Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It's been many years since we Toon Handlers left the Toons in Gardenview.

Ichor is toxic to humans, so after the Ichor Operation spiraled out of control and the Ichor exploded onto humans, Gardenview has been closed since the 29th of June in 2002. And it's been so long since we've seen our Toons . . .

Our babies.

I, Shanon Mendez, will bring the Toon Handlers together. And together, we will go back down into Gardenview to find out what really happened.

Austin Russo was nervous about it at first. But once Dandy and Pebble's Handler, Devan Reed, agreed, he tentatively did as well. They were easy to convince.

Sam McLaughlin was a little harder to convince since she never really cared for the Toons… or children, for that matter.

Veronica Hurley was a struggle to convince, but once Sam McLaughlin told her I was hosting the search, she followed easily.

We all pile into Devan's car.

“Gosh, so much has changed in twenty-two years. I remember biking to work!” I exclaim, excited to go back.

Devan, who's driving, scoffs. “There's nothing to be excited for on this mission, Shanon. All we're doing is going back to figure out what happened at the workplace we'd had to evacuate.”

I put on a puppy pout that makes them smile fondly. Besides Devan, of course. Party pooper.

The rest of the ride to Gardenview is silent, nerve-wracking even. No one dares to speak up, nor do I think anyone wants to.

The five of us climb out of the car with a little bit of dragging Devan out; we hop on the train to Gardenview.

Austin, Veronica, and I all talk with each other. Sam and Devan stay quiet, although Devan's actually listening to the three's conversation. Sam stares out one of the windows, lost in thought.

I sigh and leave the conversation, staring out of one of the windows, just like Sam.

What happened to our Toons? What'll happen to us? Will we even be able to get in? Millions of questions go through my mind, all unanswered. I think we'll be safe . . . But it isn't guaranteed.

“Shanon? Shanon, are you alright?” Veronica asks me, her hand on my shoulder. I practically jumped out of my skin.

“O-Oh, yeah! Just in thought, I'm sorry if I worried you, dear.” I reply quickly, my face heating up a little.

Veronica, no worries!” I practically spit out quickly. Everyone but Veronica looks convinced.

“Alright . . . if anything is wrong, you can always come talk to me, alright?”

I smile and nod.

“Hey, I want a verbal answer!” Veronica pouts.

“Okay, okay. I’ll come to you if anything’s wrong.” I reply quickly. Veronica doesn’t notice it, but Devan and Austin are “oo”ing in the back. Once Veronica does notice, her face goes a rosy pink and she hides her face with her hands.

I giggle. And then I notice that Sam isn’t paying attention to anything but outside. “Sam, how close are we to the building?” I ask, but she doesn’t reply.

“Sam?” I ask again, gently nudging her.

She yelps. “Holy shit, warn a gal before you touch them!” Devan snickers quietly. Those two have always had a tough relationship, especially in the workplace.

“I was calling for you.”

“Oh. What is it?”

“How close are we to the building?”

“Oh, uh . . . a third of the way to go.” Sam mutters, kicking Devan’s ankle once she notices his snickering.

Austin laughs. “Would you believe it if I told you they’ve been like this since high school?” He asks me and Veronica.

“Woah, you know each other since high school?”

Devan scoffs. “She’s a bloody nightmare, I swear.”

“Ugh, the only reason we’re around each other is because we’re friends with Austin.”

“Me and him are best friends, actually.”

Sam scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Whatever.”

Me and Veronica look at each other, the same thing in mind. Devan definitely likes Austin. We giggle to each other. The others look at us with confusion but I don’t bother explaining, especially not to Devan what we were thinking. Veronica giggles, knowing why I’m not telling, and doing the same.

Devan goes to ask what we’re giggling about, but we’re saved from questions as the train arrives at the main building.

“Wow . . . it looks so worn down . . .” I mutter softly. They nod in agreement, although Devan and Sam don’t seem to care. Austin and Veronica look worried and unsure if we should continue. I smile and stand up, taking Veronica’s hand.

“If we’re going to find our Toons, we have to be brave, sillies!” I exclaim, letting go of Veronica’s arm and going to the closed gate.

Sam joins me. “None of us thought this far, I assume?”

Austin comes over and rips out a hole in the gate. One big enough for us adults to go through.

“Holy crap, Austin, I didn’t know you were that strong!” Veronica exclaims, slightly hiding behind me.

