Chapter 7
September 24, 1959
Oswald grabbed the plastic nose of the mouse who shall not be named as he made his daily trek up the junk mountain. He stopped on the mouse's eye and looked up to see a new lunch box had fallen into Wasteland, the mouse and his two nephews blocking his normal path up to the bottle. He let out a sigh before looking around the junk to find a new way up to the top.
"You think that gumball machine would hold my weight?" Oswald asked aloud. Without waiting for any of the fallen merchandise to answer him, he carefully stepped around the clock he had stopped on and made his way over to the gumball machine with two round ears on its top.
Please be careful, Oswald. He could almost hear her voice as he gave a jump to catch a hand around the mouse's ears.
Oswald noticed some of the glass surrounding the base of the machine had broken in its decent into this world. Avoiding the shards, the rabbit pulled himself up to stand on the thing's head, putting one foot against the darkened mouse face that poked out of the mountain. He looked for the next best foot hold up the mountain that would take him back to the path he had been working on when a car of a train set caught his attention. Climbing over mouse debris, Oswald made it to the train car and pulled it out to see Donald sitting in the conductor's seat of the engine and his three nephews along the paint. "Heh, Don might wanna see this," Oswald said as he checked the opposite site. He wiped off some dirt that had smudged Dewey's head before putting the engine in his pants. Turning back to the path he was working towards, he continued on his accent to the peak.
He pulled himself up onto a waring path and paused to catch his breath, resting his hands on his knees as he leaned forwards. Looking between his falling ears he stole a glance upwards to see the bottle in sight, the cork giving a shake as the Phantom Blot fought to be freed. "Not today you're not," Oswald ordered, letting go of his knees. He rushed forward along the path, jumping over a tin dime bank of the mouse teaching smaller mice that had been flattened into the ground as part of the path. He leaped upwards and took hold of an outstretched metal arm to cut part of the path, swinging himself upwards. Oswald landed on his feet running towards the bottle just in time to see a splatter form under the corked bottle. The monster let out a sound at the sight of Oswald just in time to receive a kick to the stomach, sending it soring down the mountain and towards the thinner sea at the base.
Not watching to see if it made it to the base, Oswald turned his attention to more important things: the cork. He pushed his shoulder against it and gave a shove, glad to feel it sinking in again. Once he was certain it wasn't going to release anymore monsters for the time being he stepped away and gave the bottle a look over. He ran his hand against the smooth glass bottle as he felt for cracks, thankful none seem to have appeared.
"Oswald! There you are," Gus' voice exclaimed.
Oswald jumped, losing himself in surprise, before turning around to see the gremlin floating in the air. "Gus! There's gotta be a better way than scaring me every time you need me," Oswald said, patting his head to make sure his ears had reattached.
"Sorry," Gus offered as he flew over to be beside the rabbit. "A new device just dropped in on us though. The cards think it's a weapon and I have reason to agree with them."
"Where is it?" Oswald asked, throwing one last look at the bottle. He led the way back down the mountain of junk with the gremlin flying behind him.
"Just outside of Ostown," Gus informed.
"Anyone know what it might do?" Oswald asked, jumping down a side of the path to slide along an old pack of crayons with the mouse's likeness on it. He jumped off the pack to land on a path of decent, bouncing from nose to a phone's keypad, to the stomach of a rubber mouse that gave out a sad squeak when his foot left.
"Laralee is looking through what paper stuff has fallen through to see if he might've gone against it there," Gus informed. "I got the hearts watching some of the more recent shorts to see if it might've shown up there."
Oswald jumped into the air, twirling his ears to slow his fall down the side of the mountain. "Do you think it might be a left over from the war?" Oswald asked, knowing the mouse and Donald had both been in it.
"I don't think so," Gus offered. "And if it was, wouldn't it've gone to Wisterburg?"
"So what's happening out there that might make it so he's sending us weapons?" Oswald asked, throwing a look at the gremlin before dropping to his feet again.
"The cold war?" Gus suggested.
"You said it was down here?" Oswald asked as he looked ahead. He caught sight of a grouping of cards at arms at the gate to Ostown. "Oh, see them."
