Bonkers: Of Broken Toes and Broken Ties - Part 1

The door to the room opened with a soft creak and from behind it, peeked his face.
The room was bright; beds with bright white sheets stood left and right next to the big window. The curtain fluttered a little, but it was so different than the curtain he knew from theatres or Hollywood. This one felt cold, and the soft breeze escaping from it just proved him right.
Bonkers blinked his eyes, stepped into the room and closed the door not particularly quiet, which caused the man in the room to cringe.

"Keep that toon away from me!" demanded a rough voice that emerged from the bed.
His pleas, however, were not answered and instead a loud wildcat calling his name landed straight on top of the detective, bouncing ever so slightly. Soft fur nuzzled the part of Lucky's skin that was not hidden by the massive bandage.

"How's my favorite partner?!" the bobcat asked, before he gave the man another hug, "I missed you!"
Great, he'd been here for… what? Two hours?
"Have I taught you nothing about patience?" …or stealth for that matter?
At this, Bonkers pulled himself up and blinked down at his boss.
"But we're not working right now!"
Lucky wearily rolled his eyes. His muscles clenched uselessly against the fresh plaster that caged him in, making it impossible to shove his 'partner' off the bed.

"But, don't you worry!" Bonkers chirped up as he pushed himself up and glanced down at the human's cheeks he had squished together in his excitement, "I know just the thing to make you feel better!"

- And in burst a Marching band of toons.
The noise… THE NOISE!

After what felt like an eternity to Lucky, a doctor finally arrived, finding the detective wriggling to the best of his abilities.
"What's going on in here?" the consultant demanded.
Bonkers raised his eyebrows in confusion, glancing at the man as he picked him up by the scruff of his neck.
"The patient needs rest!" the doctor declared and the bobcat shrugged uneasily.
"But laughter is the very best medicine you can get."


Bonkers, with ears laid back, rubbed his behind where a significant boot-print was displayed and soon the band of toons followed him out voluntarily, crowding around the orange cop on the floor.
Fallapart trotted up to the bobcat and plopped down next to him.
"That worked well," he stated as cheerful as the rabbit could get.
"No, it didn't!" Bonkers disagreed with a slight sharpness to his voice, got up and cleared the corridor.
The group of toons exchanged looks, disposed of their instruments and followed the bobcat in single file.

In front of the building, the bobcat dismissed them all with a genuine "Thank you, people!"
Fallapart however waddled back to him.
"Wanna join me in some Bingo?"
Bonkers put on his police hat and adjusted it pointedly.
"Thanks Fallapart, but I'll go back to the office."
He wished his bestest of friends the bestest of luck and departed, eager to distract himself from the recent letdown.


Act 1

"And then I shall rule aaaall the candy supplies of Manhatten!"
"Not today, Puppyface! PEW PEW!"
"Curse youuuu, Captain Awesome!"

Bonkers was very busy with reading the newest issue of his favorite comic when the phone interrupted him, so the toon casually picked it up.
"Helloooooo," he made his introduction, playing with different pitches before he started to rattle down the usual "Hollywood Toon Division, Bonkers D. Bobcat - How can I help you?" at a speed you only remembered from health-risk warnings on the TV.
"Ahhhh, Bonkers!" responded the approving voice of Chief Kanifky, "Say, could I meet you in the office?"
The toon set the comic aside and leisurely put his feet on the table, "Sure, sure, I'll be waiting here!" he then said.
"I meant in my office," Kanifky explained, not at all bothered by the bobcat's attitude.
"Be right there!" it answered in his speaker and before the Chief managed to put the phone back in place, the bobcat had already stormed through the door, leaving it swaying behind him.
Kanifky appreciated the reliability with a warm smile, before it faded and his face directed a more contemplating expression towards the empty space next to Bonkers.
"Say, where is that Pickle guy, if you need him?"
"Pi-quel!" Bonkers corrected him, subdued. "He's still in the hospital."

