The Pyromaniac Chemist (Louie x Oc)

14: The Shadow War (part 2)

The shadows roamed the sky, all circling around Scrooge's money bin. The shadows followed the malevolent sorceress, Magica de Spell. She obliterated half of Scrooge's bin and used her magic to form a throne made of money. At a nearby dock, a certain group of ducks watched in fright as their beloved uncle's life was put in peril.

"Magica de Spell!" Beakley cried, frightened.

"Who?" Dewey, along with the other two triplets, were confused on who Beakley was referring to.

Webby spoke up, "Magica de Spell. A vile sorceress with a mysterious, ancient grudge against Clan McDuck. She was Scrooge's bitterest rival, but no one's seen her since they fought on Mount Vesuvius fifteen years ago."

"All right, all!" Beakley collected. "Cool heads! We must help Scrooge before anything else-"

All of a sudden, a green beast emerged from the waters and climbed onto their boat. The team was disdainfully approached by some sort of swamp creature. They yelled as they backed up, unsure of what horrors they'd have to face when they were already dealing with evil shadows.

"Take my brothers first, please!" Louie whined, throwing both his brothers at the unidentified monster.

The creature fully set itself on the boat's platform before removing seaweed and revealing itself as Manny, the headless man-horse intern.

"It's just Manny," exclaimed Huey, relieved.

Manny pulled Gyro, Lil Bulb, and Raylan up onto the boat.

"That's it!" Gyro cried. "No more underwater labs! It's volcanoes or abandoned castles from now on!"

"Dr. Gearloose? What happened?" Huey worriedly queried.

"Our own shadows came to life and wrecked the lab," Raylan cut off, twisting her drenched braid in hopes of drying it.

Huey was about to speak before Gyro interrupted him, "My Shadow Control Ray is still in the test phase, so this one is not on me."

"Everybody listen up!" Donald intervened.

At once, all eyes were directed to the duck who set himself in charge. It seemed like he was going to give an impactful and moving speech, but instead he gave... gibberish.

Everyone stared at each other and simultaneously asked, "What?"

"Did anyone get any of that?" Launchpad questioned.

"It's mostly context clues," Huey informed.

"We get, like, every third word," Louie agreed.

"Nope, completely unintelligible," Dewey admitted.

"I'LL SHOW YOU UNINTELLIGIBLE!" Donald shouted, now running after Dewey.

"Ah, I don't have time for this," Gyro stated, irritated. He pulled a small device from his vest pocket. "The Barksian Modulator! Able to translate neural impulses into sonic transmissions."

Confused as always, Launchpad uttered, "Huh?"

Gyro sighed, annoyed.

"It's a voice box," Raylan nonchalantly translated for the group.

Everyone simultaneously understood, though Launchpad still appeared a little puzzled.

Lethargically, Gyro grabbed Donald — who was still furiously running after Dewey — by the back of his collar and shoved the voice box down his throat.

Infuriated, Donald jumped out of Gyro's arms. "Hands off me you mad scientist!" Everything went silent when his voice miraculously became understandable.

"Woah," Dewey asserted, confounded. "He sounds so... normal."

Donald cleared his throat before reciting, "Rubber baby buggy bumpers," over and over again really fast. "Wow, never been able to say that before. As I was saying," he continued as he walked to the front of the boat for everyone to see. "Uncle Scrooge is in trouble, and it's up to us to help him. Adventure is in our blood. We face down perilous foes and endless danger every day, but we always prevail. Because these Ducks don't. Back. Down."

"Thank you, Donald," Mrs. Beakley respectfully disrupted. "Now we need to-"

"Stage a coordinated attack!" Donald recaptured the group's attention. "Gyro, you and your team will charge the bridge to distract Magica's shadow forces."

Given viable instructions, Gyro, Manny, Lil Bulb, and Raylan shortly prepared for the chaos they would inevitably ensue.

"Launchpad," Donald directed. "Head up the air attack to draw her attention. Do you think you can crash into the bin?"

Everyone laughed concurrently, knowing very well it was immanent that he would crash at some point.

"All right, all right, all right," Donald called everyone's focus back towards him. "And, Beakley, while the others distract Magica, you and I will sneak around back in my new fixed-up houseboat."

Beakley seemed bewildered at his coherent orders. "That is actually very close to what I was going to say."

And, of course, the four other kids were left on the dock, away from trouble... or so they thought.

But for now, Raylan had some shadows to face, and she was not going to back down.