The Four of Clubs noticed the two first, pointing in their direction as they came over. The Ten of Diamonds ordered, "Ten-hut!" him being the highest ranking card in the group. He turned to Oswald and Gus and stood at attention as the two walked over to him and the device.
"Who found it?" Oswald asked, long used to the cards seeing him as their leader.
"Three of Clubs, sir," Ten of Diamonds said, nodding his head over to the low ranking official.
"So none of the other toons have seen it?" Oswald asked.
"Clarabelle did, sir," Three of Clubs admitted.
"So much for not wanting the folks to know when this type of thing appears," Gus said, throwing a look at Oswald.
"Did anyone try and activate it?" Oswald asked.
"No sir," Ten of Diamonds informed.
"Good." Oswald gave the card a nod. He looked at the two pieces of a device they guarded, the largest of it being a cylinder about the height of the Walt statue on Mean Street. It looked like a part of the side might move, spinning within, to reveal what was inside. Oswald walked over to the control panel and took in the buttons and nobs, a screen at the top. "Any idea what they might do?" Oswald asked the floating gremlin.
Gus floated closer to the panel with a hand to his chin. "I'd say that might be the power," Gus said, motioning to one of the five levers along the panel's right side. Turning his eyes to the buttons he added, "And these look like degrees of space, for targeting."
Motion by the ally way to Ostown caught the attention of the cards. The Five of Spades and the Two of Diamonds quickly clashed their lances together as a blockade in time to catch the person before they got to the weapon.
"Let me through, you crazy cards," Laralee ordered. "I found something."
"Let her through," Oswald ordered, walking around the device to see the goat.
The two cards raised their lances, the Two of Diamonds giving Oswald a momentary glance.
"What'd you find?" Oswald asked as the girl walked over to him with a comic book in hand.
"It's called the Magnetic Strato Beam," Laralee explained, holding the binding of the comic in one hand as she flipped into it. "Here's how it seems to work," she added, stopping on a page. She poked at a panel as she let him look. "It seems like some spy created it as a way of taking test rockets."
"And of course he ends up in the mix," Oswald grumbled. He took the comic from her hands and flipped through the pages to stop on one farther in.
"Well, at least it isn't fully a weapon," Gus offered, looking over the rabbit's shoulder to see the comic.
"You mind if I keep this for a while?" Oswald asked the historian.
"Just make sure you give it back in one piece," Laralee said with a sigh. "It's not often a book ends up proper sized when it lands here."
"Thank you, Laralee," Oswald offered. He turned back to the control panel with comic in hand, looking between the buttons and dials. He took hold of the leaver Gus had pointed to and pushed it forward, getting the screen to power on as a hum came from the device.
"I'll leave you to it then," Laralee said, eyeing the device as she leaned away from it. "Who knows if this survived the fall here."
"We'll keep guard on the other side," the Five of Spades offered, Ten of Diamonds giving a nod to the two cards.
Oswald pushed a button, turning his eyes to the cylinder to see the panel slide open. He walked over and looked within to see, hanging from the top, a laser of some kind that pointed down. "Hey, Gus," Oswald said as the gremlin looked up from studying the buttons. Oswald took a glance at the comic in hand and said, "Hit the button on the top right. That should power on the beam."
"You sure you wanna be right at it when I do?" Gus asked, a hand hovering over the button.
"I don't have any metal on. I should be good," Oswald said, though taking a cautionary step back.
Gus pushed the button, getting the laser to turn its muzzle out the hole.
It shot out a yellow light at Oswald only for the rabbit to be pulled up off his feet by his pants.
"Oswald!" Gus cried out, quickly shutting off the device.
Freed from the beam, Oswald fell to the ground with an "oof."
"Are you alright?" the Ten of Diamonds asked, the first to Oswald's side.
Oswald got to his feet, rubbing his tail with his free hand. "Yeah, just my pride," Oswald admitted. He reached into his pants and pulled out the train engine. "Forgot I'd grabbed this earlier," Oswald said.