Banners High

**"Banners High"**is the sixteenth and final episode of *Justice* and the 34th episode overall. It is the second part of the two-part season finale.

It was published on October 28, 2018.

In the episode, the Toons face ugly truths and horrific revelations as Cog Nation crumbles.

## The Episode

===Bossbot Headquarters===

=Present Day=

Ash Ingalls watched through his own eyes as the Chairman of the Cogs read the three memos in front of him, one from each of the Cog Headquarters.

The Sellbot Factory was offline.

The Vice President was dead, the extra VP suits dismantled.

Sellbot Towers was overrun, and the surviving Sellbots retreated into the underground coal pits to recuperate and rebuild.

The Coin Mint was conquered, and the Dollar Mint was in the process of falling. The Bullion Mint was the last stronghold, but even that grasp was relinquishing.

The Cashbot Vault was completely infiltrated.

The Chief Executive Officer was dead.

The Railroad was powering down, and the surviving Cashbots were retreating into the Cog skyline to recuperate and rebuild.

Lawbot Tower One was empty, all Lawbots since fled.

The Chief Justice was dead.

The Chairman was angry, but Ash was thrilled. He kept thinking about Dad, a face he had not seen in so long. Someone he believed to be dead. He still distinctly remembered the last day at home with Mom and Dad, the day of Exodus. When the rain fell and Dr. Nimbus died and Mom went sad, and Ash himself went sad, but Mom had sent Dad to Fantasyland.

Ash felt himself move with the Chairman’s motions, as the Chairman scanned his desk for options, for ideas. But the Cogs were officially overwhelmed. The Chairman reached up and stuck one of his fingers inside the crack in his face. Ash felt the cool touch of metal against his flesh and cringed. The Chairman grinned wickedly.

“Come, Ash,” the voice inside Ash’s own head bellowed, “let’s go say hello to father.”

“Flippy,” Eileen said, which sounded more like a statement than a question. “How can you be Flippy?”

“Flippy is dead,” Piggy Pie said. “It’s not funny, whoever you are. He was my friend.”

“I am Flippy,” the Big Cheese repeated, though with that Cog voice it didn’t sound to Constance at all that this was Flippy. And how the hell could Flippy be alive? Eileen, Piggy Pie, and Dr. Byte said he was ripped to shreds by lightning. When the building on Loopy Lane collapsed, there was no way that the dog had survived. It was an impossibility.

“You’re lying!” Eileen cried. “You’re making this up!”

“I am not,” the Cog growled. “I am Flippy Flopper, former Mayor of Toontown. I invited the Cogs to Toontown because of my misplaced trust in Dr. Adam Molecule. I was unseated as Mayor after our return from Exodus, replaced by the Honorable Eileen Irenic. I joined Piggy Pie, Dr. Kilo Byte, and Eileen for a mission into a Sellbot Cog building in Loopy Lane to stop Operation Sever. I sacrificed myself for the good of Toontown.”

“Oh, please,” Eileen huffed. “Anyone could know that. Those are basic facts. It doesn’t prove…”

“I never told you about the Mayor's book,” the Big Cheese interrupted. “I never told you about the Mayor’s Vault on the third floor of Toon Hall in the Toon Museum. I didn’t want to share that with you because I was angry that you had taken my job from me. I always did what I believed was the best for Toontown, And I felt that being forced to resign from office was a shameful way to go after I had done so much. And so I was bitter and jealous and angry towards you, Eileen, but I regret those actions because Toontown was in a dark place and I had no right to make it darker. I’m sorry.”

Eileen was silent, her face softer. She was staring at the green-faced Cog with interest now. Did she believe him? Constance felt inclined to.

“All day…everyday….I felt guilt. Shame. Disappointment and anger…I didn’t think anyone would ever understand what I was going through, how sorry I was for everything I had caused. The only person who did was Piggy Pie.”

Piggy whimpered. Her trotters were wrapped around Doctor’s macerated arm.

“Why did you jump?” she whispered.

The Big Cheese’s voice box was shaky when he responded, the Cog equivalent of a voice cracking.

“I had no where to turn,” he said. “At least I could do one last thing for Toontown and be remembered as a hero.”

Eileen placed a paw on the Big Cheese’s chest, right over the Bossbot sigil.

“Take off your head, Flippy.”

But the Cog did not move.

“I cannot,” he said. “I am not a Toon. I am a Cog.”

