A Tale of Two Mice

**"A Tale of Two Mice"**is the eighth episode of *Justice* and the 26th episode overall.

It was published on July 25, 2018.

In the episode, Eileen becomes skeptical of the security of the Toon Resistance. In the past, Dr. Byte and Dr. Sensitive meet for the first time.

## The Episode

===Alice and Bradley's House===

=Present Day=

Alice stared at the floor, in shock. Bradley stood next to her. She hadn’t moved since the phone call.

Ahab Ishmael had hung himself in his cell. He died of strangulation. Slate Oldman and Pete Ingalls had been ten minutes too late to save him.

“It’s my fault,” Alice whispered. “I berated him. I pushed him over the edge.”

“That’s not true,” Bradley said. “He was upset about the election results. And the charges against him. The arrest was the catalyst, not you.”

Alice shook her head.

“I just feel…like….not like myself. I feel like…”

She was shaking. Bradley wrapped a blanket around her and tried to hush her, but she was adamant on getting the thought out.

“I feel like Adam. I feel like Molecule.”

=== Toon Hall===

=The Next Morning=

Constance Miller was having a terrible morning. The autopsy report was officially delivered detailing the exact time and cause of Ahab Ishmael’s death: suicide by hanging, death by asphyxiation and strangulation, self-inflicted. Bed sheets had been tied into a noose and the stool in the corner of the cell was the apparatus by which the…

Constance stopped reading the report to shake the words out of her head. Ahab would be given a simple private funeral due to his wild unpopularity. That matter was settled. She instead diverted her focus to what most Toons were buzzing about: the Edict from the Cogs.

It was now painfully clear that the Cogs were modeled after the evil foxes from the Kingdom of Vulpus. The species that started the War and committed unspeakable evils all documented in the Diary of War. The fear was real. When the Toons were taught all their lives to beware the mistakes of the past and never to allow the foxes and their rhetoric to come to Toontown, the realization that they were already here in a different form was truly horrifying.

Constance placed the Edict from the Cogs next to a printout of the Vulpus Edict, transcribed from the Diary. They were almost identical in wording, tweaked to accommodate the differences in circumstance. The Cogs probably had no idea they were plagiarizing. Molecule just programmed them to consider themselves a superior species. The Edict was at some point likely written by Molecule himself, only now just released. Both Alice Carver and Bradley Wolfe were not available this morning to take Constance’s call. Bradley said Alice was ill.

Constance propped her head against her elbow and asked herself how this day could get any worse.

===The Docks===

Dr. Byte and Dr. Sensitive squinted through the haze of thick fog gathering at the shores of the Docks. The ship captain was tying up his boat.

“No can do,” he grunted. “I told Barnacle Barbara on the phone. We can’t sail through fog this thick. We wouldn’t be able to see waves or heavy sea life.”

“But we need to start exploring the Bay,” Dr. Byte said. “It’s urgent.”

The captain sighed.

“I know,” he said. “Believe me. I want to help. But I can’t put lives in danger.”

“What if we created a fan to divert the fog away from the ship?” Hyla asked, analyzing the boat.

“Or accompanied you with radar equipment to detect waves and heavy sea life?”

The ship captain chuckled.

“Y’all a couple?”

Hyla and Kilo exchanged glances, both blushing. The captain kept laughing.

“How’d two genius smarties like you come to meet anyhow?”

===The Docks===

==Three Years Ago==

=During Exodus, Before the Final Battle=

Dr. Kilo Byte had never been sad before. Not like this. Not this crushing feeling of depression and anxiety, fear and turmoil, hopelessness and despair. He could think of nothing except his sadness and his desperate wish to be happy again.

He had been like this for a year. Ever since the rain fell. But by then, he had already gone sad. He was in Toontown Central. The evacuation was due to begin…and then the rain came. It was so unexpected. But the Cogs had attacked and he had gone sad just as the first drops fell. All the Toons…all the ones that weren’t sad…they had gone. Disappeared. Into their transport holes. They left him behind.

Not many survived. Those that went sad died. Kilo was alone in a graveyard of bodies in Toontown Central. It was a site he could not forget. It was one of the memories that tore through his mind, depressing him.

