A Fowl State of Affairs

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Scrooge McDuck gave the empty insides of the vault a final look and walked out. “I think that we should go over to Gearloose's place and pick his brains on this.” McDuck said. “Wormholes sound like something just up his alley!”

“Can we ask him about getting us back home?” Uran asked.

“Certainly!” Scrooge said. “Somehow, I think your appearance and the robbery of my money bin are somehow related anyway.”

“You don't mean you think we had something to do with it!” Astro said.

“Oh no, not at all!” McDuck replied. “But two science fiction like events in the same day are a bit of a coincidence! Maybe the reason you are here was a side effect of whatever contraption was used to gain access to the bank.”

“That's just possible.” Darkwing said.

They left the bank and headed out into the street. Suddenly a short statued character wearing a dark form fitting costume with a cape and cowl swung down from the top of a nearby tall building on a line. He smashed head first into the front of the bank, but quickly picked himself up off the street.



“Now just what are you Cosplaying as now, Daffy!” McDuck asked.

“Cosplay! The short duck laughed. “I'll have you know that you're addressing the worlds greatest detective, BatDuck!”

“Oh good grief!” McDuck face palmed. “Go home Daffy, before you get hurt!”

“Not until I investigate this crime!” he said entering the bank.

“That stupid duck has illusions of grander!” McDuck laughed. “Last week he was solving crimes as 'the Green Duck'. The police had to come to his rescue. What a buffoon!”

Astro, Uran, the triplets, the two superheros, and McDuck walked across town towards Gyro Gearloose's house. When they arrived, it was obvious that something was wrong. “That's strange.” GizmoDuck said, “His front door is wide open and all the lights in the house are on.”

They quickly entered the house. “You guys go and look for Gyro upstairs,” McDuck told his nephews, “I'll go downstairs and look in his lab.”

“I'm coming with you!” Astro told Scrooge.

Uran followed Huey, Dewey, and Louie upstairs. The split up and checked each of the rooms on the two upper floors, but they found no sign of anybody. GizmoDuck and Darkwing spread out to search the first floor of the house, but they also found no sign of the inventor.

As Astro and McDuck reached the basement, Astro could pick up a strong odor of Ozone. “Something electrical has been going full blast down here.” He told McDuck.

“I can see that, laddy!” McDuck said, or rather I can hear that.”

Sure enough, a loud 50hz hum was reverberating throughout the basement.

“Must be a transformer overloaded down here someplace.” Astro said.

“Look over here!” McDuck called out, pointing to a large empty area on the floor. There was an outline burned into the concrete where some contraption had once been. Wires that at one time must have been connected to the missing device were hanging loose, their bare ends sparking.

Uran entered the basement and walked up to her brother. She stopped where Astro and Scrooge were and the three of them stared at the empty spot. “No sign of anybody upstairs.” Uran said. “Darkwing thinks Gyro has been kidnapped.

“That would be my guess too.” McDuck said. “And whoever put the grab on him also made off with a large machine that used to be right here.”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Uran had a sour look on her face. “Now how are we going to get home? I thought Gyro could help us.” she sobbed.

“We're going to find him!” Darkwing said. “And who robbed the bank as well!”

“Of course we will!” GizmoDuck added. “But we're going to need some scientific help on this.”

“Come on laddies!” McDuck said. “Let's head over to Von Drake's residence. He's as much of a genius as Gearloose, and a professor at Duckburg college too!”
The group left Gearloose's house, GizmoDuck first turned out the lights and locked the door on their way out. “It's a crime scene and we want to preserve it if we can.” he said.

Ludwig Von Drake lived in a large house about a mile away. It was a pleasant walk, and they soon arrived. Scrooge rang the door bell and they waited for the professor to answer the door. They heard the sound of the peep hole in the door open and then the door swung inward. The professor was standing there holding his reading glasses.



“Scrooge McDuck!” he exclaimed, “What brings you over to my house at this hour.” Von Drake then noticed GizmoDuck and Darkwing standing behind McDuck, along with Donald's nephews and the two robot children. “You seem to have brought a crowd along too.”

“Someone broke into Gyro's place and has stolen some invention of his.” GizmoDuck explained. “It also appears that Gearloose is missing, probably kidnapped by whoever broke into his house.”

“There's been a robbery at the bank, my money bin has been picked clean!” McDuck explained. “It appears that the bank robbery is somehow related to whatever Gearloose was working on.”

