Rite of Passage: Part II
By Dark Helmet
Send any email to darkhelmet47@hotmail.com
Special Thanks to Pepe K.


	The door slammed behind the Loon as the two stood outside the Acme Loo
classroom. Marshall's eyes glanced around, noticing the advertisement for
the Valentine's Day dance on the wall, but then he turned his attention back
to the Loon. Shirley looked less than thrilled as the Arctic Tern opened his
mouth to speak.
	"Calm down, okay? It's not like I'm here to do some horrible thing to you
or anything like that, so lighten up, will you?"
	"Like, could you tell me what this is about already? I'm missing class."
	Marshall handed over a crumpled piece of paper, and instructed her to meet
him in the place he wrote down. Shirley didn't notice the back of the paper,
which said," Montana Max - Permanent Records."
	"You know, I would tell you now, but then this fanfic would only be about
a page long, so there really wouldn't be a point in reading it," he
commented as he walked away.

	Shirley started back for her classroom, but stopped herself for a second on
the way back. She just realized she didn't refuse Marshall or yell at him or
anything like had happened in all of their previous encounters. However,
after a moment, she just shrugged that off and walked back in.
	"Did you have fun chit - chatting with your friend in the hall, Ms. Loon?"
Professor Daffy asked. Shirley just shrugged, sat back down, and moved her
pen towards her test again. Before the end of the pen could reach the paper,
the teacher quickly pulled the paper away from her.
	"I'm sorry, but you could have been cheating off whoever you were talking
to in the hall. You get an instant zero," the spitting duck said. Shirley
stood up immediately with the intention of protesting. Just as she opened
her mouth to argue, her right arm began to shake a little, and that
accelerated into a violent spasm. She quickly lost control of the arm as it
pointed toward Daffy. Within seconds, her fingers were twitching
excessively, and Daffy's eyes changed to a couple of large swirls.
	"I didn't cheat!" Shirley cried out uncontrollably.
	"Of course you didn't," Daffy said in agreement. The whole class stared as
Daffy's eyes turned back to normal, and Shirley finally regained control of
her arm. Daffy dropped to the checkered - floor as soon as Shirley released
her control.
	"These aren't the droids we're looking for," Daffy added as he slammed
into the ground.
	As Shirley was thinking over what just went on, Daffy stood up and dusted
himself off.
	"Does anybody know what just happened?" Daffy inquired as he held his head,
which now had a large, beige bump sticking a foot up off of it.
	"This chick just went nuts and zapped your brain or something," Fowlmouth
said, standing up and pointing to Shirley.
	"Hey, I did not go nuts! I… uh… did that on purpose! I was in complete
control of my powers when that happened!" Shirley claimed falsely. From near
the back of the room, Fifi buried her face behind a book, while Babs stared
on, looking stunned. After the entire class sat silently for a few more
seconds, Shirley dashed out of the classroom.
	In the hallway, Bugs stopped the quick fowl, and brought her into his
office.

