dot's room. Since she didn't say anything, he assumed it would be okay to sit down on her bed. "Listen, I know you're not satisfied, but don't you think you're giving Wakko a hard time? After all, he wasn't in charge of the survey, was he?"

"No way," Dot said coldly as she sat up as well. "I'm just behaving like I should. I'm angry, I'm furious and I'm enraged! And who cares if Wakko wasn't in charge of the survey? That doesn't make him any less guilty! I hate him!"

"No you don't," said Yakko. "You're just having a tantrum now. In a few hours, everything will be fine. I know you well enough to be sure that you'd never hate him."

"Well, you knew wrong, didn't you?" Dot growled while trying her best not to shout at Yakko. He was making her more and more irritated.

Yakko moved closer to Dot and put his arm on her shoulders. "No, I didn't. I know you better than anyone, Dot. I mean, come on. We were locked up in a water tower for sixty years. Sure I know you. And I know Wakko. He's not the person who's proud of being 'the cute one'. He's just wacko. You're cute, and you know it. It's just a survey, you don't have to take it so hard."

Dot could take it no longer. She shoved Yakko's arm off her shoulders and pushed him away from her. "Stop pretending to be my dad!! You're not the boss of me! Now be a good brother and leave me alone!!"

"Wha--wha--what--what the . . . ?" Yakko stammered. "What's gotten into you, Dot? I was only trying to make you feel better. I'm not pretending to be anyone. Come on, stop being so mean. What did _I_ do? It's not like I won the cutie contest or anything. I'm just trying to be supportive. You don't seem to apprecia--"

Before Yakko could finish his sentence, Dot did something to surprise both him and herself: she slapped him. "I can't believe you won't shut up!!! Do me a favour and zip it, yakker!! I've had enough of you!! Both you and mister 'cute one'!!"

Yakko merely rubbed his cheek – the spot on his face where Dot had slapped him. He was shocked. "Whoa. No need to play Naomi Campbell here!"

"I told you to shut up!" Dot shouted. "Now get the heck out of my room!!"

She didn't have to say that twice. Yakko immediately sprang out of the room, his hand still placed on his cheek. When he had left, Dot lay down on her bed again. No one seemed to understand how she felt. Not even her own brother. He was all talk, no sympathy. Who was she kidding? All Yakko did was yak, after all.

Then, it hit her. The only person who had been nice to her the entire day!

Dot jumped out of her bed and ran out of her room. When she was about to go outside the tower, she eyed Wakko. He had the usual tongue-expression on his face and didn't seem to see Dot. She growled and went outside thinking: "Jerk . . . "

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When Dot stepped into the psychiatry office, the beautiful nurse behind the desk rose up in her seat and greeted her.

"Hey Dot," she said. "Are you any better now?"

"I wouldn't count on that," Dot said as she walked towards the desk. "Yakko just gave me his big brother-speech but I can't say it made me feel any better. If anything, it made me angrier. I even ended up slapping him."

"Wow," said Hello Nurse. "You must be pretty darn pissed, huh?"

"Pissed?" said Dot. "I'm furious!"

"I totally understand," said Hello Nurse. "There's nothing worse in this world than to be turned down because of your looks. Been there, done that."

Dot's eyes widened. "You've had the same experience?"

"Technically, yes," said Hello Nurse. "This once, I was sent to a beauty contest. I didn't really want to, but many said I looked so naturally beautiful. I loved compliments like that. The judges in the contest even said to the contestants that they relied more on natural beauty than make-up, botox and stuff like that. Some of them even said I was most likely to win. Almost every other girl had had at least one plastic surgery, but I hadn't even so much as dyed my hair. Anyway, when the contest was to be held, I thought for sure I'd win. There were so many out there who thought so too, and I was relying on their votes, as well as the judges. But in the end, Addio Daktaras turned out to be the winner. And you know what? She looked the most fake. She had fake tan, fake eyelashes, fake breasts, and her face looked awful because of plastic surgeries. As for me, I ended up in eleventh place of fourteen. Ironic isn't it?"

"Oh my gosh!" said Dot. "That's so unfair! Why didn't you protest?"

"I couldn't have done anything anyway," said Hello Nurse. "But at one time, I was actually considering to sleep with one of the judges, just to get at least into third place. But thankfully, I didn't. I realized that beauty contests were just like Addio Daktaras: fake. But the backstab will follow me to my grave."

"I don't know what to say," said Dot. "I never thought you were so sensitive too. I always thought you could get whatever you wanted because you're so beautiful."

Hello Nurse giggled. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"I mean it!" said Dot. "You're probably the most gorgeous girl of all!"

"Wow, I'm flattered," said Hello Nurse and smiled. "Come to think of it, I've never heard what you think about me. It's always just your brothers' 'Hellooooooooooo nurse!!' and nothing from you. Is this really what you think?"

"Absolutely!" said Dot. "I'm even starting to lose my self-confidence just standing in front of you. You're so perfect. I'm beginning to envy you even more."

"Oh, I know that feeling," said Hello Nurse. "Standing beside an American actress is a nightmare! They all look so perfect, even more than that. Some of them have the greatest personality too."

"You sure have a lot of experience for a toon," said Dot.

"Which reminds me: have you ever heard of Jessica Rabbit?" said Hello Nurse.

"Heck, yeah!" said Dot. "Wow, she looks too good to exist! Sometimes, I wish I had her looks."

Hello Nurse cleared her throat and blushed. "She's my cousin."

"Oh," said Dot and blushed as well. "Heh, sorry. I didn't mean to say that."

"It's okay. I get it all the time," said Hello Nurse and smiled once again. "But I was going to say that many people think that she's just one of the slutty toons in the world. The typical mean witch with no feelings. But looks don't say everything about a person, even if it's a toon. Jessica is a great example for that. I mean, she's not really a bad girl; she's just drawn that way. When 'Who framed Roger Rabbit?' was premiered, everyone thought she'd use the opportunity and flash a photographer or something. How silly is that? Can't a girl look good without being considered a slut? It's so ridiculous!"

"Tell me about it," said Dot. She and Hello Nurse were making really good friends! Who'd thought?

"But that survey tops everything! Or should I say: it's the bottom of everything," said Hello Nurse. "I read it just before you came earlier today, and I was shocked. Did you see the gap between you and Wakko? It was so freaky. When I saw that he had won, I thought there was going to be a 0,009 percent gap between you two. It was just . . . I don't even know what to say."

"Why did he have to win in the first place?" Dot said angrily. "I hate him! He's such a player! I wish he wasn't my brother. If he wasn't, I wouldn't have to see him every day! What's so cute about him anyway? If anything, he's the less cutest of all of us. He burps like a vulture, he bathes once every three months, he always has his tongue out, and to top it off: he doesn't wear any pants! Argh! I could just hit him on the head with his own mallet!"

"Don't you think you're going a bit to far?" said Hello Nurse, trying to calm Dot down. "It's not like he did anything. Just because he won the survey, it doesn't mean he was behind it from the start."

"Don't take his side!" Dot said threateningly. "I don't mean to be a suck-up, but you're the only one who seems to understand me. We've never been really close – I'm fully aware of that – but now that I think about it, we have so much in common!"

"You know what? You're right," said Hello Nurse. "We _do_ have a lot in common. Especially when it comes to looks. You're known as the cute one and I'm known as the hot one." She paused. "Okay, that did _not_ come out selfishly!"

The two shared a laugh. Hello Nurse was a much greater person than Dot ever thought she was. She was absolutely right. Too many were judged by their looks. But still: Wakko?

"Why do you think people picked Wakko and not me?" Dot had to ask.

"I haven't the slightest idea," said Hello Nurse. "Maybe it's his accent, or his voice, or his way of solving things, or his endless hunger, or his few lines . . . I can't tell. I didn't take part in the survey, you know. But if I had, I definitely would have chosen you."

"Thanks," said Dot and flashed the cutest smile she could think of. Suddenly, she had a little thought. "Do you think there's any way I can become cuter?"

"What?" said Hello Nurse, quite startled. "I . . . I don't know. I mean, I know loads of beauty tips, but cutie tips? That's not really my specialty."

"Oh come on," said Dot and put on her puppy eyes. "Surely you know something. And if you don't, I'll just use your beauty tips. After all, I'm going to have to be beautiful any time soon. Please?"

Hello Nurse sighed. "Okay, I'll give you the list. First of all, there's good skin care. But since you have fur, I don't think that's necessary. Second, there's good body figure. The number one key to that is eating healthy and exercising every once in a while, or perhaps every day. A good tan is always a good tip, but your fur kind of bashes that one. Nice clothes always do the trick. They don't have to be tight, just look good on you. Um . . . " Hello Nurse thought for a while. "God, there are so high limits for beauty. You have to be this tall, this skinny, this tanned, this well dressed; it's so confusing. But if you're desperate enough, we can start going to the gym together. What do you think of that?"

"I'm not too young?" said Dot.

"No, silly," said Hello Nurse and giggled. "Even if you are, you can still go. Remember, you're a cartoon star. And a mighty cute one," she added and winked.

"Okay, I'm ready," said Dot. "When are we going?"

"Well, I can go first thing in the morning if that's okay with you," said Hello Nurse. "How about seven thirty?"

"Isn't that a bit early?" said Dot. "I need my cutie sleep, after all."

"The earlier you start exercising, the better," said Hello Nurse. "We could go an hour later if you want to. I'm okay with that. I'm just used to going so early."

"No, we're not changing your system," said Dot. "Seven thirty it is. Can you come to the tower when you're ready? I'll make sure the boys aren't up if that's a problem."

"Okay," said Hello Nurse. "I'll see you in the morning, then?"

"You bet," said Dot and turned to leave. "We'll live healthy, right?"

"Totally!" said Hello Nurse and did a thumb up.

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When Dot climbed up the ladder to the tower, she began to feel a pang of conscience. Not towards Wakko, though, but because she had slapped Yakko earlier. She wondered what he would say when he saw her. Would he begin to avoid her too because of that? Or would he let it pass by and pretend like nothing had happened? Dot had reached the balcony before she could finish either of those thoughts. She opened the door carefully and tiptoed inside, trying to sneak inside the tower without her brothers noticing. It didn't work.

"Dot! Where were you?" Yakko said as he came practically running towards Dot. "You didn't tell me you were leaving! I was beginning to worry so much about you! Okay, maybe not _that_ much, but still."

"I went out," said Dot, somewhat happy that Yakko had forgiven her about the slap. "And I'm sorry how I acted earlier. I was angry."

"That's okay," said Yakko. "I was kinda sure what the problem was. But what did you do? You left in rage, but here you are, fine as can be. Where did you go?"

"I went to see Hello Nurse," said Dot.

"And you didn't tell me?" said Yakko, looking insulted.

"Please, Yakko. If I'd taken you along, Wakko would have to come too," said Dot. "Anyway, I think Hello Nurse and I have become great friends. She even gave me some of her beauty tips. She's more fun than she looks."

"Dot, her looks are all that matters," said Yakko with a dreamy look on his face. "I can't believe she needs beauty tips. She's so perfect, so smooth, so pretty, so . . . " He sighed with delight.

-Boys, go fig-

"Where's Wakko?" Dot asked. "Is he anywhere near us?"

"Dot, you have to get over this Wakko-hatred," said Yakko, snapping out if his (dirty?) daydreams about Hello Nurse. "And yeah, he's here. But I don't think you have to look at him. He's avoiding you like clowns."

"I suppose that's cute, huh?" Dot said sarcastically. "Fear of clowns is always adorable. Geez! I shouldn't have come back here. When I was with Hello Nurse, I stopped thinking about Wakko completely. I'm going to my room."

"Okay, you do that," said Yakko. "Just don't throw another tantrum, all right?" he added and smiled kindly.

Just seeing how nice Yakko was made Dot feel a heavier pang of conscience. He was so nice to her. She regretted that slap so bad! But what's done is done, so she went to her room like she said.

Meanwhile, Yakko scanned the tower for any trace of his brother. "Wakko, it's safe to come out now. She's gone to her room."

"Are you sure?" Yakko heard Wakko say. "She's not planning to come out of there when she knows I'm out too?"

"I'm sure," said Yakko. "Just come out, okay? I could talk to you like this, but I feel like a crazy person when I just talk to a voice."

In a flash, a small bag appeared next to Yakko, and out of it peeked only a head. The red cap was placed so low on it; Yakko could barely see its eyes. "You're not fooling me, are you?"

Yakko groaned. He then grabbed the head and pulled Wakko out of the gag bag. "When is this stupid avoiding going to stop? You know you're going to have to talk to her again sooner or later."

"Yeah, but I just can't do it now," said Wakko. "She hates me too much. I'm not going to push her into doing anything. She'll just have to come to me when she's ready."

"Suit yourself," said Yakko. "But before you say anything else, let me tell you that I'm not going to be your messenger. If you want to ask her something, or the opposite, you're going to have to do it yourselves."

"Fine," said Wakko. "It's not like I have much to say to her. I mean, I didn't plan the results, did I? She hasn't got a reason to avoid me at all. I didn't do anything. She should be hating the voters!"

"I agree with you," said Yakko. "But it's Dot we're talking about. If her name doesn't appear in the same paragraph as the word 'cute', she'll snap. You know that just as much as me."

"I guess," Wakko sighed. "I'm still wondering why people voted for me, though. What's so cute about me?"

Yakko shrugged. "Don't ask me. I didn't score very high, you know."

"Yeah, but 69 percent against eighteen?" said Wakko. "It's so fishy. I can't help but think that some voters were mentally disturbed."

"Don't talk like that, Wakko," said Yakko. "You sound like a researcher!"

----------------------------------------------------------

_I don't have a very good figure_, Dot thought while looking at her body figure in a mirror. _I should have started thinking about the whole image long ago. It's always the face for me. Maybe that's why I didn't win the survey. Maybe I'm not hot enough. Come to think of it, I do look a little chubby on the edges. And just look at my chest. It's flatter than a labtop!_

_Listen to what you're thinking!_ said another voice in Dot's head. _You're only seven years old! You're not supposed to have a chest! Your figure looks fine! So what if you're a little chubby? That's sometimes what makes a character the cutest!_

Dot scuffed. She wasn't going to listen to her conscience anymore. The only person she was going to listen to was Hello Nurse. She knew best how to look good. If they hung out, maybe Dot would grow a little more mature body. Maybe she would even lose some weight as well.

Dot couldn't wait until the next morning.

* * *

**A/N: For those who were wondering (I doubt many), Addio Daktaras is sort of a parody of Hello Nurse's name. Addio means goodbye in Italian, and Daktaras means doctor in Lithuanian. Hello Nurse – Goodbye Doctor . . . get it?**

**. . . okay, that wasn't funny . . .**


	3. Not cute enough ?

**Chapter 3 – Not cute enough (?)

* * *

**

_You're beautiful . . . _

_Don't hide your figure . . . _

_No one has ever really _seen_ you . . . _

_Do you think all the famous actresses look naturally beautiful . . . ?_

_You'll grow to be a hot, young woman . . . _

_No pain, no gainy . . . _

Those were the thoughts that had been in Dot's mind during the entire morning. She and Hello Nurse had gone to the gym, just like they had planned. But it was Dot's first time to ever step into such a place. She had no idea how Hello Nurse could keep on going while she herself was exhausted the whole time. But those thoughts kept her going. Knowing that if she'd just go on, she'd become a very good-looking toon – that was her click. But afterwards, she was suffering from sore muscles. Extremely sore muscles, that is. When she returned to the movie lot, she had to make Yakko help her up the tower ladder in order to get in.

"You don't look so good, Dot," he said when they were both inside. "What were you doing at seven thirty in the morning?"

"I went to . . . the gym with . . . Hello Nurse," Dot panted. "It was . . . awesome. I . . . feel so healthy!"

Yakko gave her a funny look. "You do? If I were you, I'd just feel tired." He paused. "Wait, did you say--"

"Don't go there, Yakko." Dot cut off Yakko's sentence, mostly because she hated when he had fantasies about Hello Nurse – especially now when they had become best friends.

"Are you sure you don't need any support?" Yakko asked when Dot began walking towards her room. Her body was completely stiff and she could hardly move.

"No, I'm fine," said Dot. "I'm going to have to get used to this anyway." But she had hardly let go of the word 'anyway' when she tripped. She hit her face hard on the ground and her body ached like never before.

"Whoa!" Yakko said. "Told you, didn't I?"

"Yeah, yeah," Dot said coldly while doing her best to stand up again. When she managed to lift her head, she saw Wakko directly in front of her. She frowned. "Well, well. Look who's here. What's up with you? Were you the one who made me trip? Or are you too cute to help me get up?"

Wakko reached out his hand so Dot could hold on to him, but she just slapped it away. "Don't bother, little man. I'll probably ruin your cute gloves." She then struggled to get up on her own. It hurt badly and she almost regretted to not have accepted Wakko's help. But there was no way she was going to show it! Even if it was extremely painful, she was going to reach her room on her own! She held on to the wall for support and when she finally reached her room, she practically jumped into bed.

"Get me a magazine, Yakko!" she yelled. No way was she going to move any more! In a few seconds, Yakko handed her a magazine. 'Seen and heard' was the title.

"It's a new one," Yakko explained when he saw Dot's 'what-is-this?' expression. "It's the very first issue. I think it's a gossip magazine. You like those, don't you?"

"I guess," said Dot. She couldn't help but notice that Yakko looked afraid. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," said Yakko before he hurried out of the room and closed the door.

Dot opened the magazine and read the first headline: _Are old celebs becoming new ones? –Tori Spelling about her career._

"Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring," Dot repeated as she flipped the pages. This magazine was nothing but trash! Some of the articles were completely useless! Who wants to know about how much fun it was in Bill Gates' birthday party? Dot continued flipping the pages, trying to find a flicker of something interesting.

Then she saw it. The name she despised most of all: Wakko Warner. But what was his name doing in a gossip magazine? Dot was curious enough to read the article. There was a photo next to it, which showed Wakko walking in front of a house carrying a stack of notes, it seemed. Dot noticed that the house in the back had a logo on it: 'Here and Now'. That was the paper that did that survey! Dot was now confirmed that she _had _to read the article. As she did, her hatred rose:

Middle Warner a fraud?

_The following picture of Wakko Warner was taken a few days ago. Writers can't help but wonder what he was doing. Was he picking up garbage for the city? Not likely. Was he practising weightlifting with papers? Like he needs it. Was he sneaking out with the script for the newest 'Animaniacs' episode? Probably not, he's not in charge of those anyway. So what was he doing? Alert readers must note that the house he's in front of is the very 'Here and Now house', like it's called. Wasn't 'Here and Now' the magazine that published that survey? Look at the notes, now at the house, now at the Warner's sneaky walk. Anyone notice a pattern here? Could it be that Wakko Warner was the one who caused the known results? Is it possible that the notes he's holding are fake votes for him? It certainly looks that way. But isn't this a bit unlike the younger Warner brother? Or is he simply desperate for attention? Who knows? Maybe he just wants to be considered cute. Writers are left with many questions. But we're in the same position as our readers: we're just as confused. _

_There will most probably be an interview with the Warner in our second issue._

Seen and heard/: Berry deHex 

Dot crushed the magazine in her hands and looked at the photo. That boy was . . . Dot didn't even know a word bad enough to describe him. All she knew was that she hated Wakko more than ever.

Ever since she saw the results, Dot had wondered what could have caused them. This article was enough evidence. Her own brother had plotted the results! Her brother! Of all people! And for attention, to boot! Dot couldn't believe it. It was so unlike Wakko. But it all made sense! The photo showed everything! Sneaking with a stack of notes in front of the 'Here and Now house' was good enough proof.

But maybe Wakko only made the number higher. Maybe he had been the winner the whole time and just wanted a bigger gap. It could be that he had seen the results before everyone else (being the winner, and all) and wanted to add more votes to him. That made even more sense! Dot sat up quickly, only to feel a major pain in her muscles. She decided to take a warm bath to smoothen them.

She had a hard time reaching the bathroom, but eventually managed to get there. She groaned when she opened the door, and when she began filling the tub with water, she sighed in relief – happy that she would be in relaxation soon. But when she was done struggling to stand up, she had a look at herself in the mirror. She scanned her image, as if she was looking for something on her body. She took the flower off her ears and let her skirt flow down her legs. She scanned her image again.

_I look a little different,_ she thought. _But I'm still not skinny enough. There's got to be a quicker way to get skinny. _

That's when she eyed the toilet.

_I could do it. Just once. It won't hurt me to do it just once, right? Yakko won't find out. I won't tell him._

She slapped herself. "No! I'm not going to!"

_I haven't eaten anything anyway . . . _

_. . . is that good or bad . . . ?_

----------------------------------------------------------

Yakko paced worriedly around the living room while thinking about his siblings. They had all had their share of rivalry, but the whole survey-thing was too much! To think, his little sister was now going to the gym to look better! What could possibly be a worse thought? She was only seven, for heck's sake! Seven-year-olds are _not_ supposed to be worried about how they look!

"What's troubling you?" Wakko said suddenly, starting Yakko a bit – he hadn't noticed his brother at all.

"Uhh . . . I'm just . . . doing a bit of thinking, that's all," said Yakko.

"It's about Dot, isn't it?" said Wakko. "You're worried about her, aren't you?"

"Yes, I'm worried sick!" Yakko shouted, stopping in his tracks. "Geez, Wakko! Haven't you noticed? She's changed! I mean, I know she's got a big temper, but telling me to stop pretending to be her dad? Slapping me a telling me to shut up?"

"What about me, huh?" Wakko said, pointing at himself. "Not only does she hate me like I'm Mel Gibson's wife, but every time she talks to me, it's always mocking! She can't get over this, Yakko!"

"Well, neither can I!" Yakko shouted directly in Wakko's face. When he saw the scared look his brother had, he started to calm down a bit. He breathed heavily before speaking again. "I'm sorry. Look, let's try and give her a chance. It's only been a day or so. She'll be over it by the end of the week, I'm sure of that."

There was a short silence between the two. It was broken by the sound of a flushing toilet.

"I guess she's done bathing," said Yakko. "You ready with a hiding place?"

"Yeah, I think I'll jump inside that sofa," said Wakko. He then hurried off to one of the sofas around them. Before Yakko could comment on anything, Wakko jumped into the air and took a dive in one of the sofas – disappearing under its cushion. He couldn't have picked a better time because Dot came out of the bathroom at that very second. Yakko couldn't help but notice that her face looked different. It looked slightly more tanned than usual.

"I think I'll take a little walk," Dot said when she passed Yakko.

"A walk?" said Yakko, pretty confused. "Didn't you go to the gym just this morning? Weren't you complaining about sore muscles? Why would you need another walk?"

Dot gave Yakko a look. "Because I don't want any sore muscles tomorrow. Do you know how embarrassing it is to work out next to Hello Nurse? Let me tell you: it's _very_ embarrassing. She can hold out for two hours when I can hardly hold out for fifteen minutes! I want to get in better shape. What better way to do it than to take a walk by day?"

"What's with this sudden obsession for a healthy life?" said Yakko. "Normally, you wouldn't give a hoot about your health."

"Let's just say that Hello Nurse taught me a lot about living," said Dot and smiled at her brother. She turned to get out of the tower but before she opened the door, her body shook in disgust and she gave a little "bleh!"

"You all right?" said Yakko.

"I'm fine," said Dot. "Don't worry. I'm just a teeny tiny bit tired, that's all." And with that, she jumped out of the tower and closed the door.

"Well, that's that," said Yakko when Dot was gone. "You can come out of that sofa now, Wakko."

"Nuh uh!" Yakko heard Wakko say. His voice was a little muffed. "It's comfortable in here. I think I'll stay here for a couple of minutes, just to enjoy the cosiness."

Yakko sighed. "Go ahead, enjoy. But I still want to talk to you."

"Feel free to do that," said Wakko from inside the sofa. "Even if you can't see me, I'm still listening."

"Okay," said Yakko. "Anyhow, I think Dot has make-up on."

By hearing those words, Wakko rose up from the sofa so fast; he broke it. "What? What are you saying? She's only seven!" He paused. "Does she even own any?"

Yakko shrugged. "No idea. But I still think she does. And you know what? I think she's trying to look better. Trying to be cuter than she is to top you."

"She's nuts!" Wakko yelled. "Are you sure your eyes weren't fooling you?"

Yakko raised his right hand. "Positive. I know powder, mascara and lip gloss when I see it."

"Why? Do you have experience?" Wakko teased.

"The point is," Yakko continued, ignoring Wakko's random comment, "like I said, that Dot is trying to become cuter."

"What do you think I should do?" Wakko asked. "I mean; I'm technically the one who started all this, right? Should I try and talk with her?"

"Nah, I wouldn't go there just yet," said Yakko. "Let her come to you when she's ready. But I'll say it again: I'm not going to be your messenger."

"I get your drift."

"Bright lad."

There was a slight pause before Wakko said: "So, wanna get something to eat?"

----------------------------------------------------------

Dot hadn't gone anywhere out of the movie lot, but simply skipped around it. Sometimes she'd walked, sometimes skipped, sometimes jogged, and sometimes run. She had had a blast. She was so full of energy! She felt like she could go on running forever!

But every time she had passed a window – or something else that reflected – she had to stop and look at her figure. As she did that, she had a sudden urge to measure her weight. But she hated those stops. It made her remember how much her throat ached.

_Maybe I should have skipped . . . nah, it was worth it!_

And with that (very confusing) thought, Dot jogged off to the tower once again. She felt refreshed enough to go back, as long as she wouldn't see a certain boy's face. She climbed the ladder and when she reached the balcony, she heard a noise from the inside.

_Wakko's probably off to hiding. Good! Then I won't have to see his oh, so cute face!_

Dot opened the door and saw Yakko at a dinner table with eight pizza boxes. Five were empty.

"Where'd those come from?" she asked.

"Ordered them just now," said Yakko and smiled. "Wakko and I just ate. You can have some of it if you want. Don't worry about leaving anything. We'll just throw--"

The sight of Dot cut his sentence. She wasn't eating her pizza in a normal, zany way. She was eating it in a less appropriate way than Wakko. She brutally snagged all the slices from one of the boxes, curled them all together in one big ball of goo, and forced it down, gulping it all at once. She did the same thing to the rest of the pizzas. Yakko was stunned. He had never seen Dot so greedy before. Well, he probably had once, but it was very rare! After the 'pleasant meal', Dot gave a big belch.

"Excuse me," she said and giggled in her own, cute way.

"Don't worry about it?" said Yakko and smiled sheepishly. "What got into you? Were you honestly _that_ hungry? I mean, sure, Wakko ate three boxes too, but you practically swallowed them all at once!"

"I wasn't very hungry at all," said Dot. "Just a tiny bit." She stood up. She felt like such a fatty! She felt like all the food she had eaten was leaking right on her sides, creating a fat-layer. "I got to use the loo," she said and headed for the bathroom once again.

"Okay," said Yakko. _What weird behaviour,_ he thought. _She's become obsessed with how she looks, she's going to the gym in the morning, she takes a walk during the day, she eats like a hippo, and storms to the bathroom right after that. Strange . . . _

----------------------------------------------------------

Wakko lay silently on his bed, thinking what he should do. He desperately wanted to talk to Dot – tell her his side of the case. But the coward within kept him from even looking at her. She hated him with all her heart and he knew it. But he still wanted to talk to her, at least tell her he was sorry. For what he had no idea. But forgiveness was clearly what she was expecting from him. But what was he supposed to do? Walk straight to her and say: "I'm sorry"? That'd be too weird. But he couldn't let it pass by like he enjoyed being called 'the cute one'. After all, that was partly Dot's nickname.

All that thinking was making Wakko tired. He looked at the time. It had been an hour since he ate and half an hour since Dot went to the bathroom. Surely she'd be out by now. Wakko stood up from his bed and went to wash his face at least. On the way to the bathroom, he came across a magazine lying on the middle of the floor, right outside his room. He picked it up, had a quick look at it, and then threw it on his bed.

_New magazine,_ he thought. _I'll read that one before I go to sleep._

He then tiptoed pass Dot's room so she wouldn't wake up and slowly opened the bathroom door. But just before he opened it, he heard a strange sound from the inside. It sounded like the toilet was leaking a waterfall. Wakko sighed, grabbed a mallet from behind his back and went in to 'fix' it. But when he came in, he didn't see a puddle of water on the floor. He didn't see the toilet leaking. In fact, the toilet was fine. But what he did see made his eyes widen, his jaw drop and the grip on the mallet loosened.

Dot was sitting in her knees, her head right above the toilet's bowl and she was forcing a finger down her throat – in other words, willingly puking. Wakko watched as his sister puked out everything that was in her stomach, and then some. It made him want to shake with disgust, but he couldn't move. He just stood there, watching every drop of puke fall from Dot's chin. She hacked, and then turned her head to only see Wakko, who was too scared to budge a hair on his body. She flushed the toilet, stood up and looked at him angrily.

"So, did you enjoy the show?" she said weakly.

"I . . . the . . . you . . . toi . . . foo . . . me . . . to . . . I . . . I . . . I . . . ay-ay-ay!" Wakko stammered. He looked at Dot, who had major bags under her eyes. "How long have you been doing this?"

"What's it to you, cutie?" said Dot sarcastically as she passed Wakko. She felt extremely weak and tripped on the way out. Fortunately, Wakko was quick enough to grab her. They looked at each other in the eye: Dot's full of hatred and Wakko's full of fear. "Not a word about this to Yakko, got it?" Dot added before she clumsily stood up again and went to her own room. Wakko was left in the bathroom with a horrifying sight stuck in his head. He then washed his face like he intended to do, in an attempt to make it go away. He took a wet hand towel along with him to his room where he sat down on his bed and read the new magazine.

"Boring. Boring. Boring. Boring," he repeated as he flipped the pages. But in between, he saw something rather interesting: his own name. He was excited. His name hadn't appeared in a magazine for a while, so he read the article. But the more he read, the more shocked his expression became.

"What the fuse?" he quietly said to himself.

----------------------------------------------------------

Dot sank her face in her pillow and cried her eyes out. She felt like she was the lamest person on earth. Not only did she suck at working out, but she had also failed during dinner. Eating so much hadn't been the intension at all. It was a big relief to throw it all up afterwards, but she still felt like she couldn't do anything right.

She dried her eyes, stood up and looked at her figure.

Starting tomorrow, I'm going on a strict diet! I want to have the same, skinny figure as every model on the block! I want to be as hot as Hello Nurse. And the only way to do that is to go to the gym; not eat too much; and if I do eat, only make it little. If I happen to eat too much, I'll just throw it up afterwards. I know I can look hot! I'll give that bastard brother of mine a room for his oh, so cute face next time he dares to touch me!

_I just hope Yakko doesn't find out about the bulimia . . .