“What makes you think that?” the professor asked.

“I picked up a strange EM reading in the bank vault, and the same reading was present in Gyro's workshop.” GizmoDuck added. “Here take a look at this.” The robotic superhero pressed a button on his right gantlet and a printout started to appear out of a slot on his suit. He ripped off the end of the computer printout and handed it to the professor.

“That does look strange.” Von Drake replied. “I think I should take a look in Gyro's workshop.” The professor grabbed his coat and walked out the front door. After locking the door, he led the group out to the side of the house and opened his garage door, where an old SUV was parked. “Get in, I'll drive” he said.

The old Jeep bounced along the street on its worn suspension, treating its passengers to a bumpy ride. They arrived back at Gyro's house, and poured out of the 4x4. “I'll open the door,” GizmoDuck said, producing a key from a compartment in his super suit. Once again they found themselves in the basement of the inventor's house. Von Drake took his time examining every piece of equipment remaining in the workshop, and paid particular attention to the spot where the stolen apparatus had once stood.

“Any idea's professor?” GizmoDuck asked.

“I think I we can locate where the stolen machine is, and Gyro as well.” Von Drake explained. “All we have to do is to follow the EM wave that it left behind.” He motioned to Gizmo, “Can I borrow you for a second?”

“What do you need?” Gizmo asked.

“I need to plug your suit into Gyro's computer over here.”

Von Drake was already seated in front of Gyro's computer that had been left on. He grabbed a network cable and inserted it into the LAN socket on Gizmo's suit and downloaded the raw data from the EM readings he'd seen earlier.

“Now I need to do a quick analysis of this.” Von Drake used Gyro's computer to log onto the mainframe at the university and uploaded the suit data. He started to run a remote analysis program. “Should get the answers I'm looking for in a few minutes,” he smiled. “Ah there we go!”

A graphical plot appeared on the screen. “OK, seems like there was a residue trace left behind, about 13.8 GHZ background. All we need to do is track that.”

“I don't think my suit will help us there, professor.” GizmoDuck said. “My built in sensors don't go that high.”

“Mine do!” Astro said.

“YES!” Von Drake laughed patting Astro on the head. “You ARE a robot aren't you!” The professor pointed to the computer screen. “See this waveform? It's an echo left behind when Gyro's machine was last activated. The transference left this echo behind, just like the background radiation from the big bang! You can track it to its destination and we will find where it went.”

“Went?” Darkwing asked.

GizmoDuck facepalmed himself, and nearly took an eye out with his right gantlet. “Of course!”

“In English you nerds!” McDuck said.

“Gyro's machine was obviously a matter transference device.” Von Drake said. “He attended a lecture I gave a few months ago at the university when Stephen Duckling was our guest speaker. The subject was all about black holes and inter-dimensional worm holes. I think Gyro put the theoretical data to a practical use.”

“Hey, that's like what Hakase built, isn't it Ani?” Uran said.

“Yes, I think it is.” Astro replied. “Maybe that will be our way back home!”

“Ay laddie, but first you'll have to find it!” McDuck said.

Astro held his hands up to his ears and rotated his head. “I think I sense the background wave the professor mentioned. I can follow it to its source, but it will be easier if I fly.”
Astro lead the group upstairs. He exited the house via the front door. “Hey Gizmo,” he asked. “What radio channel can you monitor?”

“My suit's comm unit is on the 27mhz band.” GizmoDuck said.

“I always figured you for a CB'er” Darkwing laughed.

“OK.” Astro said. “I'll contact you when I locate Gyro!” Astro leaped into the air and started to track the background signal.

“I hope he finds Gyro.” Uran sighed.

“Me too!” McDuck replied. “Along with my money!”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

A Fowl State of Affairs

5.

Howard Muscovy DeDuck sat behind a huge desk in secret nerve center of the criminal organization, F.O.W.L. Howard had taken control of the 'Fiendish Organization For World Larceny' by succeeding the late Dr. Nogood, who had died a horrible death being slowly dissolved in a huge vat of acid. Howard had allowed the suspicion throughout the organization that he was responsible for Nogood's demise linger, as that inspired enough fear and respect for his authority.



Howard took a deep drag on his cigar and blew the smoke out in the direction of Gyro Gearloose who sat tied up in a large chair. “You've gotten what you were looking for!” Gyro said, “how much longer are you going to keep me here?”

