Hi everybody who reads this blog,

My name is Aurora. I just found out that this blog existed, but from what I’ve read, I’m guessing you know all about me.

So you know I’ve been in the hospital for a while. I’m out now, although I have to go back most days. Anyway, all that stuff is really boring.

I’m kind of freaked out and mad that Nemo’s been writing this whole blog about me secretly, but I don’t care about that, either, right now.

All I want to know is what happened to Nemo after he left JoyTech on Halloween. As far as I can tell, no one’s seen or heard from him since then. It’s like he totally disappeared.

I feel like when I was in the hospital, the world ended or something. Kevin’s gone. Nemo’s gone. Jerry – I think he’s in his house, but he won’t answer the phone or the door or anything.

I found this girl Meegan and talked to her. She said that she went to the Blood River lookout to drink after the show at JoyTech, but that Nemo never showed up there. Not that he would, anyway.

I read Nemo’s last blog, and I got my mom to drive me to Kevin’s place. I couldn’t believe that Nemo would ever do some of the stuff he was talking about – blowing up Kevin’s car? Taking him hostage?

But it was true what he said – the house was completely shut up.

The only strange thing was that all the basement windows were boarded up with plywood, like they had been smashed.

I don’t really know what to think about any of this. I’m really scared, and I don’t know if any of you know anything or can help.

I just want my friend back.

(P.S. - Sorry about the lack of cool pictures in this post. If you like the stuff that Nemo was doing, you can check out the tooning software that he uses here.

No wonder he was so afraid. Kevin was in hiding because he thought I was out to kill him. Me. An escaped mental patient. And from the way he was talking, it seemed like this kind of thing wasn’t totally out of the ordinary in his life.

Here I was, interrogating the guy I had pictured as the mastermind architect of all my problems, and suddenly I felt this overwhelming urge to explain to him what was really going on. I shoved my hands in my pockets and Mrs. Brisby bit one of my fingers. She’s kind of like my conscience in that way.

The next thing I knew I was turning around, walking up the stairs and out of the basement. Kevin was calling after me, “Hey! Where are you going! Don’t leave me down here!” but I had to get out. Blow off some steam before I did something I would really regret.

It was only when I got outside and saw the groups of kids running past in costumes that I realized it was Halloween. I had been about to pull off my mask, but now I kept it on, and joined the crowds on the sidewalk. I jogged slowly out of the remote Palm’s Reach neighborhood.

As I moved through the city, getting closer to my neighborhood, not really knowing where I was going, I started noticing these flyers. The first one I saw stopped me dead in my tracks.

An Environmentally-Friendly Halloween With JoyTech? I had a moment where I felt like they must be going out of their way to mock me, personally. Instead of letting your kids run wild in the streets, bring them to JoyTech where they can eat JoyTech candy, wear JoyTech costumes, and play JoyTech games. And at the end of the night, get a little printout showing you how much you can help the environment by buying everything you own from JoyTech.

Again I didn’t have to think to know what my next move would be. I called Meegan.

“Nemo?”

“Is your band playing a show tonight?”

“What? No.”

“How about a last-minute gig at JoyTech?”

We met in the parking lot just in time to pay off the family-friendly act that had been hired for the evening. Meegan and the guys in her band did their best not to look like gore-metal savages as they set up their equipment in the JoyTech cafeteria that had been converted into a ‘House of Horrors’ using enough cheap paper and plastic props to create a seriously spooky landfill come morning.

Meegan and her band got some weird looks, but they convinced the event organizers that they were just in costume for the occasion.

I had long since taken off my mask. It was too familiar a face to show around JoyTech, but I was letting Mrs. Brisby ride on my shoulder so she could take in the scene. The room quickly filled up with tiny kids, soccer moms, and doting grandparents.

“What do you think, Mrs. Brisby? Is Kill All Humans going to freak these people out or what?”
Mrs. Brisby sniffed at me, and call me crazy, but it seemed like almost a contemptuous sniff, like she thought my prank was pretty lame.

“Think you could do better?” I asked, and she cocked her head, like she was thinking about something. Then, I swear, my rat’s eyes suddenly flashed bright blue, like there was a little LED light in her brain.

Before I could take a closer look, the lights dimmed, and a voice said, “Is everybody ready to boogie down to the Monster Mash?” The crowd cheered, and then Kill All Humans started playing.

Meegan wailed like a banshee, and a guy in a leather vest and diaper spit fake (?) blood onto the crowd in front of the stage while the three guitar players competed with the drummer to see who could make more terrifying noises.

