The Shadow Realm

Chapter 3

Gyro slammed the door open to the McDuck Manor and yelled. " Mr. MCDUCK! Mr. MCDUCK!" Fenton was following close behind, holding charts and a portable laptop. Typing fiercely as they ran through the manor to find the duck they needed.

"What in blazes is going on here?!" Scrooge heard the commotion from the kitchen. Donald, Mrs Beakley and Scrooge ran out to meet the two. Meanwhile the triplets were sneaking outside the nearby window with Launchpad. But, noticing the commotion, Huey glanced inside and signaled for his brothers to stop.

"What's going on?" Dewey, curious as well also crowded the nearby window.

"Mr. McDuck. We have an emergency!" Fenton started, looking as if he was going to tear his feathers out. "Our probe to the moon has been destroyed!"

"The what now?" Scrooge raised an eyebrow.

Gyro sighed and rolled his eyes. "The probe. We sent a small device to the moon to collect some moon dust. Which we need for our most recent experiment."

"But, when it got to the lunar surface something began to jam the transmission down here! At first I thought it was just interference or cosmic rays but someone deliberately tampered with my equipment!" Looking frustrated, he turned the laptop to show Scrooge. It showed a video of the lunar surface and then wreckage of an old ship, a duck hand reached down upon the screen before it went dark and distorted.

Scrooge pursed his bill thoughtfully and then color drained from his face. "Can...can ye show me the video again?"

Watching it for a second time Mrs Beakley began to notice the signs. Donald, who was peeking behind the two also drained of color. "It couldn't be.."

"We have no proof." Scrooge turned to Donald. "Do not get yer hopes up lad."

"I know." Donald once more closed his eyes and sighed.

"I'm going to look more into this at the lab." Grabbing his cane and top hat, Scrooge began to walk towards the doors. "Stay here and watch the kids. Don't say anything yet. We know nothing." Once he reached them, he grasped the handle and looked painfully at the wood. "It just cannot be. After all these years...Della....are ye there?"

The two brothers heard this as the window they were spying from was close to the door.

All three brothers looked at each other with lost expressions on their faces.

"Did he..." Huey grasped his hat and began to nervously twist it in his hands.

"That's...." Dewey was so confused he sat down, hand on his forehead.

"Crazy?" Louie finished. He was the least shocked of the group but he glanced back as Launchpad was heading to the plane.

"She can't be alive right?" Huey turned to them. "Its been years! There's no way she would have survived space!"

"But she is a Duck. After all...Uncle Scrooge I'm positive is well over 100." Dewey pointed out.

"Well yeah but..." The door near them slammed open which cut their conversation short and Scrooge ran out and called out to Launchpad. The three were out of Scrooges' range as he was walking the opposite direction where Launchpad was. He turned and looked incredibly nervous as he turned and ran to Scrooge. They argued a bit before Launchpad resigned himself to drive Scrooge to the lab.

"And there goes our ride." Louie looked annoyed.

"What should we do now?" Huey glanced around nervously.

Dewey was thinking deeply and glancing around slowly. It wouldn't be long before Beakley and Donald noticed they were gone. They had to hide somewhere before they were found. "We need a place to hide before they find us gone. I know!" An idea flashed into his mind. "Lena's place..I know Webby would have gone there too at one point. There could be a clue to where she went maybe!"