“You said you were Flippy!” Horace yelled. “If you’re a Toon—”

“My body was destroyed by the lightning in that silo,” the Cog interjected. “Obliterated by evil. But my laff prevailed, as I thought it would. But it had no where to go, and so it latched itself on to the only thing it could inhabit: an empty Cold Caller chip. And I woke up as a Cog.”

The room was still, all seven Toons watching the Big Cheese—Flippy—with amazement. He died as a Toon and came back as a Cog.

“How did you escape the building?” Eileen pressed.

“No need to escape,” Flippy said. “I simply walked out. I thought I was dreaming, or that I was in the afterlife. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but I took the stairs and walked out onto the street. I watched the building collapse and the lights on Loopy Lane turn back on. A siren of sorts in the back of my head told me to go to Sellbot Headquarters. I found that I knew the way, and I flew.”

Constance listened with earnest as Flippy detailed his rise from Cold Caller to Telemarketer to Yesman to Glad Hander to Move & Shaker to Two-Face to Mingler to Mr. Hollywood and up to the Cashbots. How he exploited holes in the Cog business structure to be rapidly promoted without detection, using Toon creativity and a drive to get to the top to help the Toons.

“Never,” he said,  “did I forget who I was. And where I came from. And I never lost sight of where I was going.”

“Where were you going?” Tori asked.

“Here,” Flippy said. “Not Bossbot Headquarters, but to all of you. I knew I had to think two steps ahead, analyzing what move the Toons would make next. How the Cogs would respond. When Clarabelle was arrested, I figured that the Lawbots would gladly take the Toons to trial, but the Toons—you—would never allow a Cog prosecution, so I worked my way into the Lawbot operation. I got promoted rapidly to a Backstabber, but ensured I was once again on the verge of promotion.”

“You,” Piggy said. “You’re the Clerk from the District Attorney’s office.”

Eileen exhaled.

“It wasn’t a Cog all along…a Toon helped us win the case.”

“Of course,” Flippy said.

“But I don’t understand,” Constance said. “Why didn’t you tell the Toons who you were in the Clerk’s office?”

“I couldn’t risk it,” Flippy said with a raspy Cog sigh. “The Cogs were still too powerful. They could have easily found me. One wrong move and the Chairman would seek me out. I wanted to say something, so terribly, but I decided against it. When the Chief Justice found out a Clerk had given access to the Toons, he was furious. He ordered for that Cog to be scrapped but I had already been promoted to a Legal Eagle and changed my serial number so I was undetected. I moved into Lawbot Tower Two and waited for the next stage: Jury selection.”

Constance gasped. It was all making sense.

“You’re the seventh vote for conviction! You were on the jury!”

“It was difficult,” Flippy acknowledged. “A very difficult process to be selected for the jury. I had to critically analyze how both sides would benefit from me on the jury. There was no guarantee it would work, but I did it.”

===Lawbot Headquarters===

=One Day Before=

Penny Clark followed the Big Wig, the bailiff, down the dark Cog hallway. She had her paw over her heart, where Dr. Hyla Sensitive had given each of them a little laff chip to keep them afloat while in the pits of Cog headquarters. The other Toons were close to her, the six Cogs behind them marching in unison. It felt like they were being led to execution.

“In,” the bailiff said, opening a door marked “Jury Deliberation.” Penny shuffled in. The six Toons sat on one side of a long rectangular table, while the Cogs sat on the other side. They were facing each other, as if in a standoff.

“You have six hours to deliberate and reach a unanimous verdict,” the bailiff said. “If no unanimous verdict is reached after six hours, we will take a poll and if there is a majority, we shall deliver that verdict. If no verdict can be found, the jury will be hung and the trial will be cancelled and rearraigned. Questions?”

Everyone was silent.

“Good.”

The door slammed. Penny felt the room grow a bit darker.

Another Big Wig, the selected Jury Foreman, stood and faced the room.

“I suggest we take a preliminary poll to see where everyone stands.”

Penny nodded. Seemed sensible. The Foreman passed out cardstock slips of paper that were in a bowl by the door. Everyone took a pen and wrote either “guilty” or “not guilty.” Penny wrote “GUILTY” in large letters.

The Foreman took all the votes and opened them all.

“Guilty,” he read. “Guilty. Guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty. Guilty. Not guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Not guilty…not guilty. Six votes guilty. Six votes not guilty.”

“Well then,” one of the Cogs said with a sneer, “shall we discuss the evidence?”