Howard took another puff on his cigar. “Shut up!, I'm not done with you yet,” he sneered. “This was only the first haul, McDuck has other money bins, and then there is Fort Knockwurst waiting to be plundered.”

“You're crazy!” Gyro replied. “You'll never get away with this.”

“You under estimate the resources of F.O.W.L.” DeDuck laughed, pointing to the organizations flag hanging on the wall behind him. “The Fiendish Organization For World Larceny has plans for world domination by undermining the currency of every major nation. With Scrooge McDuck holding almost 50% of the nation's wealth, we're starting with him in our plans.”

Howard got out of his chair and walked towards the back of the room where a large machine stood. Extremely heavy, the gigantic contraption was wired directly into the electric mains via a huge cable which ran though a window and was connected up to the high tension wires on a utility pole in the alley behind the building. The wooden floor below the machine was creaking under its weight as if it were about to give way and drop into the basement.

“Very interesting device.” Howard said, as if praising the inventor. “Not only able to transfer large amounts of heavy objects across town, but even move itself.”

“Took me three years to figure it all out!” Gyro said. “But I never intended it to be used for evil purposes!”

“Now now, Gearloose” Howard said, flicking the ashes of his cigar onto the top of the inventor's head, “don't make value judgments here! You don't know what's at stake.”


Astro had his heads up display hanging in front of his field of view as he flew over the city. He could see the weak 13.8 Ghz EM field in front of him like a dim fog that filled the sky. It looked like some kind of thin cloud of steam rising out of a smokestack and bending this way and that in the wind. Astro followed the apparition, it formed a clear path leading him onward. Eventually he reached the end of the trail in a dingy industrial district on the edge of Duckburg. He landed in the middle of an old mill complex consisting of a dozen brick buildings along a large pond feed by a rapidly flowing river. The place had once been a factory of some kind, but now it was abandoned, there were no signs that any of the structures had been in use for many years. And yet, he did sense a presence. It would take him some time to search the entire complex, but he felt sure that he'd found the location where Gyro and his machine had been taken. Astro radioed his position to GizmoDuck who immediately responded.

“Got the location, Astro!” Gizmo replied. “I'm on my way!”

GizmoDuck's super suit propelled the robotic superduck hero at a few hundred miles per hour. He balanced perfectly on the single wheel, making sharp turns on a dime, and zooming though alleys and other short cuts. In less than 15 minutes of receiving Astro's radio contact, Fenton Crackshell arrived on the scene.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Astro met GizmoDuck in an alley between two of the buildings. Within minutes a dark colored, high powered automobile with green headlights silently pulled up and stopped. The drivers side door on the coupe opened up and Darkwing Duck stepped out.
“How did you manage to keep up with me?” GizmoDuck asked. “I never saw you behind me.”

“My car is well camouflaged for the night, isn't it?” Darkwing said. “Perhaps, that's why I've named her the 'dark beauty'. Besides, I'm not at all surprised that we ended up here. Interquack has suspected that this part of town was where F.O.W.L.'s HQ was located.
“Yes, that would explain a lot of things.” Gizmo agreed. “But I thought F.O.W.L. had gone inactive ever since Dr. Nogood got himself killed.”

“The rumor mill has it that F.O.W.L. has a new leader.” Darkwing replied.

“Gyro's machine is somewhere around here.” Astro said. “But there doesn't seem to be any sign of life in any of these buildings.”

“They probably have the window's well covered and the inside soundproofed,” Darkwing said. “At least that is what I would have done.”

“Well even if we can't see anything, maybe I can hear something.” Astro said as he held his hands up to his ears and cranked his hearing up to 1000 times gain. Astro scanned his head back and forth. “You're probably right about the sound proofing, I can't detect any sounds of occupation.”

Suddenly a warning bell sounded inside of GizmoDuck's suit. “I've just detected a power spike.”

“I heard that!” Astro cried out breaking into a run. “This building!”

Astro smashed though the door of a building about 500 yards from where they were standing. Darkwing and Gizmo followed him into the building.
The inside of the building was mostly empty. It clearly had been abandoned for quite some time. Except for a few bits of old office furniture there wasn't much in the largely gutted interior. A bright ball of light buzzing with a loud 50 cycle hum that hurt the ears filled the middle of the space. A warm blast of air nearly knocked our hero's over as they entered the room. “What the hell is that!” Darkwing yelled loud enough for the others to hear him over the vibration.

