Chapter 1
"Just drop us off," Oswald said as Ortensia pulled into their neighborhood. "Take the kids to Main Street so they can do something to help."
"I hate this," Ortensia said, shaking her head as she gripped the steering wheel tighter.
"Don't worry, Mom, we know what to do," 94 called out from the back of the van.
"I wanna go see Yen Sid," 26 whined.
"Not today," Oswald called out, looking to the ceiling of the van.
"And you two stay safe, okay?" Mickey said as the two mice road in the seats behind the married couple.
"We plan to," Minnie said.
Ortensia pulled to a stop in front of Mickey's yellow house, his red jalopy sitting in its normal spot on the driveway. "You be safe, okay," Ortensia said, looking Oswald in the eye as she pulled the van into park. She leaned over and gave Oswald a kiss, lingering by his head as she said, "I love you, don't leave me."
"I love you too," Oswald said, looking sideways at her face as a smile pulled on his lips. "And I don't plan to." He unbuckled himself and hopped out of the passenger seat, closing the door behind himself. He ran across the front of the van as the side door slid close, leaving Mickey on the sidewalk.
With one last look, Ortensia turned back to the road and drove away.
"I hope this still works," Mickey mumbled as he turned on his heal.
"You mean you don't know?" Oswald asked, quickly turning around to follow the mouse.
"It's not open all the time," Mickey reminded. "I thought for years I had dreamt the whole thing up because any time I touched the mirror, it acted like a normal plane of glass." He pulled out his keys and swiftly unlocked the door, pushing their way in in a hurry.
Oswald pushed the door closed behind himself as he followed Mickey to the mouse's bedroom. "So you haven since?"
"Since 2008," Mickey reminded. "When that castle showed up in your Tomorrowland."
"Right, cause I had to get the paint brush the last time," Oswald realized, He stopped at Mickey's bedroom door and watched as Mickey moved a chair over to the old fireplace. He climbed up onto the chair, using it to get to the fireplace's mantel, and held out a hand to the mirror. He froze, his hand inches away from the glass, before hardening his features in his reflection.
Oswald jumped up onto the chair's seat, climbing up to stand next to his brother on the mantel. He looked at Mickey's reflection, catching the mirrored mouse's eyes, and gave a nod. Holding out his left hand, the two reached forward to touch the mirror only for the cold surface to give under their hands. Pushing harder, the mirror let them through, plopping as Oswald's foot was the last to leave Mickey's bedroom. Oswald quickly realized he was still standing on a mantel as his balance kept going forward.
Mickey flashed out his hand, catching Oswald's arm to pull him back up right.
"Thanks," Oswald said, flashing the mouse a smile.
"Head first is not the way to go," Mickey said with a similar smile. "Come on, let's go see if he's here."
"And maybe he knows what's going on," Oswald said. He looked down and saw carpet he had only seen a couple of times in his long life. He dropped down onto the push carpet and looked down the hall. "Yen Sid, are you here!?" Oswald called out, hoping to not surprise the old wizard as Mickey landed on the ground beside him.
"Oswald?" Yen Sid's voice called from the main chamber. "I presume Mickey's with you."
Mickey let out a laugh as the two walked down the strange hallway from his mirror's wall. "Guess that means you know what's going on, huh?"
"I'm afraid not," Yen Sid admitted.
The two turned the corner to find books scatter among the floor as the old wizard sat hunched over his map of Wasteland spread out on the desk. He waved his hand to disperse a small floating portal as he looked up to great the two. "I hope you two have an idea."
"Sort of?" Mickey said with a shrug. "We thought maybe the magic paint brush might help."
"That's quite dangerous," Yen Sid said, sitting up as he eyed the two. "It wasn't created to go into the cartoon world."
"Was it ever created for Wasteland either?" Mickey pointed out.
"Truthfully no, and you yourself saw what power it holds over the people that reside there," Yen Sid said. "There's less inert objects in the cartoon world and if you thin too much away, you might not like what it will reveal."
"This is us you're talking to," Oswald said, putting an arm around Mickey to pull him close. "The Disney Brothers."
A smile pulled on the old man's features before he pushed himself up to his feet. He stepped over to a cabinet and pulled open the doors.
Oswald looked down at the map as he let go of Mickey, stepping closer to see the world he had helped create. From this view he could see the newly planted orange grove surrounding the whole land like it had back when the world was taken from Walt's Mickey Mouse World. Flash backs to when he had been told the world he was helping to build was modeled off something else for that mouse fueled Oswald into creating the Walt statue with him by the man's side, where he belonged.
He blinked back the memories, knowing what happened had to and the mouse beside him was now family. Looking back at the map he caught sight of a change to Dark Beauty Castle. The tall spirals, repaired after the Blot was defeated, looked to be crawling with ants and damaged. "Hey Yen Sid," Oswald said, leaning his hands on the table to look closer without touching the magic. "What's going on at Dark Beauty?"
"That's where the blot's creatures seem to be coming out of but the thing creating them isn't there," Yen Sid explained. "I've been supplying Gus and his Gremlins with ways to combat them and they've been able to keep them contained there, at the castle."
"Where are they all coming from?" Mickey asked, stepping closer to see.
"A portal located in the dining room," Yin Sid explained. "Something has been preventing me to see beyond the portal so I can't tell who's behind it."
"And no one can get close enough, huh?" Oswald guessed, eyeing the old wizard as he walked back to them with the brush in one hand. Oswald stared in surprise at what was in the man's other hand, a box like device with a prominent red button on the face and a red antenna made of a mix of metals and plastics protruding out the top.
"Thought this might come in handy as well," Yen Sid said, stepping around the table holding the map as he held out the two objects.
Oswald took his old remote, last remembering Putrid Pete destroying it as he was about to drown Oswald's family in thinner. He looked up at the wizard, unsure if the man knew of its importance to him, and asked, "My remote, but how?"
"Gus got his nephew to fix it after you left," Yen Sid explained. "He thought it might come in handy one day."
Oswald looked it over, not surprised the Gremlins had gone the extra effort to find his original blueprints on the device. He had created it under the watchful eye of his friend the Mad Doctor who, at the time, wasn't so mad. With this device he had given life to his animatronic friends and threatened the life of the beetleworks that raged havoc over his home.
"You ready?" Mickey asked, getting Oswald to look over at the mouse.
His memory turned to the current turn of events and his children doing what they could to save off the splatters and whatever else had appeared in their home town, hardening his features. "When you are."
AN: I've really gotta get Epic Mickey 3: Pete's Revenge done… The notebook has lived beside my desk for the past few moves.