Disclaimer: I do not own TaleSpin or any of the Disney Afternoon classics.
Episode Nine
The D-Star
The McQueen was flying among the stars, leaving behind a long trail white light behind, looking like a lightning bolt traveling through space.
Inside the cockpit, Matthew was visibly trying to hold himself together, his hands were shaking on the control yoke, his teeth gritted, looking furious and miserable at the same time.
Tears began to leak out of his eyes as he thought back to Rebecca, Molly, Wildcat, Louie and all of his friends he'd known since childhood.
'Guys…' he thought inside of his head. 'I'm... I'm so sorry… I… I couldn't save you! Please, forgive me.' Then he burst into tears and slammed his fist on the flight console.
Next to him, Baloo sat, cradling the Cloudkicker cubs, who were still in their P.E. clothes, in his arms. He looked baffled and confused
"Wh-where…? Where are we? Where are we headin'?" Baloo asked, looking all around at the countless stars zooming past them. "What's going on?"
Matthew tried to speak, but he couldn't overcome the large lump in his throat and all that came out was a whimper.
Chris decided to help his Dad out, as he needed to focus on flying through space while avoiding asteroids and Shadow Minion ships.
"We're in the interspace between worlds," he said.
Suddenly, the whole plane shook violently as a shockwave reached them from the direction where they just came from. Everybody cried out and Baloo held on to the cubs tightly as he braced himself.
When it past, Baloo sat up straight and asked: "Wh-what was that?"
"O-o-our world…is gone…." Chris said in a shocked voice, looking stunned.
There was a pause, during which it slowly dawn on Baloo and Kit what Chris meant.
"Wh-what? What do you mean?" Kit asked, looking devastated. "B-but... what about Miss Cunningham, Molly, Wildcat, Louie and…?"
Chris burst into tears and cried out: "GONE!" he then buried his face in Baloo's shirt and his next words came out a little muffled. "THEY'RE ALL GONE! TAKEN BY THE DARKNESS!"
"No…." Kit said in a stunned voice, feeling his world slowing down and spinning. "No… NOOOO…! THEY CAN'T BE GONE! ...YOU!" he cried, he then pointed a finger at Matthew. 'WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE THEM?!"
"...I…" Matthew whimpered, not knowing what to say. "I...I tried…" he said weakly.
"NO, YOU DIDN'T! YOU DIDN'T TRY TO SAVE THEM! YOU JUST GRABBED US AND LEFT EVERYBODY ELSE TO… TO…." Kit could not bring himself to say it, he burst into tears and jumped down from Baloo's lap, screaming: "I HATE YOU!" as he ran into the cargo hold, slamming the door behind him.
Matthew gasped and started breathing heavily, as if Kit's words had stabbed him in the heart like a real knife.
"Oh no! Dad, don't lose focus now!" Chris yelled as Matthew sat there, looking completely broken and devastated.
Baloo stood up and made to go into the cargo hold to comfort Kit.
"Baloo, stay here! You need to take over!" Chris said, jumping over to Matthew's side and grabbing the control yoke, holding the plane steady as it flew through the dark depths of space.
"But... I gotta go talk to Kit," Baloo said, sounding like he didn't know what else to do.
"I'll talk to him!" Chris said. "Look, Dad is in shock and overwhelmed right now. You need to take over for him."
"No…" Matthew said unexpectedly, looking suddenly determined. "I should talk to him. Here, take the stick, Baloo." Matthew stood up and stepped aside, gesturing for Baloo to take the pilot seat.
"I don't know, Matt… Kit's madder than a hornet at you right now…" Baloo said, uncertainly.
"I'm well aware," Matthew said shortly. "Even so, I should be the one to talk to him."
"Well, if you're sure…" Baloo said, shrugging before moving to sit down in the pilot seat and taking the control yoke as Matthew opened the door to the cargo hold and stepped inside, closing the door behind him.
"Kit…?" Matthew said as he spotted Kit laying on his belly on the bottom bunk bed, crying into the pillow. It broke Matthew's heart to see Kit crying like that. He approached the bed slowly and sat down at the foot of it.
"Go away, Dad!" Kit cried into the pillow.
"H...how did you know it was me?" Matthew asked, since Kit never looked up to see who it was.
"You're too heavy to be Chris, and you're too light to be Baloo," Kit said in a muffled voice through the pillow.
"Oh…" Matthew said, amazed at Kit's deduction skills, even as he mourned the loss of his family, friends, his whole world. "Kit, I'm... I'm sorry I couldn't save more people back there. You have every right to be mad at me. I'm mad at myself!"
Kit slowly lifted his face away from the pillow and looked over at Matthew. "...what?"
