"Ginger," Scrooge asked firmly, "Where are the kids?"
Ginger was shaking in fear and sweat dripped from her face as she tried to think of a way to word this without getting herself in any more trouble then she was probably already in. She knew there was no way out of this, and no matter what she said, she was going to get in trouble, she just hoped that the adults would show her some mercy.
"I'm sorry," Ginger cried as she fell to her knees, "I am so sorry, it wasn't my idea. I was just told to cover for them. They wasn't supposed to be gone this long."
"Where did they go?" Donald demanded.
Ginger gulped as she let out a sigh. "To the human world."
"WHAT!?" All the adults screamed.
"Are you out of your mind lads?" Scrooge screamed "Do you know the amount of danger you let those kids walk into?"
"Well maybe they wouldn't have gone if you didn't hide away here like a coward and faced Nimnus like a man!"
Everyone including Coco gasped at the tone Ginger just used on Scrooge.
"Ginger, don't you ever use that tone of voice on any one," Gadget scolded "Especially your elders."
Ginger instantly calmed down realizing her action. "I'm, I'm sorry, I'm just scared for them. They wasn't supposed to be gone this long."
"Where are they?" Chip asked.
"I don't know? All I know is they are somewhere in the human world but that could be anywhere."
"We have to find them," Della told Scrooge, "Those kids have no idea what type of danger they are getting into."
"How?" Ginger asked "They took the Sun chaser."
"Lass I basically own Duckburg. I have more then one plane at my disposal."
"But how are you going to find the kids?" Ginger asked "You have no idea where to search."
"Give me your phone," Scrooge replied.
"Why? How's that going to help?"
"Obviously, you have never traced a call before. We may not be able to find the boys exact location, but we can at least figure out the area to start looking, narrowing down the hunt from the entire world to just one small location." Taking Ginger's phone Scrooge headed towards the door. "I will be back as soon as I can, I need to get help from Fenton to trace this call."
The rest of the Duck family left as well leaving Ginger and Coco with only Gadget and Chip, who was glaring at her with huge disappointment in their eyes.
"Mom, Dad, I'm sorry."
"Ginger, do you know what the worst part about this situation is?" Chip asked "It's not the fact that you willingly let the kids go off on a dangerous adventure, it's that you lied to us. I thought we taught you better than that."
"They knew you would stop them. They know what Nimnus did to you, to all of you. That's why they are risking their lives to try to stop them. I had to keep it from you, I had to make up a story so none of you would worry. I know it was wrong, but the kids are actually trying to do save the world here."
"But they are still just kids, all of you are." Gadget replied "None of you know exactly how dangerous Nimnus is. Your heart is in the right place, but your actions and handling of this is wrong. And because of it, you have put the lives of your friends in danger."
"Nimnus will not be afraid of killing anyone who stands in his way," Chip added "That's why we all ran, that's why we have stayed hidden we know what he is capable of."
Ginger started to burst in tears as she realized the severity of the situation. "Can you at least promise me when you get the kids back that you will go after Nimnus?"
"Right now," Gadget answered "We need to focus on getting those kids out of danger."
About thirty minutes later the Duck family returned along with Fenton. "They are in the Los Angeles area. Gadget, Chip, can you take your plane and join in the search?"
"We can," Gadget replied "We will get Dale and Monterey Jack to help to."
"Then what does that mean for me?" Ginger asked.
"Beakely will watch you." Chip replied
"Aw great," Ginger sighed out of disappointment.
Scrooge suddenly got on the phone with Launchpad. "Launchpad, get a plane ready, we are going to the Human World, the kids are down there."
"Sure thing Mr. McD, wait? Kids?"
"I will explain everything on the way there."
Hanging up, Scrooge turned to Ginger. "When we get back, you kids are all in for a long lecture."
Ginger could only bury her head in her hands, the kids entrusted her to keep their secret, and now she had just let them all down. "I'm sorry my friends. I tried, I honestly, honestly tried."