	After hearing Shirley's account of what had happened, Bugs stopped and
considered for a second.
	"Well kiddo, I don't know what ta think. You've never done anyting like dat
before, and it doesn't make sense that you would now. On da other hand, I
don't pretend to understand these powers of yours, so I don't know what they
could be doing to da staff. Maybe you should take a few days off and… well,
you know, center yourself or do whatever it is you do."
	After finishing his last sentence, Bugs hastily ducked under the table and
covered his head to protect himself. Shirley, however, just stood up with
her head down and walked out of his office. After hearing the door slam
shut, Bugs slowly ascended from under his desk.
	After a little bit of walking and thinking, Shirley found herself right in
front of Weenie Burger. From the front window, among the large crowd of
teenage toons within the greasy fast food place, she spotted Fifi and Babs
sitting inside, and she headed inside and took a seat next to Fifi.
	"I thought you didn't eat here," Babs commented. " After all, even the
sodas have "meat" in them."
	"Who said I was going to eat anything?" Shirley replied. The three
continued talking, about a variety of different things.  Shirley sat there
and hoped that the subject of what happened after she was kicked out of
class wouldn't come up.
	Meanwhile, outside Marshall was slowly approaching the same Weenie Burger
location on the same dirt road Shirley had taken, but from the opposite
direction. As he unhurriedly drew near the restaurant, another familiar face
walked up to the door from the opposite direction. Marshall glanced at a
green duck with a white shirt on.
	"Plucky… right?" Marshall asked uncomfortably.
	"Like you even have to ask such a question. Of course I'm Plucky! Even
somebody from the middle of nowhere like you should know the name of a star
like me."
	"Well, sorry, I don't get out much. And, most of the time when I do, I
just see a bunch of penguins." Marshall then reached for the door handle,
but Plucky stood in his way.
	"…and just who are you going to see in there?"
	"Nobody," Marshall said. " I just want some coffee to keep me awake."
Marshall stopped and looked at him closely for a second. " Wait, I have seen
you on TV. You were just on this documentary of the biggest cartoon failures
ever for the Plucky Duck Show." Marshall added that last part knowing that
it would irritate the duck, not because he really meant it.
	Plucky's face turned bright red, and steam shot out of his ears. " Listen
pal!" he shouted at the smirking tern. " I hope you're not going in there to
see Shirley. After all, she still wants me, even if she doesn't want to
admit it."
	"Why exactly do I care?" he asked. " You know something, you're a little
paranoid. No wonder I've never heard of you; any show you are on I wouldn't
be caught dead watching."
	The frown on Plucky's face, which was already large, grew even further. The
green duck turned toward the door into Weenie Burger, kicked the door open,
stomped in and slammed it behind him.

	"So I noticed you didn't walk with us after school today," Babs commented.
" How come?"
	"Like, could we please talk about something else?" Shirley replied
nervously, as she started to tremble very noticeably and slouch down in her
seat. She then glanced over at Fifi, then gave her a sudden push with her
elbow.
	"Oh, oui. Let's talk about sometheeing else… has Buster asked you to that
Valentine's Dance yet?"
	"No, and I don't want to have to wait until the last minute like I did for
the prom. He knows I'm going to say yes, and that even if I didn't want to,
the producers of the show would get very mad if I said no. What about
Hamton? Has he asked you?" Babs inquired. Fifi nodded no.
	"I am totally not going to that dance," Shirley declared. "Especially not
with Plucky. And before any of you suggest it, I won't go with anybody like
Fowlmouth either."
	"Well," Babs replied," you could always go with Gogo."
	Just then, they all noticed Gogo standing a few feet from them in a corner.
The dodo pointed to himself, smiled for a second, then faced Plucky suddenly
wearing glasses, a suit, and having red hair. " Plucky Duck, with one vote
you are the weakest link. Goodbye." He then moved himself right next to
Shirley. " Oh, sure, we'll have a great time. The rubber band could play us
romantic songs like Kung Fu Fighting," he started. Just then, a few rubber
bands came in and played that song for a moment," and then, after our night
at the dance, you could get cozy under the umbrella on my head. Plus," Gogo
started as he pulled out a hammer. He then smashed himself over the head
with a hammer forming several smaller Gogos," there's more of us to love."
	"Shouldn't you be dating a can opener, or a piece of toast, or whatever
else you tend to go out with?" Shirley answered as she gagged a little.

	A few more hours passed. The sun was starting to set as Shirley stepped
back on the Acme fairgrounds, the location Marshall had written down. The
Loon noticed Marshall standing next to a familiar looking table with his
eyes closed, and a humming sound coming from his mouth. She stepped over the
cold, muddy ground over to the bird and, knowing how annoying it was to be
interrupted in the middle of such things, she sat next to him and began to
meditate herself. As she slipped into a deep reverie, she sat on a flat rock
to make it almost like she was levitating the way she used to.
	Neither one knew how much time had passed, but both came out of it at the
same time.
	"Well, my aura's purified. How's yours?" Marshall asked as his light blue
eyes slowly.
	"Totally cleansed," she answered in a relaxed tone, with a little smile
visible on the edges of her mouth. " Okay, so I'm here. Could you please
tell me why it is that I'm here?"
	Marshall sat down on the table, which was the only item remaining from the
carnival. He stretched out for a moment, then started staring right into her
eyes.
	"Ah, I figure it's time I at least told you something. I just needed a
little while to watch you without you changing the way you act, just so
things would flow naturally."
	Shirley raised an eyebrow. " Like, I don't have clue one about what you're
talking about, and I can even understand what Fifi says."
	"Sit down," Marshall instructed. " Please." He pushed over on the table,
leaving just enough space for Shirley to sit down. " I figured out why I was
here about ten minutes * after * I set down in Acme Acres, and whenever I
share that information with other people, they always act very strangely."
Shirley still looked confused, so Marshall continued. " From a few minutes
after I met you, I knew that for the millionth time, somebody in the cosmos
thought I should meet a fellow psychic with abilities that aren't all there.
I have some friends who have had the same problem, and every time I try
and figure out what's going wrong. So far, I've had no luck.  But, whatever
is causing it, I'm sure it won't ever happen to me."

