Chapter 6
Oswald knocked on the chief of police's door, throwing a look at Michael and Minnie beside him. The three waited at the door a moment before Oswald knocked again.
"Maybe he stepped out," Minnie offered.
"You looking for O'Hara?" a male voice asked. The three turned around to see a dog in blue as he said, "He's talking to the judge."
"On a Sunday?" Michael asked, surprised.
"Said he got a lead in the middle of the night," the officer explained, taking a seat at a desk in the center of the room. He looked at his work as he said, "Probably had to go to the man's house."
"Well that's good news," Minnie said, turning to Michael. "Even if the man behind this gets away, maybe we can still get you back home."
"And your Mickey back here," Michael said.
Oswald leaned against the wall beside O'Hara's office door and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'm tired of waiting around," he grumbled.
"There's not much else we can do," Minnie reminded, shifting her balance.
The officer looked up from his desk and offered, "You wanna take a seat while you wait?"
"Thanks," Minnie said, noticing the plastic chairs attached to the wall the officer was pointed out to them. She led the two over and took the end seat, placing her purse on her lap. Oswald and Michael sat beside her, the three keeping an eye on the entry way, "I hope we're not waiting here all day," she mumbled.
"We wont' be," Michael said, quickly jumping to his feet as a large dog walked into the police station. Once the noon day sun wasn't blocking out his features the three could make out O'Hara walking their way.
"You waiting on me?" O'Hara asked as Oswald and Minnie rose to their feet. Without waiting for their answer he said, "Let me get my hat, we've got what we need to get access to his inventions."
"That's great!" Oswald exclaimed, watching the man disappear into his office.
"Follow me in your car," O'Hara offered before reappearing with his hat back on his head. "We're heading to Duckburg."
-.-.-.-
The four headed up the steps to the Institute of Sciences, leaving their cars parked on the side of the road. O'Hara led the way inside the building and went straight to the receptionist's desk.
"Oh, Chief O'Hara," the duck behind the desk said, noticing the four. "Dr. Shaffer's waiting for you on the fourth floor."
"Thank you," O'Hara said, giving the man a nod. The four went straight for an elevator waiting for them and road it upwards. The ride up went quickly before it slowed down.
"Ah, there he is," an older male voice said as the doors pulled back to reveal a white rabbit whose beard was split to look more like mutton chops. He pushed himself out of the chair against the wall and stepped in front of the group.
"Dr. Shaffer?" O'Hara asked, holding out his hand. The rabbit took the hand, pushing his glasses up his nose with the other. They let go of the handshake for O'Hara to explain, "This is Oswald, Minnie, and Michael."
"Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and you are that," Dr. Shaffer said, taking Oswald's hand to shake it. "Being the first successful trip through Professor Doublex's time machine as well as being a part of the team that built it! It's an honor."
"I take more pride in making that infernal device with 40's tech," Oswald admitted with a laugh as he got his hand back.
"I hate to interrupt, but I would like to get back to my own century," Michael said, drawing attention to the mouse.
"He's right," O'Hara said, reaching into his inside coat pocket. He pulled out a tri-folded piece of paper and handed it to the doctor. "We have a warrant to search the lab of Professor Barkley."
"Yes, your office already called ahead," Dr. Shaffer said, opening the paper to read it quickly. He folded it back up and turned on his heel as he said, "This way, his lab is just through those doors."
"How much do you know about the professor?" O'Hara asked as they followed him down the hallway.
"Nothing much more than what he put in the reports I sent to you," Dr. Shaffer admitted. "He never wanted any assistants to help him in his work, never seemed to step out unless he had to."
"Seems a little weird," Minnie offered.
"Oh, some days he was plain out odd," Dr. Shaffer said, turning to look at the mouse over his shoulder. He turned his head back to watch where he was going, stopping at the door as he pulled out a key card. "But he gave results. Both the Portrait Capture and time machine were company funded projects."
"Why would you fund something that kidnaps people and puts them into a panting?" Oswald asked, eyeing the white rabbit as he opened the door.
