Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“And this concludes our fantastic tour! I do hope you’ve enjoyed our Jungle Cruise. If you did, my name is skipper Clay. If you didn’t, my name is skipper George.”

There were a few laughs in the back of the boat. Clay grinned and reached behind him to fake-spin the wheel, giving the illusion he was steering. The boat was piloting itself, however, running in the track hidden beneath the river.

“And this is where we say Adieu!” The boat pulled up to the dock. “But before you all depart, I have a great joke for all you mind readers out there.”

Clay remained silent as he let his joke sink in. A woman in the front laughed as she explained it to her partner, who gave a wry chuckle.

“Good one,” the woman smiled as she exited.

The sun had set almost an hour ago, so it was dark out and all the street-lining Adventureland torches had been lit. Clay could see fire dancing above the straw roofs of the Jungle Cruise queue.

Once all the passengers had exited, Clay let out a long sigh and pulled away from the dock, and into a hidden canal off of the main river track. His skipper shift had taken a lot longer than expected, and his sleep deprivation was catching up to him.

He grabbed his water bottle and pulled the boat into park, lining up next to the others. He hopped up onto the employee dock, careful not to fall into the water as he did so.

“Clay!”

Clay gave a wry smile as he turned to see his fellow skipper, and best friend, George, running toward him, carrying his own water bottle. “How was your shift, Gogs?”

George grimaced, he definitely didn’t miss the use of his childhood nickname. Clay had been teasing him about it ever since George’s mom had flown from Brighton to visit.

“It went very well, if you must know, Dream.” He said, using Clay’s nickname. Clay, however, didn’t grimace. He was actually quite fond of the nickname Dream. His sister had come up with it when she found out Clay sleep-talked.

The two made their way out of the employee exit, making sure the gate shut behind them.

“Bye bye Jungle Cruise! See you tomorrow!” George called, waving to the ride behind them.

“Why do you always do that? It’s not like it can hear you,” Clay remarked, looking down at George.

“Oh, psh. Show more respect for the most incredible boat ride in the world.” George said indignantly. “And there’s no one around, just cleaning crew.”

George was right. The park had closed officially twenty minutes ago, and all the park guests were now shopping their way out down Main Street.

“Gogy! Dream!”

The pair turned to see two pink haired girls running towards them. Niki and Lizzie skidded to a stop next to them, panting.

“You… you are fast walkers!” Niki gasped, hands on her knees. Lizzie inhaled and exhaled sharply, adjusting her plaid vest.

Clay and George had both come in to apply for jobs at Disneyland around the same time as Lizzie and Niki, so they had all been in training together.

The four of them all started out as street sweepers, and ranked up from there. Niki and Lizzie pursued the Disney company history classes to become tour guides, or plaid vests, who usually toured rich and famous around the park, while George and Clay brushed up on their jokes and puns to become skippers.

“So, how was your day?” Niki asked. “Skipping still living up to your expectations?”

“You know it,” George grinned. “Although this morning was pretty rough. I was running out of material when the boats got stopped.”

“Why’d the boats get stopped?” Lizzie asked, fingering her cast member pin.

“Cause we had some backup at the dock. Some kid’s plushie fell into the river.” George snickered. Niki whacked his arm. “That’s not funny, Gogs.”

“It is to me.”

Together, the four of them joined the line for cast member buses, which were waiting to drop them at the employee parking lot.

They found their way onto the bus, and Clay flopped down in the back, taking up at least two seats.

“Scoot,” George said as he and Niki plopped down on either side of Clay. Lizzie found a spot next to Niki, and the bus started off.

“Liz!” A cast member to their left, whose wheelchair was strapped to the shuttle floor, waved to get Lizzie’s attention. His name tag read: Scar. “Did I hear you and Niki toured around a certain famous singer today?”

Lizzie grinned. “I didn’t know you were one for rumors, Scar. But yes, we did.”

“Wait, who?” George sat up and leaned toward Niki and Lizzie. “What singer?”

Lizzie and Niki shared a smile. “Well, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of a certain pop star called Griande…”

“I knew it!” Scar sang. “I love her music more than my own soul!”

“Wait! You’re a Griande fan too?!” George asked Scar, wide eyed. “No way. I thought I was the only one!”

“Heck no, man! Dude, we should go to one of her concerts together!”

Clay groaned and slumped back against his seat. Griande was one of George’s many obsessions. He had been trying to drag Clay to a Griande concert forever.

The next twenty minutes to the parking garage was hell for Clay. He had heard so much about Griande over the past few months his eardrums were going to bleed if he heard her name one more time.

His stop at the parking garage couldn’t couldn’t come fast enough.

He gave a quick “Bye!” To the girls and George, but George was so invested in his conversation with Scar that Clay wasn’t even sure George heard him.

He made his way over to his white Mazda and slid into the front seat, letting his head fall onto the steering wheel.

His phone dinged next to him.

[George!]

sorry i didn’t see u get off

whoops

anyway see you tmrw for opening shift!!

Oh hell. Of course tomorrow was their turn for early morning skip duty.

“Hey Siri, set an alarm for five am.”

“Alarm set for five am.”

Clay sighed and started the long ride home.

_____________________

Keralis sat at his desk, idly twirling his keys between his fingers as he scrolled through Apple News. Nothing new, of course, but he’s just killing time at this point.

As one of the heads of the maintenance department at Disneyland, Keralis was here early and left late, on account of the rides breaking and needing repairs. He wasn’t here 24/7, which he was grateful for. Shishwammy, the other head of maintenance, usually took over the night shift, cause he worked better at night. Keralis could never. He loved his sleep schedule as it was.

He checked the time on his phone, 1:34am. Park close was a while ago, so all park guest should be gone by now. Keralis yawned and stretched his tired arms out. Time to go check with the team.

He equipped his belt with his radio, and put on his monogrammed hard hat.

Keralis made sure his office door was locked before he made his way downstairs to the underground employee tunnels. He started the walk to the maintenance lounge, turning on his radio as he did so. He flicked the dial until he found channel 14.

“-eye on boss? Got a report for him…” the voice emitting from the radio was Tango, one of the on-site electrical guys.

Keralis pressed the button on the side of his radio. “Keralis here. What’s up?”

“Ay, there you are! I was about to come up and see you. One of the last guests on splash mountain said she noticed something weird about the animatronics?” Tango said, voice warbling with the staticky connection.

“Uh, what about the animatronics?”

“She didn’t really elaborate, unfortunately. Mainly just that they weren’t acting as they normally did?”

“Alrighty then. Tanks for de update.”

Keralis switched to channel 12. “Impy, Etho, you’re up!”

____________________

Impulse sighed.

“Stop doing that,” Etho muttered from behind the wheel of their golf cart. “We’re getting paid to do this!”

“I know, I know, but I was about to clock out!” Impulse whined. “And I really need a sandwich.”

Etho just snorted.

They hadn’t gotten much instruction on what to fix, Keralis had just told them they had gotten a tip about the splash mountain animatronics. So off they went, to go check on a bunch of singing animals.

They unloaded in front of splash mountain and made their way around to the employee entrance. Etho opened the maintenance door with a sweeping motion. “After you!”

Impulse muttered something unintelligible as he marched in.

