And Then There was One A Tiny Toons/Looney Tunes Fanfic By Kevin Mickel (HKUriah@AOL.com) June 15th, 2002 And so comes the end of another year of higher learning and lower comedy at Acme Looniversity. The 2001-2002 school year was fairly typical for Acme Loo, if anything at that weird place can be called typical. As the toonsters left their last class and headed for the end of the year assembly, Babs Bunny had a look of puzzlement of her face. "Buster?" she asked the blue bunny who was holding her hand as they walked. "Yeah Babs?" "Why are we here?" "Whattaya mean?" "Well, I mean, we sorta *graduated* from this place years ago, we're happily married, and so are most of out classmates, or at least weirdly married, and we all have complex and full lives. But we also all *still* have lockers here at Acme Loo, we still take occasional classes, and have to attend Looniversity functions. Heck, I'm *still* a cheerleader and your still captain of the football team. And to top it all off, we are all still half the size of the Looney Tunes. What gives?" Buster just smiled and shook his head, he opened his mouth to explain, but before he could, Babs said, "And if you say, 'It's a toon thing,' I'll tie your ears in a knot!" Buster could only cough and swallow hard when Babs said that. After taking a moment regain his composure, he said, "Well, it's like this. We may be all those things you said, but we are also *still* the Tiny Toons. We'll always be short, and we'll always be at Acme Loo for some reason or another. It's our schtick. Just like Bugs saying 'What's Up, Doc?' or Sam being a hothead. It's what we do." "Oh..." said Babs as she nodded thoughtfully. "Gotcha!" As Buster and Babs entered the Looniversity Auditorium for the End of the School Year assembly, they, and all of their friends and classmates, could not help but notice that there was a very somber feeling in the room. None of the usual year end decorations were in evidence, and the lights were even a little dim. "Did Bugs forget to pay the bills?" Babs asked Buster quietly. "Shh..." said Buster. "Here he comes." As Bugs slowly walked up to the center of the stage, he looked out at the gathered Tiny Toons and smiled, but there was something very sad about his expression. "Hi, kids," he said slowly. "We'll we's come ta da end of annuder school year, and it's been rocky one t'be sure. Youse may all be wonderin' where all the special stuff is fer dis years enda school t'ing, but, well, dis year we gotta be a little different about it. And in just a moment, I'm sure you'll know why." With that, Bugs nodded to his left, and he was soon joined by all of his Looney Tunes costars. They all looked rather sad, and some, most notably Pepe Le Pew, Wile E. Coyote, The Road Runner, Hubie & Bertie, Sniffles, Ralph Wolf, Sam Sheepdog, Marvin Martian, Marc Antony, Pussyfoot, Hugo and Gossamer had tears in their eyes. Once they were all assembled, Bugs looked over to them all, and with a nod he said, "Daffy?" Without comment, Daffy went over to Bugs, and the two of them reached up to pull down a new background for a very special room at Acme Loo. Suddenly staff and students were in the Director's Lounge, and all eyes were drawn to the rear wall of that very private room. Several large pewter mugs were neatly arraigned on a mahogany shelf, and all but two of them were upside down. The inverted ones had the names, Harman, McKimson, King, Tashlin, Hardaway, Avery, Davis, Ising, Dalton, Clampett and Freleng engraved on them. The two upright ones had the names McCabe and Jones on them. After looking at the display for a long moment, Bugs stepped aside and said, "Wile E?" Going over to the display, Wile E. reached out a trembling hand to take down the mug with Jones on it. He regarded it quietly for a moment before pulling a canteen out from behind his back to fill the mug with water. He took a small sip and passed the mug to Daffy, who did the same before passing it onto Elmer Fudd. In this manner, it slowly made its way through all the Looney Tunes, until it got back to Wile E, who gazed at it for a long moment. After draining the last of the water, he held the mug up high and said, "To you, Mr. Jones. You were the true genius." Pausing just long enough to wipe a tear from his eye, Wile E. reverently set the empty mug back on the shelf, but it was now upside down like all but one of the rest. He let his fingers linger on the mug for a long moment, before dropping his hand to his side and looking over to Bugs with a nod. Bugs looked over at the Tiny Toons and saw that all of them, like his costars, were on the verge of tears. Taking a deep breath, to calm himself, he said simply, "Class dismissed." Slowly and with a silence that was very unusual for the end of the last day of the school year at Acme Loo, the Tiny Toons filed out of the Lounge and headed for home. Once they were gone, the Looney Tunes started to leave, each of them pausing by Chuck's mug to touch it in tribute one last time. Bugs, being the last to leave, looked over at each of the inverted mugs one at a time, remembering what they all stood for. He let his gaze rest on Chuck's for a long moment, and then with a heavy sigh, he turned out the light. The End This fanfic is dedicated to the memory of Chuck Jones. Director of many a wonderful cartoon. A special "Thank You" to Leloni Bunny for drawing the very special Title Card for this story, wasonecard.jpg, and for inspiring me to write the thing in the first place. Thanks, Lel. "And that's a wrap..."