A Fowl State of Affairs

4.

Astro entered the vault and carefully looked around. "I don't see anyway other than the door into this room." He said. "I've scanned it in all wavelengths from IR to Xray and the walls, floor and ceiling and floor are solid."

"That's what I've told you Mr. McDuck!" Billingsly moaned. "This is an impossible crime!"

Over in the far corner of the bank, hiding behind a potted fern in the reception area stood Drake Mallard. He'd entered the bank right behind Fenton Crackshell, and made himself invisible by standing where nobody was looking. He quickly turned his cloak inside out and pulled a cape out from a hidden compartment. He brushed past Gizmo Duck who was still entertaining Uran, and entered the vault where Scrooge McDuck was still fuming with Mr. Billingsly. Astro was the first to notice the duck who walked into the vault, he was now wearing a deep purple outfit with a large rimmed hat.

"Looks like you need a detective!" The distinguished looking individual said.

"Darkwing Duck!" Mr. Billingsly cried. "How is it that you always manage to show up whenever some super crime has been committed?"

"That's what I do!" Darkwing said. "I solve them!"

Darkwing pulled out a large convex lens from his pocket and started to examine the interior of the empty vault. Astro shrugged his shoulders. "He's not going to find anything." he said.

Uran and Gizmo Duck now entered the vault. "What are you doing here?" Gizmo Duck asked. "You charlatan."

"Hummh!" Darkwing gruffed back. "All brawn and no brain, that's what you is."

"Really?" Gizmo Duck pressed a button on his left gantlet and started scanning the room with his gloved left hand. "I'm picking up a faint IM trace here." He said.

"What does that mean?" Astro asked.

"It's almost like a rift has been opened in the space-time continuum." The robotic super duck replied.

"In English?" Darkwing said.

"I think a wormhole has opened and closed in here." GizmoDuck replied.

Scrooge McDuck gave the empty insides of the vault a final look and walked out. "I think that we should go over to Gearloose's place and pick his brains on this." McDuck said. "Wormholes sound like something just up his alley!"

"Can we ask him about getting us back home?" Uran asked.

"Certainly!" Scrooge said. "Somehow, I think your appearance and the robbery of my money bin are somehow related anyway."

"You don't mean you think we had something to do with it!" Astro said.

"Oh no, not at all!" McDuck replied. "But two science fiction like events in the same day are a bit of a coincidence! Maybe the reason you are here was a side effect of whatever contraption was used to gain access to the bank."

"That's just possible." Darkwing said.

They left the bank and headed out into the street. Suddenly a short statured character wearing a dark form fitting costume with a cape and cowl swung down from the top of a nearby tall building on a line. He smashed head first into the front of the bank, but quickly picked himself up off the street.

"Now just what are you Cosplaying as now, Daffy!" McDuck asked.

"Cosplay! The short duck laughed. "I'll have you know that you're addressing the worlds greatest detective, BatDuck!"

"Oh good grief!" McDuck face palmed. "Go home Daffy, before you get hurt!"

"Not until I investigate this crime!" he said entering the bank.

"That stupid duck has illusions of grander!" McDuck laughed. "Last week he was solving crimes as 'the Green Duck'. The police had to come to his rescue. What a buffoon!"

Astro, Uran, the triplets, the two superheros, and McDuck walked across town towards Gyro Gearloose's house. When they arrived, it was obvious that something was wrong. "That's strange." Gizmo Duck said, "His front door is wide open and all the lights in the house are on."

They quickly entered the house. "You guys go and look for Gyro upstairs," McDuck told his nephews, "I'll go downstairs and look downstairs in his lab."

"I'm coming with you!" Astro told Scrooge.

Uran followed Huey, Dewey, and Louie upstairs. The split up and checked each of the rooms on the two upper floors, but they found no sign of anybody. Gizmo Duck and Darkwing spread out to search the first floor of the house, but they also found no sign of the inventor.

As Astro and McDuck reached the basement, Astro could pick up a strong odor of Ozone. "Something electrical has been going full blast down here." He told McDuck.

"I can see that, laddy!" McDuck said, or rather I can hear that."

Sure enough, a loud 50hz hum was reverberating throughout the basement.

"Must be a transformer overloaded down here someplace." Astro said.

"Look over here!" McDuck called out, pointing to a large empty area on the floor. There was an outline burned into the concrete where some contraption had once been. Wires that at one time must have been connected to the missing device were hanging loose, their bare ends sparking.

Uran entered the basement and walked up to her brother. She stopped where Astro and Scrooge were and the three of them stared at the empty spot. "No sign of anybody upstairs." Uran said. "Darkwing thinks Gyro has been kidnapped.

"That would be my guess too." McDuck said. "And whoever but the grab on him also made off with a large machine that used to be right here."

Uran had a sour look on her face. "Now how are we going to get home? I thought Gyro could help us." she sobbed.

"We're going to find him!" Darkwing said. "And who robbed the bank as well!"