* * *

_

**A/N: Random fanfiction fact: 'Seen and heard' and 'Here and Now' are actual magazines. Very popular gossip magazines, I might add. (;**


	4. Of dreams and disorders

**Chapter 4 – Of dreams and disorders

* * *

**

_Wakko was fully aware that he was dreaming. Why else would he be flying? It wasn't like he was a bird; he felt more like a spirit. If he passed by anyone, they didn't see him. It was a great feeling. He could bug the people all he wanted, and no one would know it was him! _

_Suddenly, he heard someone scream. He turned around so sharply; he twisted his feet together. The scream sounded so familiar . . . _

_There it was again! It was closer this time. Wakko's ears perked up and tried to listen to further screaming._

_Wouldn't you know it? He heard it yet again! Wakko flew to where the scream came from but the only thing he saw was an empty alley. He looked around for any trace of someone being there, but to no avail. _

_Wakko heard the scream again, and this time, it was right next to him! He looked around and noticed that he was no longer in an alley. He was in a corridor of some sort. _

"_What a weird dream this is!" he said to himself. He walked through the corridor towards a light in a room in front of him. That's when he heard voices from inside._

"_Don't struggle, you'll miss the fun," said a deep, seductive woman's voice._

"_I . . . I don't . . . wanna . . . !" shouted someone that sounded to Wakko to be only a child. "Stop! You're . . . making me . . . "_

"_Burn? That was the point. Boy, am I lucky. It's not every day I get to do this to a child star!" said the woman and a dark laughter followed._

_Wakko shuddered. What was going on? Who was this woman? And what was she doing to that kid? Wakko continued to listen._

"_Stop! I'm begging you! I'm only nine!!"_

"_The younger, the better! Now, shut up and let me do my job. It won't hurt. I promise I'll be gentle." The woman's dark chuckle made Wakko shudder again. What in the world was she doing?_

"_I won't let you! You're not gonna--" The child's voice was muffed. _

"_Shh . . . don't worry. I'll do all the work. You just lie there and enjoy."_

_Wakko could hear the child screaming for help and struggling to get out of the situation. He was beginning to get ideas about what was happening._

"_No one can hear you, hottie. It's just you and me now. Don't even try to get away!"_

"_NOOOOO!!!!"_

_That was the last straw. Wakko barged into the room. At first he was going to attack the woman and save the child, but what he saw made him scream as well . . . _

"I don't wanna!!!!!!" Wakko screamed out loud, making him wake up. He sat up sharply and panted. His heart was beating at maximum speed and he was bathed in sweat. No soon had he woken up when Yakko stormed into his room.

"You don't wanna what?" he said. "What's going on? Who's threatening you? Why is he here? How did he get in? And last but not least: why wasn't I informed?"

"It's okay, Yakko, I just had a nightmare," said Wakko. "A pretty weird one too, but it was scary!"

"Well, duh! It's a nightmare!" said Yakko. He sat down on Wakko bed. "Care to tell me about it?"

Wakko hesitated. "If I tell you, will you promise not to make fun of me?"

"Why would I make fun of you?" Yakko asked, puzzled.

"Here's the thing: I dreamt that I was a spirit. Then I heard someone scream. It sounded familiar, so I went to check it out. When I got there, I only saw an alley, but the minute I turned around, I was inside a house. I heard voices coming from a room, so I walked straight to it. There was a woman and a kid. I thought she was . . . " Wakko paused and took a deep breath. "I thought she was doing something really bad to him, so I went in the room. I only caught a glimpse of what was inside, but it made me scared stiff!"

"What was it?" Yakko asked.

Wakko gulped. He could feel blood stream up to his cheeks. He opened his mouth to say it, but it wouldn't come! "I . . . I . . . saw . . . a . . . "

"Yeah? You saw a . . . what now?" said Yakko.

"A . . . a woman . . . and . . . a . . . kid . . . " Wakko tried to talk, but he couldn't get the words to fit.

"I know that," said Yakko. "You already mentioned that. What did you see? What was going on in there?"

"I can't tell," Wakko finally managed to say. "I just can't. It's too freaky. I don't want to think about it."

"Then why did you begin?" said Yakko. "Now I'm curious!"

"Just wait," said Wakko. "I'm trying to find the right words. I'll tell you when I'm ready for it. I'm in too much of a shock right now."

"A terrifying, freaky, scary, weird and shocking dream," said Yakko. "Those are the best!"

----------------------------------------------------------

It had only been two mornings, but Dot somehow already felt a lot healthier than before. It was as if someone had flicked a switch on her, making her want to work out more. Plus, she had a backup plan if she'd fail. Nonetheless, it felt great to look better than just a few days before. Hello Nurse said it all the time, so it had to be true. She wouldn't lie about figure, being the hottest character of the show! Dot wanted to look just like her, no matter what the cost! She didn't care if Yakko or anyone else was against it!

She and Hello Nurse had gone to the gym again that morning, and Dot was so proud of herself because she was able to hold out for more than half an hour. She was getting there; she could feel it.

As Dot walked back to the tower, she felt an urge to eat something. But she knew that if she ate, her figure would fail. She just kept walking, ignoring the growling in her stomach. She was trying to get used to it, but it was too hard to ignore. Dot couldn't help but notice that if she passed anyone, they looked at her like she was some kind of monster. What was up with them? Hadn't they seen a toon before?

Dot walked straight to the tower and struggled to climb the ladder. Her muscles were a little less sore than the day before, so at least she could move by herself. Before she could open the door, however, a wind blew in her face, along with a very loud: "**what?!**". She scoffed, fixed hair and went inside. There stood Yakko with such a shocked and surprised face; it was as if someone had shot him in the head.

"What happened to you?" Dot asked him. He didn't reply. In fact, he didn't say a word. He just stood there with the same blank look on his face. Dot waved her hand right in front of his eyes but he still wouldn't even blink. She put her hands on her hips and said in a singsong voice: "Oh, Yakko! There's a little someone waiting for you outside!"

Yakko immediately snapped out of it. "Really? Who?"

"ME!" said Dot. Yakko's smile faded. "What was that all about? Why were you staring into midair?"

"Wakko stood there just now," said Yakko. His eyes widened again. "And he was telling me about this nightmare he had."

"Okay," said Dot. "What did the cute one dream about? Did he see his name in second place in the survey?"

"Don't be so cold," said Yakko. "It was much worse that that, believe me."

"Well then, what _did_ he dream about?" Dot asked. Even if they were talking about Wakko, she was still interested in the nightmare.

"First, he dreamt that he was a spirit flying around, yadda, yadda," said Yakko. He clearly wanted to get to the worst part right away. "Then he was in a house and he heard voices."

"Oh, I get it," Dot interrupted. "He's going insane from all the attention. It's hard to be cute, I should know."

"As I was saying," Yakko continued, "the voices came from a room in front of him. He heard a woman and a kid talking. It sounded like the woman was doing something that the kid didn't want. Sheesh! I get the heebie-jeebies when I think about it!"

"Go on," said Dot.

"Wakko went inside when he had heard enough," said Yakko. "And he saw . . . "

"He saw . . . what?"

"He saw a woman wearing a black suit and she was all over a little boy," said Yakko. "At first, I told him that he should have enjoyed the sight. I mean, it was a tight leather suit!"

Dot sighed. "Get on with the dream!"

"Right," said Yakko. "The woman wasn't just . . . you know, being 'friendly' – she was abusing him. She was forcing herself on the poor guy!"

"What is a child molester doing in Wakko's dream?" said Dot. "And a female! That couldn't have been frightening."

"It was for Wakko," said Yakko and shrugged. "Mostly because he was the little kid."

"**What?!**" Dot shouted in the exact same volume Yakko had done moments before. Unlike him, however, she burst into laughter. "You've got to be kidding me! Wakko, the impossibly cute one, dreamt about a woman abusing him? What a sap!"

"It's not funny!" Dot heard Wakko himself say. She turned around and saw her other brother in front of her. He was looking at her straight in the eyes for the first time in days.

"It sure as heck is!" said Dot. Finally! She could yell at him for something stupid. "I know you have longings and desires, but this is just sick! You just don't dream about your first time with a child molester! And a female!" Dot laughed again. She was pleased to see Wakko's angry, red face.

"Stop making fun of me!" he said. "It was worse than you think! And she was scarier than any creepy guy you can think of!"

"Even Gacy?" Dot teased.

"Even Ga-- no, not Gacy, but everyone else!" Wakko exclaimed.

"You're so pathetic, Wakko," said Dot. "I can't wait to gossip this around the lot! I can see the headlines in 'Seen and heard': _Wakko Warner wants to get it with a child molester_! Are ya with me?" She went towards the door, heading out again.

Wakko growled as his eyes followed Dot until she was out of sight. He couldn't believe that this girl had once been his cute, sweet sister. He turned to his brother, who had more or less been pretty left out. "Yakko, there's something I have to say . . . "

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Dot skipped to the psychiatry office to see Hello Nurse yet again. She had a major story to tell! She couldn't help but smile to the thought of Wakko's dream. There was just something about it that made her chuckle. When she put her hand on the doorknob to the office, she was still giggling.

She stepped inside, ready to be greeted by the nurse's usual 'Hey cutie!' But that's not what she heard. Hello Nurse wasn't at her desk, so Dot just made herself comfortable on her chair. As she waited for the nurse to come in, she heard Scratchy talking on the phone. He sounded both angry and shocked.

"What are you saying? . . . You're absolutely sure? It could be that he was dreaming. . . . I don't believe this! Are you serious? . . . Well, are you serious about this manner, I mean!"

"He's quite the talker for a psychiatrist, isn't he?" said someone from behind Dot. She turned the chair to see Hello Nurse. She smiled. "I think one of his patients killed himself. He sounds that shocked!"

Dot laughed. "Who knows what makes old Scratchy so much out of his system?" Something clicked in her mind and she remembered why she was there in the first place. "Nurse, do I have news for you!"

"What do you mean?" said Hello Nurse. "Did someone compliment on how great you look?"

"I wish!" said Dot. "No, it's way better that that!"

And so, Dot told Hello Nurse about Wakko's dream: the spirit, the corridor, the voices, the kid and the woman. Dot laughed at what she had just said, but Hello Nurse didn't seem to find anything amusing about it. She just gasped and covered her mouth.

"Dot, that's not funny," she said. "I know you don't like the guy right now, but he just had one of the worst nightmares a child could ever have! Don't make fun of him! I don't think you'd like it if someone laughed at you if you had a dream like that."

Dot's smile faded. She had never thought of it that way. "I guess you're right. But still, you have to admit that it's a little bit funny."

"Maybe, but it's not worth making fun of," said Hello Nurse.

Dot scoffed and turned away from the nurse, only to see Scratchy. "Dot, may I have a word?" he said. He had calmed down a bit from the phone conversation, but instead of the shocked, angry look from before, he now had a worried face.

"Uh, sure?" Dot said, eying the nurse, who simply shrugged. Dot followed Scratchy to his office. When they were both there, Dot sat down on the patient chair. Scratchy looked at her and sighed.

"Dot, how have you been feeling for the past few days?" he asked. "From the day you saw the survey, I mean. Have there been any changes in your behaviour that you've noticed?"

"Nope, nothing wrong with me!" Dot said cheerily. "I'm totally fine! I feel healthier than ever, now that I've grown a whole new lifestyle! Why do you ask?"

"I notice that you've gotten very skinny very fast," Scratchy continued. "Don't mind me asking: is it possible that you have an eating disorder?"

Dot's eyes widened. How did Scratchy know? She faked a laugh. "Why? How'd you get _that_ idea?"

"Like I said: you've gotten very skinny very fast," said Scratchy. "It all indicates that you've either been starving yourself, or something worse. You just don't become this skinny in three days, not even by going to the gym."

"Since when do you listen to gossip?" said Dot in an attempt to make it look like she was totally innocent.

"I don't," said Scratchy. "I listen to sincere voices and evidence. Just looking at you confirms me that you may be doing something that your body can't handle."

Wow. Scratchy wasn't called a psychiatrist for nothing! But Dot wasn't going to let him find out so easily. "Who are those 'sincere voices'? They could be lying for all you know."

"Not when those voices are your brothers'" Scratchy stated in a very serious tone.

"Say what?!" Dot exclaimed. She could feel anger rush in her veins. "You mean to tell me that my brothers told you I have an eating disorder? Why would they say that?"

"Yakko just called," said Scratchy. "I was talking to him when you came. He said that Wakko had told him that he had seen you . . . "

"Skip it Scratchy," said Dot. "Even if I didn't understand a word you just said, I've heard enough."

"Yakko asked me to take you for extra appointments to discuss this," said Scratchy. "He doesn't want to know that you're doing this to yourself. I'm all up for it. And since you're already here, why don't we start now?"

Dot gave the doctor such a cold look; she could have frozen him to death. "Extra appointments, you say? I don't think that's the case. I think Yakko doesn't want me to become cuter than Wakko. He's been on his side the whole time! That cheat!"

"Now, Dot," said Scratchy. "Let's not jump to conclusions. We both know that Yakko cares for you just as much as--"

"Oh, shut up!" said Dot. "You don't know what you're saying! Stop pretending to be a know-it-all and tell Yakko that I'm not taking any extra appointments. I'm going to be a hot toon, and I don't care if he says I shouldn't. For the record, I don't care if _you_ tell me I shouldn't. I don't care if _anyone_ tells me I shouldn't! Why can't I have a life like everyone else! You listen here, Scratchansniff! I've got a new life. And one of the best things about it is that it doesn't include my scummy, crummy, dummy brothers!"

"Dot! Listen to yourself!" said Scratchy. "You're quoting a musical!"

"So what if I am?" said Dot. She stood up sharply and walked out of the office. If she thought she had been angry when she saw the survey, it was nothing compared to how she was feeling now! Her blood was positively boiling, she was frowning so much; it hurt, she stomped out of the office, and her head was full of sadistic thoughts about her brothers. No one, except Hello Nurse, had supported her since the whole thing began. She had been certain that Wakko was too afraid to mention the bulimia, but he still did; only making her hate him even more! And now Yakko was preventing her from becoming cuter than Wakko. How selfish was that?

She marched the street, surprised that the concrete didn't crack. Ooh, was she going to give Yakko a piece of her mind! She climbed the ladder and when she had reached the balcony, she took a deep breath before kicking the door open.

"Damn you, Warner brothers!!" she screamed. In front of her were in fact the two brothers, and they were both shocked to see her _that _mad. Dot walked towards them, stomping threateningly in every step. "You!" She pointed at Wakko. "Wasn't winning that survey enough for you? Did you have to blurt out about my eating habits too?" She looked at Yakko. "And you! What's wrong with you, huh? I thought you cared for me! But you actually wanted to send me to Scratchy's to make me stop throwing up! You've never been on my side! It all comes together now! You were supporting Wakko this whole time!"

"Dot, will you cut it out!" Yakko yelled. Dot was surprised. Normally, Yakko didn't snap like that. "You're seven years old! Of course I don't want you to have bulimia! And why do you think Wakko told me about this? He had two reasons. First: he cares for you, and doesn't want you to do this! Second: you already hurt his feelings, so why shouldn't he?"

"Because he started it!" Dot yelled back. "He started all this when he won the survey!"

"Get over it, Dot!" Wakko exclaimed. "It was just a survey! It's not like it's the end of the world! And besides, I didn't make fun of you for ending up in second place, but you made fun of my dream! Do you know how much it hurt?"

"Yeah, about ten times less than the survey results!" Dot shrieked. "And your dream was funny, by the way! It was just a dream, for crying out loud!"

"Yes, well it was just a survey!"

"That's completely different! You know how sensitive I am about my looks!" Dot's rage was growing.

"You know how sensitive I am overall!"

"Oh, excuuuuuuuse me, mister cute one! I didn't know that was one of your strong points to make you so cute! What else? Your adorable red cap?"

"That's enough!" Yakko shouted. "I've had it with your endless arguing!"

"Look who's talking, mister Dot-can't-be-cuter-than-Wakko!" Dot couldn't stop! She had never been so angry towards her brothers, but it felt like they deserved it.

"That's not the case at all, Dot!" Dot could see Yakko's fury in his eyes. "I just don't want you to be a bulimic at seven years of age!"

"Oh, so it'd be better if I was older?"

"That's not what I meant! I don't ever want you to be a bulimic! And will you please stop giving Wakko such a hard time?"

"I don't think so!" Dot crossed her arms and turned away. "You're not the boss of me! I'm in charge of my life, not you!"

She didn't give Yakko a chance to reply. She pushed both him and Wakko out of her way and went straight to the bathroom. The boys were left behind, knowing what she was about to do.

There was a short silence between the brothers. Soon, though, Yakko pulled a stool to him and sat down, hiding his face in his palms. "I'm a terrible brother."

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Dot flushed the toilet while holding on to her stomach. Who would have thought that it hurt so much to have bulimia? Well, she didn't care. As long as she was getting skinnier, she was fine with it. She stood up and had a look at herself in the mirror yet again. She looked a tad better than just a week before. Working out until she went dizzy and throwing up was definitely worth it. Still, there was something missing . . .

"Of course!" Dot said to herself and snapped her fingers. "I need a bigger chest! I wonder how much a plastic surgery costs . . . "

* * *

**A/N: Some lines were taken from "Chicago!" And for those of you who don't know, Gacy was a child molester who dressed himself up as a clown to lure little kids to him. One of the main reasons for why I fear clowns. You can never know what the man behind the make-up is like! **


	5. The cause of Dottie

**Chapter 5 – The cause of Dottie

* * *

**

As if it wasn't bad enough that Dot couldn't stand Wakko? Now she was working out like crazy, she had bulimia, she _hated_ both her brothers, and she was planning on getting a plastic surgery! The thought alone was terrifying. What could have clicked in her head to make her think she was getting cuter? If anything, she was getting uglier!

But still, Yakko couldn't help but think that it was somehow his fault. He knew it wasn't, but felt like it. Every time he were to get a glimpse of Dot's face (which was very rare, now that she hated him) he got a pang of conscience as if he had poured acid on it. More importantly: he was worried sick. He was afraid that Dot would one day end up killing herself or that the bulimia would get the better of her. Whatever was about to happen, he would consider it his fault.

Wakko, however, wasn't worried about the consequences of the bulimia. He was more concerned about Dot's mental state. She had never thrown a tantrum like that! And to her brothers, no less! But if there was anything that disturbed him, it was the article about him in 'Seen and Heard'. Where did they get that photo of him? He had never in his life passed the 'Here and Now' building, let alone with a stack of notes! There was definitely something fishy going on, and the survey had started it all.

After her tantrum from the day before, Dot had run out of the water tower almost without a trace and now the Warner brothers were standing on the tower balcony, doing some mean thinking. In between, they exchanged random, useless facts, such as: "I'm hungry" or "That lady's shirt is enjoyably tight" or "There's a crack in the street". But after a while, Wakko was getting tired of it.

"Hey, Yakko, I think I'll go take a walk," he said.

"Uh huh," Yakko said in a low, depressed tone, like he didn't even know what Wakko just said.

"Yeah," said Wakko. "I'm going now . . . "

"Uh huh."

"Bye."

"Uh huh."

Wakko gave his brother a look, shrugged, and jumped down the tower, landing softly on a mattress. He wasn't quite sure where he was going, but he just wanted to get out of the whole thinking situation. But sadly, being alone didn't help much in that matter. He quickly began thinking again. This time, he developed a crazy theory. Maybe the publishers of 'Here and Now' were either mean Dot-haters or obsessed Wakko-lovers. It could be that someone in the magazine's crew had slipped a few fake votes for him or took out some votes for Dot.

"It could just be . . . " Wakko said to himself.

He stopped in his tracks and ran back to the tower. Yakko was still standing on the balcony, staring blankly into the air. Wakko ignored him and went inside. He rushed to his room and reached for his gag bag from behind his back. He dug his hand in it, trying to find a map at some sort. Finding it wasn't easy. Before he did, he had to pick up a telephone, a flowerpot, three pillows and a stand lamp. When he finally reached it, he slammed it on the floor and began scanning it.

Wakko had no idea where the 'Here and Now' building was located, but still continued to search. There was just something about the whole thing that was too fishy to ignore. If he _had_ won fair and square, the gap between him and Dot would have been _way_ smaller. But there was definitely something wrong, something weird and something strange.

Wakko kept scanning the map until he figured out that it was no use. He just couldn't find the building. The only thing he saw was outlines and some funny images. _Wait a minute_, he thought. _This is an atlas! _He picked it up, placed it back in the gag bag and reached for a simple road map of Burbank. That had to be accurate enough.

And wouldn't you know it? There it was, right in the center of North Buena Vista Street. Wakko didn't even bother to put his stuff back in place, but simply threw it away and ran out of the tower.

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As Dot walked the crowded streets of Burbank, she couldn't help but notice that people were staring at her. Well, she didn't care. She liked the attention! She also liked the fact that some people weren't staring at her with a shocked face. Some people were practically drooling over her! How could they not? She had just become one of the hottest toons in toon history.

She walked with one hand on her hip, wiggling them with every step, making her new, Japanese-style skirt swing around as well. She used her head to flip her now straightened hair from her face while thinking: _I look too good_.

Before she could go on admiring herself, someone tapped on her shoulder. She turned around to see a young girl, possibly aged fourteen.

"Excuse me," she said. "Are you Dot Warner?"

"Who wants to know?" Dot said, trying not to sound snobby.

"Um, I was just passing by, and I thought I saw someone who reminded me of Dot," said the girl. "Are you related to her or anything?"

"Puh-lease!" Dot exclaimed. "The only ones related to me are my stupid brothers and a weird cousin. I, my good girl, am the one and only Dot Warner, thank you very much!"

"Really?" said the girl. She was now looking at Dot like she was a museum piece. "You look so different. I hardly recognized you."

"Well, duh! I've been working on my looks for days," said Dot. Geez! Didn't that girl know anything?

"I can see that," said the girl. "But there's something about your face too. What did you . . . "

"Oh, you noticed?" said Dot, cheering up immediately. "Don't you think it's awesome? I look way better than before, right?"

"You sure do!" said the girl. "Your eyes look so big and slit, your lips are so puffy, and you've even got a decent chest! Needless to say, but you look awesome!"

"Thank you," said Dot and smiled. "I also got rid of the flower and bought some new clothes. Believe me, 'cute' has just become a word not suitable for me. I think I'm more like 'adorable' now."

"I totally agree," said the girl. "Hey, I better get going. It was great talking to you, Dot."

"You too," said Dot and walked away. She was happy to know that people were already noticing her good looks, even if she had just stepped out of a mean make-up treatment.

Little did she know that while she reached out of sight, the girl stood perfectly still, thinking about how the once cute Warner sister had now become a . . . she had become a . . . a . . . Well, she wasn't the cute Warner sister anymore, that was for sure.

----------------------------------------------------------

Wakko had been walking North Buena Vista Street for about ten minutes and he still hadn't reached the center of it. The street was much longer than he expected. Who would've known? Still, he knew that the walking and searching would be worth the effort. He would finally get to the bottom of the survey thing. The writers and publishers of 'Here and Now' had to have answers, and if they didn't, their paperwork would.

And there it was: the tallest building in the street, practically a skyscraper. It looked just like in the photo: _big_. Wakko's neck ached after looking so high up. He then stormed inside the building, not having the slightest idea where he was going. Lucky for him, there was a desk in the first room. It looked a lot like a hotel lobby. Wakko walked towards the desk. Of course, he was too short for the guy behind it to see him, so he raised his hand to let him know.

"Who's there?" said the guy. "What's the meaning of this?" He stood up and bent down on the desk to take a look at Wakko. He was not very old, 31 Wakko guessed, pretty slim with brown hair. "Well, well, if it isn't the cutest of the Warner siblings. How may I help you?"

Wakko growled. "Don't call me the cutest. It makes me feel sick."

"Why?" said the guy. "You won, so it's natural to get such reactions."

"And that's why I'm here," said Wakko and jumped on the desk. He looked at the guy threateningly. "Listen, you." He looked at the guy's nametag. "Ray. I don't think I won. I think you guys made it look like I won so you could make me popular."

"What? Now why would we do that?" said Ray. "We weren't in charge of the results. They were just the public's opinion."

"No, it wasn't," said Wakko. "If it had been the public's opinion, Dot would've won. Everyone knows she's the cutest of us. It's just common sense!"

Ray shrugged. "Don't look at me. I didn't count the votes."

"Well then, who did?" Wakko asked, still looking at Ray with angry eyes.

"It was the head of the writing department, Sheila," said Ray. "You should go talk to her."

"Okay," Wakko said happily, which made Ray look a bit confused. Wakko jumped off the desk and was about to go when he realized that he didn't know the way. He sheepishly turned to Ray again and said: "Can you lead me?"

Ray chuckled. "Not a problem." With that, the two strangers walked appropriately into the building. It wasn't any smaller on the inside and everywhere Wakko looked were people working. They were probably working on the newest issue. Ray led Wakko to a room that looked like a combination between an editing room and a classroom.

"Sheila? Are you in?" said Ray. No sound was made but after a while, Wakko heard the sound of a computer chair being rolled. It came closer and closer and finally, Wakko saw an image of a woman. Then he saw her blond hair, and then she was close enough for him to shout "Helloooooooooo nurse!!" and leap into her arms. The woman quickly let go of him and stood up from the chair.

"Yessirree!" she said. This had to be Sheila. "What's up? And what's the Warner brother doing here?"

"I don't know," said Ray. "He said he wanted to know who counted the votes for the survey."

"Right!" said Sheila. She bent down and shook Wakko's hand. "Hey, nice to meet you, chap! Name's Sheila, but you probably knew that. So, now you know who counted the votes, so you can go. Bye!"

"Hold on a second!" said Wakko and pulled his hand out of Sheila's shake. "I'm not here to just know who counted them! I want to take a look at them for myself!"

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," said Sheila and crossed her arms. "Only those who are workers here are allowed to see anything that's written before the issue is published. So I'm going to have to ask you to leave and--" She couldn't finish her sentence. Wakko was giving her the 'Why me?' look and it made her smile and say "Aww" instead. "No wonder you won!"

"Just let me see the votes," Wakko groaned.

Sheila hopped on her chair and made it roll along some shelves. Wakko followed. After about 30 seconds, Sheila stopped so quickly; Wakko crashed on her chair. She stood up and reached for a folder.

"Here you go," she said and handed it to Wakko. "All you want to know about this survey is in there. Just put it back in place when you're done."

"Okay," said Wakko. He walked to one of the computer tables in the room and opened the folder. There were a few papers in there. Wakko had a look at all of them. One was a list of ideas for surveys; one had the results as seen in the magazine; another was a draft of the article; and yet another was simply a picture of him and his siblings. Also in the folder was a diskette. It was labeled: "Who do you think is the cutest Warner? – Results". That had to be it.

He was already in front of a computer anyway, so Wakko slipped the diskette in it and turned it on. While waiting for the computer to start, he had another look at the picture of him, Dot and Yakko. It hurt him a bit to see all three of them so happy together, and Dot looking cuter than ever.

Finally, the computer was properly on and Wakko had a look at what the diskette had on it. He opened the file and was shocked to see how big it was. The ones who took part in the survey were so many; Wakko didn't even bother to count them. It could have been the whole US for all he knew. But he wasn't there to count people. He was there to look at the results. He looked closely at every person and who he or she had chosen. As expected, Dot had gotten most of the votes.

"I knew it!" Wakko exclaimed to no one. "It's all a fake!"

But then he scrolled down. That's when he realized that it wasn't faked at all. People had voted him the cutest Warner sibling. He couldn't believe it! He ran over the results again, and again, and again, but always got the same result: he had, in fact, been the winner of the survey.

Wakko kept going through the history of the project, but everything he saw was just someone typing in the results. No one had cheated. No one had faked votes. No one had slipped out votes. He had won, fair and square.

Wakko sighed, took the diskette out of the computer and turned it off. He then placed the diskette back in the folder and put it back where it belonged. He groaned in disappointment. All his hopes of finally wrapping everything up had been crushed like a bee on a windshield.

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"Hello, Nurse!" Dot greeted when she came to the psychiatry office yet again. "Notice anything new?"

Hello Nurse looked up from what she was doing and gasped. At first, Dot thought she was going to give her one of those 'What were you thinking?' speeches, but instead, she shrieked.

"Oh my god!!" she squealed and ran to Dot to have a closer look. "You look so hot! How did you . . . When did you . . . What did you do?" She suddenly looked very serious. "You didn't have a plastic surgery, did you?"

Dot laughed. "What do you think? I can't afford one anyway and besides, I don't think they'd want to do it on someone so young. Nope, I'm just wearing professional make-up . . . and a push-up bra under this schoolgirl outfit, in case you're wondering. Don't I look great?"

"Great? You look _awesome_!" Hello Nurse yelled. "It's like . . . wow! Oh god, I'm in shock! Holy . . . Wow! I don't think I've seen your chest so big since 'Roll over, Beethoven'!"

Dot flipped her hair and turned in a circle to let Hello Nurse see the whole image. "I like it a lot and I look so hot 'cause my name is Dot!" she said, licked her finger and put it on her side, making a sizzling sound.

"You should become a model!" said Hello Nurse.

"I should become a what now?" said Dot. She hadn't expected that random statement at all.

"I mean it!" said Hello Nurse. "Just look at yourself. You have the perfect body, a perfect face, perfect hair, and even a perfect voice! You should consider becoming a model! And think: if you do, you'll be one of the youngest in the business!"

"A model, you say . . . " said Dot.

"Yeah, definitely!" said Hello Nurse. "Think about it. You'll get your well-deserved attention on it. Guaranteed, you'll become one of the hottest models there are. I mean, you've already become one of the hottest toons, why shouldn't you go further?"

"You've got a point," said Dot. She was already beginning to like the idea already. And if she'd be a model, maybe her brothers would see why she always wanted to look good. But there was one thing . . . "If I do become a model, won't I need an alias?"

"Why would you need an alias?" said Hello Nurse, looking a little confused. "Don't you want people to know that it's you?"

"Oh no, I don't mean that kind of an alias," said Dot. "I mean that most of the stars have changed their names into something catchier. And Dot Warner or Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca the third is definitely not catchy. I need something fresh, something hot, something . . . "

"Like Dottie?" Hello Nurse guessed.

Dot looked at the nurse with disgust. "No way! Anything but Dottie! I hate being called Dottie! It's one of those names I'll _never _call myself!"

"Exactly," said Hello Nurse. "It's so unlikely that you'd call yourself Dottie; it only makes it better, don't you think? Besides, it'll fit better on the billboards."

"I don't know," said Dot. "I don't think it's me."

"I can see it now . . . " said Hello Nurse with a dreamy look. "You'll be the one everyone talks about; the one model earning the most; the more you model, the more likely it is that people will recognize you; you'll jump from being an old cartoon star to being a celebrity."

Dot was getting excited already. "I'll get loads of fans! Wow, think of all the autographs I'll sign!" She paused for a bit. "I'm in!"

"That's so great . . . Dottie!" said Hello Nurse.

"It's going to take a while to get used to this name . . . " Dot sighed.

* * *

**A/N: SORRY about the late update! I've been drowning in tests and schoolwork! TTTT **


	6. Flash the camera guru

**Chapter 6 – Flash the camera guru**

_

* * *

_

_Dot stepped out of her car and immediately cameras started flashing. The crowd cheered like she had never heard anyone cheer before. She looked around, but she couldn't see anything because of all the flashing, so she simply posed. Some people were even starting to struggle to get to her between the security guards while some were only trying to touch her. Of course, no one got the chance. She was just too well protected. All she could hear people say was "Dottie!" "Dottie!" Dottie!"_

"_Dottie!"_

"Dottie! Wake up!"

"Huh? What?" said Dot. She was lying on Hello Nurse's lap while they drove to some agency the nurse knew. Dot had been so tired from the day before, and she kept dozing off. Working out in the middle of the night and then spending a good ten minutes in the bathroom is definitely not a good idea if you want to hold out the next morning. Nevertheless, that's what Dot had done. And somehow, it felt nicer to do it in someone else's house. The water tower only made her feel guiltier, so she had moved to Hello Nurse's place.

"Where are we going again?" Dot asked. She had dozed off so many times, she kept forgetting about their journey in the cab.

"I told you like a kajillion times, we're going to Cable's model agency," said Hello Nurse. "He's the one who encouraged me to participate in the beauty contest. He's a great photographer and respects his models. You may find him a little weird when you see him, but I can tell you he's a very nice man."

"Cable, huh?" said Dot. "He sounds more like an electrician to me."

"Well, his dad was a TV repairman," said Hello Nurse. "But his mom was a model and when he was young, she would let him take pictures of her just to practise his photographic skills."

"Spew! Taking pictures of your mom sounds like . . . incest!" said Dot, pretty grossed out.

"Hey, it turned out good for both of them," said Hello Nurse and shrugged, as if she didn't find it disturbing at all.

"Alright, miss Nurse," said the cab driver. "This where you were going?"

"It is. Thank you," said Hello Nurse. "Dot, you coming?"

