"Okay lads, don't touch anything unless I say it's safe, these ruins are very unstable and so far, all the traps haven't improved on that." Scrooge cautioned his nephews as they cautiously entered the ante room of the ancient ruins they had been exploring.
Scrooge and the boys carefully inched their way through the seemingly safe chamber, no pressure plates or tripwires obviously visible. Along the stone walls various artifacts sat upon pedestals; items ranging from swords and shields to statuettes made of various materials, including gold and silver, and jewelry adorned with various precious gems; all illuminated by the luminescent stones mounted in the ceiling over each pedestal. Centered at the back wall stood a larger pedestal with Scrooges' goal resting upon it; a puzzle box.
The box, roughly the size of a shoe box and made of black marble, was intricately carved with several mysterious symbols. Scrooge used his cane to test the stones of the floor in front of the box's pedestal, and the pedestal itself for traps and once he was satisfied that it was safe, he snatched the box.
As Scrooge was claiming the box Louie found himself drawn to the other treasures in the room; namely a small golden ring that looked like a looped rope set with a stone he didn't recognize. He followed Scrooge's lead and tried his best to check for traps before taking the ring at the same moment Scrooge took the box. As soon as he pocketed the ring, Louie heard an audible clicking sound as the pressure plate the ring had rested upon was triggered.
"Ha! The box is- whoa!" Scrooge's triumph was short-lived as a large stone pillar suspended by chains swung down from a hidden crevice in the ceiling.
Scrooge quickly rolled out of the way, grabbing the boys as he did to protect them. The pillar-turned battering ram hit the wall and a chain reaction began as the wall collapsed and other traps were triggered.
"Let's get out of here quick!" Scrooge and the boys ran back out of the ruins, dodging traps and broken chunks of wall and ceiling along the way until they finally reached the helicopter and a waiting Launchpad.
"Launchpad get us out of here, now!" Scrooge barked as they jumped into the copter.
"Sure thing Mr. Mc D!" Launchpad responded with a thumbs up before following orders; taking off and leaving the collapsed ruins behind.
Once safely back at McDuck Mansion Scrooge took the box to his office to study it in hopes of opening it and the boys went to their room.
As the boys made their way down the hall, they crossed paths with Webby, who had been made to miss the trip for a family reunion with her granny, Mrs. Beakley.
"Hey Webby, how was the reunion?" Dewey asked as they greeted each other. "It was okay, I mean not nearly as interesting as I expected a spy family reunion to be." She shrugged.
"What do you mean? Surely there were all kinds of spy stories and techniques shared between a family of spies!" Huey asked. "Not really; most of them were very secretive and didn't say much beyond speaking either in code or in coded messages so it was pretty much a crash course on code breaking. Now, tell me about the ruins! How was your expedition, did you find anything cool?" Her eyes lit up as she began to bombard them with questions about the ruins.
"Well, Uncle Scrooge got his box thingy and I managed to grab myself a little souvenir," Louie produced the ring from his pocket and the deep green stone reflected a rainbow of colors in the brighter light of the house.
"Wow! That looks amazing!" Webby gasped. "Louie!" Huey frowned. "Uncle Scrooge had told us not to touch anything in there!" "You set off that trap in the ceiling, didn't you?" Dewey asked, a suspicious eyebrow raised. "What? We all got out of there in one piece, didn't we?" Louie brushed off his brother's accusation as he polished the ring with his sleeve.
"You need to tell Uncle Scrooge." Huey said sternly, attempting to take the ring from Louie. "No!" Louie shouted as Huey tried to take the ring from him. Louie and Huey struggled against each other for the ring. "You need to give it to Uncle Scrooge!" Huey snapped. "No, He'll just lock it up in his money bin!" Louie whined.
The two continued to fight for the ring until it suddenly sprang to life! The ring seemed to shimmer for a brief moment before unwrapping itself and wrapping around a finger on Huey's right hand.
"Hey!" Louie tried to pull the ring from Huey's finger. "Ow! Ow! Ow!" Huey cried as his brother attempted to wrench the ring off. "It won't come off! It's stuck!" Louie let go of Huey's finger in defeat while Huey started to panic. "What do you mean 'it's stuck'? It can't be stuck!" He desperately tried to remove it himself but to no avail.
"Calm down, just try putting some lotion or butter on to grease your finger and I bet it'll slide right off." Dewey suggested. "Okay; that's a good idea." Huey agreed and the three, with Webby, went to the kitchen.
Dewey took the butter from the fridge and smeared it all over Huey's finger and the ring then he and Louie again tried to remove it but the only thing that slipped was their hands; the ring held fast. "It's not coming off! What do we do?" Now Louie was panicking. "I told you, you should have given the ring to Uncle Scrooge! Or better yet, listened to him and not picked it up in the first place!" Huey cried. "Well, we can't tell Uncle Scrooge now; he'll be furious!" Louie replied. "Okay, I'm sure we can figure this out ourselves we just need to calm down." Dewey said. "Maybe try washing your hands? Maybe the soap and water will loosen it?" Webby suggested.
Huey turned to the sink and reached for the faucet but instead picked up and threw a plate that narrowly missed Webby and his brothers and shattered against the wall.
"What the heck!? I know I messed up but really?" Louie snapped. "It wasn't me! It was the ring!" Huey said as the hand with ring reached in for another plate. The ring was shimmering again as the plate became a flying saucer and shattered against the wall like the previous one. "Well I guess we know why the ring won't come off; it's cursed!" Webby glared at Louie while Huey desperately tried to control his hand as it began to get more volatile, throwing and smashing more of whatever it could grab.
"What in blue blazes is going on in here-ahh!" Scrooge dodged a flying frying pan as he came in to the kitchen, drawn by all the sounds of crashing and shattering. He looked around and saw Dewey and Louie hiding under the table, Webby peering out from the pantry and Huey destroying the kitchen. "Make me stop Uncle Scrooge! Make me stop!" Huey cried; then he smacked himself in the face with a spatula. "Huey! What are you doing lad? Have you completely lost your mind?!" Scrooge attempted to take the spatula from his nephew only to be slapped in the face with it. "I'm sorry Uncle Scrooge! It's not me it's that stupid ring! It's controlling my hand!" Scrooge was about to yell at Huey when he noticed the shimmering, serpent-like ring on his finger.
Scrooge grabbed the ring and pulled hard; but it wouldn't budge. "Curse me kilts, that wee thing's stuck tight!" He said, finally relieving Huey of the spatula and getting a firm hold on his right arm so as to keep him from doing any further damage. "Thank you, Uncle Scrooge." Huey sighed in relief.
"Would one of you kindly explain to me where this ring came from?" Scrooge shot his nephews a firm look. Webby emerged from the pantry and Louie and Dewey crawled out from under the table. Louie hung his head. "I uh, grabbed it in the ruins while you were getting the puzzle box." He sheepishly admitted. "You did what? I told you not to touch anything in there!" "I know, I'm sorry Uncle Scrooge."
Scrooge sighed. "Well there's no doing anything about it now, let's go to my office and see about getting that blasted thing off Huey." Scrooge turned to the door, still holding Huey's arm and glanced back at all three of his nephews. "Just DON'T tell your Uncle Donald, if he finds out about this I'll never hear the end of it." The boys nodded, none of them wanted to hear what Donald would say about this.
