Prologue

 

Scrooge McDuck was humming to himself as he headed down the stairs of his big and luxurious mansion.

"What a lovely day today," he commented as he looked out the window to a bright and sunny morning. "A lovely day to be make some more money that is!" he added with a chuckle. Scrooge McDuck is the wealthiest duck in the world—actually, he may even be the wealthiest toon in the world.

His personal policy was “work smarter, not harder,” which he claims is why he’s amassed such huge riches over the years. He loves money. Lots of it, too. One can assume that he even dreams about money in his dreams, although that, has never been proven. Still humming, Scrooge made his way out the front door. His driver was off for the day, so Scrooge decided to simply walk to his office downtown. Some exercise never killed anybody, he thought.

“Oh, wait just a darned minute!” he shouted to himself and he stopped in his tracks. He suddenly remembered that he had made a promise to visit his friend and eccentric inventor Gyro Gearloose. Gyro was always building one contraption or another, and he’d told Scrooge the day before that he’d “done something brilliant” and wanted Scrooge to come on by and give his approval. After his approval he’d need to show it to the board of directors for them to approve, which wasn’t an easy task since Scrooge specifically hired them because they’re cheaper than him—they refused to spend any money on “unnecessary” things. Their definition of “unnecessary” often clashed with Scrooge’s definition, which was the only downside as far as Scrooge was concerned.

After Gyro kept insisting Scrooge came on by over and over on the phone, Scrooge finally agreed, albeit a bit reluctantly. Gyro may be a genius, but often his inventions didn’t live up to Scrooge’s standards nor the board of directors’. Scrooge is a man-- or to say, a Toon-- of his word. So, despite every ounce of his being not wanting to do so this morning, he flipped out his phone and called his driver.

“Launchpad! I need you to drive me somewhere, right now.”

“Yes, Mr. McDee, sir, right away. I’ll be right over!” said Launchpad McQuack, Scrooge’s newly hired private driver. The guy was a complete goofball, and a pretty incompetent driver but his salary was super cheap and that was good enough for Scrooge. Glad Launchpad didn’t bring up that it was technically his day off, Scrooge hung up the phone and waited for him. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, Launchpad appeared with the limo, turning the corner wildly and crashing into some plants by the driveway of the mansion.

“That dent’s coming out of your salary!” Scrooge grumbled at him.

“Oh, uh, of course.” Scrooge opened the door of the polished black limo and hopped in. He pulled out the address Gyro had given him over the phone. It was for a lab he’d rented (using company money, of course, something he berated Gyro for a good 30 minutes) located just outside of Duckburg. Apparently, whatever he’d created needed a lot more room than what he had available at his basement laboratory in Scrooge’s money bin. This alone piqued Scrooge’s interest and is mostly the reason he’d agreed to come by and see it. Scrooge found the address on an old-fashioned map, circled it with pencil and handed it to Launchpad. Launchpad immediately backed up the limo, stepping on the gas pedal a little too hard, causing the limo to crash into a streetlight pole right on the other side of the street.

“LAUNCHPAD!!” Scrooge grumbled.

“Whoops. Sorry!” Launchpad righted the limo and started driving down the street, heading towards the road that led to the outskirts of Duckburg. They passed the bridge that went over Audubon Bay, which connected to the large metropolis of St. Canard. They passed St. Canard and Launchpad turned onto the highway, eyes on the map in front of him. So much so he didn’t quite see the turn very well and misjudged it, careening into the fencing that separated the on-ramp from the rest of the highway.

“LAUNCHPAD!!!”

“Uhhh… I can fix that,” Launchpad said, backing up quickly and crashing into the other fencing on the other side of on ramp.

“Oii… maybe keeping this guy around isn’t worth it,” he muttered to himself as Launchpad righted the limo, finally, and properly merged with the traffic on the highway.

Thirty minutes after entering the highway, with Scrooge muttering about dents and salary deductions pretty much the whole time, his phone rang suddenly, and an unfamiliar number appeared on the screen. He answered tentatively.

“Hello?”

“Oh, uh, hello there Mr. Scrooge. This is Robyn Rasmoussen, intrepid reporter from Toontown? Just wondering if you’re still up for our meeting today? I’ve been waiting for you,” said a squeaky voice at the other end. Scrooge internally groaned. The reporter! Crud! Scrooge had completely forgotten he’d agreed, begrudgingly mind you, to have an interview with a reporter from a town he’d heard nothing about. Supposedly she had some inquiries about some of his business practices and also had a proposition she wanted to discuss. She was insistent about meeting with him and would not take no for answer. Scrooge had finally agreed to meet, if only to finally get her to stop pestering. It completely slipped his mind till this very moment, however.

“Oh, right. Err, sorry. I’m in the middle of an errand at the moment and won’t be able to make it. Can we reschedule?” Scrooge told the reporter, his Scottish showing as he pronounced “schedule.” The line was silent for a few seconds.

“Um, excuse me, Mr. Scrooge McDuck, but I came a rather long way from Toont—"

“Yes, yes, of course,” Scrooge said dismissively. “I am sorry, but I am a very busy duck. It’s the life of a billionaire.”

“But I insist! I really do believe you’ll like what I’ve come to tell you. It’d be worth it.”

“Why not just tell me over the phone then and let me decide on that?”

“Mr. McDuck, sir, this is a matter best discussed in person. Please do meet with me right away,” the reporter insisted. Scrooge sighed and rubbed one of his temples with his free hand.

“Fiiine. I will meet with you, ma’am,” Scrooge said begrudgingly. “You’ll have to wait though as I’m busy with something at the moment,” he added as they finally arrived at their destination.

“Sir, I think it’s best if you came now—”

“Nope, sorry, no can do.”

