Mrs. Beakley returned fifteen minutes later with gauze. She rewrapped Milo’s chest and showed him how to do it himself without assistance. She pulled the bandages tight, forcing his cracked rib back into its proper alignment. An involuntary grunt escaped his lips as she did it and his chest burned hotly, but Milo found that he had much greater mobility as a result. She left several extras rolls of bandages on the low wardrobe next to the pile of neatly folded clothes. The sun was sinking towards the horizon and the trees in the grounds cast long shadows. “We will be dining on the terrace this evening,” said Mrs. Beakley, “should you care to join us.”
An hour later, Milo, Zack, Melissa, and Amanda walked down from their rooms, eventually stepping out on to an expansive flagstone terrace. It offered a commanding view of the sprawling metropolis below. Milo walked over to the wrought iron balustrade, which had been twisted into an elaborate series of dollar signs. Duckburg was ablaze with lights. Scrooge walked over to join him.
“Milo,” he said genially,”I’m glad you and your friends could join us.”
“We never got a chance to thank you for helping us Mr. McDuck,” said Milo.
Scrooge waved the hand clutching his cane airily.”One of the nice things about being the richest duck in the world is that I can do pretty much whatever I want, and I want to help you if I can, and my employees call me Mr.McDuck. You and your friends can call me Scrooge.”
“Alright, Scrooge,” said Milo.
From behind him, Milo heard footsteps and voices, followed immediately by a squeal of delight, which he recognized immediately as Amanda. He turned and saw a duck with a slender build and a long cascade of feathery hair flowing down her back. She was dressed in an old flight jacket, a silk pilot’s scarf and a leather flying cap. She was followed closely behind by a gaggle of ducklings, three boys and a girl. The girl and the boy in a blue T-shirt were laughing at something on the boy’s phone. Mrs.Beakley and Launchpad brought up the rear.
“Oh!” exclaimed Amanda excitedly, “they’re so adorable,” and before anyone could stop her, she had scooped up a boy dressed in a green hoodie and given him a crushing hug.
He squirmed and kicked at Amanda. “Hey! What the-! Ow! Put me down!” He eventually wriggled free and fell onto the flagstone surface, landing hard on his backside. He picked himself up, and muttering something about, “Uncle Scrooge bringing home strays again.” He brushed himself off and continued toward the table, which had been set up in the middle of the terrace.
Milo cast a slightly apprehensive eye toward Scrooge, who was chuckling. “Your friend Amanda certainly seems to have taken to Louie,” he said. He waved to the slender duck in the flight jacket. She turned and walked over to Scrooge and Milo. “You’ve already met Launchpad and Mrs. Beakley,” said Scrooge. “I’d like to introduce you to my niece, Della.The three boys are her kids, Huey, Dewey and Louie. The girl is Mrs.Beakley’s granddaughter, Webby.”
Della stuck out a friendly hand and Milo shook it. “Hi, Della,” he said, “my name is Milo Murphy,” Milo gestured to his friends, “these are my friends, Zack, Melissa and Amanda.” Della exchanged a round of handshakes with Milo’s friends.
“Hi, Milo,” said Della, “I hope you and your friends are comfortable here.”
“Thanks, Della,” said Milo, “Scrooge is taking good care of us.”
Della seemed to read something in Milo’s expression because she said,“If you and your friends ever need to talk, I understand what you’re going through, Milo.”
Scrooge nodded.“Della was stranded on the moon ten years ago, just before her three boys were born,” he said. “Her brother Donald, had to raise them by himself. She only just got back a few weeks ago. She hasn’t really found her place yet.”
As Scrooge spoke, Milo felt a sudden pang. He had a sudden vision of his parents, Sara and Doof and Perry sitting down to dinner at the kitchen table, just like they did everyday, expect that Milo’s seat was empty. Milo was suddenly aware of Scrooge scrutinizing him.
“Are you alright, Milo?” asked Scrooge, a note of concern in his voice. “Is it your rib?”
With a little effort, Milo pushed away the image. “No,” he said, “Mrs. Beakley re-bandaged my rib, and how did she know about that anyway?”
Scrooge chuckled. “She has her ways,” he said. “She was my field partner for awhile, and she’s patched me up more that a few times.”
Milo sighed, “I was just thinking, well you have your family,” he said. “I should be with mine.”
“Does Murphy’s Law do this a lot, then?” asked Scrooge gently. He couldn’t help but feel a certain affection for the hapless teenager and admired his friends for sticking by him, despite the many challenges that came with doing so.
“It’s happened a couple of times before,” replied Milo. He quickly told Scrooge about the Pistachions and the Octalians. As he spoke, he wondered if there was some way to send a message to Cavendish and Dakota. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mrs. Beakley going back and forth from the kitchen with bowls and platters of food. Milo followed the flow of people toward the table. He found himself sitting near the head of the table next Scrooge and opposite Huey, Dewey, Louie and Webby. Milo suddenly realized that he was famished and immediately began attacking his food. Huey, Dewey, Louie and Webby stared at him avidly as he ate.
Looking as if he were about to burst from excitement, Dewey suddenly blurted out, “are you really from another dimension?”
Huey, Louie and Webby were suddenly talking over each other, trying to attract Milo’s attention.
“How did you get here?”
“What’s your dimension like?”
“Can you read minds?”
“Kids, please,” interjected Scrooge, “let him eat. He’s had a long day.”
Milo found that he couldn’t help but like Huey, Dewey, Louie and Webby. He put down his fork and took in the four of them. “Yes,” he said, “I’m from another dimension.” Milo had thought about what had happened and had decided that there was really no other explanation. “My friends and I came here as a result of Murphy’s Law.”
Huey looked at Milo sceptically, “but how does that work?”he asked. “Murphy’s Law is just an axiom. Anything that can go wrong will. There’s no hard science there.”