The pair wove their way around the various animatronics, who were belting out their zip-a-dee-doo song. Keralis had the ride turned back on so the two could investigate.

“Nothing wrong so far,” Impulse noted, ducking around brer bear hanging from a tree.

They walked a lap or two before making it to the end, right before the drop.

“Hm. I haven’t seen anything, have you?” Etho asked Impulse, who shook his head.

“Oh, maybe it’s the projection?” Etho muttered, taking note of the absence of the brer fox shadow projection on the wall. “Isn’t he usually here cackling? Right? Cause-”

“Etho?”

Etho turned another circle around the tiny projector. “Yes, because brer rabbit is tied up here-”

“Etho.”

“And he’s about to eat brer rabbit! Yes, that’s it! We should call Keralis and let him know that the projector isn’t-”

“ETHO.” Impulse yelled, finally getting Etho’s attention.

“Yeah?”

Impulse pointed to the empty coil of rope on the ground next to the lopsided stick tower. “Where the hell is the rabbit?”

_______________________

Ranboo’s phone chimed next to him.

Rubbing his tired eyes, he unlocked his phone, scrolling up to the top of his messages.

[bee boy]

dude dude dude

you work on splash mountain right

like pressing the buttons to make it go

??

Ranboo sighed, and punched in a response.

[Me]

Tubbo, you do know it’s 2am, right?

[bee boy]

oh whoops

[Me]

And yea I do

Why?

[bee boy]

check ur emaillll

gogy just sent me something and i think you have it toooo

[Me]

Haha ok I will?

Go to bed, Tubbo you need sleep

[bee boy]

no >:(

Ranboo sighed again and opened his email.

At the very top was a new message from the head of the maintenance department. Ranboo clicked on it, intrigued.

From: [email protected]

Cc: [email protected]

To: [Disneyland Cast and Crew]

Hallo everyone, this is Keralis, the head of maintenance here at Disneyland.

Last night, we got a tip from a visitor concerning the Splash Mountain animatronics. We had two maintenance crew members go check out the ride, and they discovered that one of the Brer Rabbit animatronics is missing, the one towards the end of the ride, who is usually tied up on a bunch of sticks. The Brer Fox shadow projector was also tampered with. If anyone has any information concerning the projector or animatronic, please contact myself or the other head maintenance officer, Xisuma, as soon as possible.

Thank you,

Keralis MC

[email protected]

Oh wow, an animatronic getting stolen? Ranboo hadn't heard of anything like that since the whole Buzzy fiasco at Epcot.

He scrolled up and pressed "forward".

___________________

DING

Kristin looked down at her husband's phone on a table next to her. A forwarded email from-

"Phil, love!"

Phil ducked under the low archway of flowers hanging from the ceiling and into the kitchen, carrying the burger patties from the grill outside. "Yeah, did you need something?"

"Your son sent you something," Kristin said, motioning to his phone.

“Which one?” Phil laughed as he picked it up and unlocked it.

Kristin had always wanted children, but was unable to have them. So she worked at an orphanage, where she taught the kids how to read. That’s where she met Phil, and would she would eventually meet and adopt her four children.

Techno, their oldest, was off at collage and expanding his social media following through gardening and his climate change awareness program. Wilbur, a year younger than Techno, had started a band and was off across the pond in Brighton creating music. Ranboo, who they adopted just after Wilbur, had moved to California with a group of friends and was working on an internship at Disneyland. Tommy, their youngest, was still in high school.

"Anything interesting?" Kristin pulled the heated buns out of the toaster and slid the burger patties onto them.

"Yeah. Apparently an animatronic was stolen from the ride Ranboo works on? Uh, splat mountain?" Phil placed the sliced tomato and lettuce on the patties and dolloped a spoonful of mayo.

"Splash mountain."

"Right." Phil handed Kristin a napkin and her plate. "Do you want to go eat on the porch?"

______________________________

Clay had gotten next to no sleep that night. His phone kept going off across the room, and even after he turned off alerts, his screen kept lighting up. He was too lazy to fix the problem, so he took melatonin and tried to fall back to sleep.

He didn’t take enough, however, and woke up again at four am the next day. And just as he had finally started to fall back asleep, his alarm he had set for the previous day had gone off.

After getting ready for the day and eating breakfast, he pulled up his previous notifications.

He had twenty-seven messages from George, sixty-four from a group chat with George, Niki, and Lizzie, two from an unknown number, and one hundred-eighty four from a sixteen person skipper group chat.

Which brought him to a grand total of two hundred-seventy seven messages he had to go through.

He checked the unknown number first.

[Unknown Number]

Hey clay! This is scar :)

George gave me your phone number cuz he said you found a good brand of cat litter for patches? Could you send me the brand name? I'm getting a cat in a month or so :D

[Contact Added: Scar (griande guy)]

[Me]

Hey scar! Yea, ill send you the pic-

[Attachment: Two Images]

[Scar (griande guy)]

Sweet! Thanks!

[Me]

No problem man :)

Clay hesitated over the group chats, and ended up just calling George instead.

"Hey man, what's up?"

"Good morning to you too. Wanna explain the bajillion messages I have as of this morning?" Clay yawned.

"Oh! I'm guessing you haven't checked your email yet." He could hear George typing through the mic.

"No. Recaps, please?"

"Yeah, so, an animatronic went missing at splash mountain. Basically no one knows what happened but the two maintenance guys who discovered it was missing did some digging and discovered it has a signal they can follow, but it's spotty and- well point being, it's still in the park."

"And how the hell did you find this out?"

"Well the missing animatronic part was in the email. As for the second part, you remember that one skip Skizz? The one who's got never ending jokes? Like constant?"

"Yeah, I remember Skizz."

"His brother Impulse was one of the guys who found it missing. Impulse told Skizz, who told Lizzie, who told me."

"Ok, and what does that have to do with us?"

"The maintenance heads put out a notice to all cast and crew that if they find the thing or come forward with any useful information, their paycheck this month will be doubled."

Damn. Clay could definitely use the extra cash…

"So, you're saying you want to find the animatronic?"

"Duh!" George said indignantly. "And I got Impulse's number from Skizz. We're meeting him and the other maintenance guy after our shift."

"Sounds good to me. See you there!"

"Cya!" George disconnected.

Clay walked outside and started the car. Time to hit the road.

Chapter Text

"Alright folks, here is what you've been waiting for, the amazing, incredible, eighth wonder of the world, the backside of water!" Cleo called, motioning wildly to the waterfall to the left. She'd made this joke so many times, its delivery was practically perfect at this point (in Cleo's humble opinion).

She fake-piloted to the right, and caught a glimpse of something that made her do a double take. A pink-ish shape blurred in the corner of her eye and darted out of view-

No, no. It must be the sleep deprivation getting to her. Cause there's no way she just saw a rabbit running through the jungle.

Cleo shook it off and continued her tour.

_______________________

"Oh look!" Clay called, waving his hand toward the ''hippo'' to the right. "Hippos! These guys are so sweet and friendly... unless they open their mouth, of course! Aw, look at that one... It's got it's mouth open! Oh, wait... IT'S GOT IT'S MOUTH OPEN!" Clay yelled in fake alarm. "Don't worry guys! I know exactly how to scare it away!" He fake-jerked the steering wheel to the right and leaned over the edge of the boat. "I love you! I want you to meet my parents!"
He paused for dramatic effect. "Don't worry everyone, it's gone. Just like my first girlfriend."