It had been a week since Lucky had been admitted. Most of his wounds were healed by now, but he still suffered a broken leg that – in the bobcat's book – took awfully long to get better. If Bonkers had had any say in it, he would have gotten his ol' pal out of the horror they called hospital right after he was bandaged up the first time.
"Well then," Kanifky stated and turned around to fetch his fishing rod.
"Officer," he picked up again; "We have a situation, and I'd like to put you on this case, since you happen to have prior experience!"
The bobcat's face lit up as if a thousand spotlights had caught him – literally. Not to mention the light-bulb floating over his head. Bonkers quickly turned it off, grabbed the file on the desk, slammed it against his chest like a precious treasure and gazed intently at the Chief.
"You mean, I'm-"
"Yeah, yeah, you're in charge," the superior stated nonchalantly as he sat back down, "Now who would you like to-"
But before Kanifky could finish his sentence he was interrupted by the door slamming against the wall as the bobcat dashed out of the room.
His new aim?
The hospital!


"LUCKY!"  The voice of the toon echoed in the corridors, causing a certain patient to cringe. In a bout of panic the detective pulled his wheelchair over to hide behind a bushy plant. He sighed with relief when he saw the toon-cat passing by, but yelped in surprise when he turned to find his partner right up in his face and grinning like a maniac.
"Guess what, boss!" he half-shouted, tapping the human on his shoulder playfully.
"What?" Lucky wheezed; squeezing his eyes shut.
"I found youuuu!" Bonkers responded with a low coo, hugging his boss.
The deep grunt didn't stop the bobcat from doing what he did, however, so eventually Lucky pried the toon off by the neck and held him as far away from him as he possibly could.
"Yes, you did," the man voiced threateningly. "You're it! Go hide!"
"Oh, but I can't do that, Lucky!" Bonkers shook his head and handed Lucky the files about his case.
"See?" he prodded, pointing at the paper, "I've got work to do now!"
Great, the senior officer thought, then what was he doing he- wait what?
Lucky straightened himself and stared at the little fur ball in quiet wonder. He set Bonkers down again and disbelievingly took the sheets, browsing through them quickly to see if the files in there were for real, or if the toon was just playing him.
"They let you work – alone?"
"Of course not!" Bonkers denied happily and bent over to meet the detective's face.
"I'll take you with me!"

Lucky quickly attempted to struggle or call for help, but before he could manage to achieve anything, the detective found himself kidnapped by the toon.
"Apparently there is a witness who watched the crook flee," the bobcat briefly explained on the way back to the basement; pretty much ignoring any traffic lights and taking every possible stairway there was. Once they had finally arrived Bonkers let go of the wheelchair, zoomed around in the office and jumped into Lucky's lap who winced and bit back a groan.
"We need to find that witness and recapture the crook!"
"No!" the detective objected to Bonkers's childish enthusiasm, "You do that! You and another officer. Or Fallapart. Take Fallapart, he'll be glad!"
Bonkers crossed his arms behind his back, bashfully swaying a bit.
"Fallapart is on vacation."
"But he was at the hospital the other day!"
"Won the vacation at Bingo."

All that aside, the toon wanted to take this case with Lucky anyway. Lucky was his partner! His boss! Lucky knew what had to be done! Lucky knew everything! And then… well, there was the crook…
"Lucky?!" the bobcat squeaked, pleading by now, and only earned a deep grunt in response.
"Did you look at the files yet?"
"No, Bonkers, because I am - not - taking - this case! I'm in the hospital! Means off duty! Means no work! Means no cases! Means no toons! Means…" he let that linger dramatically for a moment, his accusing finger pointing right at the bobcat's nose, "…no Bonkers!"
And wasn't that all the more reason to even stay sick for the next few weeks if he could help it?

With the determination in Lucky's voice a spark of panic had been ignited in the furry officer and he began to flail helplessly.
"Lucky, please!" he glomped his boss, clinging to him tightly as though his life depended on hit.
"Stop being such a child!"
"It's Mc Slime!" Bonkers blurted out and shoved the case files into his partner's face.
Lucky immediately cooled down, blinked and gulped.
"Mc Slime?"
Bonkers nodded, quietly but certain.

