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Find me. That was what the wall said.
I woke up from that nap in the Dino-Snore onesie Dandy gave me, and saw the wall on the far side of the train station.
'Dandy!' I called into an empty shop.
'Miss Fossilian, if you are looking for Dandicus, I believe he went to the train station.'
'Stupid blossom! Always wandering off to one place or another. And you, Dyle, you're just as bad! You, with your fancy talk! You were Twisted, and then you weren't!'
I stormed off to the train station, where I saw Dandy staring curiously at the wall. The wall that said 'Find Me'.
'Dandy? You look weird...'
'She was here, Shels. She was here and now she's gone. Why? Why not come see me? Why hide? WHY?!'
'Dandicus Dancifer, calm down. Your yelling is disturbing my tea!' Called Teagan from one of the booths.
'Thanks, Teagan!' I called. 'Dandy, let's get you to Teagan. Maybe her tea will calm you down.'
'No. No other Toons need to get involved in this. Let's get to my room. It'll be more private than my store.' Dandy muttered.
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'Spill. You have tea, you have biscuits, spill. What is wrong?'
Dandy paused for a second, sipping the tea Teagan had given him.
'Well... wait. You're wearing the Dino-Snore onesie?'
'Yes? I just woke up. You're going off topic. Spill.'
'It starts with Vee Version 2. All the toons had Version 2s, and Vee's was the first one, but I was playing with some Ichor one day, and accidentally twisted the Version Twos, the first twisteds. Because they were all lethal, I did something that no Toon has ever tried again, absorbing the lethalness into Ichor, but that Ichor began to get all over the place. Then, when I tried to stop Dyle from being lethal, Dyle chose not to let me, and became a literal ticking time bomb, and because of that Arthur pushed up the activation of the Summer 4. Vee caused the Malfunction Incident by twisting, and my efforts were too little too late. Not by choice, I accidentally caused the incident, but when I told everyone what happpened, they blamed me. I let them. Better than ruin Arthur's reputation. I'm is trying to keep Gardenview going so that he can find a permanent solution, but no one really cares. Dyle likes being twisted because it lets him exress his feeling of abandonment. however, I think he is being selfish. Arthur left to face the press, and Delilah plunged back into this maze to try to untwist the Toons, but something happened and she disappeared. The 'find me' by the train station is her last message to me : Find me, save me. It's written in Ichor (impossible to wash away) and her hands are always leaking Ichor, so it's likely that she took off her gloves. My theory was that Dyle was chasing her, looking for the one human that saw him for who he is, not realising that his touch would kill her. But then, Dyle showed up again and now I don't know what's happening!'
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As Dandy wrapped up this disturbing summary, I didn't know what to say. He just sat there, camly sipping tea, but I could tell by the wild look in his eyes that he silently hoping that I would believe him this time.
'Why?' I managed after a long, uncomfortable silence.
'I... I didn't want some of the less levelheaded toons to go running around like headless chickens. Specifically Squirm. He would probably be freaked out by this.'
'Yeah. Classic Squirm.' I replied.
'But... I want to find her. Every second I spend watching, waiting, is another second Delilah might be dying!'
'Why can't you go find her? With your stats, I think you could solo to floor 100 on your own!'
'It's my ability. It brings all the Twisteds to my location, and by finding her, I could kill her!'
'...Oh.' I had no words left. Why did the sweet, idiotic flower that I love do that? Why did he try to fix it, and destroy Gardenview at the same time? This summary raised so many questions, but those could be saved for later. 'Well, then, we'd better make a plan!' I said, quickly assuming my proffesional mask once again.
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I was back in front of Dandy's shop.
'Dandy? Hello? Gardeview to Dandy, are you there?'
My hallooing snapped him back the shop.
'Oh, yes! Um.. how can i help you?'
'Dandy, something's wrong with you. I can feel it.'
'Nothings wrong, just thinking about them.'
'Well, it's your fault they twisted, so serves you right!'
'Shelly, wait! It's not like that! It's - sigh.'
I stormed off, feeling some satisfaction that I had frustrated him. He was the most annoying toon ever!
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I woke up from that pleasant dream, that moment I realised that I loved Dandy, but refusing to acknowledge the fact. I sighed as I got up to start preparing for my next mission. Operation Kind Stalker, where I would finally start the hunt for Delilah. I hoped it would be short.
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The elevator doors hissed open. I had a brief flashback to the start of Operation Bring Back Summer, but dismissed it. This was Operation Kind Stalker. Don't let Delilah know I am following her, and get her to the train station, where Dandy will be waiting to start 'Plan B', a plan he hadn't even thought would work until the end of Operation : Bring Back Summer. Just goes to show how far we've come since I stormed away from his shop a week ago. I set out, extracting, kiting away, repeat, until I started to find signs of Delilah on floor 20. I dropped down a note for her, written by Dandy. I then started to head back to the train station and the light, dropping hints for Delilah along the way, when I saw her shadow dash ahead. Good. That meant she was alive. I reached the station - and stopped. Gardenview, we had a problem. Dyle was converging on Dandy, in his twisted form screaming 'Where is she?! 'WHERE?!'
I used an air horn to get his attention, and when he turned to look, Dandy pressed the button.
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Waves of pure Ichor - the result of endless hours of extracting - poured down through the abandoned floors of Gardenview. It hit Dyle, and he was forced back, shrunk back, into a small, black suited body. His toom form.
'Where is she?!' He cried one last time before collapsing.
'I dashed forward. 'Are you ok? You idiot, why did you alert him? Why...'
My voice trailed off as I saw who was emerging from the shadows.`
'Delilah!' Dandy cried. 'You're alive!'
'Yes, I am, how kind of you to notice.' Delilah replied dryly. 'It's good to see you too, Dandy. And you! My brave girl, Shels. Well done.'
The other toons crept from the shadows. 'What happened? What is all this mess? Why...' Astro trailed off as he saw who Dandy was hugging.
'It's Delilah!' Cried Toodles.
'The toons surged forward, huggin, loving her, and Delilah responded as a mother would, returning the affection. As the mob cleared, Dyle sat up.
'Huh? What... where am I - Delilah!' He practically shrieked as he lept up, and started crying into her dress. 'I've missed you... are you mad at me?'
'No, Dyle. I could not be mad at you. We didn't replace you, because we didn't think you needed replacing. You are perfect just the way you are.'
That's when I noticed the Version Twos standing at the stairs.
'Come on then, there's plenty of me to love all of you!'
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Delilah, leading the way, led us out of Gardenview, and gave us our first breath of fresh air in decades. As the Version Twos turned to glance around the outside, I could almost believe that we could start a new chapter in Gardenview's Story.
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THE END
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Epilouge
I HATE EPILOUGES I HATE SADNESS I HATE SAPPINESS I HATE THIS STORY - SHRIMPO (I HATE MY NAME (I HATE BRACKETS))