"I wanted to save the whole world, not just you and your friends and family. I...wanted…to save….EVERYBODY!" he yelled in self-loathing, punching the floor with his fist. "But… I couldn't. It was a race against time, Kit. I had to save what I could and get out of there, or none of us would be here right now."
"But you could've warned everybody!" Kit said accusingly.
"Chris and I thought of doing that, but… remembering how all of Noah's warnings went unheeded, I thought people would do the same to us." Matthew said sadly.
"...Noah? You mean from one of the old stories, Noah's Ark?" Kit asked as a look of realization crossed his face.
"Yeah, he was mocked and ridiculed for saying the world was going to be destroyed with a worldwide flood." Matthew said. "I expected a similar reaction to any warnings Chris and I could issue."
"Oh..." Kit said, looking sad. "Yeah. If you've told me yesterday that the world was ending the next day, I'm...not sure I would've believed you."
"Yeah, and as I told Chris, those that would believe us would've made a vain attempt to save a doomed world." Matthew said miseribly. "Even with all the powers at the Dedis' disposal, we cannot transport large masses of people at once. My hands were tied knowing all of that."
Matthew sat there with his head down, hating himself for not being able to save more people.
Kit observed him for a moment and saw how much Matthew was hurting over his inability to do more, to save more people. He slowly moved closer to Matthew and hugged him around the neck.
"I'm sorry, Dad," Kit said, whimpering a little bit from his grief of losing so many of his friends and family. "I'm so sorry. I've said things I should never have said. I don't hate you." he then let out a sob and buried his face on Matthew's shoulder.
Matthew wrapped his arms around Kit and hugged him tightly, stroking the back of Kit's head. "Thank you, Kit. I love you, son."
"Love you too, Dad." Kit said in a muffled voice, his face pressed to Matthew's chest.
For a couple of minutes, they sat there, crying for the loss of their world while holding each other.
Matthew and Kit re-entered the cockpit, Baloo looked back at them from the pilot seat.
"Are ya alright, Lil' Britches?" Baloo asked with concern in his voice.
"Yeah, I'm alright, Papa Bear." Kit said with a sad little smile.
Matthew approached the pilot seat. "I'll take the stick from here, Baloo."
"Oh, sure, Matt." Baloo said as he stood up and sat back down in the co-pilot seat. Matthew sat down in the pilot seat as Kit and Chris climbed up into Baloo's lap and sat down.
Matthew pressed a few buttons on the console and outside the plane, the tips of the pontoons opened up to reveal the point of a laser gun. Matthew then fired the guns and two yellow beems shot out, hit each other and created a wormhole in front of them.
"What's that?" Kit asked, looking amazed.
"A shortcut home," Matthew said simply, as he flew the plane right into the wormhole. Now that they were in the wormhole, they seems to be going faster than the speed of light. It was like going through a brightly lit tunnel at extremely high speed.
At last, they reached end of the tunnel and came out in a completely different galaxy
It took a moment for Kit and Baloo's eyes to adjust, and when they did, they gasped.
Directly in front of them was what looked like three moons glued together to look like a mouse's head.
"Wh-what's that?" Kit asked in awe of this moon. "It's huge!"
"That's the D-Star. Home of the Dedis." Matthew said with a smile.
As they got close to the D-Star, a female voice came on the radio. "Welcome to the D-Star, UFO. Please identify yourself, or I'll have to blast you into oblivion."
Matthew picked up the mic and spoke into it. "Hold your fire, Gadget. It's me."
"Matthew? Oh my gosh! Welcome home!" Gadget said excitedly. "Is Chris there with you?"
Matthew held the mic to Chris and he spoke into it.
"Yeah. I'm here, Gadget. And guess what! My brother is here with us too!"
"Oh golly! I can't wait to meet him! Come right in!" Gadget said and then the radio went silent.
A pair of panels on the surface of the D-Star split open, revealing the entrance to the D-Star and they flew right in.
Once they were inside, they were greeted with the sight of a beautiful world, very similar to Earth. It was like a smaller Earth was encased in a planet-sized metal shell. Looking around, Kit and Baloo saw that the inner shell was sky blue, obviously to imitate Earth's blue sky.
Matthew descended the plane down lower to the ground. A suburban neighborhood dominated by a gigantic mall came into view. A runway and series of hangars were located on the other side of the neighborhood at the opposite side from the mall.
"Wow…" Kit said in awe as he looked around at the area. "This is where you guys live?"
"Yeah," Chris said happily, he then gave a long sniff at the air and then sighed pleasurably. "Ahh, home sweet home."
Matthew, Kit and Baloo glared at him, clearly considering his words insensitive and offensive, since they have just lost their home world. Chris felt the intensity of their glares aimed at him.
Chris shrank back and gave them an apologetic look, then he bowed his head in shame. "...Sorry…"
Since Chris apologized, they all decided to drop it and ignore Chris' comment.