Slippery Mc Slime. Lucky remembered that specific crook just all too well. Said criminal had earned that particular nickname due to always slipping through the fingers of law, well until he met detective Piquel, that is, namely – him. And yes, Bonkers helped too. A bit.
The toon and he had been partners for barely a month when it all happened, and after a partnership that had lasted for three years now, the officer still remembered this case as if it was yesterday, what with Mc Slime almost managing to kill him with a steamroller. You know he didn't really want to say it, much less admit it but… that day Lucky had learned to trust Bonkers. To… some extent, you know. Maybe let's just say that he pretty much gave up trying to make sense of him – that sounded a LOT better to him.

The older officer had remained silent for a while as he recalled the memories – too long for Bonkers to take. The toon hated waiting and the detective could easily see how the bobcat began to fidget increasingly. In fact that was what snapped his attention back to his partner.
"Don't worry, Lucky!" the orange officer announced, speaking more to himself than his partner it seemed, "We'll get him! Just like last time! Let him know that he picked the wrong team to mess with and –"
"Bonkers!" Lucky cut in and the toon abruptly stopped.
"Yes?"
"I can hardly move!" the cop hollered; what little sympathy he might have felt for his partner seemingly vanished in an instant. "Why don't you get someone else for your case and let me rest? They WILL find you someone; we have a whole station full of policemen that are ready for this job."
Despite the harshness of his words the request came out much less aggravated this time; more like a warm suggestion. Bonkers, however, remained irresponsive, fidgeted some more and shifted his eyes all around the room.
"Well?" Lucky urged.
"He tricked me last time," the toon admitted feebly.
The response Bonkers got was an almost sardonic chuckle as Lucky smugly leaned over the wheelchair.
"What now? Are you scared?" Granted, the detective had been fooled back then as well; but he didn't feel too troubled about it since Bonkers was fooling him all the time.
In the back of his mind he wondered if he should worry about these kinds of things more often.

The aforementioned toon just sat there and twitched a little, before he eventually glomped his partner again with full-force; almost managing to knock the wheelchair over.
"YES!" was the simple but petrified response.
"Bonkers!" Lucky objected and tried to get rid of the bobcat that tightly clung around his head. "Cut that out! You hear me? Cut that- Take me back to the hospital NOW!"
The toon gave a last tight squeeze before he let go and dropped to the ground with a weary salute.
"Alright, boss."

Although reluctant inside, Bonkers complied with Lucky's wish. It was a slow ride this time, and even if it took longer, Lucky couldn't say that he minded the change of pace. Once they arrived they were promptly greeted by the woman behind the reception, who had thought nothing much about their disappearance and assumed that the toon had just taken the patient for a stroll. This was because the detective would have been fine enough to walk around with the aid of crutches, you see, but somehow he kept on insisting to stay longer, which surprised her. Nevertheless – she had a message to deliver.

"Welcome back, Mr. Pickle."
"Pi-quel," Lucky corrected her sourly, while Bonkers tilted his head at the lady.
"You have a visitor waiting in your room. He arrived a while ago and said that it was very urgent."

The unlikely duo glanced at each other for a moment and without another word Bonkers grabbed the handle of the wheelchair to roll Lucky over to the elevator.
"A visitor, huh?" the detective muttered to himself.
The quirky answer he expected from Bonkers never came.

The silence remained, until they had reached the desired floor and the familiar 'bing' of the elevator indicated that it had moved on. Unused to so much silence from his partner, the senior officer found himself relieved when, even if hesitantly, the bobcat spoke up again.

"I- my senses are tingling," he said flatly as he stared in the direction of Lucky's room with an empty gaze.
"Really? What senses?!" the detective inquired, "The only thing I ever get from you is nonsense!"
Bonkers blinked at the senior officer in confusion, before he let go of the wheelchair and shushed his partner.
"Just wait and see!"

Leaving a very disgruntled Officer Piquel behind the corner, Bonkers slowly tiptoed towards Lucky's room alone. Cautiously the toon pressed his ear against the door and his eye slipped into the keyhole.
Bingo!

He had been right.
...Oh no!
He had been right!

