Hang Together

**"Hang Together"** is the sixth episode of *Revolution* and the 81st episode overall.

The episode was released on March 6, 2022.

In the episode, Constance organizes a formal resistance to Vulpine rule. In Cartonia, the Vixen Queen orders further extinctions.

## The Episode

—Sellbot Headquarters, Toontown—

—April 9, 1051—

At last, Constance Miller got her meeting of the minds. Vidalia VaVoom organized the clandestine conference in the ruins of Sellbot Headquarters. The marshy wastelands and abandoned coal pits were undesirable to the foxes. They had sealed the Oak Street tunnel leading to the old headquarters, but the Toons knew their town better than anyone. The tunnel was merely a convenient mode of entry, but not the only one.

Sitting in a circle on the cracked concrete platform that had once been the bedrock of Sellbot Towers were Constance Miller, Vidalia VaVoom, Pete Ingalls, Kilo Byte, Aleck Harding, and Tori Dorrance. The Colonial Governor, the only surviving member of the Toon Council, one of the architects of the Emergency Portal, the co-creator of the gags, the former Chief of the Toon Patrol, and one of the last main members of the Toon Resistance.

Two days had passed since the foxes, on orders from Hans Einfach and Vella Vixen, launched a second pogrom against the Toons. The Night of Shattered Stone had broken them, but the 200 indiscriminate killings nearly destroyed them. They were all hopeless and despairing, somewhere between fury and depression. If anything could be done, these six could figure it out.

“We have to assume,” Constance said to break the pensive silence, “that all the Toons up north are dead or soon to be killed. Hans said that Alice and Piggy did something to anger the Vixen Queen, which means they’re probably dead by now.”

Kilo involuntarily whimpered. His wife, Hyla Sensitive, was one of those went north. She was the alleged heir to Willie.

“No one is coming to save us,” Aleck agreed. “We are on our own.”

It was a hard pill to swallow. Of the fourteen that went to Cartonia, many were leaders or instrumental members of the Toon Resistance. Eileen had been *de facto* leader of Toontown since the return from Exodus, even after Constance took the Mayoral oath of office.

“We’re outnumbered,” Vidalia remarked. “Outnumbered and outgunned. We don’t have weapons against them. We’ve seen what they can do…”

Even the gags had been confiscated. The best Constance could find was her kitchen scissors or a butcher knife.

“I have to ask,” Tori Dorrance said, turning to Pete Ingalls, “is the Emergency Portal an option?”

Pete chortled.

“It is not the panacea everyone keeps thinking it is. Dr. Nimbus designed it, and no one including myself has been able to replicate his research. Besides, the Portal is contingent upon the transport network being open and the foxes have closed it. We can’t go anywhere.”

Tori looked around the circle. She held out her paws.

“Then what *can* we do?”

No one said anything. It was a crushing silence.

“Well,” Kilo piped up finally, “when I think about how we defeated the Cogs, we hit them where it hurt.”

“The factory,” Tori said, pointing to the ruins behind her.

“The bosses,” Vidalia added.

Constance tried to connect the comparison.

“So…attack Hans and the Armada? How?”

Kilo flopped his head back and forth, thinking.

“Not necessarily…I’m thinking we need to hit the foxes at their weak point.”

“Which is…?” Pete pressed. Kilo didn’t reply right away.

“Cogs couldn’t take a joke,” Constance muttered. “Is there a Vulpine equivalent?”

Deep thought rippled around the group. Everyone was subconsciously reliving each interaction with the invaders, the iconoclasts as Constance had fittingly described them in her violent outburst to Hans. He was at the forefront of her mind, but she also dug further back to the six Cartonians who began this whole mess. Vella, Rook, Tick, Cale, Evelyn, and Jerockle. The traitors. The six monsters who once shivered on Toontown’s docks, frightened of the world they had arrived to. They had quaked in the presence of the Toons, which was of course ersatz. Their only fear was…

“The Cogs…” Constance mumbled.

“What was that?” Aleck said. Vidalia, who was sitting right next to Constance, was staring at her with scrunched eyebrows.

“They were afraid of the Cogs,” Constance said louder. “They waited…the Cartonians waited until we defeated the Cogs before they invited the Armada in. They didn’t want the town if it was ruled by Cog Nation! They didn’t understand it!”

Everyone was looking at her as if she had nine heads.

