A Fowl State of Affairs
5.
Howard Muscovy DeDuck sat behind a huge desk in nerve center of the criminal organization, F.O.W.L. Howard had taken control of the 'Fiendish Organization For World Larceny' by succeeding the late Dr. Nogood, who had died a horrible death being slowly dissolved in a huge vat of acid. Howard had allowed the suspicion throughout the organization that he was responsible for Nogood's demise linger, as that inspired enough fear and respect for his authority.
Howard took a deep drag on his cigar and blew the smoke out in the direction of Gyro Gearloose who sat tied up in a large chair. "You've gotten what you were looking for!" Gyro said, "how much longer are you going to keep me here?"
Howard took another puff on his cigar. "Shut up!, I'm not done with you yet," he sneered. "This was only the first haul, McDuck has other money bins, and then there is Fort Knockwurst waiting to be plundered."
"You're crazy!" Gyro replied. "You'll never get away with this."
"You under estimate the resources of F.O.W.L." DeDuck laughed, pointing to the organizations flag hanging on the wall behind him. "The Fiendish Organization For World Larceny has plans for world domination by undermining the currency of every major nation. With Scrooge McDuck holding almost 50% of the nation's wealth, we're starting with him in our plans."
Howard got out of his chair and walked towards the back of the room where a large machine stood. Extremely heavy, the gigantic contraption was wired directly into the electric mains via a huge cable which ran though a window and was connected up to the high tension wires on a utility pole in the alley behind the building. The wooden floor below the machine was creaking under its weight as if it were about to give way and drop into the basement.
"Very interesting device." Howard said, as if praising the inventor. "Not only able to transfer large amounts of heavy objects across town, but even move itself."
"Took me three years to figure it all out!" Gyro said. "But I never intended it to be used for evil purposes!"
"Now now, Gearloose" Howard said, flicking the ashes of his cigar onto the top of the inventor's head, "don't make value judgments here! You don't know what's at stake."
Astro had his heads up display hanging in front of his field of view as he flew over the city. He could see the weak 13.8 Ghz EM field in front of him like a dim fog that filled the sky. It looked like some kind of thin cloud of steam rising out of a smokestack and bending this way and that in the wind. Astro followed the apparition, it formed a clear path leading him onward. Eventually he reached the end of the trail in a dingy industrial district on the edge of Duckburg. He landed in the middle of an old mill complex consisting of a dozen brick buildings along a large pond feed by a rapidly flowing river. The place had once been a factory of some kind, but now it was abandoned, there were no signs that any of the structures had been in use for many years. And yet, he did sense a presence. It would take him some time to search the entire complex, but he felt sure that he'd found the location where Gyro and his machine had been taken. Astro radioed his position to Gizmo Duck who immediately responded.
"Got the location, Astro!" Gizmo replied. "I'm on my way!"
Gizmo Duck's super suit propelled the robotic superduck hero at a few hundred miles per hour. He balanced perfectly on the single wheel, making sharp turns on a dime, and zooming though alleys and other short cuts. In less than 15 minutes of receiving Astro's radio contact, Fenton Crackshell arrived on the scene.
Astro met Gizmo Duck in an alley between two of the buildings. Within minutes a dark colored, high powered automobile with green headlights silently pulled up and stopped. The drivers side door on the coupe opened up and Darkwing Duck stepped out.
"How did you manage to keep up with me?" Gizmo Duck asked. "I never saw you behind me."
"My car is well camouflaged for the night, isn't it?" Darkwing said. "Perhaps, that's why I've named her the 'Dark Beauty'. Besides, I'm not at all surprised that we ended up here. Interquack has suspected that this part of town was where F.O.W.L.'s HQ was located.
"Yes, that would explain a lot of things." Gizmo agreed. "But I thought F.O.W.L. had gone inactive ever since Dr. Nogood got himself killed."
"The rumor mill has it that F.O.W.L. has a new leader." Darkwing replied.
"Gyro's machine is somewhere around here." Astro said. "But there doesn't seem to be any sign of life in any of these buildings."
"They probably have the window's well covered and the inside soundproofed," Darkwing said. "At least that is what I would have done."
"Well even if we can't see anything, maybe I can hear something." Astro said as he held his hands up to his ears and cranked his hearing up to 1000 times gain. Astro scanned his head back and forth. "You're probably right about the sound proofing, I can't detect any sounds of occupation."
Suddenly a warning bell sounded inside of Gizmo Duck's suit. "I've just detected a power spike."
