//------------------------------//
// Picking up the Pieces 
// Story: Dressed to Steal 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

It was a long trip back to Duckburg, and not an entirely pleasant one.  Dad had a lot of questions...and we were honestly afraid to answer him.  Would the wrong answer do him more harm than good before he was ready?  Would not giving him the right answer drive him away?  Could we unwittingly make it impossible for him to recover his memory?

Eventually, Mom settled for telling him we were going to see a family friend, hoping he would have some idea how to handle the present situation given his vast wealth of life experiences...not to mention his vast wealth.  If he didn't already know a way to fix things, he could certainly hire the world's best experts to find the way to do it.  Dad seemed to accept that, but we could both tell he was antsy.

The arrival in Duckburg harbor couldn't come soon enough...and Deik-Beck thought ahead enough to call Uncle Scrooge and let him know to expect us, as well as getting directions as far as which dock we were to weigh anchor at.  He was even kind enough to meet us at the dock.





As the boat sailed into the port, Scrooge stood alone at the dock, waiting for the gangplank to lower so he could meet these family members.  The message he'd gotten from the little robot had only told of a port arrival requiring delicacy, so he'd guided the ship to his 'night dock', where any shipping operations he didn't particularly want to be public knowledge - though rarely for reasons of illegality - were conducted in the dead of night.  The moon shone bright at zenith as the sound of hooffalls told him that his newest niece was desperate for comfort even before he could see her clearly.  He held his arms out and caught her mad dash, holding her close.  "There now, lass, it's gonna be alright," he promised comfortingly.  "Just calm down and tell Uncle Scrooge what's happened."

Coco managed to get her sniffles under control.  "Dad has amnesia."

"Eh?" Scrooge demanded, aghast.  "How did that happen?"

"Well, we were at the Cooper Family Vault..." Coco began carefully.

"Ya dinnae say?" Scrooge interrupted eagerly.  "Ya know, ah've always wondered what it looked like inside there."

"It was really pretty before the whole place collapsed," Coco allowed.

"Drat!" Scrooge snapped.  "And all that treasure gone-"

"Actually, we managed to salvage it all," Coco interrupted.  "Speaking of, we could use your help with properly storing all the artifacts on the boat, as well as finding a new place to store all the gold and jewels that were our share once we gave the rest of the Gang their cuts."  She looked around.  "Uh...you're not gonna carry all of it yourself, are you?"

Scrooge chuckled as he made his way up the ramp.  "Now lass, ah may look old but ah'm still as spry as the day ah-"  He froze as he caught sight of the massive piles of treasure - gold, jewels, and artifacts made of both - that filled the ship from keel to mast.  "...well pluck me tail feathers and call me baldy..." he murmured, completely stunned.  "This is more than ah've got in me money bin."

Coco's eyes widened in shock.  "We're richer than you, Uncle Scrooge?"

"Nah lass, not at all!" Scrooge insisted.  "The money bin is just a good portion o' me liquid assets.  Most o' me wealth is locked up in makin' more, after all.  But it does place ya as the third wealthiest family in th' world, right after me and Glomgold."

"Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth," Coco pointed out.  "Most of the liquid gold and jewels got divided more or less evenly to the others in the gang as their cuts."

"...well, before ya divided it, the Coopers were the second wealthiest family, then," Scrooge concluded.  "Not that ye could have publicized it."  He shook his head to dispel those thoughts for the moment.  "We'll get the ship into th' harbor, and then we'll see what we can do about Sly, eh?"

"Thanks Uncle Scrooge," Coco responded warmly as the ship tacked as instructed, sailing into the cliff-side as the door to the underground harbor opened up.





Once Coco and Carmelita were settled for a night of fitful sleep, Scrooge led Sly through his mansion to an area he'd prepared just for such an occasion.  "Ye doin' okay there, Sly?" he asked calmly as he hopped up onto a rope and began to make his way across.

"I guess so," Sly answered as he hopped up without thought, maintaining his balance as effortlessly as ever.  "Where are you taking me?"

"Well, ah need ta see ta yer amnesia," Scrooge explained as he hopped onto another rope before sliding down it.  "Ta do that, ah need ta see what ya still remember."

"I've tried to remember," Sly pointed out helpfully as he slid after Scrooge without any trouble.  "But whenever I try, it hurts."

"Ah don't mean yer conscious memory," Scrooge countered as he leapt off the end of the rope to sidle around a tower over a pit of slime.  "It's everythang else ah wanna know aboot right now."  He leapt off the other side, catching a hook with his cane and swinging down a sequence of them.

"So you're taking me somewhere to find out what I don't know I remember?" Sly asked as he continued to follow effortlessly, the Cooper family techniques coming to him as easily as breathing.

"Somethin' lahk that," Scrooge allowed as he began a sequence of flips, rolls, jumps, and crawls through a shifting field of lasers.  "Just keep up."

"I'll do my best," Sly promised as he leapt onto a laser through the middle of the room, sliding down it straight to the other side.

Scrooge's jaw dropped as he witnessed that.  "Blow me bagpipes, where'd ya learn ta do that?"

"Learn what?" Sly asked in confusion as he hopped off the laser to land beside Scrooge.

Scrooge's face fell.  This did not bode well.  All of Sly's skills as a master thief were completely intact...but none of it triggered any conscious memory.  This was going to be difficult, both to overcome...and to explain to Carmelita and Coco...