-So that´s a new story that I created together with lunar silver. I hope you like it. :D-

"Shake shake sh-sh-shake, yeah!" called Dudley. He was holding a cocktail shaker in his hands and put his heart and soul into shaking. It was his mother´s birthday and he was commanded to be behind the bar and make cocktails. Not because his mother was too greedy to hire a professional barkeeper, it was because Dudley somehow had a God-given talent for making drinks and cocktails.

He was so good that he once thought about quitting at T.U.F.F. and beginning as a barkeeper. And even if any bar would have hired him with arms wide open he rejected this thought again. "Avoid to make your hobby to a job… you could start hating it." That was his motto.

So he just did that on special occasions, like some T.U.F.F. parties. But one thing annoyed him about being the barkeeper. He couldn´t participate celebrating. And today that was really annoying for him. All his relatives and friends, even Kitty Keswick and the chief which he had invited, were in the backyard and drank and talked and he had to stay inside.

So he decided to prepare some drinks and bring them out to at least see some of the others.
"That´s the last one." He filled a champagne glass with an orange liquid and sat a slice of lime on the brim of it.
"Ha! Dudley-surprise."

"What´s up D..D..Dudley?" shouted Keswick who just entered the house through the back door.
"Not much Keswick. Just mixing some drinks. What can I do for you? Want a drink?"
"Yep! Another M..M..Manhattan!"

Dudley took a new glass and various bottles out of the cupboard and began as fast as he could to mix the different ingredients together. For an untrained eye it just looked like that Dudley was whirling around the bottles without knowing what he did. But he knew exactly what he did. After he finished the drink he handed it to Keswick.

"Thanks." Keswick sipped at the drink. "Hmm… Dudley that is the b..b..best Manhattan I´ve ever drank."
"Thank you." Said Dudley while he put the prepared glasses on a tray and walked with them into the backyard.

"COCKTAILS!" The people screamed as they saw Dudley. And they almost knocked him down as they tried to grab one of the cocktail of the tray. "Whoa! One after the other!" laughed Dudley and looked around, searching for someone. And after a while he found her.

Kitty Katswell, a tall tanned cat girl and also his partner at T.U.F.F., stood beside his boss the chief, a little flea, and talked about the party as Dudley came to them.
"Hey guys, what´s up?"

"From where did you come? I thought that you were not here!" said Kitty jokingly.
"That´s the barkeeper`s destiny, Kitty. Always there but never really in the middle of the events." Added the chief laughing.

"Hahaha guys." Meant Dudley sarcastically. "You ridicule about me but drink my stuff."
"Because it´s good stuff. That´s also the reason why I always ask you to be the barkeeper when the supreme command visits us." Explained the chief. Dudley remembered one of these evenings in the chief´s house clearly.

Even if he doubted that the chief did. These little 'visits' which were of course top secret always followed the same format. The supreme command came in and then they got hammered… really hard. Dudley is always the only sober one in the whole group.

Then on the next morning when Dudley carried the drunken bodies away and cleaned up the mess the chief always gets a call in which someone assures him new funds for T.U.F.F. A strange kind of showing the supreme command that this T.U.F.F. branch deserved the funding but sometimes the end justifies the means.

"Well." Interrupted the chief Dudley who remembered one of these evenings. "I have to shake some hands here. But I think you two can have a good time without me." He turned around and left the two alone.

"One day you have to tell me what happens at these supreme commands visits" giggled Kitty and watched the chief walking.
"Maybe… But when the chief retires and you become the new chief I have to tell you anyway."

"What are you talking about?" Kitty asked surprised.
"Oh… I think I said to much…"
"No, no, no. Now you have to tell me!" She ordered friendly but interested about what Dudley said. He looked furtively to the left side and then to the right to make sure that nobody listened to them.

"But you haven´t heard that from me, okay? Well the chief is thinking about retiring and he said, of course just between him and me, that if he retires he would appoint you to the new chief.
So… Congratulations!" Dudley wasn´t allowed telling her that but he just loved it to make her happy.

"Wow" said Kitty with a grin frozen in her face. She almost had pounced at Dudley and kissed him because she was so happy. Being the chief was here dream since she has launched her career at T.U.F.F.. And finally this dream should become true.

"Kitty?" asked Dudley who was kind of afraid of Kitty because she just stood there grinning.
"I could kiss you Dudley."
"Feel free to do that."
"Maybe later. But I have to congratulate your mother first. So see you later."

Kitty gave Dudley a ambiguously wink and walked towards Peg who was surrounded by persons who wanted to offer her congratulations. Dudley was back on his way into the kitchen to mix some new cocktails as he was stopped by a relative of him.

