"The Box" is the 10th episode of the Animator vs. Animation Series, also being the 2nd episode of Animator vs. Animation Season 3.

Synopsis

Anything goes, in The Box

Plot

Following the events of Wanted, the Fighting Stick Figures rush into a forest in search of the mercenaries who abducted The Second Coming and The Chosen One. As they run through the woods, Green recalls the rocket-like logo on the mercenaries' vehicles and quickly etches a copy of it on a piece of paper. The stick figures stop running as they stumble upon a railway, across which they see a town. Green shows his drawing to the rest of the group, handing them copies of it before they hurry across the railway and into the town.

The group walk around the town asking local stick figures about the logo but are ignored by everyone they encounter. A dejected Red suddenly spots a truck with the mysterious logo on it across the street and quickly tells the rest. They hop in the back as one of victim's Workers gets into the driver's seat and successfully remain undetected as the truck drives to victim’s organization.

At the organization's headquarters, workers begin experimenting on the pencil icon. One of them places the pencil on a table inside an encased test area, inside which another worker is tasked with recreating TSC's drawings, as two others observe and document the process. The worker inside the test area draws a circle, but nothing happens. They try drawing more shapes, mimicking TSC's actions in an attempt to recreate the eel he made (seen in a recording of his combat against the mercenaries), but can do nothing more than draw a back-and-forth line in midair. Seeing their efforts fruitless, the observers decide to get TSC himself to use the pencil.

TSC is still locked in his cell when two workers approach him and open the door. They promptly cuff him and lead him out of the room, and as he walks, he gets a glimpse of the Mercenaries and their boss, victim, who are entering the room at the same time. victim and the Mercenaries approach The Box, where TCO is imprisoned. Agent steps up to the control panel outside and victim climbs the steps into The Box. The door closes behind him, and Agent uses the widgets on his arm to unpause TCO.

Upon being unpaused, TCO slams into a wall. He realizes he is trapped inside a box and attempts to escape it, to no avail. Using the control panel outside, Agent reverses TCO's fire powers and disables his laser vision. TCO, confused, turns his head to see victim behind him, who approaches and begins punching him. Unfazed, TCO fights back, but the mercenaries use The Box's control panel to power up victim's limbs, increasing his speed and strength and making it difficult for TCO to retaliate.

TCO eventually tries punching back, but victim is turned invisible by the control panel and begins to choke TCO. He is turned visible again and tosses TCO aside. TCO shoots streaks of fire at him, which he effortlessly dodges, and the two tussle, with victim overpowering TCO. Nonetheless, TCO refuses to give up, so Agent gets victim a lasso, and victim lassoes TCO's neck. TCO realizes he is outmatched and tries to crawl away, but his predecessor whips him harshly. Backed against the wall, TCO tries to freeze his opponent, but Agent's prior reversion of his fire powers applies to his ice powers as well, causing him to freeze himself instead. victim tries pulling him with the lasso, but the loop restraining TCO does not move as it is also frozen.

At his command, Agent summons four clones of victim and equips them with a hammer, a chain, a sword, and a shuriken respectively, to try to break TCO out of the ice. victim is also given a new lasso. The hammer clone smashes TCO, but is burned by his fire breath, upon which TCO breaks out of the ice in an explosion and starts flying around The Box, attacking and destroying the clones. After all the clones are defeated, victim manages to capture TCO again and prepares to hit him with the shuriken, but TCO reacts quickly and uses the blade to cut the lasso. He launches a stream of fire at victim, but Agent slows him down with the control panel, allowing victim to walk out of the fire's way.

Elsewhere, the workers take TSC into the test area as the worker inside fails to produce animated drawings, to his peer's frustration. TSC is guided into the test area after the worker inside sets the pencil tool down and leaves. The test area operator selects TSC, preventing him from escaping the area's limits, and moves him right in front of his console. The operator then instructs TSC to use the pencil tool to demonstrate the animated drawings he was seen doing in the recording of the battle with the Mercenaries. TSC obliges and draws an eel with the tool, as the observers quickly take notes of the experiment. Upon seeing the eraser tool selected by the operator, the eel panics and slams against the test area's force field walls in an attempt to escape, causing the facility's power to malfunction. As everyone, including TSC, panics, the worker is able to kill the eel with the eraser before it causes more damage. They decide to lock TSC back in his cell afterwards.