“I…don’t quite get what you’re saying,” Pete said delicately.

“We drive them out with Cogs,” Constance declared. Vidalia actually raised her paw, incredulous.

“We defeated the Cogs.”

“We build our own,” Constance said. “We create Toon-controlled Cogs that will do *our* bidding, just as Molecule’s did his.”

She turned to Kilo. “Is that possible?”

Before he could reply, the others were shouting at her.

“Are you *crazy?*” Vidalia cried.

“That’s dumb. That’s bad,” Aleck said.

“I wouldn’t *ever* recommend we do something like that!” yelled Pete.

“Not again, not again,” wailed Tori.

“We can’t be sure they won’t rise up against us!” Pete said, frantic. “Get that thought out of your head, Constance! There has to be another way.”

Quietly, Kilo mumbled,

“It is possible.”

Vidalia waved her paw at him.

“No, no. Don’t say anything else!”

Kilo sighed.

“It is possible,” he repeated. “Hyla and I studied them for so long that we understand their conscious matrix. They were all programmed by Molecule, in code that was kept secret up through the end. If I wrote the code myself, I could ensure that they were harmless.”

Pete crawled over to Kilo and took him by the shoulder. He peered at him through Kilo’s thick square spectacles.

“Kilo, you can’t do this…we can’t create more Cogs! We can’t do that to ourselves again.”

Kilo glanced at Constance, avoiding everyone else’s stare.

“It would have to be done carefully. Deftly programmed to differentiate between Toons and Cartonians.”

“*NO!”* Pete screamed. “No! I won’t let you!”

“What else can we do?” Vidalia murmured. “It’s drastic and so risky, but what other options are there?”

Pete sputtered indignantly.

“Options!” he exclaimed. “Fighting back with everyone we have!”

“We need an advantage,” Aleck said. He was warming to Constance’s idea as well. She knew him long enough to know when the winds were blowing in her favor. “It’s not a fair fight.”

Kilo turned toward the smoldering factory, laying in ruins beyond the deep coal pit. “It may still be operational…” he whispered.

Tori and Pete were still vehemently opposed to the idea. Constance was not even herself fully sure of it,  but the more she thought about it the more she liked it. The Toons would be removed from the fight, and the foxes would be taken by surprise and ill-equipped to fight back.

“It would have to be swift too,” Aleck posited. “If Vella gets wind of a revolution that is Cog-led, she may just have the foxes kill us all.”

“That’s going to happen regardless,” Constance fired back. “It’s only a matter of time. Speaking of…Kilo how long would it take to build these Cogs?”

Kilo let out an exasperated exhale.

“Months,” he said. “Realistically, a year.”

“We don’t have that…” Vidalia said softly. “We need to do something soon.”

Aleck banged his fist on the ground.

“Violent uprising, then. It’s our only other option.”

“Either Toon or Cog-led,” Tori mused. “Either way we will suffer immense loss.”

“Every single citizen,” Constance said, “must fight. There can be no apathy this time. We are fighting for our lives.”

Aleck removed his baton from his belt and laid it on the cracked pavement.

“Toons must start making makeshift weapons. This baton can be outfitted with razor blades or, hell, pencils if necessary. Anything that can be weaponized must be.”

Vidalia snapped her fingers.

“Hot water. We can boil water and dump it from the upper windows.”

“Shattered glass,” Tori added. “There’s tons of that.”

Constance brought the group back together. Ultimately, they agreed on the two strategies to run concurrently. Kilo would start development of Toon-Cogs that could be their secret weapon. In the meantime, the Toons would prepare for war.

“The foxes are taking everything from us,” Constance stated. “Anything left will be used against them. Even if it means death for all. If we hang, we hang together.”

—Elsewhere—

Bradley Wolfe felt himself fading in and out of consciousness. He seemed to be drifting, or floating. Just gliding through the realms of reality and fantasy. He’d open his eyes and see a deer above him, holding a scalpel, and he’d fade out.

The fog cleared, dissipating into the ether, and he was back in the cabin. The small, wooden cabin in Chipper Acres. Dr. Molecule was operating on him.

He was bound to the counter on which Molecule created his monsters. He hadn’t been conscious for this the first time. He was dreaming. Or was he?

He tilted his head. Alice was reclined on the cot, asleep. She had been injected with a sleeping serum.