“I think that is Gyro's machine!” GizmoDuck yelled back.

The glare and the humming sound gradually faded and the wind died down. Where the ball of light had been there now was a large scorch mark on the floor. Two high voltage cables connected into a ceiling mounted junction box dangled on the floor, their bare ends arcing. Astro grabbed the two cables and yanked them free from the ceiling and the electrical fireworks stopped.
“It would appear that whoever was here has used Gyro's machine to transport themselves elsewhere,” GizmoDuck said.

“They must have detected our presence somehow.” Darkwing sighed.

Astro stood there for a moment. “I think I can follow them again.” he said. “I can detect the 13.8 GHZ EM field it left behind."

“How many times are we going to have to do this?” Darkwing asked.

“If we're lucky, maybe we can catch up with them before they can operate Gyro's machine again.” Astro said running from the building. “I'll follow the trail and contact you again Gizmo.”

“Right.” GizmoDuck replied. “I hope this is also a short hop.”

“That was too close!” Howard said, puffing on his cigar. “With any luck those two goody two shoes won't get lucky again. Good thing I put a tracking device in Darkwing's car!”

Howard threw Gyro out of the machine's transport chamber and then exited the device himself. He looked himself over, nervously. “Well, everything seems to be in the right place.”

“Oh come on.” Gyro said. “I told you I've transported myself several times and I'm still in one piece.”

Howard walked across the room and stared out of a window. “Excellent!” He laughed. “Right where I wanted to be. Your navigation skills are right on the money, quite literally!”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Ludwig Von Drake's old SUV rumbled to a stop in McDuck's driveway, barely missing the bumper from Launchpad's taxicab that was still lying there. Scrooge and Von Drake got out of the front seat, and Uran and the triplets poured out of the back. Uran held her hands up to her ears and smiled. “Astro says he and Gizmo are still searching for Gyro and the machine.” she said. “Ani says they gave them the slip.”

McDuck opened the side door to his mansion, and let himself and his guests in. “Where's Duckworth?” Huey asked, “He usually opens the door before you can even ring the bell.”

“I gave him the evening off.” Scrooge said.

“You mean you fired him because you can't afford to pay him anymore since your money bin was robbed?” Louie asked, with some worry in his voice.

“Not at all!” Scrooge laughed. “Actually this is Duckworth's first night off in about two years. As for me being poor, do ya think that bank was the only place I have me money stashed? Follow me!”

McDuck directed the triplets to the far wing of the house where they had never been before. They headed into the basement of the house where a large steel door bared the way. Scrooge quickly spun the three combination lock dials and yanked on the handle to open the door. He pointed to the inside of the cavernous room, which was filled with gold coins. “See, what did I tell ya!”

“Wow, what a relief!” Dewey quacked.

McDuck slammed the door shut and spun the dials. “OK, lets get back the living quarters!” he said.

They mounted the stairs and found themselves on the main floor again. “Hey Uncle Scrooge, what's in this wing of the house besides your money bin in the basement?” Louie asked.

“This is actually the original part of the house.” McDuck said. “It's rather squalid compared to the mansion but rather than tear it down I just built a new house in front of it and left it as camouflage for the money bin in the basement.”

“That's smart!” Huey said.

They entered the house and sat down in the living room.
“I've got to be going now.” Von Drake said. “Let me know if Astro and Gizmo find Gearloose.”

“You'll be the first one I call.” McDuck said, escorting the professor to the door. “Don't trip over the junk that McQuack left in my driveway. I'll have Duckworth haul it away tomorrow.”

Von Drake's SUV backed out of the driveway and headed down the street.

“I think we'd better get to bed.” McDuck told his nephews. “Oh and show Uran to one of the guest rooms.”

“OK, Uncle Scrooge.” the ducklings responded in chorus.

Suddenly there was an explosion like noise that shook the house. A blinding flash of light came from the upstairs windows of the old section of the house they had just come from. “What the hell was that!” McDuck yelled.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

“If my calculations are correct,” Howard quacked, “we are now in the old wing of McDuck's mansion directly above his money bin. How much power is left in your machine?”

Gyro looked at the control panel. “There is enough charge left in the capacitor for one short jump, Two if we leave the machine behind.”

“That will do.” Howard smiled. “I want you to suck the money bin dry and transport its contents back to F.O.W.L.'s secret vault where you transported the contents of his bank. Then you are going to transport us back to F.O.W.L. HQ.”