With an audible gasp the orange officer pulled away and dashed back to where he had hidden his partner.
"Lucky! You've got to see this!" the toon exclaimed as hushed as possible and without much of explanation pulled a spy-glass out of his pockets. In a rush he shoved it into Lucky's face and began to spin one of the pieces. The Spy-Glass extended quickly, growing and growing and conveniently rounding the corner until eventually it hit the keyhole spot on.

"Bonkers, what are you talking about? I don't see any- oh,"
The detective immediately went quiet.

The first thing he noticed was a bulky man standing at the window. His back was turned towards the door and he appeared to be wearing a doctor's attire that was far too small for his size. In his right hand was a syringe, but Lucky couldn't determine whether it had been used already or not. His left hand, which had been hidden from sight before, then leaned upon the windowsill and exposed a still-clean scalpel.
The man suddenly moved and turned around to pick something up from the floor. Lucky's focus was getting blurry by this point, but the detective was sure he saw a limp arm coming into view. Shifting in his wheelchair the detective tried to move the spy-glass a little, until, in the corner of his vision he found a man lying motionless on the ground. Lucky did not know whether the guy was still alive or dead, but one thing was disturbingly obvious…
There was no time to find out, because the bulky fake was heading for the door.

Lucky gave a startled warning and before he knew it, Bonkers had ripped the spy-glass out of his hands, repocketed it faster than he could watch and with a tight grip on his superior's wheelchair, had rocketed the detective out of the hospital.

It was a fast trip home, Lucky couldn't remember ever having arrived earlier.

Bonkers slammed the door behind him shut and then drooped limply over the wheelchair, panting like a dog. There was a dead silence hanging over them… and Lucky didn't complain.
Wait… if Lucky didn't complain, then there was something wrong!
Very, very wrong.

"He was here…"
The bobcat stopped wheezing and watched his boss emerge from the wheelchair. The detective grabbed his crutch and began to hobble around in the vandalized room. His poor house… It looked just as if Bonkers had thrown a party with some of his toon friends while he had been in the hospital; just lacking the confetti and the pawprints on the ceiling.
"Dyl? Marylin?" Lucky called. The question was calm at first, but when the lack of response persisted a harsh panic began to lace his voice. It was a tune that Bonkers remembered hearing far too often whenever he messed up, though it had never been quite that desperate.
He began to fidget and remained behind the wheelchair, too scared to go anywhere near his boss at this time.
"Maybe they're… shopping! Yes, shopping!" the orange toon threw in, cheering up a bit at his own suggestion.

The senior-officer turned to raise an eyebrow at Bonkers who just grinned sheepishly. Yeah, right.
Behind the bobcat, however, something caught Lucky's eyes and he began to limp straight towards it. There, right next to the front door was a note pinned to the wall.
Not your regular ransom note either. There was no money involved.
Bonkers watched helplessly as his partner ripped off the paper and stared at it with sheer horror on his face.

"He's…" over and over and over did his eyes run over the note, "He's challenging me…"
Eventually, the detective's eyes ripped from the piece of paper and, in a zoned out fashion, wandered through the demolished living room. The hand resting on his crutch began to shake violently.
"Boss?" the feeble question came, and Bonkers ever so slowly walked up to him. The bobcat stared at his boss, his partner, with expectation, because… Lucky always knew what had to be done, right?!

Squeezing his eyes shut, the detective came to realize that he had no choice.
"Maybe your witness saw what happened to them."
Guess Bonkers would get the partner he wanted after all.

At that revelation the toon's expression immediately brightened up and he began to babble away with the strangest misplaced excitement.
"You're so strong, Lucky! So this is the plan. Find the witness, protect the witness,
Find Dylandra and Marilyn, Lock up Mc Slime for good! Easy as that! And don't you fret! We'll solve this case. Us together! Side by side! Book him! Take 'im to the court! He'll get his just-desserts! And it will NOT be a banana split!"

With trained professionalism the detective had zoned out of the ramble until eventually, an insistent nudge from Bonkers signalized him that the toon was done.
"Right, boss?"
"Uh… yeah, right…" Lucky responded, barely mumbling as he turned to limp back to his wheelchair.
And that's when he came to realize…
The wheelchair! He was trapped in that thing! He couldn't catch a crook like this! He was doomed! His family was doomed!