Penny saw no point in even trying to persuade any of the Cogs to come over to their side. They were stalwart in their beliefs, and no Toon was going to screw over Toontown as Clarabelle had. The whole six hours they spent debating were completely fruitless. Penny wished they could just submit the hung verdict now and get it all over with. She hated being so deep inside Lawbot Headquarters, the walls within the walls within the walls within the second tower of a Cog domain.

The bailiff entered after what felt like six days, not six hours.

“Do you have a unanimous verdict?”

“No,” the Foreman said with frustration.

“Take your poll.”

The bailiff closed the door, but his shadow could be seen through the frosted glass window. The papers were passed out again, and everyone wrote down their votes.

“Guilty,” the Foreman read. “Guilty. Not guilty. Guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty. Guilty. Not guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.”

Penny froze. That was seven. Seven votes for guilty. Everyone was staring at the Foreman, who was looking at the cards in shock. He counted again. And again. A Legal Eagle leapt to his feet and read the votes himself. Penny leaned over in here seat to read them as well. There was no denying it. That was seven votes for guilty. The Foreman ordered a revote, but all the Toons vehemently denied it.

The bailiff returned.

“Do you have a majority?” he asked with boredom.

“Yes,” Penny said. “We do.”

The bailiff turned to the Foreman, as if he refused to believe a Toon. The Big Wig tipped his head. “Yes.”

The bailiff looked appalled, all the Cogs were in shock. Well, one of them wasn’t. But which one? What had happened? Was it a glitch? A malfunction? On purpose? It made no sense. The bailiff led the Toons back to the courtroom, all the Toons drifting along as if in a stupor.

Clarabelle Cow was guilty. They all knew that, but now it was going to result in conviction.

Justice prevailed.

===Bossbot Headquarters===

=The Present=

Flippy was still blocking the only door in the room, recounting his tale. Piggy Pie was breathing heavily. This was a lot to take in. And they had to move! They had to get Doctor and Smokey out before they died. And—and they had to do something about the Chairman. If he truly was Ash, they needed to figure out a way to help him. He couldn’t stay the Chairman forever. But they couldn’t very well walk out of Bossbot HQ with the Chairman in tow. Piggy thought about Kilo and Hyla, waiting to activate the destabilizers to collapse the crag into the sea.

“Once the verdict was read, I left the jury box. It only made sense that the Toons would launch a strike against the Cogs when they were in their weakened shocked state. I couldn’t get killed. So I swapped brain chips with a Legal Eagle, who you could imagine was very surprised to find me rummaging around in his head. That Legal Eagle was the one the Chairman had scrapped, as everyone believed him to be the one who voted in favor of conviction. I flew away from Lawbot HQ and headed for the Bossbot crag. I performed another quick brain swap with a Big Cheese so I could have access to the Clubhouse. It’s so exclusive…”

“How do you know so much about robotics?” Horace asked. “I don’t think I could figure out how to successfully replace brain chips.”

“Oh,” Flippy said. “It comes with the Cog suit, I guess. I instantly understood how Cogs were wired when I woke up as a Cold Caller.”

“Okay,” Eileen said slowly. “You found us. Did you always know about the Chairman?”

Flippy’s cheesehead swiveled side-to-side.

“Not at all. I passed him in the corridor as he walked to the banquet hall, and…I saw it. Ash’s mouth and part of his eye. I didn’t really know it was Ash at first, but he looked familiar. And I…”

The Cog looked at Pete.

“I didn’t do enough to try to locate your son, Pete. I should have done more. Way more. I’m sorry.”

Pete didn’t say anything. He was still swaying, stunned. The gears of his mind were likely spinning like Piggy’s were. How the hell were they going to free Ash from the Chairman suit without killing him? If they defeated the Chairman with gags, the suit’s explosion would fry the poor cat.

“We have to go,” Constance said. “Will you come with us, Flippy?”

“I would want nothing more.”

“The Chairman doesn’t know that Flippy’s a Cog,” Eileen said. “That can be an asset for us. First we have to find him.”

As if in answer, a siren blared outside. Horace trotted over to the window on the far side of the room and looked down into the courtyard.

“He’s down there,” the horse said. “He’s by the oil fountain in the center. He’s battling Toons.”

“It’s time then,” Tori said. “Let’s do battle.”

“Do you know the way out?” Bradley asked Flippy.

“I do,” Flippy replied. He tapped his head. “All the maps are up here.”

Piggy seized Doctor’s arm, while Bradley grabbed hold of Smokey Joe. Flippy unlocked the door and the seven Toons, the two Togs, and one Cog flooded into the hall.