“I don't think so.” Gearloose said defiantly.

“Try that again?” Howard said, pulling a large handgun from a holster under his jacket.
Gyro grumbled and set the controls on the transporter. He hit punched the large switch on the panel and the machine came back to life. For a split second it emitted a loud explosive 'CRACK” and a blinding light. For a very brief instant the image of several tons of gold coins and paper bills appeared in the machines transport chamber, and then all was quiet.

“Done.” Gyro said. “There's just enough charge left to transport you back to your H.Q.”

“Set the controls.” Howard said, pointing the gun at Gyro.
Gearloose quickly entered the coordinates that he had memorized hours ago. He pressed a memory switch and then rechecked his data.
Howard pushed Gyro into the machine and then followed him inside, holding onto the control panel at the end of a six foot cable. He examined the destination setting on the display and smiled. “OK, now we're both getting out of here.” He said handing the controls to Gyro. “Hit it!”

Gyro quickly threw the memory recall button and slammed down on the activate switch. He jumped out of the machine just as the energy was building up for transfer. Howard tried to stop him, but it was too late as he dematerialized before he could grab at the inventor.

Astro zeroed in on the source of the EM signal and realized that it was coming from McDuck's place. “Hey Gizo!” he radioed back, “It looks like the bad guys are raiding McDuck's house. The machine rematerialized in his back 40.”

“Got that!” Gizmo returned, “I'll beat you back there.” The robotic super duck took to the main streets and roared back to the McDuck mansion with Darkwing's 'Dark Beauty' automobile right behind him.

Scrooge, Uran and the ducklings ran back to the old section of the house. “That disturbance came from upstairs, just above my money bin!” Scrooge yelled. The small army mounted the stairs and found themselves in the old master bedroom, just above the secret money vault. A large machine sat in the middle of the room where McDuck's double emperor sized bed once sat. The room reeked of smoke and ozone. Gyro Gearloose sat on the floor rubbing a bump on the top of his head where he had landed after somersaulting himself out of the transporter.

“Gyro!” Scrooge exclaimed. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I'm fine.” the inventor said. “I managed to get rid of that evil DeDuck, finally.”
At that moment a set of footsteps, the squeal of a unicycle tire, and Astro's soft squeaky footsteps entered the room.

“You mean Howard Muscovy DeDuck?” Darkwing asked. “I've been after him for months after he 86'ed Dr. Nogood to take control of F.O.W.L.”

“Yeah that's him.” Gyro answered. “He forced me to use my invention to help him rob McDuck's money bin at the bank, and then he made me bring us here to steal the contents of the vault here.”

“You didn't do it did you?” McDuck asked.

“I'm sorry, but the contents of your money bin are now inside of the F.O.W.L. secret vault.” Gyro said. “I did manage to transport Howard to the police station though. I switched destinations at the last second and jumped out of my machine. If I got my settings right, Howard just materialized inside of the Duckburg jail.”

“Now that's funny!” McDuck laughed. “But what about me money?”

“Well my machine is out of power. If we had a few Gigawatts of power I could transport the entire contents of F.O.W.L.'s vault into yours.

Astro opened his chest panel. “I think I have a few Gigawatts to spare, Gyro. Plug me in!”

Gyro handed Astro the machine's two large power cables. Astro carefully made the connections and sat down. “OK then, let'er rip!” he laughed.
Gyro set the controls on the transporter and punched the switch. Astro groaned as the power was sucked from his reserve back up, as the machine again came to life. It briefly emitted a blinding light, and then grew quiet. Below them there was heard a creaking noise, and then a huge CABOOM!

“What was that?” Gizmoduck asked.

“I think we may have overstuffed my money bin.” McDuck said, heading for the staircase leading down to the vault. Astro yanked himself free from the cables and closed his panel. He still had about 1/4 of his energy left. The gang followed McDuck downstairs. Sure enough, the heavy steel door of the vault had been blown off of its hinges and the walls of the vault room were bulging outward.

“You're going to need either a crowbar, or dynamite to get your money out of there now,” Gyro laughed. “If it was packed any denser in there, you'd have a black hole!”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

A Fowl State of Affairs

6.

Professor Ochanomizu crawled out from under the platform of the machine. Yuko and Cobalt helped him get back on his feet after having laid on his back in an awkward position for almost an hour as he soldered the last of the wires back into place.

