Author's Note: I've been posting this story on a forum but decided that I might as well throw it up on here too for anyone who wants to read it. The only important thing I can think of to mention at the moment is that the chapters in italics are set in the past. Oh, and there's also a prequel of sorts to this story that I've just started writing, The Enlightened, that I suppose I'll put on here as well. You don't have to read either story to read the other.
Prologue
Would the stairs ever end? The whitewashed, winding, insufferable stairs that led down from the upper levels of Loony Labs and onto the main floor. Oh, yes, the main floor. The place where a green duck, her name unknown to him, stood behind a desk with a smile plastered on her face as she stared through the transparent glass front doors, waiting for someone to come in and inquire about the brilliant scientists up above and their work.
Oh, yes, the brilliant scientists were up above. Yet he was going down to where the green duck and the inquirers were. This meant that he was no longer a brilliant scientist, at least not in their eyes. He had grown tired of the endless labor that brought him not an ounce of appreciation, not an ounce of gratitude! He had started to put together his own inventions that came from his mind only, and weren't corrupted by the desires of inferior toons! Yes, he could admit that there had been problems with these dear creations of his, but he had worked furiously to fix them. Yet they had not liked his new work, they had told him to go back to being their mindless puppet. And so he had refused. And so they had told him to get out and never come back. And so now he was going to get out and never come back.
Yet the stairs would never end, it seemed! He continued on, placing foot after foot with a determined stride. The main floor grew gradually closer, seeming to taunt him with its emptiness. The front doors with their view of Toontown beyond appeared to be beckoning him; telling him to go out and walk around as a miserable, unwanted genius. And all of a sudden he felt a longing for the stairs to go on forever and ever, so that he would never reach those doors and pass on from them into the reality of his situation.
But the stairs were not endless, and soon his feet were touching the immaculately clean white floor of the main level. At that moment the green duck behind the desk glanced over at him, and he wondered what she thought of the sight. What might she think of him, a disgraced, thin chicken named Gyro Gearloose?
Gyro wasted no time idling there so that he might ponder the judgment that an insignificant toon made of him. Instead, the chicken pushed open the front doors with a feeling of dread in his heart. Stepping out into the sunshine, he began to quickly stride away from Loony Labs in no specific direction. The warmth of the sun's rays brought him no comfort.
The scientist continued on like this for quite a long time, feeling nothing but bitterness and something like sorrow. In fact, he kept walking until he found himself quite at the edge of Toontown. Gazing beyond the cheery home of toons, Gyro saw the dark, rugged lands known simply as The Outskirts. It was there, in those rough hills, that fierce, villainous toons were said to live. Their hearts dark, they preyed upon the innocent citizens of Toontown by stealing their belongings, kidnapping young toons for ransom, pulling unpleasant pranks, and other such terrible crimes.
It was at this very moment that a deep anger stole over Gyro as he stared out across the desolate Outskirts, the place that nearly ever toon feared and avoided in earnest. A deep, burning rage spread through him, and he turned back to sweep his fiery gaze over all of Toontown. He could see toons giggling uproariously as they went about their day, having a fun, merry time. These toons likely used things he had invented without even realizing that he was the one who had made it possible, and likely didn't care. He was nothing but their servant, and they expected him to serve without question. The moment he had decided to do what he wanted for a change, to make something that he could be proud of, he had been disposed of.
They had dared to treat him so poorly, and now they would pay a price. Turning back to The Outskirts, Gyro felt deeply confident. This is the place where toons live that strike fear into the heart of Toontown. And soon I will be one of them. Wait, no, I will not just be one of them. I will run them. The Outskirts shall be mine, and I shall strike fear into the hearts of those wretched goofy toons. I will take away their fun, and they will forever know that Gyro Gearloose is not their servant.