“After I gather all the crystals from the cave, a small opening appeared in the wall. I was curious to see where it led so I went inside and there was this large room with mirrors floating everywhere,” Zen said.

The phox sat on the couch with his best friend Sol, a yellowed-eyed, white-furred Corgi who listened to Zen's story intently. They faced each while sitting crossed-legged, Sol's eyes gleaming with interest as his tail wagged mildly from the excitement.

“Well? Well? What happened next?” Asked the Corgi, hugging a couch pillow to lean his chin on as he listened with his ears perked up. His small 4'4 body easily covers the pillow.

“The door closed behind me, and the room fell dark. The mirrors started glowing randomly and I...”

“Excuse me,” spoke the raven. Venishi, Zen's second closest friend and teammate, walked in from the kitchen, happily eating a ham sandwich.

“Sorry to interrupt your story Zen but I wanted to ask you something.”

“Sure, what's up?” Zen asked turning to face the blue-eyed Raven, watching as some of the breadcrumbs fell from his beak onto his green shirt with a thin purple overcoat.

“I read somewhere a while back,” Venishi continued, “that kitsunes like you have an undying fear or dislike of dogs. How is it that you too get along so well?” Zen tilted his head at the question while Sol lifted his chin from the pillow, curious as to Zen's response. Zen leaned his head back to get a glance at Sol. The Corgi smiled and giggled at seeing Zen watch him upside down.

“Hmmmmm,” Zen said, causing Corgi's ears to flick curious as he stared wide-eyed at Zen while he thought about it. Zen leaned his head forward and looked back at the blackbird. “Sol's not a dog he's a puppy,” Zen stated.

Sol's jaw dropped while Venishi cleared his throat from choking. He utters a chuckle that soon turned into laughter while Sol's tail flicked up, pouting with perked-up lips. “What do ya mean I'm a puppy!?! I'm not a puppy!” He said lifting his hands and balling them into fists, trying to sound firm and determined. Zen looked back over at him, leaning his head back, and chuckled, his four tails wagging under his black overcoat.

“You're a cute Corgi and too innocent to be like the rough house dogs I've experienced,” Zen teased with a faint grin. “I'm not a puppy!” Sol whined playfully, flailing his arms up and down fast and dramatically.

“Oh, well that makes a bit of sense,” Venishi said, finishing his sandwich and inspecting the Corgi a little closer. “I guess Sol does match up more with a puppy.”

“Zenith, Zenith, come look!” Said the fox giddily. The little one-tailed kit jumped up and down excitedly as he was ready to show his brother his latest invention. Zenith, the taller, 4-tailed, gray-furred fox walked into the kitchen from the hallway and looked at his little brother.

“What did you want to show...” he stopped himself as he looked up at a large machine behind Zenny. “What is that?” he asked folding his arms, predicting the trouble this would cause him later.

“Tadaaa! It's an industrial dishwasher!” he said. Zenny spun around and changed his attire to a white lab coat with fake glasses and a large retractable stick to point things out. “Over here is where you put the dishes, it travels around in an oval shape to the other side on the conveyor belt, the mechanical machines brush the dishes while high pressured hot water rinses them and gets them soapy.” He walked around and opened a few side doors to show the inside mechanism of the water pressure, along with the gears and chains inside the interior. “This is where the water and stuff happens and it comes out through there,” he said, pointing to the end where the dishes come out. “And if they're still dirty it'll go back around in a circle for extra cleaning,” he smiled. Zenny spun around and changed back into his usual attire of a blue shirt with white lining and brown shorts. He waited eagerly for his brother's reaction; eyes gleaming.

Zenith observed the workings of the machine and though internally he could care less, he looked at his brother. “Well, since 10 of us, as well as guests when Zen brings his friends over. This could serve a nice use for breakfast, lunch, and dinner clean-up. The workload is taken care of and hopefully with little mishaps,” he said, though tilting his head a little. “But have you tested it?” Zenny yipped happily, despite his brother's monotone analysis.