"It wasn't supposed to do that," Dr. Shaffer admitted, holding open the door for them to walk in. Following them into the lab, he let the door close behind himself and added, "The Portrait Capture was to be a new form of media, similar to virtual reality. It was only ever meant to copy the events shown to it so that it could later be played back with someone in it. The paintings would function as cartridges put into the frame."
"So where are the two machines?" O'Hara asked, looking around at the equipment.
"That's strange," Dr. Shaffer mumbled, stepping over to an empty space by the wall.
A black cloud with green sparks created itself in the space, giving Oswald enough of a warning to dive forward. He grabbed hold of the doctor and continued his momentum passed the cloud in enough time to prevent the man from being squashed under the platform materializing into the empty space. Barkley looked up from the control panel and let out a laugh.
"History is the best weapon!" he exclaimed.
Oswald pushed himself up, getting off the white rabbit, and jumped to his feet. "That's gotta be the strangest evil villain line ever," he pointed out.
"You call me a villain, but you just don't see the big picture," Barkley said, taking a tablet from the time machine's control panel before stepping off the platform.
"Barkley, you're under arrest," O'Hara said, stepping forwards. "We've got plenty to hold you on this time, not to mention messing with time and history."
"There isn't any laws against tempering with time and space," Barkley pointed out, not looking up from the tablet in his hands.
"No, but what about kidnapping?" Michael asked, his hands in fists ready to fight.
Barkley looked up only to say, "Oh right, the only survivor of the Alamo." He looked back at the tablet and added, "I noticed you had gotten stolen out of my personal collection." The black cloud reappeared, collecting itself around the five. "I don't care for rabbits or dogs, so I don't know what I'll do with your portraits."
"Oh no you don't!" Minnie exclaimed, diving through the cloud to where the hippo was last seen.
"You stupid girl!" Barkley exclaimed as the cloud broke apart, revealing the group had been teleported to the house full of paintings. Barkley looked around only to mumble, "This is why I don't collect more than one at a time." He looked down at the tablet once more.
"Go find Mickey. Minnie, again!" Oswald ordered, signaling to Minnie. The two jumped at the professor, Oswald going for the man's legs as Minnie grabbed for the tablet.
"Unhand me, you vermin!" Barkley exclaimed as Oswald forced him to the ground.
"Not after what you've done," Oswald exclaimed, looking around for something to tie the man up with.
"Oswald! Look out!" Minnie exclaimed.
Oswald looked up to see a mouse dressed in armor holding a sword at the ready only for his head to break through the canvas. He shook his head, trying to clear the dots threatening to take over his vision, as he pushed the destroyed portrait off of himself. Barkley pushed Oswald off, knocking the rabbit into a wall of propped up canvases.
A scream got him to raise his head up, seeing Barkley give chase after Minnie.
"Give me that back!" Barkley ordered, swiping out at the girl.
Minnie held the tablet close as she ran, throwing a look over her shoulder. She turned her eyes down onto the tablet and started pushing buttons in a desperate attempt to get something to work.
"Come on, I've gotta plan," Michael said, holding out a hand to Oswald. The rabbit gave him a smile, taking the hand to help him back to his feet. "I told Mr. O'Hara and Dr. Shaffer to look for Mickey. I'll keep Dr. Barkley distracted, you help Miss Minnie."
"I'll do more than that if I can," Oswald said as his own plan formed. He rushed over to the mouse being chased, keeping pace with her as he held his hands out. "Give me the tablet."
Minnie give him a look before handing off the tablet. Oswald took hold of the device as a scream sounded from behind them. The two glanced behind to see Michael had tripped up the hippo. Michael looked up from where he had fallen and waved them farther. "Go!" the mouse ordered, turning his eyes towards the hippo as the man started to find his feet again. Michael looked around for something only to find nothing but canvas portraits. "There's nothing here heavy enough to knock him out!" Michael exclaimed in frustration.