Austin smiles nervously, sweating a little. Sam rolls her eyes.

“Showoff . . .” She mutters, although lighthearted.

We kind of just stand there a while, no one wanting to go in first. After two minutes, I roll my eyes and enter first. “You guys gotta stop being scaredy-cats and come on!” I exclaim, walking happily further.

Everything is . . . different. It’s darker, the lights flicker sometimes, everything is rearranged . . . but the gift shop is still the same, although holding . . . blurred things to the point I can’t see what the words say.

But there are the toon plushies. I grab one of the Shelly plushies . . . I miss Shelly. I hold it tight to me as the others come running up.

“Dude, how in god’s name do you have so much energy, Shanon?” Sam asks, panting a little.

“What, a little run’s too much for you to handle?” Devan mocks. Sam elbows him and he laughs.

Veronica and Austin also grab a plushie of the Toon they used to handle - Astro and Vee.

Austin clings to his like a lost puppy while Veronica puts hers in her bag so it’s sticking out.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see colorful petals. Is that Dandy?

I immediately turn and run to where I think I saw him but he isn’t there.

“. . . Huh.”

“What is it?” Devan asks.

“Oh, nothing . . . Just thought I saw something. Was probably just a trick of my mind, haha . . .” I don’t sound convincing at all, but Devan doesn’t push further.

“If it was nothing, let’s keep moving.”

We go out into the main lobby and wow, the elevators are huge. I forgot how big they were; to fit all the kindergarten classes in them and they’d still have to wait a bit.

“Woah . . .” Austin mumbles, shocked by the largeness of the elevators.

We slowly go into the yellow one, a cardboard cutout with Shelly in front of it. After ten seconds of the elevator not closing at all, it suddenly slams shut, making us all jump a little. We start descending, down into the depths of the facility.

I sigh a little and fiddle with my sleeves. After a short moment, the elevator opens to the first floor. We exit and the elevator slams shut once more. On the door of the elevator is an empty bar with

“Machines extracted 0/4” on it.

I look at it with confusion before exploring the first floor. There, we see Poppy and Tisha, but . . . they have ichor covering them. Their eyes are black, filled with ichor. Poppy’s pink bow droops and drips ichor, Tisha’s duster covered in ichor that she uses as an attack weapon.

They both start chasing Devan. He yelps and starts running, leading them away from me and the others.

I wander a little and come across this weird machine with a turning wheel. I start turning the wheel and it starts extracting the ichor from above . . . interesting! Maybe we’re taking this substance deeper down . . ?

I continue extracting the machine and soon it finishes, making a ding sound. I hear another ding sound shortly after.

As I’m exploring, I pass by the elevator. It says “Machines extracted 2/4” now, the bar lit up halfway. Perhaps we have to extract all machines to continue down further.

Another ding and I find some jumper cables. Hm, I wonder if Veronica knows how to use these, I think as I place it carefully in my bag.

Last ding and the elevator opens. I run to get inside; Veronica and Austin are already there. Same joins us after a bit and Devan comes last, the twisteds on his tail but once he gets inside the elevator, the door slams shut, separating us from them.

“What were those?!” Veronica asks, terrified.

“Twisted versions of the Toons, I’m guessing. I believe it’d be easier to call them Twisteds.” Devan replies almost monotonously, panting slightly from all the running I bet he did.

A hatch in the back of the elevator opens up. On the table is a note, a jumper cable, a box o’ chocolates, and a bottle o’ pop.

Devan grabs the note and starts reading it aloud.

Chapter Text

Devan grabs the note and starts reading it aloud.

“New friends! Or should I say, old friends? Every other finished floor, my shop opens from the hatch. I will have stuff for you to buy with tapes that you can pick up from the floors. You'll figure out what you need to do on the floors in no time! Winky face, Dandy.”

He mimics Dandy’s voice, kind of eerily. I shiver slightly and swallow thickly at my thoughts and focus on what the note said instead.

“Dandy? He’s still here? That means our Toons might still be here!” I exclaim, excitement and content filling my soul.

Devan nods in agreement, albeit his expression slightly bitter. He holds it up for us to see.

“New friends! Or should I say, old friends? Every other finished floor, my shop opens from the hatch. I will have stuff for you to buy with tapes that you can pick up from the floors. You'll figure out what you need to do on the floors in no time! ;) ~ Dandy”

Devan goes into deep thought, reading the note over and over again.