“How does it look Hakase?” Yuko asked. “Will you be able to get them back?”

“I don't know yet,” the professor said. “I only have a vague idea of where they ended up. The dimensional coordinates were still in the machines memory, but the actual latitude and longitude settings I have are not exact. I could end up within a 100 mile radius of their exact position if I'm lucky. At least the temporal and spacial planes are known.”

“What do you mean by that?” Cobalt asked.

“It means I know what position in time and alternate dimensional planes they are in. I will end up on the right planet and the right day, but maybe in the wrong city.” Ochanomizu explained.

“Then you're going to need a volunteer to test it?” Cobalt asked.

“No, I'm going to test it myself,” the professor insisted.

“No you're not!” Yuko yelled. “If anything happens to you, no one else will be able to
figure it out.”

“I'm the logical test subject.” Cobalt said, opening the door to the machine. “I'll get my brother and sister back!”

“I hate to say it,” Ochanomizu sighed, “But you're both absolutely correct. Perhaps you'd better take this two way radio with you, Korbaruto. We should be able to communicate with you, and track your position with it, if I can leave the wormhole open while you're gone. You'll know if you've arrived in the right spot if you are in a community populated by duck people. Just before the machine melted down after transporting Astro and Uran, it sent back a blurry image of the destination. They seem to have been sent to an alternate universe populated by duck people.” The professor handed Cobalt a small pocket sized transceiver. Cobalt clipped the unit to his waist band and entered the machine.

“Good luck Korbaruto!” Yuko said as the professor activated the transporter machine.

Cobalt saluted as he faded from view.


Minnie and Mickey were having dinner at Mickey's house, this being a Sunday evening. Pluto was under the table, munching on a soup bone that Mickey had given him. “This roast beast is very good!” Minnie said, "and the soup was out of this world. I'm so lucky to have a first class chef as a boy friend!”

“Gosh!” Mickey blushed. “I'm not really that good, I mean I don't do this professionally.”

“You should!” Minnie said. “Why don't you open a restaurant? It would be the best one in Mouseton!”

“You think so?” Mickey asked.

“If not a restaurant, then a bakery for sure!” Minnie added. “I can't wait to taste tonight's desert. Your devil's food cake is to die for!”

CRASH! Suddenly a loud noise came from the kitchen. The sound of a table collapsing and various items falling to the floor lasted for several seconds, along with the cry of “OUCH!”

“Sounds like someone's broken into my kitchen!” Mickey said with alarm, picking up a large steak knife in his hand and carefully making his way into the kitchen to confront the intruder.

Cobalt materialized in the middle of the kitchen work table. Since two object cannot occupy the same space at the same time, the table exploded sending its contents flying about the room. A large seven layer devil's food cake took flight and hit the robot squarely in the back of his head. He reached up and removed some icing from his hair spikes and licked his fingers. “Mmmm” he smiled, it tasted real good!

Mickey opened the door to the kitchen to find Astro's brother, covered with the desert that had taken him hours to bake. “You, You cake murderer!” he yelled. “How dare you break into my house and ruin my desert!”

Cobalt blinked with disbelief at the sight of the mouse. Mickey's ears stood up from the back side of his head, cocked at the same angle from each other as Astro's cowlicks.

“Sorry about the mess.” Cobalt said sheepishly. “I didn't have any control of how I landed. Have you seen two robots that look a bit like me?” he asked.

“You're the first of your kind I've ever seen.” Mikey said wiping a finger over Cobalt's back and coming up with a hand full of chocolate icing.

Cobalt face palmed. “Wait, you're a mouse not a duck. I'm in the wrong country or something.”

“Duckburg is the next town over.” Mickey replied. “If your friends are there, I can drive you over to look. But I'm going to need some help to explain to Minnie about desert.”

Minnie Mouse opened the door to the kitchen to find her boy friend talking to a strange looking robot covered with devil's food cake. Laughing, she grabbed a towel, moistened it in the sink, and started to wipe Cobalt clean with it. “You look harmless enough!” she laughed at Astro's brother. “What a clumsy bugler!”

“Sumimasen” Cobalt said. “My name is Korbaruto. I didn't break in, I was transported here from another universe by a machine. I really didn't have any control of how, or where I was going to end up. I'm looking for my brother and sister who were also accidentally sent to your world, but apparently to Duckburg. By the way, where am I?”

“You're in Mouseton.” Minnie said. “You poor thing, you're a mess!”

