Chapter 22
"Hate to see you three go so soon," Felix offered as he shook Mickey's hand. He stepped back, the mouse being the last of the Disney group. "You know once they get everything back in order, you'll be the ones everyone will wanna thank."
"Thank yourselves," Oswald said with a smile as he crossed his arms over his chest. "We just provided the gun power."
The four stood just aside the thinned out portal, the title card for Alaska just barely visible, in a world with a quick splattering of paint to show where basic shapes were.
"Hopefully the animators won't take too long repainting this world," Mickey offered, looking around.
"Hey, thanks for giving us this much," Felix pointed out.
"Are you sure you don't want anyone else here for when we go through the portal?" Sadie asked, throwing a glance at the projector screen.
"You said you'd thin it back out once you're through," Felix said, giving the gun in his hand a glance to check the safety. He clicked the safety off and looked at the three. "I'll be fine."
"Call us if you need us," Oswald said, giving the cat a smile. "We still on for that vacation idea?"
"Give us some time to get back to normal," Felix said, letting out a laugh.
Mickey turned around and gave the portal a splash of paint. Before the legs of the projector screen had its color back, the screen rippled as something came through. Sadie, Felix, and Oswald quickly raised up their guns as Mickey pulled his from his waistband. The four watched as a seer started to make its way through the screen. Four purple lasers fired, quickly killing the blotling.
"Let's go, now," Oswald ordered. He dived through the portal, landing in a roll with the Gremlin Gun at the ready. He took in the gray expanse of where his Wasteland's MickeyJunk Mountain was only to see the blue sky and thinner bottle. He got to his feet and stepped away so that he wouldn't get run into. Eyeing the blot's bottle, now that he knew more about the monster's whereabouts. The curiosity part of him wanted to crawl inside the thinner bottle, to see what the blot's core looked like and how it was able to create all manner of blotling.
Mickey dropped out of the portal, landing in a crouch with both paint brush and gun at the ready.
"No one's here," Oswald informed, keeping his eyes on the bottle. Out of his peripheral he saw Mickey rise to his feet and step towards the other side of the projector as Sadie appeared.
"Not what I was expecting," Sadie admitted, rising to her full height.
Mickey put his Gremlin Gun back in the back of his pants waistband before he stepped forward to be closer to the bottle. Oswald followed a step behind him, remembering their promise to Sadie. He stepped up to Mickey's left side as the mouse raised his left hand with the brush ready. Oswald raised up his right hand, Gremlin Gun tight in his grasp, and waited for his brother. A moment passed before Oswald looked over at Mickey, surprised to see a mix of fear and anger on the mouse's face. He knew from using the brush himself, and now from having the brush used on him, that emotions did play a factor in the magic, but he had never considered if that emotion was focused into the brush. Would it make the magic stronger? Green thinner left the bristles of the brush and disappeared into the darkness inside the bottle.
A shiver ran down Oswald's spin as a low otherworldly moan started up. He held tight to the gun in his hand, pointing into the bottle almost exactly where the thinner stream disappeared into. The moan rose in pitch and volume until it settled itself into a voice Oswald knew well. He turned to give Sadie a look only to confirm his idea, this was her Oswald's voice, twisted by the blot. Anger took over the fear she showed as she came up to stand beside Oswald with her gun at the ready.
Oswald turned his full attention back to the inside of the bottle as the cry faded away. Thinner started to drip from the mouth of the bottle, getting Mickey to end the flow. Oswald leaned closer, wishing more than ever to see inside the bottle, and said, "I think you got'em."
Mickey let out a sound as Sadie cried out his name, getting Oswald to turn and see the mouse drop to the ground.
"Dang it, Mick," Oswald muttered as he dropped to his knees. He rolled Mickey onto his back, grabbing both gun and brush to shove them in his pants waistband, and made sure the mouse could breathe before resting a hand on his forehead. Oswald shook his head before removing his hand and looked up to see Sadie's worried face. "He overdid it. Help me get him on my back, we'll have to take him back to your place."
-.-.-.-
Oswald gave Mickey's resting form a glance, the mouse sleeping under a patchwork blanket on the sofa.
"What's it like, to use that brush?"
Oswald turned to face Sadie as the two drank more of her beer. Glancing down at the brush sitting on the table next to his remote and two Gremlin Guns he thought back to the time he had to use it.
"Sorry, I shouldn't've asked."