“Oh yeah! One sec!” he ran out of the room and returned with a few dirty plates, placing them on the conveyor belt. He went over and pulled a large level slightly. Setting the pace to slow. “Here's slow,” he pulled it again, “here's medium,” he pulled again, “And here's fast,” he said and went over to watch as the dishes circled the machine with incredible speed. Getting soaked, scrubbed, soapy, scrubbed again, rinsed, and came out, the mechanical hands putting the dishes away. Zenith grew concerned with the speed level but didn't show it. Zenny however was enjoying it and stood in front of Zenith. “See, see! Nothing can go wrong!” He spoke.

The young kit spun around with joy, but his tail got caught in the chains of the conveyor belt. The cub yipped and grabbed Zenith's pants, forgetting his brother's intangible ward around him. Zenith reached to grab his brother, but it was too late. Zenny went flying with the machine, flailing his arms around dramatically as he was taken inside the depths of the machine. His tail began to stretch out as he grabbed the door for dear life. Soon his feet, legs, and his lower body began to sink in with the gears inside the machine, stretching him out as he went through every dial, twist, turn, and spin of the chains and gears, causing the machine to whine from the stress of pulling and stretching his body out. He couldn't hold on anymore and yelped as his entire body got sucked in.

Zenith shook his head and went over to the machine, searching for an off button slowly as he listened to the oofs, omphs, and marfs of his younger brother. After so long he found a red button and pushed it, shutting the machine off. He went over and opened the side doors Zenny showed him and stood back to let the steam of hot water clear. He looked from the entrance to the exit, seeing his brother had stretched 5-10ft longer than normal. His ears, toes, tail, legs, and belly were all stuck inside the inner railings, chains, and mechanical gears trapped inside. His head was in the shape of a gear, and he looked at Zenith with a nervous smile. “Wonderful,” Zenith said. “I hope you have a manual for disassembling this thing,” he said.

“Halcyon help me,” Nora said, resting her elbow in one hand while keeping her head raised with the other. “Why did I agree to this?”

“You gotta be freakin' kiddin’ me!” Her hot-headed brother Zenaku shouted.

“Oh dear, I didn't expect it to be so much,” sighed the blue-furred fox Zenium. The three stood at the entrance of the kitchen, surrounded by stacks of dirty pots, pans, and silverware scattered across the floor, counters, and sinks.

“I know this is a big family,” Nora said, walking into the room while lifting her six yellow-furred tails, “But this is a bit too much. Maybe the rule we made that team cleaning rotates was a bad idea.”

Zenaku kicked some stuff around with his hands in his pocket “You telling me? I thought Zenny made some sort of dishwasher thing earlier?”

“He did,” intercepted Zenium, the blue-furred fox folding his arms. “But Zenith reported there were some… kinks to work out,” he said with his head lowered.

“Well boys,” Nora said, turning to her two siblings. “Best we get this done now instead of dragging it out longer. You both know the drill, right?”

The two nodded. Nora, Naku, and Zenium went to three separate corners of the room and stood ready to clean. Nora took a deep breath and lifted her hands to the dishes. Sparks flicked between her fingers and shot throughout the entire room, contacting every metal plate and dining ware in her reach. She lifted them slowly, giving the boys a show as the items suspended in animation and froze in place in mid-air, occasionally turning due to a small breeze coming from the window.

Zenaku came next. He extended his six tails and set them ablaze. He walked slowly from one end of the room to the other, sweeping the floor and setting the filth and dust to ashes. The swish of his tails pushed the ashes to the corner with him where he coiled it all and slowly filled a garbage can full of it. He went back to his spot, pushing the floating dishes away from his red fur and avoiding the food that would get in his dreadlocks until he made it back to his corner. Zenium looked to the sink and raised his hand to it.

The fossette shirked and stuttered before water poured out from under it. The blue phox bent the water and doused the floor with it. He grabbed some soap and squeezed the container, shooting soap everywhere on the floor. With the entire room wet he started skating bare-pawed on the floor. He used his six tails to cover and mop large areas, getting the surface to sparkle past the suds and rising bubbles from his dance. Zenium lifted fresh water from the sink and added more soap to start washing every dish.