Sam speaks up next. “If any of you got tapes, give ‘em to me, I’ll buy things for us.” They say, holding up tapes that they probably collected from the first floor.

Veronica hands over a few tapes that she has to Sam, smiling nervously.

Austin stays in the back, a nervous expression, his hands behind his back as his body sways in time with his breathing.

What a nervous wreck he is . . .

I go to Austin and smile cheerfully. “Chin up, Austin! What’s got you so anxious, huh?” I ask with a cheery demeanor. Inside, I’m terrified. It’s not just gonna be Tisha and Poppy that are “Twisted” or whatever Devan said.

“Just scared . . . what if our Toons are Twisteds as well? What if we’ll never see them sane again? Those two . . . they were practically mindless . . .”

I smile. “They’re strong! I know they’ll be okay.” I ruffle Austin’s hair and he blushes, swatting at my hand. I giggle.

Meanwhile, Sam buys jumper cables and hands them to Veronica. “Here, Tech nerd. I dunno what they do and I don’t care.”

Veronica smiles sheepishly and pockets them. I smile.

The shop closes back into the hatch and soon enough, the elevator opens again.

But not before me and the others talk.

“Okay, we need everyone to be safe. Shanon, Veronica, you guys are going to heavily help with extracting the machines. I’ll also help with machines, but I’m gonna hold all the items and tapes for everyone so we don’t lose anything. Devan, you distract the Twisteds or whatever the hell you’re calling ‘em. Austin . . . I dunno, help Devan with boosting his stamina? Just make sure he doesn’t get hurt too bad.” Sam says like an authority figure, making gestures with their hands.

“Why am I distracting those damned things?” Devan asks, crossing his arms in annoyance. 

“Because you can learn whatever the hell you want with those monstrosities. To hell with your data but the rest of us ain’t distracting.”

“Ugh, whatever.”

“So, um . . . how am I supposed to help Devan keep his while being chased by Twisteds?”

“I dunno, chuck a soda at him or somethin’.”

“Er . . . okay.”

Back out of the elevator, I quickly find a machine. I start extracting it and hum quietly to myself.

Getting distracted, I start watching Devan distracting the Twisteds nearby. He just walks and runs repeatedly so he doesn’t get hurt but keeps the Twisted’s attention on him. It’s so interesting. Austin is standing nearby, watching anxiously, holding his hands together and fidgeting with them as he keeps a watchful eye on Devan.

The Twisteds are Tisha and Boxten. Huh. Twisted Tisha is on this floor again? Interesting. Devan must be making a ton of mental notes right now. I giggle softly at the thought and return to extracting.

I hear the loud ding! echo through the floor.

I finish the machine in front of me with another loud ding!

I run off in search of another machine when Sam turns the corner suddenly, making me jump.

My body shakes slightly in aftershocks.

“You good, Shan?” Sam asks, patting my head. My shoulders droop slightly and I sigh. They always treated me like a little kid, haha . . .

“You could’ve given me a heart attack turning the corner so suddenly. Scared me, that’s all.” I smile cheerfully.

They cross their arms and before I know it, the last machine is done and the elevator opens with a loud groan. “ RNNNG .”

I grab Sam’s hand and start to pull them to the elevator with me. Austin trails behind us, beckoning Devan to come and hurry.

I get into the elevator and Sam’s arm retreats from my grasp.

“Oh! Sorry, Sam . . . I just wanted to get us to the elevator quickly.” I say with a sheepish smile.

“Yeah, whatever . . . just warn me about it next time,” Sam mutters as Veronica comes rushing in, out of breath.

“I was all the way across the floor . . .” Veronica complains between pants, trying to catch her breath. I smile.

“It’s okay, darling. We understand.” Sam scoffs and stands off to the side, a little awkwardly as we wait for Austin and Devan to get here.

The timer starts counting down at ten, the ticking in the clock becoming more anxious. It gives an ominous feeling, and when the timer hits zero--!

Austin practically drags Devan in by the arm, and the elevator shuts with a harsh, boom ing slam.

I jump slightly at how loud it is. Austin, too. He and I both HATE loud noises. Absolutely hate it. It makes me want to rip myself out of my skin.

Austin is more sensitive, though. He grew up in a bad environment, although he won’t explain what happened in full detail. But that’s okay. I won’t push him to share.