“But, Mr. McDuck—” Scrooge pressed the END button and closed the lid on his phone and pocketed it. Their destination was a large, wide gray building with a low blue ceiling. The path leading to the rickety building was nothing but a dirt road that went on as far as the eye could see. Way up ahead it split off into three different directions, with a sign right in front of the fork, too far away to make out what it said. Launchpad swerved the limo onto the dirt road a little too wildly and spun out of control. The limo crashed into the wall of the rickety building.

“LAUNCH--agh, forget it,” Scrooge muttered, his heart pounding in his chest. Grumbling to himself, he kicked open the limo door and stepped out. “Just wait here for me, this shouldn’t take long.”

“Yes sir, Mr. McDee, sir,” Launchpad said, raising his hand in a salute. Scrooge’s eyes narrowed, and he rolled them, shaking his head. Unbeknownst to him, his phone had fallen out of his red shirt’s pocket during the impact and landed on the floor of the limo. He made his way to the entrance of the gray blue-ceilinged building Gyro had the audacity to call a lab.

“Can’t believe he used my money to pay for this hideous place,” Scrooge muttered as he reached the large black door that led into the building. He pushed it open and it gave a loud screech sound that made Scrooge cringe. The door led into a narrow hallway that had yet another large black door at the end of it. A large white sign with red letters was taped to the door, with the words KEEP OUT on it. Scrooge made his way down the hall, and opened the door, completely ignoring the sign. The door led into a large room that seemed completely empty at first glance, and it had very low lighting, making it hard to see. There was a large conveyor belt by the wall on the other side of the room with a large machine in front it fully of buttons and a lever.

“Gyro? Where are you?” Scrooge called. There was no answer. “Gyro? What’s the urgency? Hello?” He walked further into the dark room, holding out his hands in front of him as he walked. His fingers touched something cool and metallic and he stopped in tracks, startled. To his left there was a string which led to a bulb, and Scrooge pulled on it. The light flashed on, brightening the room. He rubbed his eyes at the sudden light, and blinked several times. A large object was directly in front of him, briefly out of focus as his eyes adjusted. And when they did, he gasped. There was a huge metallic black robot standing right in the middle of the room.

"Oh my gosh! A g-g-g-giant robot!" Scrooge stammered. He stared at it, frozen in complete surprise. His hands trembled a bit and his feet grew a bit numb. It took him a couple of seconds to realize that the robot wasn't moving--it wasn't even on. He quickly recovered and snapped out of his shocked state. A giant robot, he thought, why, this could help a lot of the citizens of Duckburg..... and make me a pile of money!! His eyes literally turned into dollar signs as he came to this realization. He marched right up to the robot, glaring it up and down. A white sign on it said DO NOT TOUCH.

"Do not touch? Phooey! That can't mean ME, after all, I paid for it..." Scrooge grumbled. There was a hatch open on the leg of the giant robot, with 1 green, 1 blue and 1 red wire sticking out.

"Maybe if I connect the blue wire to the red one…" he mumbled, connecting the two wires together. As soon as he did, the hatch closed, and the eyes of the robot lit up. They were bright yellow and looked like ordinary yellow light bulbs but with eyes drawn on them. Then in a metallic voice, it said, "All systems ready!" It moved to the far wall, where the machine was and started pressing buttons.

"Merciful heavens!!" Scrooge yelled, watching the robot press buttons, "what have I done??" The robot pressed buttons and from the conveyor belt in front of the machine came out other robots. Big ones with shiny teeth, short ones with greenish suits, a small one wearing a brown suit that was bald and fat, and many others, the amount of them increasing as the robot pressed buttons. Soon there was a ton of them in just a couple of seconds, and they kept on coming. The giant black robot kept pressing buttons on the machine, going faster every time until suddenly, the machine overloaded, the buttons broke, and the conveyor belt kept shooting out even more robots faster than before. The conveyor belt showed no signs of stopping and the robots kept on coming, quickly filling up the large, otherwise empty room. After making at least 100 robots in a short period of time, 4 larger robots spewed out of the conveyor belt -- One with a double-sided face and a purple suit, one with a cash register for a head and a green suit, one that looked like a judge, for it was wearing a large white wig and a blue judge’s outfit, and one that looked like it liked to play golf, complete with a golf tee and a golf hat. These robots were larger than the others so far, but they were smaller than the giant black robot. They also didn’t have feet at all, unlike the others; their bodies sat on top of a gear-shaped podium that resembled a tank, with tank-like wheels and all. Behind these robots, more of the other types of robots, of every size, came spewing out some more.

"GO!" The giant robot commanded the other robots, and Scrooge gasped when he saw propeller-like things appear on all the robots' head. The robots sprang into the air and crashed through the roof of the building, leaving a large gaping hole in the ceiling. As they left, more robots came out of the conveyor belt to replace them, and they too sprang into the air and followed.

"Oh no... this can't be good," Scrooge whispered, staring in complete and utter shock. The giant black robot turned toward Scrooge. He let out a gasp—the robot now had deep red eyes and they were staring at him menacingly. They also seemed to have changed shape somehow—they were longer, and didn’t look like regular light bulbs anymore. The robot stomped toward him with surprising quickness, and before Scrooge could react, it grabbed him by the waist with two large black hands.

"Wh-wh-wh-what are you going to d-do?" The robot glared at him in silence. Those red eyes glowed brightly.       

"Ah! NO! NO!!" Scrooge screamed as the large black hands started to squeeze him….

 

****

 

Outside of the building, the robots flew silently through the sky, heading towards a dirt path that split off in three in the distance. A sign right in front of the fork said Welcome to Toontown! Population: 500. A large red arrow right below the sign pointed to the path straight ahead, and that is the direction the robots were flying in….

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