Chapter 8

December 19, 2015

"I think he's coming around," a voice said in a hushed whisper.

"Mom," a younger voice said.

A soft hand caressed Oswald's head, careful of a lump forming in between his ears. Oswald slowly opened his eyes, his vision blurry as he could just make out his wife above him. "What-" Oswald let out a cough to clear his throat before trying again. "What happened?"

"You got knocked out with a shoe," Ortensia tried to explain.

Oswald blinked to clear his vision, only to see they were in a cement bunker. Looking around he could see all the bunny children were there as well as Mickey, Minnie, and Daisy. "So where are we? Last I remember, the house had gotten lifted up out of the ground," Oswald offered. He reached up to feel how big the bump on his head was only to wince at the pain.

"We got knocked out by some gas," Mickey offered. "Whoever's done this moved us all here while we were unconscious."

"So no idea who then, huh?" Oswald asked. He threw a look behind himself before pushing his back against the cold stone wall.

"We don't even know what it was they used to pick the house up," Mickey admitted as he repositioned so he sat cross legged.

"Magnetic Strato Beam," Oswald said, closing his eyes as he laced his fingers together across his stomach.

"Magnetic Strato…?" Mickey echoed.

"It landed in Wasteland in '59," Oswald informed. "It was designed to capture planes and missiles."

"Then how'd it end up back here?" Daisy asked.

Oswald opened his eyes and looked at the duck, her holding a bunny child in her arms as she petted their back. He furled his brows, about to ask her what she meant only for her to beat him to it.

"I mean, I understood it that objects couldn't be brought out of Wasteland, right?" Daisy offered.

"I wanna know how something like that got sent to Wasteland in the first place," Minnie said, drawing eyes to her and the two bunny children in her lap. Her brows furled as she struggled to remember something. "It was a prop for a comic, right?"

"Yeah, from '55," Oswald informed.

"Then it should've been put in storage and moved under the House of Mouse when that was built," Minnie pointed out.

"How'd half the junk end up there?" Oswald gave the mouse a shrug. "It must've gotten thrown away one day."

"I think the biggest concern is how it got back here," Ortensia said, giving Daisy a nod.

"Could it've been with Dr. Vulter's portal?" Mickey asked Oswald.

"That crazy monkey? He built a portal?" Oswald asked.

"Right, your memory," Mickey mumbled.

"But Oswald destroyed the core and the device was locked up in Dark Beauty's dudgeon," Ortensia offered the mouse. "Even if whoever broke in and stole the machinery, they'd have to create a new core but also why just do this?"

"All of it leads to more questions than answers," Mickey admitted with a sigh.

"Shh! I think someone's coming," a bunny child hissed.

Oswald quickly got to his feet and ordered, "Everyone, against the wall." He looked at Ortensia and said, "Stay with them."

Ortensia gave him a confused look before he turned and stepped over to stand before the door.

"You're not doing anything crazy on your own," Mickey whispered as he took a stance next to Oswald.

Oswald gave the mouse a look only for the sound of a lock being undone turned his attention back to the door.

The door swung inward to reveal a large fat cat dressed in a white suit.

"Pete!" Mickey exclaimed, his fists at the ready as he bent his knees. "How'd you get out of prison so quickly?"

"His poor ol' sickly Mama wasn't gonna make it past Christmas," a disguised voice said as a bear walked in the room behind the cat. He let out a loud laugh, holding his large belly as he added in his normal voice, "Who'll make a miraculous recovery Christmas Eve."

"Putrid Pete," Oswald said, coping the stance Mickey held.

"So where's Julius?" Mickey asked.

"Why would we tell you that?" Putrid Pete asked. "We're just here for the women."

"Lay one hand on them," Oswald threatened.

"Or what? You wanna fight me, rabbit?" Putrid Pete asked. He swung a fist at the rabbit, knocking his head clean off.

"Ah! Daddy's head!" a bunny child called out in surprise.

Oswald patted his shoulder, grappling for any connection to his head as his disembodied head called out, "Oh, you wanna fight? I've been waiting for this for years."

"You don't have a chance," Putrid Pete growled, throwing a second punch at the rabbit's body.

Oswald's body flew backwards from the force, landing on the ground close to his head. He reached to reattach his head as motion caught his attention.

"Get out of the way, mouse," Pete ordered, throwing a similar punch.

Mickey was sent backwards, landing on the ground beside Oswald as the rabbit finished screwing his head back on.

"Stay out of the way, you varmint," Putrid Pete ordered as he lumbered over to where the three girls stood in front of the bunny children.

"You're coming with us, girly," Putrid Pete said, grabbing Ortensia around the wrist. He reached over with his other hand and grabbed Daisy. "Drop that bunny," he ordered, pulling the duck close. Sneering in her face he added, "Where you're going, you won't need it around."

Daisy snarled back at the bear, not braking eye contact for a moment before she turned her attention to the child in her arms. Giving her a forced smile she encouraged, "Go on."

The bunny child stared at her before throwing a look at Putrid Pete. She looked back at Daisy before hopping down to join her siblings.

"Let them go!" Oswald ordered as he finally made it back to his feet.

Pete grabbed Minnie around the waist as she had been leaning over some of the blue bunnies, the girl giving a squeak in surprise. "Put me down!" Minnie ordered only to find herself being tossed over Pete's shoulder.

"I forgot how cute you got when you were feisty," Pete said with a laugh.

Oswald jumped up and grabbed hold of Pete's free arm, hoping to stop the big cat long enough to come up with a plan.

"Let go, or I'll start taking out the little runts too," Pete said, shaking Oswald off.

"Leave them out of it!" Ortensia ordered.

Putrid Pete lifted her off her feet by her wrist and held her at eyelevel. "Well than, cooperate."

Oswald watched, fear for his kids rooting him to the spot. He watched as the two Petes took the three girls out of the room, Pete pulling the door closed behind himself before the sound of the lock latching ended his view.

"Unca Mickey," a young voice said, pulling Oswald away from the locked door. He turned to see Oswald Junior 102 handing a napkin to the mouse as he added, "Auntie Minnie had a plan."

"Who knows what the Petes'll do to them," Oswald grumbled aloud as he walked over to Mickey. He gave the mouse a moment to read the note before asking, "You think your Minnie'll be able to do her plan?"

"She's betting they'll take them to the controls," Mickey offered, passing Oswald the note written in lipstick. "I don't think they'd be low enough to threaten your kids."

Oswald read over the note once again before admitting, "Okay, so the Minnie I remember from what fell into Wasteland wouldn't've even come up with this idea." He looked up at Mickey and asked, "Do you think she could pull this off?"

"I don't like it, but, yeah," Mickey said with a shrug. "You know Min's always been with the trends. When more women started being independent, she showed she had been hiding a brain. Only problem with it all is it makes me worry about her more." Mickey put his hands in his pockets as he looked Oswald in the eyes and said, "I guess, yeah, she can."