"Okay so what do we no so far?" Dewey asked Webby as he and Webby got on Jeff's laptop to try to track down Nimnus.
"We know that Nimnus is somewhere in the Los Angeles area, but where is the question?" Webby responded.
"Right, he can be anywhere."
Dewey started typing in islands around California and then lit up when he saw the Channel Islands pop up on the screen.
"All right we are in business." Dewey said excitedly as he started reading "The Channel islands are an eight island archipelago located withing the Southern California Bight in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California. Aw man! Eight islands? That could take forever to search."
"At least it's a start." Webby replied
"You got this Dewey, go team." Louie replied completely uninterested as he just at on the couch watching Netflix while drinking a Dr. Pepper.
"You know you can help," Dewey scolded.
"I am helping."
"How is you watching TV helping in any way?"
"TV helps me in my scheming process. The more I watch a certain show, the more ideas I get."
"And what little schemes are you thinking about right now?"
"Right now I am scheming about going to the fridge and getting me more soda."
"Your pathetic you know that?" Webby replied
"Eh, I've been called worse."
"What are you even watching anyway?"
"Something called Tiger King. Jeff said he's from this place called Oklahoma right? This documentary takes place in Oklahoma. I thought I could get an idea about his place through this documentary.
"Oh and what's your opinion?"
"That the place is filled with a bunch of crazies. But they do seem to like tigers over there. What if we raid that place of their tigers and use turn them against Nimnus?
"Wouldn't he just mutate the tigers and turn them on us?"
Louie paused for a minute then lifted one finger up in the air before lowering it, realizing she had a point. "That's it, I got to keep watching, I got more scheming to do."
In Jeff's office, Huey and Violet was working hard as they help Jeff fill several darts with tranquilizer and started attaching them to some arrows.
Pausing for a second Huey stopped and wrote something down on his pad and showed it to Jeff.
"So what's your plan when you confront Nimnus anyway?"
"Well, try as I might I have not gotten any closer to finding a cure for this mutation he has done to his army. I've been trying at it for months. There's no way I'll be able to miraculously find a cure withing a week. When I face Nimnus I am going to force him to create a cure."
"How?"
Jeff finished tying one more dart to an arrow before walking to his closet and pulling out his machete. "With this."
Huey's and Violet's eyes both lit up and Huey frantically wrote down on a his pad. "You wouldn't actually kill him would you?"
"He deserves it for what he has done to this world, to the animals, but no, I can't kill him. As much as I want to run this blade through him I need him alive, to make a cure. I am going to make him think I will though. I will hold this blade up to his throat and threaten him with every inch of his life, make him think I am serious, forcing him to create the cure I need to free these animals from their suffering.
"You really think that will work?" Huey asked "I can think of several simulations where that plan could backfire and the only one getting killed is you."
"It has to, I have no other plan. Try as I might, I can't find this cure to this mutation and we only have a week tops.
Huey stopped working on the tranquilizers and wrote one last thing down on his pad. "Then don't work on it. Let me take over the project for you."
"How can you figure out what I can't? Your still just a kid."
"I'm extremely intelligent for my age." Huey wrote down "What do you have to lose at this point. Maybe a new set of eyes can find something your missing."
"Fine," Jeff sighed "I'm at the point of desperation if you can somehow find out what I'm missing, it will be much appreciated." Jeff then clapped his hands together before walking to his door. "Anyway I'm getting thirsty, anybody want a soda?"
Both Huey and Violet raised their hands and Jeff walked to the fridge and opened the door only to see that all the soda was gone.
"Hey, who drank all my soda?"
Dewey and Webby, both pointed to Louie who was still sitting on the couch watching Tiger King.
Slamming the refrigerator shut, Jeff marched over to the couch and placed a hand on Louie's shoulder.
"You know you can't just go over to someone's house and help yourself to their stuff without asking? That's disrespectful."