It was his uncle Roger who was Dudley´s favorite uncle because he was just cool. The guy was a adventurer and globetrotter who visited almost every country in the world. Through the amount of stories and funny anecdotes to tell he was the center of every party.
And also he always gave Dudley cool things as Christmas presents.
"Hey Dud! Could you do me a favor?"
"Everything you want, Roger."

"Our relatives over there." Roger pointed at a group of dogs which stood in a circle and talked about him. "don´t believe that there´s a cocktail which is named after me. The dusty Roger. So could you maybe… mix some?"

"I don´t know…"
"Just google it! You´ll find it." He patted Dudley on the shoulder and walked back into his group.
Dudley just shrugged and walked back into the kitchen, pulled out his smartphone and searched for the dusty Roger.

"Ha! Unbelievable! I need whiskey, vodka and a hand of dust! That has to taste awful!" But if it was his uncle´s wish he would fulfill it. There was just one problem. Dudley had whiskey, he had vodka but he had no dust! His mom cleaned up the house very carefully, there was just no dust in this house. "Dust…Dust…" he repeated pensively.

Meanwhile there was someone who watched the house out of a van. It was a rat that sat on the driver seat with a pair of binoculars in his hands. "Why am I not invited. I mean we were together for a short time... okay we broke up but in a good way! And I mean it´s me, Vermenious Snaptrap! Who wouldn´t like me on a party?!" said the rat.

"Everyone." Meant the little grey shrew sitting next to him.
"Shut up Larry and get the Ostes-machina!"
"Really?! You call it Earthquake-machine, just in Latin?"
"Shut up and get it out! We destroy their house, nobody is in there. That will teach them a lesson!"

Back in the kitchen Dudley still stood there and thought about dust until Kitty came into the kitchen.
"What´s wrong Dudley?"
"I need some dust, for a cocktail. But I have no idea where I get some."
"Okaaay… I will not ask what kind of cocktail. But… Have you searched on the attic?" she suggested.

"Good idea!" He rushed upstairs and opened the little trapdoor on the ceiling of the first floor. And as he climbed up the little ladder which unfolds when you open the door he found a lot of dust there.
"If Mom annoys me I should send her up her! It would take her hours to clean up this mess!"

"You finished her?" asked Kitty who followed him "It´s really creepy up here!"
"Okay I have…" Dudley had no chance to finish the sentence because the house suddenly
began to shake.

"A earthquake?! Here?!" screamed Kitty.
"We have to get out of here!" They both turned around and ran as fast as they could towards the kitchen. They had to get out of here! The earthquake became heavier every second. Soon the house would collapse.

Dudley was the first one in the kitchen. He stopped hectically and looked around. Kitty was gone. She was in front of him but where was she now? He finally saw her laying on the floor of the living room that was connect with the kitchen through doorframe.

"KITTY! GET UP!" Dudley heard an ugly sound from the doorframe. It would collapse in a few seconds and then Kitty would have no other way to get out. He jumped into it and pressed his body with all his power against it.

"KITTY! COME ON!" he shouted at her. She jumped on her feet and ran past Dudley through the back door. Dudley wanted to join her but now without somebody pressing against the doorframe it collapsed. A giant mass of debris fall on him and trapped him in the trembling house.

Kitty saw it, turned around and tried to help him by pulling on his arms. Also Keswick risked coming into the house. He was worried about his friends and wanted to see if they already left the death trap.

"Damn D..D..Dudley" he screamed and helped Kitty. But even with help Dudley didn´t move. Not even a bit.
"Guys, it´s useless! You have to get out of here." coughed Dudley.
"NOT WITHOUT YOU!" cried Kitty and pulled even stronger.

Dudley knew what to do now because he had one of these moments when you see everything clear. He had just to be honest. That would do everything. "Kitty, I love you." He said sternly what made Kitty just stood there frozen. "Keswick get her out!" Keswick nodded and didn´t hesitate.

He grabbed Kitty´s arm and pulled her through the backdoor of the house. Right after they got out the house gave way to the brutal force of gravity. It was unbelievable loud and the dust spread like a shockwave into all directions.

"DUDLEY!" cried Kitty after she was able to break out of her state of shock and ran to the place where the doorframe stood which was now just an almost one meter high pile of rubble. She began to dig and she almost dug her hands bloody until she found him.

Dudley´s eyes were closed and he was covered with dust and blood.
Kitty couldn´t hear him breath so she laid her fingers on his wrist.
"Oh god thanks… A pulse! A PULSE! He´s alive!"

Right after that, nobody saw the black van in this moment driving away.