There were a few chuckles from the right side of the boat. Clay inwardly grinned. He's gotten that one from a fellow skipper, Macy.

He faced forward again and abruptly had to yank the lever in front of him to stop the boat.

In front of him was a pileup of boats, bumper to bumper.

"Woah, looks like we'll be stopped here for a second, folks. While we are, I would love to point out some of my favorite plants here. That one, and that one, and that one," Clay said, pointing randomly around the boat.

After a good few minutes of jokes, Clay was running out of material. He turned again to check the stopped boats in front of him, and made eye contact with the skip in the boat ahead. He recognized Cleo immediately, with her long orange hair escaping from the braids under her hat.

"Excuse me folks, while I make contact with another one of my many, many, many friends. Cause I definitely have more than one." Clay heard the girl to his left chuckle and mutter, "relatable."

"Oh, skipper Cleo!" Clay called to the boat in front of them.

Cleo smirked and called back, "Yes, skipper Clay?"

"What seems to be the holdup?"

"It seems one of our passengers have fallen overboard!" He could hear Cleo trying and failing to keep the laughter out of her voice. Trust Cleo to find the humor in a potential emergency.

"Oh dear. Let's hope the piranhas don't get to them!" Clay called, back trying to keep the lightheartedness of the boat's mood.

Good lord, lets hope they weren't going to be here for awhile.

________________________

Turns out they were there for awhile.

"Twenty five whole minutes, George. Twenty-five! That's practically a half an hour! I was dead on material! I had to have the passengers on the boat start telling jokes!" Clay groaned, rubbing his hands over his face.

George laughed. "I got lucky, I was at the dock when we got stopped. I got to watch medical rush in with their mini boat."

"What exactly happened? Cleo said someone fell off the boat?"

"Yeah, some kid got too excited over the snake and reached out to touch it, then proceeded to fall overboard." George snorted. "Idiot. Why do you think we tell you to keep your hands, arms, feet, and legs inside the boat?"

"Gogs." Clay said seriously. "Did the kid fall off your boat?"

George burst out laughing. "Of course not. He fell off Quackity's."

Clay suppressed a grin. "I mean, I can't say I'm surprised."

After the whole incident, the ride operators shut down the ride, so all the skips got a much needed break. George and Clay were now using theirs to track down Impulse and his maintenance buddy.

George's phone pinged. "Impulse says to meet him at the Hungry Bear."

"Hm. I could use a hot dog." Clay muttered, cracking his knuckles.

"They don't have hot dogs at the Hungry Bear, dumbass."

"Who are you calling a dumbass?!"

"You. Dumbass."

"Poopy head." Clay shoved George lightly on the arm.

"Fart face." George shoved back, harder.

"Butt head." Clay over calculated slightly, shoving George so hard he fell on his side. Oops.

"Ouch, dude, that hurt!" George whined, letting Clay pull him back to his feet. "You're paying for my lunch after that one."

Clay opened his mouth to protest, and then caught sight of George's elbow. "Oh no."

_______________________

Turns out Clay did not have band aids in his backpack, so the pair had to make a pit stop to the bathroom to stop the flow of blood leaking from George's arm.

It also happened that no one they asked had band aids.

So when they sat down in front of Impulse, George's arm was wrapped in toilet paper and rubber bands.

"Don't ask," He muttered when Impulse raised an eyebrow.

"Alrighty then," Impulse said. He was around an average height, with short brown hair and a black and yellow tee shirt with a little 'i' on the front. "I'm Impulse Esvee. I assume you're George Lore?"

"Yep, and this is my friend Clay." Clay gave a tiny half wave, with Impulse reciprocated with a small smile. "Nice to meet you. And you said your friend Echo would be here too?"

"It's Etho, actually," Came a voice from over Clay's shoulder, and both he and George jumped.

A tall guy with white-blonde hair, a black face mask, and a lanyard with an ID tag reading: [E. Slab] made their way around Clay's chair and plopped himself down next to Impulse. "Nice to meet you," they said, holding out a hand. George and Clay both shook it.

"So," Impulse began, "Skizz told me you were interested in looking for the missing rabbit."

"Yeah," George said, "We heard you were able to track it, somehow? Which, how is that possible?"

"Old tech," Etho said, "And I MEAN old. Like, Walt Disney old." He reached down and rummaged in their messenger bag, and pulled out a small device that looked something like and EMF reader. "Not quite sure what the original purpose of this thing was, but while doing some experimenting, I discovered that it makes a beeping noise when it gets close to any of the splash mountain animatronics. The closer the animatronics are to this thing, the faster the beeps get." Etho waved the device idly. "That's how I found out the animatronic is still in the park. I was walking out of Main Street when the thing starts going nuts in my bag, so I took it out and waved it around until the beeps got faster in a certain spot. When I looked up from it, I saw something small dart around the corner. I assumed it had to be the rabbit being dragged away by someone in a bag or something, so I followed the beeps all the way to the exit, cause I thought I could catch the culprit in the act, y'know? But the second I left park gates, the beeping stopped. So the person who was trying to take it obviously left it somewhere in the park."

"Huh," Clay said. "Why would they leave it in the park? Wouldn't a cleaning crew find it?"

"Well, they haven't yet," Impulse said. "And to test this whole theory, I walked around with the thing in my pocket while doing maintenance rounds all day. The beeping sped up every time I passed the building over the firehouse."

"Walt's apartment?! You think the rabbit is in Walt's apartment right now?" George yelled, and quickly lowered his voice when the tables around them turned to look for the source of the outburst. "Are you serious? How would someone even get in?"

"Only one way to find out," Etho grinned, holding up a ring of keys. "If you're in, we're checking it out after hours."

"We're going to be sneaking in to Walt's apartment after hours?!" George cried. "No wa-"

"We're in! We'll, uh, see you there. It was nice meeting you!" Clay said quickly, pulling George to his feet. "Just text us where to meet you!"

Clay practically dragged George out of the restaurant, leaving an extremely confused Etho and Impulse in their wake.

As soon as they were out of earshot, George yanked his arm of of Clay's grip. "Are you out of your mind?! Sneaking into Walt's apartment? We're so gonna get fired!" George hissed.

"Listen, I know it sounds crazy, but who will even be there at that time? Besides, we'll be with two guys who are practically allowed anywhere in the park." Clay argued. "Also, I've always wanted to see the inside. Please, Gogs? For me?"

George sighed. "Fine. Fine. But if we get fired over this, I swear to god I will beat the everliving shit out of you."

Clay laughed. "Don't worry, I'm sure it'll be completely fine."

_________________________

The next few hours until dark couldn't come soon enough. George hadn't seen Clay for a while, but he knew he was still on his shift.

The whole situation was making George fidgety. As much as he would also love to see the inside of Walt's Apartment, he did NOT want to get fired. If they were caught... well. He wasn't going to dwell on that now.

He followed the standard closing procedure, and met Clay in front of the tiki room. Clay was practically grinning ear to ear. George sighed. "Once again..."

"Yes, yes," Clay said impatiently. "You think this is a bad idea."

"I didn't say that."

"You're thinking it."

George ignored him and pulled out his phone.