It didn’t take long for the crowd to start stampeding for the exits, but it was only once they got there that the real screaming started. Suddenly, people were climbing up onto table and chairs, kicking over apple bobbing games and candy bowls to get off the floor.

I craned my head over the crowd to see what was going on, and heard Mrs. Brisby squeak happily in my ear. Hundreds of rats were streaming in through every entrance to the cafeteria. There were so many you could actually hear them over the music, and the screaming. The scene was utter and total chaos.

As rats ran in a polite circuit around me, I looked down at Mrs. Brisby. Could I add ‘summoning other rats’ to her list of talents? “Did you do this?”

She squeaked again, then stretched one paw out and yawned hugely. Boring. No big deal. “I concede defeat, lady,” I said to her. “You are the Halloween prank master.”

Sometimes I forgot that no one had a bigger bone to pick with JoyTech than Mrs. Brisby. She had spent her life as a test subject in one of their labs until I rescued her. Obviously, she hadn’t forgotten.

People ran around me screaming. Meegan’s band continued playing in chaos-induced bliss. I grabbed a glass of punch that hadn’t yet been knocked off the table beside me.

Happy Halloween, Mrs. Brisby! Happy Halloween, readers! Happy Halloween, Toon-FX - thanks for the cool pics!

Oh, and Happy Halloween, JoyTech.

I pulled up a chair and sat down. Kevin squinted up at me, and mumbled something I didn’t catch. I ripped the duct tape off his mouth, taking most of the ‘stach he was working on along with it. “What was that?”

“Please don’t kill me! I’ll give you anything you want!”

It was only then that I realized I was wearing my mask, and he had absolutely no idea who I was. It was almost like i really was just a cartoon superhero, and nothing else.

That was a good thing, actually, but it meant that I would have to choose my words carefully.

“What could you possibly give me?” I asked in a gruff voice, and now I was kind of praying that I could get out of this without him finding out who I was.

He looked desperate, maybe more desperate than the situation demanded. “You must want something!” he babbled. “My parents, they have money, power. They know people. Whatever it is you want…”

“Shut up.” Kevin’s unhinged babbling was starting to worry me. I hadn’t pictured him as such a pushover. “Why do you think I want money, or power? You think those are the only things in the world that have any value?”

“Oh my god, you’re gonna kill me. Oh my god,” he started repeating it over and over. It was ridiculous.

“I’m not going to kill you,” I snapped. “As long as you shut up. Quit being such a baby.”

That’s when he started crying. “You are going to kill me,” he insisted. “I know who you are.”
Woah, wait, what? “Is that so?” I said cautiously.

“You’re Suspect 7!” He blurted out. “You’re the reason we had to move again! They said you were coming to kill us!”

I made sure my voice would be calm and level before I spoke again. “They told you?” I repeated. “Who are they?”

“People that work for my parents! Security people! Oh my god, they told me not to come down but I had to see for myself oh my god no one knows where I am oh my god now you know that they don’t know oh my god…”

“Shut. The. Hell. Up.” This guy was unbelievable. How did Mr. Cool end up being such a wimp? He had his chin tucked into his chest now, and he was sobbing quietly.

“Snap out of it, Kevin. I’m not gonna kill you,” then I added, “if you answer my questions.”

“Anything…anything.”

“Good. You can start by telling me everything you know about Suspect 7.”

He sighed heavily, and then looked up at me. The venomous glare in his eyes was more along the lines of the Kevin Joy I knew. “I know that you’re an escaped mental patient,” he said. “I know that you hate my family for being rich. And I know that you tried to kill my girlfriend, and that’s why we had to move again, because you’re planning to kill us all.”

A video from back in the good old days, when I was still training with the parkour guys:

Cool effects done using Toon-FX toon video.

I broke the surface to find myself in a cavernous room that looked like a cross between a spa and a garbage dump.

Pools like the one I had landed in dotted the room, ringed in black rock and piped with columns of snaking copper like something out of Steamboy or LoEG.

Every available inch of ground that wasn’t taken up by a pool was covered in piles of garbage that gave off an awful reek in the heat.

“Hey whatteryoudoindownhere?”

I turned to find myself being inspected by two guys in overalls and goggles. They stood in front of a set of massive copper boilers, and did nothing but lean on their shovels curiously as I swam to the edge of the pool and pulled myself out.

“Did ya fall from fixin’ somethin’ up there?”

I realized I must look like a JoyTech employee in my gas mask and hazmat suit. But I wasn’t in the mood to be sneaky.

I hauled myself out of the water and shook free of the suit.

“I don’t work for JoyTech.”

They frowned at me. One of them muttered something like, “oh dear,” and dropped his shovel, making as if to turn around.

“Don’t move, fella. I’m gonna ask you guys some questions.”

