Half a map isn't better than one.
By Saran McQueen, Launchpad's wife.
I swiped this idea from a Star Wars, the Clone Wars, Defenders of the Lost Temple. By Aclin, Justin.
Launchpad was flying Mr. McDuck home from an auction. Launchpad noticed Mr. McDee was angry about something. Nothing unusual about that. Except Launchpad couldn't figure out WHY Mr. McDuck was angry.
"You just won the auction. You got the map you wanted..." Launchpad began.
"HALF the map. There were TWO halves of the same map up for auction. I got this half. FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD got the other half!" Mr. McDuck snarled. "The half of the map is useless without the other half."
"What's it's a map OF?" Launchpad asked. "You treasure hunting again?"
"It's a map of the hiding place of the arm band of invincibly. " Mr. McDuck began. "A great wizard- some say Merlin himself- created an arm band that could make it's wearing invulnerable, invincible. But it's wearer went power mad.
Luckily, he still had to sleep and someone he trusted stole the arm band while he slept." Mr. McDuck continued. " Because it was a friend, they hid the arm band far, far away where hopefully nobody could ever found it. The arm band itself is supposed to be invulnerable. So it couldn't be destroyed."
"However, one of the people who hid the arm band made a map on the sly, intending to come back and steal it later...somehow, they never did. The map disappeared...both halves turned up recently." Mr. McDuck finished.
Launchpad landed the plane to refuel.
"Let me see that map. Maybe I can figure out where it's a map of." Launchpad said.
"That's weird. This is a map of Labrador! Done it the style of old Norse maps!" Launchpad said. "thought you said MERLIN made this arm band? England didn't know about Canada, then."
Maps. my Launchpad knows.
"The legend says they hired some exiled Vikings to get rid of the arm band for them. To take it beyond the known world. Canada filled that bill, then." Mr. McDuck mused.
"Wait a minute! You KNOW where this is a map of? You can FIND the arm band?" Mr. McDuck demanded.
"If it's still there after all these centuries? Sure!" Launchpad said. "I can certainly take you to the place the map indicates the hiding place of the arm band was."
"I can't guarantee that it's still there- or that it actually existed in the first place!" Launchpad cautioned.
"One way to find out! Take me there! Now!" Mr. McDuck ordered.
"OK. We were heading back to Duckburg from Europe anyway." Launchpad shrugged.
So, Launchpad flew there in his plane. They landed in a rocky field near a woods. After screaming about non-existent crashes (not being ably to avoid every rock and stone in a VERY rocky, stony field.) Launchpad searched for the place on the map.
It took a while to find it. Mostly because the structure they were searching for was a LOT smaller than Launchpad thought it would be. And the map was old, faded and in ye olde English.(1)
Launchpad thought it would be the size of a barn, at least. It was size of smallish shed.
"There's no way in!" yelled Mr. McDuck.
He glared at the small structure made of stone, with a slate roof. It had no door, no windows...no entrance. It had been sealed up completely.
"There's a hole in the roof. I could climb up there, climb down and open it from the inside. " Launchpad suggested.
Launchpad figured there had to be a door, once. If he could find where it had been, he might reopen it easier.
"I can climb up and climb down, too! Opening up will take forever!" Mr. McDuck snapped.
"I go first. Just in case." Launchpad insisted.
"Fine! It's such a small structure even YOU should be able to get inside of it all by yourself." Mr. McDuck sneered.
Launchpad took a rope out of a pocket of his cargo pants, threw I to a nice, strong tree limb above the roof. Launchpad scaled the building, eased his way to the hole in the rook and climbed down the roof.
"Mr. McDee! Be careful climbing down! This building is a lot bigger than it looks! It goes down below the ground! Good thing I brought this rope!" Launchpad screamed.
()()What's that fool talking about?()() Mr. McDuck wondered as he climbed up the rope.
Then, Mr. McDuck looked down. The inside of the seemingly tiny building went down way past where the ground was on the outside.
"It's a cave! They build the structure around an entrance to a cave!" Mr. McDuck said.
"Saved them a lot of work." Launchpad shrugged. "They must of hidden the armband in this cave someplace. But this cave is huge."
"If they were lazy enough to build this tiny structure over a cave rather than build a structure big enough to hide it, they were lazy enough to hide it very close!" Mr. McDuck said.
"What's with this design?" Launchpad asked, pointing out a design of holes.
"The same design is on the front of the structure! Must be the family crest of the people who built it or something!" Mr. McDuck snapped.
"Why is one hole is missing?" Launchpad noticed.
"Eh? Why, one hole is missing! How'd YOU notice that?" Mr. McDuck asked.
"They look like buttons. I have to pay attention to buttons." Launchpad replied.
"Hmm. The button that's missing should be right here." Mr. McDuck mused, pressing the spot with his cane.
The wall seemed to shake and a piece of clay fell.
"Why, it's fake! There's a recess here, that was hidden by clay." Mr. McDuck said. "whoever made the recess marked it so they could find it later."
Cautiously, Mr. McDuck reached in and withdrew...an armband.