Dot looked out the car window. They were parked in front of a wide building that had a huge banner on top. 'Cable cameras – and don't think it's a shop!' it said. Dot chuckled a bit before she stepped out of the car. Hello Nurse paid the driver and then they went inside the house. The front door slid open as the girls walked in. But the second they stepped on the floor, a security bell rang. Dot was startled and it didn't ease when a guard appeared right in front of them from above. He was much better built than any guard Dot had seen, and his black hair covered most of his face.

"Alright, missy!" he said to Hello Nurse. He then looked at Dot. "Uhh . . . missies! What do you guys think you're doing here? I don't think you have Mr Cable's permission!" He aimed a club at Hello Nurse. "Cough it up!"

"Well, well. If it isn't Duke Zody," said Hello Nurse and reached out her hand. "It's been a while, hasn't it? Still suspicious as ever, are we? Remember me?"

Duke slowly lowered the club. He flipped his hair from his now visible blue eyes and looked at the nurse. "Hey, now I remember. You're Hyooka, aren't you? Great to see you again!" he said and took her hand.

"You too," said Hello Nurse.

"So, are you going to a meeting with Cable? Are you coming back?" said Duke.

"No, but I called him earlier to tell him I was coming," said Hello Nurse. "I brought a candidate along. Her name is Dot Warner, but her model name is Dottie."

"Dot Warner? The Warner sister? She's a model?" said Duke. He looked at Dot. At first, she thought he was going to laugh or make fun of her, but it turned out the other way. "She's become so good looking! I think Cable will love her!"

"He will?" Dot accidentally said out loud.

"Of course he will!" said Hello Nurse. "Duke, I think we'll go see the big guy now."

"Right," said Duke. "I'm sure you know the way by now?"

"Through the lobby; down the corridor; first room to the right? Yeah, I've got it straight," said Hello Nurse and smiled. "Just follow me, Dottie."

Dot did so. As the two walked down the corridor, she saw numerous photos on the walls. They were all very well taken and the models looked so pretty; so perfect. She wondered if she could be like them one day.

Soon, they were standing in front of a big door. There was a label on it that said: 'I'm busy! Professional photography takes time! (or the model doesn't understand my body language)'. Dot giggled. This Cable guy was definitely humorous. Dot fixed her hair and bit her lip before Hello Nurse knocked on the door.

"What's this?" Dot heard someone say from the inside. "Who dares to interrupt the great Flash Cable on duty? Who is responsible for making me miss the button on my camera? Who _just_ stood in front of my door and didn't read the label?" With every word, the voice drew nearer. "Who is not polite enough to come later? Who wants me to lose another great model because of a dull photo? And further more: who is making me ask myself all those questions?" Finally, the door opened and Dot saw the famous photographer Flash Cable for the first time.

He was a tall guy, pretty skinny and wore a long, black jacket. His flaming red hair was drowning in hair gel and formed quite nicely. Even though he didn't have the happiest grin on his face, he sure looked nice! Dot couldn't help but shout "Hellooooooooooooooo Flash!!" and leap into his arms. Unlike many, he didn't drop her immediately, but started to measure her weight with his hands. "I can tell you how much I weigh to spare you time," Dot pointed out."

"No need," said Flash. "I'm just trying to figure out a way to drop you without breaking your possibly fragile bones."

Dot raised an eyebrow, but then smiled at Flash. "Hey, I can't help it if I'm --

"Oh dear mother of Lancôme!" Flash interrupted. "If it isn't my little Hyooka!" He dropped Dot like she was trash and hugged Hello Nurse. "I haven't seen you in ages! How have you been? Have you been working out? You look so much better than before."

Hello Nurse chuckled. "Thanks, I guess."

"So, what brings you here? Have you recovered from that stab the beauty contest gave you and now running back to me to work with you because you know you want to show off your now so hot body in public and earn a lot of money for it," Flash gasped for air, "or are you simply saying hi?"

"Yes, I'm saying hi; and no, I'm not going to work here," said Hello Nurse. Dot noticed that Flash's face became a little downer. "But I brought someone who wants to."

Flash brightened up instantly. "Really?" he said in a high-pitched voice. "Who might that be?"

"You just dropped her," said Hello Nurse and pointed at Dot.

"You mean to tell me that she wants to become a model?" said Flash. "That's . . . that's . . . that's . . . " He had a better look at Dot. "Stand up, dearie." Dot stood up and posed a little. "That's brilliant! Why didn't you think of this before? You totally should become a model! You've got the body, you've got the face, and I'm sure you have the talent too! What's your name, anyway?"

"You don't know who I am?" said Dot. "I'm Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca the third, but you can call me Dot. Call me Dottie and we're talking business!"

"Wow . . . I just love a model with a catchphrase!" said Flash. "I have one too: Flash will press 'FLASH' in a flash!'" There was a short silence and then he cleared his throat. "Anyhoo, what's your alias? I'm sure it's something out of this world!"

"Um, it's just Dottie," said Dot, hoping it would be good enough for Flash.

"Why Dottie? It sounds so . . . I don't know, foreseeable?" said Flash.

"Her old catchphrase was 'call me Dottie and you die', so it's something highly unexpected," said Hello Nurse.

"Oh, I get it!" said Flash. "So it's not foreseeable, okay! Fine by me! I like non-foreseeable aliases anyway. They make me feel all warm and squishy inside."

Dot giggled yet again. What was it about this guy that made him so zany? She soon snapped out of that thought when there was a tap on her shoulder.

"Hey, she didn't collapse!" said Flash. Dot frowned at him, but he simply smiled. "Listen, Dottie. If you're going to work with me, you're going to have to be able to understand every single thing I tell you. Got that?"

"That depends," said Dot. "What do you mean?"

"Okay, I'll tell you exactly what I mean," said Flash. He snapped his fingers and all the lights in the room turned off. Soon, though, a spotlight turned on, revealing Flash standing in front of a microphone.

"This is his first big speech," Hello Nurse whispered. "It's really boring, but you might want to listen very carefully."

"Okay, I'll try," Dot whispered back. "But I'm not famous for paying attention, you know. Why is this so important?"

"Because he's going to tell you everything you need to know to work for him," said Hello Nurse. "Just listen."

"When I was a young tyke – about five years old or so – I got my hands on a camera for the first time," Flash began. "I had _seen _those things a lot of times, but never held one. Anyhoo, the very first photo I took was actually an accident. You see; I was playing around with the camera when my finger slipped and I took a picture. I would describe it for you right now just to brag, but it hangs on the wall so you can just have a look at it when I'm done talking."

"Can we skip your early photograph days, Flash?" said Hello Nurse.

"Shush, I'm doing my speech," said Flash. "Now, being a photographer isn't as easy as it looks – especially when you're working with models. Most of them are so dumb; it's hardly enjoyable. The thing is: only two models have been here for longer than four years, but every model I get seems to want to quit eventually. I know it's sad, but it's a fact. I think the main reason is that they're too stupid to understand my body language. You see, when I take pictures, I tend to use my body to show them what I want to see in the photo. Sure, some models have been experts in understanding this, but mostly they give up eventually. But I know that since you're a cartoon star, you'll understand me perfectly. So, are you ready for the demonstration?"

Dot nodded. "Go for it."

"Splendid!" Flash said in a high-pitched voice again. "Okay, you have to imagine I were really taking photos of you. That way, you'll get the feeling. Okay, let us begin." He cleared his throat and began stretching his body. He cracked his knuckles and shook all over. Then, he began. "If I do the twist while waving my hands and then stop suddenly with my hands pointed out like guns; it means you have to stand on one leg, point your hip out, put one hand on the leg and give me passionate eyes. I normally use this one for swimsuit photos." While talking, Flash did exactly what he was saying. "With me so far?"

"Uh huh," said Dot. She was watching Flash's moves very carefully, trying not to miss anything.

"All right. Then there's the next step," said Flash. He breathed heavily before starting. "If I pretend to be riding a horse, kick out in the air, and end in a kung-fu pose; it means you have to squat, put your hands on the ground between your legs, keep your back straight and smile. That's the pose for shampoo, nice pants or a shirt. You catching my drift?"

"I gotcha," said Dot, while writing everything down on a notepad.

"Great. Now the third step can be done in three ways," said Flash. "First: I do a wave with my body and stare wildly at you; that means you have to pretend to be surrounded by hands groping your thigh. That's a great pose for a shoe ad. It's a little disgusting, I know, but the picture will rock the viewers' world! Second: I do a few Egyptian-like moves; you lie down on your back and do some mean stretching. It always gets people to buy perfume. Now for the third version: if I kneel and bend my back like a limbo dancer while twirling my upper body; you sit down in the sexiest pose you can think of. Most clothes designers love those photos."

"I can imagine why," said Dot.

"So, what do you say, Dottie?" said Flash, panting a little. "Too hard for you, or does it sound like piece of cake? Come on, you can say."

"You know, I'm not the best person to be following orders, since I never obey anyone, but I think I can handle this," said Dot. "After all, it's going to make me a star, right?"

"You bet your fanny it is," said Flash. "So, are you ready for part two?"

"What do you mean, part two?" said Dot. "I thought you said there were steps."

"I did, yeah," said Flash. "But the thing is: there are two parts. Part one has three steps and part two has two. The second part is a little harder, but believe me, it's a lot hotter! You ready?"

"Shoot," said Dot, waiting for Flash to prepare.

"Okay, here goes," said Flash. He took a deep breath again. "If I slowly but firmly imitate a mime but end in a knitting-my-muscles pose; you let your hips dance around with your legs completely straight, while giving the camera a very hinting look. I've seen people's reaction to this, and it ain't pretty. Sure, they love it, but what they do when they see it is not suitable to describe in a story rated T."

"I don't think I want to know anyway," said Dot, though she was starting to picture things . . .

"Right! On we go!" Flash exclaimed, snapping Dot out of her inappropriate thoughts. "It's time for the last step. This is for some reason the pose most of my models have used when they're leaving me. Also, it's the only pose I've named. I call it 'the final shot'. This is how it goes: I cross myself, dance around like a showgirl in a bar to the left, then to the right, and then do a little tap dance; you just improvise but make it look so hot and appealing, the photo will become a man magnet. It never fails. My models always want to leave with style . . . and they do." Flash looked up to the ceiling in a dramatic way, as if his models were dead and he was actually looking up to heaven.

"You are one strange man . . . but I like you," said Dot. "I have no taste, but I like you."

"I know, right?" said Flash. "Anyway, now that you've seen the language, do you think you're ready for the first tryout?"

"I was born ready, tiger!" said Dot.

She had hardly let go of the word when a phone rang. Flash picked up a cell phone from his back pocket and answered. While he spoke, Hello Nurse pulled Dot to her.

"So, what do you think?" she said. "Isn't he something?"

"I'll admit that you were right: he _is_ a little weird," said Dot. "But he's still one hyperactive photographer. I think I could actually work with a guy like that."

"Really?" said Hello Nurse. "But he's so zany. Don't you think it'll remind you of your brothers?"

"Ugh, don't mention them!" said Dot. "And no, he won't. He actually has a job. My brothers are just stupid."

Hello Nurse sighed. "You have got to stop this. It's gotten out of hand."

"Oh, Nurse, not you too!" said Dot. "You're the only one who really understands me. Don't take their side, please?"

"Fine, fine, I won't," said Hello Nurse. "But I still don't like it."

"Guess what!" Flash suddenly yelled. The girls turned around and saw that he looked extremely happy. "I just got a call from a perfume company. They need a photo for their newest ad. I told them that I had some fresh blood up my sleeve and they can't wait to see it! So, how about it, Dottie? Are you up for making your first try be an actual ad?"

Dot was shocked. She was going to pose for an ad already? She had just arrived! "Uhh, isn't this a bit sudden? I mean, I've never done anything like this."

"What?" Flash exclaimed. "You mean you don't want to become a model? After all I showed you, told you and did for you; you still say no? Is that what you're saying? You're not willing to work with me?"

"Well, I really don't think I could--Okay!" said Dot happily.

"Phew! For a moment there I thought you meant it!" said Flash. "Okay, Dottie. Let's get ready to rumble!" He skipped off and came back with a bottle, some clothes and a camera. "Are you ready to rumble?"

"What's with the clothes?" Dot had to ask.

"Surely you're not going to wear that school outfit in a model shoot," said Flash. "Put on this yellow top and these jeans. I think the jeans may be a little tight so I brought this belt too. Go on, dress up! There's a changing room in the back."

"Um, okay," said Dot and took the clothes. She then went to the changing room and switched. While doing so, she glanced at herself in the mirror. _Hmm . . . my figure actually looks pretty good by now. But hey, I can always do better._ When she was done, she went back to the big photo room. Flash gave a low whistle.

"That is one good-looking toon," he said to himself, though loud enough for others to hear. He picked up his camera and took a picture. "Sorry, I have to do this to every model. You know, see if she can handle paparazzi without looking ugly." He looked at the photo and his eyes widened.

"That's right, I'm a toon," said Dot. "I'm faster than you'll ever be."

"Well, at least now I know that you're a quick thinker," said Flash. "Now step on the white-screen."

Dot did so. Soon, lights blinded her eyes and she was having a hard time seeing Flash and Hello Nurse.

"This is your first try, but I've demonstrated everything, so let's just get jiggy with it!"


	7. Dottie, please be good!

* * *

_She's been ignoring us for too long! She's not herself anymore! She's become a monster! She's anorexic, bulimic and a work-outaholic! And no matter what I do or say, she won't come back!_

Yakko was pacing the floors of the water tower yet again, grasping the fur on his head furiously as if he was waiting for it to rip off. He couldn't stand the fact that his sister had abandoned him and Wakko for looks - looks that were never meant to be hers.

_Why did 'Here and Now' have to do that survey in the first place? Why did Wakko have to win? Why did Dot and Hello Nurse have to become friends? Why did Wakko have to tell me about the bulimia? Why did Dot move away? And why does my head hurt like crazy!!_

Yakko slowly loosened the grip on his fur and looked at his open hands. The frown on his face leaked off as he made a realization.

_It was just as easy to let go of my head, as it was for me to let go of Dot . . ._

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Dot was on cloud nine. She couldn't help but admire herself for being able to keep up with all the hard work Flash was putting her through. No matter what he did, or what he said, Dot was always able to pull it off. Needless to say, she had gotten pretty much all of her photos greatly done. She knew that because Flash always took his time to stare at the photos after the shooting. Now was one of those times.

"My god, Dot," he said with adoration in his voice. "Ho do you do it? Even Cindy Crawford couldn't do better than this! By golly, you're definitely one of the best – if not the best!"

"Thanks, I get it all the time," said Dot and smiled. Still, every time she said something from the show, she felt disgusting. It reminded her of her brothers, which made her sick!

"Okay, my dear," said Flash. "You can step from the curtains now."

Dot was relieved. She stepped off the snow-white curtain, past the lights and picked up a towel from one of Flash's helpers to dry off her sweat. Standing in front of such bright lights while practically running between poses will do that to you. Dot then looked for a chair and found one beside Flash. He was sitting in front of his computer, still staring at the photos.

"I like the way this is coming out," said a voice behind Dot. She turned around to see Hello Nurse who sat down next to Dot. "Do you like it so far?"

"Heck yeah!" said Dot. "I love it! It makes me feel all -- special." She almost quoted her show again. Why was she still so hung up about that?

"Hey, Dottie," Flash said suddenly. "Take a look at this." He pointed at a photo of Dot in one of the shoe poses. "See anything disturbing about it?"

Dot bent over to have a look at the photo. She didn't see anything wrong with it. On it, she was standing straight; her face looked shocked but not too much; her hands were in the right position (on her cheeks to underline the expression); her legs were perfect (bending as if something disgusting was crawling on them); the hair and make-up were greatly put on; what could have been wrong? "Um, no. I don't see anything."

Flash sighed and put his hands on Dot's not-so-visible shoulders. "Look Dot, as much as I love you and all that crud, I really don't want to see so much flesh loll on your legs. You can see it on your hips too."

"Really?" Dot had a closer look and gasped. He was right! She still wasn't skinny enough for the job! "I knew it! You're probably going to fire me now, aren't you?"

"Fire you?!" Flash exclaimed. "After endlessly complimenting you on your looks and photos and how they always manage to look good no matter what I do or say or whatever and if I give you critics you always take them like compliments and seem to be able to fix it?" He gasped for air. "Not a chance! You're stuck with me until you want to go. Nope, I'm just giving you the hints. I mean, people don't want to see so much flesh on a model. You're going to have to work this off. Until then, ciao!"

"What do you mean 'ciao'?" Dot asked, confused.

Hello Nurse chuckled. "He means your time today is over." Dot blushed a little. "Come on, let's go. We can take a little walk before we go home."

"Okay," said Dot. "Flash, we'll be seeing you tomorrow," she added and winked at Flash.

"Right on!" said Flash and did a 'thumbs up'. "You two take care. And Dottie, you work your butt off today so you can be in top shape next time. Later!"

"Yeah, bye," said Dot and waved. With that, the two girls walked out of the room, up the corridor, through the lobby and stepped out of the house. Dot stretched out and inhaled. Finally out!

As the two walked, they passed numerous people that gave them second looks. Dot really enjoyed that, considering that they always looked at one particular body part. She grinned back at them, and noticed that they turned around again, blushing. Some people whistled at them too, making Dot feel even more loved. This modelling thing is really taking the cake for me!

"So, do you think you can handle the modelling business?" the nurse finally said, breaking the silence that had been going on.

"Does it look like I'm about to give up?" said Dot. "I don't see why I didn't think of this way before now. You know, I've never been able to show myself like this. Up until now I've always been known as the Warner sister and the little, cute girl in the background; but now I'll become something bigger. Just like you said: from a dumb, old cartoon star into being a real celebrity."

"Well, I'm glad you're enjoying it so far," said Hello Nurse. "Say, Flash did mention that you should work that flesh off. Why don't we jog a bit to power up? We can go to the gym later on if you want."

"Sounds good to me," said Dot and immediately began to speed up her walking. Soon enough, both she and the nurse were jogging. As usual, Dot didn't talk while doing so – it made her stop focusing on running.

But because she didn't speak, Dot began thinking . . .

_In a few weeks, I'm gonna be the hottest model of all time! I know I'll be able to do it! Flash even says I'm one of the best he's ever had so far, so I must be doing a great job!_

She smiled to the thought of Flash and his compliments.

_He loves me so much! I see it in his eyes – he wants me to be the model of the year for decades to come! I just love it when he says I'm doing great! That way, I can tell that I'm the perfect one for the title 'Cable girl'! And I don't mean as a repairman_, she added to no one.

Looking at the 'invisible audience' made her think about her show again. Only this time, she didn't feel sick. On the contrary, she actually felt a flicker of sadness and a pang of conscience. For the first time in ages, Dot kept on thinking about what usually made her want to hurt something.

_Gee, I wonder what our lives would be like today if that survey had never been done. Would we still be recording our sketches? Would we still be running amok at the movie lot? Would we still be having fun singing? Would we still be annoying the guts out of famous people?_

_Why am I beginning all my thoughts with 'would we still'_? she randomly thought before continuing.

_Would Scratchy still be trying to calm us down? Would we still be making cameos in other shows? Would Steven still call me cute? Would we still be making parodies and spoofs? Would Wakko and me still be the good brother and sister we used to be?_

Just thinking about Wakko made Dot sigh.

_That brother of mine . . . what made him so eager to be considered cute as to fake his own results? I still can't believe it! I thought being the wacky one was fine by him. After all, his name is Wakko. Why would he even want to be cuter than me? Could it be that he's jealous?_

Dot unknowingly started to slow down a bit.

_Oh my gosh. Could it be that he feels like I've been drawing all the attention from him? Is that why he wanted to win the survey? Because he feels like he's living in my shadow? Why didn't he just tell me?_

Hello Nurse was now starting to slow down too, because Dot was practically walking again. "Hey Dot, shouldn't we be jogging?"

Dot didn't even hear the nurse's statement. She was so sunken in her thoughts.

_Wait a minute . . . if he's so desperate for attention, why didn't he just ask Steven or Tom to write him more lines or something? He didn't have to go through the trouble of winning the survey. He just wanted me to see what it's like to live in another one's shadow!_

"I'll show you who's living in a shadow, you player!" Dot shouted and started to run again.

_Of all the nerve! He just wanted to see me suffer! He faked his reaction when he found out about my bulimia because he knew I'd get it! He knew it all along! He must think I'm gonna give up on the whole modelling thing. Well, I'll show him!_

Without hesitation, Dot sped up and ran past Hello Nurse at maximum speed, just to let her anger out. Because she was at such high speed, she eventually tripped and almost fell right on her face. Thankfully, Hello Nurse had caught up to her and managed to grab her.

"Whoa!" she exclaimed. "What's with you today? First you slow down, and then you just begin to speed run? What's on your mind?"

"Nothing new," Dot panted while the nurse helped her to get on her feet again. "Just thinking about some stuff."

"Wakko and Animaniacs?" said Hello Nurse. Dot nodded. "You have to get this off your chest, Dot. I mean, if you really want to go back, then there's no one pulling you back but yourself. You know you can easily quit at Cable's and go back to WB. You heard Flash: you're stuck with him until you want to leave."

"I know," said Dot. "I just can't help it. All this started with that survey, you know. And sometimes I'm just reminded of it all when people say certain words or do certain things. It's not my fault."

Hello Nurse looked at Dot with sympathy in her eyes. "You're exhausted, Dot. How about I get us a drink or two? I know a little mart close by here."

"Okay, I can live with that," said Dot and smiled.

The nurse jogged away to get the drinks. Dot used the opportunity to take a look around. She was in some sort of a shopping road, for there were stores everywhere she looked. She hadn't even noticed it first because of her thinking. All around were people surfing the stores, trying to find something to buy, or simply taking a dayly stroll like Dot was. In between, she saw groups of friends, women with baby carriages, well dressed up men talking on the phone, and kids skipping around. Dot smiled and looked at the sky while the little gust played around with her hair. Somehow, she felt like nothing could spoil this day.

She had a better look around and saw a bench on an empty space in the road. She walked to it and sat down on it, waiting for the nurse to return. She soon did, carrying two water bottles. She sat down next to dot and handed her on of them.

"I opened this one for you," said the nurse. "It looked like the tap was about to fall of anyway."

Dot gave her a look. "Then why'd you buy it?"

"There were only three bottles left," said Hello Nurse. "Mine was about to run its last-sell-day date; yours was having that tap problem; and the last one just looked icky."

"Oh, okay. Stupid dollar stores," said Dot and sipped on her water. How refreshing! She hadn't felt so good in hours! She couldn't help but sigh in relief.

The two didn't say anything just yet. After all, they were both drinking their water. But soon, Hello Nurse couldn't help but ask, and broke the silence once again.

"Dot, are you planning to permanently quit Animaniacs for modelling?" she said, startling Dot a bit.

Dot coughed a little before replying. "Why? Isn't it obvious that I don't want to go back?"

"I know that," said the nurse. "I'm just wondering if you want to make modelling a living. You know, not _ever_ returning to the movie lot."

"Ever?" said Dot. She hadn't thought about it that way. She was always complaining about how sucky Wakko was and how she didn't want to go back to living in the tower; but was she really planning to leave the show? "I . . . I don't know, really." She sipped on her water again. Wow! What was it about water that made it so good after a run?

"I'm not trying to push you into making any huge decisions right now," said Hello Nurse. "I was just wondering, you know. I mean, if you quit, who'll be in charge of the 'girly things that guys don't understand' department?"

"True," said Dot and giggled.

Suddenly, her head began to hurt and her vision became blurry. She held on to her head and groaned a little. Hello Nurse looked at her.

"Dot?" she said. "Are you alright?"

"Ugh . . . " was the only thing Dot could say (or groan for the matter). Right now she felt like the world was spinning around her and she began to feel dizzy. "I . . . I think we better get home."

"Yeah, you look terribly pale, if I dare say" said Hello Nurse. "Wanna jog back home too?"

"Okay," said Dot and stood up from the bench. However, she had hardly done so when she collapsed to the ground feeling no strength at all. She tried to stand up again, but both her arms and legs simply wobbled under her 'weight'.

"You don't look so good, Dot," said the nurse. "Do you have a migraine?"

"No, it's the sun," said Dot. "It's too bright." Oh, here would be the moment where either she or her brothers would imitate a vampire . . .

Hello Nurse put her hand on Dot's forehead and then helped her to stand up. "Are you sure you can walk?"

"Yeah, I'm okay now, thanks," said Dot, though she wasn't as fine as she stated.

"Okay then," said Hello Nurse. "We'll just walk instead."

"Yup," said Dot and struggled to get beck on track.

While walking back to the nurse's house, Dot felt dizzier than ever. Her legs could barely hold her up, let alone lift and step. She held on to her head once again but tried not to stop walking. She had never let some tiredness get the better of her before, so why should she now?

In between her dizziness, she couldn't help but smile. What she was smiling about, she had no idea, though. But out of the blue, she began giggling like crazy.

Hello Nurse noticed immediately and slowed down a bit to look back at Dot. She had collapsed again and was lying on the ground laughing. What hat gotten into that girl?

The nurse decided to hold Dot on the way back, and walked straight to her. As she approached the powerless Warner, she saw that Dot was slowly sitting up on her own.

Dot's eyes were half-closed and she had a spacey expression on her face. Her head was spinning and she could hardly see what was in front of her because of blurriness in her sight. She looked up to the sky, pointed at it, and then looked back at Hello Nurse. "The sky is bluuuuuueeeee . . . " she said slowly in a deep tone before she fainted completely.

----------------------------------------------------------

Several hours had passed since Dot passed out. Hello Nurse was trying to quietly wash the dishes after her dinner and was a bit worried if this was her fault. After all, she had been the one that encouraged Dot to begin working out _and_ she had told her to become a model. She shook her head and kept telling herself that Dot would be fine. She was just a little powerless after the long day of work, that's all.

Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that Dot had changed since the two had begun to hang out. She had become a bit . . . how could she put it? Dot was acting like a late teen or something. And for a girl her age, that was saying something!

Hello Nurse looked at the time. It was going 10 PM and Dot had been out cold since 4:30 PM. She sighed and walked into her living room. She sat down on her sofa, next to where she had placed Dot. She tucked the blanket on her a bit better and placed a new bag of ice on her forehead. Even if she was skinnier that a skeleton and whiter than advertised, Dot still looked like a charm. Maybe it was just her cute genes.

_How do you do it, Dottie?_ the nurse thought to herself. _How do you stay pretty no matter what you go through? Even your fur still stays smooth. Darn it, girl – what's you secret?_ She smiled and stroked Dot's hair.

Dot mumbled something and began to open her eyes. The nurse smiled at her when they were fully open.

"Hey there," she said. "Took you long enough, didn't it?"

Dot groaned and sat up. "Wha . . . where am I?"

"You're in my living room," said Hello Nurse. "You fainted earlier today, remember? You've been out since."

"Really?" said Dot and rubbed her face. "Gosh, it feels like it's only been a few minutes. Did you really carry me all the way back?"

"What was I supposed to do? Leave you lying on the ground?" said Hello Nurse. "I know people think I'm mean, but not _that_ mean!"

Dot giggled. "Hey, you got any water left?"

"Left? I've got tons of it in my faucet," said the nurse and giggled as well. "You want some?"

"Yeeeeeahh!!" said Dot and grinned. "I love water good!"

Hello Nurse gave her a look, but just smiled back and went to the kitchen. Dot sure was behaving in a weird way . . .

BAM!

The nurse almost dropped the glass in her hands by the sound of a floor being stomped on. Soon, she saw Dot rushing to the kitchen and to her side.

"My water ready yet?" Dot said and stood on tiptoe to look at the glass.

"Yeah, it's ready," said Hello Nurse, quite surprised that Dot was so full of energy even if she had just woken up. "Dot, you should lay down. It's better for you."

"Nooooonesense!" said Dot and laughed. "I'm fine!" she said in a high-pitched tone – "totally fine!" she added in a deep tone. It made her sound like a crazy person.

"You don't seem so fine to me," said Hello Nurse. "Come on, Dot, I'm a nurse. I should know if you're fine or not. Besides, you just woke up from a major breakdown, if I can call it that."

"Whoa!" said Dot and faked a startle. "Boy was I faced there, man!" She took a big gulp of water and imitated a train whistle before laughing again.

Hello Nurse frowned. "Dot, you're acting stupid."

"Oh, I'm really sorry, I do that sometimes," said Dot in the same deep tone from before and laughed, taking another gulp of water.

Oh yeah – Dot was definitely behaving in a weird way. It was as if she hadn't even passed out; she was in the exactly same mood from before. Her eyes were half closed, she had a huge, spacey grin on her face; but different from before, she was either laughing or giggling the whole time. Hello Nurse was getting a little concerned.

"Dot, I think you should lay down _now_," she demanded. "You're not ready to be so active right now."

"Don't be silly, Miss Nurse!" said Dot. "I've got a whole evening ahead of myself! I can waist the _night_ in sleep. After all, I'm partially famous for being so zany and active, right?"

"True," said Hello Nurse and shrugged. "But don't you think you're going a little too far? I mean, you--"

"Just woke up, yadda yadda," said Dot and flapped her wrist. "Who cares? Hey! I bet there's a party somewhere in town right now, huh? Doncha think?" She grinned.

"Dot, you're freaking seven years old!" the nurse snapped. "For crying out loud, you're not supposed to be thinking like this!"

"So? I'm not supposed to have bulimia either," said Dot. "Nor am I supposed to be modelling. But that's just the fun of it all, man! Being able to do the things I'm not supposed to be doing! Like now, having this argument with you! I'm having a heck of a time, ya know what I'm sayin?"

Hello Nurse sighed. The girl wouldn't give in! "Dot, I'm only going to say this one more time: _lay down!_"

"Great! Now I won't have to worry about you nagging about laying down anymore!" sad Dot. "Booya!! Gotcha there!"

The nurse felt her anger boil. "Angelina!"

Dot went completely silent. She did _not _expect that. No one had ever called her by her birth name. Hello Nurse on the other hand stood completely still, with a frown frozen on her face. She was going to finish her sentence, but Dot cut her off with a huge burst of laugh.

"BWAAAAHAHAHAAHHAA!!! (as it would be written) That's priceless, man! Girl, you should be an actress!" she said while wiping off a fake tear. "Oh, wait you can't. You already are." Another giggle followed.

"Dot, will you _stop_ behaving like that!" Hello Nurse had to shout. "This isn't 'Cartoon-Anime' you know! Come on, get real!"

"No way, man!" said Dot. "I'm gettin' dooooooown! Look, I'm goin out, whether you like it or not. Besides, you're not my mom or anything!"

"No, but as your friend I'm taking care of you!" Hello Nurse yelled. "Plus, I'm older than you and should know what's best for you."

Dot sipped on her water again, and finished it. "Make me more water, homie," she said in that deep tone and giggled. "Ooh! Maybe you could add in some alcohol as well. That'd be a nice touch, don't you think?"

Hello Nurse was going to say something, but instead, she simply poured some water in a bottle, threw it at Dot and said: "Fine! If you want to go out clubbing so bad, just do it then! Feel free to fool around or screw around all night! I'm not gonna take any more of this crud!"

Dot looked at the Nurse with a shocked expression. "Whoa, chill out, man. I'm only being a Warner."

"Not the Warner I knew!" the nurse shouted, but soon regretted it, since dot didn't really deserve it.

"Meh, who cares," Dot said and shrugged. She then took her water bottle and skipped off. As she went out the front door, Hello Nurse heard her say in singsong: "I get to go out clubbing! I get to go out clubbing! I get to go out clubbing!"

Hello Nurse panted a little before she plumped down in a chair. She put her elbows on the table in front of her, putting her head in her hands. All she had wanted to do was to make Dot see that she could be cuter than she thought. Now, she was just being crazy! "I've created a monster . . . "


	8. Party Blogs

**Chapter 8 - Party blogs**

* * *

The first thing that Dot heard the next day was the sound of a car being loudly driven on the wet concrete. She slowly opened her eyes, only to see that she was laying on a sofa in Hello Nurse's living room. She sat up, rubbed the sleepy out of her eyes and had a little look around. There was no sign of the nurse in the house, so Dot thought that maybe she was at the gym or something.

