Crazy Not Zany

Chapter 11: Hiding Out

"Hey, Yakko! Hey. Hey. Hey!"

Yakko groaned, pulling the covers of his bed over his head. "Five more minutes..."

The blankets were yanked off and the eldest Warner moaned. He rubs his eyes, sitting up. Once he lowered his hands he was face to face with a bright smiling blue furred toon.

"Rise and shine, cousin!" Issac says happily.

Yakko tries to blink the sleep away. He glances at the nearby window of the tower. The sun was not even shining just yet. In fact, it still looked dark out.

"Say, Issac?" Yakko says, returning his gaze to the toon.

"Yeah?" Issac asks.

"Why did you wake me up at a time when even the roosters don't crow?" Yakko asks, annoyed.

Issac laughs, but quickly slaps a hand over his mouth. His smile never falters. "I just couldn't sleep, so I thought you might want to join me!"

"And what made you think of that brilliant plan?" Yakko asks, crawling over to the ladder of his bunk bed. As he slides down it, Issac follows.

"Well, little Dot was too adorable to wake up. And I believe Wakko almost tried to eat me in his sleep." Issac says as he slides down the ladder and joins Yakko on the floor. "So I decided to wake you up. Now we're both up!"

"How terrific." Yakko grumbles, walking to the bathroom. He hears footsteps behind him and turns around. Issac was following him.

"Issac." Yakko says bluntly. "You've heard of privacy right?"

Issac then blushes. He sheepishly smiles. "Sorry, Mack. I'll back off."

Issac speeds off and runs into the kitchen. Yakko stares at the boy as he leaves, but then shrugs and turns right back around.

"I'll be in the kitchen if you need me." Issac appeared right in front of Yakko, causing the eldest to jump.

"Thank you for informing me." Yakko said with an amused smile. "Now please."
"Huh?" Issac says and then giggles nervously. "Oh right!"

Issac walks off for the kitchen this time and Yakko, shaking his head, goes into the bathroom.

Minutes later, Yakko exits the bathroom, sniffing the air. The smell of food was coming from the kitchen. He walked up to the kitchen doorway and peeks inside. There he found Issac working three pans at once. One was filled with eggs, the other with pancakes and the last with bacon. His tail worked a spatula and flipped the pancakes onto a plate he was carrying with one hand while the other hand worked the other pans. All the while, he hummed a little tune.

"Animanie, totally insaney-" Issac sang. He drops eggs onto the same plate as the pancakes and flips the bacon on the same plate with the spatula in his tail. With all the food on the plate, he flips the stove off and spins around before sliding the plate of food onto the table. It lands dab in the center of the table. Issac smiles at this.

Yakko then chooses to walk in. "Smells great!"

Issac turns to Yakko, surprised, but quickly grins. "Thought today would be a great day to show off my cooking skills."

Yakko takes a seat, Issac placing a plate before him as he does. Issac then joins him at the table, putting his head in his hands with a bright smile.

"So!" Issac says. "What are the big plans for today?"

"Whatcha mean?" Yakko says, putting a few eggs and bacon on his plate.

Issac giggles. "Oh come on, cousin. Don't hold back on me!"

"Not much to hold back." Yakko says. He looks at the bright smiling toon. "Well I haven't exactly given it much thought yet-"

"Then let's!" Issac shouts with joy, standing up immediately as a chalkboard rolls out into the kitchen and behind him. Issac pulls out a ruler and slaps it against the chalkboard, which already had a long list on it.

"I've already planned out the whole day!" Issac grins. "First, we can bother that old blimp that guards the studio! Then we can go solo and rampage the town! After that we can cool off with a little-"

"You planned the whole day already?" Yakko said, surprised, more so by the never ending chalkboard list.

"Course I did!" Issac says, bumping his hip against the chalkboard and the chalkboard extends and the list grows even longer. "I did this during the night. And I even had time to carve that wooden horse!"

Issac pointed beside Yakko and there stood a wooden horse. Yakko stares at it.

"Why...exactly did you make a wooden horse?" Yakko asks.

Issac rubs the back of his neck. "Seemed like a good idea at the time..."

"While I appreciate the enthusiasm." Yakko begins. "I think we're forgetting something."

Issac's smile drops. He looks over his chalkboard list. "But I swore I had all this thought out! What did I forget? Not enough pizazz? We can definitely add more things if you want! Oh, oh, oh, we could even-"

"Issac!" Yakko had stood up and placed his hands on the boy's shoulders. He chuckles. "No, I'm pretty sure your whole plan would be just fine."

"Then what's wrong?" Issac asks.

"It's the fact we took you from a secret vault and no one is supposed to know you're here." Yakko explains. "You do remember what we agreed on right?"

Yakko watches the toon's smile fade and turn into a disgruntled frown. It was last night when the Warners snuck back Issac to the tower they had agreed on a few things. One, to keep this outing to themselves. And two-

"But I don't want to stay locked in the tower!" Issac whines. He perks up instantly. He jumps up and down in Yakko's grasp "I can wear a disguise!"

"No." Yakko says firmly.

Issac stops jumping. "But-"

"No." Yakko interrupts. "I don't want to risk anything."

"But I haven't been outside in years!" Issac groans. "Oh come on, cousin! Just a quick outing! An hour!"

Yakko shakes his head. "Issac-"

"Five minutes?" Issac pleads.

"I can't." Yakko sighs. "I don't want Plotz seeing you. Or Ralph. He'd snitch!"

"Oh!" Issac stomps his foot, crossing his arms. "I never get to have any fun!"

Yakko puts his arm around the boy's shoulders. "Cheer up! There's lots of things we can do inside the tower."

Issac turns his head towards Yakko. "Really?"

Yakko nods. "Really."

Issac taps his chin. "Well...I suppose we can do that."

"That's the spirit!" Yakko claps Issac on the back. "Let's eat and once the sibs wake up, we'll do something. Kay?"

"Sounds like a plan!" Issac rushes over to the table and grabs his own plate of food.

Yakko joins him at the table and eats. He glances at Issac, who was happily eating his breakfast. It brought a smile to Yakko's face.

Yakko recalled the night before. As he and his siblings snuck Issac back to the tower, it proved quite difficult to keep him quiet as they moved under the cover of darkness. Thankfully, it had been late enough there was no one out. It was obvious Issac had been on that paper for a long time. It made Yakko curious. Why had Issac been left in that vault?

Yakko bites into his morning eggs. He knows he took that file from the vault too. It was the only one left in the Animation Cels 29' safe box. They made sure to leave everything looking exactly as it had been before, minus the missing file. He'll look at it later. For now, Yakko had questions. Questions he hoped Issac could answer.

We're the replacements! Issac had told them. Yakko swallowed.

Yakko had seen that poster. Toons that looked exactly like them. It left him with so many questions.

Who were they? And where are they?