Who is Julie McDuck?!

Growing Pains

My brother looked like he'd just seen a ghost. His face lost all color as Nathan walked in.

"So, you must be Julianna," he said pleasantly as he knelt down to my level. But it wasn't in a normal way; it sounded like he was trying to hide something in his tone of voice.

Something wasn't right.

I felt a shiver go down my spine as he shook my hand. "H-hi," I replied. "I-It's nice to meet you."

Nathan got off his knees and sighed. "Well, the car's running, sweetheart. Just wait there while I talk to your uncle. If you want, you can drive us home."

"Wait, what?" I asked, my voice cracking a bit in fear. "I-I'm not leaving! This is my home!"

He chuckled anxiously. "Julianna, I'm not asking you, I'm telling you to go to the car. Right now."

"Well, she won't be doing that, no matter how you tell her," Uncle Scrooge spoke up, crossing his arms. "She's staying here. In case you haven't heard, I'm her legal guardian now," he growled, tossing Nathan the legal documents.

Nathan flipped through the custody papers and, for a split second, I could've sworn I saw a flash of anger in his eyes. He laughed a little as he finished reading them.

"Well, you know what they say," he chuckled darkly, pulling out a lighter and setting the documents on fire. "Out of sight, out of mind."

"NO!" my brother and I screamed at the same time as we watched the documents reduce to nothing but ash. I began to shake a bit, now realizing what had just happened. Without those documents...

Uncle Scrooge didn't have legal custody over me anymore.

"Come now, Julianna," Nathan growled, grabbing my arm. He turned me to face him, and looked down at my necklace. A devious smirk crept onto his beak as he broke the necklace's chain off of my neck.

"You won't be needing this anymore," he chuckled, dangling it tauntingly over my head.

"Hey! Give that back!" I demanded, jumping to try and reach it. "That's my mom's necklace!"

Just as the words left my mouth, I knew I'd made a huge mistake. 

I'd mentioned Mom.

Nathan's grip on my arm tightened, so much so that it felt like he was going to break my arm.

"OW! Let go of me, you jerk!" I shouted, trying to pull free.

"I broke your brother's arm, little girl," he snarled. "What makes you think I won't do the same to you?"

That's when Uncle Scrooge smacked Nathan's hand off of me with his cane. "Don't. Touch. My. Niece. Ever. Again," he warned, his face red with anger.

"Woah there, old man," Nathan said, his tone changing to a much more lighthearted one. "I'm just trying to take my daughter home with me."

That made something in Uncle Scrooge snap. That one word.

He punched Nathan square in the face with such force that he fell. Nathan chuckled and pinned our uncle to the wall. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him whip out a knife and hold it against Uncle Scrooge's neck.

I felt the McDuck temper in me begin to rise as I panted. I didn't care that Nathan had manhandled me like that, but NO ONE messes with my family. ESPECIALLY not my uncle. The one who went out of his way to raise me, the one who actually had the right to call me his daughter.

The veins on my arms began to glow purple along with a strand of my hair. A whirl of purple energy began to swirl around my fist as I shouted to Nathan, "HEY! STEP-FAILURE!"

Nathan turned to me and I punched him in the beak so hard that the force of it cracked the wall.

I panted as I finished my sentence and Uncle Scrooge and Josh stared at me in shock.

"Get away from my dad."