[Me]
Hey, this is George. Where should we meet you guys?

[Impulse Esvee]
hey george! meet us outside the firehouse on main.
oh, and-

[[Impulse Esvee] added [Unknown Number].]

[Impulse Esvee]
thats ethos number :)

[Unknown Number]
Hiya :D

[Contact Added: [Etho (slab?)]]

[Me]
Ok let me add Clay, one sec

[You added [dreammmm] to the conversation.]

[dreammmm]
hello hello! on our way now.

[You changed the conversation name to: [rabbit hunters :D]]

[Etho (slab?)]
ooh snappers>

[Impulse Esvee]
etho what does this mean

George shoved his phone back in his pocket. "Ready to go?" he asked Clay.

"You know it."

__________________________

When they reached the firehouse, Impulse hurriedly beckoned them over from behind a planter. "Quickly!" He hissed.

George grabbed Clay's arm and ran toward Impulse. They both ducked behind the planter. "What's the point of sneaking if there's cameras?" George whispered.

Etho snorted. "Not anymore there isn't. The batteries to the surrounding camera went mysteriously missing this morning."

The three of them rounded on Etho. "What?!" Impulse whisper shouted. "You took the camera batteries out?!"

"Uh. No?" They said, blinking innocently.

"I cannot believe you right now," Impulse rubbed the bridge of his nose in indignation. "Do you have the keys?"

Etho rummaged in their bag, pulling out the ring of keys. His eyes glinted mischievously. "Let's go catch ourselves a rabbit."

The inside of the apartment was dark. They couldn't risk turning the lights on, so the group clutched the flickery flashlights Impulse had in his bag.

"Ouch, George! You stepped on my foot!" Clay hissed.

"No I didn't!" George hissed back, clutching his flashlight tighter, the white around his knuckles growing paler.

"Sorry, I think that was me," Etho muttered, swinging his flashlight beam around another corner. A faint grinding noise made George stop in his tracks, causing Clay and Impulse to bump into him.

"George, what th-"

"Shhh!" George hissed, putting a finger to his lips. He nudged Etho and mouthed, "tracker". Etho nodded and pulled out the device and switched it on.

A faint series of beeps emitted from the tracker, speeding up as they stood there, listening. The grinding noise got louder.

Then it abruptly stopped, and the beeps sped up, getting faster and faster and-

The hallway light flashed on, blinding the group as the four of them yelled in fear. Clay grabbed George's arm in fright, and Etho whipped a pocket knife out of his sleeve as they rounded on-

"Niki?!"

Niki stared at the four of them in disbelief. "What the hell are you four doing in here?!"

Chapter Text

"Niki... uhm. Hey?" George scratched the back of his neck nervously.

"George Lore, what the actual hell are you doing up here after hours?"

George blinked. "What are you doing up here?"

"Because I left my vest in here on shif- wait. How the fuck did you guys even get in here? And who are they?!" Niki asked, taking a step back. "And why does that one have a knife? How did you even get that into the park with that?"

The other three rounded on Etho, who was still clutching his pocket knife, frozen. Impulse elbowed him in the ribs, hard, causing him to let out a little squeak.

"I. Um. I'm maintenence?" He got out weakly, shoving it back into his vest pocket.

"And so am I!" Impulse added quickly. "We were uh, checking pipes with our good buddies George and Clay here, right guys?"

George and Clay both nodded enthusiastically. Niki, however, wasn't fooled.

"Thats bull. Now tell me why you're really up here."

Before anyone could open their mouth to attempt to convey an answer, there was a loud thud as Etho's pocket knife hit the floor.

And then the lights when out.

"Shit. It probably blew a fuse. Impulse, could you shine the flashlight towards the ground please? I kinda need that knife back."

George dropped to the ground and slowly crawled down the hallway, being careful not to bump into any side tables.

"I don't see it down here!" He called.

"Not over here either! Niki, can you help look?" Clay asked. Niki sighed, and bent over to check under an old fashioned chair.

And then Clay heard it, and froze. "Everyone, shut up."

Slowly, everyone turned their heads to the fast beeping sounds emitting from Etho's bag. George froze. There was a rattle above their heads and a soft thump from down the hall. Clay turned his head ever so slowly to see a small dark mass with small, beady eyes and fluffy ears rise up slowly from behind George.

"No. Fucking. Way," Impulse whispered.

"He-y. George?" Clay voiced cracked as he tried not to panic. "Why don't you just like. Start walking towards me. Quickly."

George's eyes grew wide. He shook slightly, inhaling, and started to make small steps in the group's direction. "What. Is. Behind. Me." He hissed, panicked.

The tiny dark mass on the table didn't move. Just stood there watching.

"Hey, uh, blonde guy?" Niki whispered, her voice shaking as she tried to comprehend what she was seeing. "I found your knife."

She slowly raised her hand to point as the animatronic rabbit on the table silently opened the pocket knife and gripped the handle in a stabbing position.

Roger Rabbit's laughter filled the small hallway.

And then it lunged.

"SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT-" Impulse yelled as the five of them sprinted to the doorway, the sound of tiny feet running after them getting closer.

Clay grabbed George's hand and pulled him forward, urging him to go faster. Clay faintly heard him say, "This isn't real, I'm dreaming. It's not real, It's not real-"

Etho and impulse didn't even bother with the door handle, and instead threw themselves against it. The door busted open, and they five of them sprinted headlong into the dark, and almost running into-

"Niki did you find your ves...? Niki-" Lizzie asked, confused, and Niki grabbed her hand and pulled her into a sprint with her, yelling curses as she went.

"VEER RIGHT! I HAVE A CAR, BROWN MINIVAN!" Impulse yelled as they busted out of the front entrance gates, frantically fumbling with his keys. The crew sprinted towards the parking lot as someone behind them yelled, "Where do you tink you are going?!"

"Guys! What's going on?!" Lizzie yelled, and George yelled back, "JUST. KEEP. GOING."

The group ignored the worker's outburst from behind them and Clay yelled, "ETHO, RABBIT STATUS?"

"I CAN'T SEE IT BUT THE THING IS STILL BEEPING!" Etho yelled back. Clay pushed himself faster. He could feel his calves burning from running, but he took and deep breath and focused on his breathing and then-

"TO THE RIGHT!" Impulse yelled, and the six of them launched themselves into the minivan, Lizzie and Clay ending up on the floor.

Impulse slammed his hand down on the lock button and-

Silence. No beeping, just the sound of frantic breathing and the crickets.

And then quietly, out of the distance, they heard a soft hum.

"Zip. A Dee Doo Da, Zip A Dee A..."

Beep. Beep.

"My, oh my, what a wonderful day..."

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Plenty of sunshine heading my way..."

BeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeep

"Is... that...?" Lizzie whispered, horrified.

"SHH!" The other five hissed, but the air had suddenly gained an eerily quiet.

BANG!

The six screamed as a furry mass launched itself at the windshield, clutching Etho's blade, knifepoint stabbing into the glass as if it could cut through. Now under the glow of the streetlights, Clay could get a better look at it.

Roger Rabbit himself, complete with the pink shirt and shorts, head cocked slightly to the side, fur matted and dirty. His animatronic tiny eyes had an oddly alive quality to them. A quality they shouldn't have.