Bradley’s head hurt. Molecule was working on his scalp, trying to turn him into a Cog. Bradley remembered that. It had been painless because of the anesthesia but…

"I'm sorry about your skin."

Bradley moved. He was handcuffed to the cot now. Alice was on the counter. Molecule was looking at Bradley, scratching his arms. Bradley looked down at his body.

His red fur was draining of color. It was leaving his body in visible streams, pooling on the floor like blood. The floor broke open beneath him and then he was on his back again. Doe Halley was laughing at him from above. She seemed so far away.

How long had he been like this? Was it days? And where was he? Was he with Molecule or the Doe? And where was Alice?

He tried to call out for her, but nothing came from his throat.

Suddenly, Bradley was aware that he was weightless again, flying. He was soaring upward like a rocket. The night sky burst open above, and the pink lights of the Aurora rained down. He heard that familiar melody that had welcomed him to Cartonia.

Doctor and Slate were here too, flying with him. He kept spinning, sticking out his arms for wings, looking for his his beloved wife.

*Where are you, Alice*?

—Vannastadt, Vulpus—

—*Formerly Mus, Willie—*

—April 10, 1051—

—The Next Day—

Eileen was jostled awake by Sairene Rendle. Mickey was already up, putting on his shirt.

“We’re moving you,” she said at once. “The Queen’s army is closing in.”

“Where are we going?” Eileen asked, frightened to venture back out into the city.

“Closer to the old Simenese border. You’ll rendezvous there with Usa.”

Eileen looked with excitement toward Mickey, who was also smiling.

“Are Piggy and Alice with her?”

“I think so. The five of you will progress together south. I don’t know much more.”

She checked her watch.

“We leave in 15 minutes. I’ll get some food for you.”

“Thank you,” Mickey said. “You’ve been very kind to us.”

She smiled at them. “It has been my honor.” She lowered her gaze. “We will likely meet again on the battlefield of war.”

Eileen wrinkled her snout.

“I hope not.”

Sairene shrugged.

“Something is coming, like a wind ‘cross the fields. Our moment is arriving. With your help, we can seize it.”

—Western Vulpus—

—*Former Simeone*—

There was a lumber mill in a patch of deforested jungles that would shelter Alice, Piggy, and Usa for the night. Benjamina, their driver, arranged the overnight stay. According to her, the monkeys that worked at the mill were loyal members of the Free.

“What about foxes?” Piggy asked. The smoking towers of the mill were ahead through the windshield of the truck. Benjamina shrugged.

“The fox overseer is ancient. The Free will give him a sedative and he’ll be out all night and morning.”

Usa turned around in the front seat to smile at Alice. It was the kind of grin that one gives when they want something from you.

“We’re going to be meeting some real folks. They’ll be really excited to see you, Alice, as the heir to their old kingdom.”

Alice wasn’t sure she was as excited to meet them. She didn’t know how many people worked here, or if there was any true excitement among the common masses about the heirs in Cartonia. Not everyone was like Usa and Benjamina, traveling around the continent sowing dissent. These monkeys were likely bound to the mill and had found a sense of comfort in the mundane repetition. Clearly if they had the ability to drug the overseer and claim nominal independence, they weren’t wholly powerless.

The mill was painted white with red stripes. A water tower and three tall smoke stacks were at the center of the plant. The field around the mill had all been cut down, leaving the mill at the center of a huge clearing. In the distance on all sides, there were still trees ripe for harvesting.

The gates opened automatically upon approach. The truck came to a rest in the middle of a quadrangle. Monkeys in dirty overalls watched as Alice, Piggy, Usa, and Benjamina exited the vehicle. Funnily enough, Alice didn’t feel much like a stranger. Everyone else here was a monkey. Piggy, Usa, and Benjamina were the clear standouts.

“Hello,” Usa said loudly to the gathered monkeys. No one was smiling at them. Alice’s feeling of belonging washed away. “I bring you the heir to Simeone. Her name is Alice Carver.”

Silence. Alice didn’t know what to do. She waved vaguely. Someone spat on the ground near her.

“Simeone ain’t no monarchy,” she sneered. “’Tis a republic.”

In the closing months of the War, Alice now knew, the Major of Simeone reverted the nation to a monarchy after over a decade of being a republic. His name was Ham Mercury and he made the decision so that his daughter—Alice’s ancestor—could escape to Toontown and carry on Simeone’s legacy.