===The Courtyard===

Kilo and Hyla dodged the onslaught of Cog attacks and hid behind one of the abandoned golf carts. The remaining Cogs were being pushed into the center of the courtyard. All of them were flanking the Chairman in even phalanxes, determined to protect their leader. Kilo adjusted his gag pouch, careful not to disturb the destabilizing activators. They had to wait until all the Toons were off the crag before they could act.

The Toons that went into the Clubhouse had been gone for hours. Kilo had no way of knowing who had survived, and who had gone sad. Hopefully all eight were intact and making their way to defeat the Chairman. But if all eight had gone sad, then the CEO was still alive and their plan could go awry.

Kilo met Hyla’s gaze, and silently they hoped for the best.

===The Clubhouse===

Flippy led the way through the confusing and very similar corridors, never breaking his stride. Eileen followed the group around bends, through doorways, down stairwells, and under chandelier after chandelier. It was taking too long. The Chairman was outside wreaking havoc, and probably summoning more and more Cogs back to Bossbot Headquarters. Eileen could only hope that the other attacks around Toontown were going well, and that Cog Nation was close to cracking.

They were now on the bottom level of the Clubhouse, heading for the garden exit. There were more meeting rooms down here, but they were much larger, since the doors were spread out. Eileen read the names of the rooms as she passed. They were all bleak.

Flippy suddenly stopped. Piggy Pie bumped into him, and Doctor, not understanding, kept walking. She had to run after him.

“What is it?” Constance said, looking around. “Is this the exit?”

“No,” Flippy said, his voice sharp. “This is the crypt.”

He turned, gesturing with his thick arm to a large set of double doors. The placard outside simply read “Ballroom.”

Something stirred inside Eileen, a susurration of beckoning. She reached out and took the handle.

“Don’t,” Flippy whispered, but Eileen had already opened the door. A horrible, pungent stench hit her like a blast. The fetid air stung her eyes, and what lay before her caused her to weep.

The bodies. The dead. The fallen. Hundreds, maybe a thousand or more. Dumped on the carpet like cardboard boxes, lying on top of each other, reaching out for a rescue that would never come. Eileen saw her paw in front of her, stretched out to help the helpless, the forgotten and now the gone. She was unaware of what the rest were doing, how they were reacting. All she could do was look at the cats, the dogs, the horses, the rabbits, the mice, the pigs, the monkeys, the bears, and the ducks. All of them dead. Some of their eyes were still open, some of their faces were still recognizable. Some were skeletons. Silly Sal and Lucy Tires were near the front, their bodies mangled and dumped like garbage. Eileen scanned the room, knowing that this was where her husband and children were. It had been such a horrible year that Eileen felt it had been a lifetime ago that she was a mother. A wife. Everyone thought of her as the vanguard of the Toon Resistance, the paramount figurehead in Toontown’s fight against the malicious Cogs. Some would regard that as a crowning achievement, but Eileen had only ever considered herself a good wife and mother. That was her everything. And now it was nothing.

This was the grave of the Toons.

Someone grabbed Eileen’s neck and yanked her backward. The door closed and Eileen felt lighter. Constance had her paws on Eileen’s shoulders, staring at her intensely.

“Your laff is going to plummet if you stay in there. Are you okay?”

Eileen shook her head. She wasn’t. Constance pulled her into a hug.

“I’m sorry, Eileen.”

Eileen couldn’t even lift her arms to hug back. She wanted to go through the room, lie each body in a dignified manner, write down a list of names, but there wasn’t time. They had to fight for the living. When they were done, the crag would disappear into the sea and take the grave with it. Flippy said there weren’t any other survivors in Bossbot Headquarters.

The finality of the realization was harshest. There was no more hope: Constance, Irene, and Paul Irenic were dead. Forever.

They had started walking again. And soon, without fully registering it, they were outside.

===The Courtyard===

Bradley shivered in the cold blustery air of Bossbot Headquarters. It was warmer inside the Clubhouse, despite the suffocating feeling of being behind Cog walls. Flippy veered his path to walk a bit away from the Toons so as not to look like an accomplice of them. It was only now, though, that they were outside that Bradley realized they didn’t have a plan to fight the Chairman.

He saw them, and was now facing them. He was standing at the base of a grotesque oil fountain spewing black gook high into the sky. About a dozen Big Cheeses surrounded him in a semicircle, glaring at them menacingly. Flippy sauntered over and stood beside them, and the Chairman donned a wicked smile. Bradley tried to remember which Cog was Flippy. He felt inside his gag pouch and counted three fruit pies. Not enough.

