The Playground Wars

Chapter One

I wake up to the sound of my alarm. 6:30 am, Toontown Time. I put on my old yellow Cog-Crusher suit with my name tag that says "OSWALD". It's not like the old days where you are free to wear whatever you want to express yourself. Uniforms are a required thing, ever since the war began, almost 4 years ago. It helps toons recognize what playground you are from. And when I mean "war", I'm not talking about the war with the cogs. I'm talking about The Playground Wars.

I had never imagined this would happen. It feels like just yesterday I was a new toon, 15 laff points, doing Toontasks and making new friends. Those days are over. The laff point system has been shut down. Teleportation services have been suspended.

Toons now take sides. I'm a Donald's Dreamlander. Some of my other friends were lost with what playground to join and just wandered around places. I haven't seen them since. Probably Toontown Central took them prisoner and dipped him. With too much of dip in your body, it can kill ANY toon, so our enemy, the cogs, are totally harmless to it. "Why?" you may ask. Well, the cogs are evil robots who can't take a joke and dip doesn't affect a robot. Things have changed in the past 4 years. And I learned that some changes can be bad.

The war started because of a toon named Flippy. Something formed inside his heart that made him the cruel leader we have today. Toons were tired of Flippy's bossy actions, such as setting a curfew, limiting your friends from 50 to 15, and voting himself leader. Then the rebellion happened. That's what made him mad. Flippy formed an alliance with the cogs, that's what I heard. He's evil yet smart because he knew that the cogs were not affected by dip. He made a sneak attack on Minnie's Melodyland and flooded it with dip. Flippy knew that killing Mickey's wife would scare him. The only thing left there in Melodyland is the shattered instruments that once played beautiful music for all toons to hear.

After the attack, it was every playground for themselves. Flippy started to make more cogs, and then a whole army of cogs. When the war barely started, I finished The Brrrgh toontasks and moved on to Donald's Dreamland. That's how they (the playground) accepted me. In case you didn't know, toontasks were just tasks handed out by Toons to protect the town from cogs. I only have two friends with me now, three actually, but one, Conrad, is on Daisy's Garden side. All of my other friends from before the war either got dipped, just disappeared, got turned into a cog, or they dipped themselves. I don't know specifically how toons are turned into cogs, but I know it happens in a factory somewhere. I've never really encountered what they called a Toonbot, a toon- turned cog.

My two friends are Wacky Dog and Cuddles. They're in the same squad as I am, Squad 13. Squads are basically teams of toons sent out to scavenge for resources and keep an eye out for an attack.

"Attention!" General Linda, a former shopkeeper, yelled.

"Today I'm gonna send 3 squads out on patrol! Squad 3 will go to the Cashbot HQ entrance and re-barricade it to protect our streets. Squad 4 will go patrol our streets, while Squad 13 would patrol the streets that are nearby Toontown Central. Once allies of Toontown Central are distracted by Squad 4, 13 will go to get some supplies from their own street. Everyone got that???" she asked.

"Yes, Ma'am!" all 15 squads replied.

"Good," She continued. All of the squads rushed to the gag shop to stock up on gags. I admit that I am really scared. Our squad is going to the front line, Toontown Central. I grab my gag attack pack and my glasses, unknown of what is to come.

We walk quietly through the street of Lullaby Lane, one of the longest streets I've known. Wacky Dog walks by my side. I could tell he is afraid. Other squads but 13 have patrolled this area before. As I'm walking, I step on a piece of paper. Tears filled my eyes. It's a poster for a missing toon: Lil Oldman.

I remember him. He gave me those really hard toontasks when I was doing "The Brrrgh" playground tasks. One of them was to defeat 1,000 cogs! Now he's missing. The strange part is, he was last seen on Loopy Lane. That's a street in Toontown Central. Flippy must've got a hold of him. Sadly, there is very little chance he had survived. I take the poster and I put it in my gag attack pack. Then, I continue walking.

"We'll stay here and camp for the night," our captain, Felix, said to the squad. He's a bright green cat whose fur reflected from the moonlight. I take off my backpack and put it on the ground to use as a pillow. We are going to camp around the fishing pond, or what is left of it, which is just a little pile of water and dead fish. Suddenly, a hand touches my shoulder. It's Felix.

"Oswald," he says. "Would you be so kind enough to stay awake for the night to keep on guard, in case of an attack or emergency?" I can't say no to my squad captain.

"Sure," I say, hesitantly.

"Great! I really appreciate your help. In case you get really tired, just wake me up and I'll send another toon on guard duty."

So now I'm on guard duty. Great, just great. Everyone's life is in my hands. I have to keep myself awake. I can't risk any attacks while I'm asleep. Why are we even camping, anyways? Is the street we are going to too far?

I take out my weakest squirt gag from my gag attack pack, a squirt flower, and squirted myself with it. For a moment, I thought I squirted myself with dip. I sigh with relief, as it appears to be just water. I try to keep myself from laughing, since it is a gag of course.

Half an hour just passed, and I'm starting to get drowsy. My eyes start to close. I try to stop myself. I look around to see if I can find the captain. He's gone. Then I lose it and I go to sleep.

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"AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" the squad screams in terror. I wake up, only to see the squad in panic.

"Where is the captain?" one of the toons yell. Then, I see the reason they are scared. The Resistance Rangers are headed our way. A tall cat, sky blue colored like me, grabs me by the ear. "Going somewhere, little mouse?" he asks sinisterly. I know where they are going to take me and the squad. I kick the cat and run for my life. I hide in an alley way in the shadows. I'm so scared. "HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" of the squad members screams.

"Wacky Dog, OSWALD!!!!!!!! ANYBODY PLEASE!!!!!" another one yells. But I recognized her voice. CUDDLES! They took her, and maybe even Wacky Dog too! And then, all of the screaming stopped. I'm about to step out of the shadows until I hear footsteps.

"Load them into the truck," a dog says. I think he is talking about the squad. I keep myself hidden. "Let's go!" he yells, sending chills up my spine. I come out of the alley way, feeling safe as I hear the truck drive away. Then, two gloves covered in oil choke my neck.

"Got you now!" the toon yelled. I hit the back of my head against his forehead with all of the strength I have and I run to the tunnel that reads, "Donald's Dreamland". I don't even look back to see who the toon was. I just keep running until my legs start to die.

I need to help my friends, and my squad, from being dipped. I knew where they were headed to, which is Toontown Central. The Resistance Rangers were on Flippy's side of the war. It would take about a week to dip them because I bet Flippy would interrogate the squad questions about some confidential stuff. Maybe he'll ask where I am, the sole survivor of the attack. Now I'm most likely being hunted down by Flippy himself

I slowly walk away, heading back to Donald's Dreamland to tell them about the news. I failed my assignment, to alert the toons of danger when they are asleep. Suddenly, I remember the one thing that struck me when I woke up. Where is Felix?