“I come from a republic,” Alice said to the standoffish monkey. “This royal thing doesn’t mean much to me.”

The monkey sucked snot up her nose and spat again.

“Does *Simeone* mean anything to you?”

Alice considered that. Simeone never meant anything to her, not until she had come to Cartonia. Now that she was here, she felt an attachment to it, this land that had birthed her ancestors. She only existed because of Simeone. It was different now than it was then; she wished she could see it in its heyday. She wished she could turn back the clock before the War, maybe warn someone that a war was coming. That thought alone made her realize that she *did* care about Simeone. More than she originally knew.

“It’s my homeland,” Alice said. The monkey was pleased with the answer. She yanked her head backward toward a metal door marked “Dormitories.” Alice, Piggy, Usa, and Benjamina followed her.

“I’s Grath,” she barked as introduction. “Matron o’ the Mill. 47 years I’s worked here. Ye can rest in the Dorms for the night.”

Her voice was gruff and rough, unrefined by a lifetime of working in such an environment. The Dorms were just rows and rows of bunk beds. A few were bare mattresses with folded up blankets at the end. Exactly four.

“Benjamina says you’re with the Free,” Piggy remarked, lowering herself onto the bottom bunk of one of the beds. Grath coughed loudly and then nodded.

“Aye, we all are. Fuck the Vixen Queen.”

She spat again. Right on the bed. Next to Piggy. She inched away and cringed.

“Will you join the revolution on the first of May?” Usa asked eagerly. Grath lifted an eyebrow.

“Ye think we anything to revolt against up here? Just the Overseer, an’ he’s a useless sack o’ shit. Nay, on the first we’ll be right here pumping lumber so ye’ll have houses in yer brave new world.”

Usa’s face soured. Grath turned to Alice.

“So. Yer from the south. We’ve heard the stories. Tonetown, right?”

“Toontown,” Alice corrected gently. Grath shrugged.

“Silly name. Blind me. Ye married?”

She noticed Alice’s wedding ring.

“I am. My husband’s name is Bradley Wolfe.”

Grath hooted in laughter.

“O’ a name I know! One of the other heirs, then. From…”

Grath’s face fell. She stared at Alice with a look of disgust. “He’s a dog, ain’t he?”

“He is,” Piggy stated, standing. “Toontown has no limits on interspecies love.”

Grath’s eyes narrowed.

“It’s unnatural, ain’t it?”

She looked to Usa and Benjamina for support, but both were totally indifferent. Alice had prepared for this when she sailed north, and had already experienced adverse treatment for her opposite-species marriage. On *The Imperial Conqueror*, she and Bradley were not even permitted to share a private room together.

“There’s nothing unnatural about it,” she declared. “I have not had an easy life, and the only thing that has brought me constant happiness is Bradley.”

Grath was puzzled.

“But…he’s not yer own kind. Wouldn’t ye rather be wi’ a monkey?”

“No,” Alice affirmed.

“Well,” Grath muttered, giving another shrug, “keep it to yerself while yer here.”

Alice was getting angry now. The sooner they were out of here, the better.

“If that is your attitude,” Piggy said, crossing her arms, “you won’t be able to become a republic again. Discriminating against others will ensure you remain a land of hatred, and such a land is not fit to become a democracy. Unless you learn to accept others for who they are, you will always languish under the control of a Vixen Queen.”

Grath sneered at her. She whipped her head toward Benjamina.

“I don’ take cheek from visitors, especially of your lot, Benjamina. I want ye gone by sunrise.”

She stormed away, leaving Alice vindicated in the way she stood up for herself. Piggy took her paw and gave it a squeeze. They were united, and that was why they were going to be okay. In a world where distrust was rampant, Alice knew she could trust Piggy to the end.

—Antlerstag—

—Lyme, Cervidium—

Doctor jolted awake and gasped. Wind sliced through him, and he shivered in the frigid air. The sky was overcast, the clouds darkening. His  paws were tied behind his back, tethered to one of the antler-shaped towers. His feet were just near the edge. Had he moved around too much in his sleep, he would have fallen off the tower and dangled by the paws until they snapped off.

How did he get up here? Where did his clothes go too? He was in some sort of white smock. Blood was splattered down the front. Doctor hoped it was his own and not Slate or Bradley’s.