His world was black. Bleak. Dark.

He trudged onward through the tunnel, moving at snail’s pace. That was as fast as he could go. His feet were heavy like lead.

The streets were grey. The Cogs had taken over every building. When the rain first fell, the water tore the metal from its foundation and the Toon buildings were restored, shells of their former selves. No shopkeepers within. No light. Kilo could not fathom where the Toons could have gone. He had heard of the Emergency Portal and what it would do…but he always thought it would just transport the Toons outside of Toontown to the mountainside or something. Maybe even somewhere further north. Someplace safe. If such a place existed now.

It began to occur to Kilo that this would be his life. He would never find a reason to smile again. His laff had been in disuse for so long, it had started to green. His red skin was greening, spreading from his heart down his chest. It had reached his neck too. It would consume him. The darkness. The sadness. All of it.

The rain had also reversed the climate change that had afflicted Toontown last year. At least in Toontown Central and the Docks. Kilo had not met anyone from the other neighborhoods. But he knew there were other survivors. He would hear them sometimes. The Cogs would talk about them. And then…the flyers.

Shoddy posters announcing that toonups were available in the Bay of Toontown, preserved by the ice that had frozen over the Docks, were posted on street tunnels. Kilo had noticed the one on Punchline Place and followed Barnacle Boulevard to the Playground, where the Bay was. It was his one glimmer of hope, though it was not enough to stop his other feelings from rushing in.

He put one paw in front of the other until he came upon the Bay itself. He saw at least a dozen Toons reaching into the water, their own skins greening. He approached the water and reached it after about ten minutes. Squatting over the harbor and looking down into the water, he could see there was still ice floating. The water was freezing to the touch. But there were no toonups in sight. In the Docks, their toonups were these yellow edible starfish that generally floated on the shore. But as they got heavier with laff particles, they tended to sink. And if they had been growing for a year, they were definitely at the bottom.

Kilo had nothing else to live for. No reason to go on. Just this. This was his one chance. He let himself fall into the water.

And sank.

His lungs quickly begged for air, but he kept falling. He hit the bottom and spread out his arms. Nothing. He gave up.

Let death take him quickly.

But something grabbed his shirt and pulled upward. His glasses rolled off his head as he was yanked from the water. And thrown, hard, onto the docks. He gasped for breath but as soon as he opened his mouth a large piece of starfish was rammed into his mouth. A grey paw broke off another piece and rammed that in too before he finished chewing. But it was already working.

His vision brightened. Color flooded back. The grey became vibrant a vibrant pink. The sky’s cerulean hue exploded overhead. He felt his lungs fill with not just air, but breath, *life*. He smiled.

He *smiled*. He began laughing, crying, all at once. He was happy again. His laff was restored. He sat up and there before him was a pink blob. She outstretched her paw and Kilo looked down expecting to see the rest of the yummy starfish, but she was holding his glasses.

“You may need these.”

The pink blob became a beautiful pink mouse. She had large inquisitive eyes and a look of relief on her face. That she was tooned up? Or that she had saved him?

Kilo couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was beautiful.

“We’re saved,” she gasped.

Kilo didn’t respond, but looked around the Bay’s rim. There were maybe 50 Toons in total, but more were coming through the tunnels.

“We should help them. Others are not as good at swimming as me.”

“I can swim,” Kilo said dumbly. The mouse smiled.

“Lucky I was there, huh?”

Kilo’s smile fell off his face. He had just considered taking his own life. That’s what the sadness had done to him. It had taken away all the reminders of reasons worth living.

“Yes,” Kilo said. “Thank you.”

She stuck out her paw again, this time to shake.

“My name is Dr. Hyla Sensitive.”

“Dr. Kilo Byte.”

“Ah,” she said. “Another academic. What’s your field of study?”

“Technological Ludicrology,” Dr. Byte said. “I’m the second doctor in my field.”

Dr. Sensitive winked.

“And I’m the first.”

===Dr. Byte’s Estate===

=18 Months Later=

“You’re not working on gags,” Hyla said to Kilo as she tweaked a fire hydrant. “Come on, you know your piano boxes need some attention.”