"Of course we will!" Gizmo Duck added. "But we're going to need some scientific help on this."

"Come on laddies!" McDuck said. "Let's head over to Von Drake's residence. He's as much of a genius as Gearloose, and a professor at Duckburg college too!"

The group left Gearloose's house, Gizmo Duck first turned out the lights and locked the door on their way out. "It's a crime scene and we want to preserve it if we can." he said.

Ludwig Von Drake lived in a large house about a mile away. It was a pleasant walk, and they soon arrived. Scrooge rang the door bell and they waited for the professor to answer the door. They heard the sound of the peep hole in the door open and then the door swung inward. The professor was standing there holding his reading glasses.

"Scrooge McDuck!" he exclaimed, "What brings you over to my house at this hour." Von Drake then noticed Gizmo Duck and Darkwing standing behind McDuck, along with Donald's nephews and the two robot children. "You seem to have brought a crowd along too."

"Someone broke into Gyro's place and has stolen some invention of his." Gizmo Duck explained. "It also appears that Gearloose is missing, probably kidnapped by whoever broke into his house."

"There's been a robbery at the bank, my money bin has been picked clean!" McDuck explained. "It appears that the bank robbery is somehow related to whatever Gearloose was working on."

"What makes you think that?" the professor asked.

"I picked up a strange EM reading in the bank vault, and the same reading was present in Gyro's workshop." Gizmo Duck added. "Here take a look at this." The robotic superhero pressed a button on his right gantlet and a printout started to appear out of a slot on his suit. He ripped off the end of the computer printout and handed it to the professor.

"That does look strange." Von Drake replied. "I think I should take a look in Gyro's workshop."

The professor grabbed his coat and walked out the front door. After locking the door, he led the group out to the side of the house and opened his garage door, where an old SUV was parked. "Get in, I'll drive" he said.

The old Jeep bounced along the street on its worn suspension, treating its passengers to a bumpy ride. They arrived back at Gyro's house, and poured out of the 4x4. "I'll open the door," Gizmo Duck said, producing a key from a compartment in his super suit. Once again they found themselves in the basement of the inventor's house. Von Drake took his time examining every piece of equipment remaining in the workshop, and paid particular attention to the spot where the stolen apparatus had once stood.

"Any ideas professor?" Gizmo Duck asked.

"I think I we can locate where the stolen machine is, and Gyro as well." Von Drake explained. "All we have to do is to follow the EM wave that it left behind." He motioned to Gizmo, "Can I borrow you for a second?"

"What do you need?" Gizmo asked.

"I need to plug your suit into Gyro's computer over here."

Von Drake was already seated in front of Gyro's computer that had been left on. He grabbed a network cable and inserted it into the LAN socket on Gizmo's suit and downloaded the raw data from the EM readings he'd seen earlier.

"Now I need to do a quick analysis of this." Von Drake used Gyro's computer to log onto the mainframe at the university and uploaded the suit data. He started to run a remote analysis program. "Should get the answers I'm looking for in a few minutes," he smiled. "Ah there we go!"

A graphical plot appeared on the screen. "OK, seems like there was a residue trace left behind, about 13.8 GHZ background. All we need to do is track that."

"I don't think my suit will help us there, professor." GizmoDuck said. "My build in sensors don't go that high."

"Mine do!" Astro said.

"YES!" Von Drake laughed patting Astro on the head. "You ARE a robot aren't you!" The professor pointed to the computer screen. "See this waveform? It's an echo left behind when Gyro's machine was last activated. The transference left this echo behind, just like the background radiation from the big bang! You can track it to its destination and we will find where it went."

"Went?" Darkwing asked.

Gizmo Duck facepalmed himself, and nearly took an eye out with his right gantlet. "Of course!"

"In English you nerds!" McDuck said.

"Gyro's machine was obviously a matter transference device." Von Drake said. "He attended a lecture I gave a few months ago at the university when Stephen Duckling was our guest speaker. The subject was all about black holes and inter-dimensional worm holes. I think Gyro put the theoretical data to a practical use."

"Hey, that's like what Hakase built, isn't it Ani?" Uran said.

"Yes, I think it is." Astro replied. "Maybe that will be our way back home!"

"Ay laddie, but first you'll have to find it!" McDuck said.

Astro held his hands up to his ears and rotated his head. "I think I sense the background wave the professor mentioned. I can follow it to its source, but it will be easier if I fly."

Astro lead the group upstairs. He exited the house via the front door. "Hey Gizmo," he asked. "What radio channel can you monitor?"

"My suit's comm unit is on the 27mhz band." GizmoDuck said.

"I always figured you for a CB'er" Darkwing laughed.

"OK." Astro said. "I'll contact you when I locate Gyro!" Astro leaped into the air and started to track the background signal.

"I hope he finds Gyro." Uran sighed.

"Me too!" McDuck replied. "Along with my money!"