"He isn't here yet." Quackerjack grumbled.
"Sick and tired of waiting for Negaduck to arrive at our headquarters?" the Liquidator announced in his salesman lingo, "Then do something you have interest in, like our dear ol' pal Megavolt!" He gestured towards the electrified rat who was hard at work at a machine almost as big as himself.
Quackerjack bounced over to him, partly hoping Megavolt would offer him some bits of gears and wires and machinery for him to tinker with until Negaduck came, and partly because he was curious about what Megavolt was working on. "Whatcha doin', Sparky?" he asked Megavolt loudly, making him jump.
"Ooh, don't call me Sparky!" Megavolt shouted in annoyance.
"Whatever, Sparky. Say, what're ya working on?" Quackerjack asked again, ignoring Megavolt's glares and dangerous sparks of electricity that sparkled on his fingers.
"Oh, it's just an invention of mine to put my theory to test. I call it The Dimension Transporter." Megavolt began as soon as he heard someone getting interested in his work. "You see, I believe that the universe is divided into different dimensions, which could mean that we not only exist in one world, but in different places in once. You know what I mean?"
Quackerjack scratched his head. "Err, no."
"Never mind." Megavolt rolled his eyes. "The purpose of this invention is to show me what I need to know about the existence of different worlds. I'm almost done." He had already suspected it from the start, when he had accidentally shot Darkwing once with his Tron-Splitter, turning him into two parts, a good Darkwing and an evil Darkwing. Also, the other time, in his brief tussle with Darkwing, both of them had landed in a place with beakless mutants.
"Uh, guys?" Bushroot, who was outside enjoying the sunshine, suddenly came in to the warehouse The Fearsome 5 had been using for meetings. "Negaduck's coming."
"WHAT?" Megavolt exclaimed. "Help me hide this!" he hurriedly shoved his precious invention behind a pile of empty crates with the help of Quackerjack. If Negaduck found out that Megavolt was working on something before a big heist, which usually tires him out, he would surely break it to bits with his chainsaw to ensure that he wouldn't do it again.
"I hope you knobs are ready." The deep voice of the yellow-clad horror said as he entered the warehouse, taking a look around the place and at the members of The Fearsome 5. "Don't expect any apology for me being late, cause' Dipwing made me delay on my way here. The only thing I can say is that meddlesome duck won't bother us this time! I took care of him, personally."
"W-w-what did you do to him?" Bushroot asked nervously.
Negaduck smiled evilly. "Let's just say he won't be using his hands for a while. Now about this place we're going to visit …" His voice trailed off, and he stared at the far end of the warehouse, at the pile of empty crates. The others turned to look, and they saw the edge of Megavolt's machine poking out of the crates. Megavolt's heart turned cold.
"Megavolt." Negaduck asked quietly. "Did you do something before I got here?"
"Please!" Megavolt pleaded. "I won't do it again!"
"Oh, I'm sure you won't." Negaduck said coolly, took out his chainsaw, and started walking towards the pile of crates.
Megavolt went frantic. "DON'T HURT MY BABY!" he shrieked and rushed towards his invention before the rest of the members of The Fearsome 5 could hold him back.
"Megavolt, NO!" Quackerjack yelled out a warning to his friend, but Megavolt was deaf to his friends' shouting. He needed to protect his Dimension Transporter before it got brutally murdered by Negaduck.
He stood protectively in front of his machine, facing Negaduck defiantly. Negaduck was startled. "Step aside, Sparky." He growled.
"No." Megavolt said, "And don't call me Sparky."
Bushroot turned away. "Oh," he groaned. "I can't look. Tell me w-w-when it's over."
Negaduck held his chainsaw up high and revved it up with a roaring sound. "I'm destroying that piece of junk, Sparky, whether I take you down as well or not."
In self-defense, Megavolt's whole body crackled with sudden sparks of electricity. One spark flew out and hit his invention behind him. It glowed with energy and beeped consistently.
