Chapter 4

"I hope Grandma Duck doesn't mind we're an hour late," Ferdie said as the four finally got underway. He looked up at Oswald as the rabbit pulled his cell phone away from his head.

"Well, she seems fine," Oswald offered, leaning to his right to put the phone in his pocket. He looked at Mickey and asked, "Hope there wasn't someone expecting us right after though."

"Thankfully no," Mickey said with a laugh of relief. "Just gotta be at Doc Spanual's by three."

"For your first day back in business you sure have enough to do," Oswald said, impressed.

"Those two just have been pestering me to get back to fixing their stuff," Mickey admitted, giving Oswald a side glance.

Oswald's face flashed to panic as he braced a hand against the dashboard. Before he could say anything Mickey turned his eyes back to the road only to slam on the breaks, fishtailing the back of the truck.

The truck stopped too late, the nose crashing into two large metal hands. Air bags deployed, Oswald held an arm across the boys as the truck came to a stop.

"Mickey Mouse," a malicious voice called out.

The four looked up through the cracked windshield to see the Darkenblot, the occupant giving the metal face an evil expression. Without warning the exo-suit let go of the hood and broke through the windshield, grabbing Mickey and Ferdie in one hand and Morty and Oswald in the other. Pulling the four out with the truck's metal screeching as it was ripped by the monster's arms, the four were rose up to be head level with the Darkenblot.

"Alright, Blot, you've got me," Mickey said, his hands in fists on the outside of the fist that held him. He looked into the red eyes of the suit and ordered, "Release my family."

"Mouse, do you really think you're in any position to order me around?" the Phantom Blot asked with a laugh. He looked down and kicked the truck off the empty road, leaving it back in the ditch it had rolled into an hour ago. He activated his jet pack and sent them up into the air as he said, "For once and for all I will get rid of the biggest pain in this world's side."

"What, no more taking over schemes?" Mickey asked.

"Not until you are out of the picture, permanently," the Phantom Blot said. "Every plan I made while in that jail cell you locked me in, you were the only problem in every one of them."

"You get rid of him, you'll have me hunting you down," Oswald threatened. "And I won't be happy with just locking you away."

"Oh don't think I don't know about you," the Darkenblot turned his eyes to the rabbit in his left hand. "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, when you came back to the company it made big news. And I've heard about your different adventures. You'll be taken care of right after your so-called brother."

Ferdie looked over at his brother, their ears whipping back in the wind as they made eye contact. Morty looked up at the blot's face and asked, "What about us? You gonna kill us too?"

"Oh, I'm not that heartless," the Blot defended. "I'll release you once my plans have been accomplished."

Oswald turned to look at Mickey, noticing the mouse mumbling something to Ferdie. Not able to tell what the mouse was planning, Oswald looked down at the land below them to see they had already made it out into the country, farm land below them as far as the eye could see.

"We flew over Grandma Duck's farm a moment ago," Morty offered in a voice just barely above the rushing wind.

Oswald looked at his nephew, squished in the fist beside him so that his head just barely could see past the large fingers. "We are gonna get out of this," Oswald tried to encourage.

"Oh, I'm not worried about that," Morty tried, looking up at Oswald. "I'm worried about what Mom will do with us once this is all over."

Oswald let out a laugh, using his ear to give the mouse a loving pat between his ears. "Glad you've got so much faith in your Uncle Mickey and me." Oswald froze as he noticed where the blot's knuckles curled there was small gaps in the armor. "Hey Morty," Oswald said, throwing a glance at the other fist to see Mickey blocking the Blot's view of Ferdie lowering himself into the same crack in the armor Oswald had just noticed. Looking back at Morty, the young mouse looking up at him, he asked, "You think you could fit in his knuckles?"

Morty looked over at the open part of the knuckle, gulping down solid fear as he realized the easiest way would be outside the fist.

"I'll hold onto your tail as long as I can," Oswald offered.

Morty gave him a nod, hardening his features. "Okay. What do you want me to do?"

Oswald struggled a moment, trying to reach a hand in his pocket without calling attention to himself. He pulled out his hand with a Swiss army knife and give it to the mouse. "Get into his chest and start unscrewing everything. You might run into your brother so find out what Uncle Mickey's plan is."

Morty took hold of the pocket knife and shoved his hand down into the fist holding them to pocket it. Pulling his hand free he threw a look up at the Blot before wiggling his way out of the grip they were prisoner of. Oswald grabbed hold of the boy's belt loop as he balanced on the robotic finger.

"You got your balance?" Oswald asked as the kid lowered himself down to all fours. Morty looked at Oswald and nodded his head, fear slipping through the mask he wore. "I'm gonna swap over to holding your tail, okay?" Oswald made sure the young mouse was ready before letting go of his belt loop and took a tight grip on his thin tail.

Morty tried to calm his panicked breathing, the air rushing past them making it hard. He felt Oswald's tight hold on his tail and gave him one last look, forcing a smile on his face as he gave his uncle a nod of his head. He turned back to the knuckle crack he was to crawl into before steeling a glance down as they flew over a forest. He shook his head, forcing himself to focus on getting into the robot's body, and crawled over the edge head first. He carefully held onto the rounded edges of metal plates, looking into the crack to see a few glowing dots in the darkness filled with wires. He held onto the edge of the metal as he reached a hand inside to find something to swing himself fully in with. He took hold of a metal pole and tested it before giving Oswald a flick of his tail, hoping the rabbit understood what he wanted. The hand loosened its grip, letting Morty swing himself inside the giant finger. He landed harshly against a thicker pole, pushing himself up so he could rub his nose only to find a type of liquid on his hands. He wiped his hands against his jeans, just hoping it was oil for the machine instead of anything worst, and started to follow green and red lights farther in. Easily he crawled through the arm and made it up to the shoulder only to find a panel blocking his path. He pulled out the Swiss army knife Oswald had given him and, with the flashing red light above him, found the screw driver nub of the small device. Quickly he managed to take out the six screws holding the plate in place and removed the thin metal plate. He leaned inside the shoulder, gravity still showing they were flying, and took in the gears and circuit boards intertwined with long poles and wires. Carefully he stepped out onto the metal that was the Blot's chest plate and started looking for what he might be able to dismantel from the inside. He started unscrewing a pole he thought might be a support bar when he jumped at hearing his name hissed out. Turning towards the voice he saw Ferdie crawling towards him in the Christmas lights.

"Uncle Oswald thought he saw you crawl in here," Morty whispered once his brother was close enough. "What's Uncle Mickey's plan?"

"Unscrew his legs," Ferdie offered, holding up the screwdriver in his hand. "That way, when he lands, we'll have an advantage."

"Alright, Books, I'm not that slow," Morty said, rolling his eyes. "You take one leg, I'll get the other."

The two crawled together through the body of their captor a moment, finding the bolts holding the legs fairly easily. As they each took a joint, Ferdie looked over at his brother and asked, "Do you really think they'll get us out of this mess?"

"You know everything Uncle Mickey's gone through," Morty said, keeping his eyes to his work. "And you've heard what all Uncle Oswald's done. Everything'll be fine."

"But have they ever gone against some who was smart enough to just want them dead?" Ferdie asked. He pulled out the screw he had undone and dropped it to the ground at his knees, starting on another one, when he realized how long it took his brother to respond. He looked over at Morty, the mouse focusing on unscrewing wires from their boards. "Morty?"

"I don't know," Morty said in a whisper.