Once in a Blue Moon
By Sharan McQuack, Launchpad's wife.
A rare full lunar eclipse frees Magica's shadow and it's on the loose again!
With thanks to Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's book "Peter and the Secret of Rundoon" for certain ideas that I - er- borrowed without permission.
Oh, I don't CARE if you don't WANT my opinion, BC 576-016, you're getting it ANYWAY. You don't have to LISTEN if you don't want to.
WHY do you keep referring to "Aunt Harriet " as Ms. Beakly, rather than Mrs. Beakly?
Disney trying to turn her into a hero (INSTEAD of Launchpad) was actually forgivably, since that was usually first season. They didn't know they had a hit on their hands with Launchpad, yet.
Besides, TRYING to make her out to be some sort of hero kept her from being a total Aunt Harriet cliche.
And if you have to treat Launchpad like a moron, have the boys take a commercial jet to Africa.
It was late one evening and a rare, full lunar eclipse shone a faint, blue light over Duckburg. In the outskirts of Duckburg, in an old dump of a house, Magica Despell was trying a magical spell that could only be done during a full lunar eclipse.
Since such an event is literally as rare as a blue moon, (1) Magica had to hurry. Such eclipses are usually blocked from view by clouds. The day had been so rainy; (2) Magica thought this eclipse would be, too. And THAT would do her no good. The eclipse had to be visible for the magic to work.
As the rain continued to fall and the day grew late, Magica grew angrier and more disappointed, until she fell asleep. She woke up just in time to see a clear night sky...and the eclipse just beginning.
Magica hastened to get her act together to do her magic...but she was sleepy and she hurried a little too much. Something went major league WRONG and Magica's shadow came back to life and freed itself from her. Magica fainted and woke up behide bars. The shadowwitch had locked her up, again.
Cut to our house. Launchpad was checking the mail. He had tossed out the junk mail and we were discussing the "real" mail when he saw Mr. McDuck approaching to ask Launchpad to fly him someplace. Launchpad hastily stuffed a letter into his pocket. Mr. McDuck noticed this and got curious. So when the letter fell from Launchpad's pocket as he bent to check the plane, Mr. McDuck grabbed the letter and started reading it.
"This...this is a letter from the Duckburg Flying Academy! It says YOU earned a full scholarship there! That's one of the most prestigious schools of aviation there is!
How did YOU earn a full scholarship there?" Mr. McDuck demanded.
"He studied until I thought his eyeballs were going to pop out of their skull, roll across the floor and cool themselves off in the sink" I replied, quite proud of my Launchpad.
"You're the one who talked me into trying out for the Duckburg Flying Academy! I always wanted to, but I never had the nerve!" Launchpad said.
"Well, maybe if SOME people weren't always calling you stupid, you would of had the nerve a long time ago! They don't give stupid people full scholarships there!" I replied.
"Why did you try to hide that letter from me?" Mr. McDuck asked Launchpad.
"I was afraid you'd laugh at me...or give me a hard time if I accepted the scholarship...especially if that means I'm not always available to fly you someplace at the drop of a hat!" Launchpad explained.
"Well, you are accepting that scholarship and you are going to do your best there or I'll stuff that letter down your throat. And one more thing Launchpad, much as it pains me to tell you this...I'm proud of you." Mr. McDuck said.
I slapped my forehead and snickered and thought: "The trouble with Mr. McD is, just as I'm starting to work up a good mad at him, he turns around and does something NICE."
Suddenly it grew dark. Everybody looked up, expecting to see clouds overhead. Instead, they saw something a lot more unusual and a LOT scarier. A dark shadow covered the sky. Soon, it was black as night, despite the fact it was early morning.
"What the? We're supposed to be having a lunar eclipse, not a solar eclipse." said Huey, who had read about the lunar eclipse in the (say it with me): Junior Woodchuck Guidebook!
Then, they REALLY got scared. The darkness overhead started LAUGHING at them. Then giant EYES appeared in the darkness overhead.
"What's going on here, Unca Scrooge?" Dewey asked.
It grew darker. And cold. Then colder. The electric lights began to fail.
"Listen to me! It is I, Shadowwitch who speak to you!" A voice from the darkness above said.
"That's sounds like Magica Despell to me!' Mr. McDuck said.
"I WAS her shadow! I am free again! This time I will stay free! I will kill her- and all other life on Earth! I will swallow all light, all heat. The sun will never rise again- and you will all soon freeze to death!" Shadowwitch said.
"Well, I'm not just standing here doing nothing! Boys, gather up all the flares we've got, I'm getting into my plane and seeing what I can do!" Launchpad said.
The triplets gathered flares, flashlights and loaded them into Launchpad's plane. I climbed in with him.
"You may need me, and besides, the Duckburg Daily News will pay plenty for photos of all this! I got my flash bulbs and my camera!" I said.
"I think for once, we're NOT going to ask to come along!" the boys said, scared silly and I did NOT blame them.
Launchpad was soon hassling Shadowwitch with flashlights, beacons, flares...but that's all it was to her, a hassle she could ignore.
Gizmoduck soon joined us, flying slowly in his helmet-copter and used lasers against Shadowwitch. These could not hurt her, but being concentrated light they could could disrupt her darkness.
"You can not hurt me, fools! I have no solid body to hurt! Soon, you will run out of power and my darkness and cold will end all life on earth!" Shadowwitch said.
"Oh no, you won't!" a voice said. A flying, flaming stranger was suddenly in mid air , not far from our plane! It was a talking dog in a red and yellow costume.
"Ut-oh. Hot Shot! (3) That's all we need, more bad guys!" Launchpad said.
"Hello? This crazy silhouette lady is threatening to end all life on Earth! I may be a bad guy, but I like living! If she succeeds, I'm dead, and so is everybody I care about! I was here in Duckburg! I was hiding from the cops and a certain idiotic duck in a purple zoot suit! I saw and heard all this!" Hot Shot said.
"You're on our side, then?" Gizmoduck asked, suspiciously.
"I can hardly steal stuff if I'm frozen to death! Besides, I'm dying! The doctors tell me my fire/solar powers are going to burn me up very soon...if I use them or I don't!
I've been doing a lot of thinking. If I'm going to die, anyway...I might as well go as a hero!" Hot Shot said.
And with that, Hot Shot used his powers to become a small sun, creating heat and light. The shadowwitch tried to absorb the heat and light, but Hot Shot just kept pouring it on, generating more and more heat and light until we had to cover our eyes.
Finally, with a sudden burst of light, the shadowwitch was gone..disappeared.
The sun shone normally. The danger was gone.
But so was Hot Shot.
"Is he..dead? Did he really die a hero?" Launchpad asked.
"I don't know, dear. I couldn't see what happened. But he did succeed in getting rid of the Shadowwitch." I replied.
The End.
(1) which I always thought meant a full lunar eclipse in which the shadowed moon glows blue-ish.
(2) The sky had to be naturally clear for the magic to work, use magic to clear the sky and the eclipse has no power.
(3) From the DW episode "Heavy Mental".
P.S.: in case you're actually worried about Magica, the iron bars (a witch's power does not work on iron) kept her imprisoned for a while...but eventually she blasted her way thur a wall. Her shadow returned to her after the shadowwitch disapeared.