Back in The Box, victim decides to throw TCO into a chair and interrogate him. The Box turns dark, and two more workers deliver a briefcase to Agent, while victim asks TCO about the whereabouts of Alan Becker, with an image of his cursor. TCO denies knowing where Alan is, infuriating victim, who ties the lasso around the chair and asks him again, still getting no response. Enraged, he kicks TCO, demanding an answer, but TCO denies knowing Becker's location once more, lunging at victim.

The door to The Box opens as victim walks out, taking a memory scanner out of the suitcase from earlier. He slams it onto TCO's head and Agent begins rewinding, just as TSC is brought back from the test area. As the memory machine rewinds, they reach the point when TCO is leaving ALANSPC with TSC, and TCO bashes his head against the floor to disrupt the signal so victim wouldn't know where Alan is.

victim sits TCO upright and the signal comes back, after which the video projects the events of The Showdown, showing TCO's perspective of TSC in his awakened state attacking The Dark Lord. victim and the mercenaries are shocked to find out that TSC has hidden powers, and as victim turns to look at TSC, who is getting shoved into his cage, TSC sees the image of himself using his powers. This shocks him, as he never knew that he had secret powers and always assumed that it was TCO who defeated TDL. The workers then slam steel walls down around TSC's cage as a precaution against his powers. The mercenaries then replay back a bit more, showing a short glimpse of the ViraBots being released, and TDL attacking TCO and throwing him into the water. victim looks over for a moment and catches a glimpse of the cursor, telling Agent to go forward to that point. When victim sees the cursor, he notices Yellow creating it and orders for him to be found.

As wanted posters for Yellow are printed, victim and the mercenaries walk through the factory, when a worker catches their attention, showing security footage of Yellow and the other stick figures arriving. victim tells Agent to go and deal with the stick figures, and he obeys. The Fighting Stick Figures are quickly surrounded by workers. Yellow, Green, and Blue put their hands up, but Red refuses to go down without a fight.

When two of the workers approach, Red attacks, and Green follows suit, and between the two of them, four workers are dealt with, but then Agent approaches. He attacks them with a line tool, making short work of Red and Green first, hitting them in the head and knocking them out cold. Yellow tries to fight but is grabbed by two workers behind him. Blue tries to save Yellow, but is cut off by Agent, who lassos him and slams him against the truck, then hitting him with the line tool against the truck, knocking him out as well. Yellow is pinned down and escorted away by the workers, who all head back with Agent. After seeing that Yellow had been captured, victim then burns the image of Alan's cursor, symbolizing his desire for revenge on his creator.

Characters

Protagonists

• The Chosen One

• Stick Gang

  • The Second Coming

  • Fighting Stick Figures

    • Blue

    • Yellow

    • Green

    • Red

Antagonists

• victim

• Mercenaries

  • Agent

  • Ballista

  • Primal

  • Hazard

• victim's Clones

Other characters

• victim's Workers

• The Second Coming's Drawings

• Alan Becker (picture & video)

• The Dark Lord (video)

• ViraBots (video)

• Other Stick Figures

Trivia

For a moment, the eel's electricity turns from yellow to green, hinting at The Second Coming's hidden power.

• The weapons that victim and his clones fight with are the same ones he used against the Animator during the first Animator vs. Animation.

• When the eel goes near The Second Coming in one instance, green electricity can be seen for a few seconds, hinting at a connection between his hidden power and his ability to give sentience to his drawings.

• Near the end of the episode, when one of victim's workers points out the presence of the Fighting Stick Figures on the cameras, there is a wall calendar with a picture of the default background of Windows XP.

• In the thumbnail, it shows Agent toying with The Second Coming in The Box, however in the video, The Chosen One and victim are in The Box, while The Second Coming is in the test area.