Dot rubbed her head a bit and tried to remember what had happened the night before. She remembered to have passed out on that jogging trip, but had she woken up from it? Had anything happen in between? Dot could have sworn that she had woken up, but what had she done? Had she gone anywhere? Or had she just been at home?

Dot's head was pounding a bit, and all this thinking and mind digging made it worse. She stood up from the sofa and went to the kitchen, wobbling a bit as she walked. She was going to have a glass of water because she remembered that it had made her feel very refreshed the day before.

It wasn't until she was reaching for a glass when she started to remember something.

_I went to a nightclub! Holy mother of nightgowns! What happened there?_

She grabbed a glass and turned the faucet on, pouring water into it. As she lifted the glass up to her lips, she remembered another thing.

_I almost accepted a drink at the bar! What the fuse?!_

She took a huge gulp of water, but spat it out almost immediately, dropping the glass on the floor with a loud _CRASH!_

_Some guy asked me to come home with him! And I said yes! Omigosh! I didn't go, did I?_

Dot grasped her hair, hoping with all her heart that she hadn't done it. She was going to go into the living room again, but stepped on one of the glass pieces on the floor, causing her to trip. She almost fell face down on all of the glass, but managed to stay upright. Once she caught her balance, she slowly pulled the piece of glass out of her foot and then carefully walked across the kitchen to look for a broom.

She took a few steps and then opened the door to the pantry, where she knew the nurse kept her broom. She picked it up and began sweeping the glass together, not even thinking about wiping off any of the water – her mind was stuck on that last thought.

_I couldn't have done it! There's no way I could've done it! I won't believe I did it! And if I did, will I ever be able to forgive myself?_

----------------------------------------------------------

Back in the water tower, Yakko was sitting completely silent in his room. At least, that's what Wakko figured since no sound had some from him whatsoever for the past few hours. There were a few gasps and sighs now and then, but Wakko just found them too normal to think about.

He, on the other hand, was still trying to figure out the two hard puzzles that had come up and only he knew about. First and foremost was the fact that the survey had not been dealt with, as far as he was concerned. That was just absurd. Secondly was the picture of him in 'Seen and Heard'.

The first puzzle was the trickiest, seeing as how he had to prove that it was faked _and_ prove to Dot that he hadn't been the one responsible for the results. But how would he be able to do that with that picture? Surely Dot had seen that, and since she despised him, she would believe anything if it were something bad about him.

Yes, those two puzzles were connected in a very weird way and Wakko knew that he wouldn't be able to solve them alone. He had tried to convince Yakko to help him numerous times, but never succeeded. But who could possibly be so smart as to prove something that's probably impossible to prove? Who could have the brain to hack into a computer? Who could--?

Before Wakko could carry on with his 'Who could' thoughts, there was a knock on the tower door. For the first time in ages, none of the Warners had to struggle to be the one to open it. Wakko lamely walked towards it, thinking: _this isn't how I wanted to get it . . . _He opened the door but didn't do anything toonishly funny as he saw Hello Nurse standing on the balcony.

"Oh, it's you," he said coldly to her and avoided eye contact. "What do you want?"

"Don't be so cold," said Hello Nurse. "I have to show you something."

"Why? Don't you have something else to do?" said Wakko, still coldly as ever. "Like making Dot puke or something? I'm sure you guys do it all the time."

"Will you please let me get to the point of why I'm here?" said Hello Nurse, her patience fading.

"Okay, what?" said Wakko. "I don't have much time, you know."

"It won't take long. I'm just going to show you the recent gossip 'news' and some pictures," said the nurse as she took off her backpack (supposedly containing her work-out clothes) and unzipped one of the pockets on its front. She reached inside it and pulled out a diskette. "You do have a computer, don't you?"

"If we want to, yeah," said Wakko and let the nurse in the tower, even if he really didn't want her company right now.

He led her way in the back of the tower, passing the kitchen; the TV room slash living room; the zany rollercoaster in the middle of it; all individual bedrooms (and the one they sometimes used together on the show); and the bathroom until they were finally in front of a shiny, green door. There was a big sign on it that read _Come On! Make People Unbelievably Traumatized! -Emergency Room- _Every word was written in its own paragraph so if one read only the capitalized letters downwards, it read _COMPUTER_.

"Wow, impressive," said Hello Nurse as Wakko opened the door. "Has this always been here?"

"No, only after Yakko unknowingly stole that sign from some hospital," Wakko replied in a lame tone. He still didn't want to have any conversations with the nurse.

"That sign was really at a hospital?" said Hello Nurse, sounding a little surprised.

"Yeah, there was some special comedy day or whatever, and the ER wanted to make fun of themselves," said Wakko while walking towards the big desktop computer. It was placed on a desk at the right side of the room, surrounded by unused folders and in front of it were three chairs. He plumped down in one of them and turned the computer on. He then looked up at the nurse again, reaching out his hand. "Gimme the diskette."

Hello Nurse handed the diskette to Wakko and sat down on the chair next to his. She watched as the middle Warner slid the diskette in and waited for the folder to come up. "Um, I should probably steer the mouse, right?"

"Whatever," said Wakko and rolled his eyes.

Hello Nurse leaned forward and clicked on one of the folders that had showed up on screen. Soon, a document opened and if it weren't for the huge headline font, Wakko wouldn't have been interested. Clearly, Hello Nurse had been surfing the web and come across a blog/gossip site, collected some of the articles and copied them onto the diskette. Wakko's eyes widened as he read everything the document included:

_ZANY SIGHTING!_

We all knew that Dot Warner (now known as Dottie) would one day be a hit. What we never expected though was that she would also begin clubbing at such a young age. One of our humble photographers was scanning the nightlife just last night and coincidentally heard a very familiar voice coming from one of the clubs in town.

"_It was pretty weird," said the photographer. "I knew I had heard that voice before, but I couldn't seem to remember where. So I had a peek in the club. There she was, standing on a table, dancing for the audience and singing some trash to the old 'Chicago' number 'When you're good to mama'. I couldn't believe my eyes, or ears!"_

_And we didn't believe it either – that is, until we saw his photos. We'll let them do the talking._

"I couldn't put the photos up too," said Hello Nurse. "They were just too gruesome to look at. I knew you wouldn't want to see them."

"That's probably one of the few sensible things you've done so far in this story," said Wakko. "Scroll down to the next one."

Hello Nurse did so, though she was sort of hesitating. The next headline didn't sound better, but Wakko still had some urge to read it.

_SHE'S TOO HYPED UP!_

It's pretty hard to believe that someone as zany and hyperactive as the Warner brothers (and sister) could be any more insane. But that's just what I had to notice a few hours ago.

_My friends and me were just out partying (as usual) and we wanted to go club dancing before heading home. We were just about to walk into one of such, when gusts of wind made our skirts go up (boy did we get strange looks!). When we were done fixing ourselves, the same gusts came right back to us. That's when I saw that it was none other than Dottie! I'm not kidding! She was standing there, right in front of me! She even posed for a picture!_

Below that paragraph was an empty space that Wakko assumed had belonged to the said picture.

_Anyway, I had hardly taken the picture when she was out running again, but this time, she went straight to the dance floor! I couldn't believe it! She was all hitting on the guys and moving sexily and she even did an attempted strip! What the heck?!_

That blog had probably been longer, but the nurse had cut it off at that point. Clearly there was more in there that had nothing to do with Dot or clubbing. Wakko was just about to comment on it when someone beat him to it.

"Is this what I raised her to be?" said Yakko who had come into the room without Wakko or Hello Nurse noticing. He was also reading the blogs and articles that the nurse had brought with her and had sat down in the last empty chair on front of the computer. "This isn't Dot. It can't be her."

"Where'd you come from?" Wakko asked.

"My room," said Yakko. Wakko rolled his eyes. "Are those document ours?"

"No, they're hers," said Wakko and pointed at Hello Nurse. "She brought them on a diskette for us to see."

"Okay," said Yakko. "And so far nothing's looked good, huh?"

"Nope, and they keep getting worse," said Wakko and signed Yakko to keep reading.

Hello Nurse sighed sympathetically and scrolled down. The Warner brothers both had to gasp as the read the next headline.

_DID SOMEBODY DO DOTTIE?_

_This is just gonna be a short blog cause I'm getting pretty tired and I'm going to bed. Anyway, I don't think I'm even gonna be able to watch Animaniacs again after what I saw just now. I haven't been drinking much, so I know I wasn't hallucinating. I was walking home from a party at Ernie's and I could've sworn I saw Dot Warner going home with some guy. I have no idea what was going on in town tonight, but that was just freaky. I mean, what is she? Six years old? That's just nasty!_

Hello Nurse was about to scroll down to the next blog/article, but Yakko stopped her by pushing a button on the computer, the one to get the diskette out. He then shut the computer down and handed the diskette to Hello Nurse. "We've seen enough," he said in a deep tone. "You're ready to leave now."

The nurse didn't even reply but simply put the diskette back in her backpack, put in on her shoulder and left the room.

"Wakko, you go ahead and say goodbye if you want," said Yakko and left the room as well, but he didn't follow the nurse. Instead, he went to his own room again and locked the door.

Wakko didn't really want to say goodbye to the nurse – not after that – but still went after her. He caught her when she was just about to open the tower door.

"What is it?" Hello Nurse asked.

"Just before you go, I want to ask you something," said Wakko and inhaled. "Why didn't you stop Dot from doing all this?!" he exclaimed.

The nurse looked down. "I tried, Wakko. I really tried. She's just out of control. I wanted to keep her safe, but she wouldn't listen. I guess I'm not such a good role model after all, am I?" With that, she left the tower, and Wakko was alone in the big room again.

He kicked through the air and mumbled. Nothing was right anymore. Dot seemed to be getting worse by the second! Something had to be done!

That's when he remembered his previous thoughts about the puzzles. What had been his last thoughts again . . . ? Oh yeah: how hard it would be to find someone with the brain to hack themselves into a compu--

Wait a minute . . . Wakko's expression brightened up a bit. There is such a person!

Wakko didn't hesitate. He swung the tower door open and jumped off the balcony, landing safely in a net. He smiled with his usual tongue hanging out as he ran towards the Acme Labs.

Meanwhile, Yakko lay face down on his bed, furious at himself for being such a sucky brother. Not only had he failed Dot, but he let her go so easily as well. Any time soon, Wakko would give up too and go into something less pleasant, like joining a street gang or something.

He turned to his back and looked at the white ceiling. What in the world was going on? Nothing seemed to add up anymore. And to think: all this started with just a ridiculous survey result. Yakko knew very well that it meant a lot to Dot to be on top, but something like that survey shouldn't have made her sink so low. After all, she knew that even if the whole world would turn its back on her, he and Wakko would still be there for her. Always.

"Aw crud!" Yakko groaned and put his hands on his face, trying hard not to remember what was about to go into his head.

It didn't work. A flashback was pouring over him . . .

_In 1930, times were very different for the Warner siblings. They had just been created, but people had found them so insane; they had been locked up in the studio tower. It felt like being stuck in an isolation chamber. There were no windows, no lights, no furniture, no nothing. For the Warners at that time, it was a hard life._

_Yakko sighed as his youngest sibling started to cry again. He picked her up and started to hush her down a bit. He then sat down on the floor with her (a bed wasn't an option). Wakko, his younger brother, sat down as well and cuddled up to him._

"_Yakko," he said. "Why'd they throw us in here?" He had asked this question every day since they had been locked up. "It's already been a few weeks. Don't you think they want us back by now?"_

_The boy was only three years old, so Yakko didn't want to tell him what he really thought. "I'm sure they'll let us out one day, Wakko. Trust me on that." He added and patted on his brother's head._

_Wakko smiled and used the opportunity for another question to pop up. "Will we be known toons when we're out?"_

_His black eyes were so full of hope that Yakko couldn't help but feel positive too. "Oh yeah. No doubt about that. And some day, maybe we can convince the studio to let us be a part of their team. Then we'll be stars like Bugs Bunny and the others."_

"_Bugs!" exclaimed the little girl in Yakko's hands. _

"_Hey, you're not crying anymore!" said Yakko and chuckled. "Do you like Bugs?"  
_

"_Uh huh," said Dot and giggled. "He's funny."_

"_Is he funnier than Yakko?" Yakko asked._

"_Yep!" said Dot and giggled again. _

"_Oh yeah?" said Yakko and grinned. He put Dot on the floor and began tickling her. Wakko soon joined in the fun. "Is he funnier that Yakko now? How about now? Come on! I can't hear you!"  
_

_Dot couldn't even shout 'No!' because of her brothers' tickling so she merely laughed, as did Yakko and Wakko. After a short while, Yakko picked her up again and hugged both her and Wakko. _

"_I love you guys, you know that?" he said. _

"_We know!" Dot and Wakko said in unison. _

"_And I'll always be there for you, right?"_

"_Right!"_

"_Always and forever?"_

"_Forever and a day!"_

"_That's right! But hey, a day doesn't last forever, so we gotta hit the sack or we're gonna be exhausted tomorrow," said Yakko and led his two siblings to a corner they had marked their sleeping spot. Wakko sat down there and waited for Yakko to come next to him with Dot. As he did, the three of them cuddled up again._

"_You know, we have_ got _to learn how to grab things out of nowhere so we can redecorate this place," said Yakko. "I mean, all the other toons can do it, so why not us too?"_

"_Yeah, and then we can hit people on the head with mallets!" said Wakko and swung his fist. _

"_Let's not get carried away," said Yakko and smiled at his brother. "First home, then comedy, okay?"_

"_Okay," said Wakko and lay down. "G'night Yakko."_

"_G'night Wakko," said Yakko and stroked Wakko's fur. "See you in the morning." He was about to say the same thing to Dot, but she caught the first word._

"_Yakko, am I really the cutest girl?" she asked randomly._

"_What? Why would you ask me something like that?" said Yakko. "Of course you are. You are far by the cutest girl ever. And mark my words, some day you'll make a living out of being cute! Stars do that sometimes."_

"_Will we really be stars?" said Dot, her eyes glowing with excitement. _

"_Totally," said Yakko. "Doesn't matter if we'll be famous or infamous, we're gonna be big!"_

"_And I'm gonna be cute!" said Dot and put a finger on her cheek._

"_That's right, cause you're my cutest dot!" said Yakko and poked her. _

_Dot giggled and brushed away Yakko's hand._

"_Aw, come on, Dot," said Yakko and smiled. He was going for a tickle war again. "Who's the cutest dot? Come, on. Who's the cutest dot? Who's my cutest dot? Who's Wakko's cutest dot?" he repeatedly asked while tickling his sister._

"_Me! Me! Me! All me!" Dot shouted between her laughing. Finally, Yakko stopped tickling her and she lay down as well. _

"_Well, I think it's sunk in by now, huh?" said Yakko. "G'night sis."_

"_G'night Yakko," said Dot and yawned in her unique, cute way._

_Yakko stretched and leaned against the tower wall. "And to those of you in Burbank, or anywhere else for the matter-" He blew a kiss to no one. "G'night everybody!"_

He had tried and he had tried, but it was too late. The memory was already there, stuck in his head and tears were already starting to form in his eyes.

At that very moment, Yakko felt more responsible for Dot's downfall than ever. He regretted all their arguments and his big brother speeches over her. Maybe that was the reason why she was so out of control now. Maybe he hadn't been good enough to her as a brother when they were younger.

Why hadn't he gone after her? It was only the natural brotherly thing to do. If he had gone after her when she left, maybe she wouldn't be in this mess. If he had personally offered help instead of asking Scratchy, maybe she wouldn't have gotten so mad. If he had only told her about the survey when she had asked . . .

Oh, there were so many Ifs! Yakko just wished he could travel in time and fix all this mess! But still, maybe he wouldn't have to magically create a time machine for that. Surely there could be a way to fix all this without supernatural stuff. If only he had thought about that before . . .

Yakko hit his forehead. He had been nothing but a typical Mr. Careless all this time. Just watching things get worse and not really doing anything about them. Not thinking about the consequences of his doings.

"Careless . . . " he said to himself. "That's all I've been . . . Mister Careless . . . "

He turned to his stomach again, now suddenly very tired. _Maybe I should go and talk to that guy Dot's working for . . . _


	9. Back to the Now

**Chapter 9 - Back to the Now**

* * *

Wakko raced through the now dusky Warner movie lot, heading for a certain spot in it. He knew that there was only one person who could help him get to the bottom of those puzzles that had been haunting him for the past weeks.

_Only one person has the brain to help me, _he thought, _and that's The Brain!_

He turned sharply around a corner and fest his eyes on the house before him: The Acme Labs building. It had been the first time

Wakko had set foot in the place, as a result, he had no idea where to

look for the two mice he was thinking of. Still, he took a deep breath and opened the front door.

As expected, there was nothing but lab equipment to be seen. Whether if it were boxes, microscopes, notebooks, tiny knives, thin glasses – you name it; it was there. Wakko slowly walked through the main room while looking amazingly at all those things. Though he wasn't only admiring the stuff. He was also trying to set eyes on the mice.

"Egad, Brain! Narf!"

_Bingo!_ Wakko smirked. Pinky's signature random exclaims were very hard to miss if one was in the same room as him. Wakko kept on walking until he saw a huge chalkboard which had mathematic formulas written all over it. On the left side was a big ladder and there stood the mice. Brain was writing on the chalkboard while Pinky watched adoringly. Wakko smiled and tapped the ladder. "Hey, you guys."

At first, neither of the mice saw who had joined them. Wakko tapped the ladder again, but a little harder – perhaps too hard, because it began to wobble. The mice waved all their limbs trying to keep their balance, but to no avail. Before they could react, they were falling down. Thankfully, Wakko had already reached out his hands to catch them, so they didn't fall straight to the ground. The two stood up in Wakko's palms and brushed some dust off their fur.

"Busy night tonight?" said Wakko and put the mice on a table next to him.

"Yes, in fact it is," said Brain in his usual deep Orson Wells tone. "You just barged in on the wrong moment after hours of solving those problems. Do you realize how much time that took?"

"Um, no," Wakko said sheepishly. "But don't you think you're overreacting a bit? I mean, it's all still there on the board, right?"

"Well, yes, but do you honestly think I'll be able to remember exactly what I was doing when you bothered us?" said Brain.

"Aw, come on, Brain. Narf!" said Pinky. "He wouldn't come in like that if it weren't something important. He never comes in here!"

"Hmm . . . indeed," said Brain. "What _are _you doing here, Wakko?"

"Well, it's a long story," said Wakko and sighed. "Think you can handle it?"

"I know some people won't," said Brain, eyeing Pinky. "But since this night is already ruined, I guess I'll give you a chance. Go ahead, tell the tale."

"Troz! Oh, boy! Storytime!" Pinky exclaimed and reached for a blanket from nowhere and sat down, looking excitedly at Wakko.

"Okay then," said Wakko. "Here goes."

And so, Wakko told the mice all about the survey, Dot's tantrum, her eating disorders, the modelling, and finally the blogs. During the telling, Brain had nodded understandingly at every fact, while Pinky's expression became sadder by the word. By the end, he was using his blanket to dry his tears.

"Oh, the agony," he said between his sniffles. "Oh, the pain. Oh, the sadness. Oh, the drama. So, how does it end?"

"That's what I want to find out," said Wakko. "You see, I went to the 'Here and Now' building the other day, trying to get an answer to those results. It turned out that people actually _had_ voted me the cutest one. It's just so fishy, you know?"

"Well, I understand you concerns about your sister," said Brain. "But why would you bother our night for something like this?"

"Let me finish," said Wakko. "I saw the results myself, and as far as I know, it hadn't been dealt with. And that's where you come in."

"Go on," said Brain, suddenly very interested.

"Well, I was wondering if you could maybe hack your way into the system and take a look at the document yourself," said Wakko.

"Now why would I do that?" said Brain and crossed his arms. "You just said that you had taken a look at them yourself. Why do you want me to do it again?"

"Because I think someone dealt with the results just after they were counted and before the article was written," said Wakko. "I think someone hacked themselves into the system and changed the results. I really want to know if I'm right, but I don't have any experience as a hacker."

"Nor do I," said Brain.

"But Brain, you _are_ smart," said Pinky. "Even if you don't have any experience, you can just make one!"

"True," said Brain, put his hand on his chin and started pacing obviously in deep thought. He walked around in circles for a while, making Wakko a bit impatient. Brain kept pacing, and sometimes stopped to say something, but just opened his mouth, turning back to pacing.

"Well?" Wakko finally had to say. "Will you help me or not?"

Brain stopped in his tracks and let go of his chin, pointing at Wakko as if threatening him. "Very well," he said. "I except this challenge. Just take me to the place where the files are kept and I'll see what I can do."

"That's so great!" said Wakko and went for a hug, until he remembered it would be quite hard to hug a mouse. "Can we go now?"

"Fine by me," said Brain.

"But what about me?" said Pinky. "Don't I get to come along?"

"Not this time, Pinky," said Brain and hopped into Wakko's now reached out hand.

"Why?" said Pinky and sounded pleading.

"Because this causes for special knowledge for technical things," said Brain. "Knowledge that you wouldn't have even if you tripled your brain in size."

"Why, thank you, Brain," said Pinky and bowed. "I'm honoured by your compliments. Narf!"

Wakko giggled a bit before he started walking out of the house. Pinky and The Brain sure were a couple of goofballs.

----------------------------------------------------------

Another perfect shoot was just about to draw to an end. Dot was so proud of herself; she could've exploded! As usual, Hello Nurse sat next to the computer guy and had a look at Flash's photos. But something was different today.

That morning, Hello Nurse had simply woken Dot up, told her what to wear, and got her a ride to 'Cable cameras'. During the shoot, she hadn't really looked at Dot herself the whole time, only the pictures. Normally, the nurse would've given Dot thumbs up, winks, smiles, or some other kinds of feedbacks, but so far, nothing had come from her but some unconvincing grins.

Also, for some odd reason, Flash wasn't acting like himself either. Dot had been his model for quite some time, and she knew him well enough to see that something was wrong. During the shoot she was just finishing, Flash hadn't used his body language, he hadn't exclaimed anything in a high-pitched voice, and he hadn't said any long sentences without breathing. He wasn't even behaving in his usual weird, zany way. Something was definitely troubling him.

"Okay, I guess that's it for today," he said when the shoot was indeed over. "So, pack your stuff and I'll see you tomorrow."

Usually, he would have let Dot see some of her photos from the shoot, but he didn't this time. Dot was beginning to get suspicious, and decided to talk to the man face to face. She waited for everyone to leave the room, and took an extra long time to get out of her modelling clothes and into her own. When the room was almost empty, Dot looked into the computer's direction. Flash was sitting there, still looking at his photos in it, so Dot sat down next to him, making him look up from his progress.

"Oh, hey Dottie," said Flash. "What's up?"

"What do you mean 'what's up?'" said Dot. "I should be asking you. You haven't been yourself all day. And the nurse hasn't so much as looked at me. What's going on?"

Flash hesitated a bit, but then sighed. "Well, I can tell you my reason. I'm just having a few personal problems right now. You know, hard decisions, huge deals and such, and it's starting to get to me. I'm just a little tired, that's all." He smiled, and Dot had a feeling she was seeing another side of the Cable man.

"But what's with Hello Nurse?" Dot asked. "Is she still mad at me?"

"I don't know about mad, but I think she's a little upset still," said Flash. "I wouldn't worry too much about that if I were you. Just talk to her if you want answers from her. I mean, I'm not her messenger or lawyer."

Nothing else was said. Dot stood up from her chair, took her portfolio and went outside of the photography room. There stood Hello Nurse waiting for her.

"What took you so long?" she said sort of coldly.

"I was just talking to Flash about stuff," said Dot. She didn't like the nurse's tone, and when they silently walked down the corridor, she decided to speak her mind, "What's wrong?"

Hello Nurse looked at her, but didn't seem as angry as before. "I'm hurt, Dot," she said in a more soft, sincere tone. "I can't believe you're actually doing this to yourself. Like I've said a million times: you're seven years old – you're not supposed to be clubbing."

"I know, I know," said Dot, and immediately understood why the nurse had been so cold that day. "I just don't know what got into me. One time I was jogging with you, and then I was just going out. I don't even remember what happened!"

Hello Nurse smiled and bent down to Dot's height. "Listen, Dot," she said. "I'm going to be completely honest with you. I may have acted a little angry towards you, but that's only because I was shocked that you actually did those things. But really, I want to be at your side, trying to sort out what's best for you. So should you ever do this again, I'm going to be with you and make sure you don't do anything stupid, okay?"

"Even if you're cold as dry ice?" said Dot. Why did she say that, though? It's not like she was going to do it again.

"Even if I'm cold as the wind on Pluto," said Hello Nurse.

Now that that was sorted out, the two kept walking and were soon out of the building and in front of the nurse's shiny, new Corvette (which had just recently come back from the repair shop). The ride back to Hello Nurse's house wasn't nearly as awkward as the ride to 'Cable Cameras' that morning, so Dot felt a lot better being with her this time.

When they arrived at the nurse's house, the girls stepped out of the car and went in, wanting to have a little snack (not much, of course). Because they had just gotten out of a miniature argument, they decided to treat themselves with juice instead of the usual water for a drink. Hello Nurse volunteered to mix some while Dot sat down in the living room, opened her portfolio and had a look at her photos at Flash's so far.

By simply comparing her earliest photos to her most recent, she noticed that she had both gotten a lot skinnier, and become a natural in front of the camera. She smiled widely as she realized she had in fact always been one of the best.

_Darn, I rock! _she thought. _Who cares about being cute when you can be hot?_

She looked up from her photos, only to let the sunlight from outside burn her eyes. It got to her head, so she started to get a headache – _again. _What was it about the stupid sun that always made her so weak?

"You okay?" said Hello Nurse who had just arrived with two glasses of juice.

"Yeah, it's just the blasted sun again," said Dot. "I'm beginning to think that I may have migraine. I always get a headache when the sun shines in my eyes."

"Really?" said Hello Nurse and sat down next to Dot and offered her the juice glass. "You don't get a headache when you're in front of all those lights at Flash's. You think maybe you have sun allergies?"

"I don't know," said Dot, holding on to her head with one hand, while accepting the juice with the other. "It could be, but wouldn't it I have noticed by now?"

"Maybe," said the nurse and shrugged. "Still, I think this is pretty weird. You're delicate to the sun, but not to those bright lights. Do you want me to test you for allergies?"

"Heck no!" said Dot and almost spilled her juice. "If I do have sun allergies, maybe Flash won't work with me anymore!"

"Hey, I'm just trying to help," said Hello Nurse and sipped on her juice. "Hey, this is some good stuff! I forgot how good I was at making these. You should start drinking yours."

Dot looked at the glass in her hands. If she had a sip, maybe she would want more and more, and end up getting fat again – considering how much sugar one glass can consist of. But she hadn't had a decent drink since forever, and since she was already holding one, she went for it.

Boy, was that nurse ever right! The juice was probably the best drink Dot had had in ages! She had another sip – and another – and another. She gulped the rest of the juice at once, and slammed the glass on the table.

"Wow!" she exclaimed. "You make some mean juice!"

"I know, right?" said Hello Nurse, who was just finishing her own one. "You want me to make some more?"

"Are you kidding?" said Dot. "Yes! Make some! Please do!"

Hello Nurse giggled. "Okay, madam. Since you ask so politely," she said and skipped off to the kitchen once more.

While the nurse mixed some more juice, Dot had to hold on to her head again. By talking so loudly and slamming the glass, her headache had become worse. She felt like her eyes were spinning in place and she began to feel drowsy, as if she had been staring at a white wide-screen for two hours. Her eyelids struggled to stay upright, but kept failing. Finally, Dot closed her eyes and lay down on the sofa, trying to rest them for a bit. She had managed to get to sleep if the nurse hadn't poked her with another ice-cold glass of juice.

"Wakey-wakey," she said and sat down. "Don't go to sleep now; it's only two PM. Here, at least finish your juice."

Dot lazily took the glass and sipped on it. It seemed as though it tasted better than before. "Did you do something to this?" she asked.

"Well, I put less water and more taste, if that's what you mean," said Hello Nurse and drank some of hers. She then looked at Dot again. "Are you sure you're alright? You look pretty sick."

"I don't know," said Dot and rubbed her face. "I think I need some rest; maybe some painkillers too. You know, for the headache."

"You read my mind, Warner," said Hello Nurse. "Too bad you didn't do it the other day too. But hey, let's try and put that behind us, okay? I'll get you some medicine and you just go to bed."

"Okay," said Dot, stood up from the sofa and went to her room, wobbling a bit as she walked. _Could it be that my sickness is finally getting to me?_

----------------------------------------------------------

As Wakko walked down North Buena Vista Street, holding Brain in one hand, he kept thinking if the mouse would actually be able to find out more than Wakko himself had. Sure, he was smarter than any other one of the cast, but would he be able to solve this?

"Where is this 'Here and Now' building?" said Brain, while trying to make out exactly where they were. Though it was daytime now, he couldn't really see where they were heading.

"Not much further," said Wakko. "Just don't talk when I talk to the people, okay? It'll look weird if you help me get to the point of why we're here."

Brain frowned and mumbled. "Everything in this plot is weird . . . "

Finally, they reached the huge building and Wakko went inside. Just like before, the slim, brown-haired Ray was at the reception desk. When Wakko walked towards it, Ray recognized him immediately and smiled.

"Hey there," he said. "What brings you back here? I thought you already did what you wanted to . . . what's with the mouse?" he added and looked strangely at Brain.

"Well," Wakko began, but couldn't continue. Something told him that Ray wouldn't let him in the writing department again if he told the truth. "Here's the thing: I didn't really find what I was looking for last time, so I thought maybe this mouse could help me. He's really smart, you know."

Ray was still looking at Brain with a funny face. "A mouse?" he said. "How can a mouse be smart?"

"He's a lab mouse," said Wakko. This wasn't what he had had in mind at all. Talking to Ray was a total waist of time. _Who knows what Dot might be doing?_

"Oh, I see," said Ray, possibly satisfied with the explanation, since his face instantly went back to normal. "I'll give Sheila a call, alright? If she gives you permission, you can go in. Alright?"

Wakko nodded, and Ray began phoning Sheila. The few seconds of the tone felt like forever, but finally, Wakko heard someone speak on the other line. Ray talked for a moment, but Wakko wasn't very interested in that. All he could think of was to get Sheila's permission.

Brain was listening too, and scanning the room at the same time. Wakko was pretty confused about this strange behaviour, but figured it was just a mouse thing. Suddenly, though, Brain leaped out of Wakko's hand and ran across the room, heading for the door to the main corridor. Wakko was going to yell after him, but his voice failed to work, so the mouse simply kept running. _Weird. He didn't even tell me he was going to do that._

Wakko snapped out of his thoughts when Ray slammed the phone back in place. Ray sighed and looked at Wakko. "I'm sorry, kid, but Sheila won't let you in now."

"What? Why?" Wakko exclaimed.

"I don't know, she didn't say," said Ray. "I think it has something to do with the fact that you were never supposed to go in there in the beginning. I guess it was just a one time thing," he added and shrugged.

"You mean there's no way I'll get in there?" said Wakko, who still couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"I'm afraid not," said Ray. "So, I guess you can go now."

"Yeah, I guess," Wakko said lamely and walked slowly towards the main door. He couldn't bear to stay there much longer anyway. But he was a little worried about Brain. He couldn't just leave a tiny mouse in such a huge building all by himself, could he?

Wakko walked out of the building, but instead of keep walking, he simply leaned against the front wall, pretending to be waiting for someone. Of course, he really was waiting for someone, but he still pretended.