Matthew flew the plane towards the hangar area and picked up the mic. "McQueen to D-Tower, come in."
"Gwarsh… D-Tower to McQueen. Reading ya loud an' clear, ah-yuk!"
"Hey, Goofy. How are ya doing?" Matthew said with a fond smile. "Requesting clearance for landing."
"Sorry, Mattsy. You're goin' too fast and flyin' too low." Goofy said. "Turn around and adjust yer speed an' altitude.
"Ten-four." Matthew said as he turned around and did as Goofy instructed. "McQueen to D-Tower. Re-submitting request for clearance for landing."
"All clear." Goofy said. "Request granted, ah-yuk!"
"Thanks, Goof." Matthew said, before putting away the mic and focused on the landing. The McQueen touched down on the runway, rolling down the runway in decreasing speed. Then, Matthew drove the plane towards the hangar area. Once he got close to the hangar with the number "20" above the doors, Matthew turned the plane around and then pressed a button on the console and the doors slid opened, then Matthew backed into the hangar before setting off the engines.
The loading bay door at the back of the plane opened up and all of them exited the plane.
"Okay, Chris and I live in this hanger. Our living space is upstairs, but try to stay close to me." Matthew said. "We have… electronics and appliances that may seem weird, even alien to you. And I don't want you two setting things off and being scared out of your skin."
"Dad, where's my phone?" Chris asked. "I wanna text my friends and let them know I'm back."
"What?" Matthew said distractedly.
"My phone. You know; my little device that I used to call people, text people, play games on, watch DTube…"
"Ohh…!" Matthew said, grimacing with frustration at himself. "I'm sorry, Chris. I left our phones in the couch...in our hangar…in Cape Suzette….which is now space dust…."
'YOU LEFT MY PHONE BEHIND?!" Chris cried, sounding very upset.
Baloo and Kit were watching this exchange with bemused expressions. Baloo bent down and whispered in Kit's ear. "Are ya following any of this? What's the big deal about phones?"
"I have no idea…" Kit said. "He listed more things than just talking, though."
"...We were short on time, and I didn't exactly have time to do a checklist of things to bring home with us." Matthew yelled, which ended their argument, though Chris still appeared a little sulky about it. Matthew then turned to Kit and Baloo and said: "Sorry about that. Let me give you a little tour at our humble home. Stay close to me and do NOT touch anything!"
"Okay, okay. Keep your fur on, ace." Baloo said as he and Kit followed Matthew and Chris upstairs to a waking nightmare that is a twenty-first century household.
"WHOA!" Kit cried, stopping dead on the landing, causing Baloo to bump into him and then he stared around, looking astonished. For a moment, they stood unmoving on the landing, staring around like a couple of deers in a headlight, their mouths hanging wide open.
They were overwhelmed and awestruck by their surrounding. The kitchen appliances that they knew of at home, suddenly seemed ancient compared to what Matthew and Chris have! There was a stainless double door refrigerator with the console on the outside of the door, for ice and water that would put the old icebox to shame! And the cooking stove was different. Instead of metal wood stove, there was a black countertop electric stove! Also there was a stainless silver oven that was high off the floor and fitted nicely into the wall.
"Come on in, you two." Matthew said encouragingly. "Come on, don't be shy. I know it's lot to take in, but nothing here will bite you. Just stay close to me and you'll be fine."
Despite Matthew's encouragement, Baloo and Kit moved very slowly into the room and looked around, as if they thought there were tons of explosives in the room.
"C'mon, guys. Have a seat." Chris said, gesturing to the the bar that stood in the middle of the floor opposite the stove.
"Okay…" Kit said, walking slowly to one of the stools and very carefully sitting down on one of them. Then he looked surprised to see that the kitchen sink was in the center of the bar.
"So…" Chris said, bending over and taking two glasses out of the dishwasher. "Can I get you some iced water?"
"Yeah...sure…" Kit said, looking all around as Baloo sat down next to him.
Chris went over to the refrigerator, held one glass under the console in the door. It made a lot of racket as it spat out ice into the glass.
Kit and Baloo jumped at the noise, clearly startled.
"DUCK!" they cried as they dived to the floor with their hands over their heads.
"Calm down, you two. That's just the ice machine." Matthew said, biting his lips in an effort not to laugh.
Chris had much less success at holding back his laughter, and he was laughing so hard, that he doubled over, holding his ribs. The glass was left sitting under the console, waiting for water to start pouring in.
Matthew tried giving Chris "the Look", and that did shut Chris up for a moment, before he was overcome with a new wave of laugher. Then, like a contagious germ, Matthew started laughing. And once he started, he couldn't stop.
Kit and Baloo peered over the bar and looked around, checking to see if the place was still standing.
