Here's chapter three!

***************

Curly crouched in a hole, heart pounding in her ears, small purple legs ready to spring. WHAM! The giant stomper came down on the hole she was in.

Now! Curly darted out from her hole and out onto the steps, leaving the stomper behind. She ignored the Toon-up barrels and tore down the hall, nearly running into the wall as she skidded to turn the corner.

She stood there for a moment, catching her breath, and then walked into the next room. Perfect. Some Skelecogs had their backs to her, slapping pieces of paper onto a machine - making Cogbucks, naturally.

Curly jumped and down and waved her arms. "Yoo-hoo, cogs!" she cried even as she questioned her own sanity. "Over here!"

Their heads whipped around, and their eyes narrowed upon spotting her. Immediately, the four of them arranged themselves into a battle position and waited for her.

Curly sighed with nearly all the air left in her. They weren't going to come to her. Time for Plan B.

She reached into the pocket of her purple skirt and removed the billion dollar bill. Four pairs of Cog eyes nearly bulged from their not-yet-there sockets.

Curly waved the thing around in the air, watching their eyes dart back and forth, following its path. "You want it?" she taunted.

They crouched down, ready to spring.

"Then come and get it!" she cried, and turned and bolted down the hall as fast as she could.

She could hear propellers being revved behind her, and she burst out of the mint entrance just in time. Skelecogs rarely journeyed outside out the mint, but the desire to get that money had blinded them to everything else.

Curly led them across the train tracks and up the stairs to the front of the CFO's lobby. She yanked open the door and, hearing the propellers headed her way, ran inside to the scene of the wreck. It made her suck in her breath all over again.

By now, the Skelecogs had landed in front of her, cornered her, eyes gleaming with greed.

I sure hope this works.

Using her best aim, Curly flung the bill toward the scene of the wreck. The Skelecogs began knocking each other out of the way to get to it - and then the one in the front stopped abruptly, making the others run into him.

Their hands flew to their mouths, and Curly saw a look of sheer horror appear in their usually-glazed-over eyes. The one in the lead crouched down on his heels and examined the CFO's face. The other three simply stared with their eyebrows scrunched up, and Curly realized with a start they were as scared as she was.

Probably more. That was their leader lying there squished under a train.

One of them walked over to an intercom-looking system and pushed a button. "Attention, all repair Cogs. Please report to the main vault at once. We repeat, report to the main vault at once. This is an emergency!"

It was the first time Curly had ever heard even a hint of emotion in a Cog's voice. She tugged on one of the Skelecogs' arms without even thinking about it. Some part of her brain wondered why she hadn't just lost Laff points.

"Do you think you can fix him?" she whispered, as if talking aloud would break the moment.

The Skelecog looked at her as if he had just realized she was a Toon. Curly winced, waiting for the iron grip on her arm, to be dragged away and locked up somewhere - maybe to be given to the VP to dangle in that cage about the launchpad -

But the Skelecog merely waved his bony hand and then turned away. The message was clear: Run along, Toon. We don't have time to do anything to you now.

Curly reached into her pocket, pulled out the black hole marked "Home," and teleported away.

***************

The next day, Curly and Lefty were fishing on Barnacle Boulevard in Donald's Dock. The silence - broken only by the occasional plop of a line being cast and by Curly's mumblings over not having caught that Scurvy Cutthroat Trout yet - made yesterday's excitement seem like some faraway dream.

Maybe it was, Curly mused. Maybe nothing had happened at all.

That thought was interrupted before it could even begin to grow, however, by Lefty. "Zari intercepted a Cashbot memo today," she said.

Curly's hand went slack, and her steel rod fell right into the pond. "What - what did it say?" she choked out.

Lefty cut a suspicious glance over at her friend, but she said, "It said that Cashbot activity will be greatly decreased for the next week or so - Cogbuck printing is gonna go down big-time because they will be busy fixing the CFO."

Curly sighed with relief and rescued her rod from the bottom of the pond, plucking a Star Fish off and plunking it into her bucket. Lefty's eyes narrowed at her. "It says," she continued, "that they found the CFO after he was hit by a train because some Toon lured them there with a billion-dollar bill." She twisted up her mouth. "Interesting, huh?"