I remember always jumping at every little sound while on the streets when I was little. I never had parents like the other kids at school. I was told my father was absent and my mother died in labor. My mom birthed me on the streets, and none of her friends could adopt me. But still, they supported me as best as they could . . .

Veronica gently shakes me. “Hey . . . are you okay?” She asks quietly, hugging me to her chest and gently stroking my hair.

“I-. . . yeah, I’m okay, Veronica.” I respond, before noticing cards left on Dandy’s shop counter. “Hey, what are those?”

Devan is already looking at the cards and a small note next to it. He scoffs and shows it up to the rest of us.

“Vote for one.” It says, with little “voting circles” velcroed to the paper. What a weird way to give us this . . . I think.

Sam scoffs while Devan hands everyone their respective voting piece.

Devan spreads out the three cards across the surface of Dandy’s counter. They are “Frugal”, “Avaricious”, and “Tech Savvy”. Each card has a little description, too!

Frugal: This card applies a 10% discount to all Dandy’s Shop items. (Just for you, lovely Toon Handlers.)

Avaricious: Increases the chances of rarer items appearing on the floor and in Dandy’s shop!

Tech Savvy: Decreases the amount of time needed to fill up machines by 5 seconds.

To be honest . . . Frugal’s parenthesis section seemed sarcastic.

I then realize I’m peering over the cards too much and lean back so the others can see, too. Haha . . . embarrassing . . .

Veronica chuckles. Why . . ?

“Veronica, what are you laughing about?” I ask, a soft glance to her.

She giggles. “You’re blushing . . . it’s cute.” I seem to blush harder because she giggles more.

“Stop giggling, Veronica!” I squeak, even more embarrassed.

Sam rolls their eyes, Austin is holding back giggles, and Devan doesn’t really seem to care .

Sam and Devan placed down their voting piece, but Austin and Veronica haven’t.

“Greenie and Bluey, c’mon. Vote so we can get this crap done.” Sam says, bored and tired.

Veronica blushes in embarrassment, and places her voting piece on tech savvy. I placed mine there, too! We think alike, sometimes.

Austin looks at the selection, before placing his piece with Devan on Frugal.

Sam sneers at Devan. “Look, my vote was better than yours~!” They tease, although I can’t tell if it’s teasing or mocking.

Devan rolls his eyes, writing stuff in a notebook.

Sam scoffs. “Nerd.”

“Thanks for calling me smart, I suppose.” He replies semi-coldly. I believe he’s writing down notes about the Twisteds.

A funny thought pops into my head. What if he picks one up by the arm while writing notes? I giggle at this thought.

And when I snap out of my thoughts, I finally realize Austin is clinging to Devan’s arm, trying to peer at what he’s writing and Devan keeps tilting it away. And then I notice the warmth on my own arm, in which Veronica is clinging to.

I chuckle softly and pat her head. I’m still a little scared of this whole ordeal, even if I’m the one who “planned” it out.

What if we die down here? Or, what if we get trapped down here? What if the toons aren’t actually here . . . we saw those “Twisteds”. What if they’re just mind-fogged, bloodthirsty monsters now?

No! I have to think positive. Everything is perfectly fine. The place may be worn down, but those Twisted things are just clones! Ichor clones! Yeah!

The ichor must’ve reproduced these clones of the sweet toons and corrupted them in the process of development in an accident.

The others stare at me, and Devan starts writing in his notebook again.

. . . Oh. Did I say that last sentence aloud? “Sorry, I have a lot of thoughts right now. I must’ve said it aloud!” I laugh, hiding the nervousness in my voice, with a sweet smile and “honest” eyes.

Veronica and Austin smile, silently reassuring me that it’s fine. Sam only glances at me before looking away, and Devan is nodding his head as if listening to someone talk to him as he writes down notes.

I smile at what Devan’s doing. Like Austin, I peer over his shoulder to look at the notes, but again, like he did Austin, he hides it from view.

Finally, tired of us trying to peek, he closes it and puts it back into his bag. He lets out a sigh.

“May I have my privacy, Austin, Shanon?” He asks, tired of me and Austin. We giggle.

“But that’s no fun!” We whine, in sync. It’s like our brains have linked because we’re syncing up a lot now. “We love annoying you!!”

Devan groans, inching away from us. Sam scoffs out snickers, low and quiet, but it doesn’t go unnoticed from Devan, who shoves his elbow at them.

I giggle along with Veronica and Austin at Devan and Sam’s bickering. They act so much like siblings, and it’s rather funny to watch.