	Meanwhile, on the other side of Acme Acres…

	"I wouldn't ask you to come in, but I don't think I have a choice,"
Shirley's mother said to a short, elderly man standing at her front door.
	"It's alright, Mrs. Loon. Actually, I do not plan on hanging around… hmm,
you're angry right now. I'm guessing then that it has begun, yes?"  The old
man asked. Shirley's mother nodded. " It's okay to be concerned, but you
know as well as I do this is how it goes. We don't control what cards the
cosmos deal to us." He then started walking away. Shirley's mother glared at
the elderly gentlemen as he headed away from her home, and then she slipped
back inside.

	"Well, your reason is only half as mondo creepy as I expected it to be,"
Shirley said, " and, I guess I know you're not my stalker or some junk. But
that still doesn't make your totally weird following me around a good
thing."
	Marshall shrugged. " Hey, I had to do it that way. It might be scary,
weird, suspicious, and probably against the law, but it sure gets the job
done." He stood up and took a step away before pausing.   " If you feel the
need to discuss any of this, let me know. From what I've seen, it doesn't
get any prettier from here."
	Marshall started to walk away, but then glanced down at his watch for a
minute. His eyes bugged out for a second as he realized he had taken too
much time here. He turned to Shirley and started to wave goodbye, and as he
did this a bright white and blue light started covering him from head to
toe, moving down slowly.
	"Ah!" Shirley screamed as she watched this. Just as Marshall had
disappeared completely, he reappeared again.
	"And what are we screaming about?" he asked as he opened his beak to
speak. Shirley managed to say something about the light, and the
disappearing, but it was mixed in with a great deal of gibberish. " Calm
yourself, looney. That just happens to be the one power that… ah, never
mind. My point is, it's nothing, and definitely not a good reason for you to
scream."
	He looked at Shirley's frightened eyes for a moment, and he genuinely felt
bad about scaring her like that. His bright - eyes sank for a second and he
told her," I'm sorry about that. If it'll make you feel better, I'll walk
back. After all, I don't just apologize for anything." He then started a
walk back to his hotel room, and Shirley stayed in place for a little while,
gasping for air as she recovered from what she just saw.



	"So, he just disappears and then he's gone and he can come back any place
he wants…" Shirley thought out loud. " It's too freaky. One second he's
gone, then he's back…" The whole thought of teleportation made her nervous
to even think about, and as she paced around for hours she just kept
considering in her mind over and over again how freaky she thought
teleporting was, and how she could never bring herself to do it.

	Shirley walked in the door of her suburban Acme Acres domicile that night
after walking around for a few hours. He shut the door and noticed her
mother, standing in the living room and visibly angry.
	"Like, hi I'm back…" Shirley said. Her mother gave no reply. "Is
there something wrong?"
	"Like… nothing, Shirley. It's just an old acquaintance stopped by today,
and I wasn't all that happy about seeing him, that's all."
	Shirley didn't think much of this, and she headed up to her room to get
some sleep.