Curly's mouth went so dry she couldn't respond. She could barely even nod. Suddenly, Lefty grabbed her hand and pulled her off the docks into a little curved-in corner out of the eyes of even Fisherman Barney. "That was you, wasn't it?"

Curly felt heat rising to her cheeks. "What gives you that idea?" she sputtered.

Lefty wagged her head impatiently. "Because I know you, Weird Curly Megaquack. You can't stand to see anything suffer." She leaned in so close Curly could smell the jellybeans on her breath. "Why did you do that?"

Curly wanted to study her toes and mumble that she didn't know. But she mustered up all the courage she had, squared her shoulders, and said in as strong a voice as she could manage, "Because it wouldn't be right to just leave him there to die. He - he was sort of a person. He could think and he could feel - not like the other Cogs, y'know?"

To her surprise, Lefty's face broke into a soft smile. "That's what I thought you'd say," she sighed, grabbing Curly and giving her a head noogie. "You are one heck of a Toon, you know that? Besides, halting their production for a week or so is about all we were really expecting, anyway."

Curly giggled and swatted at Lefty and tried to pull away, but another thought struck her. "Do they think they're gonna be able to fix him?"

Lefty's smile softened even more. "Yeah."

Curly let out a howl and jumped straight up into the air, pumping her fist. As Lefty watched in amusement, she twirled out of the fishing crevice, yelling "Yee-hah!"

She spun around and around, not even realizing she had twirled right into the street - until she hit something hard and cold and heard a metallic voice ringing in her ears.

Curly looked up into the magnified-by-glasses eyes of a Flunky.

******

"Aww, rats," Lefty said from the sidewalk. "I hate it when that happens."

Curly couldn't answer. She could only stare at the bug-eyed Flunky, who stared back like he'd never seen a Toon before in his life.

"Come on, Curly," Lefty hollered. "Just blow it up and we'll get back to our day."

Curly's eyes shifted to the name tag over the Flunky's bald head. Only a Level 2. Easy as pie - literally.

She pulled out her fruit pie slice - her organicfruit pie slice - and aimed. It hit the Flunky square in his chest, and he brought his hands up over his face, as if that would do any good.

Curly reached for her glass of water and leaned in to examine the red health meter on the Flunky's chest. Suddenly it seemed closer. Then farther away. Then closer. Then farther.

Curly gasped as she realized the Flunky's chest was moving in and out, slowly but surely.

"What's wrong, Curly?" She felt Lefty at her side, plucking at her sleeve.

"It - it's breathing."

She could picture Lefty rolling her eyes. "It can't breathe. It's a robot."

"I know it can't!" Curly snapped. "But it's doing it anyway!"

"Curly," Lefty's voice was taking on a warning tone, "you have to beat this thing. You know that."

She did. That was why she took a big gulp from her glass of water and spit right in his face.

The Flunky spun around, gears flying everyone, and gave Curly a what-did-I-ever-do-to-you? look right before blowing up.

Curly just stood there for what felt like a long time. Lefty gave her a pat on the back, but she shrugged it off, leaned over, and picked up a gear. It fit in the palm of her hand, smooth and shiny. She held it up to her eye for a moment and squinted through the hole in the middle. She pictured the terror in the Flunky's eyes right before he exploded.

And then something in her snapped.

Curly turned her gag bag upside down and shook out her gags. "Here," she said to Lefty's astonished face. "Hold these."

With that, she went to work, scrambling around, gathering up all the gears and - ee-yikes! - body parts, and shoving them into her gag bag. Lefty watched her, mouth hanging open. "Have you finally lost your mind?" she asked.

"Maybe," Curly answered shortly. She threw her hand up into the air and bellowed, "Taxi!"

Instantly, a taxi screeched its tires up next to her. Curly flung herself into the backseat and shoved some jellybeans in the driver's hand. "Where to?" P.J. from the Donald's Dreamland taxi service asked.

"To Duckburg. Gyro Gearloose's house." Curly swallowed hard. "And step on it."