“Well well,” the Chairman said, his voice carrying over the courtyard. “Shall we end this?”

“You think you’ve won, haven’t you?” Constance yelled.

Bradley saw Kilo and Hyla over by one of the entrances to the golf courses. Other than them, he didn’t see any Toons. Maybe they were still fighting in the courts. Or they all went sad. Or they were sent home.

“Game’s not over yet,” the Chairman responded. His arms were resting at his sides, his legs sprawled. He was ready.

“Ash?” Eileen called. The Chairman cocked his head.

“Oh…” he said. “So you know about my little arrangement with Ash.”

He raised his left arm and stuck two pudgy fingers in the crack in his face. The purple within danced a bit, as if trying to escape.

“Let him go,” Tori shouted. The Chairman cackled.

“We are one and the same, dear Toon. We are nothing without one another, and if you kill me, you kill him.”

Horace lobbed a cream pie at the Chairman, and Pete cried out. The pie hit one of the Big Cheeses, who scowled.

“Tell you what,” the Chairman said. “Let’s do a…warmup.”

He snapped his fingers, and the thirteen Big Cheeses, including Flippy, fell into line. Bradley found himself in a group with Piggy Pie and Tori. Piggy kept looking at Doctor and Smokey, who were standing by themselves.

“Doctor,” the Chairman summoned. “Smokey.”

Piggy whimpered as the Togs joined their master. One of the Big Cheeses, hopefully Flippy—Bradley cursed himself for not keeping a closer eye on which one was their ally—stepped away from the battle to take hold of Doctor and Smokey.

“I don’t have any gags left,” Tori whispered.

“I only have trap,” Piggy Pie said.

Great, Bradley thought. He saw the Cogs staring at him, sizing him up. Did any of them remember him? Did any of them register who he was? Chipper Acres was a memory to him now, but it was still on the map. The shed was gone, Molecule was dead, but his creations were still destroying all the happiness in the world that Bradley had spent twelve years trying to obtain. He thought of Alice, the love of his life, the light in his world, back in Toontown Central waiting for him.

Whatever happened today, he would return to her. Today, he would make the world a safer place for her.

“Bradley?”

He looked at Piggy and Tori.

“I only have three fruit pies.”

“Okay,” Piggy muttered. “Now what?”

Bradley craned his neck to see if he could signal Kilo and Hyla. They seemed to be rummaging in their gag pouches to see if they had anything. Kilo found something and ran over, tossing a blue box to both Tori and Pete in the other group. Tori wasted no time. She aimed and pressed the red button atop the blue box.

A Toontanic dropped out of the sky and crushed the four Big Cheeses. Eileen, Pete, Constance, and Horace had already dropped theirs, and therefore they got the other four Cogs at the Chairman’s beck and call. Piggy began to run for Doctor, but Tori held her back. Bradley bowed his head in gratitude for Kilo. It was Hyla’s turn to supply a lifesaving gag. She brought over a wedding cake and geyser, which handily defeated the last of the Chairman’s reinforcements.

But they still as a group had nothing they could use on the Chairman.

“You,” the Chairman growled at the last remaining Big Cheese, holding Doctor and Smokey in his hands, “hold those.”

He whipped his head at the Toons. “I suppose it’s my turn.”

Eileen unclipped her gag pouch from her waist and let it fall to the ground.

“We won’t fight you, Ash.”

Constance followed suit, then Horace, then Tori, and Piggy and Pete, and Bradley. The Chairman watched in idle appreciation.

“How cute,” he cooed. Then he struck. With a wave of his hand, a horrible wave of red lightning crackled toward them. Bradley leapt out of the way, but Pete and Horace were hit. Pete didn’t react much, but Horace writhed in pain. He gasped, his laff dropped, and he went sad. Kilo and Hyla rushed forward, but Horace had already disappeared into his transport hole.

“Horace!” Tori cried. The Chairman attacked again, this time with a sweeping paradigm shift. Bradley, Tori, and Eileen were lifted in the air. The Big Cheese inclined his neck to watch. The paradigm vanished and Bradley hit the ground. His laff dipped, but he thought of Alice and it prevailed.

Pete got to his knees, shaking.

“Ash,” he muttered. The Chairman scoffed. He raised his arm for another attack. But with surprising celerity, Pete charged. He ran directly at the Chairman, who was unprepared for this sudden burst of energy. Pete did not stop until he had hit the Chairman square-on. He wrapped his arms around the thick torso of the Chairman. Bradley and the other surged after him. The Chairman’s arm was still raised, the palm facing the oncoming Toons.