	2 AM. A loud clanging sound just outside the Loon's home caused her to wake
up instantly. She looked down outside her the window of her second - story
room, and saw the garbage cans at the curb had been knocked down. She rubbed
her eyes, and kept looking down. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a
moving figure.
	"Like is somebody down there or some junk?" she called out the window.
There was no answer, so Shirley walked downstairs and out the front door to
check it out.
	Now outside on the pitch - black street, right below a broken street light,
the Loon caught sight of the figure pacing back and forth outside of her
house. Shirley drew her flashlight and shone it on the figure to reveal a
familiar face: it was Marshall, only his eyes seemed to be a much lighter
shade of blue than usual, and there was a slight eerie glow around them.
	"What are you doing here?" Shirley asked.
	"Where's here?" he asked in reply.
	"My house. You know, a place you don't belong, especially at two in the
morning!" she shouted at him. Marshall shrugged and continued pacing. It was
becoming very clear very fast that Marshall was not in a normal state right
now. Shirley walked up right behind him and started shaking him as if it
would break him out of this strange trance, but it didn't. He just kept
walking.
	"Snap out of it!" she yelled directly into his ear.
	"Hey! Keep it down!!" some neighbors shouted at the noise.
	The Loon picked up two silver - colored garbage can lids and struck either
side of Marshall's head with them, but he didn't even seem to notice.
Shirley then darted away for a moment and returned with the hose. She began
spraying him, and although he fell down, Marshall didn't say a word about it
and he just stood right back up and started pacing again. Shirley tried
blowing a horn through his ears, but all that did was disturb the
neighbours. She crashed cymbals on the side of his head, but that didn't
work. She then tried grabbing a hold on the end of the beak, running down
the street so it stretched out a great distance, and then releasing so it
snapped back and hit him in the face. Still nothing. Finally giving up,
Shirley ran inside to get her mother.
	As she rushed into her parents' room, Shirley stopped and thought for a
moment. It suddenly occurred to her that if she said anything about
Marshall, that could tip them off about even more of what's been happening
lately, and she didn't want that, so instead she turned around and headed
back for her room, hoping the sleep walking toon would leave on his own.


	By eight o'clock the following morning, Shirley had risen as usual, and
about halfway through preparing to leave, she remembered that she would not
be attending school today. After a sigh, she sat down and tried to picture
what her friends were doing at the moment.
	What was actually occurring at Acme Loo wasn't that different from normal;
however, with the Valentine's Dance approaching, that subject dominated the
conversation.
	"Somebody looks happy considering we're at school," Plucky commented as he
looked at Babs with hearts in her eyes, a goofy smile, and her ears draped
back.
	"Yeah, I know. This year, I didn't have to bother Buster for days or
anything; he just asked me to go to the dance," Babs explained.
	"You know," Plucky started," I could always let Looney girl go with me,
just to be nice… or, I could…" and then his speech was cut off by some
suspicious laughter, and suddenly the duck darted out of the room.

	The loud reverberation of what sounded like a siren caused Marshall to
suddenly shoot up out of bed. Looking next to him, he saw the phone, which
had suddenly grown a mouth, and heard it yelling," WAKE UP!" In his ear. He
frowned for a moment, reached his index finger over, and zapped the phone
with an electrical shock. He then forced himself to stand up and stand in
front of a mirror.
	"Wow, somebody looks like death this morning…" he observed about his own
reflection. " What happened last night?" After thinking for a few seconds,
he shouted out," Oh man! It happened again, didn't it?"
	Close to noon, Shirley was greeted by Marshall upon answering a doorbell.
	"Like, how did you know I was here?" she asked.
	"Lucky guess," Marshall said," that, and I already checked at the school."
	Marshall stepped beside her and entered her house. Just as he did this, all
the way across Acme Acres, Shirley's parents and one other person received
several small shocks at the same time. The tern took a seat on the green
couch in the Loon's living room.
	"Fine," Shirley said." I have a better question, then. Why were you here
and acting all freaky in the middle of the night?"
	Marshall took a deep breath, walked into the living room, and threw himself
into a chair. " Well, remember before when I said I just knew people that
had these psychic power failures? Well, I was actually lying. You see, where
you tend to fry buildings and stuff like that, using my powers more than a
little, among other unpleasant side effects, causes what you saw last night…
and before you ask, no, this is not just the worst excuse anybody's ever
thought up to come visit you. I must have forgotten to lock the door to my
hotel room or something."