----------------------------------------------------------

After an hour and a half of waiting, Wakko was beginning to lose his patience. He was even considering giving up waiting and just going back home. But he quickly changed his mind when he heard several women squeal for their lives from inside the building. He perked his ears and looked in the main door's direction. He heard someone say something (couldn't quite hear every word), and then shout "And stay out!" A kicking sound followed and a tiny white mouse came flying out of the house.

Wakko thought quickly and dashed to Brain's falling direction, catching him firmly with his hands. Brain sat up in Wakko's palms and rubbed his head. Only then did Wakko notice that Brain had a stack of papers along with him.

"What's all this?" he asked.

"Well, since you weren't able to come with me, I decided to print everything I could encounter, including the seen results of the survey," said Brain and picked up the papers.

"But, how did you know which file to take?" said Wakko.

Brain pointed at his head, and said: "I'm smart." He then cleared his throat and signed Wakko to begin walking back. Wakko did so, and while he did, Brain organized the papers a bit, probably putting them in the right order. "Okay, Wakko," he said. "You said that you hadn't seen any signs of someone having dealt with the results, am I right?"

"Yeah," said Wakko. "I couldn't find anything wrong it."

"You obviously didn't look close enough," said Brain and put the papers in Wakko's eyes' direction, flipping them fast. "Do you see the amount of votes Dot gets in the beginning of the survey?"

"Yeah, so?" said Wakko, trying to keep track of the results.

"So, don't you find it odd that all of a sudden, here, when it's almost gone halfway through you seem to get the most votes?"

"What?" said Wakko and stared at the paper, trying to see what Brain had clearly found out. "No, I . . . I didn't even notice that. All I did was count the votes."

"As I said, you didn't look close enough," said Brain. "Also, I find it very odd that the project's history is flawless."

"What do you mean?" said Wakko, a bit confused again.

"There were no signs of typing errors, wrong names for a vote, spelling errors in foreign names; nothing," said Brain. "I don't know how good the writers of that magazine are at typing, but I just thought this was worth pointing out."

"Okay, so have you found out what's going on?" said Wakko, excited to hear more of Brain's sightings.

"Not quite," said Brain, making Wakko's mood drop. "I want to go back in there tonight, when everyone has left the building, and see if I can do some more research."

"I don't think that's possible," said Wakko. "Some of those people probably do shift work. There'll be people in there tonight."

"Perhaps," said Brain. "But I still want to give it a try. I need more time than I got now, and I think tonight is a perfect time to slip in there. After all, there are fewer women working at night."

Wakko chuckled. "Okay, I'll help you get here tonight, but only if you promise to find something out."

"Oh, I'll uncover something, alright," said Brain. "After all, I am a genius."


	10. Heartbreaker, wall breaker, bone breaker

**Chapter 10 – Heartbreaker, wall breaker and bone breaker

* * *

**

Why is it that when you look forward to something, the day is utterly long? Wakko was so anxious to meet Brain that night and hear his plan on how they should get into the 'Here and Now' building again; only one day felt like over a week. Still, Wakko tried to cheer up and keep himself busy to kill time. Unfortunately, his mind was stuck on tons of different things, so it was pretty hard for him to focus on finding something to do.

Getting into the 'Here and Now' building at night certainly didn't sound any easier than getting in there during the day. But something told Wakko to not give up hope, and just rely on Brain's eye for detail and his smarts.

After what felt like weeks, it was finally time to hit to the Acme Labs. Wakko fixed the cap on his head and sprinted out of the tower, excited as ever. He could actually hear the sound of a motor when his legs spun around, taking him to the Labs.

Just like before, he turned around sharply at the corner to find the house (of course, the turn was way sharper this time) and at just the right moment, he bent his ankles and slid to a stop in front of the door. He leaned forward and knocked. No one answered, so he thought he might as well just go in. He opened the door and walked inside - a bit more comfortable with it than last time.

"Pinky, that's absurd. You can't see into the future."

Wakko's ears perked as he heard Brain's voice as well as Pinky humming. He let the sound lead him to where the mice were. He found them in their cage, and it looked like Brain was trying to reason with Pinky, but to no avail. As Wakko walked closer, he noticed that Pinky was wearing something like a cloak and holding on to his head with his eyes closed, humming.

"Uh, hey," said Wakko and waved sheepishly.

Pinky slowly opened his eyes, looked at Wakko, shushed, and then kept on humming. Brain slapped his forehead and turned to talk to Wakko.

"You should never have told us the back story of your problems," he said. "Pinky has been in this way from the time he asked how it will end."

"What's he trying to do?" said Wakko.

"He's attempting to reach into the future to see how this all will close," said Brain and sighed. He walked on up to the cage's door and opened it, walking towards Wakko. "On a side note, I have been pondering how to access the 'Here and Now' building."

Wakko's mood brightened up. "That's what I'm here for!" he exclaimed excitedly. "So, what's your idea?"

"I've come to the conclusion that we may have to use our cartoon instincts to enter," said Brain.

"Meaning . . . ?" said Wakko and tilted his head a bit.

"Meaning that we shall have to either slide under a door like a cat; break a wall with an amusing prop; squeeze ourselves through a keyhole; thump a door down; or perhaps something less loud," said Brain. "How does this sound to you?"

"How does it sound?" said Wakko. "Brilliant! You're looking at the Warner brother with the physical humor anyway! Breaking in like that is my specialty!"

"Yes, but I'm afraid there's one problem," said Brain. "How will we succeed this without cutting a dash?"

"Easy!" said Wakko. "We'll just do it slowly."

Brain sighed. "The people I'm stuck with . . . " He then cleared his throat and walked to the edge of the table he was standing on, signaling Wakko to put out his hands. Before he jumped into them, he had a look at Pinky, who was still humming like crazy. "Be careful, Pinky, or else you might hurt something."

With that, Wakko walked out of the Acme Labs with Brain in his palms. What they didn't know was that just seconds after they left, Pinky finally snapped out of his search for answers.

"Wow," he said simply to himself. "Who knew?"

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_What is it with Flash all of a sudden? _Dot thought while posing for him in the shoot of the day.

During the whole thing, Flash had been acting even weirder than in the previous shoot. He hadn't said a word; he just sat in a chair and flipped his hand to direct; and he hadn't given Dot any feedback. Even stranger, he was so pale; his flaming red hair looked like a real flame (and here wasn't any gel in it!). Actually, the man just looked plain horrible.

He rubbed his face yet again before continuing with his camera work. But no matter what happened, he just kept groaning, sighing and rubbing his face all over. Finally, he looked away from the camera, put his elbows on his knees and dug his face in his palms.

"Cable?" said one of his assistants. "You alright?"

"No," Dot heard Flash say, though it was a little muffled. "I think we have to cut short today. I can't work like this . . . " He looked up. "And that's _not_ something you'd normally hear from _me_!"

He stood up from his chair and began to tell everyone to pack the stuff and leave, including Dot. For some odd reason, he wouldn't look her in the eyes – which immediately reminded her of Wakko.

"Get out of here, you guys," Flash begged the last persons to leave and pointed at the door. "Can't you see I'm in pain here?"

Because she liked him so much, Dot decided to stay just a little longer and talk to Flash, like she had done last time. She spent unusually long time in her dressing room, and sort of hid from Flash until all of his assistants and workers were out of the room. That was her queue to walk out and start talking.

Flash plumped down in his chair again, looking like a ghost. Dot slowly walked towards him and stopped next to him, standing beside him. "So, not feeling well today, huh?" she said to break the ice.

Flash looked up sharply as if he hadn't noticed Dot there, but quickly turned away again. Dot looked at him sympathetically, and then kept on talking.

"You know, Flash, before I met you, I was nothing but a washed out cartoon character," she said. Flash didn't show any signs of interest. "Heck, people were even trying to get rid of me and my brothers because we were so annoying." Still no reaction from the Cable man. "But then I came here, and met you, and now I feel like I'm on top of the world! It's just so great to have gotten to know you, Flash. You're a great guy. And an awesome photographer!"

"Whatever," said Flash in a low, depressed tone.

"Flash, you've been acting really strange for the past two shoots," said Dot. "You don't look so good either. Do you think you're getting sick or something?" Flash didn't answer. "I've seen enough faces to know that being this pale isn't normal. How are you feeling?" No answer, but Dot could hear him mumble something. "I totally know what it's like to be low on energy. I've felt it loads of times before. It's really bugging, you know?"

At that very moment, Flash stood up and put his hands behind his back, not facing Dot. "Sometimes, when I see a former model of mine, I think: 'Whoa. She looked better when working with me'. I've had these thoughts tons of times. It seems that my former models always end up in the gutter or worse, and they begin looking tired all the time."

"Um, okay," said Dot. "But why are you telling me this?"

"Because I'm having similar thoughts right now," said Flash. "They're about you."

"Me?" said Dot, confused. "But, I'm not a former model."

"No, but you're a former cartoon star," said Flash. "And different from my other thoughts, yours are like this: 'Whoa. She looked better _before _working with me'." He sighed. "By the time you began working here, I . . . You see, when you came, I thought maybe . . . Okay, so what I'm trying to say is . . . " He turned around sharply, his hands swinging around and his face a lot redder than before. "_I can't take this anymore!!_" he roared.

Dot was so startled; she almost fell. "What?!" she accidentally yelled back. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, for crying out loud, Warner!" Flash shouted. "Can't you take a hint?! Didn't you see how I acted in our last shoot?"

"Well, yes, but I just thought you were tired or something," said Dot. What was going on? Why was Flash so upset?

"Did you _not_ see me in _this _shoot?!" Flash yelled. "Geez, and I thought blondes were dumb!" He sat down in the chair yet again, now panting for life, but calming down a bit.

Dot looked at him, shocked. "Flash, what's gotten into you?" she said.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" said Flash. "It's just that I can't work with you anymore, I just can't."

"What? Why?" said Dot, her stomach taking a dive.

"When you began working here, you had great potential of becoming a model, you really did," said Flash. "But now it's become too extreme. I feel horribly guilty."

"Guilty?" said Dot, still confused. "Why would you feel guilty? You haven't done anything."

"Oh, you haven't heard the whole thing," said Flash. "This one night after you had begun working here, I was out walking, when suddenly, some guy grabbed me and dragged me into a dark alley. There, he and someone else – couldn't see his face – started threatening me."

"Threatening how?" said Dot.

"They said that if I wouldn't tell you to get skinnier, they'd hunt me down and cut me," said Flash and shuddered. "I've been doing it for a while, and I've even told you that you look good, but the truth is, you look awful!"

Dot's head was spinning and her stomach took an even bigger dive. Was Flash really telling her this?

"My point is that I can't keep this up," said Flash. "Every time I look at you, I see the old Dot Warner I used to watch some years ago turned into a mutant. It's just got to stop. If I ever want to get back to my normal state, and if you ever want to get healed from those godforsaken eating disorders of yours; I'm afraid I have no choice."

"N . . . no choice but . . . what?" said Dot, her voice cracking.

"Dot . . . you're fired."

----------------------------------------------------------

"Are you sure this is where you want to break in?" Wakko asked Brain. The mouse had told him that the best entrance to the building was at the back. Wakko was carrying his big mallet and ready to hit the wall with it. Brain, on the other hand, was walking up against the wall with a stethoscope.

"Positive," he said. "The wall's weakest space is without doubt somewhere back here. Now, when I locate it, you cautiously smash your mallet into it, causing it to slowly and silently break down and form a hole. It cannot fail!"

"Okay," said Wakko. "But what it if does?"

"I assure you, it won't," said Brain. He stopped at some spot on the wall, and then took the stethoscope out of his ears. "This is it, Wakko. This is the wall's weakest space."

Brain didn't have to say anything else. Wakko immediately swung the mallet to the air, then swung it back and hit the wall. As Brain had said, the wall simply broke down very slowly and silently, not disturbing anyone or anything around the two of them.

"Wow," said Wakko when the last pieces of the hole had fallen off. "You are good."

"That I know," said Brain and hopped over the now fallen rocks and into the building. Wakko followed, but couldn't get very far because Brain stopped him. "No, you stay back."

"Why? Don't I have the right to see this too?" said Wakko.

"You do, yes, but that doesn't make you any less noticeable in there," said Brain. "Trust me, if you had been with me last time, I wouldn't have uncovered as much."

Wakko inhaled to say something, but decided not to argue with a genius. "Fine, you go in," he said and put his mallet back in its place. "Just find something out soon, okay?"

"I will," said Brain. "You just get back home now. I'm certain someone is waiting to hear your story."

Wakko smiled. "Yeah, I guess," he said before turning around to walk back home, leaving a tiny lab mouse to do all the work.

----------------------------------------------------------

"He said what?!" Hello Nurse exclaimed when Dot had told her that Flash had fired her.

"Yeah, he fired me, just like that," said Dot. "I mean, he had his reason, but I still didn't want to end up as a washed out model too!"

"You're so not a washed out model, Dot," said Hello Nurse. "Clearly, Flash just wasn't the right guy for you."

"He was, but this is all those stupid threatening guys' fault!" said Dot. "If they hadn't grabbed Flash that night, we wouldn't be talking about this! Oh, why did he have to choose _that_ night of all nights to go for a walk?"

"Look, Dot, maybe this isn't the right place to be talking about this, huh?" said Hello Nurse.

Dot looked around and realized that they were still inside 'Cable Cameras'. She chuckled sheepishly and blushed a bit. "Uh, yeah. Probably not," she said and with that, they began walking out of the building and into the nurse's car. They had only just closed the car doors when Hello Nurse got an idea.

"Say, how's about we just hit some coffee shop?" she said. "It's the perfect place to talk about stuff. And, we can get great drinks."

"I don't know," said Dot. "I don't think I can handle any heavy drinks right now."

"Aw, come on," said Hello Nurse while putting her key in the ignition. "Just this once. It's on me."

Dot thought about it while the nurse started her car and drove out of the parking lot. Sure, a coffee shop would be a great place to talk, but what if Hello Nurse would buy her some drink that would immediately get to her waist? Dot shook her head. _Nah! Hello Nurse knows better than that!_

And so, the nurse drove over to the first coffee shop they saw: Mocca. On the outside, it looked really neat; with a big sign hanging above the door, windows that caught the soothing atmosphere of the inside, and colour scheme that one could only expect to have been thought of by a very talented painter. On the inside, it was very warm and cozy, complete with the "Friends"-like sofa, tables and counter.

The girls walked in and picked a table next to a window, just to be able to dramatically look outside if there'd be a silence between them. Then, Hello Nurse went to buy the drinks and came back a while later with two glasses of hot cocoa.

"There you go," she said and handed Dot her glass. "It's as fresh as it gets. And it doesn't have any cream, which is a treat for us, huh?"

Dot smiled. "Yeah, it is," she said and sipped on her drink. It was perfectly warm and the chocolate taste roamed her mouth for a long time before slowly disappearing.

"So, what's this all about guys threatening Flash?" the nurse asked.

As Dot began telling her the whole talk with Flash in every detail, she started to realize how much of a fool she had been to believe that he had actually thought she was good.

Hello Nurse didn't say anything, but Dot could tell that she was just about as shocked and hurt as she herself was. Dot looked outside the window on her right. It was getting dark already, probably getting a little late too. She had another drink of her cocoa and got the same wonderful feeling of chocolate taste.

Hello Nurse looked at the time. "Hey, Dot. It's getting a little late. What do you say we get home after we finish our drinks?"

Dot looked at the nurse and smiled. "Nah, let's go for a little ride down town first," she said and smiled even more happily.

"Really? You want to do that after what happened last time?" Hello Nurse said a bit nervously.

"Hey, it's not like that's going to happen again," said Dot and flipped her wrist. "Besides, I did say _car_ trip, didn't I?" she added and winked.

"Right back at ya," said Hello Nurse.

----------------------------------------------------------

For quite some time, Yakko had felt like he had been left out of the whole plot. While Dot was slowly ruining her life like the brainwashed toothpick of a model she was, and Wakko was always trying to figure something out; Yakko seemed to always stay home alone. Of course, Wakko could keep him company when he wasn't stuck on all the stuff he was sorting out, but then there were times when Yakko could as well have been talking to a wall.

"And here I thought we were supposed to share the spotlight," he said to himself.

Once again, Yakko found himself alone in the water tower that morning, with no trace of his siblings except a note from Wakko saying that he'd be back soon. Where he had gone, Yakko had no idea, but he wasn't too worried. Wakko had left the tower on his own before, so there wasn't really any reason to get paranoid.

Yakko stretched and then plumped down in the sofa, not really sure what to do to kill time. He reached in the pocket of his slacks, picked up his paddleball and began playing with it. He got bored with it pretty quickly, so he automatically began singing to the beat of the ball.

"I buy a dozen cars when I'm in the mood; I hire somebody to chew my food; I'm an upwardly mobile dude – this is the life."

He sighed. It just wasn't the same without the other two Warners that actually made them that infamous trio.

Just then, the tower door slowly opened up. Yakko sat up (not losing half a beat of the ball) and watched as a tired Wakko came in. Yakko's mood brightened up instantly. Finally, some company! Someone to talk to!

"Well, well. What have we here, mister nightlife?" Yakko joked. "I've been up all night waiting for you, you know. Do you realize what time it is?"

Wakko chuckled. "Yeah, sorry mom," he said. "Brain and I were just so busy, I forgot all about coming home."

"Spare me the details, son," said Yakko. "I don't think I want to know the rest."

"Oh, please, Yakko," said Wakko and sat down next to his brother. "We were sneaking in the 'Here and Now' building to find something more out about the survey."

"So that's what you've been up to all this time?" said Yakko. "You've been trying to figure out about the survey, haven't you?"

"Where have you been? Last Tuesday?" said Wakko. "But, seriously, yeah. I've been having major headaches for the past few days because of all this. It's all very confusing."

"Is that why you went to Brain?" said Yakko. Staying home had really made him left out of all the drama. "To have him help you out?"

"Yup, it's a match," said Wakko. "You want to hear what he found out the other day?"

"Sure do!" Yakko exclaimed. "Anything to get this off our backs, am I right?"

And so, Wakko told his older brother everything that had happened for the past days, without sparing any detail. He even bothered to describe how the wall had fallen down that very night. Yakko listened with interest during the entire rant, without missing a single word.

"And then I came home," Wakko finished his monologue. "Wow, it's been ages since I've talked so much, hasn't it?"

"Yup, you could say we've changed positions," said Yakko and smiled.

"So, haven't you been up to anything?" said Wakko. "I mean, you were locked up in your room for days without saying a word. What's up with that, emo kid?"

"Hey, hey," said Yakko. "Who said anything about being emo? I was just as curious about this whole thing as you were, you know. So, part of the reason why I locked myself in there was because I was thinking about the survey too."

"Really?" said Wakko. "But I asked you to help me before, why didn't you just team up with me?"

"Well, that's because you were always alone with your thoughts too, completely isolated from the outside world," said Yakko. "So, I really had no idea what you were always up to."

"What about the time we were standing on the balcony the day after Dot left?" Wakko asked. "You seemed pretty isolated there, and pretty much not caring about a thing I said. And you didn't even notice me when I sprinted out of the tower that same day."

"Hey, that's an exception," Yakko said sheepishly. "Like you said, it was the day after Dot left us, so there was a good reason for that."

"Okay then, how about the time Hello Nurse came here and showed us the blogs?" said Wakko. "You had been in your room for hours before, and I swear, I heard you gasp and sigh repeatedly. What the heck were you doing?"

"Cutting myself . . . " said Yakko in a very deep tone and looked at Wakko with dark eyes.

"What?!" Wakko yelled, scared at the sight and creeped out at the thought.

"Hah! I'm just kidding!" said Yakko and laughed. "Had you there, didn't I?" Wakko didn't look amused at all, so Yakko stopped laughing and cleared his throat. "Okay, about that; that was one of those times when I was thinking about this whole mess. Just wanted to be alone, you know."

"Okay, but what were those gasps and sighs?" Wakko asked.

"Oh, those?" said Yakko. "Well, like you said, I locked myself in there. And when I say this now, I mean it literally. I lost the key, and every time I thought I had found it – gasp – it turned out to be something else – sigh. Get it?"

"Yeah, I think so," said Wakko.

For the rest of the day, the Warner brothers talked about their points of view during the whole plot, and thus figured out that they had been on a similar level this whole time. Yakko even told Wakko about the flashback he had gotten the same day as the whole blog thing, making Wakko feel all loved once again.

Time flew unusually fast now that the brothers had each other's company, and before they knew it was getting dark outside. They knew that because they were standing on the tower balcony once again when it happened.

Wakko gazed at the sundown. "Wow," he said. "Can you imagine how hard it must be to paint the whole sky different colours?"

Yakko shrugged. "Nah, why would I? We have other people to worry about that." He looked down on the streets below them and saw a woman running like crazy between the warehouses. "Wow, can you imagine how hard it must be to go out running every night just to keep the good body?"

Yakko had hardly let go of the word when he and Wakko both heard the phone ring. They looked at each other, grinned, and then raced inside to be the first one to get it. Wakko jumped in first, and was about to pull the door closed when Yakko somehow managed to slide in as well. The started running towards the phone, pushing and shoving at one another while the phone yelled at them to get it soon. Yakko grabbed Wakko's legs to prevent him from running, but Wakko simply hopped his way to the table. When he was just about to pick up the phone, Yakko pulled sharply from beneath, causing him to trip and fall, making Yakko the victor.

"Helloooo, nurse!" he said when he finally picked up. Wakko crossed him arms and watched as Yakko listened to the other person talk. For some reason, his face became more shocked with every half second. Wakko stood up and looked at Yakko, a little confused at how someone could make his brother's mood change to quickly. Before Wakko could keep thinking about it, though, Yakko hung up, looking like a ghost.

"Who was that?" said Wakko. "What did he say?"

Yakko stared at his brother. "Wakko, that was Hello Nurse," he said worriedly. "Dot has been knocked cold."

----------------------------------------------------------

Being a nurse, it shouldn't have been so hard for Hello Nurse to just pick Dot up at the very scene and take her to the next hospital. But she was so shocked at what had just happened, she couldn't think straight. She had called the Warner brothers and told them to come, as well as the 911.

She sat on the ground with Dot's head in her lap, trying to keep her conscious. She couldn't bear to take care of it herself, even if she was a nurse.

"Don't worry, cutie," she said and stroked Dot's cheek. "Help is on its way."

She had hardly let go of the word when she heard a noise coming to her. She turned her head and saw the Warner brothers approaching. She was so glad to see them; she almost stood up.

"Stay there!" she heard Yakko shout. "We're coming!"

Hello Nurse didn't move, but she felt Dot's head getting heavier. When the brothers finally came to the scene, it looked like Dot had finally lost consciousness.

"What the heck happened?" said Yakko and placed his palms on Dot's cheeks and then forehead. "Why is she like this?"

"It's a long story, and it's not important right now," said Hello Nurse. "Did you guys see the ambulance?"

"Yeah, it was right behind us," said Wakko. "It should be arriving soon."

"Soon isn't enough!" Hello Nurse and Yakko both exclaimed at once.

Wakko was right, though. Just then, they all heard sirens and saw the flashing blue lights of an ambulance approaching. When it finally stopped in front of them, paramedics rushed out of it and carefully placed Dot on a stretcher before rushing back in, letting the nurse and the boys in as well.

While the paramedics examined Dot, her brothers and Hello Nurse held her hands and hoped with all their hearts that she'd be alright.

Meanwhile, though, Dot herself was fading into a dream, constantly hearing some people repeating the same chant over and over:

"Cute."

"Sweet."

"Adorable."

"Hot."

"Sexy."

"Slutty."


	11. Your worst enemy

**Chapter 11 – Your worst enemy

* * *

**

"Cute."

Dot's eyes were closed shut, and she couldn't open them. She had no idea what was going on around her. She tried to lift her hand to rub her head, but it was like there were no muscles left in her arm. She tried to open her mouth to say something, but no sound came out. What was going on?

"Sweet."

She tried to think, but her mind wouldn't let her. Everything that had happened for the past few hours was like a blank space in her head. Had she even been awake? Was it morning now, and everything had just been a dream?

"Adorable."

Boy, it sure felt silly just lying there, not being able to do anything, while some people chanted around her. Who were they? Stalkers talking about her looks?

"Hot."

Yeah, definitely stalkers. No one but a stalker would look at a lifeless body and constantly talk about how it looked. Still, they sounded more feminine than the stereotypical stalkers Dot had heard about.

"Sexy."

Wait a minute . . . Did she just say 'lifeless body'? (Dot tried to do the usual gulp everyone does when they're scared, but she couldn't) Was she dead? Was she really gone? And were those voices some kinds of angels, greeting her in heaven?

"Slutty."

No, not angels. Angels wouldn't say stuff like that. Could it be that she, Dot Warner, was actually going to Hades? It couldn't be. It just couldn't!

Finally, Dot remembered how to speak. "I . . . have . . . not . . . been a . . . bad . . . girl!" she managed to say.

The chanters stopped. "Oh, look who decided to join us," said one of them. She sounded very young.

"Wow, she's a mess," said another one. Dot figured she was older than the first. "No wonder they gave up on her."

Dot was tired of being the only one on the scene that wasn't standing or talking, so she opened her eyes. "Okay, that was easy," she said. "Who knew?" She didn't say anything else. However, what she saw made her want to scream her lungs out.

She knew she was lying on something – she felt it – but when she looked around, she saw nothing but black. Like she was floating in mid-air. She shot up from where she was lying and had a better look. No matter where she turned, she could only see black.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, Dot could finally see the chanters. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. She was basically seeing . . .

"Six versions of . . . me," Dot said in a low voice.

"You better believe it," said the first chanter. She looked like Dot had when she was a little younger – complete with the big, puffy cheeks and high-pitched voice. She put one hand behind her back and the other on her cheek, and smiled very cutely. "I'm Cute, aren't I?"

Dot turned her head and saw another version of her. That one looked a little older, possibly as old as she was now, but notably thinner. She made a curtsy and smiled. "I'm Sweet – as in: sweeter than aspartame."

"And don't forget about me," said another version. Dot scanned her image as well. She looked slightly different from the other two. She was clearly older; skinny; had a sunflower in her ears; and Dot could've sworn she wore a little make-up. She giggled a bit before speaking. "I'm Adorable, don'cha think?"

Dot didn't know if she wanted to see the rest, but looked around for the next version nonetheless. It appeared right in front of her; even skinnier than Adorable, but seemed to be in more shape; the flower was gone; there was a fluffy top over her forehead; and the make-up was clearer. The usual pink skirt had been replaced with a short denim one, and she was wearing a green top as well. When Dot looked closer, she also saw that her chest was bigger.

"Hello, Dot," she said as she put one hand on her hip. "I'm Hot. Hottie, hot, hottie, some might say," she added and winked.

At that point, Dot really didn't want to see the last two versions. But she had no choice, as the fifth one walked by her. She was skinnier than Hot, but taller; her hair was straighten; the green top was gone, and a tight, blue t-shirt was there instead; her face was almost drowning in make-up; and as she moved, she wiggled her hips and flipped her hair. She looked at Dot and gave her a finger kiss.

"Hi, dear," she said. "I'm Sexy. _Very_ sexy."

Dot gulped. "That just leaves . . . "

"Slutty? You bet'cha," said the last version. She looked horrible. Her body looked like a skeleton with fur on it; her face looked like she had dumped it into a tub of make-up; she wore only a very small, low, red skirt, a very small, gray top and high-heeled boots; her long, black hair was so straight, there was almost no life left in it; and she moved around very slowly and sexily, as if trying to say: 'Come and get me – I'm all open!'

"What is this?" Dot had to shout. "Some kind of a masquerade party with a Dot theme?"

All the Dots looked at each other, and then at Dot. Cute stepped forward and cleared her throat.

"Not at all, dear," she said. "It's much more serious than that."

"Serious?" said Dot, not convinced. "What could possibly be so serious about this?"

"Well, maybe if you'd shut up and let me explain, you'd understand a little more," said Cute and frowned.

Dot crossed her arms and gave a little 'hmp' before deciding to let Cute speak.

"Are we cool? Okay, good," said Cute and smiled again. "So, you want to know what's going on and who we are? That's an easy question. We are all supposed to represent you in a certain point of your life. Each person has stages like this. You know, like baby, child, teenager, adult, old person . . . you get the drill. Anyway, so we're your stages of life."

"Stages of life?" said Dot and scoffed. "Oh, come on. Get real! I'll never grow up to be as ugly as Slutty! I'm the cute one!"

"Riiiight . . . " said Cute, looked away and chuckled. "The _cute_ one."

"What are you laughing at?" Dot exclaimed. "I've always been the cute one! And some survey isn't gonna stop me!"

"Oh? But it's gonna start you, right?" said Cute. "I mean, if it hadn't been for the survey, you probably never would have lost so much weight; or become a model; or gone out clubbing."

"That was a one time thing," said Dot, and felt her face get a little warmer.

"Right, sure," said Cute. "And your head trauma is a result of you falling down the stairs. Dot, _you're_ the one who needs to get real!"

"What do you mean?" said Dot. "Head trauma? When did I get that? I don't remember anything about any head trauma."

"That's because it knocked you out," said Cute and shrugged. "You're knocked out in reality, and this is a dream. Freaky thought, huh?"

Dot looked at all the other versions of her. "Wait a minute . . . how can this be a dream if I've never seen you guys? I can't dream about something I don't know about."

Cute rolled her eyes. _And people wonder why I hate being in a cartoon fanfiction. So much explaining . . . _She cleared her throat again. "Okay, I guess it's up to me to do what we were sent here to do," she said, and started walking towards Dot.

"Aw, why do you get to do the fun stuff?" said Hot and crossed her arms.

"Yeah, you're the youngest!" said Adorable. "I think the later versions should show her around."

"Or, maybe not," said Slutty. All the other versions gave her a look, including Dot. "Think about it: if Cute gives the tour, then we'll have more room to do our own stuff. You know, more for us."

The versions looked at each other, grinned, and then nodded at Cute, who nodded. Dot didn't like where this was going. What in the world were they talking about? Someone had sent them? Fun stuff? Tour? Their own stuff? This was definitely one screwed up dream.

Dot couldn't dive any deeper into her thoughts, because Cute grabbed her wrist and pulled her upwards. Dot hadn't expected it, and shrieked for a while before realizing that they were flying in the huge, black space.

"What's going on?" she shouted, while floating sort of helplessly in the 'air'. "What did they mean back there? Where are we going? And how can you _fly_?"

Cute didn't answer, but Dot saw that she frowned, and mumbled something. Wow, that girl seriously needed to cheer up. She acted like Dot was some sort of a third class person!

"Girl, what's up with you?" Dot had to ask. "You've been kinda cranky ever since you introduced yourself."

"Talk later," said Cute, and just kept on flying.

Dot couldn't really figure out how Cute knew where she was going, because she only saw black, and nothing else. No signs, no maps, no roads; the place was deserted. If this was a dream, like Cute said, then why was her mind so blank?

Finally, Dot noticed Cute was taking the flight downwards. In a few seconds, it felt like she could touch ground again (of course, she couldn't see it). Cute swapped some unnoticeable dust off her skirt and fixed the flower in her ears – which hadn't moved. Dot, however, merely stood on the same spot and looked around, even if she knew that there was nothing to see.

"Now, are we finally going to do this tour or what?" said Cute.

"What? No way," said Dot and pointed at Cute. "First, I need some answers. Answers to the previous questions."

"Look, I already told you what's going on," said Cute.

"Maybe, but you still haven't explained the whole tour thing!" Dot almost yelled. Cute was driving her crazy! Dot didn't remember having that kind of attitude at that age . . .

"Fine, fine, I'll tell you about the tour. Sheesh . . . " said Cute and shook her head. "Okay, so you went out for a car ride with Hello Nurse, and you two decided to step out for a little while to get some fresh air, and maybe get some snacks. Unfortunately, someone came at you guys from behind, and hit you in the head. He was just about to hit the nurse too, but she somehow managed to grab you and get off the scene."

"Okay, so this explains the head trauma," said Dot. "But you're not even close to telling me about the stupid tour!"