He moved his arms fast creating a rushing current that circled every plate, bowl, fork, and cup. Zenaku came forward and touched the water's current, heating the water at a high temperature to soften the food layers on the plates. Natha stopped and watched the boys at work, the suspension of the large body of water keeping the plates afloat.

“Dishes done in less than 10 minutes,” she said with a subtle smile. “Nice work gentlemen.”

(This was a story a customer commissioned me to write. Enjoy!)

“Dear Aleph,” the blue wolf read aloud with a letter in hand. “Your big bad mommy and big bad wolf daddy, will be coming to see you in a few weeks to hear all about what you're doing. I hope my little star son is making the most of his life in this harsh toony world. I have a surprise for you. I'm sure you know about that little fluff ball Zenny, The Little Magician, yes?” The blue wolf's yellow eyes lit up like fireworks.

“Z...Zenny!” He shirked, jumping around the room then continued reading with excitement. “Yes, that Zenny,” read the paper, predicting his reaction. “Your big bad wolf daddy paid him a visit and hired him to be your tutor for a week. Heaven knows how he made it into the business world but he seems to be doing a good job of it. Anyway dear, he should be arriving soon. Make mommy proud and learn all you can from him. I love you with all my heart. Kiss, kiss, hug, hug, and all the wolfy howls.”

Aleph toss the letter in the air with a massive cheer. Doing several back-flips and dances, the little toon wolf ran into his room, opened his closet to reveal a shrine, showing a picture of his friend and idol, Zenny. The orange fox with red eyes took the world by storm, winning several awards for his toony antics and performances world wide.

“Zenny! The Zenny! Is coming to see me?!” The child wailed again, looking into the eyes of his hero behind the glass frame the picture rested. His eyes sparkled like stars and he went to his bed, jumping up and down from adrenaline.

“I can't wait, I can't wait! I get to play with Zenny again! Oh what should we do? We can cruise across the sky all flat and toony like to the icecream store and get caught in the machine and stretched out and I get to be tangled with my toony buddy and-”

The blue wolf bounced harder with excitement until he smacked against the ceiling face first. He slowly peeled off, his flattened body drifting comically back onto his bed, along with a few pieces of the ceiling with him. He landed on the covers, looking up at the ceiling. The crack he left behind started to expand, making the wolf gulp. It took several seconds before a large chunk of the ceiling came crashing down on the panicked wolf.

The ceiling hit the wolf with a 'bam' sound, burying him and his bed under it. When the dust settled, the wolf stuck his flattened hand out, gripped the green carpet floor, and pulled himself out. His 2D shaped head got free and he looked around.

“Oh no, look at this mess!” He said trying to pull himself out farther, getting his other hand free. “I can't let my little bro see this! I gotta clean,” he said, stretching the rest of his lower body. By the time he pulled the rest of his cardboard body out, he sighed and wiped his face, only to freak out when he saw his legs stretched out 10 ft long compared to his normal, 3D, 5 ft tall self altogether.

“Well… little buddy loves paws,” he said blushing. “I can clean up anywhere now!” He cheered.

In a customized jet flying through the sky, Zenny pulled out some giant binoculars, nearly as big as the jet, searching below for the address of his new client.

“Not there… no… not him,” he mumbled. He put the paper with the address in front of the binoculars, then looked again for Big Bad Wolf main street and Toon Central avenue. His eyes found the address of a newly developed apartment on the second floor. “Alright Pilot, this is my stop,” said the little fox, getting his parachute ready. The pilot, a secondary clone to the original with shades and a hat on, gave the thumbs up.

“Derunamo!” Cheered the fox, diving out of the jet head first. He scanned over the land, seeing all the cars bouncing around down the road, pianos falling on people, and drivers splashing random people too close to the edge of the walkway making him laugh. He pulled the parachute and slowly made his descent, directly over the apartment door. “Easy peesy,” he said, taking out his phone to make a call.

