Part 2 of the Jules Verne Adventure starts now!
Episode 29: Escape from the Center of the Earth!
Hiding behind some nearby rocks, the six adventurers tried to come up with a plan on how to escape the Lava Monster, preferably without dying a horrible, burning death.
"The best plan would be to fix up the car and drive the heck out of here," Adam said.
"Yeah, but as soon as we step out of cover, that thing is going to start clawing at us," Gabriel said, ducking down as the Lava Monster chucked molten rock their way. "Oh, and it can throw lava at us as well."
"It's too hot down here for me to try and summon water to cool it down," Jasiri said. "Perhaps we need a distraction of some kind to buy Adam time to fix the car?"
"Good plan, lass," Scrooge nodded. "Captain Nemo, go with the boy to fix the vehicle, while the rest of you come with me to buy them some time."
"Got it!" everyone answered.
Melanie floated up in front of the Lava Monster, gaining its attention as Adam and Captain Nemo made a run for the car. The monster couldn't hurt Melanie, with her being a ghost and all, which let Scrooge, Gabriel, and Jasiri sneak around the side of the cavern to try and find a weak spot. The raven used his visor to scan the monster and get a basic readout of what it was like.
"Okay, it's pretty armored, and as we've already seen it's resistant to lava," Gabriel said. "However, it we can get up there, we might be able to hit it in the eyes to temporarily blind it."
"Leave that to me," Scrooge said. He tapped his cane on the ground before using it like a pogo stick, bouncing up the monster's back before expertly hitting it in the eyes. "Take this, you overgrown worm!"
The Lava Monster let out a cry of pain, swinging it's claws around wildly to try and hit the adventurers. Meanwhile, Adam and Captain Nemo were hard at work trying to fix the car, with the cyborg using his robot arm to wield together the broken parts of the engine.
"You seem to be pretty good at this, lad," Captain Nemo complimented. "You sure you want to be an adventurer when you could become an engineer?"
Adam nodded. "I want to find new places and bring lost treasures back to civilization. The robot parts are more so that I can do more than a normal person can." He zapped the engine, the car sputtering to life as it powered back on. "That should do it! Everybody get in!"
The team did as they were told, with Adam gunning it into the tunnels as soon they were all strapped in. The Lava Monster wasn't going to give up that easily, though, as it dived into the lava and followed the group, shaking the cavern around them as rocks started to fall. Taking evasive action, Adam steered the car into a larger cavern, this one further up the volcano with a high ceiling. As they drove around the lava sea, the Lava Monster appeared again, breaking the road in front of the car and forcing them to stop.
"This thing must be really mad at you guys," Gabriel said. "What did you do to it?"
"We didn't do anything!" Scrooge replied. "It came out of nowhere and started chasing us."
"it would be nice if it could just tell us why it's after us, but you know, monster and everything," Adam said.
Jasiri gasped. "Wait, I think we can get it to talk to us!" She activated her magic, reaching out to the Lava Monster. When she opened her eyes again, they glowed green just like the monster's did. "I feel its anger. It keeps saying that Scrooge stole something from it."
"You got all that from its growls?" Melanie asked.
"It's more like I can sense its thoughts and instincts," Jasiri said, shaking her head as the connection was lost. "Either way, if we want it to stop attacking us, we should try and give it back whatever it thinks we stole."
"Adam, try and find us another way out of here," Gabriel ordered. "I'll see if there's anything else we've missed."
Adam nodded and turned the car around, avoiding attacks from the Lava Monster as they carefully drove through the lava sea. Scrooge batted away any claw attacks, while Captain Nemo pulled out a spare harpoon gun to distract the monster. Eventually, Gabriel was able to detect another lifeform in the area similar to the Lava Monster, which the team drove towards.
"Curse me kilts, is that Glomgold!?" Scrooge shouted in shock as they came across another cave exploring vehicle.
Indeed, the other car was being driven by Flintheart Glomgold, the not-really-Scottish duck having decked out his ride with the Glomgold Industries logo. He even wore his kilt on the outside of his lava protection suit! "Well, well, well, if it isn't Scrooge McDuck," Glomgold sneered. "Here to steal one of the most valuable items from the center of the Earth? Well too bad, because Flintheart Glomgold already beat you to the punch."
"Wait a minute, this guy is Glomgold?" Adam asked in confusion. "He looks way too short and fat to be Glomgold to me."
"He's from the reboot, Adam," Gabriel explained. "So is Scrooge. You really couldn't tell the difference?"
"There's a reboot of Ducktales?" Adam said in surprise. "To be honest, I didn't really keep up with all the cartoons back in the real world, and I just thought that Scrooge was trying on a new outfit."
"This Scrooge doesn't even sound like the original one," Gabriel deadpanned, getting a bashful look from Adam. "Anyway, whatever it is you stole, Glomgold, give it back before we all get hurt!"
Glomgold laughed. "Like I'd ever give anything up to my rival, Scrooge McDuck! He just wants to have the most exotic omelet all to himself!"
"Omelet? What are you going on about, Glomgold?" Scrooge questioned.
Glomgold pulled out an egg, the same ones that the team saw earlier in the Lava Monster's lair. "With this rare egg, I'll be able to raise the monster as my own son, clone it, then sell the most exotic omelets ever to become the richest duck in the world!"
"Wow, that plan sounds incredibly stupid," Adam said.
"Well, that's Glomgold for you," Gabriel sighed.
The Lava Monster roared, popping up in front of the two cars and separating them.