“Yeah, I seem to be covered with your desert.” Cobalt laughed. “Sorry I ruined your dinner.”

“Don't worry, my boyfriend will bake me another cake.” Minnie said. “Besides, I'm too full to eat another bite. But I think I'd like some espresso.”

Mickey looked behind him and saw that the coffee press was not damaged by the flying debris. “I'll make us some Java, and then we'll drive our new friend over to Duckburg to see Professor Von Drake. Maybe he can make some sense of all this.”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Gyro Gearloose looked over the smoking mess that was his transporter machine. “That last surge of power didn't do it much good,” he sighed. “It looks like the flux capacitor is burned out.”

“You mean you can't transport us back home?” Uran said with a cry in her voice.

“Well, I might be able to fix it.”Gyro said, shrugging his shoulders, “But even if the machine was working, I have no idea where you guys came from. Since it appears that you were transported over an inter-dimensional path from an alternate universe, the possible coordinates in the space time continuum higher dimensions are almost limitless.”

Uran sobbed. “Gee, you were our only hope.” She said looking at the inventor with tear filled eyes.

“Don't give up sis.” Astro said, trying to reassure his sister, “I'm sure Hakase will find us.”

Mickey, Minnie, and Cobalt got into Mickey's Jeep and drove the few miles from Mouseton to Duckburg. Cobalt sat in the rear of the Jeep facing backwards, as there wasn't a seat in the cargo bed of the vehicle. He held on to the floor straps as the Jeep bounced over the bumpy roads.

“Ludwig Von Drake is one of the smartest guys in the country.” Mickey assured Cobalt as he parked the automobile in front of the professor's house. “Your brother and sister would probably have been told to seek him out if they explained their situation to anybody with half a brain.”

Mickey rang the doorbell. “Might take him a few minutes to come to the door,” he said, “The professor is a bit absent minded and often forgets where his eye glasses are, even when he's wearing them!”

Soon the sound of the lock being undone could be heard, and the door was opened. Professor Von Drake smiled when he saw the two mice. “Hello Mickey!” he said, “what brings you and Minnie over to Duckburg?” He then noticed Cobalt standing behind Minnie and pointed at him. “You must be Astro's brother, aren't you?”

“You know my brother?” Cobalt asked.

“I met him the other day.” The professor said. “He and his sister are visiting with the gazillionaire Scrooge McDuck. They asked for my help in getting back home after transporting here by accident.” Von Drake removed his glasses and wiped them clean on his shirt, and then replaced them on his nose. “Come to think of it, how did YOU get here.”

“Hakase Ochanomizu fixed the machine and took a guess at the coordinates.” Cobalt said. “He seems to have gotten the time and dimensional settings right, but missed on the location and I ended up in Mouseton.”

“I know where McDuck lives.” Mickey said. “Let's head over there now and you can tell your family the good news.”

“I'll follow in my SUV.” Von Drake said. “I wonder if Gizmoduck and Astro ever found Gyro Gearloose and his missing invention.”

About 15 minutes later Mickey pulled his Jeep into McDuck's driveway. He slammed on the brakes to miss hitting a taxi cab bumper lying in the middle of the road. The three of them got out of the vehicle and walked over to the front door, which was already opened with Duckworth standing there.

“Hi Mr. Duckworth.” Mickey said. “Is Mister McDuck at home?”

“Yes he is.” Duckworth said. “Follow me.”

Mickey, Minnie, and Cobalt walked into the mansion just as Von Drake's old SUV pulled in behind the Jeep. Ludwig waddled quickly up the walk path and followed the mice into the house. Duckworth then closed the door behind him.

Astro, Uran, Huey, Dewey, and Louie were in the large great room engaged in a video game of motocross racing. McDuck had suggested that the youngsters play together to get Uran's mind off of her troubles. Scrooge and Gearloose were in the other section of the house trying to figure out how to get into the money bin which was now a solid mass of fused coins and bills.

“Hello!” Cobalt cried out as he entered the room. Uran turned to see her brother and dropped the video controller she had in her hands. She launched herself into a flying bear hug and crashed into Cobalt. “Korbaruto!” she cried out, showering him with kisses. “Did Hakase send you?”

“Yes he did.” Cobalt said. “Opps, I completely forgot!” He removed the two way radio from his belt and held it to his mouth, pressing the talk button. “Hakase! Do you hear me. I've found them!”