	After a minute or so of silence, Marshall stood up. " I really should get
going, or the hotel staff will think their dream came true and I finally
checked out."
	"You're not going to do that mondo freaky teleporting thing again, are
you?" she asked. Marshall nodded no and walked off.

	One day later, Shirley the Loon made her return to Acme Looniversity.
"Where were you yesterday?" Babs asked Shirley as she sat down next to two
of her friends.
	"Nowhere!" she shouted. Babs moved a few inches back. Calming herself
down, she then turned to Fifi. "Like, I think I totally saw Professor LePew
looking for you in the halls." Fifi stood up and started to walk out.
Shirley followed close behind.
	"Bonjour? Professor LePew?" Fifi called as she entered the halls. Shirley
forced herself right out in front of Fifi.
	"He isn't really out here. Wait until I explain what happened to you…"
Shirley started.

	Just as the Loon finished explaining everything that happened in the last
twenty - four hours, Plucky Duck walked by, accompanied by a tall, blonde -
haired female duck with bright - red lipstick, and wearing a short red dress
hanging off his arm.
	"Hello Shirley," Plucky said smugly. " Just think, this could be you."
Shirley didn't answer, and Plucky kept walking.

	The day passed for the most part uneventfully until the beginning of the
afternoon. There, Shirley stepped into the classroom that two days before
had been the scene of the latest unfortunate incident. Fowlmouth became the
first to break the silence.
	"Hey look, the Wicked witch is back," he commented. Shirley said nothing
and sat down at her desk next to Fifi. " What's the matter, babe? Aren't ya
supposed to mess up my brain or somethin' ?"
	"That would mean you had a brain," Babs shouted over to him.
	"Why are ya stickin up for her? She got you under her creepy spell, too?"
Fowlmouth said. Fifi turned around with her tail in spraying position. " Oh
***** !" Fowlmouth spent the rest of the day reeking of skunk odor and
saying nothing.

	"Hey, Reed, listen, I'm actually getting somewhere this time… I don't care
how hot the person you're investigating is, I want you to take the next
flight out here… because there's something different about her, don't ask me
to explain… okay, I'll see you when you get here. Bye," Marshall said as he
turned off his cell phone and turned to the menu in front of him at the Acme
Hotel Restaurant. Across the room, a few familiar faces sat. The Loon, minus
Shirley, and a old man that had visited him before were seated together, but
the psychic tern failed to notice them. The other three did, however, see
him.
	"That is the one," the elderly gentlemen stated, point his index finger at
Marshall. Mrs. Loon remembered his face from before, while Mr. Loon was
seeing it for the first time. Still, both sat and peered over at this
teenager for a moment, but as soon as they thought Marshall may have spotted
them, both hid behind the dark green menus.  " Let's not be obvious here. I
do not believe any of us want to make them suspicious."
	"Speak for yourself," Mrs. Loon said under her breath.

	Days later, on Tuesday, February 10th, the usual frantic rush for the door
at three o'clock was not quite as massive as usual. Instead, at least fifty
toons piled into the gymnasium as the preparations for Friday's Valentine's
Dance.
	"I'm glad you actually decided to help with this," Babs said to Shirley as
she stood on the top of a ladder, attaching one end of a banner to the wall.
"After all, it could take your mind off of everything else." As soon as
Babs said that, Shirley became noticeably tense for a few seconds.
	The next few hours were spent by Shirley and a good portion of the rest of
the school doing the first bit of decorating for the upcoming event.
	"Like, this is actually kinda doing me some good. I haven't thought about
Marshall or my powers, or Plucky's airhead date in hours," Shirley whispered
to Fifi.
	"Tres bon, mon ami."
	"Hey," Babs called over to them as she approached. " What are you guys
whispering about?"
	"Notheeng," Fifi answered.
	Babs, not convinced, just frowned a little and walked away.

	Back at the hotel, Marshall was in the process of preparing for the
upcoming dance in his own way.
"	Of course I know what I have to do, Reed," Marshall said into the phone. "
I mean, after all, these situations are the most common times for psychic
minds to trip out a little. The irony's terrible, isn't it? Okay, I'll talk
to you after this Valentine's Day dance is over. Bye."

Part III coming soon…