“Ash,” Pete said loudly, clearly, “It’s Dad. I’m here. I’m not leaving you again. I love you.”

Pete moved his right arm from around the Chairman’s shoulder, and gingerly pressed his paw into the crack of the Chairman’s face. Bradley saw the purple fuzz do its dance again, trembling against the touch of an outside force.

“PETE!” Eileen presaged.

The Chairman yanked his arm downward, snatching Pete’s paw. Pete locked eyes with the Chairman, and narrowed his eyebrows. He squeaked in agony as the Chairman dug his fingers into the crack, forcing Pete’s paw out.

Then, with tremendous force and one declarative motion that must have required more bravery, more courage, and more strength and resolve than anything Bradley could have known the young cat to have, Ash tore off his face.

The Cog head split in two pieces and fell on either side of the squat robotic body, revealing the purple cat head of Ash Ingalls, his eyes bloodshot, his fur paler than Bradley remembered him having at the Final Battle, and complete exhaustion on his face. His head lolled to the left, upturning a gaping bloody hole in his head where his ear and much of his scalp should have been. Constance gasped, and Tori gagged. Bradley’s gaze traveled down to the Cog head, where a clump of fur and blood illustrated the fate of Ash’s head, and the consequences of his actions. Ash’s eyes closed and his head drooped forward, falling against the metal breastplate.

“Ash?” Pete shouted. “ASH?”

Kilo and Hyla were standing on opposite sides of the suit, trying to unhinge it so they could get Ash out. Bradley found his paws were over his mouth, which was agape. Ash had killed his captor, at the cost of his own body. He lost an ear, flesh, fur, blood, but he was free. They needed to get him to a hospital.

“The Chairman is dead…” Constance whispered. “Ash saved Toontown.”

The Big Cheese ambled over to the Chairman’s split head and picked up both pieces. Kilo and Hyla began shouting and faced him, gags raised.

"NO!" Eileen screamed. "He's with us! He's..."

"He's..." Tori echoed.

"That's Flippy," Constance said dumbly. Kilo and Hyla stared, but dropped their gags.

The Big Cheese broke open a small door on the head of the Chairman and took out what looked like circuits. He spun on his heel, stomped over to the oil fountain, and dropped the circuit in the goop.

“Time to go,” he growled.

“Not yet!” Pete yelled impatiently. He was holding his paw over Ash’s exposed head. “Kilo…Hyla…please…hurry!”

“THERE!” Hyla exclaimed triumphantly. The suit split open and Kilo began yanking wires away from Ash’s body, each one causing a spurt of blood to dribble down his torso. He was naked, his clothes lying in tatters around his body. Pete lifted his son into his arms.

“Ash? Ash can you here me?”

Hyla gazed at the cat.

“I think he’s catatonic. Look at him—he’s breathing but not responding…he’s traumatized.”

“Ripping off your own head will do that,” Tori said under her breath. “That’s a hero for you.”

“I’ll see you back at the playground,” Pete mumbled, pulling out his transport hole and jumping in, taking his son with him.

“Flippy, with me,” Eileen said.

“I’ll get Smokey,” Constance said.

“Doctor!” Piggy shrieked. The blue bear trudged over to meet her.

The Toons gave one last look at Bossbot Headquarters before teleporting back to the cheerful realms of their own town.

===The Lighthouse===

“Evening, Chief,” Bodie Currituck, the Lighthouse curator, said in greeting as Aleck Harding stepped into the chilly stairwell of the lighthouse. “Watch your step.”

“Thank you,” Aleck grimaced in the cold. “No elevator, huh?”

“Nope,” Tuck said.

“Alrighty then,” Aleck said with a sigh and began to ascend the towering spiral staircase. The Toons had returned in droves from Bossbot Headquarters, reporting that only the Toons in the Clubhouse remained, plus Kilo and Hyla. Slate Oldman appeared in the Docks, having gone sad. A few hours later, so did Horace. But the Chairman was being battled, and soon the crag would collapse. Aleck wanted to see the demise for himself, and the lighthouse was the perfect place to do that. It was the only place in Toontown where the crag could even be seen remotely, though not without the fabled lighthouse telescope. Tuck was allegedly very protective of it and would only let those under direct invitation use it. Thankfully for Aleck, Tuck had extended him a direct invitation.

After what felt like an eternity, Aleck reached the top of the stairs. The wind was extremely strong up here, and Aleck shuddered.

“Around this way,” Tuck said, waddling over to the fat black telescope. Aleck stood for a moment to appreciate the view of the Docks and the Bay. The revolving light atop the tower was not lit, stationary in its cast.