"So that lunatic is endangering all of us just for a get-rich-quick-scheme!?" Captain Nemo shouted.
"Either way, we need to get that egg back to its mother," Jasiri said.
The group nodded, moving around the monster to where Glomgold was. Melanie acted first, disappearing then reappearing in front of the evil duck, scaring him and forcing him to drop the egg. Once it was up in the air, Gabriel sent out his magic into a giant hand to catch the egg, then tossed it over to Captain Nemo.
"Heads up, Scrooge!" Captain Nemo shouted, tossing the egg as the Lava Monster attacked. The sea captain dodged the attack, with the Lava Monster instead destroying Glomgold's car, much to his dismay.
Scrooge expertly caught the egg, though he had to jump out of the way as the monster turned its attention towards him. With another toss, Adam was the one that ended up with the egg, the Lava Monster narrowing its eyes at him.
"Um, hello there, Lava Monster," Adam said. He slowly held up the egg. "Here's your unborn child. Could you please just take it and not kill us all, please?"
The monster got close to Adam's face, its hot breath fogging up his suit. The Lava Monster then swiped the egg away from the cyborg, cradling it close as it made rumbling noises from its chest.
"Aw, it's glad that it has its child back," Jasiri said.
"If it wasn't a giant lava bug monster, this would be more heartwarming," Gabriel said.
Glomgold jumped up and down, fury ringing in his voice as he shouted, "No, no, no! I was supposed to become rich with that egg, not get this sappy reunion! You there, Lava Monster, give me back Glomgold Jr!"
"Glomgold Jr?" Adam asked. "Are you sure this guy is a threat, because the original Glomgold was an actual threat."
"Considering what Scrooge's other villains are like, one of them was going to be taken in a more comedic route," Gabriel said. He then turned to the Lava Monster. "Hey, that guy shouting over there is the one that stole your egg, not Scrooge!"
The monster faced Glomgold, then stabbed one of its claws into the ground, causing a lava geyser to spring up, launching the evil duck up and out of the volcano entirely.
"Curse you, Scrooge McDuck!" Glomgold shouted as he was blasted out of the sight.
The Lava Monster gave the group one last growl before sinking into the lava, no doubt returning to its lair to put the egg back where it belonged in the nest.
"Well, that was exhausting," Captain Nemo sighed. "You do not know how long we were hiding from that thing. Good job on your adventuring skills, you three. SEA could use people like you."
"Now that you mention it- " Adam started to say, only to stop when the volcano began to shake.
"Darling, perhaps we should get out of the active volcano before we talk about your future," Melanie suggested.
Everyone else agreed, piling into the car and driving through the volcanic vents to escape before Mount Prometheus blew.
[***]
After they all escaped both the Lava Monster and volcano, Scrooge said his goodbyes to the group, having to go and find Glomgold before he tried another idiotic scheme. Gabriel and Jasiri decided to go get dinner while Adam finally had his meeting with Captain Nemo. Once the cyborg got back to the duo, he had an ear-to-ear grin on his face.
"I'm guessing the meeting went well?" Gabriel asked.
"You're looking at the newest member of SEA," Adam said proudly. "Well, provisionally at least. I still have to talk to Henry Mystic and make my first big discovery to become officially part of the group, but I'm still on the path to get there."
"That's good to hear," Jasiri said.
"I made sure to put in a good word for you guys as well," Adam said. "Maybe someday we'll all be going on adventures together!"
"I think I'll stick to being a Dream Keeper, thanks," Gabriel shook his head. "But hey, if you need any help, you can always call on your friends."
Adam looked at Gabriel, tears welling up in his eyes. "So, we're friends now? Really?"
The raven shrugged. "Sure, why not. We're not best friends or anything, but I think I can trust you enough after you faced down that Lava Monster."
The cyborg brought Gabriel in for a hug. "Thank you! You two are my first real friends, besides Melanie, of course!"
"Adam… Your robot arm… Is crushing me," Gabriel gasped. The cyborg let him go, apologizing for not realizing his own strength.
"So Melanie, now that Adam has found his dream, what will you do?" Jasiri asked.
The ghost woman gave a hum. "Well, all I ever wanted to do was escape from my father, and I've already done that. I think I need to find my own dream, and you three have inspired me to want and help others."
"Perhaps you can help other restless spirits find happiness," Gabriel suggested. "After all, not all of them are happy haunts."
"That sounds nice," Melanie smiled. "And with Adam at my side, we can achieve both of our dreams together, as a team."
The adventuring duo gave their goodbyes, letting Gabriel and Jasiri finish of their meal to cap off an exciting day.
"Do you think it's weird that Adam is dating a ghost?" Jasiri asked.
"So says the hyena queen that's dating an anthropomorphic raven," Gabriel replied, both of them laughing.
Author's Note
While short, this adventure was pretty fun!
I really do love the new Ducktales reboot, but Adam's creator has more of a preference for the classic series. To address this, I had Adam be more familiar with the original show, which also let me point out how silly the new Glomgold is compared to his classic counterpart. As Gabriel points out, though, with Scrooge having villains that are bigger threats now like General Lunaris, the evilest version of Magica DeSpell ever, and the group FOWL, it makes sense why the writers would give Glomgold a goofier personality to balance out with the serious villains.
And Adam is a provisional SEA member now! I think this ends his arc in a good place, as it allows him to grow while also giving his story a good stopping point.
Next Time: Gabriel and Jasiri encounter a famous Bounty Hunter!