"We can't stay here!" Bonkers eventually piped up again, jogging Lucky out of his thoughts. The bobcat quickly zoomed up right behind Lucky, grasped the wheelchair and briskly tackled the detective into it.
"Mc Slime is searching for you! I bet that was him in the hospital! We need to get you to the force! He won't dare going there!"
Lucky, fighting away the shock blinked and tried to reel his head in Bonkers's direction who by now had leapt back into action.
"Whenever did you start making sense?"
"I do?"

"Yes," the officer confirmed, miraculously. "But SLOW IT DOWN!"
The bobcat forced the wheelchair into an abrupt halt, almost flinging Lucky out of it in the process. Just before them, the traffic light turned red.
"Yes…?" Bonkers leaned over the wheelchair with a sheepish grin. A big hand wrapped around his neck and pulled the toon right up into his senior officer's face. His grin wavered nervously, but didn't fade.

"I just don't… cannot put them in danger, Bonkers!" his boss gave Bonkers the look; THAT look that said it all. When his partner quickly nodded in understanding Lucky let go of the quirky guy and watched as the toon's eyes immediately morphed into quivering pools of water before the fountain exploded and Bonkers threw himself at Lucky's chest.
"I DON'T WANT THAT EITHER!"

The older officer pulled back at first, but soon dropped the harsh demeanor and opted to just pat the toon's back. His fellow officer was just as worried as he was. He just… expressed it differently.


In the meantime a large doctor passed through the halls of the hospital. He didn't appear to be too happy. For most of the other doctors, the diagnosis was simple...
The coffee machine must have been broken again.
What none of them knew however, was that the coffee machine was perfectly fine and that the colleague they met on the corridor, was no fellow-doctor at all.

The bulky figure eventually disappeared into a broom closet and after a while and a few rustles an elderly, but chubby lady left again, carrying a bundle of clothes, and a mop. No one had suspected a thing.

No one, but a tiny toon-butterfly who had been following the person around for quite a while. With a nervous gulp the infamous witness kept on following the crook like a lost puppy.
The round lady in the pink jumpsuit harmlessly greeted people that passed her and the people greeted back casually. Without much opposing trouble the woman had left the building and disappeared behind the next corner.

The toon, driven by his curiosity, followed cautiously but as he approached the mysterious corner, a large, beefy hand suddenly engulfed the tiny being whole and with a helpless squeak it was pulled out of sight.


Bonkers and Lucky were on their way back to the Headquarters to look for clues around the prison where Mc Slime was known to have been held. Maybe, they hoped, they could find out something about the witness, who had not yet actually shown himself to the police, or - even better - maybe they would manage to collect some clues on Mc Slime's very escape.

Currently the small bobcat was busy in trying to push the wheelchair of his slightly... robust colleague up a hillside, panting in exhaustion.
"What happened to your last diet?" the toon wheezed as he was closing in on the top.
"What happened to your energy?!" Lucky retorted, "Drop the act, Bonkers, this is serious."
"But I'm a toon, acting's what I do!" the orange officer retorted; now perfectly fine. The detective couldn't help but roll his eyes.
"Luckymeo! You aren't angry, are you?"

The man was about to give the toon a piece of his mind, when Bonkers beat him to it.
"I know you're worried! But, Lucky! Don't be so scared! We're a team! Peas in a Pod! I'll look out for y- oh look a butterfly!"
The bobcat pointed up at the colorful insect speeding right towards them, and in his distraction almost crashed into the very same lamppost the butterfly had pancaked on.
Quite proud of himself the toon pointed back at the disastrous trap he'd avoided and winked at you, yes you, dear reader, hello. Why don't you wave back?

Officer Piquel on the other hand was concerned with something else, for his wheelchair had – due to Bonkers's epic distraction – suddenly begun to move without his consent.
With a mournful "I'm dead..." the detective began to roll down the very steep street, heading directly for a set of parked cars.
"BOOONKEEEEERS!"
The furious yell had pulled the toon back into the script. Bewildered, Bonkers turned around to witness what was going on and with a hurtful flinch squeezed his eyes shut from the loud crash that followed.

Oops.