“Here,” Tuck said with a grin, angling the telescope toward the location of the crag. Aleck bent to peer through the device. He had to move the thing around until he found the crag. It was still small in the telescope, but he could see the destabilizers were taking effect. The towers of the Clubhouse were crumbling like building blocks. He smiled.

“Thank you, Tuck!” Aleck said, and hurried for the stairs.

“Leaving so soon?” Tuck asked.

“I want to get down to the Docks,” Aleck said in a huff, “I want to welcome them all back! Find out what happened to the Chairman.”

“Thanks for coming!”

Tuck smiled with contentment as Aleck disappeared down the ladder, his footsteps clacking on the metal grated steps. Tuck turned and gripped his trusty telescope with his flipper and spun it around a few times, for good measure. His father always said spinning the telescope would shake out dust, unwanted critters, and give a whirl of good luck to whomever glanced inside. Aleck had been in such a rush to see that Tuck had not been able to perform this little action, but he felt balanced doing it now. He bent his knees ever slightly and peered in himself.

There it was, the crag collapsing into the bay like…well Tuck had never seen anything as cataclysmic as this. It was gratifying though, because it was Cog. Tuck watched as the debris caused waves to slosh violently toward the shores of Toontown and to the crags surrounding the Bay. He angled the periscope down to see better, and then back up to the final pieces of Bossbot Headquarters falling into the Bay, shrouded in the backdrop of fog and…

Tuck tightened his hold on the telescope and stared. What was that?

===The Docks===

Eileen stood alongside her fellow Toons, all of them crowding the Docks, as they watched in the distance. Though the crag was invisible to them, and being swamped by fog anyway, Hyla and Kilo assured them the headquarters was gone. Of course they would check in the morning by using a fishing boat, but for now, they could just feel it.

The Chairman and CEO were dead. The rudimentary reports that Eileen got upon arrival back in the playground illustrated a resounding success in all three headquarters. The next day would be chaotic as they tried to piece everything together. Smokey and Doctor still needed to undergo their Tog surgeries with Dr. Artery, Ash was in desperate need of medical attention, and whether or not the Cog threat had been more or less eliminated was still to be determined. There were many hurdles still to overcome, but Eileen felt accomplished. She had sent Flippy flying into the sky, where he would be safe and hidden from the Toons in the clouds.

Someone pushed through the crowdbehind Eileen, and Constance emerged with Aleck.

“I’ve seen it, Eileen,” Aleck gasped. “The crag is collapsing! It’s working!”

Kilo and Hyla yelped in joy.

“Excellent,” Mata Hairy said to the left, her voice ever so distinct. Piggy Pie leaned her head against Doctor. Bradley cried out in happiness when he saw Alice barreling toward him through the throng.

Eileen let out three whoops, and the crowd echoed.

“TOONS OF THE WORLD!” Constance shouted.

“UNITE!” came the overwhelming reply.

Eileen breathed in the sea air and watched as waves lapped against the harbor, gaining in strength, the result of the crag’s collapse. All the boats moored nearby rose and fell with the tides. Barnacle Barbara was high-fiving all of her citizens.

The night fog was almost at the shores, and once it reached the harbor it would be impossible to sail through it, which was why they would have to wait until morning to assess the finality of their actions. Eileen stepped right to the edge of the harbor and looked off the pier into the water, still sloshing violently. She glanced up to look at the fog, but there was something there. Something in the fog. It was bright, unusually so. A Toon fishing boat. But something was missing…

“Barbara?”

Barnacle Barbara heard her name and hurried over to Eileen.

“Shouldn’t the lighthouse have its light on for the boats?”

“Lighthouse?” Barbara repeated, befuddled. “I told Tuck it wasn’t necessary to turn it on. All the boats are moored for the night. I didn’t want boats being damaged by the crag’s collapse.”

“Do you see that, then?” Eileen said, pointing. Barbara squinted at the fog.

“I don’t see anything.”

“What are you looking at?” Aleck asked. Constance peered off into the distance. Eileen wasn’t sure anymore. Had it moved?

But then it reappeared, cutting through the fog. It *was* a boat.

“I see it,” Aleck said. “It’s just a fishing boat.”

Barbara shook her head.

“That’s not one of ours…”

“Cog,” Mata Hairy growled, of course standing right behind Eileen. “The Bossbots must have had a lifeboat.”