"Uh oh." Quackerjack groaned. "When Megavolt's stuff goes like that, you know something's not right…"
Even Negaduck stopped dead in his tracks to stare in amazement at the machine that was coming to life. But he recovered quickly, moving up his chainsaw again to strike the machine for good this time.
"NO!" Megavolt shot out lightning bolts at Negaduck. Then, the whole world turned in a spiral. The Fearsome 5 were pulled into a dark portal together with the Dimension Transporter, yelling and screaming.
Summer holidays had just started. The four children and talked excitedly about their plans for the hols as they walked to Kirrin Cottage with their dog. They were going to stay at George's island for two whole weeks!
"Imagine, Ju!" Anne's eyes were shining. "Two whole weeks, and without grown-ups!"
Julian grinned at his excited sister. "If people didn't know better and they heard Anne," he told his brother, Dick, "they would've thought we never did have real adventures at all."
Anne heard and gave him a nudge and said crossly. "Of course, it was exciting to be on adventures all the time, but I thought it would be nice to have a nice quiet one for a change!"
"It's alright, Anne. I was only joking." Julian said, grinning broadly.
"Adventures without excitement and danger?" George cried. "Ugh, it makes me sick to even think about it!"
"You sound like you hadn't had any adventures in a long time." Anne said. "Remember the Whispering Island?"
"And remember the circus in Big Hollow?" Julian put in. George laughed. Timmy barked out something like a laugh.
"Oh, but they seem like a long time ago," she sighed, patting Timmy. "I hope we have a real adventure this time."
"Don't worry, George," Dick laughed at his cousin's face. "Something exciting will pop up sooner or later. You get that with adventures all the time."
He never knew how right he was.
With a bright flash of light, The Fearsome 5 tumbled out onto a field overlooking a small village and a sea, with a small island not far from the mainland. Negaduck got up painfully, checked himself for bruises, then got up, brandishing his chainsaw, and chased Megavolt around the field, screaming at the top of his lungs: "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, MEGAVOLT!"
Megavolt, on his part, was trying to evade Negaduck's vicious swipes of his chainsaw by running as fast as he could, protesting: "It's not my fault!"
"Wait, guys," Quackerjack suddenly spoke up. "Where are we?"
Negaduck eventually stopped chasing Megavolt. Breathing heavily, he looked around in bewilderment. So did the others.
"Even the plants feel different here." Bushroot commented, gingerly poking a stalk of weed, which immediately responded by moving itself as far as possible from Bushroot. "It's like they don't know me at all."
"Welcome to another universe!" the Liquidator said, "Courtesy of our one and only brilliant inventor Megavolt!"
Negaduck looked like he was going crazy. He strode towards Megavolt and pulled the front of his suit until he was facing him. "Take me back, you loser."
Trembling slightly, Megavolt turned to the machine which had followed them here and started to work on it again. But as he placed his hand on it, he suddenly pulled back with a yell. "Uh, oh." He muttered.
"WHAT?" Negaduck snapped. "Whatdda'ya mean 'Uh, oh'?"
"The Dimension Transporter needs to cool off." Megavolt explained as best as he could. "For at least…" he counted off on his hands, "An hour."
"AN HOUR?" Negaduck bellowed. He looked like he wanted to run his chainsaw through Megavolt, but changed his mind and left the field.
"Hey, w-where you're going?" Bushroot shouted after him.
"If you think I'm just gonna sit here for an hour doing nothing, you're mistaken!" Negaduck shouted back.
"Huh," Megavolt grumbled. "Now he knows what waiting feels like…"
"Are you knobs gonna come help me rob some shops or are you going to stand there like those stupid plants?" Negaduck yelled at them. Bushroot looked hurt, but everyone ignored him, so he followed after them after they kept the machine well hidden.
"Those ice creams look super!" Anne exclaimed, looking into an ice-cream shop in the village. "Shall we go in and buy an ice each?"