Once they were sure that all was right with the world, they sighed with relief. And Baloo collapsed upon his stool, which surprisingly didn't break under his weight.
"WHOO! Nearly gave me a heart attack!" he gasped. "I dunno how much more of this I can take!"
"I know, I know. It's a lot to take in." Matthew said, still laughing. He took a moment to compose himself and then he said: "Okay, there is nothing to worry about. The ice machine is loud, I know. It's supposed to be. That's completely normal."
"O-okay…" Kit said, looking a little timid as he retook his seat.
When Chris finally got all the laughs out of his system, he returned to his task of making glasses of iced water for Kit and Baloo. He took the glass that was sitting in the door and pressed it against the water pane, and water shot down into the glass, filling it up. He then set the glass on the bar in front of Kit. As he picked up the second glass and held it to the ice panel.
Kit and Baloo flinched a little bit at the loud noise the ice machine made, but this time, they remained in their seat.
Chris finished making a second glass of water and set it down in front of Baloo.
Kit picked up his glass, said: "Thanks," and taking a drink while allowing his eyes to wander, taking in all the surrounding modern technology in the kitchen.
"What's that?" he asked, pointing at the silver and black microwave in its place next to the cabinet.
"That's a microwave." Matthew replied. "You put cold food in there and heat it up. You can also cook with it and pop popcorn with it, too."
"Wow, that's neat! Baloo would love to learn to use that." Kit said, looking over at Baloo and chuckling.
"Guilty as charged." Baloo chuckled. "I could've used one of those things when my pizza got cold."
They all shared a chuckle at that, before Kit pointed to the toaster that sat on the counter below the microwave. "What's that?"
"That's the toaster," Matthew said. "it toasts your bread to make toast, it also toasts Chris' Toaster Strudel."
"What are Toaster Strudel?" Kit asked.
Chris looked shocked at Kit not knowing what Toaster Strudel were. "Whaaat?! You don't know what Toaster Strudel are?" when Kit shook his head, he went on: "They're delicious fruity breakfast tarts. Though my favorite Toaster Strudel is the chocolate flavor. And you can use the toaster to heat up some frozen waffles."
"Wow, you guys have so many ways to cook in this world." Kit said, looking amazed.
"Yeah, If I didn't know better, I'd think I'd died and went ta heaven!" Baloo said, licking his lips.
"What's that?" Kit asked, pointing at the toaster oven.
"That's the toaster oven," Chris said. "It toasts stuff that doesn't fit in the toaster."
Kit looked around at every corner of the kitchen, taking in every detail. "I've never seen a kitchen as nice as this one. This is even nicer than Miss Cu—" he stopped, looking suddenly sad. There was silence, everybody bowing their heads in grief. "It's… it's hard to believe everyone's gone…." then he started to cry.
Chris went to Kit's side, took hold of Kit's arm and helped him down from his stool. He then hugged Kit and Kit held on to Chris, sobbing into his brother's shoulder. Chris patted Kit's back as he began to lead Kit through the living room towards his bedroom
Inside Chris' bedroom, there was a triple bunk bed on one side of the room, and on other side, there was a regular bunk bed.
Chris led Kit over to the regular bunk bed. "You can have the bottom bunk, the top bunk's mine anyway."
Kit threw himself onto the bed and began to cry into the pillow. Chris left the room and closed the door behind him, giving Kit some privacy to grieve for his surrogate family and friends he left behind.
After about ten minutes, the door opened and Baloo walked in to find Kit still sobbing into the pillow.
"Kit?" Baloo said, walking over to the bed.
"I miss them, Baloo. I'd do anything to have them back…" Kit said with tears streaming down his face.
Baloo sat down on the bed next to Kit, lifted Kit up and hugged him. "I know, Lil Britches. I know.." he said, soothingly, stroking the back of Kit's head.
"Where's Dad and Chris?" Kit asked after a moment, noticing that it was quiet outside the room.
"They had to go to the… mall. I think they called it." Baloo said "Something about needing new phones and pads."
AT THE MALL
"Thank you, Dad." Chris said happily as he and his Dad stood outside the phone store. He was checking his social media messages and text messages on his new blue smartphone. "Can we get Kit the green one?"
"No." Matthew said, putting his new red smartphone into his pocket. "We'll let him buy his own if he wants one. I don't want to buy him something that he's just gonna hate. Best let him pick out his own phone. Now, I gotta get back home. We can't leave Baloo and Kit alone for long. Here." he handed Chris a wad of cash. "Go buy that iPad or tablet, or whatever that thing is. And be home for supper."
"Thanks, Dad. See ya later!" Chris said as they went their separate ways.
Walking towards the electronic store, Chris was going through the apps on his new phone.