"The. It. It has a knife." Lizzie swallowed, barely breathing. The rabbit slowly, almost robotically, turned it's head to look at Lizzie. And it smiled.

"Impulse... Start. The. Car." Clay hissed, and Impulse gently put the keys in the ignition, not taking his eyes off of the rabbit. He turned it and the car started, engine rumbling to life.

The rabbit's head whipped around, and the thing hissed before slamming Etho's knife into the windshield again. A small crack appeared, slowly running up the glass and splintering off.

The sound of the glass cracking screamed in Clay's ears.

"DRIVE!" The passengers screamed in unison, and Impulse floored it, the rabbit flying off the side, and taking Etho's knife with it.

"Was that the missing animatronic?! What the heck just happened? Am I dreaming?" Lizzie pulled on her pink hair in a panic, still awkwardly sitting on the floor of the minivan.

"Nope, I think that was very, very real," Impulse said shakily, pulling onto the highway. "Don't think we've ever been introduced. I'm Impulse, and that's Etho." Etho gave an awkward wave from the passenger's seat.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Lizzie," she said, her laughter sounding something close to hysteria.

"Niki." Niki said, arms crossed. "So now that we're not in danger of being slashed up by an animatronic rabbit, someone wanna give me the whole story?"

__________________________________

Keralis hung up his hard hat and grabbed his coat and bag from the hook on the door. Today had been a pretty chill day, nothing too exciting. Just a minor incident on the Jungle Cruise and a short shutdown over at small world, but nothing his team couldn't fix. He locked his office door behind him and started towards the lifts.

"Hey, Keralis!" a voice called from behind him.

Keralis turned to see the other head of maintenance, Xisuma, wearing his vest and hat. "Shishwam! You're here early!"

"Yeah, well I came in to check in on the rabbit situation. Any luck?"

Keralis sighed. "Nope. I wish."

"Well," X said, running his hand tiredly through his hair, "Have good sleep. Drive safe."

"Tanks, I'll see you in de morning." Keralis turned to the lifts and pressed the "up" button.

He reached the surface and pushed open the staff gate to the park. He started to make his way up Main Street, waving to some maintenance crew as he went. He was almost past Walt's apartment when he paused.

He heard them before he saw them.

There was a loud BANG as the door to Walt's apartment flew open, slamming against the wall. Five figures sprinted out of it, one of them clutching a brown bag. A pink haired girl, wearing a plaid vest rounded the corner, almost running into the the group.

"...ki did you find your ves...? N-" Keralis heard her say before she was yanked by another girl into a sprint.

"Where do you tink you are going?!" Keralis yelled after them, taking a few angry steps in their direction before he realized who he was about to chase after.

Why the hell were Impulse and Etho running around with some random people after hours?

Chapter Text

Somehow the six of them ended up at Impulse's tiny apartment, crowded around the dining room table as Impulse put the kettle on for tea. Etho had been here maybe, once or twice before, but somehow it always felt smaller.

It could also be the fact that there were a bunch of scared people now taking up any walkable space.

Behind Etho's head, the kettle screamed, making Lizzie and George jump. "Etho! Get that, please," Impulse yelled from the other room. Etho wasn't sure when Impulse had left the kitchen, but he sighed and stood up anyways, careful not to bump his head on the light fixture over the table (which was somehow hanging lower than last time he was here) and made his way to the stovetop. Delicately, they picked it up and yelled over their shoulder, "And what do I do with it?"

There was a scrape of chair against floor, and Niki walked over, gently took the kettle from Etho and muttered, "I got it," with a small smile.

Etho made his way back to the table, and soon after Niki walked over with mugs of steaming tea. She passed them around to everyone, who accepted the drinks with a smile. Etho stared down into his. His own eyes stared back at him. He adjusted his mask over his nose uncomfortably and slid his tea a few inches away, sitting back in his chair. Clay's eyes followed the motion cautiously.

"Hey guys, look at that cool bird statue! Impulse, where'd you get it?" Clay said abruptly, pointing to a small bluebird figurine across the room. Everyone at the table turned their heads to look. Etho lowered his mask to take a quick sip of tea, pulling it back up again as everyone turned back to the table. He flashed a grateful look at Clay, who smiled back as if to say, "No problem, man."

Etho let his hand drop from his mask. He needed to get better at trusting people. Or maybe people needed to be more trustworthy.

"So," Impulse began, walking around the corner and rubbing his hands together, "Let's assume we're all completely sane and almost just got killed by a machine, who of which is now somehow sentient and capable of holding a knife."

"Are we? I feel like I'm so delusional right now," Clay muttered, running his hands through his hair in a tired fashion. "Even if we're all sane... what the hell are we supposed to do about it? Like, if we reported this to the park management, or the police even, there's no way they'd believe us."

"Maybe they don't have to believe us," Lizzie whispered, clutching her tea like a lifeline, "We'll just take care of it on our own."

"How? Take care of it how?" Niki implored, "It's not like we can really do anything about it. It has a knife and, as far as we know, is hiding out at our work."

"We can do something about it." Etho didn't realize the words came from him until everyone was looking at him. He raised his voice slightly, straightening his posture. "We can kill it."

There was a moment of silence, then Impulse pointed out the obvious. "Etho. We know next to nothing about this whole situation. How do you expect us to kill this thing?"

"Drowning it." Etho put simply. "The thing is still a machine. Submerging it in water..."

"...would fry it's circuits to a breaking point." Lizzie finished, nodding her head.

The table looked at each other, conspiratorial smiles beginning to spread.

"Alright then," Clay grinned, "How do we drown this bitch?"

_____________________________________

"Cleooo," Joe drawls from the other room, where Cleo can hear the shuffling of papers being rearranged, "Have you put Katy to bed yet?"

"Not yet," Cleo called back from the kitchen, rocking a sleepy Katy against her chest, who had stirred at Joe's words. She yawned and looked up at Cleo, round blue eyes blinking away the sleep. "It's ok, Katy love, you can go back to sleep. Do you want me to take you upstairs?"

Katy gave a sleepy nod, and Cleo gently began carrying her up the winding staircase to her room. She laid her down, carefully pulled the covers up to her chin, and flicked off the lights.

"G'night, Mamma," Katy whispered, and Cleo paused in the doorway, her heart cracking just a little.

"Goodnight, love," Cleo whispered back, and she quietly shut the door.

It broke Cleo's heart to hear Katy call her mom. She'd never done anything worthy of the title, and Katy wasn't even her daughter.

Katy's real mom had died in a tragic car accident when Katy was a little over two months old. The accident left Joe absolutely ransacked with grief, he could hardly take care of himself, let alone baby Katy. So Cleo dropped everything: her job as a nurse, her small plant shop, and sold her house. She moved in with them. Every penny, every moment Cleo had, she gave it all to Joe and Katy. And she regrets none of it. Katy needed a mother figure, and so that's what Cleo gave her.

Even now, three whole years after the accident, Joe stays locked up in his study. Cleo does all the shopping and driving Katy to daycare because Joe can't stand to look at a car. He has a panic attack every time he gets in one.

Cleo doesn't blame him.

"Cleo?"

She snaps out of their train of thought to see Joe standing at the base of the stairs. "Everything good?"

"Yeah. yeah, all good," Cleo says as she makes her way downstairs. She walks down the hall to the kitchen, where she puts the kettle on for tea.