Oswald looked down at the touch screen in his hands, quickly recognizing a type of controllable clock as well as density controls.
"Oswald, you keep going!" Minnie ordered as she skidded to a stop.
Oswald slowed down, looking up from the control tablet. He slowed to a stop and looked at her, about to say something when Minnie started running towards the hippo. "Mickey's gonna kill me," Oswald mumbled to himself as he turned around.
"Hey! We found him!" Dr. Shaffer exclaimed as he came into the room they had appeared in.
Oswald turned to the white rabbit, O'Hara in the door frame grabbing hold of the doctor's shoulders to pull him back into the main room. In the doctor's hands was a portrait of a mouse in a red suit that looked almost identical to Michael's green one running with a hand on his hat as to not lose it.
"Give me back my prize!" Barkley exclaimed, giving chase towards the two men.
"Oswald, you're the best chance we've got to figure out how to use that thing," Minnie called out as she and Michael gave chase. "We'll keep Mickey safe!"
"I hate being the tech guy," Oswald grumbled, following behind the two mice to keep an eye on the action while he figured out how the device worked.
Barkley dived at the white rabbit, trying to take hold of the portrait holding Mickey. O'Hara grabbed it out of the doctor's hands and tucked it under his arm, making a break for the front door.
"There's nowhere to run, Chief," Barkley called out, pushing himself up from where he had fallen. He threw back his head and let out a laugh. "Even if you get the Portrait Capture working, you'll never get out of here."
"What on earth are you talking about?" O'Hara asked, grabbing hold of the front door's handle. He pulled open the door and stepped out onto the front steps only to quickly grab out and take hold of the door frame. Before him stood a large expanse of nothing but white, giving no dimension to ground if even there was any under the house.
"Don't say I didn't warn you," Barkley said as he came up behind O'Hara. "Welcome to the Delta Dimension! Read about it in a scientific paper and realized it would be the perfect hide-out."
"O'Hara!" Michael exclaimed before he took a dive towards Barkley.
O'Hara turned around just as Barkley jumped out of the mouse's reached. The hippo reached towards O'Hara and grabbed hold of the wooden frame of the canvas, ripping it out of the man's grip. He pushed against the dog with his free hand, forcing O'Hara out the front door and off the steps.
"O'Hara!" Michael exclaimed.
"Mickey!" Minnie cried out as Barkley gave her a sneer.
Barkley dangled Mickey's portrait as the two mice ran at him. Letting out a laugh, he flung the portrait out the door and into the white abyss.
"Ow."
Barkley's smile fell into a curious frown. He slowly turned around to look out the door as O'Hara stepped back inside with Mickey's portrait in hand. "What?!"
"Guess you never figured out there's ground out there," O'Hara said, smiling at the hippo. His eyes fell behind the man as a cloud created itself in the room.
"Ha ha! I figured it out!" Oswald exclaimed. He looked up at the fight and locked eyes with the hippo. "It's over, Barkley."
The cloud quickly engulfed Barkley as the man raised a fist to Oswald. "You'll never figure out how to reverse the affect!" Barkley called out as the green sparks appeared in the cloud.
"Never underestimate your enemy," Oswald retorted as he pushed one final button.
The cloud disappeared, leaving behind a portrait on the ground. Michael stepped over to it carefully, in case something would happen. He leaned down and picked up the portrait, holding it out to look at the man trapped within. Taking it over to O'Hara, he held it out to the man and said, "I don't know how long I was trapped like this, so I don't believe it's a good punishment for the man."
"I agree," O'Hara said, taking hold of the portrait. He looked at Oswald and asked, "But you can figure out how to fix all of this, can't you?"
"Just give me a moment," Oswald said, looking back down at the tablet in hand. "He said I wouldn't be able to return people from their frames but really I'm more curious about how we're gonna get back home."
"Focus on reviving Mickey," Minnie ordered as she stepped over to the door to look outside. "I think he's been here before."
"With his crazy adventures, I'm not surprised," Oswald said, shaking his head.