"Aw man, no GeekCommunicator... " Chris sighed. "Guess I'll have to pay Geekdom a visit…"
He went into the electronic store and bought himself a tablet, because it was cheaper and he wanted to have a little money left over for food and drink. After he left the electronic store, he went to the food court to buy a burger and fries as carry out.
He then left the mall and walked towards a building with a cellphone tower on top of it. He walked around to the back of the building. There, he stood in front of a blank wall next to the dumpster.
He pressed a certain spot on the side of the dumpster and a secret panel opened up to reveal something like a calculator, with which Chris typed in a code.
"Access granted. Welcome to the World of Geekdom." said a female-sounding robot voice. The dumpster slid aside to reveal a flight of stairs leading down underground.
As Chris climbed down the stairs, the dumpster slid back into place, closing the door behind Chris. At the bottom of the stairs, Chris was in a place that looked very much like someone's dark basement. The only light came from the dual computer monitors at the end of the room. A chair with its' back to him was in front of the monitors.
"Geekdom, I got you a snack." Chris announced, waving the carryout bag around.
The chair spun around to reveal that Geekdom was none other than P.J. Pete.
"CHRIS!" P.J. cried joyfully, jumping out of his chair and running at Chris, his arms spread wide.
"Uh-oh…" Chris muttered before he was engulfed in a big bear hug by P.J., who lifted him off his feet. Chris felt like all the breath was squeezed out of him as he gasped: "Good to see you too, P.J….Now, could ya please put me down…?"
"Hey, how are ya doing, man?" P.J. said, giving Chris a playful nuggie. "What happened? I lost contact with you for days. I was starting to get worried." he said as he held Chris at arm's length before putting him down.
Chris took a moment to catch his breath and straighten his now-wrinkled sweatshirt.
"I was in Bedrock the last few days," Chris said, using the codeword for a world without internet. "And then that world ended up being taken by the darkness, and in our haste to get away, we left my phone behind."
P.J. winced and cringed at the codeword. A world without internet was a waking nightmare for him.
"Oh man, that's rough." P.J. said sympathetically. "But, did you find… you know... your brother?"
Chris suddenly smiled enthusiastically. "YES, yes I did! As a matter of fact, he's here, in the D-Star."
"Aw man! That's awesome!" P.J. exclaimed, he was happy for Chris, as he knew what finding his lost brother meant to him. He then took the carryout bag from Chris with a word of thanks, went back to his chair and sat down, facing Chris. "I can't wait to meet him. What's he like?" he asked, taking a bite out of the cheeseburger Chris bought him.
"Kit is… a little hard to describe…." Chris muttered. "He's awesome, yeah. Strong, brave and kind… but…he's also mysterious. He doesn't talk about himself much."
"Street kids don't often open up completely. Even when they trust you, they don't often tell you everything." P.J. said wisely.
"Well, I… hold on, back up! How did you know he was a street kid?" Chris asked.
For an answer, P.J. move aside to reveal his monitors and Chris saw that he'd been researching Kit.
"Records of Kit are very hard to find, almost impossible," P.J. explained. "But from what I've gathered, he's been on the streets for part of his life before settling in Cape Suzette. Funny how he was living in the city that Dewey wanted to visit, huh?'"
"Yeah…" Chris said awkwardly, feeling sad that the city is no more. "... Well anyway, I got a new phone and I need you to install GeekCommunicator on it." he said, handing P.J. his phone.
"I don't use GeekCommunicator anymore," P.J. said, taking the phone and plugging it into his computer via USB cable. "I upgraded it to a more-secured server, so you're going to need a brand new app for it. I thought GeekCoummunicator was a bit of a mouthful, so I renamed it the GeekCom." He quickly installed the GeekCom on Chris' phone and then handed it back to him.
"GeekCom," Chris muttered as he took his phone back. "That sounds cool! Has anyone else upgraded their app?"
"Yeah, Nerderator has a copy of the install program on his tablet. He's been going around, upgrading people's apps for them."
"That's cool of him," Chris said with a smile. "Well, I gotta get back home for supper and see if Kit is alright."
"Okay, man." P.J. said. "But uh, what's wrong with him."
"Nothing is wrong with him, he's just grieving the loss of his friends and family from our home world."
"Yeah, that's understanda—wait, what?!" P.J. said, his eyes widened in horror. "OUR home world was taken by the darkness?!"
"Wait... your family is also from my world?" Chris asked in surprise. "I thought the D-Star was made up of people from different worlds."
"Well, a lot of 'em come from the same world too. Duckburg, St. Canard, Spoonerville and Cape Suzette are all part of the same world, they're just far from each other."
"But.. how can we be in the same world, and be from different eras?" Chris asked in a stunned voice. "I'm from the nineteen-thirties and you've once said you and Max are from the nineties."