Joe follows her cautiously, lightly fingering his glasses in his left hand. There's a long moment of silence before Cleo gives in. "Yes, Joe?"

"Well, uh. I've been thinkin', that, well, only if you want to-" Joe swallowed, lightly tapping his glasses against the counter, "We could get married."

Cleo drops the cup she was holding in surprise. She loves Joe, but as a friend, and Cleo knows he feels the same. They both know that.

"Well, it would be better for financials and insurance," Joe adds quickly, "I've been researchin'. It would also cover us both through your health insurance through your job... and I'm not talking a huge wedding with a dress and all that. Just signing a marriage license and gettin' on with our lives."

"So, a partnership."

"Exactly. And w- you can still date other people and whatever, and get on with your own life... I was just thinking it might be good, I don't know." Joe says, taking the kettle off before the whistling woke up Katy.

"I... dunno," Cleo mutters. She sees what Joe means, it could help a lot to have their stuff combined. But... the last time Cleo was married, it didn't go well, and there was a lot of absence, and...

"Hey. Listen to me." Joe puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I'm not Etho, ok? I'm not gonna run off and leave you."

"Yeah, I know."

"Have you run into him at all? You know, at work?" Joe asks, taking his hand off her shoulder and pouring the boiling water into some mugs.

"No, and it'll stay that way," Cleo said, gritting her teeth as she picked up her mug. She'd worked at that dang park for three whole years and never run into her ex once. Which was great, by Cleo's standards.

She put a smile on and turned back to Joe.

"First thing tomorrow. We'll pick up that marriage license, and we'll sign it in that little cafe where we first met, yeah?"

Joe held out his fist, and Cleo bumped hers against it with a smile.

______________________________________

"Ren! Ren! Mr. Ren Dog!"

"Look over here! Mr. Dog!"

"Any comments on the missing animatronic?"

"How do you feel about being the first disney supervisor to lose a historic piece of machinery?!"

"Mr. Dog! Over here!"

Ren held his hand over his face to avoid the barrage of paparazzi waiting for him outside the restaurant, where up until just recently, he had been enjoying a nice late night meal with his two assistants, Joel and BDubs.

Ren practically fights his way to the limo, BDubs tugging on his arm as he throws himself in the car.

"Piss off!" Joel yells at the reporters before slamming the car door. There was a moment of silence before Joel mutters, "Bloody reporters. Don't know when to fuck off."

BDubs harrumphs in agreement.

"Dude," Ren said, face in his hands, "I feel like I can't even walk outside anymore."

The divider rolls down and the limo driver, an elderly man called Thomas, calls through the window port, "Five minutes till we reach the Disney offices, Sir."

"Thanks," Ren says half-heartedly, and the divider rolls back up.

Ren became the Disney Enterprise's CEO four months ago. And everything was going great, they had tons of new movie releases and TV shows going, the parks were populated and people were happy.

That is, until the freaking rabbit was stolen, and even maintenance hasn't been able to get it back.

"Joel?"

Joel looks up from the window. "Ren?"

"Your boyfriend works in maintenance, right?"

Joel turned beet red and muttered, "He's not my boyfriend, but yes."

BDubs gave something that sounded like "oh suree" covered up by a poorly executed fake cough. Joel glared daggers before turning back to Ren with a "What about them?"

"Tell him to keep a close eye out for that animatronic for me. I wouldn't mind hearing some reports from someone on the field, if you know what I mean." Ren touched the tips of his fingers together, surveying Joel.

Joel straightened. "Of course, I'll talk to him as soon as I get home."

The divider rolled down again, and Thomas calls through the window as he pulls into the lot. "We've arrived, Mr Dog. May I remind you you have a meeting with the board in less than fifteen minutes, that of which concerns the park management in Hong Kong and Paris."

As much as he hates late night (well, now very early morning) meetings, his Parisian and Chinese counterparts were wide awake at that time and perfectly available for meetings. Ren, mentally, was not. It was one in the freaking morning, and he needed sleep.

However, Ren just nods and straightens his tie. It was time to face the music.

_______________________________________

There was a unanimous decision to sleep in Impulse's apartment that night, because no one wanted to be driving after the whole disaster in the parking lot, and everyone else's cars were in the parking garage. Besides, they were all going to the same place in the morning.

Niki unrolls an extra sleeping bag Impulse had in his closet for herself, and another for Lizzie. After much contemplation, (read: fighting) they decided that Lizzie got the couch, Niki got the sleeper armchair, and Clay, George, and Etho got the floor. Impulse would, of course, sleep in his own bed. Niki was pretty sure he'd already gone to sleep, seeing as his door was already closed.

Now, as the night began to settle down, and the adrenaline faded, everyone was getting ready for bed. Etho was in the bathroom, Clay and Lizzie were already passed out, and George... well.

George, being the paranoid prick he was, made Niki check every window and door so many times that she wanted to slap him.

But she understood, everyone was on edge tonight.

She pushed away the urge to smack George and continued to make her little armchair as comfy as possible for the three hours of sleep she was most likely going to get tonight.

"Niki, can you please check the window one more time? I swear it's open."

The urge to throw hands resurfaced. Deep breaths, she told herself, deep breaths. Be nice.

Once she was sure she wouldn't sound like she was about to murder someone, she turned to George and said sweetly, "Why don't you just do it yourself?"

"It's too farrr," George whined from his spot on the floor.

Fuck being nice, Niki thought as she hurled her pillow at his skull.

"Niki, the fu-" George began, but was cut off by the sounds of a key turning in the lock. The room went quiet, and the sounds of keys jingling in the lock got louder. George elbowed Clay, who woke up with a panicked sound in the back of his throat. Niki gently shook Lizzie, who shot up and looked around frantically.

George grabbed an umbrella from the stand and clutched it as if it was a sword, and Niki curled her hands into fists. The room was deadly quiet.

Then the door swung open with a heavy creak. Silence, and then-

"Damn door. We need to get that fixed," A man's voice said.

"The creak or the lock?" Came another.

"Both!" The first laughed. Footsteps came in the hall as the creak of the door being shut was heard again. "Damn Keralis for keeping us late again. Told Impy we'd be back by one."

Niki turned to share a confused glance with the others behind her. "Impy?" she mouthed to George, who just shrugged, lowering the umbrella slightly.

"Impulse, we're ho- oh." One of the guys, who had red-blonde hair, rounded the corner and was abruptly cut off by the sight of four unfamiliar people in his living room.

The second person, a guy with curly white blonde hair, followed behind shortly after with a "Ho-oh? What's that suppos- Oh!"

There was a moment of shocked silence before the curly blonde blinked and said, "...uh. Hi?"

"H-hey," Niki muttered with an awkward half wave. There was a thud behind her as George dropped the umbrella and stood in a way that came off as "I'm trying to not look intimidating".

The door on the hall opened and everyone turned to see a sleepy Impulse had emerged, rubbing his eyes. "Everything all ri..." He trailed off as he noticed the standoff happening in front of him.

The red-blonde looked at Impulse with raised eyebrows and said, "You wanna explain why we walked into four people camping in our living room, holding Great-Granny Elsa's umbrella, looking like they were gonna kill us?"

George carefully picked the umbrella off the floor and put it back in its stand.