Julian checked his wallet. "Sure." He said. "There's enough money to buy an ice-cream each for everyone."
So the five went in. The girl at the counter nodded at them, as she knew them quite well. "An ice-cream each?" she asked. "And one for Timmy as well?"
"Yes, please." Julian said, handing her the money. "Phew. Bother this weather. It seems to get hotter by the minute."
The girl scooped out big slabs of ice creams and placed them in cones and gave them to the children. She took out a platter and put some ice cream on it and placed it down by the floor for Timmy, who was wagging his tail, brushing it against Dick's legs.
"Don't, Timmy." Dick said in annoyance. "Go wag your tail somewhere else. Gosh, aren't those ice-creams large and heavenly? Thanks, Janie, you're a brick."
Timmy, as usual, gobbled down his ice cream in one bite. "What a waste," Julian said. "What's the use of buying ice cream for you if you're just going to gulp it down without swallowing it?"
The girl turned to more customers who had just entered the shop. The five left and continued their stroll down the village. Soon, they noticed a small group of people gathered around the small jewellery shop at the end of the village.
"I wonder what happened," George wondered out loud. She walked towards the shop, followed by the others and was horrified to see the windows of the shop smashed roughly when they squeezed past the group of people gathered there and the whole shop was in a shambles. All the jewellery was gone.
Old Man Bill, who owned the shop, talked excitedly to the audience. "Robbery, I tell you. In my very shop! Five strange looking people came in and they took everything they could reach! There was a scary-looking one in yellow. He had a huge chainsaw and he was smashing everything around him. He'd have gotten me too, if I hadn't hidden in the storeroom!"
The people didn't know whether they believed him or not. Bill tended to exaggerate his stories. Just then, Timmy gave a small growl, then put his nose to the ground and started sniffing hard.
"Look, Julian!" George said. "Timmy has got the scent of those culprits!"
"Don't get too worked up," Julian said patiently. "For all we know, it could be a smelly old bone he's sniffing out." He was immediately rewarded with a punch from George and backed off, laughing.
A while later, the people went away and Old Man Bill went to the station to lodge a report, and the children continued to follow Timmy as he sniffed hard and followed a curious scent. It smelt of burnt hair, fresh leaves and water, he thought. What could it be?
Soon, the children were led to a field outside the village. "There you are, George!" Dick said, slightly disappointed. "It was just a bone he buried here."
But George wasn't listening. "Look!" she cried, pointing out in the middle of the field. The children could see five strange figures gathering there and one of them, unmistakably yellow, was holding a large sack, and was taking something that glittered in the hot sun out.
"The jewels!" Julian exclaimed. The yellow-clad figure's voice carried down to the children by the wind and they could hear him saying: "We'll split. One for you, five for me!" The others were grumbling quietly, but they didn't dare to complain.
Without warning, Timmy barked loudly and pulled away from George who was holding onto his collar just now.
"Timmy! Come back!" George shouted, remembering what Old Man Bill said about one of those robbers armed with a chainsaw. She chased after Timmy, and her cousins followed after her. As they neared to those robbers, they were shocked to discover that they looked like animals. The yellow-jacketed one who looked like the ringleader resembled a duck. So did another dressed like a court jester. Another looked like a plant, and also looked like a duck. A pale rat was dressed in a yellow jumpsuit strapped with wires and batteries and there was a transparent dog who looked as if he was made out of water.
"I don't like them," Anne whispered softly, terrified. George, who was braver, stepped forward.
"Who are you and why are you dressed up like this?" she demanded. "Were you the ones who robbed the jewellery shop?"
"Well, whatdda'ya think, boy?" the mean-looking rodent asked in a high scratchy voice, gesturing towards the sack of jewels. He held up a finger and some sparks flew out of it, like lightning.
George took a step back, but secretly she was pleased that they thought that she was a boy. Suddenly, Timmy decided that he didn't like the rat-looking man and ran at him, snarling.
