Tales of Derring-do, Bad and Good Luck Tales!

The 87 Cent Solution!

Dr. Von Drake was correct. The loud noise and the random temperature spikes were gone. The only sign that we were time-traveling was the tunnel made of bright lights.

We hit the floor of a warehouse-type building and saw smoke on the other side where he had just been. Glomgold was raving on a monitor that hung from the ceiling, and a robot looked confused as the crater it had left no bodies behind. I had forgotten we were dealing with this.

I didn't have time to think I ran and jumped on the robot's back. He tried to buck me like a horse.

"Hey, how'd you get over there?" I ignored Glomgold's question.

I flung open a panel on the robot. After a moment of the thing struggling, I managed to pull some wires out, and it sank to the ground.

"What was that?" I looked up at Glomgold.

"Mechanical malfunction." He shrugged. "Now where was I? Oh yeah. You'll help me find another good luck charm."

He pressed a button on the Consol he was sitting at. A cage fell from the ceiling a few feet to my left.

"You're a mechanical malfunction," I mumbled under my breath. Gladstone laughed at me. "Look Glomgold, you could've just asked me to give you another good luck charm."

"Well, uh," he fumbled for words.

"Glomgold, why don't you just buy a lucky charm?" He hummed like it was a trick.

"I never thought about that, Owlson!" He disappeared from the screen.

"Seriously? That worked?" Gladstone asked.

"Yeah, it usually does."

The screen went black. In the dark, I felt a wave of tiredness wash over me. A few emergency lights clicked on and Gladstone pulled me towards an exit. It led to a brightly lit room.

"There you two are about time!" Dewey said. "We're going on the water ride next!"

The tour guide nodded and led us out of the gift shop. I grabbed her arm.

"Don't take us on anything dangerous." She gave a weak smile.

"Most of the rides are safe," she was smiling, but she saw my face and added, "~ish."

Outside we found Huey head first in a trash can. Louie was sitting beside on a nearby bench, scrolling through his phone.

"Huey, you okay?" I ran over and checked on him.

"Who cares? Water ride time!" Dewey scared Huey causing him to fall to the ground. Huey gave me a weak thumbs up. "See, he's fine!"

"Why is there smoke?" Louie pointed at the Jack the Tripper ride.

"Special effect?" Gladstone gave a nervous laugh.

We went to the water ride, which Mark refused to go on because he didn't wanna get his phone wet. We headed to a spin machine like the teacups at Disney. Mark asked me to sit with him, so I did. However, he let it slip that he had wanted his other two guests to be his assistant so she could get him churros and Flacon Graves as a bodyguard 'to look cool'. It took every ounce of self-control not to push him out of the cart.

Afterward a few rides we headed to get lunch. The place was called Pizza Predattoria and was dinosaur themed. I was glad that they offered coffee as a drink. A few moments later, several pizzas were placed in front of us and the boys dug in and a thought struck me.

"A dude?" I whispered to Gladstone with no warning. He blinked and realized what I was talking about.

"Oh, uh. It was just an invitation. It didn't mean, I wasn't," he blushed and stumbled over a few more sentences.