Impulse looked from the two men to the rest of the group and sighed. "Group, meet Tango and Zedaph. My... uh."

"Roomates," Zedaph said, at the same time Tango said, "Boyfriends."

Queue awkward silence. Broken quickly by the bathroom door swinging open, and Etho, who was humming a happy tune, froze when they looked out on the scene in front of them.

"Uh. Sorry, was I holding up the bathroom?"

Niki looked over, and the mere sight of Etho, the same Etho who carries a deadly weapon with him at all times, in pink rubber duck pajamas was enough to send her to the floor crying of laughter.

"Oi, these are the only extras Impulse had." Etho grumbled.

"Which happen to also be the pair I was hoping to wear to bed tonight," Zed mutters indignantly. Tango wraps an arm around his shoulders and says comfortingly, "You can wear one of mine."

Him and Zed made their way to the room, taking one last glance at the people crowded in their living space as Tango said to Impulse, "Right now, I want nothing more than to sleep, so full story is expected in the morning."

"Of course. Night, guys," Impulse smiles to group and quietly shuts the door behind him.

Clay sits up slightly, looking a the rest of the group in complete confusion.

"What the fuck was that?"

Chapter Text

Lizzie awoke the next morning to the sound of a frying pan and raised voices.

"I swear to you it's not supposed to get any darker!" Came an unfamiliar voice that slowly registered as Tango, one of Impulse's... roommates? Boyfriends? From the blush on Impulse's cheeks last night, Lizzie assumed the latter, but she wasn't going to pry.

"It's supposed to get darker than this, Tango, it's not even cooked at this point," She heard  Etho  sigh. The rapid sound of a spatula hitting a pan reached her ears, and she could faintly smell the sweet scent of  French  toast.

"Let me check it," Clay said, and Lizzie heard the scrape of a chair as Clay seemingly stood from the table and walked over to wherever they were cooking. There was a clank of a pan on stovetop.

"Yeah, that's pretty much raw.  Etho's right on that one."

She slowly raised herself up on her elbow and rubbed her eyes to adjust her  surroundings. She tapped her Apple watch, which informed her the time was 5:24am. She groaned and slumped back on her pillow. She never woke up this early for work. She made to close her eyes again when Niki popped up above her with a huge grin.

"Hello Starshine! The earth says hello!"

"It's good morning starshine, Niki, not hello starshine," George muttered from the table, where he was sitting with a huge mug of tea.

Niki rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Tango and  Etho  are making  French  toast for us... well. They're trying to."

Lizzie sat up and turned to the kitchen, where Tango and  Etho  were standing, wearing "Kiss Me, I'm The Chef" aprons. Tango had his hands on his hips defensively.

Etho  was smirking under his mask. In the back of her mind, Lizzie wondered why they never took it off. They were waving the spatula around like a wand. "Never took you for someone who eats raw eggs, Tango."

"Just because you've never had slightly raw  French  toast before doesn't mean it's bad," Tango snarked. "Nor raw eggs."

Zed, who was sitting at the table with Clay and George, scoffed. "Honey, you don't eat raw eggs. Don't lie to yourself."

Tango stuck out his tongue at Zed. Zed did it back. "Besides, we don't want to be giving our guests salmonella."

Frowning, Tango turned back to the pan and muttered something that sounded a lot like, "It was one time. One!"

Lizzie didn't feel the need to ask what he meant, so she got up and made her way to the table. Niki passed her a fresh mug of tea.

"Where's Impulse?" She asked, taking a cautionary sip.

"Showering. You're are welcome to as well, but the water probably won't be warm anymore," Zed laughed. "And you all have to leave for work in about... eh, I would say less than twenty minutes, so if I were you I'd change."

Lizzie nearly spit out her tea. "Less than twenty?! Park doesn't open for guests to enter until, like, seven!"

"Yeah, but me and Impulse have to be there by six, cause we're maintenance,"  Etho  said from the stove. They flipped the  French  toast over, revealing the other side to be blackened and burnt. "Oops."

Tango cackled. "That dark enough for you, Shady?"

Lizzie raised an eyebrow. "Shady?"

"Old nickname,"  Etho  muttered, turning back to the stovetop. Tango, it seemed, wasn't about to let it drop.

"I went to elementary school with this kid. We were probably in like, oh, second grade, which would be about sixteen years ago now." He laughed at Lizzie's surprised expression. "Yeah, both of us are twenty-three this year." He elbowed  Etho  with a grin. "Old men."

Zed scoffed. "Still younger than me. Twenty-six in June." He shook his head with a fake somberness.

"Yeah, well, anyways,  Etho  had this huge collection of erasers, shaped like little animals, you know? And the other kids thought they were so cool, so they would bring money or candy or comics to school and try and trade with him. And he would lead them into a dark corner of the play structure," Tango moved his fingers across his palms like tiny legs to signify walking, "and he would make deals with them. He probably walked out of that year with at least two hundred dollars worth of shit."

Clay's jaw dropped. "Two hundred? Two-zero-zero?"

Tango nodded. "Yup. When he told me, I said, "That's real shady, E." And that's where the nickname comes from. Shady E!"

"Damn,  you're  a real businessman,  Etho," Clay laughed.

"More like scammer," growled Impulse, who had just emerged from the shower. "You still have my 1978 collector's edition of Green Lantern."

Etho  giggled. "I'll give it back... for the right price."

Impulse sighed exasperatedly and turned to Lizzie. "Hey Liz, you  wanna  get dressed? We have to leave in less than ten minutes."

Crap. Lizzie shot to her feet and grabbed her work uniform from the couch and made her way to the bathroom to change. After she'd brushed her hair, changed, and put a little mascara on, she ran back out and shoved her shoes on with everyone else.  Etho, who had finally finished  some ok-looking pieces of  French  toast, bundled them up in paper towels and the group bid farewell to Zed and Tango.

The ride to the park was mostly silent, but when they reached the employee security gate (on time, thanks to  Etho  barely crossing the line of a legal speed), Impulse turned to face the group. "Ok, if anyone sees anything, text the group chat. We'll meet at the end of Main after closing, yeah?"

There was noise of agreement, and the crew walked through to fulfill another day.

________

Cleo was so tired that morning she had to chug two monsters just to keep her eyes open. Katy had a nightmare the previous night, and Cleo ended up sitting with her until the very early hours of the morning. As tired as she was, Katy came first.

Cleo pulled into the staff lot, parked, and made a mental note of where her car was. She dragged herself to the lifts, through security, and onto the tram, plopping down to someone who seemed familiar, not that Cleo cared enough to look.

"Good morning, Cleo," Came a lazy drawl from beside her.

"Horrible morning, Quackity."

Quackity laughed. "Oof, better improve that mood before you hop on the boat. Can't have an overly sarcastic skip, now can we?"

Cleo sighed. As much as she loved her fellow skipper, it was getting harder and harder to not snap back at him.

As if Quackity could read her thoughts, he handed her the remainder of his Prime as some kind of weird-ass peace treaty.

Cleo raised an eyebrow. "Dude. Grape is the worst flavor."

"No it's not. Blue is. Grape is the best."

"Blue is the best one. Hands down."

"Blue is disgusting."

Cleo rolled her eyes. "You're disgusting."