The phone in the wolf's apartment rang just as he dusted the ceiling fan given his long paper thin toony legs. With one step he hovered over the phone then popped back to his normal self so he could hold the receiver.

“Hello? This is Aleph,” said the toon wolf.

“Hello Aleph, this is your teacher Zenny speakin-”

“Eee! Zenny senpai! Is that really you?”Cried the wolf, his eyes shinning golden stars as he stayed still, barely able to contain his excitement.

“Yes it's me, I'm directly over your house and will be landing shortly,” Zenny smiled. “Can you do me a favor?”

“Anything! Anything for you senpai,” he squealed, his heart pounding out of his chest, almost touching the sink.

“I want you to open the door in exactly 30 seconds starting now!” He said quickly hanging up.

Within a second Aleph ran to the door, bouncing on his tip toes as he counted patiently, toony beads of sweat dripping from his body as he chewed on his fingernails rapidly.

“Hehe it's gonna be great seeing Aleph again,” Zenny said whistling as he came close to landing. “I didn't know his dad was the big bad wo- gah!”

A small gust of wind pushed Zenny away from the apartment, making him swing with the wind and whimper. The wind twisted him, carrying him back up, shooting him down, and doing looptiloops in the air. Aleph reached the single digits of his count down, the tension building inside his body.

“Three… two...” he said reaching for the door. Zenny's parachute shot him fast towards the apartment. Zenny freaked out, undoing his belt and flying directly at it.

Aleph opened the door with his arms out smiling widely “Zenpai!”He cried, getting smacked and sent flying with his toony buddy. The two flew through the living room, into Aleph's room, and slammed against the closet, flattening themselves out. Both fell on the floor with Aleph ontop of Zenny, both stuck together kissing. Aleph and Zenny blushed hard, peeling their heads away and took a deep breath. Zenny flicked his ears, looked to the side, and saw the closet door break from the hinges and fall directly ontop of them both. Along with it was the large glass photo of Zenny.

“Zeufmpaiii!” Aleph said, squished under the door with the fox.

The two laid buried under the door until Zenny turned into a crank, slowly lifting the paper thin Aleph, the door, and the picture off them both. He cloned himself, another appeared in a faint blast of purple light and sparkles, and pulled Aleph out from under the door.

“Mmmm, Zenpai, you made it!” Said the toon wolf, sparking eyed as usual, wrapping himself around Zenny, squeezing him hard.

“Yipe, haha, I've missed you too Aleph!” Zenny said hugging as best he could against the 2D wolf. Zenny slurped his face then laid him down on the floor. “Well we can't do your lesson in 2D now can we? Don't worry I have just the thing!”

Zenny reached behind his back and magically pulled out a bag, labeled Kaycen's Creations, and set it on the floor digging. Aleph lifted his flattened face to look at his toony Zenpai friend. He watched and his eyes widened nervously when Zenny pulled out an air pump.

“This outta do the trick. Automatic air pump with a built in time,” Zenny said putting it on the floor, setting it for 30 seconds.

“Z-Zenpai, are you sure that's a good ide- gmmphp!”

“Of course I am, just watch the master!” Zenny said, shoving the pipe into his maw. He stood back, watching his blue furred friend rise from the floor slowly, shifting from 2D to 3D. Zenny checked his watch, the process slower than he expected. “Aleph, I'm gonna go check out your apartment, I wanna see what else I can use as promps for our lessons. In another 10 seconds the hose will pop right out so don't worry.”

Zenny turned around, his tail pushing the timer from 30 seconds to 30 minutes, and left the room. Aleph waited for what felt like a few minutes and felt himself expanding rapidly.

“Mmmhmmm… mmgmmmpfff!” Aleph panicked and looked at the machine. His toony yellow eyes bulged out his sockets seeing the timer set for as long as it was. By the time he reached for it, his hands were too bloated to touch the dial. His body expanded like an air balloon, slowly rising from the floor, floated in the air, and lightly tapped the ceiling.