“I’m just taking a break,” Kilo said, twisting a screwdriver. The two sat across from each other at a large work station that Kilo set up in his house. It was nice for them to work together to bounce ideas off one another. Hyla put down her own devices.

“What are you working on, then?”

“Some tech,” Kilo said. “Bugging software.”

“Ooooh,” Hyla drawled, pulling herself off her stool to go over and see. “Any luck getting it to work this time?”

“Not quite yet,” Kilo said. “I need a few more bytes of energy.”

“Have you tried hydroelectric currents?”

Kilo grinned. “Not yet, but that’s an excellent idea.”

“Sure,” Hyla said. “Happy to help. What’s your goal for when these ‘bugs’ are done anyway? Want to spy on the Mayor?”

“The Cogs,” Kilo said. “We could put them in Cog buildings or even on Cogs themselves. See what they talk about when they’re flying above Toontown.”

The little bug in Kilo’s hand suddenly short-circuited and fried. He dropped it and sighed.

“Well…hand me a piano box.”

===Months Later===

The Cogs raided Dr. Byte’s house. They took a sizable portion of his inventions. Including the ones that weren’t done. They took wax melters, lamps, time keepers, a few gags that were not operational, and many of his prototypes. If not for Hyla’s optimism, he would have surely been depressed.

===Kilo and Hyla’s Home===

=Present Day=

There was a knock at the door. Since Hyla was busy scrutinizing her remade Cashbot Cog suits, Kilo went to answer it.

“Eileen!” he exclaimed. “What a welcome surprise! Do come in!”

“Thank you,” Eileen said, removing her coat. “I thought I’d swing by and see how the Toon Resistance can help you both with your projects. I know you’re busy with a slew of work.”

“Busy for sure,” Kilo said, speaking for both of them, as Hyla had a screw in her mouth and couldn’t talk. She spat it out when she saw Eileen and hurried to greet her.

“Can we get you anything to drink?” Kilo asked. “Some lemonade?”

“That would be lovely,” Eileen said. Kilo hurried into the kitchen.

Eileen peered behind Hyla. “What are you working on?”

“Ah,” Hyla said, gesturing dramatically at the half-pieced-together Cog suits. “I’m nearly finished. This prototype will be ready tonight and if Mata Hairy is willing to test it, then I can start rolling out some en masse before the week is out. I’ll have Kilo and some of our ‘interns’ help out.”

“Interns?” Eileen asked.

“Oh yes,” Hyla said. “We’ve had a ton of letters come in from young Toons asking if they can learn from us. They just volunteer here but we give them lunch.”

“That’s wonderful!” Eileen said and Hyla beamed. Kilo returned with her lemonade.

“Let me ask you,” Eileen said. “Did you design Mata’s Cog suit?”

Hyla scoffed. “No, she designed her own. I asked her for her measurements and such so I could make some more but Mata’s is a Robber Baron and I need to start with Short Changes so I can fully understand them. We also need to be eligible for promotion to get into the elevator.”

“There’s no doorman,” Eileen said. “In the Cashbot Vault. Unlike Sellbot Towers. Mata told me that.”

Hyla nodded. “She said the same to me. But I like to be prepared.”

Eileen cocked her head. “Wait a second,” she said. “I thought you already made a few Cashbot suits.”

“I did,” Hyla said with a shrug. “They were damaged. I had to restart.”

“Oh that’s too bad,” Eileen said. “I feel like so much of your work gets ruined.”

Kilo shook his head with earnest. “You have no idea. Did we ever tell you about the time the Cogs raided our lab?”

Eileen looked horrifed.

“No! When was that?”

“Right before the return from Exodus,” Hyla said. “And the Final Battle. The Cogs broke in and took most of Kilo’s works. Mine were locked away or elsewhere but Kilo was really upset.”

“They took some of my best prototypes,” he said sadly.

“Such as?” Eileen asked tenderly.

“Well…” Kilo said. “There was my first computer. The one that I designed myself. I was really sentimental about it. And they took a curtain I was developing to close on its own when night fell. And these little devices I had made to be little invisible listeners on Cog conversations.”