Huey’s chair collapsed, dumping him unceremoniously onto the ground. His brothers and Webby laughed. He picked himself up and looked at Milo. “How did you do that?” he asked.
Milo shrugged. “Murphy’s Law,” he said.
“Huey,” interjected Scrooge, “Milo isn’t your typical teenager.”
“He doesn’t look like it,” said Webby.
Milo felt another pang. For some reason that he couldn’t put his finger on, Webby reminded him of his sister. He briefly wondered if she was thinking of him. He felt another pang and had to push the thought away. “Well, I’m not, “ he said and he explained how he had been born with Murphy’s Law and how it was a inherited trait in his family.
If anything, Huey looked even more sceptical. “But that doesn’t even make sense,” he said, “genetics doesn’t work like that.”
“In my case it does,” replied Milo, and he explained about how his negative probability field skewed all outcomes in his vicinity to negative outcomes.
Huey looked at Milo as if he were being intentionally dense. “But probability doesn’t work like that at all,” he said. Milo didn’t respond. Huey wasn’t the first person he had encountered who had been sceptical of Milo’s connection to Murphy’s Law.
Eventually, Mrs. Beakley cleared away the remains of dinner and everyone went inside and began to make their way upstairs. Milo, Zack, Melissa and Amanda ran into Scrooge and Della coming from around a corner on the third floor. “Milo, good,” said Scrooge, “I was hoping to run into you again before you went to bed. I’d like the four of you to come down to the Money Bin tomorrow. I’d like you to talk to Gyro about your predicament.”
Milo nodded. “We’ll see you tomorrow morning then,” he said.
“Oh, and I hope you won’t take Huey too seriously,” said Scrooge. “He’s always demanding proof for everything.”
Milo shrugged. “It goes with being a Murphy,” he said. “I know a few people like that.”
Scrooge nodded. “Well, good night, to you all then.”
The limousine pulled into the garage under the Money Bin early the next morning. Milo, Zack, Melissa, Amanda and Scrooge got out and walked inside. Instead of following his usual path up to his inner sanctum on the top floor of the Money Bin, he lead Milo, Zack, Melissa and Amanda down to Gyro’s lab. Scrooge placed his hand on the biometric palm reader next to the door, which swung open and they went inside. They found Fenton waiting for them.
“Fenton,” said Scrooge genially, “good morning.”
“Good morning, Mr.McDuck,” said Fenton, “what brings you down here this morning?”
Scrooge motioned to Milo and his friends. “This is Milo Murphy, and his friends, Zack, Melissa and Amanda. I believe you had a run in with them yesterday.”
Fenton nodded, “Somehow they got in without tripping the security system.” He eyed Milo suspiciously. “How did you do that?” he asked.
“That’s what we’ve come to talk you about,” Scrooge interjected. “Where’s Gyro?”
“Checking the machine,” said Fenton.
“Get him,” said Scrooge.
Fenton turned and motioned for them follow him. They followed him down the hall past the entrance to the clean room and let them into Gyro’s office. “You can wait here,” he said. He turned and went out again. When he returned ten minutes later, it was with Gyro Gearloose in tow.
“Good morning, Mr.McDu-“ Gyro stopped upon seeing the four teenagers. “What are they doing here?” he asked acidly.
“They’re here because I promised them my help,” said Scrooge. “Their being here is an accident.”
“Is it?” asked Gyro, “because they nearly damaged a very important quantum physics experiment.”
“Yes, it is,” responded Milo, and he told them about his family’s history with Murphy’s Law and his negative probability field, the quantum anomaly it had created and Phineas’ machine. He watched Gyro and Fenton as he spoke and felt as though he could sense some of Huey’s skepticism in their eyes, but they let him finish and didn’t try to dissuade Milo that he was somehow wrong or crazy. When Milo was done talking after about twenty minutes, Fenton and Gyro looked at each other.
“Hmmmm,” said Fenton thoughtfully after a while. “Everything in the universe resonates with a specific quantum frequency, if were possible to isolate theirs, perhaps we could open a stable event horizon back to their dimension.”
“But, what about Murphy’s Law?” asked Milo. “It skews everything around me. Anything that can go wrong will.”
“Well, what about the Murphy’s Lawinator?” asked Zack slowly. “It worked before and we wouldn’t have to turn it for very long.”
Scrooge, Gyro and Fenton all looked confused. “What exactly is the Murphy’s Lawinator?” asked Scrooge, and for the first time Milo realized just how bad Doofenshmirtz was at naming his inventions.
Melissa quickly explained what the Murphy’s Lawinator had been for and how it had worked. “Unfortunately,” she said, with a commiserating look at Milo, “it had unexpected side effects.”
“I see,” said Scrooge slowly.
There was another long silence, as everyone pondered the problem of how to safely open a wormhole to Danville without invoking Murphy’s Law.
“Perhaps, there’s another way to look at the problem,” Zack suggested at last. “What if instead of trying to suppress Milo’s negative probability field, we try to flood it with positive probability instead.”
Scrooge looked at Fenton and Gyro. “Would that work?” he asked.
Gyro looked thoughtful. ”Perhaps,” he said slowly.
“You might need to watch out for Orgaluth’s Law, though,” replied Milo, and he explained how an uncontrolled build up of negative probability ions had almost destroyed Octalia.
Fenton looked thoughtful. “Well, we can run some simulations and see how it all fits together,” he said, “and we’ll have to run some tests to determine their exact quantum frequency.”
“And how long will that take,” asked Scrooge.
Gyro looked thoughtful again. “A week to do the tests,” he said.
“-barring Murphy’s Law,” interjected Milo.
“And another week to calibrate the equipment,” he finished.
Scrooge nodded, “well then, I guess you had better get started.”