Zenny looked around at the kitchen, living room, and Aleph's personal studies. He whistled at the computer and nick nacks on the wall and bookshelves. “Yep, I think I got everything I need,” he looked at the clock again. “And it's time to go make sure my new pupil is ready for fun.”

Zenny left the room and headed back towards the bedroom. However, Aleph's footpaw broke through the wall, smacking Zenny in the face. The little fox yiped and blushed, feeling the inflated wolf paw's toes wrap around his head. He struggled and flailed, pushing at it, lifting off the floor as the toon wolf expanded enough to take up his bedroom. In no time at all the wolf grew too big for his apartment, the walls breaking from the stress. Zenny managed to get his face free, sticking out the window along with Aleph's foot. He clung to it and after a small rumbling sound, Aleph broke free of the apartment and started floating into the air..

“It was only suppose to be 30 seconds!” Zenny yelled, taken into the sky by his pupil.

The big balloon wolf dragged the pump and hose with him into the sky, still expanding in size. In the parking lot a small riolu gazed at his giant friend balloon and dropped his maw in disbelief.

“Rawr...” said Nero. Aleph's body inflated enough to cause a small blockage of the sun. All the ants and tiny people below watched and marveled at the big balloon wolf hovering over their heads. Another small breeze carried the two, causing everyone to stop what they were doing. Even the cops and robbers stopped their chase to witness this.

The pokemon on the ground ran across the city, trying to follow his blue wolf friend, waving his arms about hoping to be seen by the big yellow balloon eyes in the sky.

Aleph drifted, wiggling his fingers and toes as the only source of movement he could make. His belly expanded along with the rest of his body. Zenny climbed up to the wolf's nose and looked him in the eyes. “Well… could always be worse,” Zenny shrugged, smiling nervously.

A flock of birds flew in a V formation, heading straight for Aleph. When the seven birds saw two large butt cheeks in front of them, they rallied together, forming a giant beak and flew at high speed, poking into the wolf. Alephs' eyes widen and Zenny's ears flicked. A large amount of air leaked from Aleph's backside making Zenny gulp.

“Oh dear...” replied the fox.

The two soar across the sky at high speed, Aleph dropping the air pump from his maw. The two flew into the clouds, across buildings and did circles in the air while Aleph started to thin out. Zenny wailed and screamed as the two traveled, the force of the wind keeping Zenny's eyes shut. After 30 seconds of nonstop speeding, the blue wolf launched straight up and ran out of air, poofing back to normal. Zenny floated in the air and looked at his friend.

“You're back!” Zenny cheered.

“Hehe I'm back Zenny senpai!” The two embraced tightly before Zenny blinked.

“Um… how do we get down?”

“Umm...” Aleph said with a worried expression.

The two hugged and wrapped themselves around each other, the moment of suspended animation failed as the two rocketed to the ground.

“Zenpai…” Aleph shouted as they went down fast.

Nero panted as he tried to catch his breath, managing to come close to where they were falling. He looked up and 10 seconds later, both of them crashed into a machine with a large and painfully sounding impact. Nero pawed at the machine, a device that takes pictures for tourists who come to Toon town. A light bulb went off in the pokemon's head and he dug around in his pocket.

He inserted a quarter into the machine and a picture showed it was thinking. After a bit of noisy mechanical clanks and spits the machine produced 5 photos out of a small hole. Nero took it and looked it over.

The first showed Zenny and Aleph hugging together but stuck, the next showed them getting pressed and flattened, the third was them shrunk to fit into the small image filter, the fourth of them whimpering as they pressed against the screen for a close up, and the fifth image showed only their abstract colors with red and yellow eyes blinking in front of the camera.

Riolu laughed a bit but soon got worried. He reached into his pocket and took out another coin. After placing it into the machine, both and them spat out slowly, flattened and stretched out like tickets from an arcade game. It took a full minute for their bodies to squeeze out like flattened toothpaste. At last the pokemon saw their faces, flattened and blushing, very close together with Aleph smiling and Zenny dizzy.

“Best… day… ever!” Cried the wolf, nuzzling Zenny's cheek as he laughed, causing Nero to facepalm.