“ Are these two connected? Or, is it like how there’s a bunch of cities called the same thing almost everywhere? I heard something about some country on some planet having a Portland on each coast. I’ll take a guess that boats a big thing there… ”

He remembered seeing some cartoonish animals (uncannily reminding him of Sonic) using pies and seltzer and one-tons to take out some of the bird guys. Maybe…

“ If there’s anything I like doing, it’s causing mischief, hoo hoo! ”

“Well…um…”

The Repairman started to gesture vaguely everywhere. How could he put this?

Of course, he quickly stopped his motions when they were causing him to lose his balance on the ladder. After a brief bit of flailing, he found his grip on it again.

“Yes,” the Repairman finally said, figuring out what he wanted to say, “They just happen to have the same name. This is a place where all Toons can come together, while that ToonTown focuses on…”

C’mon, you don’t have to break the wall again here.

“…a battleground between animals and robots.”

He lowered his voice slightly as he said, “Between you and me, the Cogs are Toons too, despite what they say.”

He chuckled a bit as he applied the adhesive.

“Honestly, you’ll fit in either if you like that. Plenty of folks to apply it to!”

He tried to ignore the fact that he had some “applied to him” just a minute ago.

“ Yeah, especially that one movie with their piano battle: I loved that! I had it on tape, too, ba-haah!! ”

Because Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a universal constant. Or, at least, cartoon characters were, to an extent. Hey, if a Mobian could reach Toontown, cartoons had to be a thing there, right?

“ Well, these days, I’m not really doing that much. I guess I’ve just been out and exploring Mobius without destroying it. ”

The Repairman laughed in return, but somewhat hesitantly. He remembered that perfectly well (what Toon didn’t?), and it was a good performance, but he never felt comfortable with…well, real humans.

“Well, you’re quite a ways away from Mobius,” he remarked, looking at Scratch oddly.

He opened his red toolbox and pulled out a stepladder and some spray adhesive. Distracted as he was, he had to do this job.

“Yer time’s gonna be real lousy,” Doris snarked.

“So far,” the Repairman said, somewhat truthfully, “this is going to be my best.”

“ That doesn’t seem too far off. Eugh, I’m glad I’m able to branch out now! Being stuck in 1993 gets old after 23 years, give or take… ”

Scratch. Scratch, please don’t make more cracks in the 4th wall. The poor bloblike fellow doesn’t need anymore work…

“ My question is, who didn’t those days? Like you said, go big or go home! Even if it does mean betrayal of one’s own brand! ”

The chickeny robot winked and gave the Repairman a teasing smile. The bird knew just what he was doing. Badniks will be Badniks.

“ Hey, we were pretty much kids who just wanted to have some fun. ”

The Repairman tried to think about being in one year for several years. After the slight headache, he quickly stopped trying.

“Hmm,” he nodded, “I guess br– world loyalty doesn’t really matter that much. I’ve seen Donald and Daffy working together, after all.”

He began to put his toolbox back onto his cart, while pulling a red toolbox from the top shelf.

“So, what are you two up to these days?”

“ ’Decent lackey’ is probably pushing it a little. But, a mechanic? Woah! Reminds me of the time he’d made Sonic a bike. WAIT, CREW? There’s more than just the two of them now? I guess I shouldn’t be TOO intimidated by them. ”

Scratch chuckled when the Repairman asked if his brother’s other weapons were any friendlier.

“ Well, I don’t know. How friendly would you classify chainsaws, mini-missiles, guns and lasers, among other equally-as-dangerous-and-destructive things? Also, sometimes he used to just have a cannon on one arm and he’d pretend he was MegaMan or something. Geez, I wonder where all our games and consoles are right now, I should go dust ‘em off and play some! Nostalgia for days! ”

“You must’ve been on that version of Mobius for a while,” the Repairman remarked. “There’s been more than the two for quite some time now.”

He was about to reply to Scratch’s point about weaponry, but stopped. He realized the chicken had a point.

“Well…” he said, struggling to figure out why he felt those were friendlier.

He had a nagging suspicion at the answer, but decided not to pursue that line of thought. He didn’t want to sabotage his own job again.

“…I guess if you’re a henchman, you go big or go home,” he finished, jokingly.

“Wait a minute,” he said, realizing something. “You, a SEGA character, had a Nintend—”

He clapped his hand over where his mouth would be, but it was too late. He sabotaged his own job again.

Doris suddenly shouting “Seven minutes!” didn’t help.

“ Yeah. Tails. We um. Kind of held him hostage a lot of times. I hope we didn’t super screw him up. ”

The chicken’s eyes lit up momentarily at the mention of a drillish individual, but quickly re-faded.

“ Y-yeah! My little brother! Grounder! That’s who you’re thinking of! I don’t know why he didn’t use his drills more often. I guess one’s more enticed to use a weapon rather than their bare drill-hands, hah. ”

“Eh,” the Repairman replied casually, “don’t worry about it. That’s par for the course for many Toons. I bet you were a decent lackey if you got to do that.”

He looked up, having finally found the clipboard.

“Besides,” he continued, “he’s the mechanic of Sonic’s crew, last I heard.”

He looked down to see his best time. It was then that he realized that he didn’t have a best time; this was the first time he tried timing his travels.

Sheepishly, he tried to make sure Doris didn’t see his mistake as he put the blank paper in his hammerspace.

“Grounder, eh?” the inkblot repeated. He noticed the chicken brighten up, so he figured it’d be nice to remember this name, as well.

“My guess is that other weapons are…” he looked for the right term, “…friendlier than drills.”

Scratch took Doris’s business card and squared it away in his shirt pocket. He might as well lok into it.

“ Hopefully that’s the case, if I ever encounter him again. ”

Well, Scratch certainly had left impressions on audiences and Mobius alike, both not necessarily positive ones. Names like “dumb cluck”, “chips-for-brains”, “scrap metal”, and “hey isn’t that the youtube poop chicken” probably don’t leave their owner with a high esteem.

“ I-I don’t know how they could forget… We were. Uh. I think we made a pretty major impact on a four-year-old fox kit. ”

“Oh, Tails?” the Repairman asked.

He suddenly remembered two things. One: this was a robot that apparently fell apart a lot. Two: Tails is now known for being a mechanic.

“Yeah, I think you and whoever that drill belonged to did influence him a bit.”

He pulled his blue toolbox in front of him to better talk to Scratch while he searched for his clipboard.