"I heard that!" Astro cried out breaking into a run. "This building!"
Astro smashed though the door of a building about 500 yards from where they were standing. Darkwing and Gizmo followed him into the building.
The inside of the building was mostly empty. It clearly had been abandoned for quite some time. Except for a few bits of old office furniture there wasn't much in the largely gutted interior. A bright ball of light buzzing with a loud 50 cycle hum that hurt the ears filled the middle of the space. A warm blast of air nearly knocked our hero's over as they entered the room. "What the hell is that!" Darkwing yelled loud enough for the others to hear him over the vibration.
"I think that is Gyro's machine!" Gizmo Duck yelled back.
The glare and the humming sound gradually faded and the wind died down. Where the ball of light had been there now was a large scorch mark on the floor. Two high voltage cables connected into a ceiling mounted junction box dangled on the floor, their bare ends arcing. Astro grabbed the two cables and yanked them free from the ceiling and the electrical fireworks stopped.
"It would appear that whoever was here has used Gyro's machine to transport themselves elsewhere," Gizmo Duck said.
"They must have detected our presence somehow." Darkwing sighed.
Astro stood there for a moment. "I think I can follow them again." he said. "I can detect the 13.8 GHZ EM field it left behind.
"How many times are we going to have to do this?" Darkwing asked.
"If we're lucky, maybe we can catch up with them before they can operate Gyro's machine again." Astro said running from the building. "I'll follow the trail and contact you again Gizmo."
"Right." GizmoDuck replied. "I hope this is also a short hop."
"That was too close!" Howard said, puffing on his cigar. "With any luck those two goody two shoes won't get lucky again. Good thing I put a tracking device in Darkwing's car!"
Howard threw Gyro out of the machine's transport chamber and then exited the device himself. He looked himself over, nervously. "Well, everything seems to be in the right place."
"Oh come on." Gyro said. "I told you I've transported myself several times and I'm still in one piece."
Howard walked across the room and stared out of a window. "Excellent!" He laughed. "Right where I wanted to be. Your navigation skills are right on the money, quite literally!"
Ludwig Von Drake's old SUV rumbled to a stop in McDuck's driveway, barely missing the bumper from Launchpad's taxicab that was still lying there. Scrooge and Von Drake got out of the front seat, and Uran and the triplets poured out of the back. Uran held her hands up to her ears and smiled. "Astro says he and Gizmo are still searching for Gyro and the machine." she said. "Ani says they gave them the slip."
McDuck opened the side door to his mansion, and let himself and his guests in. "Where's Duckworth?" Huey asked, "He usually opens the door before you can even ring the bell."
"I gave him the evening off." Scrooge said.
"You mean you fired him because you can't afford to pay him anymore since your money bin was robbed?" Louie asked, with some worry in his voice.
"Not at all!" Scrooge laughed. "Actually this is Duckworth's first night off in about two years. As for me being poor, do ya think that bank was the only place I have me money stashed? Follow me!"
McDuck directed the triplets to the far wing of the house where they had never been before. They headed into the basement of the house where a large steel door bared the way. Scrooge quickly spun the three combination lock dials and yanked on the handle to open the door. He pointed to the inside of the cavernous room, which was filled with gold coins. "See, what did I tell ya!"
"Wow, what a relief!" Dewey quacked.
McDuck slammed the door shut and spun the dials. "OK, lets get back the living quarters!" he said.
They mounted the stairs and found themselves on the main floor again. "Hey Uncle Scrooge, what's in this wing of the house besides your money bin in the basement?" Louie asked.
"This is actually the original part of the house." McDuck said. "It's rather squalid compared to the mansion but rather than tear it down I just built a new house in front of it and left it as camouflage for the money bin in the basement."
"That's smart!" Huey said.
They entered the house and sat down in the living room.
"I've got to be going now." Von Drake said. "Let me know if Astro and Gizmo find Gearloose."
"You'll be the first one I call." McDuck said, escorting the professor to the door. "Don't trip over the junk that McQuack left in my driveway. I'll have Duckworth haul it away tomorrow."
Von Drake's SUV backed out of the driveway and headed down the street.
"I think we'd better get to bed." McDuck told his nephews. "Oh and show Uran to one of the guest rooms."
"OK, Uncle Scrooge." the ducklings responded in chorus.
Suddenly there was an explosion like noise that shook the house. A blinding flash of light came from the upstairs windows of the old section of the house they had just come from. "What the hell was that!" McDuck yelled.