“His bugs,” Hyla said proudly. “They even looked like insects. So you wouldn’t detect it. They could have been amazing assets.”

“I’m redesigning them,” Kilo said, “but it’ll take some time. I never quite got them to work.”

Eileen looked confused. “What would the Cogs do with electronics that didn’t work?”

Kilo shrugged.

“I don’t know. Maybe they fixed them.”

Eileen’s eyes went wide. Her mouth opened just a little, then she cast her gaze diagonally downward. She reached out for a chair and fell into it. Kilo and Hyla watched her intently. She looked as if she was having a vision, or an episode of some kind. Her eyes were glued ahead, but the gears behind them were rapidly turning. She was deep in thought. Something had been said.

“Eileen?” Hyla asked after a minute. “Are you okay?”

She looked up.

“I think the Cogs fixed the bugs. I think the Cogs bugged Piggy Pie’s apartment. We need to investigate. Can we?”

“Eileen,” Kilo said, “the Cogs would never be able to figure out the hardware. I think I misspoke. The technology behind the device…”

“Kilo,” Hyla said. “Can we scan for the bugs?”

Kilo sighed. “Yes, we can. I have a device…”

“Get it,” Eileen said. “Please. Let’s go.”

===Piggy Pie’s Estate===

“Bugged?” Piggy Pie asked, incredulous. “There haven’t been bugs since the War.”

“If the Cogs were designed after foxes,” Eileen said breathlessly, “I’m sure Molecule incorporated the spy expertise of the Psittancyna parrots too.”

Hyla looked at her.

“Is that how you pronounce it?”

“We just need to scan the place,” Eileen said, ignoring Hyla’s comment. “But the Cogs can’t hear us looking. So you have to play the piano while we search.”

Piggy Pie nodded, finally acquiescing. “Will do. Any suggestions?”

“Something loud and fast and distracting,” Eileen said.

“The Toontown national anthem coming up,” Piggy Pie quipped and the four entered the home. Piggy Pie took her place on the piano bench and began tickling the ivories. Beautiful music cadenced through the house. Kilo and Hyla stopped to listen for a few seconds, but Eileen was already looking around the place.

It was in this house that Eileen had spoken to Piggy Pie about the attack on Cashbot Headquarters, the one that had gone awry. She had also spoken to Tori Dorrance and Horace Calves about it, maybe even mentioning it to Alice Carver at one point. She couldn’t remember where she was for all of those conversations. In the kitchen? On the couch? By the door? In the hall?

A soft whirring sound began beating as Kilo switched on his scanner and began holding it out in front of him. Hyla looked over his shoulder and chewed her lip.

Piggy Pie played through six songs before the device went off, but it was a false alarm. The bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, and living room were cleared. There was nothing. Kilo moved toward the door, but the wooden surface gave off nothing. As he turned around, it beeped. Piggy Pie stopped playing, but instantly resumed when she saw their faces.

Kilo waved the device again, clearly thinking he must have been mistaken. But it beeped again. Eileen surged forward and seized the object the device indicated. But there was nothing.

Nothing?

“Again,” Eileen said to Kilo and held out the object. Kilo scanned it. It beeped. Eileen ran outside and threw it against the ground. Being a vase, it shattered.

And there it was. Inside the porcelain. A little tiny bug-shaped listening contraption.

Eileen raised her foot to smash it, but Kilo grabbed her and shook his head. He pulled a notepad from his pocket and wrote “They’ll know. Can’t break it.”

Eileen wanted to scream. She hated being right if it meant this. And she couldn’t destroy the damn bug because then the Cogs would know the Toons knew about them and could make moves. The Toons needed to figure out their next move before sending the ball back into the Cogs’s court. And…

Eileen realized what it implied. She hadn’t even noticed before. She had been so hell bent on figuring out where the bug was that she didn’t see…

She stooped and picked up a piece of shattered porcelain. It depicted a familiar scene. Toons of all species, united in paws around the Toontown Central gazebo. It was the Toons of the World Vase. The very same one that Eileen had in her home. The one that held flowers in the Toon Council room. The ones that were all over Toontown.

“Kilo,” Eileen gasped, showing the mural. It clicked for him too.

