Chapter 0

"This was a great idea, Minnie," Ortensia said, her arm linked with Oswald's as they walked down the sidewalk with the two mice. "It's been forever since we've gone dancing."

"My feet are reminding me of that," Oswald mumbled, getting a smirk from his wife.

"I could call a cab," Mickey offered, throwing a look at the rabbit to see him waddling.

"Don't," Oswald quickly ordered. "But I wanna know whose smart idea it was for us to walk."

"Oh come on, Oswald," Ortensia chastised. "It's a nice night, why not walk."

Mickey stole a glance upwards, seeing the stars starting to appear only to notice a dark cloud moving quickly their way. "I might still have to call that cab. It looks like it wants to rain."

"That's odd, it wasn't supposed to rain tonight," Minnie said more to herself.

"We'll see how far we can get before it gets bad enough to need a ride," Ortensia offered. "We should be fine."

"I don't know," Mickey said, keeping an eye on the clouds. "Something seems familiar…"

The sound of a shop's doorbell rang out, the only warning they had before being knocked out of the way by a giraffe in dark clothing.

"Hey!" Oswald called out, holding tight to Ortensia to prevent her from falling on the sidewalk.

"Stop! Thief!" a voice coming from the same doorway cried out.

A shot rang out, getting Mickey to quickly push Minnie down to the ground in a shop's doorway. He threw a look towards the giraffe, seeing him holding a gun in one hand and a bag in the other as he threw a look over his shoulder. "Stay down," Mickey ordered Minnie.

"Mickey!" Minnie hissed, looking up as her mouse rose so he stood crouched in the doorway he had pushed her in.

"Come on, Ozzie," Mickey hissed, seeing his brother and his wife hiding behind a post box.

Oswald gave the mouse a nod, following behind his brother as the two broke out in a run after the thief.

"Stop, in the name of the law!" an Irish voice called out.

Mickey turned to the voice to see O'Hara in his civilian clothes running across the street towards the giraffe. He threw a glance at Oswald, the rabbit keeping pace beside him, as he ordered, "Now!" Mickey dived down, grabbing the giraffe's legs as the thief shot towards O'Hara, sending the bullet up into the air. Oswald dived towards the giraffe's arms, managing to knock away the gun as the giraffe fell face first into the sidewalk.

"Thanks, boys," O'Hara said as he scooped up the giraffe's fallen gun to point at the thief. With his free hand he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. Tossing them to Oswald, the rabbit sitting on the giraffe's shoulders, he said, "My wife's calling for them to take him away now, they should be here soon."

"Good, cause you're got the shortest ones holding down a giraffe," Oswald said with a laugh as he cuffed the thief's hands behind his back.

"Hey!" the giraffe let out.

"Just calling it as it is," Oswald said, sitting back on the thief's shoulder.

"I think you can let him up now," O'Hara offered. "Sorry about getting yer nice clothes messed up. Were ye having a night on the town?"

"We'd just gotten finished with it," Mickey offered, throwing a look towards the girls' hiding spot to see their heads poking out to watch what was going on. Slowly he released the giraffe's legs as Oswald jumped off his back.

"Suckers!" the giraffe exclaimed, whipping his head towards O'Hara to knock the gun out of his hand as he jumped to his feet. Knocking into Oswald and Mickey, the giraffe leaned down and grabbed his bag of stolen loot with his teeth as he made a run for it.

"Don't let him get away!" O'Hara exclaimed, grabbing for the gun.

Mickey recovered first, taking chase after the thief once more only to notice with confusion as the giraffe skidded to a stop. The giraffe dropped the bag from his mouth and turned around only to be engulfed by a black cloud.

Mickey grabbed hold of an awning pole he passed to stop himself as the black cloud came closer. Fear knotted itself in his stomach as he quickly turned on his heels. He caught Oswald's arm and jerked him around to follow him.

"What is that!?" Oswald asked, finding his feet to run on his own.

Mickey opened his mouth to explain only for the black cloud to overtake them, darkening their vision.

"Mick?" Oswald asked, slowing to a stop as he feared running into anything he couldn't see. Not getting a response he called out, "Mickey!"