"We are from different eras of the same world," P.J. said. "When Master Mickey was young, he foolishly took his Master Yen Sid's time traveling device and traveled to so many different points in time. He almost torn the universe to breaking point, and as a result of his hopping through time, he unintentionally created so many different worlds and some of these worlds have sections of the planet in a different era from the rest of the world."
"But...that's impossible!" Chris exclaimed. "Dad and I have been all over the world, and never once did I see a place that was in a entirely different era."
"That's because you need to go through the Bermuda Triangle in order to go into the other eras of the same world." P.J. explained. "Why do you think people, planes and ships disappeared in that area?"
"You...you mean that instead of actually disappearing, they go through it and come out in a different era?" Chris said amazed.
"You got it," P.J. said, nodding. "The Triangle phenomenon is part of the result of Master Mickey's time traveling adventures."
"But I thought it was called the Bermuda Trapezoid."
"It has many names, and there was more than one Triangle in our world. There are four in total: The North, South, East and West Triangles. It's easy to confuse them with other names when there's four of them."
"Ooh, my head hurts…" Chris said, looking overwhelmed with the information.
"Well, it doesn't matter anymore," P.J. said sadly. "Once the Shadow Minions take a world, they also take all the eras of that world."
"Yeah…" Chris said with his face downcast as he thought of how he would never see Wendy again. And he never even properly introduced himself to her. He felt he might cry, but he didn't want to do so in front of his friend, so he made his excuse. "Well, I gotta get back home. Dad said to be home for supper, bye."
He turned his back on P.J. and ran from the secret basement. He ran to a park, where he sat under a tree. He wrapped his arms around his legs and began to cry into his knees.
"Chris?" said a voice after a few minutes.
Chris looked up and saw Scrooge McDuck looking at him with concern from the sidewalk, obviously in the middle of his evening walk.
"Chris, m'boy. What's wrong?" Scrooge asked, walking over to him.
"Oh, hi, Uncle Scrooge." Chris sobbed, trying unsuccessfully to hide his tears.
Scrooge sat down next to Chris and put an arm around him. "What troubles you, lad? Tell Uncle Scrooge all about it."
"Oh, Uncle Scrooge…" Chris sniffed. "We went back to our home world and we found Kit."
"Really?" Scrooge said in pleasant surprise. "Curse me knilt, you finally found him! Those are great news! I can't wait to meet him. Is he here with you?"
"Yeah, but you may want to wait for a while before you meet him," Chris said. "The… the Shadow Minions took our world and he's grieving for his friends and family." He tried to hold in his tears, but his resistance was crumbling.
Scrooge hugged his godson and honorary nephew. "Go ahead, lad. It's okay to cry. It looks like you need to properly grieve too."
Chris burst into tears and bawled into Scrooge's chest as Scrooge continued to hold him in his arms.
"Aye, lad. Let it all out." Scrooge said encouragingly.
"GONE!" Chris cried. "EVERYTHING IS GONE! EVERYONE IS GONE! ...Even the girl I liked...! I HATE THOSE SHADOW MINIONS, I WISH THEY WERE ALL GONE!""
Scrooge was shocked at Chris' outburst, but then he looked sympathetic of Chris' broken heart and grief.
"Aye, we all hate those blasted things." Scrooge said, hugging Chris a little tighter. "We'll find a way to destroy them."
Chris cried into Scrooge's chest for ten whole minutes, crying out the names of each of his new friends, starting with Ernie and finally, Wendy, before he tired himself out and fell asleep in Scrooge's arms.
"Poor lad. Losing all those new friends and his crush is the hardest thing for such a young lad to go through." Scrooge said, standing up with Chris in his arms, he then carried the bear cub back to the hangar area. "Oy… you're getting heavy, lad."
Back at Matthew's hangar, Matthew was teaching Baloo how to cook a ham and cheese omelette on the modern electric stove.
"...and then you take the spatula and move the omelette from the skillet to the plate." he said, demonstrating the action as he spoke. "And voila! Easy as pie."
Baloo's mouth watered as Matthew set the plate down in front of him, next to the half a dozen other plates of pancake, hamburger, cinnamon toast, a bowl of fried rice, a couple of egg rolls and a glass of fruity milkshake made from the blender. Matthew had been showing Baloo how to cook with each modern kitchen appliances: the stove, the toaster, the toaster oven and the blender.
"Oh boy!" Baloo said, with a napkin tied around his neck. He rubbed his hands together before picking up his fork and taking the first bite of omelette. "Mmmm! Finger lickin' good! Now how do you make a pizza?"
Matthew looked at Baloo with a bored face that read: Are you taking advantage of me?
"You'd need the oven for that, and I don't want to heat it up, because the kitchen is already hot enough as it is." he said, putting the skillet into the sink and starting to wash the dishes.