Ochanomizu's voice came crackling out of the transceiver's tiny speaker. “I hear you Korbaruto! I can track you, and I see the exact coordinates now! The machine has to recharge a bit more, and then I can transport all of you back home, but you'll have to hold hands to make sure that I get all of you locked in!”

“OK, Hakase!” Cobalt replied back. “Call me when you're ready!”

“I'll do that.” Ochanomizu radioed back. “Looks like it will be about an hour at least, so just relax until then.”

“See, I told you Hakase would find us!” Astro told Uran.

Astro stood at the door to McDuck's money bin. “OMG,” he laughed, “What a wad of cash!”

“That's not funny!” McDuck said. “How am I going to be able to spend that?”

"It will be a problem to separate all that gold from the bills." Von Drake said.

“You could melt it all down.” Gyro suggested. “Most of the coinage is gold.”

“Yeah but there's lots of paper money in there too!” McDuck said.

“I could cut though the walls with my lasers and lift up the roof.” Astro said.

“But you'd need a fleet of dump trucks to carry it all away!” Gyro pointed out.

“I'll call Launchpad.” Scrooge said. “He has a cousin that works for a construction company. They have a bunch of trucks!”

With a half an hour several dozen dump trucks rumbled over the back entrance to the McDuck property and backed up to the rear of the estate. Astro used his lasers to cut through the walls, and then lifted the roof off of the top of the building above the money bin. He broke the huge wad of coins apart with his fists, and started to carry the load out of the building. He made several trips into the massive pile of money, and carried it all out of the building to load up the convoy of trucks.

Launchpad McQuack got into the truck at the front of the line and leaned his head out of the window. “Don't worry about a thing Mr. McD, We'll have your money back in the bank in no time!”

Scrooge waved back at McQuack as the truck convoy headed out. “I hope he doesn't get lost.” McDuck sighed.

“Or in an accident!” Louie said.

“Well, at least he's driving a big truck.” McDuck said. “Even Launchpad would have a hard time damaging that!”

Astro's heads up display popped into his field of vision to show his brother calling him.
“Astro!” Cobalt said, “I just heard from Hakase Ochanomizu. He's ready to transport us back home!”

“OK Korbaruto!” Astro radioed back. “I'll be right there!”


It took Astro, and Uran a few minutes to say their goodbyes to everyone.

“You've got to come back and visit us!” Huey sobbed.

“Promise?” Louie added.

“Please!” Dewey quacked.

“Sure thing.” Uran said, “If Hakase forgives us for using his machine without his permission!”

Mickey handed Uran his cellphone and asked Astro to pose for a picture with him and Minnie before leaving with his siblings.


Astro then took Cobalt's hand, and Uran took Astro's other hand. Cobalt then triggered the PTT switch on the hand held transceiver as a signal to Ochanomizu to activate the machine.


The world around them spun up in a field of colored lights. Scrooge McDuck's mansion and all of Duckburg vanished from their eyes and they felt themselves falling though time and space in a dizzying blur. Slowly the strange feeling disappeared and they found themselves back in the laboratory at the Ministry of Science.

“Welcome home!” the professor smiled.

“You're not mad at me Hakase, are you?” Uran asked.

Ochanomizu put on his sternest looking face and glared at Uran. “Young lady, I'm very upset at what you did! I thought I'd lost you and Astro forever! You're very lucky that I was able to repair the machine and that Korbaruto was brave enough to go looking for you!”

Uran started to sob, and almost burst out in tears. The professor's face softened at the sight, and the robot girl saw though his subterfuge. She launched herself into his arms and gave him a bear hug.

“You know I love you too much to say mad!” Ochanomizu laughed.

“Well you know, I still want to go to Disney World!” Uran said, batting her eyes at the professor.

Astro and Cobalt face palmed. Ochanomizu sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “You'll just have to settle for Tokyo Disneyland young lady. A trip to Florida, USA isn't in my budget right now.”

“That will be fine!” Uran said, giving her guardian another hug.


A few day's later the four of them were walking though the theme park, Uran was as happy as a clam and on cloud nine. A number of the Disney characters, actors in costumes of course, came up to them and said hello. Among them were Mickey and Minnie mouse.

Uran laughed as the actors walked past. “Do you think we should tell Hakase the whole story, Ani?” she asked Astro.

“Probably not,” her brother laughed. “He'd never believe us anyway!”

The End