The city of Lyme was alive in the distance. As the evening sun set, the lights switched on. The distant civilization was like a beacon of liberty, but Doctor knew he’d not want to go there. Lyme was not the haven he sought. Far away from Antlerstag was where he wanted to go. First, he had to find his friends.

“Slate!” Doctor cried out. “Bradley! Are you here?”

“I am!” Bradley’s hoarse voice sounded. It was behind Doctor to the left. Doctor twisted, but he couldn’t see. He must be on the other side of the tower.

“Are you okay?” Doctor called.

“No,” Bradley moaned. “Everything hurts. I think…I think the Doe rearranged my organs.”

Doctor paused, not sure if Bradley was making a hyperbole or a dead-serious assumption.

“Do you remember what she did to us?”

“Barely,” Bradley yelled back. “I think I’ve blocked most of it out. She took a lot of my blood.”

Doctor’s arm suddenly started throbbing. He vaguely recalled that too.

“Me too…”

“Can you see Slate?” Bradley said. “I think he’s on the other side!”

Doctor turned the other way, but he couldn’t see anybody around the tower. But there, on the edge of the ledge, was a sheet of frosty ice. Slate was up here too, but must still be unconscious.

“How did we get up here?” Bradley shouted. “It’s like we just appeared!”

“No clue,” Doctor replied. “Can you break free?”

“Uh,” Bradley said, “no.”

“Yeah, me neither.”

Doctor’s body hurt all over. He had cuts and bruises all along his legs and shoulders. His face felt as if it had been sucker-punched repeatedly. Tufts of blue fur were lying around him. The Doe had nearly killed him.

Yet, she didn’t. That must have been intentional. They were being kept alive for some reason. Doctor dreaded to know that reason. Halley had alluded to her curiosity with them when she revealed her treachery in the throne room; Slate was a BioFreak, Bradley’s fur was scarred from Dr. Adam Molecule’s experiment on him, and Doctor’s natural fur color was in some way alarming.

Doctor was saddened to think that in his lifetime, Bradley had been experimented on by two nutcases. The trauma that he and Alice had been fortunate to escape was following them again.

Gazing across the horizon, Doctor wondered where in this vast world the others were. He liked to think that the others had managed to not only escape Yefoxerinburg but Cartonia as a whole. They could already be back in Toontown, fighting to drive the foxes out.

“Doctor!” Bradley called. “Can you see anything out there that can help us?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know,” Bradley said. “I think I can see a sliver of the ocean. That’s a way out.”

Doctor scanned the landscape. To the north was an enormous radio tower. It reminded him of the one that was atop Toon Headquarters in Toontown Central. It was how the phones connected to one another. It wasn’t that tall, since the town was relatively small. But this Cervidian tower that was impaling the sky was mammoth. It must be capable of sending signals across the continent, perhaps as far as Toontown.

Perhaps this tower was how the signal from Toontown was first discovered, and the reason why Doctor was here now. Had the foxes never discovered Toontown, he would never have left.

Doctor longed to break free of these chains and reach that tower so that he could send a signal to Toontown, a message of some sort. Then again, what would he even say? There was no way of knowing if there was even anyone left on the other end to listen.

“Slate?” Bradley suddenly called out. “Slate, are you okay?”

“What’s going on?” Doctor yelled.

“The snow!” Bradley responded. As he did, a flurry fell over Doctor. A tiny little snow cloud was floating around the top of the tower. The ice on the ledge began to spread, and then the snow transformed. Slate was still not responsive, but if there was snow coming from him, he was alive.

He must be in pain, Doctor noted. The snow was an emotional reaction to his intense physical pain.

The air got colder, and soon Slate’s flurry became a mixture of snow and ash. The debris floated around the tower, enveloping the three captives. Doctor shivered as the cool spring evening became an arctic winter night.

—The Rook of Vulpus—

—Vista, Vulpus—

Vella Vixen hated working at night. Shouldn’t a Queen have the luxury of working banker’s hours? And yet here she was, again, sitting up close to midnight working. Signing laws and decrees, tracking maps for the Toons, and fulfilling her duty to the people. She was also planning a lavish coronation for herself. Mother’s had been minimalistic, per her tastes. But Vella wanted fanfare eclipsing even the renowned coronation of Vixen XIX.