Just then, the doorbell rang and Baloo jumped, clearly startled and nearly choking on an egg roll.
"Relax, Baloo. That's just the doorbell." Matthew said, walking across the room to answer the door.
Matthew opened the door and saw Scrooge holding Chris in his arms.
"Hello Matthew, I brought yer boy home." Scrooge said, straining a little with Chris' weight. "Take him, will ya? He's heavy!"
"Oh Chris!" Matthew gasped, taking Chris from Scrooge and holding him as if he weighed little more than what a teddy bear would weigh. "What happened? Did he fall? Was he mugged?"
"Cool yer jets, lad!" Scrooge said, stepping inside and closing the door. "You're forgetting that there are no muggers in the D-Star. He was hit by the grief train and cried himself to sleep in the park."
"Lemme guess; he was hiding his emotions, holding it all in until it burst out of him," Matthew said, he shook his head. "I keep telling him it's okay to cry when he needs to. Thanks for bringing him home."
"No problem, lad," Scrooge said, stretching his back and Matthew carried Chris to his bedroom. He did not feel like going through the trouble of putting Chris on his top bunk, so he laid him on the bottom bunk next to Kit, who was still sleeping from his own spell of grief.
The two cubs, as if they each sensed the presence of the other, rolled closer to each other and placed an arm around, cuddling one another.
In the living room, Scrooge paused on his way to his favorite recliner in Matthew's hangar, noticing that Baloo was already sitting and reclining in it, looking very relaxed and contented.
"Oh, hello. I'm Scrooge McDuck." Scrooge said, going right up to Baloo and holding his hand out.
"So you're Chris' wealthy godfather. Nice to meet ya." Baloo said as he shook Scrooge's hand.
"Likewise. So, you're Baloo, right?" Scrooge said, sitting down on the couch instead. "I've read so many articles in the paper about ya, the pilot hero of Cape Suzette."
"Aw, shucks. I'm no hero…" Baloo said, blushing modestly. "I'm just yer everyday average Joe."
"Don't sell yourself short, lad. It takes someone really special to fly the way you do." Scrooge paused, seemed to be thinking. "In fact, if you ever need a job, I could hire ya to pilot my McDuck plane."
"Not now, Scrooge." Matthew said as he walked through the living and sat down on the other end of the couch. "Baloo will need to get to know this world first. Remember what a huge leap in technology it was for us when we first got here? A while ago, Kit and Baloo acted like the ice machine was spitting out grenades."
"Ah yes, I do," Scrooge said. "And I don't blame the guy, that blasted thing is really loud when you first hear it." Just then, a ringtone sounded and Scrooge took out his golden flip phone, flipped it open, glanced at the screen before pushing the call button with his thumb. "What is it, Huey?" after a moment of listening to Huey, he suddenly frowned. "What? What do you mean Dewey's head is stuck in the chimney?! How did he—? HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU BOYS TO STAY OFF THE ROOF?! Where's Beakley?! That's it, when I get home, he is grounded until he die!" he said, rolling his R on the word 'grounded', He shut his phone with a snap before turning to Baloo and Matthew again. "I gotta go… family emergency." and he left, stomping his feet with an angry look on his face on the way out.
Baloo watched Scrooge go with a bemused expression on his face. "What the...what is that thing he was talking into?"
"That's his cellphone, Baloo. A mobile phone that you can carry in your pocket everywhere." Matthew explained.
"Wow… amazing…" Baloo said in awe.
Chris woke up a few hours later, finding himself in the bed with Kit. He got up and left the room.
In the living room, he saw that Baloo was snoring away in the recliner. He quietly tiptoed past Baloo, went downstairs and got into the McQueen.
He sat down in his seat in the cockpit, took out his phone and pressed on the DTube app. He then scrolled through a string of new videos and saw that Dewey had posted a new video entitled: "Proof that Santa Can't Go Down Chimneys!"
"Oh, this should be funny…" Chris grinned as he pressed on the video. Dewey appeared on screen.
"Hiya y'all! Dewey here. And today, with Christmas just four months away, I decided talk to you guys about...Santa Claus!" Dewey said dramatically. "Okay, so, Santa..." a small box with a picture of Santa Claus appear on screen next to Dewey. "How is this guy getting into our houses every year? Is he getting in through the window? Does he have a key to every houses in the world? The world may never know. But what we do know is that when we were little kids, our parents used to tell us that he gets in by going down the chimney. Which is impossible, by the way. How can a big round guy fit in a narrow square space?" he said, as a full-body picture of Santa appeared on screen.
"Christmas? Wait, what?!" Chris exclaimed in surprise, he quickly checked the date on his phone and saw that it was the middle of August "...Why is he making a video about this topic now? Oh well, back to the video!" He went back to the video and pressed play.