"Let. Me. Finish," said Cute behind grinned teeth. It was obvious that the whole thing was driving her crazy as well. "When you got hit on the head, your brain knew you were about to be knocked out. So, it sent a message to your inner mind – the one you are in now – to make the stages of your life tell you what made you what you are, yadda, yadda . . . got it?"

"My . . . brain?" said Dot, and automatically touched the back of her head.

"Uh, duuh!" said Cute. "Your brain is the first organ to response to such a thing and . . . oh, who am I kidding? You're a _model_. Let's just begin the tour, alright?"

"Hey! What's wrong with being a . . . " Dot couldn't finish her sentence, because as soon as she was about to, Cute reached for a remote control from her mallet space, and pressed a big, green button on it.

There was a loud _BEEP _and suddenly, Dot felt the black surrounding shake. She heard a hiss coming from everywhere, and the ground shook even harder. Dot covered her ears as a huge, gray box appeared out of the ground. It rose and rose, and finally, it stopped, and so did the shaking and hissing.

"What . . . what was that?" said Dot. "What _is_ that?"

"That, my dear, is something we modern day people like to call a television, complete with a huge, flat, wide screen. Neat huh?" said Cute, who had sat down on a cushion in front of the big screen. She pointed on one that was beside her. "Sit down. We're going channel surfing."

Dot obeyed, and sat down on the cushion next to Cute's. Cute reached for the remote again, and turned on the TV.

"What are you going to do now?" said Dot. "Is this a part of the tour?"

"This _is_ the tour," said Cute, and began changing the channels. "You see, this isn't any ordinary TV, this is your life. What was, what is, what will be, what could have been, and what should have been. And in stereo too."

"So, you're saying that each channel is some point of my life?" said Dot. "Wow. That's so science-fictiony . . . and "Christmas carol"-y."

"Think all you want, but if you're interested in looking, I've finally found the first channel you're supposed to see," said Cute. "What could have been."

"And what does that mean?" said Dot.

"Right now, it means what your life could have been like if the survey had never been done," said Cute. "All the people you've met after you saw the result wouldn't be like they are today if you hadn't taken that survey so seriously."

"Oh yeah?" said Dot and crossed her arms. "Like who? Honestly, what has this got to do with anything?"

"Like I said before: if you'd shut up and let me explain, you'd understand a little more," said Cute. "Actually, just shut up and watch the screen. Oh, look! Here's your first person."

Dot looked up on the big screen, and saw none other than her brother, Yakko. It had been so long since she had seen him; she felt her stomach dive. Even worse, it looked like Yakko was miserable about something. He just lay in his bed with his arm across his face.

"What's wrong with him?" said Dot and stared at the screen. She was actually worried.

"This is how he looked like the day after you went out clubbing," said Cute. "People saw you, Dot, and they blogged about it. Hello Nurse showed your brothers the blogs, and when she left, Yakko went to his room and almost fell into self-pity."

"What do you mean 'almost'?" said Dot.

"You know Yakko," said Cute. "He's more of a physical wimp than a mental wimp, so he eventually got over the whole emo shock."

"_Careless . . . That's all I've been . . . Mister Careless . . . "_

Dot gasped. She had almost forgotten that TVs have sound too. "What does he mean?"

"He felt like he was responsible for everything that had happened," said Cute. "He felt like he had just watched everything occur, and did nothing about it." She looked up on the screen. "Ooh, look! It's changing into what could've been!"

Dot observed as the image of Yakko started to fade out, and another one faded in. That one was much more colorful, and had way more movement in it. It looked very familiar . . . It was the three of them running from Ralph the guard.

Dot's stomach dove even deeper. She really missed those times, where they didn't have to worry about anything. "Did I make Yakko so sad?"

"Not exactly you, but your doings," said Cute. "May I remind you to keep an eye on the screen? Your second person is here."

Dot felt a small lump start to form in her throat as she saw Wakko appear on the screen. He was sitting in front of a desktop computer and it looked like he was staring at something on its screen. Every now and then, he pointed at it too, as if he was counting something.

"What's he doing?" said Dot, who had already become very curious about this behavior.

"He's counting the survey results," said Cute, not taking her eyes off the screen.

"What?" Dot exclaimed. "Why? To make it look like he won?"

"Oh, stop pretending to still think he's behind this," said Cute. "Besides, everything on this channel happens _after_ the survey came out."

"_I knew it! It's all a fake!"_

"It was . . . a fake?" said Dot, surprised, and for some reason, her mood brightened up instantly – just like Wakko's had on the screen.

But as the image went on, Dot noticed that Wakko's face became sadder and sadder. She watched as he scrolled the page up and down repeatedly, always counting and trying to notice any slight details. He then sighed, took a diskette out of the computer and turned it off. He picked up some file and put it back in a shelf, before walking out of the room groaning.

"What's wrong?" said Dot. "Why'd he do that?"

"Because he found out that he was wrong," said Cute. "People actually had voted him the cutest. Don't you see what's going on here? Wakko was trying to prove that the survey was faked in any way, just to make you like him again. And he's still at it. He even teamed up with Brain to find out something more."

"He did all this . . . just to get me back?" said Dot, and felt the lump in her throat growing.

"Yes," said Cute. "But you're so oblivious to it, because you never even wanted to look at him."

Dot looked back at the screen, and saw the image of the three of them annoying Ralph again. Of course: Wakko would be in the same place as Yakko if none of this had happened.

"Alright, and here's your third and last person so far," said Cute.

Dot sighed as she saw an image of Flash Cable appear on the screen. He was sitting in his chair, with his elbows on his knees and rubbing his head.

"This is how he looked like just after he fired you," said Cute. "He has been miserable for the past few days because of the night he was threatened." She snapped her fingers. "Say, remember the time he told you he was a little off because he was tired? That he had some personal problems, like hard decisions?"

Dot thought for a moment. "Yeah, I remember. It was after I . . . went out clubbing."

"Exactly," said Cute. "Well, the very night you went out clubbing, he was threatened. And he couldn't get it out of his head. Heck, he still can't! This may just be me, but I think he's been permanently scarred."

"Oh no . . . All because of me?" said Dot, her stomach taking a dive yet again.

"You got it," said Cute. "Now, let's see what he would be like if the survey hadn't been done – thus never meeting you."

The image of the pale, miserable Flash faded away, and another faded in. In that one, Flash was in his happy, zany mood again, wielding his camera like a weapon and using his infamous body language on a model Dot had never seen.

Dot's eyes began to tear up, but she wiped them off before Cute noticed. "You mean to tell me that I've ruined people's lives?"

"No, that's not what I'm saying," said Cute and started flipping the channels again. "Those were just images you were supposed to know about eventually. You can partly blame yourself for them, yes, but this was all bound to happen some day. After all, the survey has been done, and there's nothing we can do to change the past."

Dot lay down on her cushion. She had no idea that what she was doing had touched those boys so deep. Maybe none of this would have happened if she hadn't freaked out so much when she saw the survey results . . .

"Ooh! Here's a nice channel!" said Cute and put the remote down. "What should have been."

"What's on there?" said Dot.

"Oh, usually not much," said Cute, and then suddenly gasped. "Hang on! I didn't know they were showing _The stages of life_ tonight! Oh wow, this is your luck in the bad luck, Dot. You should totally watch this."

"Okay, it's not like I have a choice," said Dot. "What's it about?"

"It's basically us, your stages of life, but how we looked before you went all wonky," said Cute, put her arms behind her head and lay down on her own cushion.

"You mean this whole thing has changed _my_ life too?" said Dot.

"Well, duh!" said Cute. "You were never supposed to look like you do now, you know. And if you were, you wouldn't look like it until you'd reach at least 27. So basically, when you began all this crud – the working out, make-up, and bulimia – you changed the lot of us. This program will show you what we looked like before all that."

Dot gulped. Did she really want to see how she was supposed to look like? It's never a good idea to see the future, after all. But, since she had already seen the other images, she couldn't just back out now.

A small baby Dot came on the screen. She had very short hair, a small face, and was wearing a light pink continuum. She wasn't old at all – possibly two or three years old. She crawled a little, and then giggled.

"Is this . . . " Dot began.

"Me," said Cute and smiled. "I'm your baby stage. Aren't I the cutest thing? Even as a baby?"

Dot looked at the baby again, and then at Cute. She couldn't believe how much older Cute looked compared to the baby stage.

Suddenly, completely out of the blue, the baby stood up. She started to take off her continuum, and pull her hair out of her head, making it longer. As the continuum fell of, the usual pink skirt appeared around her waist, and she put a flower on her ears. All this happened extremely fast, and Dot was looking at an image of Cute in a matter of seconds. The image put one hand behind her back, the other on her cheek, and smiled before saying: "Cute."

The picture faded away, and in came a new one. It wasn't a new sight for Dot, because the new image was basically her in her Animaniacs days (or, like she _would_ look like now if she hadn't gotten bulimia and such). She hopped around a grassy field and laughed, while sometimes singing a few random tunes.

"This is Sweet, before you went bad," said Cute. "She's your child stage. I bet this didn't surprise you."

"No, it didn't," said Dot. She touched her hips, feeling almost nothing but bones. "I . . . I'm . . . I was . . . "

"Much cuter before all this?" Cute finished. "I know. But just wait. The show isn't over."

And it was right, because in the middle of a very happy jump, the child looked forward, made curtsy and said: "Sweet." But before the image faded out, the background became darker and Sweet became sadder.

Dot didn't have any time to ask about the sudden change of mood, because the next image was just about to come. Dot watched a young girl skip happily on a sidewalk and waving to everyone she met. She had Dot's child face, but her body had matured a bit. She wore a long, brown jacket, jeans and a pink turtleneck.

"This is Adorable," said Cute. "She's a pre-teen. Isn't she pre-tty?"

Dot couldn't help but agree, even though she didn't say anything. Her original pre-teen stage looked even better than she did now.

But as expected, the image didn't last very long. The girl slowed down her skipping, and was soon just walking very slowly. Her smile leaked off her face as she came to a complete halt. She looked down on her feet, and Dot watched in awe when the whole image itself started to fade away. A sunflower started to form in her ears; the turtleneck and jacket disappeared; and the pink skirt was already replacing the jeans. The girl looked up again, with a little make-up on her face, and said: "Adorable," before completely fading away in smoke.

Dot whimpered when she saw the next stage come on the screen. An even older girl was walking around in the snow, while it snowed around her. She wore a baby blue wool sweater, a matching hat and mittens, and baggy army-patterned pants. As she walked, she scoffed at the people that called her sexy or hot. "I'm cute, darn it!" she yelled at them, and laughed.

"And she's Hot today," said Cute. "Ironic, isn't it? Still, doesn't she look great as an older teen?"

"Yeah, she does," said Dot, still feeling unpleasant about her former stages looking better than herself.

She didn't have to wait long for the image to change. The girl began to look more serious; took off her mittens and hat, revealing her white gloves and the fluffy top on her forehead. She then pulled off the sweater, leaving only a green top behind. When Dot saw the whole image, she saw the short denim skirt instead of baggy pants. The girl put one hand on her hip and winked. "Hot."

When the image started to fade away to make room for the next one, Dot gulped. "Um, Cute . . . I'm not sure if I want to see the rest."

"Aw, come on," said Cute. "Now we're getting to the really good part."

Dot hesitated, but decided to peek at the screen (it was big enough to not be able to ignore it anyway). She didn't regret it, because the image was too funny to have missed. It was an adult Dot taking a turkey out of an oven. She walked out of the kitchen, and placed the turkey on a table. "Well, I guess I'm ready for the guests now," she said.

Cute giggled. "She's just so cute as a housemother. Dot, meet Sexy – as your adult stage. And notice how she still has your child face, and not all the make-up she has now."

Dot still couldn't believe what she was seeing. Would she actually be able to cook in the future? And invite people over for dinner? Now that was something to look forward to!

"Dot, don't forget that this is the future you bashed. You can't expect to come back to it like nothing happened," said Cute. Whoa, could she read minds?

But she was right. Dot had bashed her original future. As soon as the adult had taken off her baking gloves, she started to turn around in circles. Soon, Dot couldn't see anything but a dusty cloud. But eventually, the adult stopped spinning and the dust cleared. Out of it came the Sexy Dot had seen; looking a lot younger than an adult; the tight, blue t-shirt was back in place, along with the skirt; her short hair had become a little longer because it was straightened; and her face was covered with make-up. She gave a finger kiss. "Sexy."

Dot covered her eyes and started to sniffle. She was finally starting to realize what she had been doing to herself this whole time. Why hadn't she listened to her brothers?

She didn't have time to think about that, because the last image was already on screen. It was a very old Dot, and she sat in a sofa, having a look at some old photos. She was smiling very happily as she flipped the photos, supposedly remembering something from each and every one of them. "Wow, I really was cute back then."

Dot's eyes went teary again. "Oh, Cute, please . . . don't change her into Slutty. She looks so peaceful . . . and happy."

Cute shrugged. "Hey, I'm not the boss of this program. The stages just change, that's the rule."

And just like all the other stages, the old Dot hadn't come to stay. She threw the photos away, and stood up. She clapped her hands twice, making all the lights in the room turn off, except a spotlight where she was standing. She closed her eyes and grinned. Soon, she was surrounded by some kind of swirls. When they passed some part of her body, that part became much younger, and skinnier. Finally, she swirls left none other than Slutty; wearing only her low, red skirt, gray top, and high-heeled boots; and her lifeless, long, black hair flowing around her. She let her hand roll from her face, down her chest, and to her waist before saying: "Slutty."

At that point, Dot had dug her face into her cushion, not being able to take any more. Cute turned off the huge TV and stood up.

"Now . . . was this all worth it? Are you finally seeing that you are your own worst enemy?" she said in a deeper voice than usual.

Dot sniffled. "Definitely. I know this sounds totally Disney-ish, but I'm so sorry about everything I've done. Everything! I'm sorry about being mean to Wakko. I'm sorry about slapping Yakko. I'm sorry about becoming a model. I'm sorry about ruining Flash's life. And I'm sorry about bashing my future by getting bulimia!"

"Why are you apologizing to me?" said Cute in an even deeper voice. Dot noticed that the black surrounding had become even darker, so she couldn't see Cute's face. "I'm not the boss of your life."

"What . . . do you mean?" said Dot and sniffled again.

"I mean it," said Cute. Her voice was beginning to sound deeper than Slutty's. "You should really take the place as the boss of your life. You wouldn't want to end up . . . "

The black surrounding suddenly became blood red, and Dot could finally see Cute's face. It had scars all over it; the white fur had become brown and dirty because of all the make-up; her eyes were glowing red; her nose was pitch black; her hair was falling off; and to make things even worse, the face itself was beginning to leak off.

"_LIKE THIS!!_"

Dot screamed with all her might and panicked. She shot up from her cushion and started running away from Cute. She ran until she bumped into someone. It was Adorable.

"Adorable!" Dot panted. "You've gotta help me! Cute's face is . . . "

"All wrong?" said Adorable in the same deep voice as Cute. "I know. What do you expect? She is _you_."

Lightning fast, Adorable stuck a finger down her throat, and puked. The surrounding became redder, and it actually looked like it was bleeding. Dot screamed again and ran away.

She tried to find a place where she knew the stages couldn't reach her, but couldn't find any. Because the red surrounding looked endless, there didn't seem to be any corners or walls. Dot turned around and saw all her stages approaching her – all of them looking absurd. Cute had an ugly, leaking face; Sweet had a tilted zombie-like head; Adorable was smiling manically, drooling puke; Hot was holding a plastic surgery knife like a serial killer; Sexy had scratched her whole body, so she was bleeding like crazy; but Slutty looked just like she had, only she was drunk.

"What's wrong, Dot?" said Hot. "Don't you think we're cute?"

Dot started backing away from them, but couldn't get very far, because she started to fall. She screamed as she heard the deep voices of her stages all around her shout: "You had it coming! You had it all coming!!"

----------------------------------------------------------

Yakko and Wakko were about to lose all hope. Dot had been in a coma for almost two days, and it didn't look like she'd wake up in a while. They kept checking her breathing, heart beating, and any signs of movement, but nothing ever changed.

Suddenly, though, the two of them heard a small whimper coming from the girl under the covers. They shot up from where they were sitting and watched as Dot slowly began to open her eyes. When they were fully open, they started to tear up as she saw both her brothers standing above her.

Yakko smiled. "Hey, Dot," he almost whispered. "Welcome back."

Dot smiled back at her brother, and then looked at Wakko. Her heart stared pounding hard. "I'm . . . sorry," she had to say.

Wakko looked a bit confused at first, but when he figured out what she meant, he smiled back at her. "It's okay, Dot. I know you never really meant any of it to happen."

"I'm so sorry," Dot repeated weakly. "I'm sorry, both of you. I'm sorry for being such a . . . such a . . . such a bitch to you!"

Yakko gasped. "Dot!"

"Sorry," said Dot and tried to smile. "I gotta take advantage of the T-rating, right?"

Now it was the brothers' turn to get teary eyes. And even if she had just recovered from a coma, Dot struggled to sit up in her bed. Wakko took her hand and supported her back, and when she was up, she instantly flung her arms around his neck and started crying.

"I'm sorry!" she shouted. "I never should have blamed you!"

Wakko hugged his sister back, still with teary eyes. "It's okay, Dot. It's okay." Yakko wiped a tear off his face and joined the long, dramatic hug.

Even if it wasn't the happiest situation they had lived, the three toons known as the Warner brother and sister had finally reunited again after weeks of nearly unforgivable drama. Finally, they were together, and none of them was throwing cold statements at another. Finally, they didn't have to worry about sibling rivalry – at least, not as dramatic anyway.


	12. A series of familiar events

**Chapter 12 – A series of familiar events**

* * *

Dot woke up early in he morning by habit, but instead of rushing out of bed to go to the gym, she stayed in bed, smiling. She closed her eyes, turned over to her side, and just smiled. At first, she didn't even notice how wide her smile was. But her cheeks did, and told her that she was stretching her face a little too much.

She stopped smiling for a bit, only to slowly begin a major giggling fit. She wondered for a moment why she was smiling in the first place. Then, it hit her: she was proud – happy. Proud of herself for have gotten through the rehab process with Scratchy. She was happy for finally being normal again. She was finally back to being the small, slightly chubby, and irresistibly cute Warner sister she had always been.

The rehab hadn't been easy, though. For days, she had ordered her brothers to let her out of the tower, so she could go to the gym. They had even had to fight her one time, because she had been getting desperate. At one point, she had looked at her gym stuff, and trembled because she knew she couldn't use it.

Another thing that had been hard for Dot to get used to was the usual Warner food. Every time she had eaten something, she had felt like she needed to either work it off, or puke it out. Again, her brothers had had to fight her to get her away from the bathroom door. But, eventually, she had gotten used to it – mostly because Yakko had told her that she had become cuter after gaining a little weight.

The easiest part of the rehab had probably been to stop wearing make-up, and start wearing her usual clothes. After seeing how ridiculous it had been for her to wear such slutty and revealing clothes, she had thrown them away (Wakko had even burned the push-up bra).

For the past few weeks, Dot had almost never left the tower. It was Scratchy's advice that she should spend as much time as she could with her brothers, since she had kind of ditched them for Hello Nurse for quite some time.

As Dot looked back on the rehab, she smiled even wider. She had read many stories about people who had gone to rehab, but didn't come back clean. And here she was, Dot Warner – after weeks of rehab – all better, and ready to continue with her life. Another reason for widening the smile was the thought of actually listening to Scratchy. She and her brothers _were_ known for doing everything _but_ that.

She sat up in her bed, and stretched. She stood up, put on her skirt, and put the flower in her ears. She looked at her reflection in the mirror on her desk, and giggled. _I'm so cute!_ She then walked out of the room, but as soon as she took the first step, she bumped into Wakko.

"Ow!" she whined. "You did that on purpose!"

"No, I didn't!" Wakko exclaimed while rubbing his head. He then looked her in the eye, and chuckled.

"What?" Dot whined, and then pouted. "You know I don't like bumping first thing in the morning! Why are you laughing?"

"Because this is exactly how this all started," said Wakko, and kept smiling, his tongue now hanging out of his mouth.

Dot's pout leaked off, and was replaced with the cheesiest smile she could put up. "Wakko…"

Before Dot could even begin to think about what she was going to say, Yakko came running into the tower, holding a stack of letters in one hand, and a single letter in the other.

"A letter!" he yelled. "I got a letter! Good for me!"

He ran into his room, and slammed the door behind him, giggling like a sissy girl. Wakko and Dot looked at each other. Yakko never acted that way, and he certainly wouldn't be so happy if those letters were from fans. Wakko shrugged while Dot made a small motion beside her head, indicating her brother was crazy. She then pulled up the fur on her left arm to reveal a wrist watch, looked at it, and put the fur back in its place.

"I gotta go," she said. "Scratchy asked me to stop by his office today. See how the rehab was doing."

With that, Dot left the tower, leaving Wakko scratching his head, still curious about Yakko's behavior.

--

Dot walked into the psychiatry office gracefully, and when she took the first step into the lobby, she eyed the nurse, whom she hadn't seen for weeks. She squealed and raced to the desk. She hopped onto it, and saw the back of Hello Nurse, who was too busy talking on the phone to notice Dot.

"Hellooooooo Nurse!" Dot exclaimed in Warner brothers-style to get the nurse's attention. Hello Nurse turned around, and for some odd reason, she didn't greet Dot, nor did she smile. She just gave a little "Hm…" and went back to talking on the phone. Dot cocked an eyebrow, and poked the nurse's shoulder. She didn't react, so Dot decided to use force. She cracked her knuckles, inhaled, and then jumped on Hello Nurse's head, shouting: "Head cling!"

Hello Nurse shrieked, and jumped off her chair. She started running around the lobby, trying to get Dot off her head. Dot was having a blast, and when laughter got the better of her, she let go of the nurse's head, and fell to the floor, still laughing. She wiped a tear off her face, and stood up again.

"Ahh… That was priceless!" said Dot and fixed her skirt. She then put up her index finger and said: "For everything else, there's MasterCard."

Dot heard a foot tap, and looked up to see Hello Nurse glaring at her, while trying to brush her hair back in its place. She didn't look pleased at all. "You think that's funny, huh? So this looks funny to you? Do you even know how long it took me to do my hair this morning?"

"Actually, no," said Dot, and just smiled. Hello Nurse did an awesome Pesto impression. "I don't do it anymore – besides putting curlers in it before I go to bed, but I've always done that."

"Well then, maybe you should start thinking about others for a change, before you start jumping on their heads," said Hello Nurse and went back to her chair. "Scratchandsniff's ready for you."

Dot didn't know what to say. The nurse acted as if they had never been friends. She was just back to being the old, stuck-up, mean beauty she always was. While walking towards Scracthy's office, Dot couldn't help but wonder if she had also changed the life of Hello Nurse, like Cute had said in her dream a while back.

As usual, seeing Scratchy was pretty boring. All he did was ask how she felt, if the rehab was working, and if she was starting to feel like her old self again. The whole time, Dot thought about nothing but Hello Nurse, and wasn't paying any attention to Scratchy (as usual). But apparently, her nods and little sounds were enough for Scratchy to let her go early. That gave Dot another chance to talk to Hello Nurse.

She raced to the desk again, but didn't hop onto it this time. Instead, she tried to get the nurse's attention from below. She knocked on the desk, and reached up to be able to at least see Hello Nurse's face.

"Oh, you're done," she said. "Then why don't you just run off?"

"Because I wanna know what's going on!" Dot exclaimed. "You're acting all weird today. You're acting as if you don't even know me! Why won't you talk to me?"

The sudden blunt blow struck Hello Nurse, and for a moment, she didn't know how to respond. After a few seconds, she cleared her throat, stood up from her chair, and walked to the other side of the desk, where Dot was standing. "Look, Dot. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just being myself, that's all."

"No, you're not!" Dot shouted. "If you were being yourself, then you'd listen to me when I'm talking to you, and not just "hm" me away!" She hadn't shouted at someone for a while, and for some reason, it didn't feel right.

"You want to know what's going on?" said Hello Nurse, her voice level rising. "Do you realize how I felt after the accident? I was miserable! I found it all to be my fault, because I was the one who encouraged you to begin all that crud!" Dot noticed that the nurse's face got redder with every word. "I've been trying to forget everything, but it all just pours into my head again! You crossed the line once, Dot, and I can't forget that! Your behavior was unacceptable!"

The nurse panted, and rubbed her face. She turned away from Dot, and sat back down in her chair. "In all honesty, Dot, I liked you better when you were just…" She didn't finish her sentence, and began using the phone again. Dot was speechless, and slowly backed out of the office.

The walk back to the tower felt longer than usual, but that was mostly because Dot couldn't get Hello Nurse out of her head. Loads of fun memories with her began to pop into her head, and she was reminded of all the good times they had had together – not the bad ones, like always.

Dot remembered the stages of life, and what they had told her. She remembered how she had changed her brothers' and Flash's life after becoming a model; but she never thought that she would change the nurse's life after _quitting_.

As Dot climbed up the tower ladder, she got a sudden, strange thought. Maybe Hello Nurse liked her better when she had bulimia, and was ready to go to the gym with her. Maybe she never really wanted her to get back to being her normal self. Well, whatever the reason, it was clear to Dot that Hello Nurse had completely lost interest in her, and that she was back to being mean to the Warners.

Another slight flashback greeted Dot when she opened the tower door. But instead of hearing Yakko shouting, she heard Wakko laughing like crazy. She stepped inside, and saw Wakko rolling on the floor, laughing, with an irritated Yakko standing above him. Dot could've sworn he had blushed a little.

"For the last time, Wakko, she is _not_ an obsessed fan!" he exclaimed angrily. "She's just a perfectly normal girl who happens to like me a lot!"

Wakko wiped some tears out of his eyes, and tried to speak between the laughs. "You call sending you hundreds of fan letters a day, telling you how much she loves you and wants to meet you; _not_ an obsessed fan?" he managed to say. "I'll bet she's not even pretty!"

Dot cleared her throat, and the brothers finally noticed her. Wakko stopped laughing for a moment, and began snickering instead. Yakko ignored him. "So, were you two planning on telling me what you're talking about sometime before the next ice age?" said Dot.

"Well, if sir laugh-a-lot would give me a moment to explain, then yeah," said Yakko, and glared at his brother, who was slowly recovering from all the laughing. "Had your fun time there, dearest brother of mine?"

"I think so," said Wakko. "That is, until you get to the funny stuff." He snickered again.

Yakko turned to Dot, and held up the stack of letters from before. "You recognize these?"

"Uh, yeah. I think I saw you holding them earlier today," said Dot. "Why? Who sent them?"

"It's a long story, actually," said Yakko. "You see, for the past few weeks, I've been getting letters from this fan, and she obviously has a thing for me. She kept saying how good I look, and how well I sing, and how she desperately wants to meet me. At first, I thought: 'Oh, brother…' and just threw the letters away, thinking it was just another obsessed fangirl who does nothing but sit around and watch Animaniacs all day."

"Well?" Dot questioned. "Is she?"

"She totally is!" Wakko exclaimed and began chuckling. "No one in their right mind would send so many letters – except maybe pen pals, but that's going off track."

"As a matter of fact, she isn't!" said Yakko. "And Wakko, I was just about to show you this photo she sent me of her. Dot, you wanna see too?"

"Sure!" said Dot. She and Wakko watched as Yakko pulled out one of the letters from the stack, opened it, and then pulled out a small photo. He handed it to Wakko, who gladly received it, expecting to see a really ugly, fat girl. But as he looked at the photo, his grin slowly began to leak off his face. Dot was beginning to get curious, and took the photo away from her brother. She was just as surprised at what she saw.

The girl was far from being ugly and fat. On the contrary, she looked really good! She had long, straight, brown hair and dark-brown eyes. Her face looked like she had just come out of a make-up treatment (like Dot had, back in the day); though it was obvious that she had nothing on it. As Dot scanned the photo, she also saw that the girl was in very good shape, and her body was as hot as they can get! In the lower left corner of the photo, she had written: _To Yakky-kins, from Casey, _and drawn a little heart on the side.

Wakko and Dot both looked at Yakko, who just stood there with his armes crossed, wiggling his eyebrows. "So," he said. "Believe me now?"

Wakko's jaw dropped, and it took him a while to put it back in its place. His eyes were wide as he stared at his older brother. "Dude! That's so awesome! Oh man, why can't I have fans this hot?"

"Hah! Jealous much, now that you've seen her?" said Yakko. "Not so funny now, huh?"

"Are you kidding?" Wakko exclaimed. "I'd do _anything_ to have a fan like this! What is it you have that I don't?"

Dot rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, Wakko. It's not like Yakko's even gonna meet her. I mean, it's obvious that she's just another fan." She eyed Yakko. "Am I right?"

"Aaaaaahhh-" Yakko's voice slid, "not exactly." He scratched the back of his head. Dot and Wakko looked at him in awe, as he held up another letter. "This is the newest one, the one she sent today. It says that she's in town this week, and wants to meet me in person. She even says that I can go see her tonight. And, with a hottie like that, how could I say no?"

Wakko gasped, and Dot slapped her forehead. "So… you're going to see her?" Wakko asked. "Tonight?"

Yakko shrugged. "Maybe. She _did_ give me her address, so I might as well come over there tonight." He grinned.

"Boys…" Dot sighed.

--

Later that evening, Yakko stepped out of the tower, knowing exactly where he was going. He had read Casey's letter over and over again, memorizing where she was staying. Conveniently for him, her temporary apartment was on a long, straight street not too far away from the movie lot.

Yakko carefully climbed down the tower ladder and, to avoid attention, tip-toed through the lot. He snuck past all the familiar houses and roads, and lastly, the opening gate. Though when he went past Ralph the guard's spot, he couldn't help but notice that he looked unusually calm. He almost looked… Nah! Yakko shook the thought out of his head, and focused on meeting Casey.

It felt a little weird to be walking outside the movie lot so late in the evening – especially alone – but the thought of his hot fan made Yakko feel slightly more confident than he would otherwise be. He kept looking at road signs, trying to see the right one. Finally, after half an hour of searching, Yakko found the right street. All what was left now was to find the right building.

Yakko thanked the luck that the street was straight, and that the numbers on the buildings were big, and hard to miss. Finally, he saw the right one: a large, blue building (with possibly fifteen floors), with a huge number "12" written on the very center of it. Yakko smiled to the thought of how easy it was to find it, and proudly went in.

"Should have figured…" Yakko muttered as he stood in the small lobby. He remembered that Casey had never told him which apartment she had. He looked on his right, and saw a big entrance door (which was locked from the inside and could only be opened from there), along with dozens of doorbells – at least four for every floor. He sighed, and decided to find Casey's apartment the hard way.

Yakko was just about to push the first doorbell, when someone whistled from inside the building. His ears perked, and he looked at the entrance door. He squinted his eyes, and saw that there was indeed someone there.

"Hey," he said. "Can you help me out here? I'm trying to find a gal named Casey. Do you know where she's staying?"

The person chuckled, and Yakko immediately heard that it was a woman. "I sure do, hunk. She's standing right in front of you!"

Yakko's mood brightened up instantly, and his tail flicked. "C- Casey? Is that really you?"

Casey gave a little fangirly squeal. "You said my name!" she exclaimed. "Oh, this is just like in one of those cheesy "Romeo and Juliet" rip-offs! Two lovers, separated from one another only by a single door… I love the idea!" She giggled.

"Yeah… You know what'd be awesome?" Yakko said. "If you'd open the door, so I could see you in person."

Casey gasped. "I know _just_ what to do now! I'll open the door! That way, I can finally see you in person!"

Yakko was just about to remark to that, when the door slammed open. There was a long, awkward silence between the two, which was broken by another one of Casey's squeal.

"Holy wow, baby!" she exclaimed. "You're even hotter than on TV! I could just… jump on top of you right now!"

