Oct. 2, 1955. Disneyland City.

"Wow," Long Tom said.

"It truly is remarkable, isn't it?" Doc Savage said to his friend and
aide. "I had observed them briefly when I tried to help the
Guardians last month, but this is the first chance we've had to
really examine them since the Mystic Mullah returned for a
rematch."

Doc Savage, "Long" Tom Roberts, Renny Renwick, and "Monk" Mayfair all
stood around a pair of chairs where Mickey and Minnie Mouse were
sitting. The two living cartoons looked uncomfortable and embarrassed
and held onto their seats tightly. They both had wires hooked up to
them at various points and banks of machines on either side of them
monitored and recorded their condition. As they turned this way and
that to look around, one could see they were no more than a fifth of
an inch thick.

"We could find out so much more with our equipment back in New York,"
Ham said. "Explain to me again why we're doing this out here in
California?"

"Don't complain so much," Renny said. "The Superhero Clubhouse's lab
is still state-of-the-art...even if that is behind what we're used to
working with."

"As indebted as we are to the Guardians for letting us use their
laboratory," Doc Savage interjected, "the real reason we're here is
that we don't understand what's holding these two beings together
and, until we do, we can't rule out that it the geography here is
somehow important."

"Right," Monk said, more excitedly. "The analysis I made from their
samples shows simple organic compounds -- nothing like blood, bone, or
anything like that. These things shouldn't be able to stand and
walk!"

"I've talked to Ub Iwerks a couple of times," Renny said. "He
insists that it's magic. I've thought about pumping some truth serum
into him..."

"My readings show a low-level electrical field surrounding both of
them. I'm sure that's animating them somehow," Long Tom
offered, "but I'll be darned if I can explain how. I wish you'd let
me run a mild shock through them, Doc, and see what it does."

"The encephalograph readings show they're in distress already," Doc
said. "Not that it should be possible since they don't have brains
per se, but I'm hesitant to do anything else that might cause them
pain or discomfort until we understand better the nature of their
existence."

Just then, Minnie Mouse stood up and jumped out of her chair. The
adhesives holding wires to her body slipped off.

"Where do you--?" Monk started to say to Minnie as he reached out to
grab her. After Minnie Mouse escaped and ran across the room, Mickey Mouse also broke free of his bonds. The two ran towards each other and began dancing to unheard music.

"Do you still want us to grab them?" Monk asked Doc.

"It certainly appears that they aren't trying to escape," Doc
responded. "They seem to have begun re-enacting another old Disney
cartoon, as they've been observed doing in the past. I wonder if the
stress of our experiments triggered this reaction, or if the event is
entirely random, devoid of external stimuli...?"

"Maybe they just like to dance a lot," Long Tom joked.

"They seem harmless enough," Renny admitted.

Mickey Mouse, though, proved a less-than harmless dance partner for
Minnie. He was clumsy, awkward, and constantly tripping her. After
several minutes, Minnie's legs began to contort as if her shins were
trying to avoid Mickey's knees. Doc's assistants, as jaded and
experienced as they were, recoiled at the sight of this unnatural
behavior. Had she bones in her legs, she clearly would have broken
them all. As they watched on, Minnie's legs twisted even more
unnaturally until they actually tied into a knot.

"All right, this has gone far enough..." Doc said.

Monk looked on, rubbed his chin, and thought this looked familiar for
some reason.

Doc moved to help Minnie, but was unprepared for her ability to run
even with her legs tied in a knot. She ran to a nearby table. Monk
suddenly remembered why.

"Don't let her get the scissors!" Monk yelled.

Monk tried to reach her, and Tom and Renny were jolted out of just
standing there as well, but Doc beat them all to Minnie's side,
grasped her outstretched arm with one powerful fist, then wrestled
the scissors out of her hand with the other.

"Quick thinking, Monk," Doc said. "I hate to think why she wanted
the scissors."

"Right," Monk said, excited by the compliment, "As I was watching
them dance, I remembered seeing an old Mickey Mouse cartoon once,
maybe the only one where Mickey was a bad dancer. Minnie's legs got
knotted and the sight gag was that she simply cut them off with a
pair of scissors."

"So Monk used to like Mikey Mouse cartoons. Wait until I tell
Ham..." Tom said.

"You do, and I'll let you have one," Monk said, shaking his fist.

"What do we do with them now?" Renny asked.

"It's clear to me," Doc said, "that as long as they continue to act out
their old cartoons, their actions will be a danger to themselves and
others. I'm going to recommend further incarceration."

Mickey Mouse ran to the corner of the room, sat down, and began to cry.

"Do you think he understands what's going to happen to him?" Tom asked.

"Naw," Monk said. "The cartoon is 'The Barn Dance.' Minnie would have
just jilted Mickey to dance with Pete. Mickey cries at the end."

"Were you in tears too?" Renny asked.

"Why, you two..."