The bow of the boat broached the edge of the fog and sailed into plain view. It was dilapidated, derelict. The wood was dirty and old, green near the waterline. A strange tangle of either rusty metal or reddened wood was at the tip, jutting over the sea. As the boat continued toward the harbor, its sail followed. Eileen recognized this as the color that had caught her eye originally. But she couldn’t pinpoint what was off about it.

The boat appeared unpiloted, drifting with the current toward the shores of Toontown. The Toons on the piers were watching with interest, many adopting battle poses and raising gags to ward off any more Cogs.

Then the sail unfurled, dropping with a languid thud. It was yellow, covered in grime and mud, and spotted with a black emblem.

Aleck gasped. He took a step back, nearly choking.

“Aleck?” Eileen said fiercely. “What is it? What is that?”

“Oh no,” he muttered. “No no no.”

Other Toons were having similar reactions. Someone screamed. Piggy Pie was breathing heavily, Kilo letting out a whimper.

“Aleck!” Eileen demanded, watching as the ship drew even closer. “What…”

It hit her. She remembered. She had seen that symbol before. In the Diary of War. The black silhouette over the yellow field. The shadow of the chipmunks.

The Kingdom of Scuridiae.

The ship wasn’t Toon at all. Nor was it Cog.

It was from the Kingdoms. It was from Cartonia.

They had found them.

After three hundreds years of isolation, Toontown was rediscovered.

Contact.

## Production

### Promotion

   The trailer for the finale was published on October 27, 2018, on the day before both episodes of the finale aired (October 28). The trailer is short, and only foreshadows the Toon attack on Cog Nation. The images shown are exclusively of Bossbot Headquarters. Doctor is the only character to appear in the trailer, though footage of Kilo and Eileen were shot but unused. The music used is "Dauntless" by Audiomachine. Several other tunes were tested for the film, but ultimately not used ("Mob Song" from *Beauty and the Beast*, "Rise Up" by Andra Day). This is the first trailer for Storytime not to use a song previously seen in another real-life TV series trailer.

### Continuity and Story Arcs

Through the eyes of the Chairman, the success of the Toon attacks are shown, having crippled Lawbot, Cashbot, and Sellbot HQs.

Flippy explained how he survived his death on Loopy Lane—his body was destroyed by the lightning in the silo but his laff prevailed and latched itself onto the nearest living thing, which happened to be a Cog.

Flippy encountered the Toons at two major points during the season: when they entered Lawbot Tower One to acquire a permit to have Atticus Lynch represent the Toons as prosecution (“Trial of the Lawbots”); he was the Clerk who granted them that permit. The second time was when he landed himself on the jury and voted for conviction of Clarabelle Cow (“By a Preponderance”)

The scene in which the jury deliberated is depicted in this episode from the point of view of Penny Clark.

The ballroom in the Clubhouse was full of Toon corpses from before Exodus and from the Final Battle. Many Toons, including Eileen’s family, were likely inside.

Since Ash and the Chairman were the same person, the Toons were in a catch-22 of how to fight him. Pete simply spoke to his son, and the bond between them allowed Ash to temporarily overcome his conversion just as Doctor had done, and rip off his mask. The ordeal left him traumatized and catatonic, with his ear being ripped off with part of his scalp. But the action effectively killed the Chairman.

Flippy flew into the sky after everyone returned to the Docks, where he was to wait out the night until it was safe for him to land among Toons.

A derelict ship arrived through the fog during the Toon celebration of their success; the sail bore the symbol of the chipmunk Kingdom of Scuridiae. After 300 years of isolation from the Kingdoms, contact was finally reestablished.

### References

When Flippy said “I never lost sight of where I was going,” it is a subtle reference to a similar line in the *Doctor Who* episode “Day of the Doctor.”

Scuridiae, Cartonia, and the Diary of War are mentioned at the end, when contact was reestablished.

## Trivia

* The title of this episode and its successor is derived from a line in "The Mob Song" from *Beauty and the Beast*: "Hearts ablaze, banners high / we go marching into battle / unafraid although the danger's just increased."
* The description Flippy gives about his laff latching onto a living thing is inspired by Dumbledore’s explanation of Voldemort’s unintentional horcrux in Harry Potter; his soul latched itself onto Harry.
* Flippy being a Backstabber Cog in "Trial of the Lawbots" was an intentional Cog choice since it was poetic for Flippy to be a Backstabber when backstabbing the Cogs.
* The ballroom and the meeting spaces described in the episode were inspired by hotel meeting spaces.
* The end of this episode had been planned since season 1, though the exact details were figured out as the season progressed.