There was a knock at the door to her study, and the door opened. Jewellia, who was sitting opposite Vella knitting a scarf, stood.

“Majesty,” she said, “Skulksmarshall Hunter is here.”

Vella put down her pen and turned. Tick bowed deeply.

“Your Majesty,” he said, “may I have a minute?”

“Sure.”

Tick closed the door and crossed the room. He handed her a thick folder stuffed with crinkled papers.

“I apologize for the disarray of these documents. They are the ticketmasters’ files from Gallix. The final Galligasque shipments to the Eusuchian camps are underway. The remaining crocodiles on the island have been contained to Camp 17; there are less than 3000 left. All others on the mainland are being corralled. Skulkscolonel Hymrich estimates that only a thousand or so exist, primarily here in Vulpus.”

“Excellent, thank you,” Vella said. She placed the folder on her desk, to be glanced over tomorrow. It was just records, something to present to her. The order had already been given; she now only had to live with the consequences.

Tick cleared his throat.

“Majesty…I hesitate to remind you that Skulksmarshall James is on the list…”

“Call him Rook,” Vella said. “We all do.”

Tick glanced at Jewellia, who had resumed her knitting. Politics bored her.

“Perhaps…I could speak to your Majesty alone?”

“Oh, please,” Vella laughed. “Speak your mind.”

Tick sighed.

“Rook will at some point need to be deported to Camp 17. That is the decree. *All* crocodiles.”

“He can be last,” Vella snapped. “He is a trusted servant, one of my two Skulksmarshalls. I cannot afford to lose him just yet. Besides, what is the harm of him being the last crocodile? He need never know.”

“He’ll know,” Tick insisted. “He will know if he is the last of his species. It may turn him against you.”

Vella flapped a paw dismissively. Tick’s jaw clenched.

“Speciesal loyalty is dead. Rook is loyal to *me*. It won’t matter to him.”

“Then why don’t we tell him of the Obliteration?”

She didn’t answer, and saw his point. It was risky. Rook would eventually realize the exterminations were being carried out on his birth island.

“Say nothing to Rook, but carry on the project,” Vella said, and waved Tick away. She would deal with this all later. Tick bowed and egressed. Vella eyed Jewellia, who was frustrated with a stitch and angrily picking at it with her fingers.

“What do you think, dear?”

Jewellia looked up.

“About what?”

“About what we were just discussing.”

Jewellia glanced at the door, as if Tick was still there, then back at Vella.

“Uh…I don’t know.”

“Good girl,” Vella chuckled. Her apathy and indifference toward politics made her the ideal friend for a Vixen Queen.

She opened the folder to scan over the first page. It was a list of names deported from an apartment complex in East Gallix. By the end of the week, there’d be no more chickens left in the former state of Gallix. They’d all be interred in the extermination camps on Eusuchia.

The two offshore islands were the perfect location for the camps, far from the mainland and out of sight to the masses. The process had to be done delicately, so as not to risk revolution.

On Vella’s grandmother’s orders, the horses went first. Queen Vixen XXX interpreted the Skulkisch Doktrin to mean that only foxes could exist if a dominant species were to emerge. The camps were constructed on Equine Isle and over a decade the horses were slowly exterminated. The public still had no idea. As far as anyone knew, Equine Isle was under quarantine for a deadly plague. This wasn’t exactly a lie; toward the end of the Equestrian Obliteration, a plague did sweep through the camps. The island was still off-limits to foxes, to whom the plague was especially contagious. It was water-borne, and was still active on the deserted island. It was a shame; Vella loved the former royal palace at the southern tip. Now it was overgrown with vines and weeds.

The cows went next, then the polar bears. Camps were constructed on Eusuchia to replace the defunct Equestrian ones. Crocodiles were forced to build the camps that would ultimately become their coffins. As the Eusuchian Obliteration came to its end, the chickens and the ducks were next. Then the mice and the bears, the monkeys and elephants and dogs and pigs and rabbits. Finally the goats, chipmunks, and parrots. Until only deer and foxes were left. But the deer would go too. There could only be foxes.

There were no cows or horses left anywhere in Cartonia. Or the Expanse. But, frustratingly, horses did survive in Toontown. They would all have to be deported north to the Eusuchian camps, unless one was constructed in Toontown. Vella detested the idea of putting a camp in her newest jewel.

