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Harmless Fun With Time Travel

Summary:

Mickey's just being Mickey as a part-time cop as usual and is fighting against Pete who has teamed up with Emile Eagle, an evil scientist (from the comics). So Mickey teams up with his cousin Manfred to even the odds, thing is Emile hits them with a laser beam that sends the two mice back in time. They wind up far back enough before they even moved to Mouseton and WAY before Mickey met Minnie as they spot a younger Minnie and Daisy across from where they ended up. Not knowing how to get back to their own time for the moment, they take a lunch break, nixing the logic of staying away from the past versions of their friends in favor of keeping themselves from making eye contact and simply eating in a diner that's been out of business for years in their present time for sake of nostalgia. Then they spot a jukebox that has three plays for a dollar, and remember a joke that a comedian admitted he pulled with a friend of his, so Mickey and his cousin have fun with it and pull the same joke since it was harmless enough that it wouldn't mess with the time space continuum too much.

Notes:

This one's based on two things, the more obvious being John Mulaney's Salt and Pepper Diner story. And the other being Minnie and Daisy: Best Friends Forever books. Other than that, I apologize for how vague this one ends, I just wanted to get it over with since I already got the meat of the story out of the way.

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Of all the weird things to happen, this one was taking the cake by far, and fun was going to be had with it regardless.

It started like any other day to catch Pete again and throw him back in jail, but of course he had yet again teamed up with another villain, it turned out to be Emile Eagle, voluntarily this time, as the last time Emile had rounded up a few other villains as well but against their will at first. Anyway, Emile had invented some kind of ray and got a really lucky shot in as it hit both Mickey and his cousin Manfred. When they opened their eyes after getting hit by the ray, they found themselves unharmed and in a different part of Mouston than they were when going up against the villainous duo.

However, it was Manfred who noticed first that it wasn't just where they were that changed but when, as he noticed a building that hadn't been in business in this part of Mouston in years. Sitting there on the corner of an intersection was the ever adorable little eatery that served smoothies, sandwiches, and incredible chocolate-macadamia cookies, Duck Duck Juice or just DDJ for short. In the present it had become an apartment complex.

Even worse, to further prove that this was the past, a much younger Minnie and Daisy came around the corner and went inside. And it was quite obvious that they were younger because of all things Daisy looked like a regular tomboy…which actually made a whole lot of sense in a way, her personality always gave it away, as she was the fiercely competitive type, and though she's a lot more girly in sense of fashion in the present, it was still very strange to see Daisy without shoes here in the past. Minnie was still adorable in her dark pink and yellow ensemble, and Mickey couldn't help but look on in awe as he noticed that her shoes were yellow, not entirely yellow like his were, as her shoes were those ever so popular in any decade of recent times, rubber toed sneakers with those extra rubber dots right on the ankles.

Regardless of their gawking at where and when they were, the boys still had a very important problem to deal with at the moment, how in Sam Hill were they going to get back to their own time? But of course, as they stared in awe at the Duck Duck Juice building a little longer, both of their stomachs growled, and they couldn't think very well on empty either. So against any better judgment, they went in. With Manfred fiercely warning Mickey to not make eye contact with the Minnie of this time period on the way over. When asked why, Manfred answered as simply as he could, true love had a funny way of breaking time-space barriers under certain circumstances, but it was still a rule breaker to make certain things happen sooner than they originally did or were meant to happen. If the love at first sight spark still happened upon eye contact despite the age difference a la time travel, it could mess up a lot of things and the future itself. Time travel was tricky business, it's not something one should mess with if the time traveled to is somewhere within one's own lifetime, but if hundreds of years are the destination and keeping mindful of the era was okay, especially if the world itself silently asks for it like in Chrono Trigger.

In any case, the boys were taking a rather dangerous risk for the sake of food, and a harmless prank as soon as they spotted the jukebox on the other side of the room. Even better, the jukebox was three plays for a dollar, so they fished out all of their quarters without looking suspicious somehow, and actually managed to fish out seven dollars in quarters which amounted to twenty one plays of their choosing. They punched in seven of Tom Jones' What's New Pussycat?, one It's Not Unusual, and the rest also being What's New Pussycat? Then they sat down at the bar, away from Minnie, Daisy and their gaggle of friends, who Mickey recognized at the corner of his eye from Minnie's photo albums as Leonard, Nancy, and the foreign exchange student Gretel, ordered and waited oh so patiently.

Here's the thing about when What's New Pussy Cat? is played over and over and over again, the second time it plays one's immediate thought is not "Hey, someone is playing What's New Pussycat? again." It's "Hey, What's New Pussycat? is a lot longer than I first thought." The song has a dip in the middle that fakes out anyone who's not paying attention and makes them think that the song is over, well it isn't, there's more. The third time it plays one might actually question if someone is actually playing What's New Pussycat? again, the fourth time it plays one might think "WHOA! Someone just played What's New Pussycat? four times or at least twice and it's a really long song."

So, the fifth time is the kicker, the boys were glancing around the entire eatery, Mickey actually was being mindful to not make eye contact with Minnie who was right behind him on the outer edge of the booth that she and her little group of friends were sitting in. Most people had gotten wind of what was going on, as evidenced by the newfound speculation chatter from Minnie's group of friends behind them. And there was a mean looking group of three girls in the corner opposite the jukebox who looked like they were totally onto them from the beginning. The tallest of those girls, a red headed duck who was sitting in between an obvious pair of blonde duck twins, who Mickey figured from Minnie's descriptions as Abigail and her little minions Millie and Molly respectively. Abigail's hands were shaking like she was trying to control her anger as if she just came back from the dentist and wasn't supposed to make any form of facial expressions. So the fourth play fades out, it's dead quiet…And of course the song begins very subtlyNOT!