Oh yeah! We're still . . . here.

The card with the most votes slides up with magic, going into a card holder attached to our pants, while the other cards dissipate in front of our very eyes.

Toon magic is such a wonderful thing , I think. Veronica tries to get rid of the card from her thing, but it doesn’t budge. I giggle at her attempts as she keeps trying to rip it from her pants. 

The elevator opens up and Devan gets to distracting the Twisteds immediately. The floor is another one of the rainbow rooms. I sigh. I remember when the other Toons would play with the children in these rooms, without a care in the world.

The happy times that are now long gone.

I sigh and wander to find a machine, but I’m really just lost in thought. I’m pretty sure I pass by a few of them before I just sigh and sit on a crate.

Will I find Shelly? Or the other main Toons? Or ANY Toons at all? I’m afraid of what happened after we abandoned them. Ding!

I think Dandy took the role as leader, but he sounds so morally gray now, even if it’s in writing. He used to be this bright, cheerful and trustful Toon, but now he feels suspicious, as if keeping dark secrets buried . . .

I snap out of my thoughts and look at the floor- Ding!

A health kit!

I pick it up and put it in my bag before getting stuck in thought again. Ding!

Thank goodness Sam had the bright idea of each of us having a bag, just in case. It’s adorable to think they had sewn on patterns that relate with our old Toons, even if they didn’t particularly like their Toon that much in the past.

I, for real, jump in surprise when Twisted Looey attempts to bite my leg. I yelp and run from him but he keeps coming after me. Ding!

I run past Veronica, who’s waiting in front of a machine. The red light flashes blue before Twisted Connie comes out of it and wanders. Looey is still on my tail-

Ding!

The elevator opens and everyone rushes inside . . . except me. I’m on the other side of the floor. I run, anxiety filling me.

10 . . .

9 . . .

8 . . .

7 . . .

6 . . .

5 . . .

4 . . .

3 . . .

Veronica rushes out and yanks me into the elevator. She falls backwards onto her bottom, and I fall with her - on her lap. My face goes red.

“. . . Thank you, Veronica . . .” I mumble, quickly sitting up. Veronica’s face is red as well.

“Er- yeah! Just . . . didn’t want you stuck on that floor, y’know?”

Austin grabs my arm and pulls me to him, checking for any injuries. “Are you okay? Looey scratched at you--”

“I’m okay, Aus.” I cut him off quickly. He would have gone on a very long rant if I hadn’t.

“Okay . . . be careful.” He says, and I chuckle softly. The others have always treated me like a younger sibling.

“I’m careful, Aus.”

I look over at Dandy’s shop. A bottle o’ pop, a pop, and a pack of three gumballs.

Austin, Veronica and Devan hand Sam tapes, but she silently puts the tapes in her bag.

I look at the counter and I think I see Dandy, again. He looks irked that we didn’t buy from his shop. But when I double back, he’s not under the counter anymore.

Huh.

Devan snaps his fingers in front of my face to get my attention. “The elevator is opening.” He responds to my confused look. Before I get the chance to say something, the elevator opens.

Me and Veronica find the four machines clustered near each other, far from the elevator. Sam wanders off in search of items on the floor, before joining us in extraction.

While extracting, I look up at the other elevator. There’s some police tape, yes, but very little, draped on the floor.

Were the Toons using the other elevator? I ask myself, before Ding! Splash-- Ding! Splash-! Me and Veronica finished our first machines.

I watch as Veronica goes to the last of the four, with Sam finishing up the third one. Seeing that they’re finishing the floor up, I wander off in search of Devan and Austin, and find them in a short time.

Devan is holding Finn by the edge of his fishbowl. The bowl that used to contain blue-ish clear water is now filled with an ink-like substance. Ichor. Austin is being chased by Flutter, going in circles around a crate. I snicker softly at the sight.

What a funny thing to see. Ding! Splash-- DING! Splash! CRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

The elevator opens and panic mode starts. Austin runs into the elevator. Devan gently lets go of Twisted Finn, and trails Austin. I join the two men as we wait for Veronica and Sam.

I talk idly with Austin about home life when Sam rushes in, dragging Veronica by the arm. The elevator slams shut once again, but--

“What’s happening-?!”

The lights flicker and the elevator glitches. Our descent trails off and the elevator stops moving completely, the lights shutting off not short after.

Stuck. In the darkness.

No way out. No help.

Nothing.