"Well, I'm about to show you why this is impossible and debunk this once and for all!" Dewey said, and then the scene changed to the rooftop of McDuck Manor. Dewey was standing next to the chimney. "Alright, we're on the roof and I'm about to try to go down and prove to you that Santa cannot be going down and coming out for your fireplaces. Now, I know what you're thinking; 'This proves nothing, you're just a skinny kid!', right? Well, don't you worry. If I make it down there, Pete here is going to try to go down the chimney." Dewey gestured to Pete as the camera zoomed out to get Pete in the shot.
Pete gave a big grin and waved at the camera. "Hey, folks! I'm sponsoring this video, which this little shrimp forgot to mention..." he said, glaring down at Dewey.
"Oh, yeah! I'm being sponsored by this guy, who apparently owns a grilling joint at the mall." Dewey said, he then took out a card and read off of it in a bored voice. "If you ever want some delicious grilled food, come on down to Pete's Grill at the mall." he then tossed the card over his shoulder."Now with that outta the way, let's—"
"Now hold on there," Pete interrupted. "You didn't say which mall it is! How would they know where to find me?"
Dewey sighed, rolling his eyes. "Pete, c'mon, there's only one mall. It hardly takes a genius to—"
"Look pal, if you want me to sponsor you in the future, you better read them the whole ad!"
"Alright, fine!" Dewey said exasperatedly. "If you ever want some delicious grilled food, come on down to Pete's Grill at the D-Star Mall. There, now can I please go down the chimney already?"
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Go ahead, kid."
Chris had to pause the video for a moment to have a good laugh at this pair interaction. He unpaused the video and watched as Dewey climbed upon the chimney before diving head-first into the chimney. His head and torso went in before he got stuck, with his white feathery rear end and yellow duck feet sticking out, kicking in all directions.
"Uh-oh... oh no! I'm stuck! HELP! GET ME OUTTA HERE! ...See, this is why it's impossible for Santa to go down the chimney. If a skinny kid like me can't do it, what makes you guys think that a big fat guy can do it?"
"Eh, a skinny kid can do it just fine." Pete said indifferently. "It's your big head that's got you stuck. Well, seeing as you proved your point, I'm no longer needed. See ya later, shrimp."
"Hey, don't go! Lemme outta here! Uncle Scrooge will kill me if he caught me up here!"
The video went on for a few seconds only showing Dewey legs kicking around at the mouth of the chimney. And then there was an edit cut to Scrooge walking up to the chimney and leaning against it.
"Dewey, where are you?" Scrooge asked in a bored, unconcerned voice.
"In the chimney…."
"Right, right, and...where is the chimney?"
"...on the roof…."
"And where are you NOT supposed to be right now?" Scrooge asked, tipping his foot, looking annoyed.
"...The roof…."
"You know what this means, don't ya, lad?"
"I'm grounded, aren't I?" Dewey said in a depressed voice.
"Too right you are. For four months! Consider yourself lucky not to be grounded on Christmas, or you would've gotten coal this year." Scrooge said.
"FOUR MONTHS?! Uncle Scrooge, that's cruel!" Dewey whined.
"No," Scrooge said as he climbed up the chimney, grasped Dewey's leg and plucked him out the chimney, like pulling a vegetable out of the ground. "It's tough love."
Dewey's head emerged from the chimney, his whole head was black from the soot of the chimney.
"Ah! Good grief, lad. Your head is filthy!" Scrooge said as he started climbing down one-handed, still holding Dewey upside down by the ankle. "Well, I've got just the punishment for ya, my little chimney sweep."
"Oh no..."
"Oh yes! Tomorrow, you're going to clean this chimney until it is spotless!"
The video cut to Dewey facing the camera in his room, his head was still black. "Hey guys, as you saw, Uncle Scrooge caught me and now I'm grounded for four months. Which means no more Dewey's Late Night Show for four months. I've been given permission to get back on here and announce that I'm now on a hiatus. Sorry, guys. Take care of yourselves. 'Night! ...Wait, do I really have a big head?" and that was the end of the video and Chris' screen went black.
"Aww…that's too bad. I really like his show." Chris said, sighing with disappointment. He then let out a big yawn and stretched his arms. "Well, I better get some sleep. Hopefully Dad will let me take Kit to the mall tomorrow. He can't keep wearing his PE clothes. Wait, why am I still wearing my PE clothes?"
Chris got out of the plane, went back into the suite and into his bedroom, where he found Kit still sleeping on the bottom bunk. Chris took off his PE clothes and put on his blue nightshirt with yellow stars all over it. He then climbed up into the top bunk, settled in and fell asleep.
Author's note:
I hope you all have enjoyed this episode and I hope you find it entertaining. More episodes are coming!
Special thanks to my editor, Cyclone Blaze, for helping me edit this episode after I've written it.