"I'll take that back then," Quackity grinned, and reached over to grab the bottle from Cleo's hands. Faster than lighting, she flicked off the cap and drained it with a grimace. She handed the empty bottle back to Quackity.

"Rude."

Cleo just laughed.

When the tram stopped, Cleo dragged herself out of the tram seat and waved bye to Quackity as she made her way to the security scanning.

Once she made her way through the main gates, she started off towards the Jungle Cruise, waiting for the caffeine to kick in. She half-heartedly waved to people she knew, but she was mainly focused on getting to the attraction on time so she could claim a boat that had a working microphone.

She rounded the corner towards the exit of Main when something small in her peripheral made her turn.

Something small and brown and fuzzy had just run through a Cast Member's Only gate. A dog? Even though she was still groggy from lack of sleep, she was sure she'd just seen something.

Cleo found herself walking towards the gate. She recognized it, vaguely. It was where the actors and actresses who posed as Disney characters went through to take a break from taking pictures with guests. What on earth was a dog doing in there? How did it even get in the park?

And, Cleo wondered as she punched in the gate code, how the dog even opened the heavy gate in the first place. She walked through and shut the gate behind her.

She was met with a heavy silence.

"Hello? Dog?"

Nothing.

She was about to call again when something in the bushes next to the door shifted. It was a near silent motion, but Cleo caught it. She whirled around to see not a dog, but a rabbit.

Holy fuck. A rabbit. Wearing clothes and holding a small green pocket knife and looking her dead in the eyes .

Cleo barely had time to react before it lunged.

"SHIT." She dove to the side, and the thing sailed past, knife still outstretched. When it turned to leap at her again, Cleo was ready. She struck her leg out and kicked the thing with all the force she could muster, sending it flying into the wall. The knife clattered from it's grasp, skidding somewhere over by the gate.

Oh, she was awake now.

The thing turned it's head, beady eyes narrowing on her face. Cleo got a good, long look at it's face. It looked… alive . And a lot bigger than what Cleo remembered of the Splash Mountain animatronics. It was almost the size of a toddler.

Almost Katy's size.

The rabbit turned it's head slightly in the direction of the knife, and impossibly, Cleo found herself stepping in it’s path, blocking the blade. "Go back to hell, Satan spawn," she found herself saying.

With one long look, the rabbit turned and fled into the brush.

Cleo had no idea how long she stood there, but when she finally came back to her senses, she turned around and picked up the pocket knife. Her stomach dropped.

She knew this knife. She'd been taught to carve with it. He'd taught her.

"Don’t be so rough with it, use multiple strokes. You're going to take a chunk out of this poor stump."

"Give me a break, I'm trying!"

"I know." He guides her hand on the next letter. "There, like you're filleting a fish."

  "You've never filleted a fish before, have you?" She laughs, and they chuckle along with her.

"No, I have not," He admits as he takes the knife from her to finish the little heart around the letters. Their initials.

E+C

"Perfect," she says.

Cleo looks down at that damned knife again. She could almost feel Etho's hand guiding hers, carving letters that would never last on a tree stump that had probably decayed by now.

Then it hit her like a truck. Today was October fourth. The anniversary of their divorce.

Pieces were clicking into place as she stared at the knife. Was this his idea of a sick joke? Putting some small in a fur suit and telling them to attack her? Or hiring someone to build a robot capable of wielding a knife?

Cleo had never once wanted to run into her ex-husband at work. Never once wanted to speak to him. Not until today.

She shoved the knife into her pocket, and set out, chin high, to find the person who broke her heart. And maybe break a finger or two of his.

_____________

The group had made to split off to their respective jobs at the Main Gate, but somehow they all ran into each other again at the Main Street Starbucks. After they all had ordered and received their drinks, the six of them found a table by the lockers and sat down.

Impulse pulled up an extra chair for himself and George, and took a long swig from his iced chai. He had to admit, as weird as the circumstances were, he was happy to find such an unlikely group of friends.

"So," Lizzie began, swirling her cup around to mix up its contents, "Has anybody else checked their work email recently? Cause I just got a notice that I'm being fined for having my car parked overnight in the parking garage."

"Shit," Clay muttered, opening up his email. The others around the table did the same, and from their sounds of disbelief, Impulse could tell they'd all gotten the same notice.

"Ha, sucks to suck," Impulse said cheerfully, draining the remainder of his cup. "Remind me to get light ice next time, though. There was barely anything in this thing."

Etho snorted. "Sucks to suck," they parroted back, shoving a chunk of cheese Danish under his mask. Impulse was about to suggest he just take it off entirely, when a strong female voice rang out across the street.

"Etho fucking Slab."

Etho froze, closed his eyes, and inhaled slowly before turning towards the outburst.

A tall, red haired figure was stalking across the street towards the table. With an impending sense of dread, Impulse recognized her as Cleo, Etho's ex-wife. Clay and George seemed to recognize her too, probably because (as Impulse was now realizing) they were all skippers.

Cleo walked straight up to their table and slammed a small object down to the surface so violently it tipped over Niki's cup. She turned and looked Etho dead in the eyes. "You think you're so funny, don’t you? Paying someone to get into a rabbit suit or design a robot or some shit to attack me with your damned knife? You should be grateful I haven't called the police on you yet, you sick-"

Etho blinked in surprise. "Woah, back up. Nice to see you again and all that, but did you just say a rabbit suit?"

Cleo gestured angerly to the small object she'd slammed on the table. "It's your knife, you tell me."

The was a moment of shocked silence as the group fully took in what she'd said, and looked down at the knife on the table. The same one Etho had dropped. The same one Roger had nabbed on the first investigation in Walt's apartment.

"Holy shit." Niki whispered. She abruptly stood up and looked Cleo up and down. "Are you ok? Did it get you anywhere? Where did you find it?"

Stunned, Cleo turned to the rest of the group and registered the shock and fear on their faces.

Etho took advantage of Cleo's silence to get in a response. "Listen, Cleo. I know what today is… but you know me. I wouldn’t do something like this. What attacked you, it wasn’t something in my control. I swear on everything."

Cleo, who seemed taken aback, dropped her voice. "What's going on, Etho?"

The table looked around at each other for a moment longer before George spoke up. "Listen, Cleo. Next time you see that thing, run. It's not something you want to interact with."

"I… don’t understand."

"You know that missing animatronic that everyone's on the hunt for?" Impulse asked hesitantly. Cleo's face dropped.

"You're messing with me." She said, taking a step back. "No way in hell was that the missing animatronic. It was child sized, and there's just no way that something like that could look so alive."

"Well, we don’t exactly know how it happened, but if you see it just stay awa-" Clay started, but was abruptly cut off by Lizzie.

"Cleo, right? Did… did you just say the thing was child sized?"

Cleo nodded. "Listen, I don’t know what the hell is going on here, and I'm going to leave you all to it. But you," She added, turning on Etho, "are going to stay out of my life from now on, ok? If I ever see your face again I'm going to smash it in with my boot like I did that to rabbit-demon spawn when I kicked it into a wall."

With one final look at the group, she turned on her heel and stalked away, leaving dead silence in her wake.

Etho put the pocket knife back in his vest, and everyone at the table but Impulse turned to them with questions in their eyes.

George got to it before anyone else did. "You wanna give us the whole story, buddy?"

Etho just sighed.