"Are you psychic?" said Yakko. "Because that was _exactly_ what I was going to say!"

Casey put her palms on her cheeks and blushed. "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship."

"Count me in!" said Yakko. He then looked around, and realized they were still standing in the lobby. "Say, uh, how's about we get inside?"

"Oh, yeah!" said Casey. She gestured Yakko to walk inside. "Welcome to my humble, temporary, block-of-flat home. My apartment is on seventh floor. Come on, loverboy, and we'll have some fun!"

--

Just like in those cheesy kids' movies, Wakko woke up when the sun hit his eyes. But that wasn't really what woke him up. It was the fact that the _sun_ was shining in his eyes in a closed tower. How in the world would that even be possible? He opened his eyes, and sat up in his bed. What he saw almost made him shout. Yakko was standing right in front of him, his face actually glowing! Wakko had to pick up sunglasses from his mallet space just to be able to look his brother in the eye.

"Yakko?" he said. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you asleep?"

"Who needs sleep?" Yakko exclaimed. "I slept over at Casey's! You're not gonna believe how awesomely ho she is in person!"

Wakko chuckled. "I can imagine…" he said, before a sudden disturbing realization popped into his head. "Yakko… what did you do last night?"

Yakko shrugged. "Oh, nothing unusual. Just chatted about me. It was really fun, actually." The glow on Yakko's face faded slightly. "That is, until Casey didn't know what to do with her hands. That was pretty annoying."

"What do you mean? Didn't know what to do with her hands?" Wakko questioned, getting a little bit confused.

Yakko's face slowly stopped glowing as he spoke. "Yeah, you know, she couldn't decide where to keep them. First she put them on her laps, then on _my_ lap, then on her shoulders, then on _my_ shoulders, then on her face, then on my back, then on my hands, and she was about to say something, but that's when I told her I knew she had some kind of a touching disorder."

"I bet she was just really nervous or something," said Wakko and took down his sunglasses.

"That's what I thought too," said Yakko. "Until she said something like: 'I never thought I'd get to do this with a child star', or something like that – I wasn't listening anyway."

Wakko jerked backwards in his bed, his ears perking. "Say _what_ now?" he exclaimed.

"Yeah," said Yakko, as if what he had said couldn't be more common. "She did that a couple of times, actually: said something that made no sense. Like when she was boiling water for her breakfast this morning, she accidentally spilt some on me, and said: 'Am I making you burn?'. I really don't get our fans sometimes… _But_ her hotness makes up for it!" Yakko smiled widely.

But Wakko was far from smiling. All the things Casey had done sounded uncomfortably familiar. "Yakko, did she, in any case, say that she'd do all the work? And that you should just lie back and enjoy?"

Yakko thought for a moment. "Uh… yeah, I think so. It was this morning. When she was going to the kitchen to boil the water, she turned on the TV for me. Why?"

Wakko gulped. "What about: 'The younger, the better'?"

"Well, no," said Yakko. Wakko was slightly relieved. "But she _did_ say something like: 'The _bigger_, the better'." He eyed his brother, saw his shocked, yet grossed out expression, and realized what he had said. "Ugh! We were talking about my pants, and how they're too big for me to wear! Geez, Wakko, you have a dirty mind!"

"No, I don't!" Wakko exclaimed. "Don't you see, Yakko? This is just like in my dream!"

"Your… dream?" said Yakko, and tilted his head a bit.

"Yes! My dream!" Wakko shouted. "The one with the… the… child molester…"

Yakko looked at his brother, still trying to figure out what he meant. Casey wasn't a child molester. She was just an obsessed fangirl who really liked him, and saying cheesy one-liners! "Nah! You're way off!"

"Yakko, think about it," said Wakko. "That dream could have been there for a reason. Maybe it was a warning that one of us might…" He hesitated. "That maybe that would happen to one of us. I mean, she said stuff that was very much like in my dream, _and_ she tried to touch you all the time! Maybe when she held your hands, she was about to say: 'It's just you and me now. Don't even try to get away'!"

Yakko's eyes went wide, and he realized that Wakko was absolutely right. "You- you don't think--"

"I don't think – I _know_!" said Wakko. "And unless you want that to really happen to you, I suggest you end it with Casey a.s.a. now!"

Yakko plumped onto Wakko's bed, his eyes still wide. "I can't believe I didn't get the hints! And they call me the smart one…"

He stood up, and walked out of the room, still in somewhat of a shock, leaving Wakko behind with horrible memories of the infamous dream. He walked through the hallway, and towards the little telephone table. When he reached it, he hesitated a bit. If he called, maybe Casey would want to meet him again. After all, he had told her that they should meet again that evening. He shuddered to the thought of it, and decided that it would be better to "dump" Casey, than to experience something he would never be able to forget. With a deep breath, Yakko dialed Casey's number.

It rang for a few seconds before Casey picked up. "Yellow!"

"H- hi," Yakko said nervously. "C- Casey?"

Casey gasped in excitement. "Oh my god – Yakko!" she exclaimed. "Hi! How's everything? Did you have a good time last night? Are you looking forward to tonight?" She squealed. "I sure as heck am!"

Yakko cleared his throat. "Yeah, listen. Uh, about that…"

"What's the matter, Yakky-kins?" said Casey. "Don't you want to meet me again?"

Yakko didn't know how to say it politely, so he simply said what he as thinking. "Not really, no. I don't think I'm ready for something like this. I'm only twelve, you know."

"I know! That's the beauty of it all!" said Casey. "Didn't you ever wonder why I picked house number twelve? It was a Yakko reference!"

Yakko shuddered. Under all the hotness, Casey really _was_ the typical obsessed fangirl who did nothing but sit around and watch Animaniacs all day. "Like I was saying, I don't think this can work out. I'm afraid I can't see you anymore."

"Aww…" said Casey. "But I just bought that leather cat-suit you said you liked--"

Yakko instantly hung up.

--

Later that day, Yakko felt the urge to have another look at the blog sites that had those blogs about Dot. Now that she wasn't a model anymore, and hadn't gone out in weeks, maybe the writers had edited the old blogs – or deleted them.

Still, he couldn't fight off the urge, so he decided to have a look at it for himself. He went into the computer room (which included a mildly uncomfortable flashback) and sat down in front of the big desktop computer.

He knew that his siblings would pop up any minute to ask what he was doing, so he stood up again, and closed the door to the room. By the time he returned to the computer, it had fully started. He opened the internet and googled the headlines to the title. While Google searched, Yakko waited anxiously in his seat, begging the almighty that the writers had edited the blogs. Finally, Google was done, and Yakko looked at the screen.

The results were shocking.


	13. Discovery

**Chapter 13 – Discovery**

* * *

People from all over the office looked into the editing room. The new guy was _still_ hard at work, just sitting in front of the computer, reading over the files. The editors were certain that once he was done, the next issue of 'Here and Now' would be a hoot. The women sighed, and the men whistled. That man could work!

"What's going on here?" said yet another writer, who had just walked pass all the people.

"Haven't you seen the new guy?" said one of the admirers. "He's awesome! He started working here some days ago, and he's barely left the room since! I don't think I've ever seen him during coffee brakes either."

The writer had a look inside, but as soon as he saw the new guy, he jerked backwards. "Are you guys mad?" he exclaimed. "It's a chicken! Can't you tell? It's a giant chicken!"

The new guy looked up from his work, and looked at all the people who were watching him. Slowly, they began walking away, blaming the writer for having spoken so loud. They closed the door, and left the guy to his work, thinking he was still processing the files.

What they didn't know, however, was that the new guy was indeed a giant chicken, and he wasn't doing anything with the files. Chicken Boo had just been sitting there for days, staring at the light that came from the monitor. The _real_ hard-worker was the little lab mouse that had hired him to cover for him.

Brain had been trying to solve the result case ever since he and Wakko broke into the building, and because he didn't want to stop working, he had hired Boo to pretend to be an editor of some sort. He had managed to hack into the computer system a couple of days before, so he didn't have to use the diskette that held the file. He was now trying to figure out how someone could have written the results without making any mistakes.

"I sense a fraud here," he said when he slowly scrolled down the result page for the millionth time. "There is no possible way an ordinary man could have written this without having to correct himself."

Brain scratched his head, and squinted his eyes at the monitor. "Curse you, genius," he spat at it. "Why am I not able to uncover your work?"

He had barely let go of the last word when something hit him. Of course! He had hacked his way into the system! Maybe that was the key to be able to find something! Brain moved the mouse around, clicked it, and then hopped on a few keys on the keyboard. In a matter of seconds, a huge list of files histories popped up on the monitor. Brain smirked at his own brilliance, and then had a look.

As always, he had to look very closely at everything: the name of the project; the name of the file; the type of the file; who wrote it; when it was edited; and when it was first saved into the system. Finally, he saw what he was looking for: 'Who do you think is the cutest Warner? – Results'. Brain opened the file, his eyes beginning to bulge with excitement.

Just as he expected, nothing unusual came up. It was just the same file he had always been staring at. But Brain wasn't going to give up that easily. He looked closely at the file's dates, and saw that there were a few days between them. Because he was now a hacker, Brain could finally go over the file's _real_ history, and see if anyone had edited the results after completing them. He ran over the parts he had already seen, positive that there was nothing wrong with the beginning of the file.

Boo clucked, and he couldn't have picked a better time, because Brain had just overlooked a major flaw in the project. Like he had seen before, most of Wakko's votes suddenly showed up at the middle of the project. But when he had a closer look, he noticed that Yakko and Dot's names had been replaced numerous times with Wakko's. As he scrolled down, he also saw that there had indeed been spelling mistakes, as well as several wrong calculations on the votes. Brain smirked again because he knew he had proven his own suspicions.

He decided to track backwards, and viewed the file's history in reverse. All the writings, corrections, numbers, letters, and names disappeared before Brain's very eyes. He then exited the file, and there – hidden behind everything else he had looked at – lay the name of the worker that had written the file: Devin Marsh.

"Yes!" Brain exclaimed and jumped into the air. He then rushed to the next reachable telephone, wondering just how much smarter he could be. He dialed the operator, and asked for a Devin Marsh, editor at 'Here and Now'. Brain had to hold for a while, until finally someone picked up on the other line.

"Hello?" said a young man's voice. "This is Devin."

"Greetings, Devin," said Brain. "I was wondering if you could do me a little favor."

"Uh… that depends," said Devin. "Who is this?"

"That is none of your concerns," said Brain. He then realized that maybe Devin wouldn't trust him if he didn't give him a name, so he decided to improvise. "Or, if you're that eager to know, my name is…" Brain looked around for inspiration, but only saw the giant chicken. "Pluck- I mean, Buck… Feathers. That's right, Buck Feathers, and I am a fellow editor here at 'Here and Now'."

"Oh, okay," said Devin. "You scared me a little. For a moment, I thought you were some kind of a phone-creep. You know, like in those movies? Well, anyway, I've never heard of you. You new or something?"

"Why, yes I am," said Brain. "And therefore I was wondering if you would care to have a little meeting. How does that sound?"

"Um, sure, okay," said Devin. "But why not just talk to the boss?"

"Because this is not a matter of work," said Brain. "This is about a certain survey that I hear you were in charge of."

Brain heard Devin gulp. "Uh… okay…" he said nervously. "W- where and when do you want to meet me?"

"I'm so busy with work, I'm afraid I cannot go anywhere," Brain lied. "How about you come over to the 'Here and Now' building for a few minutes, and we can talk in the editing room."

--

Devin sat down on one of the chairs in the editing room, facing Chicken Boo – who he thought was Buck Feathers, and didn't even notice was a chicken. He looked around nervously and tugged the collar of his shirt.

"So… heh… what's up, Buck?" he said.

"Oh, come now, Marsh. That joke is getting old," said Brain, who was hiding under Boo's clothes, pretending to be 'Buck Feathers'' voice. "Now, enlighten me, why haven't you attended work for so long?"

"Well, you know me," said Devin and chuckled, and then cleared his throat. "Well, not really, but whatever. I was never supposed to be in charge of the survey, you know. I specifically told my boss that I was going on vacation for a couple of weeks, so I couldn't do any projects. But he insisted, so I couldn't say no. My boss is really punctual. He wanted that survey to be in the then newest issue."

"I see…" said Brain and put a hand on his chin. "I must say, Marsh, you are one good speller. I myself have seen this project of yours, and gone through its history, and I simply adore your spelling technique. Never, not once, did you misspell a name, even if it was foreign."

Devin chuckled sheepishly, and though Brain couldn't see his face clearly, he saw that he was beginning to sweat. "Well, heh… i- it's a gift, I guess."

"I also admire how you sorted the Warners' names by votes," said Brain. He could tell that Devin was hiding something, and he was going to make him fess up about what it was. "I noticed that Yakko's few votes were on top, Dot's in the middle, and then Wakko's came pouring down the screen. It must take a lot of ambition to do that sort of thing."

"Heh… yeah, I- I guess you're right about that…" said Devin and tugged the collar of his shirt again.

"But what I find very odd is that you seem very nervous talking about this," said Brain. "Here I am, complimenting you, and all you do is sweat and tug your collar. I wonder what could be bothering you…"

Devin bit his lower lip, and Brain could sense that he couldn't take it any longer. "Okay, okay!" he exclaimed. "So I didn't really do my job right!"

"What are you saying?" said Brain, and smirked, though Devin couldn't see it. "I never accused you of not fulfilling your requests."

Devin covered his mouth, realizing that he had painted himself in a corner. He then looked down on the floor, and inhaled. Brain was prepared for a major scoop. "Okay… I'll tell you what's going on, but you have to promise not to tell my boss!"

Brain nudged Boo's side, and made him raise one of his wings. "I swear," he said.

"Here's the deal," said Devin. "So, the people in charge of doing surveys had asked everyone and anyone who they thought was the cutest Warner. Then they brought their results to the editors, and since I was the only one on duty that day, my boss made me write down the results. At first, I said no, and reminded him that I was going on vacation, but he just said that if I wouldn't do it, I'd get a permanent vacation. So, I really had no choice."

"I can imagine," said Brain, pretending to understand Devin's situation.

"Anyway, I worked on the project for a few days," Devin continued. "You can't imagine how many took part in the survey! It was driving me nuts! I thought I'd _never_ manage to finish this before going on vacation! And that was when _she_ showed up."

"Who?" Brain asked. "An old flame, perhaps?"

"No, nothing like that," said Devin. "It was some Turkish chick. Merhaba Hastabakici, I think her name was. When I was having a cup of coffee one day, she came up from behind me, and told me that she really needed to get to the editing room. Said that she suspected that some virus had originated from there."

"And? Did you allow her to do so?" Brain questioned.

"Of course not!" Devin exclaimed. "I told her that no one but workers at 'Here and Now' were allowed to go in there. Not even our own family members are allowed to visit us. And besides, randomly showing up in a building where a paper like 'Here and Now' is written, begging to go to the editing room sounds majorly suspicious, so I didn't really believe her virus story."

"But judging from your reactions from before, I believe you _did_ allow her to go in," said Brain. That statement made Devin blush slightly.

"Y- you could say that, yeah…" he said in a low voice. "You see, she followed me around all day, and when I kept saying no to her, she began… s- seducing me… I couldn't help it!" he added when he saw the blank look on Boo's face (he couldn't see Brain's pathetic one). "She was too hot! So, eventually, I kinda… you know… had my time with her…?" Devin fidgeted with his fingers.

"You're a very pitiful man, Marsh," said Brain. "But this doesn't explain how she accessed the file."

"That's the sad part," said Devin. "You see, the next day, I kind of over-slept, and when I woke up, Merhaba was gone. It really surprised me that my boss hadn't called yet. That is, until I found out that she had stolen one of my suits, and even my business card, which allowed her to access the computer system at work!" Devin hid his face in his palms. "That's why I'm so nervous about being here. I'm afraid my boss will find out, and fire me!"

Brain shook his head, and Boo had to do so too, because Brain's movement tickled him a bit. "I stand corrected, Marsh," Brain said. "Your situation and story is pitiful – _you_ are an imbecile."

--

"Geez, Wakko! What the heck did Scratchy do to you?" Yakko almost yelled at his brother.

The Warners had just had an appointment with Scratchy, but Yakko and Dot were now having more problems than they could've told Scratchy. Wakko couldn't stand upright, much less walk, and he was even beginning to lose his ability to talk. His siblings had to help him walk, but it was easier said than done.

"Hold still, will ya?" Dot exclaimed when Wakko's foot almost kicked her knee. "I know you can't walk, but can you at least take control of your feet?"

"I'm twyin!" Wakko said incoherently. "It'th hawduh than ih wookth!"

Wakko lost his balance again, and ran through the air for a couple of seconds before plummeting to the ground, dragging his siblings along. They all rubbed the places they had landed on, and then Dot glared at Yakko.

"You were the one who insisted on going to Scratchy," she said angrily and pushed Wakko towards Yakko. "I say _you_ carry him!"

Yakko grabbed his brother's shoulders, and tried to position him in a way he could stay upright. "Oh yeah? Well, _you're_ the one who said we should all go in there alone! Who knows what might've happened to poor Wakko in there?"

"I'm not touching that one," Dot muttered.

"Theriouthly, guyth!" Wakko tried to say. "Awl I did wath have a gwath of wathewr!"

"See? We can barely understand him now!" Yakko exclaimed dramatically and put the back of his hand on his forehead. "Oh, the humanity! Oh, woe is Wakko! The boy who was drained of his only toon abilities known to amuse!"

Dot cocked an eyebrow. "And you say _I_ need acting lessons…" She stood up from the ground, and brushed some of the dust off her skirt. "Come on, Kenneth Branagh, help me get Wakko on his feet again."

Yakko chuckled a bit before standing up as well. He pushed Wakko's back while Dot pulled his arms. Finally, Wakko was back on his feet, but barely so, because he immediately started to wobble, and almost head-butted Dot in the process. Dot managed to grab him.

"Thowwy!" said Wakko and adjusted his hat.

Yakko pulled his brother off Dot, and put his own arm under Wakko's. "Come on, guys, lets just get home already," he said.

"I second that," said Dot and put Wakko's arm over her shoulders. "By the minute we get home, you have to tell us what happened in there, Wakko – and don't you dare put an innuendo in there! We've had enough of those so far…"

"Honetht, guyth!" said Wakko. "I dyutht had a gwath of wathewr!"

"Remind me never to give Wakko taffy," Yakko commented before the three of them started walking.

The walk back to the tower took a very long time, and it was mostly Wakko to blame, even if he couldn't control his movements. All of them had a heck of a time keeping their balance in order to keep walking. There was no telling how many times they almost fell, and Wakko kept trying to explain why he was like that, but Yakko and Dot never understood him.

Suddenly, just as the siblings had walked pass the last sound stage before getting to their tower, a tall, muscular man came running towards them. Yakko gasped when he saw that the man wasn't about to turn away to avoid running into them.

"Outta my way!" the man exclaimed, and ran the Warners down like bowling pins (complete with the sound effect) and practically threw Wakko in the air. "I'm in a hurry!"

Yakko and Dot sat up from the ground, while Wakko fell down from the air. He yelped in pain when he landed, but no matter how much he wanted, he couldn't sit up as easily as his siblings. They stood up and had to help each other to get Wakko back on his feet again. Luckily, the man had somehow thrown them closer to the tower, so they were standing almost directly in front of the ladder. Yakko and Dot looked at each other, and then sighed.

"Guess we'll have to drag him up there, huh?" said Dot and looked up the ladder.

"Yup, guess so," said Yakko. "Good thing the builders of the tower were generous to have the ladder vertical, or we could _never_ do it!" he added sarcastically.

And so began a big struggle to get back in the tower. Yakko climbed up first, and had to stick his feet between the ladder steps in order not to fall down. Dot held Wakko with one hand, and the ladder with the other. When she felt that she was close enough to Yakko, she lifted Wakko towards him. Yakko grabbed Wakko and (though he almost lost his balance for a moment) held him in the air while Dot climbed over him. They then switched places: Yakko lifted, and Dot grabbed. They did this a couple of times before they finally reached the tower balcony. By the time they got there, Yakko and Dot had to lie on in for a moment to catch their breath.

"Wow…" Dot sighed. "This sure has been some day!"

"Tell me about it," said Yakko, sat up and cracked his back. "Who knew that escalator idea was actually a good one?"

Wakko whimpered, and tried to sit up on his own. After a few seconds, he managed to do so, and his mood brightened up instantly. "Guyss! I can ssit up by mysselff!"

"Wait- what?" Yakko exclaimed, and then frowned slightly. "You mean to tell me you could do it this whole time- wait a minute… I understood you!"

Dot smiled. "Yay! That means we won't have to carry him around all day!"

Wakko chuckled. "Yeah, that'ss forr surre," he said.

Yakko positioned himself next to his brother and smiled. "So, Wakko," he said. "You were about to tell us what happened between you and Scratchy back there."

"I said no innuendos!" Dot yelled, but then sat down next to Wakko as well. "But I guess you're right. Now that you're actually able to speak by yourself, you might as well begin story time."

"Okay, here'ss what I've been trrying to say," Wakko began. "Sso, I went insside Sscratchy'ss officce, and we talked forr a few minutess." He spat, and cleared his throat before continuing. "Anyway, so just when we were about finished talking, Hello Nurse came in with a coffee cup, and a glass of water. She put both on Scratchy's desk and said that his coffee was ready, and that he could have water if he wanted too."

"Coffee with water?" said Dot. "That doesn't sound too good."

"I know, which is why he offered the water to me," said Wakko while attempting to stand up. He could. "I gladly accepted, but I hardly took a sip of it."

"Why's that?" Yakko asked.

"Because it tasted sour!" Wakko exclaimed when he was finally standing on his own two feet. "I took half a sip, and then spat it on Scratchy's face."

Dot snickered. "Good move."

"So, yeah, that's basically what happened," said Wakko.

"Can't deny it," Yakko had to comment. "You _did_ give him a face--"

"_No_ innuendos!!" Dot interrupted by yelling at Yakko's face, and then cleared her throat as she made a little realization. "This is getting really spooky…"

"What is?" said Yakko. "My sudden love for innuendos?"

"No, you've always loved innuendos…" said Dot and rolled her eyes. "No, I mean what's happening to us. Don't you see some sort of a weird pattern here? I got eating disorders, became a model, and eventually ended up in a coma!"

"You just _had to_ remind me…" Yakko muttered.

"Seriously, Yakko," said Dot. "And then, shortly after that, you were almost… how can I put this family-friendly… molested!"

"You just _had to_ remind me…" said Wakko, and shuddered. "And that wasn't family-friendly, by the way."

"And now, Wakko almost became a cripple!" Dot finished, ignoring Wakko's comment. "Don't you get it? It's all downhill from here! Who knows what might happen next! We could have a major accident for all I know!"

She had barely let go of the last word when something crashed into one of the tower feet, thus shaking it like crazy. Wakko (who was the only one standing) lost his balance, and hopped around trying to get it back. Without realizing, he hopped off the balcony and fell to the ground again. Because he had been unprepared, he almost landed on his back, but thankfully, someone grabbed him before he landed on the ground.

"Whoa!" Wakko exclaimed, and then looked up to his siblings, who were almost paralyzed with shock. "I'm okay guys! Thanks to… um…" He looked up at the person who caught him, but couldn't see his or her face. Before he had a chance to ask who it was, the person put him on the ground, and then ran away. Soon, the man who had run into the Warners before showed up and began chasing the person.

Wakko looked after the two mysterious persons and scratched his head. He then turned to the tower and began climbing the ladder. As he did so, the same thought struck him and his siblings at once: what on earth was going on with them?

--

Brain was once again in front of the computer, but now he knew a lot more than before. He cracked his knuckles, and then typed 'Merhaba Hastabakici' on a search page. Numerous links showed up, and all of them were in Turkish. Brain sighed, and told himself that this was no way to find out who the girl who had hacked into the system was. Brain knew that he shouldn't give up that easily, so he decided to search for pictures of the girl.

As expected, more results made sense when he searched in pictures. However, when Brain browsed the results, he had to rub his eyes seven times to believe what he was seeing – and even then did he find it hard to believe that Merhaba Hastabakici was actually an alias for a known woman.

Brain rubbed his head, and thought about everything that had happened for the past few weeks, and then at the pictures of the woman. He tried to put the pieces together, and for some odd reason, they all seemed to add up! He could connect everything that had happened to that woman. Even the little details fit perfectly in the puzzle!

Brain couldn't resist anymore. He jumped up and down, cheering. This startled Boo, so he jumped as well, and clucked with all his might (followed by a loud "Cock-a-doodle-doo!"), while Brain danced around the computer table. Finally! He had solved it! He couldn't cheer for long, though, because the moment Boo had began clucking, the other workers of 'Here and Now' knew that _the new guy_ was indeed a chicken, and that there was a mouse in the house. The two were thrown out instantly.

The mouse didn't care about anything in the world right now. He hopped on Boo's back, and ordered him to run to the Acme Labs as fast as he could – which he did.

The minute Brain stepped into the building; he skipped to the room where he knew the cage was. When he hopped onto the table, and was about to tell Pinky the good news, he was greeted by a big hug.

"Brain!" exclaimed Pinky. "You're home! You're finally home!" He let go of Brain. "Where've you _been_? I've been worried _sick_!"

"Come now, Pinky," said Brain, and tried to control his own excitement. "I have merely been solving that case Wakko informed us about the other day."

"Ooh…!" said Pinky. "Wow, did it really take so long?"

"Yes, it did," said Brain. "But after all this time, the answer has finally come to me! I now know who is behind all of this, and I intend on telling everyone who has anything to do with this story!"

"Why didn't you just ask me?" said Pinky. "I could've told you it right away, and that way you wouldn't have had to work so long."

Brain cocked an eyebrow, and glared at Pinky at the same time. "What do you mean?"

"I knew it all along!" Pinky said proudly. "Remember the time you and Wakko left to break into the 'Here and Now' building? And when I was trying to see into the future?"

"Yes?" said Brain. "Get to the point."

"I did!" Pinky exclaimed. "I _did_ see into the future! Zort!"

Brain slapped his forehead. "Why didn't you tell me? We could've prevented things from happening of you had just told me!"

"You never asked!" Pinky said happily, and laughed. Brain frowned.

"Well, at any rate, I'm going to tell everyone to come to a meeting," said Brain and walked towards the telephone. "There, I shall unwrap this mystery to them all."

"Egad, Brain!" Pinky exclaimed. "I'm so excited to hear it!"

Brain stopped in his tracks, and turned to Pinky. "Why should you be? Didn't you just tell me you knew it all along?"

Pinky looked stumped. "Knew what all along, Brain?"

Brain grunted in frustration, and continued walking towards the phone. Still, no matter how annoying Pinky could be, Brain's excitement overpowered his anger, and he began dialing all the numbers he knew. Everyone that had had anything to do with the whole plot was to come over to the Acme Labs immediately.


	14. Master of disguise

**Chapter 14 – Master of disguise**

* * *

The Warners had been informed that Brain had finally found out who was behind everything that had happened. He had called them a few hours before, and told them to meet him in the Acme Labs. However, when they got there, they found out that they weren't the only ones Brain had called. When they looked around the room for some place to sit, they scanned the room, and saw just who was going to be there as well.

At the far end of the room, almost sitting in the corner like a child being punished, sat Flash, tracing a hand through his now greasy hair. He looked as if the world was coming to an end. Next to him, though a few feet away, sat doctor Scratchansniff. He too was scanning the room, but mainly because he wasn't sure why he was even there. Hello Nurse stood next to Scratchy, and seemed like she didn't even care about hearing the conclusion.

On the other side of the room were the two security guards: Duke Zody from 'Cable Cameras', and Ralph. Like Scratchy, Ralph looked like he wasn't even sure what he was doing there. Lastly, Devin Marsh sat closest to the door, nervously fidgeting with his fingers – partly because he was nervous, partly because he was surrounded by toons, and partly because he had found out that 'Buck Feathers' was actually a tiny lab mouse.

The Warners walked all the way into the small lab, and since all the seats were taken, they decided to sit on the floor. The group waited for a few seconds before they heard a cage open. They all turned their heads to the table where the sound had come from, and saw the two lab mice walk out of it. Wakko noticed that Pinky was wearing the same cloak from before – when he had been trying to see into the future. The mice walked a few feet on the table, and then Pinky jumped down on the floor, and sat down next to the Warners. When he saw the funny looks everyone was giving him, he merely smiled.

"Don't worry. Brain's gonna have a speech now. Troz!" he whispered, unaware that that wasn't what everyone was looking at him for.

On the table, Brain cleared his throat, making everyone turn to him again. "Welcome, fellow actors, and other guests," he said as if he was doing a lecture. "Welcome to this meeting, where I shall tell you everything – and I do mean _everything_ – about the entire 'Who do you think is the cutest Warner' case!"

Pinky clapped. "Yaaay! Go Brain!"

Brain ignored Pinky, and kept on talking. "Now as we all know, a few weeks ago, a certain magazine held a survey on who people thought was the cutest Warner sibling. We also all know who ranked the highest in that very survey, and that _that_ was the cause of everything that has happened for the past few weeks."

Everyone looked on the floor where the Warners were sitting. Dot looked at Wakko, who rubbed the back of his head, blushing a bit. Now that everything was over, Dot smiled back at him and patted his shoulder.

"It wasn't your fault," she said sweetly. "People are just morons."

"Yes, you are correct there, Dot," said Brain. "People are indeed morons; but not just humans. We mustn't forget that it was you-" Brain pointed at the Warner brothers, and then at Scratchy and Hello Nurse "-who wouldn't tell Dot about the survey for starters. I suspect that to have been the motive for the bitter and angry mood she was in during that period of time."

Yakko and Wakko looked at Dot like they were ready to hear her scream, but she didn't. She did, however, show clear signs that she wanted to.

"But then came Miss Nurse and made it all well," Brain continued. "She and Dot became good acquaintances after the survey was published, and that was what made Dot feel better. But let's not forget that it was Miss Nurse who encouraged Dot to become a model, and such."

Hello Nurse coughed. "Don't rub it in, please."

"Very well, then," said Brain, and then continued with his speech. "Shortly after Dot began this model business, she got a blow to the head, and was in a coma for two days. Now, we have no idea what happened in her mind during that time – not even I – but whatever it was, it made Dot turn over a new leaf. I have been told that the rehab process went well, and I congratulate you for that." Brain bowed.

Dot wasn't sure how to respond, and chuckled sheepishly. "Heh… thanks… I guess."

"At any rate, that was when the Warner siblings thought everything was over," said Brain, as if Dot hadn't even spoken. "But they were proven wrong. Two unexpected things occurred after Dot came out clean: Yakko was almost… well, physically abused, and Wakko was poisoned – or so I've heard."

"Yeah, what's up with that, anyway?" Yakko had to comment. "Dot goes through weeks of crud, and all we get is a lousy one day's worth of bad times?"

"You're saying it like it's a bad thing, Yakko…" said Wakko, and cocked an eyebrow at his brother.

Yakko was just about to reply back, when Brain cleared his throat. "Now, I'm guessing that everyone is asking themselves: who is the culprit? Who is the mastermind behind all this? And most of all: why? Why would anyone go through such hard work just to bring the Warners down?"

"Yeah! Who?" Dot exclaimed. "Come on, genius. Cut the dramatic speech act and just spit it out! We ain't got all day, you know!"

Brain rolled his eyes, and thought: _And people wonder why I'm moody…_ "Very well. I shall now inform you who the mastermind is!"

Brain then skipped to a chalkboard, picked up a chalk, and began writing something on the board – jumping to reach high so that it would be written in bigger letters. When he was done, everyone read what he had written, but no one seemed to get it. Ralph put a hand on his chin in thought; Flash squinted his eyes to see if there was some sort of a hidden message in the phrase; Hello Nurse tilted her head; Scratchy ironically scratched his head; Duke just stared at the board; and the Warner siblings unknowingly copied everyone else's movements. After a few seconds of thinking, Scratchy finally spoke.