The guy who had made a move froze, and I saw his eyes travel over me nervously.

He was checking to see if I had a weapon.

And believe it or not, this was the first time I ever thought about carrying a weapon. I knew all superheroes have a weapon – it’s either their power, or a magical thing, or a super high tech gun – but I’d never actually had to whip one out before.

My idea of ’superhero’ was turning myself into a cartoon. And the fights I’d been in were all just fighting other kids with my fists. Now suddenly, I was planning on grilling these guys for information, and I had no idea how I was planning on scaring them into talking.

(If you’re lost, check out my last tooned note here.)

“Here is my proposal to you, Suspect 7. You continue to attempt to thwart corporate evil. I will continue to spin your efforts into dazzling PR for my employers. All will continue as before, save for one small thing

“In exchange for your freedom, you will leave young Kevin Joy and his family ALONE.” The last word came out shrill and screaming in my ear and I cringed away from him.

He smiled, then rose to his feet, dusting off his knees and tittering to himself. I could feel Mrs. Brisby trying to burrow deeper into the depths of my pocket.

It was now or never.

Ignoring my pounding head, I sprang to my feet, still partially tied to the chair. Mr. Giggles’ mouth opened in a round O of surprise as I barreled into him, shoving him towards the thug with the gun.

As the other thug reached for me, I reached up to grab some manacles dangling for the dungeon ceiling, and I used the guy’s body to pull myself up and over him, swinging out through the door into the hallway beyond.

Then it was time for my patented superhero move: running like hell.
I ran blindly, not sure if I was getting out or trapping myself deeper in the building.

I was still half-drugged and out of it when I burst through a set of doors to the outside. Suddenly I was in the brightness of early morning, on a busy downtown street in front of a totally unassuming highrise.

I pulled off my mask as passers-by looked at me strangely.

A taxi honked at the traffic in front of me. A bum asked me for a quarter.

The whole scene was so surreal that I had to force myself to get moving. Not that anyone followed me out of the building.

I started to walk, looking for some familiar marker to orient myself. But I couldn’t focus. All I could think was: Kevin Joy. Kevin. Joy. Kevin Joy.

New Guy, who had shown up at school at the same time that the JoyTech Global Improvement Company set up headquarters here in Ring City.

New Guy, who was always telling Aurora to stop worrying about JoyTech.

Mrs. New Guy, waving my picture around.

“Leave Kevin Joy and his family alone.”

As I tried to wrap my head around it, I felt like I was suffocating, like I was drowning and every breath brought in more water.

Mrs. Brisby’s heart beat like a tiny machine gun, in my pocket, against my chest.

Here’s another full comic. Images tooned, as always, by Toon-Photo!

Tooned these baboons with Toon-FX. I’d like to think the JoyTech animals are somewhere like this now, but maybe it’s all a cartoon fantasy…?

Monday came and went with no word from JoyTech. In fact, it wasn’t until Wednesday that our rep from the Conurban Council was contacted by a JoyTech lawyer who told him very politely that Dr. John Barr (I guess he was a scientist, too), along with his entire team, had been fired for carrying out animal testing that had never been approved by the JoyTech Board of Directors.

The good news is that the facility is being shut down, and our Council rep was asked to oversee the transfer of the surviving animals to proper care homes.

The bad news is that JoyTech wins again. They used the same ‘hands-off’ strategy they used with the recycling scam to absolve themselves of all responsibility.

THEY didn’t know what was going on. Of course they didn’t. THEY can’t be blamed for the work of one maverick scientist with a sinister personal agenda.

A tiny piece ran in the Daily Ringer yesterday about Dr. John Barr – the mad scientist working ALONE on his evil schemes in a remote basement on the edge of the JoyTech plant.

HA!

I was there. I saw different. I’m glad the animals are safe, but if JoyTech thinks this is over, they’re wrong.

I wanted to post quickly to let you know that Toon-FX redesigned their site, and it looks freakin’ awesome. They’ve got a super easy, cool, FREE version of the toon-photo app up there that you basically HAVE TO TRY. It seems like they’re coming out with new stuff all the time these days, hope that means they’re doing gooooood.

But I’ve gotta run. So much is going on right now, it’s insane. I’ll post all about it tomorrow, for now I’ll just say everything is working out for the friends of Mrs. Brisby, thanks to someone who masquerades as a regular person, but is really a superhero – I’m sure you can guess her name.

Check this out. Toon-FX now has this app that lets you toon video! It’s super simple to just take regular video clips and turn them into sweet animations. Mrs. Brisby thinks it’s cool, anyway, which is why she agreed to star in my first tooned vid.