“We gotta go,” Hyla said, dropping her voice to a low whisper. “I have one at home too.”

“Please,” Eileen said to herself, “please don’t be true.”

From house to house, from building to building, bugs were found in all of the vases. Perhaps all of the same vases probably contained bugs. And the vases were everywhere. They had been on sale, an unbeatable price. Clarabelle had been so proud of them. The Cogs had exploited the thriftiness of Toons and their love for one another to infiltrate the Cattlelog.

This was how the Cogs uncovered the Cashbot Cog suits in Hyla’s lab, and how they were destroyed.

How the Cogs knew the Toons were using Cog suits to break into the highest levels of headquarters.

How the Sellbots knew Dr. Byte was an asset, and why he was kidnapped by the Vice President.

How the Cashbots knew the Toons were coming to Cashbot Headquarters after the Election.

How the Chairman knew that the Toons had uncovered the coordinates of the Tog machine on Loopy Lane, and why he was there in the first place. To protect it.

How the Cogs knew everything. Eileen thought it had only been the Togs, but the Cogs had a secret weapon. The bugs.

How long had the vases been sold? Eileen bought hers the same day the Lawbots and Cashbots burst onto the streets of Toontown from their unveiling headquarters. It was right before the Togs were arrested.

Once the scope was known, Eileen made the executive decision to break the bugs on the spot. They wouldn’t be able to contain a crisis this big if they didn’t start acting now. After each vase was shattered, Eileen brought her boot down on each bug, crushing it to extinction.

In the span of the afternoon alone, over 400 vases were found and destroyed. But that was on Punchline Place and in Toon Hall alone. There were thousands more. As the sun set over Toontown, the next course of action seemed apparent and necessary: they had to tell Clarabelle. She would be devastated. She took such pride in her work and the Cattlelog she built herself. Even though Clarabelle was not an active member of the Toon Resistance, she would be furious at the Cogs for what they did to the closest thing she would ever have to a child: her business.

Eileen left Kilo and Hyla to deal with rounding up as many vases as possible. Constance, having been filled in on the situation, agreed to go with Eileen to see Clarabelle. Considering it an issue of security, Aleck Harding and Susan Fletcher were coming too.

===Silly Street===

Clarabelle was pleasantly surprised to find the Mayor, Chief and Deputy of the Toon Patrol, and Eileen on her doorstep. The tasteful black and white door swung inward at once.

“Come in! Come in! I’m making hot cocoa.”

“Ooo,” Aleck said. “That sounds delicious.”

Clarabelle poured five cups of hot chocolate and took care to add marshmallows to each. She then gestured for everyone to sit in the living room. A natural hostess, she seemed unperturbed that four of the most powerful people in Toontown sat before her, with stolid faces.

“Can I help you with anything?”

Eileen felt the other three look at her, as she had been voted the designated talker. The designated bad-news-breaker.

“Clarabelle, honey,” Eileen said, “we have something to tell you.”

“Okay,” Clarabelle said, putting her mug on the coffee table. Her cowbell earrings jangled as she sat back against the sofa. “Is everything alright?”

“No,” Eileen said bluntly. “We discovered something this afternoon. And it’s going to be hard for you to hear.”

“Tell me,” Clarabelle said, visibly tensing. “Is it Vidalia?”

“No,” Aleck said. He cast a glance at Eileen, and sipped his cocoa.

“It’s the Cattlelog,” Eileen said. “The Cogs have infiltrated it.”

Clarabelle didn’t say anything. She stared back at Eileen with wide eyes.

“Infiltrated?” she repeated.

“Yes,” Eileen said. “Do you remember the Toons of the World vases? The ones that were on such good sales?”

“Of course,” Clarabelle said, her gaze traveling to an open Cattlelog on the table. “They’re patriotic…very popular.”

“They all contain bugs,” Eileen said, “so the Cogs can listen in on our conversations. A great deal of confidential information reached the Cogs due to these bugs. We don’t know how the Cogs got ahold of your products, but we knew we had to tell you before the news breaks over the news tonight. Declan Antlin is already preparing his broadcast. It’s likely that Toons won’t trust the Cattlelog anymore…not there’s much of an alternative but still.”