"I'm afraid I don't understand," he said, still scratching his head. "This doesn't make any sense."

Of course it didn't make any sense. No one in the room had ever heard the phrase… all except for Devin.

"M- Me- Merhaba Hastabakici?" he said with a shocked expression. Everyone looked at him, because he was the only one who actually understood what stood on the board.

"That is correct," said Brain and waved the chalk in his hand.

"Wait a minute- hold the phone!" said Yakko. Wakko was suddenly talking on a phone, and told the other line to hold. "What does a merhaba hastabakici, or whatever, have to do with anything? I don't get it…"

"Of course you don't," said Brain, and wielded his chalk like a weapon against the board. "Because you know the phrase by another name."

With that, Brain began writing again. He wrote a little smaller letters this time, and it were two words again. He put them under the other phrase, and when he was done, he swung around, and grinned at the group. "Recognize this now?"

As much as the group had peered at the board before, now their eyes bulged. All of them read the phrase over and over again, positive that their eyes were fooling them each time. Some rubbed their eyes repeatedly, and some told themselves that it couldn't be true. What Brain had written on the chalkboard was namely:

M E R H A B A H A S T A B A K I C I

And underneath it:

H E L L O N U R S E

All eyes trailed from the chalkboard to Hello Nurse, who looked like she had seen a ghost. Without a word, everyone looked at Brain again, who was still grinning.

"Surprised?" he said and began waving the chalk again. "I have to admit, I was a tad shocked as well, but when I lined the pieces up, it all made sense in the end."

Dot's jaw dropped, and hung for a moment before Wakko decided to put it back in its place for her. When she finally found her voice again, she exclaimed: "_What?!_ I don't get it! I don't see it! I don't believe it!" She grasped her hair, unsure what to think.

"Oh, believe it, Dot," said Brain. "Because it's a fact."

Hello Nurse still looked like she had seen a ghost, and because he could, Wakko poked her. The sudden touch brought her back to earth, and she shook her head a bit before speaking. "_What?!_ Are you accusing _me_ of all this? How does that even add up? I was there for Dot when no one else was! I was her friend when everyone was her enemy! Why would _I _have done it?"

"You are going to have to answer that question yourself later on, Miss Nurse," said Brain.

"But I still don't get it," said Yakko. "I mean, how did she even pull it off? We were all there – or at least some of us – when something happened, and I for one never saw her. So what gives?"

"Yeah!" everyone said at once.

Brain looked pleased. Finally, he could tell everyone what he had found out. "Alright, I shall tell you how this adds up. I'll start from the very beginning: the survey." Brain walked to the spot of the table that was the closest to Devin. "This gentleman here was in charge of the survey." Before anyone could say how much of a dirty fake Devin was, Brain continued. "Or, he should have been. For you see, he was never supposed to be in charge. He was going on vacation only a few days before the survey was to be published, but his boss wouldn't give in."

"Yeah, that's really bad for him," said Yakko. "But what's that got to do with our problems?"

"It has everything to do with your problems," said Brain. "One day, a Turkish woman came to Devin's work, and begged to be allowed to go into the editing room, because she suspected a computer virus to have been originated from there. Of course, like he was supposed to, Devin declined. But the Turkish woman wouldn't give up, so Devin eventually, as he put it himself, 'had his time with her'."

"Deeeeesgusting!" Dot exclaimed. "You just _had_ to tell us that, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did, because a dreadful act followed," said Brain. "The next morning, Devin overslept, and when he checked on his belongings, he realized that the Turkish woman had taken one of his suits. That particular suit was the one that held his business card, which gave the woman access both to Devin's workplace, and the computer system. By simply pretending to be Devin, she was able to complete the survey results – only with different ratings."

"So… you're saying that…" Wakko began.

"Yes, that is what I'm saying," Brain answered. "The Turkish woman introduced herself as Merhaba Hastabakici, which just happens to mean 'hello' and 'nurse' as separate words in Turkish."

Dot's jaw dropped again, but this time, her brothers joined her. "H- Hello Nurse changed the survey results?"

"Yes, she did," said Brain. "By simply using her toon abilities, she was able to disguise herself brilliantly both as a Turkish woman, and as Devin Marsh. Also, when she was done editing the results, she used her super-smarts to edit the file's history, telling everyone that was to see it that the results had been written in one big blow. What she failed to hide was the fact that no one, not even a toon, could have written so much without having to correct themselves at least once."

"But how did she even know that the survey was being done?" Scratchy asked.

"Simple: she was asked," said Brain. "Though she didn't take part in the survey, she knew which paper was behind it, and the idea popped into mind."

Pinky clapped again. "Woo! Do more, Brain! Tell us more!"

Brain motioned his hands like he was calming a crazy crowd. "Very well, I shall continue. Miss Nurse's next step was to befriend Dot. She knew for a fact that no one would inform Dot about the results, because they knew how irritated she would get. Miss Nurse was very nice and sweet to Dot because she knew that when Dot would find out about the results, she would come to her: the only person who had been nice to her. She also began saying things like if she had taken part in the survey, she would have chosen Dot, and that she couldn't picture as to why Wakko had won. All those statements were lies, but they did work as tickets for Dot's trust."

"I- I…" Dot stammered. "I… don't… believe it…"

"Another thing to gain Dot's trust, and to pretend to understand what she was going through, was the beauty contest story," said Brain. When he saw that no one but Hello Nurse and Dot knew what he was talking about, he decided to sum the story up. "The nurse told Dot that she had once participated in a beauty contest, where every contestant had looked fake, or had at least one plastic surgery. She also said that a certain very fake-looking woman, Addio Daktaras, had won."

"So? What about that?" said Duke, almost mockingly.

"It was a lie as well," said Brain. "Certainly, there was an Addio Daktaras in the contest, and yes, the contestants all looked like Miss Nurse described them, but you can't honestly believe that a stunning beauty like her could have lost to something like that. Of course she won – by a landslide."

"Okay, okay, so she made up a few lies, yadda-yadda…" Yakko said impatiently. "Can we please go on?"

"There is a whole lot of ground to cover, and it may take a lot of time…" said Brain. "Yes, I suppose we should get this over with." Brain cleared his throat and began walking on the table again. "Now, on that very same day, Dot made a question that the nurse hadn't expected at all: she asked her how she could become cuter. With that came a grand opportunity for Miss Nurse to bring Dot even lower. She immediately invited Dot to go to the gym with her, because she knew that Dot would feel tiny or fat next to her. The eating disorders were inevitable."

Dot grasped her hair again, and let out a small groan as if to say: "I'm such an idiot!" Her brothers patted her shoulders, trying to understand the shock. Yakko's eyes soon trailed over to Hello Nurse again, who was now looking at Brain with a shocked expression that sort of said: "How do you _know_ all that?!" Everyone else kept looking at Brain, waiting for him to continue – and possibly mention their part in all this.

"Ah, I almost forgot," Brain suddenly added, and snapped his fingers. "Miss Nurse did more than bring Dot down. She also did something to increase her hatred for Wakko."

"How? What'd she do?" Wakko asked.

"Miss Nurse has a friend who is working at a new gossip magazine," said Brain. "I believe it's called 'Seen and Heard'." Brain paused for a moment to look at everyone's expressions, and noticed that Wakko, Dot and Hello Nurse all had the same wide eyes. "This friend informed the nurse that they were about to publish the first issue, but also that they needed more stories. With that came an even more brilliant idea. Miss Nurse looked for a photo of the 'Here and Now' building, and then took a screenshot from one of the Warners' cartoons – _Temporary Insanity_ I believe it's called – with Wakko holding a stack of papers. She then merged the two pictures together; making it look like Wakko had been walking to the 'Here and Now' building with more votes for himself." Brain looked at Hello Nurse. "I must hand it to you, Miss Nurse, it was brilliant."

"I knew it!" Wakko exclaimed. "I _knew_ that picture looked familiar! The first time I saw it, I just thought: 'What the fuse?' and felt like I was looking at something I'd already seen!"

"Quite right," said Brain. "But the editing job was clearly done well enough for Dot to believe it. Now, let's continue with the Dot issue. A few days later, Dot came to Miss Nurse with one of the most amusing stories she had ever heard. Namely: Wakko's nightmare with the child molester. When Dot told the nurse how the dream had gone, she pretended to think it wasn't funny, and that she shouldn't make fun of Wakko for it. But the truth was that she was actually memorizing the whole thing, because she thought she could possibly use it later on. I'll explain that when I get to the next Warner," Brain added when he saw the confused faces everyone was giving him.

"That very same day, Yakko called doctor Scratchansniff to tell him about Dot's eating disorders, which he had just been told about," Brain continued. "The doctor became concerned, and followed Yakko's orders to take Dot to a few extra appointments. He spoke to her for a moment, but when Dot heard that Yakko didn't like what she was doing to herself, she became furious. The nurse eavesdropped the whole thing, and she was confirmed that her plan was working: Dot now hated both of her brothers."

The group exchanged expressions, both shocked and confused. None of them could put a finger on as why Hello Nurse had done all this. When they found out that they were all as stumped, they looked at Brain again, anxious to hear more.

"The nurse's perfect chance, however, was when Dot came to her after having gone through a make-up treatment," said Brain. "She scanned Dot's face and body, and remembered her old modeling days at 'Cable Cameras'. It was then that she suggested that Dot should become a model. She called Mister Cable when Dot left her that day, and told him that she had found a new face. She didn't have to worry about having to persuade him, because she knew that he would accept everything from her. After all, when she was his model, she was the best one."

Flash let out a groan, which made Brain stop for a moment. When he showed signs that he wasn't going to speak, Brain continued.

"When the two girls came to 'Cable Cameras' that day, Flash instantly fell for Dot's charm," he said. "Especially since his all-time favorite model had brought her. But there was another somebody at 'Cable Cameras' that would turn out to be working with Miss Nurse later on."

Dot gasped. "Was Flash in on this whole thing after all?"

"No, not at all," said Brain. "In fact, Cable was the only one of the 'Cable Cameras' crew that knew nothing about the nurse's plan. No, the other culprit was Mister Duke Zody, the security guard." Brain paused to let everyone have a look at a now shocked Duke. He then kept talking. "You see, when Miss Nurse was a model – identified herself as Hyooka – she and Zody here became quite the associates. Therefore, she couldn't help but tell him about the scheme, and Zody was so overwhelmed by the sheer genius-ness of it, he wanted to tag along. Miss Nurse quickly found a use for him, but I shall inform you about that later on."

"Wait. Before you keep rambling, there's one thing I wanna know," said Dot.

"And what might that be?" Brain asked.

"If Hello Nurse made such success as a model, why didn't she stay that way?" Dot questioned. "I mean, she was the photographer's favorite, and could've raked in the chips for years! Was it another one of those 'Quit at the top' things?"

"I'm glad you asked," said Brain and smiled. "And no, that wasn't the reason. Miss Nurse didn't last as a model because she couldn't stand Cable."

"_What_?" Flash exclaimed, making everyone jerk back a bit. "Couldn't stand me? But- but- but I'm Flash Cable! I mean, how can anyone not stand the greatness of a photographer who began taking pictures five years old and actually made it as a photographer even if I don't want to continue the job because it brought me down?" Flash gasped for air. "Huh? How?"

Dot rolled her eyes, smiling. "Phew! And here I thought he'd gone all emo."

Hello Nurse growled slightly and glared at Flash. "_That's_ why! You're just always over-acting! It was driving me crazy! And it still does!"

Flash cowered a bit, and joined Devin in fidgeting with his fingers. Everyone's eyes rested on Hello Nurse, as she kept glaring at Flash. Brain noticed that he'd lost the attention, so he cleared his throat, signaling that he was about to continue. Pinky smiled widely, excited to hear his friend speak.

"One day, Dot and Hello Nurse decided to jog home after a photo shoot at Cable's," said Brain. "Things happened, and the two decided to have a drink. The nurse, of course, volunteered to get some water. When she came back, she told Dot that there had only been three water bottles left: one that had almost run its last-sell-day date; one's tap hadn't been thoroughly adjusted; and the third looked like it had been out in the sun for decades – or as the nurse put it: icky."

"What about that?" said Yakko. "There are loads of sucky dollar-stores out there. Could've been their mistake."

"That's true, and that's exactly what Miss Nurse told Dot," said Brain. "But everything about the water bottles was a lie – except maybe for only three being left; that may or may not be true. However, Nurse's bottle was very fresh, while Dot's was filled with some kind of a drug."

Dot gasped again. "D- dr- drug?" she exclaimed and held on to her neck. "I was _drugged_?!"

"Oh, yes, Dot," said Brain. "And Miss Nurse was the one that put it there, hence why the tap was loose. The drug lasted for hours. Now, when you fainted, the nurse brought you to her house, because she knew you'd wake up sooner or later. What she also knew was that the drug's effect wouldn't stop working until the next day. When Dot woke up, she wanted more water. Miss Nurse decided to slip some more of the drug in the glass so that it would effect better. And when Dot started telling her how much she wanted to go to a party, she pretended to be protective, but eventually let her out."

Yakko scowled. "So _that's_ how Dot got to those nightclubs! Hello Nurse let her go! Why, I oughta--"

"Listen," Brain interrupted. "I wasn't finished. For you see, Dot never went to any nightclubs. She passed out again the minute she closed the door to the Nurse's house. But when Dot said she wanted to go out clubbing, it gave the nurse another brilliant idea to bring Dot down. She placed her on her sofa again, waited for a few hours to be certain that Dot was in R.E.M., and then began telling her that she had gone to a nightclub, and even been asked to come home with some random man."

"Talk to me? But I was asleep!" Dot exclaimed. "How could she talk to me if I was asleep? Why would she do that?"

"Because she knew that you would remember it," said Brain. "It is believed that if spoken to a sleeping person, it will remember it better than if spoken to when awake. So the nurse basically tricked you into thinking that you had actually gone out clubbing."

Dot tried to hide a sigh of relief, though she still felt like such an idiot for having believed everything.

"But the nurse wasn't about to give up just yet," Brain continued before anyone else could interrupt. "When she was done filling Dot's mind with false memories, she finally thought of a way to let her brothers know about how Dot's life was going down the drain. She wrote down a couple of false statements which were supposed to combine as journal entries from various websites. She then saved the entries on a diskette and brought them to the Warner brothers. When the brothers didn't seem to notice that the journals were on a diskette, and not shown directly through the internet, she was pleased."

"Ah-ha!" Yakko exclaimed. "That's why Google wouldn't give me any results when I searched for the blogs! There _were_ no blogs!"

"Exactly," said Brain. "Now, when Miss Nurse met Dot later on, she pretended to be very disappointed in Dot for not having been able to control her thoughts. That way, the clubbing story would seem more realistic to Dot."

Brain stopped to let all the information sink in everyone's mind. None of them could still find any reason why Hello Nurse would do something like that. They all looked at one another, and shrugged, then looked at Brain again, waiting to hear even more.

"You may recall that I mentioned Duke Zody earlier," said Brain. "Well, here is his part in all of this. One day, Cable snapped completely and fired Dot. The reason, according to him, was that two men had dragged him into an alley, and threatened to 'cut' him if he wouldn't tell Dot to get slimmer. If I'm not mistaken, Cable described them as just 'some guy' and 'someone else, but couldn't see his face', is that correct?"

"Uh, yeah, I think so," said Flash, stunned by how Brain actually knew that.

"And I believe that those men are one of the reasons you quit your photography business, right?" Brain asked. Flash nodded sheepishly, and Brain continued. "I just thought you might want to know who those two men were." Brain walked over to the spot Duke was sitting, and looked over at Hello Nurse. "Zody here was the one that grabbed you, and Miss Nurse was the one you couldn't see the face of, carrying the knife."

Flash gulped, but then his eyes widened. "You've gotta be _kidding_ me!"

"I wish I was, but then again, if I was, this wouldn't be as twisty," said Brain, and walked back to his original spot on the table. "Cable was able to keep this 'get slimmer' thing up for a couple of shoots, but eventually, he couldn't go on. He was seeing Dot, his favorite character from Animaniacs, turned into a mutant, as he put it himself."

Flash chuckled when everyone looked at him, and Dot smiled sweetly. Brain let out a cough, and kept going.

"Now, Dot being fired wasn't exactly according to the nurse's plan," said Brain. "And when Dot told her how her encounter with Cable had gone, she wasn't really listening – except for the threatening men-part, but when she found out that Cable hadn't recognized her and Zody, she lost interest in the story. Instead, she was thinking of a new way to bring Dot down, hence why she didn't say anything when Dot finished talking. But all her worries came to an end when Dot suggested that the two of them should take a little ride down town in a car. When they had driven for a few minutes, the nurse said that they should probably step out of the car to stretch. That was when Miss Nurse used the opportunity and bashed Dot's head, and then drove the car somewhere safe, making it look like they had been attacked. When she came back to the scene, and saw that Dot was out cold, she called 911 and then Dot's brothers to make the story more believable. The rest was old-fashioned acting."

Dot touched the back of her head, and looked at Hello Nurse, but quickly looked away. It was hard to look at someone who had done so much damage to her. She then looked at Brain again – as well as everyone else – to hear more.

"As most of us know, the blow on the head caused Dot to be in a coma for about two days," said Brain. "The nurse was pleased by the thought, but the feeling faded away soon. Doctor Scratchansniff told her that Dot was going to him for rehab, and that the Warner siblings were more connected than ever before. That made Miss Nurse very annoyed, and when Dot came to the psychiatry office one day, and started teasing the nurse; for once, she wasn't acting. She was really that mad at Dot for having recovered so soon."

"Hey, I remember her saying something like: 'I liked you better when you were just…' but I couldn't hear the rest," said Dot. "What was she about to say?"

"Interesting question," said Brain. "I believe that the last part of the sentence was: 'a dumb, scrawny-looking party-addict'. Isn't that right, Miss Nurse?" Brain grinned at Hello Nurse, who just folded her arms and gave a little 'hmp'.

"Alright, so that covers the Dot-saga," said Scratchy. "But what about the brothers? Didn't they get their share of trauma as well?"

"Indeed, doctor," said Brain. "While Dot was in a coma, Miss Nurse finally found use for Wakko's dream. She had memorized it well enough to remember exactly how everything happened in it. She then began sending Yakko fan letters, claiming to be a young fan named Casey. She sent him pictures of herself in the Casey-disguise, and she knew that Yakko wouldn't be able to resist her. After all, we all know that both the Warner brothers are – forgive my way of speaking – suckers for her looks, so she didn't really have to worry about that, not even if she wore the brown wig."

Dot cocked an eyebrow at Yakko, who smiled sheepishly and also began fidgeting with his fingers – a little shade of pink starting to form in his cheeks. Dot rolled her eyes back to Brain, who was ready to keep on.

"Miss Nurse then wrote the letter where she said that 'Casey' would be coming over to Burbank to meet him," he said. "She rented an apartment in a block of flats, and gave Yakko that address. The night Yakko came over, Miss Nurse had to sneak to the apartment as well. To be absolutely sure that no one would notice her, she drugged Ralph the guard to be able to go past him."

"I _knew_ there was something weird about him that night!" Yakko exclaimed. "I _knew_ he looked unusually calm!" He paused for a moment to think, and then realized something. "Wait a second… if Hello Nurse memorized the dream, why didn't she do what happened in it?"

Everyone looked at Yakko, their looks screaming: "Are you _nuts_?!" Yakko looked around rapidly, and fidgeted with his fingers some more.

"There's actually an explanation for that," said Brain. "The whole thing with 'Casey' and the dream idea was the plan to bring Yakko's life to the pits. By simply doing what Wakko's dream said, Miss Nurse was certain that Yakko would be traumatized for life, and not able to trust anyone ever again, thus not being his normal, zany self. However, when it came to actually perform the act, the nurse couldn't do it. She couldn't even think about doing that to someone she never really liked."

Yakko snapped his fingers. "So that's why she was having trouble with her hands! She couldn't pull it off!"

"Precisely," said Brain. "When she was convinced that she simply couldn't do it, she let you go the next morning. You should therefore consider yourself lucky, Yakko."

"But what about me?" Wakko asked. "I got my share of all of this too. How'd she do that?"

"Ah, yes," said Brain. "The poison. When the nurse was done with the Casey-act, she realized that there was one Warner left. When she heard that the siblings were coming over to Scratchansniff's for an appointment, she got an idea. And when she heard that they had decided to go in there one by one, she knew that it was her golden opportunity for her new plan to work. She waited for Wakko to go in, and that was when she made the coffee. The water was an extra touch, which was supposed to look like an accident. She knew that the doctor wouldn't drink water with his coffee, and that he would offer it to Wakko. That was why she put a large amount of the drug she used on Dot in the glass, and then brought it in the office like nothing was wrong. However, she overheard that Wakko had spat out the water, claiming that it was sour. Miss Nurse knew that he wouldn't finish it at that point, so she decided to use plan B."

"So… I was drugged too?" said Wakko. "But how come I didn't act all weird like Dot did? And had some crazy thoughts about going out?"

"That was because there was such a large amount of the drug in the water, it wasn't supposed to make you do that," said Brain. "If you had finished the water, it would have made you… how can I put it… mentally retarded."

Wakko gasped, and, in his mind, thanked the lord for his sensitive taste buds. "But what about plan B?" he then asked. "What was that?"

"Miss Nurse saw that the drug had only done a little effect, so she decided to make Mister Zody help her out again," said Brain. "She disguised him as a random someone who was on the lot, and in a hurry to get somewhere. Zody ran the Warners down, but threw Wakko in the air to see if the drug had done any effect, although he was in too much of a hurry to see the result. But he knew it had done some effect, because the nurse had told him so. He decided to follow the Warners to complete the plan. He went to the water tower, and waited by its legs to see when the Warners would arrive. When they did, he was about to push them off the ladder, but decided not to. Instead, he eavesdropped their talk on the balcony, and heard that Wakko was attempting to stand up on his own. Then he knew exactly what to do. He waited for a few seconds to be absolutely sure that Wakko was standing, and then charged at one of the tower legs, making it shake enormously. Zody was pleased to see that Wakko came plummeting down, and was about to land on his back, when suddenly a man came out of nowhere and caught him. Zody was furious because his plan had backfired. Wakko was supposed to land hard on his back, so that he would be paralyzed. In frustration, he chased the catcher away."

"But who was it?" said Wakko. "I never saw his or her face, and he, or she never made a sound. So, who caught me?"

Brain didn't answer, but gestured his eyes to the corner of the room. Wakko turned his head, and his eyes widened even more when he realized who had caught him. "F- Flash caught me?"

Flash nervously looked around, and then decided to speak. "Yeah, you know," he said and chuckled sheepishly. "Oh, okay, so I knew that something bad was gonna happen to you!" When everyone gave him the exact same "How?" look, he decided to say his part of the story. "Well, like I said, I quit my job as a photographer, and I closed down 'Cable Cameras'. I mean, there's not much of 'Cable Cameras' if there's no Cable, right? Anyway, that led to firing all my crew. Most of them were okay with it, some were a little upset, but got over it soon, but a few got angry. But only one of them got absolutely furious: Duke. When I fired him, he rambled something about making a huge mistake, and that I'd be sorry for ever being born. He then said that if I thought Dot had ended up bad, I should wait for the others to crack. So… since then, I've basically been hiding at the movie lot, waiting for something like that to happen."

"You dirty little skeleton!" Duke screamed, and prepared to attack Flash. He jumped up from his chair, and swung his arms at Flash, veins starting to form on his angry red head. Flash braced himself with his arms, prepared for the worst. Before Duke could even touch him, however, Dot put her foot in front of his, making him trip, and fall on his face. That caused a few snickers in the group (Ralph even laughed out loud), and Duke was too bummed out to even bother to try attacking again. When the group had recovered, they looked back at Brain, who had begun tapping his foot.

"Now that we're all clear about this, how about we get a little scoop from the mastermind herself?" he said, grinning at Hello Nurse. "As brilliant as your plans were, they all failed. Mostly because Wakko cared about his sister enough to ask me for help. I'm positive that you didn't expect that, now did you? If I hadn't begun my research, all your plans may have worked."

Hello Nurse scowled at Brain, and her eyes looked like they were ready to shoot lightning. Yakko looked at her hands, and saw that her knuckles were turning white from frustration.

"The only thing I couldn't uncover in this case was why Miss Nurse did all this," said Brain, and scratched his chin in thought. "As much as I know about this case, there hasn't been a trace of a motive. I simply can't picture it…"

"You wanna know why?" Hello Nurse suddenly exclaimed angrily. "You wanna know why I did all this? Because the Warners get all the freaking attention in this show! I've had enough of it! It's always 'the Warners this' and 'the Warners that'!" she said mockingly, and then shook in anger. "They're always the most popular, funnier, cuter, prettier, and even _hotter_!"

Slyly, Yakko ran a hand over his ears, and wiggled his eyebrows at the invisible audience. "It's a curse, and we take advantage of it."

"I just wanted them to see what it's like to always be below!" Hello Nurse shouted. "Always secondary! So, I planned to bring them down one by one! Make their lives a living heck so that they would never be able to show their faces again! I had Dot planned out the whole time, but the dream and the retard/paralyzing ideas were pleasant surprises!"

Everyone stared at Hello Nurse – except for Duke, who had been in on it the whole time. The thought of having done all that just for attention was absurd. Scratchy's jaw dropped, and soon, everyone else's did as well. Hello Nurse scoffed.

"What? Surprised that it was me?" she said proudly. "I guess I managed to do _something_ right, huh mousey?"

Brain nodded. "Quite right. But you fail to realize that I've had the police department standing outside this whole time." The nurse's eyes shrunk, and she froze. "They've heard everything you say, and I believe now is their turn to move."

With that, the front door of Acme Labs was kicked open, and in came several cops. Two of them threw themselves on Duke, who they assumed to have problems controlling his anger. They then pulled him up on his legs, and led him out of the house. A woman came in shortly after, and she handcuffed the nurse, and walked her out. The rest of the group followed the cops, and watched as they put Hello Nurse and Duke inside a police car. Scratchy ran towards the car, and waved.

"Wait! There's one thing I have to say first!" he yelled. He stopped by the side of the car where the nurse was sitting, and waited for permission to talk to her. The cops then opened the window, and instantly, Scratchy exclaimed: "You're _fired_!" and then walked away to his psychiatry office.

The Warners tilted their heads, and then turned around to see that Ralph, Flash and Devin were all still there. The siblings exchanged looks, and then sighed.

"Come on, you guys," said Dot. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Duh, yeah, I dos," said Ralph. "I gotta go back to the gate, or Plotz'll be mad." He looked around nervously, as if the CEO was there. Then, Ralph saluted dumbly and raced off.

"Heh… yeah… I should, um, probably get back to spending my vacation," Devin said nervously. "I'm just gonna pretend I was never here…" He looked around nervously as well, thought it looked more like he was scared than nervous. In a flash, he ran off, almost screaming in terror.

The Warners cocked an eyebrow at Devin, and laughed at his silliness. As if someone had poked Dot, she felt an urge to look at Flash. When she did, she saw that he was looking in the air dramatically – complete with the painting-effect. Dot poked his leg, and he instantly snapped out of it.

"Sorry, I was looking over this thing," he said. "You know, I've never been fond of movies, my life being devoted to photography and all, but now that I've spent so much time here, I feel like I should try it out." Randomly, Flash threw his hand in the air like Superman, and ran off. "Come on, world! Lookit me!"

The Warners, again, cocked an eyebrow, but didn't laugh this time. Instead, they all made a small motion with their index fingers next to their heads, indicating that Flash was crazy. With that done, they began walking to their water tower. There was an awkward silence between the three, but they didn't really feel like talking anyway. Of course, being known for talking, Yakko had to break the ice.

"So… what do you guys think of Hello Nurse now that you know she did it?" he asked, just to say something.

Dot shrugged. "I don't really know. I mean, she was never really that nice to us anyway."

"But she became your friend," Wakko pointed out. "Doesn't that make you feel a tiny bit sad that she did it?"

"Wakko… it's a fanfiction," said Dot. "Even if I did feel sorry for her, it wouldn't last forever. Nothing that happens here has any effect on what's gonna happen next – or what's happening in others' minds!"

Wakko shrugged. "True… but hey, someone had to say it."

"Yeah, I know…" said Dot and smiled. She then looked at Yakko, who seemed deep in thought. "Yakko, you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking…" Yakko began. "If this is a fanfiction, and nothing that happens here effects what happens in the future, does that mean that everything we've gone through for the past fourteen chapters were just for others' entertainment? And that it won't affect our lives?"

His siblings shrugged. "'Fraid so, brother," said Wakko.

"And that means that Hello Nurse _didn't_ do anything!" said Yakko. "Which means…" His excited expression faded. "Crud… which means that she never had that date with me…"

"Yeah, I feel your pain," said Wakko and put his arm over Yakko's shoulder.

Dot sighed, and because she could, she rolled her eyes to the invisible audience, and said the one line she loved the most:

"Boys. Go fig."

**THE END**

…

…

…

**Or is it?**

Brain smirked as he walked back into the cage, proud of himself for having been able to tell everyone about his great discovery. He looked down on the floor, and noticed that Pinky was still trying to climb on top of the table. When he was finally able to pull himself up, he too hurried into the cage. As Brain opened the cage, Pinky dashed inside, and crashed on the bars facing the door. Brain shook his head and closed it, making sure that it was locked as well. He turned around to find Pinky lying on the ground, his eyes spinning.

"Naaaarf!" he said, before shaking his head fast, and beginning to laugh. "Wow, Brain! You were great out there! You nailed them! Poit!"

"Well, I don't mean to brag," Brain said proudly and smiled. "But I have to admit, it's been a while since I've kept such a crowd's attention for such a long time at once. I believe it's the sophisticated charm I have."

"You said it, Brain!" said Pinky, while taking off his cloak. When he was about to put it back in its place, he eyes his friend again. "Say, Brain. About that whole speech…"

"What about it?" said Brain, thinking that Pinky was going to comment on it.

"I listened to it the whole time, and I still can't figure out this one thing," said Pinky. "How were you able to know exactly what Hello Nurse was doing if you weren't there? And how did you know what she was thinking, and stuff?"

At first, Brain didn't understand Pinky's question. But when he did, he smirked again. "Ah, the wonders of being able to read one's mind… I knew there had to be some logical explanation for it."

"What do you mean?" said Pinky and scratched his head.

"Well, Pinky," said Brain. "When you told me that you had seen into the future, I knew that there was something else going on. Before everyone came over, I did some more research, and uncovered a deep secret that no one was supposed to see."

"Ooh… What was that?" Pinky asked excitedly.

"The fact that you could suddenly see into the future had to be something from a mind only capable of creating such a plot as this," said Brain. "By simply searching deeper into the source of this story, I was able to find the very mind that wrote it down, and it told me exactly who had been doing what, and what he had been thinking at that time." Brain posed proudly, and pointed at his head. "I tell you, Pinky, there is nothing this here genius can't uncover."

Pinky's eyes bulged, and he smiled widely. "_Wow_, Brain!" he exclaimed. "That is _so_ clever! Narf! I never would've thought of that! I mean, _wow_!"

Brain rolled his eyes. Despite the fact that Pinky was supposedly psychic (according to what he had said), he was a true, blue moron nevertheless. "Calm yourself, Pinky, and spare your exclamations for tomorrow night."

"Why, Brain?" Pinky asked. "What are we gonna do tomorrow night?"

Brain walked up to the bars of the cage. "The same thing we do every night, Pinky," he said, and clutched one of the bars. "Try to take over the world!"

**THE REAL END**

* * *

_A/N: Well, there we have it! "Who's the cutest dot?" is officially over! And since I'm taking the time to write this note anyway, I want to give my very special thanks to Tweeker515 for being my beta-reader, and for being able to stand my typos, grammar mistakes and lack of descriptions! Kudos to her!_

_Also, I want to thank all of you guys for reading and reviewing. You've all been very nice, and I thank you once again for that! _


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Animaniacs, Drama, Humor