"You! Get away from me!" the rat shouted, and lightning shot from his fingers. It hit the ground, narrowly missing Timmy.
George flew into a rage. "How dare you!" she shouted, and gave him a good hard kick before he could do the electricity act on her.
"Yeow!" He screamed in pain and clutched at where George had hit him. The jester duck immediately bounced over to the children and pulled out a toy doll in glasses. "Don't worry." He assured his friends. "It's playtime! This'll take care of them."
He pulled a string hanging from the doll and the children backed off warily, this time with both Julian and George holding onto Timmy's collar.
The doll spoke in a long monotonous voice about Alexander the Great. The children looked at each other uneasily but they listened in fascination.
"I didn't know Alexander succeeded the throne at the age of twenty!" Anne said.
The jester clown frowned in confusion. "This usually works…" he said uncertainly.
"Are you from the circus?" Dick asked the five criminals.
"What makes you think so?" the yellow-clad duck asked dangerously.
"Are you part of the pixie folk, then?" Julian hurriedly asked. The yellow-clad duck looked like he was about to lose his temper any second.
"Guys." The plant-duck suddenly spoke. "They're just kids. Leave them alone."
"Sure." The yellow-clad duck growled. "And let them spill all our secrets to the people. They'll have the police after us before Megavolt can get his machine to work!"
"But they won't, they're just kids. No one will believe t-them." The plant-duck argued.
When the yellow duck turned to yell at him, George saw her chance. She ducked forward and got the sack of jewels quicker than two shakes of a duck's tail and hurried back. Sometimes George does a lot of surprising things that even the children were taken by surprise.
"You're being spirited, eh? I hate that." The yellow-clad duck growled. "NOW you're asking for it." He pulled out a huge chainsaw and revved it up, then advanced towards George. Only with Julian holding him, Timmy managed to break free and immediately leapt in front of George, growling.
Negaduck, in all his experience with dogs, had never seen one which didn't cower in fear in his presence. Well, he was so going to put that dog in its place!
He raised his chainsaw, ignoring the beakless-mutant boy's screaming for his dog, and prepared to slash down. Suddenly the other boy together with the group of children suddenly shouted "Look, the police!"
Negaduck turned to look, and sure enough, there were two men in blue running towards them. "Oh, this is a great day!" he said sarcastically. "Sparky, ya done yet?"
Megavolt had just placed the finishing touches to the machine. "All done, boss!" he said.
"Good!" Negaduck shouted. "Now let's scram!" He turned to the kids and gave them a quick grin. "Sayonara, suckers!"
Megavolt hit a button on that machine and they vanished from sight.
"Are you all alright?" the police asked the children, slightly concerned.
"We are." Julian said, although he was slightly shaken. "Here." He said, handing the bag of jewels to the police.
"Well done, Famous 5. " The policeman grinned. "We could use youngsters like you in the police force."
When the police left, Anne spoke up. "George?"
George looked back at her. She looked frightened and angry. "Don't do that ever again, please."
"I won't." George quickly promised. "Sorry."
"Goodness! How fast time flies!" Julian exclaimed, looking at his watch. "We shall be late for tea!"
"Hurry! I know Mother's making ham and egg sandwiches and a treacle pudding!" George shouted, running towards her home. As the children ran, Dick wondered aloud: "So, where do you think those five criminals are now?"
With a burst of light, The Fearsome 5 fell onto the ground. This time, they were in a different place.
"Where are we?" Megavolt wondered.
"You're the guy who made this machine. You should know." Negaduck said carelessly. "I just hope we're home sweet home."
They were not. Spread out before them was a colourful land with pretty cottages and cute ponies. One pink coloured pony wandered up to them and said cheerfully: "Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie and you're new around here, aren't you? You know what this means? A PARTY!"
Negaduck breathed in and out deeply. Then, with a terrible cry, he roared, "I'M GOING TO REALLY KILL YOU THIS TIME, MEGADOLT!"
THE END