Clarabelle was grasping at a pearl necklace around her neck. She look horrified.

“I…” she gasped. “I need a minute…”

She stood, but didn’t move. She looked around the room as if a way to reverse her bad fortune would present itself. She finally backed into the wall and then scampered into the kitchen.

Eileen sighed.

“Well she didn’t cry.”

“I thought she’d cry,” Susan said. “I’d cry.”

“She’s in shock,” Aleck said. “She was already dealt an impossible hand in life when she was the last cow with no chance of reproduction. No chance of true species love. She turned a simple furniture ordering service into the largest catalogue series in Toontown’s history. She’s an iconic businesswoman and revered by all Toons. Now even that is no longer sacred. The Cogs have taken that from us too.”

“Poor girl,” Constance said.

The four waited, but Clarabelle had not reemerged. She was evidently more upset than they thought.

“I’ll go check on her,” Aleck said.

“I’ll go with you,” Constance said.

Susan and Eileen waited in the rapidly dimming living room, sunset approaching. There was a large bay window that overlooked Silly Street. Eileen went to it, to see if Kilo and Hyla had already assembled a Toon Resistance team to go down all the streets and recall the vases, smash them to smithereens, and destroy the bugs. She couldn’t see anything yet, just Toons milling about their homes, unaware that their every words were being broadcast to the Cogs. The street lamps were switching on, casting pools of light over…

“Clarabelle.”

Eileen wasn’t mistaken. That was Clarabelle. She was outside. Running.

She pointed at the window and said it again. “Clarabelle!”

Susan came up behind her and peered through the glass. Clarabelle Cow was sprinting down the street. Toward an unreclaimed Cog building. But she didn’t go to the elevator. She bypassed that entirely and went to one of the grey doors that the Cogs entered and exited through. She began pounding on the door.

“What is she doing?” Susan asked incredulously. Eileen could only stare. To her continued shock, the door opened and a Head Hunter Cog beckoned her inside. As if amicably. As if they were friends.

Or allies.

Clarabelle disappeared into the grey.

“ALECK!” Susan screamed. For Eileen, the room was quickly dissolving. She was spinning, reeling, falling apart. The Cogs hadn’t infiltrated the Cattlelog. They had help on the inside. Another Tog?

Clarabelle knew all along. She ran because she had been found out. Eileen heard the next words plainly, though she would never be able to remember who was the one who said it.

“Arrest Clarabelle Cow.”

## Production

### Continuity and Story Arcs

Ahab’s suicide is met with mild response from Toontown, due to his unpopularity. Alice, however, harbors guilt for his death due to the way she had castigated him during his short imprisonment.

Heavy fog blocked the Toons from exploring the Bay safely in their search for Bossbot HQ.

Dr. Kilo Byte and Dr. Hyla Sensitive met in the past during Exodus when they were left behind. They first met in the Docks when they found some of the only remaining toonup, enabling them to end a year of depression.

The Cogs stole Dr. Byte’s bug prototype, which they used to plant listening devices in popular vases in every home in Toontown. They did this by infiltrating Clarabelle’s Cattlelog.

The bugs explained how the Cogs knew about and destroyed Hyla’s Cashbot Cog suits in “Aftershock,” why Dr. Byte was kidnapped in “Snatched,” how the Chairman knew that the Toons had uncovered the coordinates of Operation Sever in “Hell Bound,” how the Cashbots knew the Toons were coming to attack Cashbot Headquarters in "Trouble," among other revelations.

Clarabelle fled when confronted about the vases, prompting the leaders of Toontown to order for her arrest.

## Trivia

* The title of this episode is a reference to the Charles Dickens novel *A Tale of Two Cities*, but there are no parallels between the book and this episode.
* The parrot Kingdom of Psittancyna was mentioned for the first time by name. Several times a Kingdom has been referred to only as the one that no one could pronounce.
* When the author decided to include the piano scene in Toontown, he sent in the game the real Piggy Pie a piano as a gift, so that she would actually have a piano in her house.
* The vases were first mentioned in “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” and had always been a planned plot device.