"I'll take that, if you don't mind. In fact, I'll take that even if you do mind!" an all-too-familiar voice said.
"FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD! How d id you find us?" Launchpad asked.
Flintheart Glomgold and a few local hired flunkies were right behide them.
"At the auction, Scroogie was polite enough to remove his hat. I put a little present in it so you could do all the work and find the armband for me!" Flintheart replied.
Mr. McDuck looked closely at his top hat and saw, for the first time a tiny electronic "bug" hidden under it's band.
"You were spying on me! You followed me!" screamed Mr. McDuck.
"I couldn't figure out where the armband was with my half of the map. It's useless without your half. " Flinty replied. " So I bugged you. You're predictable. I knew you would find the armband."
"He's done that sort of thing to ME plenty of times. Welcome to the club." muttered Launchpad.
Disney has made Launchpad look dumb about that sort of thing. I refer to this as "what a ridiculous outfit" syndrome. (see "Luck O' the Ducks" The Leprechauns are wearing the same outfit.)
"Don't give it to him. You have the armband. He can't hurt you if it works, and if it doesn't work, he doesn't want it." Launchpad said.
"What if he shoot me and it doesn't work, you moron!" Mr. McDuck yelled.
"Let me try it. Flinty's likely to shoot even if you give it to him. This way, if it works I can protect you." Launchpad offered.
Launchpad's dealt with Flinty too often to count on him or his flunkies not shooting even if they get what they want. Mr. McDuck dealt with Flinty a lot longer, yet being richer than Flinty and more honest, can't quite deal with the fact that somebody nearly as rich as he can be so dishonest and dishonorable.
"I'm afraid you're right. Flintheart can't be trusted." Mr. McDuck sighed
Mr. McDuck put the armband down near his feet.
"Shoot the armband, Glomgold. It's supposed to be invulnerable, too. If you can harm it, it's worthless." Mr. McDuck gambled.
"I'm surprised you're not interested in it's historical value." Glomgold snorted.
"I am. But not enough to risk my life." Mr. McDuck replied.
"I'm not interested in it at all if it's just an old armband." Glomgold admitted.
Glomgold aimed at the armband and fired.
The bullets bounced off the armband without leaving the slightest impression. Shocked, and in disbelief, Flinty fired again, closer this time. Mr. McDuck counted the bullets, carefully. When Flinty had fired 6 times, the number of bullets in the type of gun Flinty was using, Mr. McDuck grabbed the armband and Flinty.
"Mr. McDee! Look out!" screamed Launchpad.
Flinty's flunkies had drawn out guns and were aiming them at Mr. McDuck.
"Don't shoot, you fools! You'll hit me!" yelled Flinty.
"If that armband works, what do we need YOU for?" Top Flunky asked.
Mr. McDuck kicked out at one of the flunkies, Flinty did likewise with another. Launchpad too care of the third. Soon, only Mr. McDuck, Flinty and Launchpad were conscious. The two started fighting over the armband.
"What are you DOING? You STILL don't know if the armband make people invulnerable! It could just be made of very tough metal!" Launchpad screamed, trying to talk sense into them.
Nobody listened, of course. They went right on fighting.
"No KNOWN metal can stand up to bullets at point blank range undamaged." Flinty said. (2) "Even if the armband DOESN'T make people invulnerable, if I can figure out to make MORE of the same metal..."
"I'LL make a fortune!" Mr. McDuck replied. "I found it first. It's mine!"
BOTH tried to don the armband at the same time. While the armband was large enough (Too big to be worn by either of them) for both their arms to fit into, it was only intended to be worn by ONE "person", not two at the same time.
Flinty tried to throttle Mr. McDuck with his free arm, but since Mr. McDuck was sort of wearing the armband, Flinty couldn't hurt him a bit. Mr. McDuck was angry enough at this attempt at murder to fight back, but Flinty was ALSO sort of wearing the armband, Mr. McDuck couldn't hurt Flinty, neither.
Soon, the both were at each other hammer and tongs. The fact that neither could hurt the other only seemed to encourage them to TRY. The armband protected BOTH of them...which it was NOT meant to do.
All of the sudden, the armband seemed to shimmer...then it dimmed. The armband fell off both of them. Launchpad stepped forward and tried to catch the armband as it fell. He stared at the suddenly dull colored metal armband."
"It's...tin? It's nothing but tin!" Launchpad asked. "How?"
All of the sudden the armband crumbled into dust.
"Magic. It was a MAGIC armband. By trying to use it together, against each other, we must of broken whatever spell was on it." Mr. McDuck said. "Once that spell was broken it was an ordinary tin armband, thousands of years old...so it fell apart from old age. The same thing happened with the magic lamp I had once."
"Bah! Then there's nothing for me here anymore!" snared Flinty." I've wasted enough time on this! I'm going home!"
But soon, Mr. McDuck turned the building and the cave into a museum. Experts were soon having fun arguing about whether this proved the Vikings had been to the "new world" long before Columbus or was this another hoax.
The End.
1 )It should have been in Ancient Norwegian. And Ponce De Loon's poem should have been in Spanish.
2) I have absolutely no idea if any known metal is that tough or not.