"GOD DAMMIT!" Yells the red headed duck girl, as she pounds her fists on the table, silverware flying everywhere. The rest of any young preteens in the eatery were dead quiet at her outburst and sudden new found swearing, Minnie's group of friends included as they chorused the 'oooooh, somebody swore' thing that all kids do when they're kept from it enough that they don't realize they'll be using such words in their vocabulary anyway when they're well into high school. Thus, the girl ignored them, left her money on the table for the waitress and left with her twin minions in tow.

Meanwhile, Mickey and Manfred kept their cool throughout the whole thing looking as innocent as lambs. Eventually, after seven What's New Pussycats? in a row, suddenly the music changed to something much more bouncy as the song It's Not Unusual played, and a SIGH OF RELIEF has swept through the eatery. People were ecstatic, it was like the end of any war in history. For years scientific minds of idiots who are smart in science but still want to test it all out on dumb things, have wondered if it was possible to make men and women, adult and child and in between alike, weep tears of joy by playing Tom Jones' It's Not Unusual. The answer has now been answered earlier in time than expected but far away enough in a small town that it wouldn't affect the time space continuum in any way except for the fact that it coincidentally happened in two different towns at different times in two different places across the same country as it would be told by a comedian who would claim that it happened to him in that other place. Still the answer was yes, so long as it was preceded by seven What's New Pussycats?

Although, going back…holy smokes. It's Not Unusual fades out, it gets dead quiet…What's New Pussycat? makes its grand entrance once again and the whole eatery goes wild! Nobody could handle it, not a single person! To make matters worse they were surrounded by a small yet seemingly indifferent staff, as if they were just waiting for such a thing to happen as soon as they got this kind of jukebox that could actually do three plays for a dollar. Even sadder, the staff didn't unplug the jukebox until after eleven plays because by then it was closing time, and they needed an excuse to get everyone out before they themselves broke down into hysterics at the fact that someone actually tried it as a harmless prank, let alone had enough quarters to attempt such a feat.

Minnie's gaggle of friends followed the two cousins out of the eatery as they were kicked out for closing time, it must have been a weekend for the kids to be staying out this late at sunset, and they were laughing the whole way out marveling at the cleverness of the harmless prank. It was Leonard who approached the mouse cousins to congratulate them on a prank well done.

"Dudes that was awesome! Thanks for totally making my day!" The shaggy, blonde duck teenager gushed cheerfully.

"You're welcome, kiddo. Now remember to stay in school, okay? Same goes for the rest of your friends." Manfred replied with a smile and kept smiling as he regarded the others with a nod.

Behind Manfred, Mickey lightly smacked him in the shoulder to get his attention. When he looked to his cousin, he followed where he was pointing and saw a weird beam of light coming out of the ground, at the exact spot that they came here from.

"Well then, I guess we can go back home through that." Manfred quipped in a whisper only Mickey could hear. He even did a quick glance to see if any of the other kids could see it, they didn't seem to take any notice and were more fascinated by the two of them still. Minnie, most notably, was trying to get a better look at Mickey, but another glance at his cousin told him that Mickey was trying his darndest not to look at the kids, and therefore trying desperately to keep from looking in Minnie's direction. So Manfred decided to be the distraction again for the moment while he and Mickey made their way over to that spot. "Okay, kids, my cousin and I have to be on our way. Don't try that prank again with a different set of songs, the owner of the place will most likely put a sign that says not to anyway. And remember, if you don't have a sense of humor, you're better off dead! Bye now!" This Manfred said cheerfully with a wave of his hand as he finished, all while walking backwards, though thankfully Mickey saw what he was doing and had a hold on his shirt in case he tripped and fell.

The gaggle of friends waved back as Manfred smiled at the acknowledgement. Then Manfred turned patted Mickey on the shoulder and they booked it to the glowing spot, and vanished before the eyes of the teenagers. Their cheery waved hands slowly sinking down to their sides as they wondered what they just witnessed and whether or not those two mice were even real. Again, Leonard was the academic genius of the group and instantly assumed correctly without knowing for sure that those two were time travelers, and only Minnie silently had a gut feeling that he was correct.

Meanwhile, back in the present the boys were back where they were before the ray gun blast, and evidently only mere minutes had passed. Which was enough time to catch the bad guys off guard and throw them in jail, which is exactly what they did.

Once that was all over, they were curious to see if Minnie at the very least remembered that prank. Thus, Mickey subtly brought it up by whistling What's New Pussycat? followed by It's Not Unusual. Thankfully, it worked as Minnie knew the two songs well enough and decided to share a little story about them. To which she detailed exactly what the boys did in that eatery.

Mickey and Manfred looked at each other with wide smiles trying not to laugh, but Minnie could see it anyway and asked what they were so smug about. So they told her the truth, they got zapped back in time and did a harmless prank with the jukebox while they got lunch as they waited for an opportunity for a way back to the present. Minnie could hardly believe it, but at the same time she did anyway.

Mostly because fate and destiny have a very funny way with working the ways of the heart and coincidences.