"No," Oswald said, guessing she took his look to mean something he didn't. He looked back at her and offered, "I've only used it once before this, normally it's Mickey's." He paused a moment, his mind taking him back to that day when Putrid Pete was ready to kill his family. "It wears you out. I guess that's a bit obvious," Oswald said, throwing a thumb towards the mouse behind him. "It uses the paint a heart creates but for thinner it converts that paint. And it takes a lot more to do it. That thing was never meant to be in any cartoon world and defiantly not used by one; not a normal one at least."
"Who created it?"
"Do you know of a wizard by the name of Yen Sid?"
Sadie shook her head. "If he was created after the forties, then I wouldn't."
"He's the one who created Wasteland," Oswald said. "At least in my world he is. He used this brush to create it."
Sadie shook her head as if to say she still didn't recognize the name.
"But paint and thinner also relate to emotions when using the brush, or being used on," Oswald quickly added.
"So that's why-" Sadie cut herself off, a blush tinting her face red.
Oswald found the stairwell interesting, the back of his mind wondering where her children where, as his face heated up. "Yeah." He smacked his tongue against the roof of his mouth to make a click sound. "Thought you were Ortensia while Mick was painting my ears back." He looked back at the cat and offered, "Sorry."
"So thinner not only hurts?"
Oswald nodded his head. "It also, at least with me, made me believe Mickey was gonna kill me." He looked back at Mickey and added, "Really I thought he was getting his revenge for all those years I hated him dead and wanted his downfall." Turning back to Sadie he said, "I don't know if you'd believe it, but there was a time I thought about doing what your Oswald actually did."
"That is hard to believe," Sadie admitted with a sad smile. "You two really care about each other."
Oswald smiled, taking a sip of his drink to cover it up. He glanced again at the stairs and sat the glass back on the table as he asked, "Where's your kids?"
"Probably all in the attic since no one showed up when we came in," Sadie said with a shrug.
"And you're not worried about them?" Oswald asked, surprised.
"Worry would be the wrong word," Sadie offered, looking towards the ceiling a moment. Turning her eyes back to Oswald she said, "More like controlled mothering. Years ago I had to stop being a doting mother and just be a mother when they needed it. It could be seen as not caring at all but I know they can take care of themselves, when they try, and I can't always be here for them. I've fought the blot, my husband, and the blotlings he produced as well as dealt with the different riots this world has seen. Sometimes I'll be kept away for days. Jeanne does a good job of keeping the rowdier ones in line, same with Larry. I just have to trust them."
"Hard to do, knowing Forty-" Oswald cut himself off as he remembered the boy had a name here. "Shoot, what's his name? Chase? Camron?"
Sadie let out a laugh as she said, "Chandler?" Oswald gave her a nod as she added, "I can't believe you're this bad with names."
"And he gets punished for it every time he introduces his kids to anyone," Mickey mumbled, showing he had been listening in.
"How long have you been listening?" Oswald rose to his feet and stepped over to the mouse, knelling down beside the sofa.
"Woke up somewhere about the kids," Mickey admitted, blinking his eyes clear.
Oswald rested the back of his hand against Mickey's forehead, glad to feel the mouse's temperature back down. He took his hand back, wishing there was more he could do to help.
"Do you know if that killed the core?" Mickey asked, his eyes focusing on Oswald above him.
Oswald opened his mouth, already shrugging, when Sadie interrupted him. "On our way here I asked a few birds to keep an eye out on the bottle," Sadie said, stepping over to stand over Oswald. "If any blotling comes out now, they'll tell me." She leaned down and asked, "How are you feeling?"
"Give me a moment to answer that," Mickey admitted, closing his eyes again. "Felt like that stupid thinner gas all over again."
"Thinner gas?" Sadie asked, getting Oswald to look up at her. "You mean like with the vaper the guns cause?"
"Thankfully no," Oswald said, giving the girl a smile. The smile fell away as he admitted, "Once the blot was taken care of, the Doc set out a thinner gas that was only supposed to affect gremlins. It affected Mickey's heart too."
"Minnie gave up hers to save me," Mickey mumbled. HIs eyes opened, focusing on Sadie as he said, "Gosh, I wonder how the Minnie here's faring."
"I wouldn't know," Sadie admitted softly.
"Get some more rest," Oswald ordered, rising to his feet. "We'll head out once you're feeling better."