"If my calculations are correct," Howard quacked, "we are now in the old wing of McDuck's mansion directly above his money bin. How much power is left in your machine?"
Gyro looked at the control panel. "There is enough charge left in the capacitor for one short jump, Two if we leave the machine behind."
"That will do." Howard smiled. "I want you to suck the money bin dry and transport its contents back to F.O.W.L.'s secret vault where you transported the contents of his bank. Then you are going to transport us back to F.O.W.L. HQ."
"I don't think so." Gearloose said defiantly."
"Try that again?" Howard said, pulling a large handgun from a holster under his jacket.
Gyro grumbled and set the controls on the transporter. He punched the large switch on the panel and the machine came back to life. For a split second it emitted a loud explosive 'CRACK" and a blinding light. For a very brief instant the image of several tons of gold coins and paper bills appeared in the machines transport chamber, and then all was quiet.
"Done." Gyro said. "There's just enough charge left to transport you back to your H.Q."
"Set the controls." Howard said, pointing the gun at Gyro.
Gearloose quickly entered the coordinates that he had memorized hours ago. He pressed a memory switch and then rechecked his data.
Howard pushed Gyro into the machine and then followed him inside, holding onto the control panel at the end of a six foot cable. He examined the destination setting on the display and smiled. "OK, now we're both getting out of here." He said handing the controls to Gyro. "Hit it!"
Gyro quickly pressed the memory recall button and slammed down on the activate switch. He jumped out of the machine just as the energy was building up for transfer. Howard tried to stop him, but it was too late as he dematerialized before he could grab at the inventor.
Astro zeroed in on the source of the EM signal and realized that it was coming from McDuck's place. "Hey Gizo!" he radioed back, "It looks like the bad guys are raiding McDuck's house. The machine rematerialized in his back 40."
"Got that!" Gizmo returned, "I'll beat you back there." The robotic super duck took to the main streets and roared back to the McDuck mansion with Darkwing's 'Dark Beauty' automobile right behind him.
Scrooge, Uran and the ducklings ran back to the old section of the house. "That disturbance came from upstairs, just above my money bin!" Scrooge yelled. The small army mounted the stairs and found themselves in the old master bedroom, just above the secret money vault. A large machine sat in the middle of the room where McDuck's double emperor sized bed once sat. The room reeked of smoke and ozone. Gyro Gearloose sat on the floor rubbing a bump on the top of his head where he had landed after somersaulting himself out of the transporter.
"Gyro!" Scrooge exclaimed. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine." the inventor said. "I managed to get rid of that evil DeDuck, finally."
At that moment a set of footsteps, the squeal of a unicycle tire, and Astro's soft squeaky footsteps entered the room.
"You mean Howard Muscovy DeDuck?" Darkwing asked. "I've been after him for months after he 86'ed Dr. Nogood to take control of F.O.W.L."
"Yeah that's him." Gyro answered. "He forced me to use my invention to help him rob McDuck's money bin at the bank, and then he made me bring us here to steal the contents of the vault here."
"You didn't do it did you?" McDuck asked.
"I'm sorry, but the contents of your money bin are now inside of the F.O.W.L. secret vault." Gyro said. "I did manage to transport Howard to the police station though. I switched destinations at the last second and jumped out of my machine. If I got my settings right, Howard just materialized inside of the Duckburg jail."
"Now that's funny!" McDuck laughed. "But what about me money?"
"Well my machine is out of power. If we had a few Gigawatts of power I could transport the entire contents of F.O.W.L.'s vault into yours.
Astro opened his chest panel. "I think I have a few Gigawatts to spare, Gyro. Plug me in!"
Gyro handed Astro the machine's two large power cables. Astro carefully made the connections and sat down. "OK then, let'er rip!" he laughed.
Gyro set the controls on the transporter and punched the switch. Astro groaned as the power was sucked from his reserve back up, as the machine again came to life. It briefly emitted a blinding light, and then grew quiet. Below them there was heard a creaking noise, and then a huge KABOOM!
"What was that?" Gizmoduck asked.
"I think we may have overstuffed my money bin." McDuck said, heading for the staircase leading down to the vault. Astro yanked himself free from the cables and closed his panel. He still had about 1/4 of his energy left. The gang followed McDuck downstairs. Sure enough, the heavy steel door of the vault had been blown off of its hinges and the walls of the vault room were bulging outward.
"You're going to need either a crowbar, or dynamite to get your money out of there now," Gyro laughed. "If it was packed any denser in there, you'd have a black hole!"