Railroads were being built through the Vixen Mountainrange, which would eventually connect to Toontown. Once the railroads were complete, the Toontown question would have its solution.

—Western Vulpus—

—April 11, 1051—

—The Next Day—

The two trucks converged at a crossroads near the former Simenese border. Barbed wire demarcating the beginning of a Death Field was off to the side of the dirt road.

Usa Uhuru opened the truck door and stood on the ledge so she could identify herself to the other truck. The other driver did the same.

“Is that Sairene Rendle?” Benjamina said, squinting through the windshield.

“It is!” Usa said, thrilled. Sairene was as Free as they came. She once saved thousands of mice children from Vulpine execution.

Alice Carver and Piggy Pie tentatively got out of the truck, looking around at the barren wastelands.

The other truck’s occupants, Sairene, Eileen Irenic, and Mickey Elias disembarked. When the Toons saw each other, they raced toward one another. A torrent of words gushed from their mouths.

“Eileen!” Piggy Pie hollered.

“Mickey!”

“Piggy!”

“Alice!”

“Where’s Hyla?”

“She’s dead.”

“No!”

“Burned at the stake.”

“Are you serious?”

“Where have you been?”

“Eusuchia…there’s death camps there.”

“Death camps?”

“They’re exterminating all the species. All of them. There aren’t any cows or horses left. The crocodiles are next.”

Sairene Rendle overheard the conversation and gaped at Usa.

“Is what they say true…? Extermination of species…?”

“It is,” Usa stated. “It’s more horrible than we could have imagined.”

The Toons continued to catch each other up on their experiences, so Usa pulled Benjamina and Sairene aside. She told Sairene everything she had experienced on Eusuchia, as well as her run-in with the Simenese bandits.

“They have the Harmony Crown,” she said gravely. “We must get it back.”

“There hasn’t been any word on the Crown,” Sairene said. “The Vixen Queen must not want the public to know about it.”

“Of course not,” Benjamina said. “Not until she knows what it is.”

Usa frowned. If the Crown’s purpose was revealed, the Queen would destroy it. She had to hope that it was not yet broken.

“Do you have any news for us?” Benjamina asked Sairene. She glanced over at the Toons, too busy talking to listen to them.

“The entire population of Gallix has been deported. Whole cities, emptied out overnight. They’ve been put on trains northbound. I imagine for the Eusuchian camps you mentioned.”

“Blind me,” Usa gasped. “The pace is picking up…”

A million chickens or more lived in Gallix. Were there enough camps on Eusuchia to handle such rigorous demands? She wished she could speak to Heinrich Meyer again. But if there was anything he could do to stall or stop the onslaught, he would.

“The mice of Vannastadt are prepared for the revolution,” Sairene reported. “I can assure you of that. Mr. Meesh’s death and Hyla’s execution did not annihilate our spirit. It has emboldened us.”

Usa nodded. The same could probably be said for most cities across Cartonia. For centuries, the one thing the Free had lacked was the opportunity. But they had their date set—the first of May—and the time to strike was now, before they were all sent to Eusuchia.

“Anything else?” Benjamina pressed. “What of the other heirs?”

Sairene’s countenance darkened.

“We found Doctor Smith, Bradley Wolfe, and Slate Oldman.”

“Not Mata Hairy?” Usa asked.

“Not yet.”

Sairene retrieved something from her pocket and handed it to Usa.

“We got this from someone Free at a rest stop a few miles back. It was taken this morning.”

It was a photograph taken from a tall building, maybe the Cervidian Communications Tower outside Lyme. Antlerstag was visible, one of its imposing towers blanketed in snow. But only that one tower.

“Snow…in Cervidium in April?” Benjamina said, incredulous.

“Slate,” Usa said. “He’s there.”

“Specifically,” Sairene clarified, “there.” She flipped the photograph over. A blown-up image of Antlerstag’s antler-shaped towers showed three bodies tied to the roof. Doctor’s blue fur stood out against the white limestone. Bradley’s distinct ombre red fur was another giveaway. A third figure was just out of frame, only a dark leg visible. But that was Slate. Only he could bring such a storm. Piggy and Alice had told her about him in detail, how he once saved Toontown with his snow powers during a period of shifting climates.

“It was always a possibility that the Vixen Queen sent her three prisoners to Cervidium,” Benjamina remarked.