"Yo Jeff did you know this guy personally?" Louie wrote as he turned around and saw Jeff glaring at him angrily.
Looking at the TV Jeff noticed that Louie was referring to the Tiger King.
"I met him a couple of times, but I didn't actually know him."
"Do you have his autograph? Celebrity autographs will go for top dollars on some websites."
"No, and trust me that guy isn't a autograph you want to own, he was crazy which is why he is in jail. He pretended to be an environmentalist but ended up being nothing but a fraud."
"Hey prison famous is still famous, I'm sure I could get a few bucks for an autograph. You think after we save the world you can take me to visit him?"
Jeff rolled his eyes as he walked over to see how Dewey and Webby was doing on their search for Nimnus.
"How's things going over here?"
"We believe that Nimnus is on one of the Channel Islands but we can't figure out which one?" Webby wrote down.
"The Channel Islands huh?" Jeff repeated "That's a good hunch. Well, I might have a way to narrow our search down. Two of the islands are part of Los Angeles county, San Clemente and Santa Catalina. San Clementa is owned and operated by the United States Navy making it unlikely that Nimnus would be able to pull off his operations there. Which would leave our best option to be...""
Santa Catalina!" Both ducks wrote down together excited.
"We may not have much time to search but if my hunch is right and Nimnus is somewhere close to the Los Angeles area then that is where we start our search. Good job you two."
Webby and Dewey gave each over a high five over their work.
Outside, Gadget was flying her plane alongside Chip, Dale and Monterey Jack as they spotted the Sun Chaser crashed among the trees. Dale was looking through a pair of binoculars when he was the first to spot it and point it out to gadget.
"I see their plane, I see their plane. Take us down!"
As Gadget landed, the four of them inspected the plane and confirmed it was indeed the Sun Chaser.
Taking out her phone Gadget called Scrooge. "Scrooge we have located the Sun chaser, sending you the coordinates now." As Gadgets texted Scrooge the coordinates she also spotted a house off in the distance. "Not only that, I think I might know exactly where the kids are."
About an hour later, Jo was sitting on the front porch playing Among Us on her phone when she suddenly spotted a group of birds as well as a couple of mice and chipmunks arriving off from the distance. Jo's eyes shot up, realizing who these birds most likely was and she instantly ran inside and locked the doors before running to the living room where Louie, Webby, and Dewey was.
"Okay, I don't want to alarm any of you but your guardians are outside the window."
Jo didn't even have to read what the birds wrote down to see that they were terrified. Their terror only grew when they heard some banging at the door and the sound of a duck on the other end. After a couple of minutes the ducks broke the door down and The kids just coward in fear as Scrooge, Della, Donald, Gizmoduck, Gadget, Chip, Dale and Monty all busted in. Jo's head tilted to it's side in confusion at the sight of a duck in a gizmo suit.
"Release the kids this instant lady!" Scrooge threatened as he pointed his cane at Jo. "I don't want to hurt anyone but I will if I must."
"Uncle Scrooge wait!" Dewey stepped in front of Jo to shield her. "This woman isn't dangerous, I promise! she had been nice to us, shown us hospitality!"
"And these humans can't even speak duck, they have no idea what you are even saying!" Louie added.
Suddenly Jeff, Huey, Lena, and Violet all walked into the living room, attracted by the sound of the commotion.
"What is going on in hear?" The Ducks turned and saw the arrow that Jeff had been working on in his hands. Jeff's eyes landed on Donald, whose face was getting red with anger. Jeff then noticed the arrow in his hands and put two and two together. Donald saw him with a weapon and thought he was a potential threat to the kids.
Donald then erupted in anger, let out a scream and charged Jeff.
"Aw Phooey," Jeff gulped. This was not going to end pleasantly for him.
True fact, I have indeed met Joe Exotic the Tiger King in real life, that was not made up for the story. I have some pretty interesting stories about him if you want to know, but I didn't have time to put them in the chapter.
Till next time.