“True,” Usa replied, “but it’s certainly not what we want. We no longer have any allies inside Antlerstag. A rescue is infeasible.”

“Others are working on it,” Sairene said. “That’s what I was told. We know where they are. That’s a start.”

The Doe of Cervidium was a wicked child. What sort of monster tied people to the roof?

“Oh,” Usa said involuntarily. “Oh…are they dead?”

Sairene examined the picture.

“I can’t tell…you know, I never thought about that…”

“What is that?” one of the Toons suddenly called. It was Eileen. “What do you have there?”

Sairene gently explained what they had discovered about the other Toons at Cervidium.

“What about Mata?” Alice asked. “Where has she been all this time?”

“We don’t know,” Sairene sighed. “She hasn’t been seen since Yefoxerinburg.”

“What about the Beckers?” Mickey Elias inquired. “Does Cale Metfin still have them at that vineyard in Mallardia?”

Usa and Benjamina glanced at Sairene for answer. She shifted uncomfortably.

“The…um, the team overseeing the vineyard’s security hasn’t heard an update in a few days. It seems the vineyard’s gone quiet.”

Eileen clenched her teeth.

“What does *that* mean?”

“Eileen,” Sairene murmured, “we don’t know. We’re trying to find out.”

Eileen’s face scrunched up in anger. She started pacing back and forth, fuming.

“You don’t know. You can’t help. You are so disorganized! You just whisper to one another. Passing information back and forth, but not acting quick enough. It’s already cost us Hyla and soon we’ll be the only four left!”

“Whispering is all we have,” Usa said. “The susurration of revolution.”

“I want no part in it,” Eileen seethed.

“Eileen,” Alice muttered. “We’ll find them.”

“We will,” Mickey agreed. A look of pain crossed his face. Only Usa saw. She gazed at the four of them. Alice and Piggy were still wearing the same clothes they arrived in. All four faces were bruised emotionally, if not physically. This place wasn’t right for them. Usa thought she could protect all fourteen Toons, but now she’d lost three, with one missing and six potentially in danger.

“I’m sorry,” she said sincerely. “We should have never split you up. Bringing you here was a mistake. I think it’s best we return you to Toontown.”

The four gaped at her.

“Are you…serious?” Eileen said.

“You can’t,” Piggy declared. “Not without Doctor.”

“And Bradley,” Alice urged.

“All of us,” Mickey winced. Something was bothering him.

Usa took a deep breath.

“Then we go to Cervidium. Benjamina and Sairene, we’ll need both trucks.”

Sairene gestured toward the Death Field.

“In about sixteen miles, there should be a rendezvous point. We’ll start there.”

“Let’s go,” Benjamina said. “We’ve been here too long.”

Usa headed toward the truck, but as she opened the passenger door, Mickey Elias collapsed. The Toons rushed to his side. Benjamina had some medical training and moved them aside so she could inspect him.

“What is it?” Sairene demanded. “Exhaustion?”

“Something worse,” Benjamina said. Mickey was convulsing, clutching his heart. “Blind me…”

“Eileen,” Mickey rasped. With his free paw, he grabbed the collar of her shirt. “Don’t let me die here. Don’t let me die in Cartonia.”

“Get him in the truck!” Usa commanded. “We have to get him to a medic.”

## Production

### Continuity and Story Arcs

When discussing the Emergency Portal (activated in “Rain”), Pete Ingalls mentions Dr. Cumulo Nimbus, the Portal’s architect.

Bradley Wolfe relived his Tog surgery at Dr. Molecule’s hand (“Heaven Found”). Molecule’s quote “I’m sorry about your skin” was taken from the episode.

The story of Simeone’s conversion back to a monarchy was restated (“The Good Must Associate”).

## Trivia

* The title of this episode is a quote by Benjamin Franklin at the 1776 signing of the American Declaration of Independence: "We must all **hang together,** or most assuredly, we will all hang separately." His meaning was that the signers of the Declaration must unite against the common enemy (Great Britain) or else independence would fail and the signers would die as traitors to the Crown.
	+ The episode title was quoted by Constance Miller: "If we hang, we **hang together**."
* Sairene Rendle once saved thousands of mice children from execution, a tribute to Sairene’s namesake Irena Sendler, who saved thousands of Jewish children from the Holocaust.