AN: This story starts with Louie captured instead of Huey. As Louie isn't a woodchuck it seems like Bradford would come at him from a different angle. Unfortunately for him Louie is rather good at seeing angles.

Louie stumbled slightly as May pushed him into the room. Her expression was hard to read but she was clearly uncomfortable being here. He watched her leave as quickly as possible while Bradford loomed in the shadows. For someone who seemed to think he wasn't some over the top villain he sure could be dramatic at times.

"Louie Duck" Bradford said as he stepped. "I must admit, I'm glad to finally get a chance to speak with you one on one."

"Is that so?" Louie asked in a neutral voice.

"Of course. I've always wanted a chance to speak with the only sane member of Scrooge's ridiculous family. If anyone can understand my quest to bring order to this chaotic world, it should be you."

"And why is that?" Louie had a feeling whatever Bradford had to say was going to be incredibly irritating. Still, he did his best to keep his tone casual. He wasn't confident he could talk his way out of this situation but either way he would gain nothing from losing his cool.

"I've seen how you and your brothers react to adventuring. Dewford seems to have no sense of self preservation at all. He's constantly risking his life and the lives of others. Sometimes for nothing but attention. Hubert is slightly better. At the very least he started out careful and meticulous. But the more adventures he participates in, the more intoxicated he becomes on the 'thrill of adventure.' In your little raid earlier today he rushed ahead of his group and almost got himself killed."

'By one of your traps!' Louie thought to himself.

"You're different from your brothers, Louie." He had to give the man props for not using his full name. "To you adventuring is just a means to an end. One of many potential routes to financial success. You don't glamorize the danger it puts you and your loved ones in the way they do. You actually remind me a bit of myself at your age."

Louie was surprised. All that buildup and this was the angle Bradford was going for. Trying to establish a connection between them. Something like that might have a small chance of working on his brothers but for him it was childsplay. If you're going to try to con a conman then you should at least bring your A-game.

"I can see that you're skeptical," Bradford continued, proving that, at the very least, he was adept at reading people. "And I can understand why. From your perspective I likely come off as just another villain trying to hurt your family for the sake of vengeance or power. I assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. I am not a villain. I'm just trying to make the world a better, safer, and more orderly place. But I can understand why that would be hard to believe. Perhaps a little context as to why I'm doing this would help you understand."

And so Bradford regaled Louie with his tragic backstory. Louie wasn't sure how much of it, if any, he believed. His familial relationship with Isabella Finch alone was hard to believe but while the photographs and paintings Bradford had weren't absolute proof of his words they certainly lent them some credence. Furthermore the idea of him being forced on dangerous adventures actually induced a bit of sympathy in Louie. Not enough to manipulate him. He wasn't some rube. He could see now why Bradford had gone with this angle though. He had never really been outright forced on adventures but there had always been a bit of pressure to join his family on them, especially early on. At one point it got so bad that he almost had a mental breakdown trying to make his family take a day off from adventuring. The resulting chaos ended with his family shrunken and fighting for their lives on top of a Scroogeopoly board. All in all he liked his family's adventurous lifestyle, but he certainly wouldn't complain if they toned it down a little.

"And so you see Louie, all I really want is to make sure that the tragedies that happened to me never repeat themselves. I'm not trying to say that your family are bad people, but don't you think they'd be better off without the temptation to adventure. No chance of one of your brothers following in your mother's footsteps and biting off more than they can chew."

And there was the trump card. It still stung even though he'd been expecting it. His mother's time on the moon did make a world without adventure sound somewhat appealing. Though not nearly enough that he would put his faith in someone who managed to deceive his uncle for decades. "So your plan is to contain or destroy as many magical artifacts as you can. And what does Webby have to do with any of this?"

"I need Webbigail's help to get my hands on one last missing mystery. It has eluded me for years and I have reason to believe that she is uniquely suited to obtaining it."

That was believable considering how talented Webby was in a lot of aspects of adventuring but it felt like there was more to it. Unfortunately prying too much might make Bradford raise his guard. He couldn't really afford that right now. "You promise no harm will come to my family, including Webby?"

"Trust me Louie. Once I'm finished your family will never have to worry about danger again!" Bradford replied with a sly smile.

Now that one was just insulting. Did Bradford seriously think Louie wouldn't be able to see the hidden meaning behind something like that? And why was he trying so hard to stick to half truths here. It was useful to mix the truth into your lies but only up to a certain point. Whatever! Bradford's inconsistent manipulation skills weren't his problem. Right now he just needed to play along until he found a good opening.

"Then I think this is the start of a beautiful partnership." Louie said as he raised his hand to shake on the deal. Unfortunately he was interrupted by a familiar annoying voice.

"He's fibbing, fibbing, fibbing!"

Louie's eyes widened as he slowly turned his head, noticing for the first time a conspicuously harp shaped item covered in a drape and located in the corner of the room. That explained all the half truths at least.

"I'm disappointed." Bradford said in a dangerous voice as he grabbed Louie by his sweater and dragged . "I had hoped that you were smarter than this."

"Sorry but Huey's the smart one," Louie replied defiantly. There was no need to keep up an act anymore. "I'm more sharp than smart. You, on the other hand, are neither smart nor sharp if you actually think you've got a shot at winning here. Basic pattern recognition is all you really need to see how this ends. Magica and Lunaris have both tried to tear my family apart. What makes you think you can succeed where they failed?"

"Firstly, because I'm nothing like those two," Bradford replied as he threw Louie into a strange cubic prison and sealed the door. "They were jokes. Comic book supervillains. The very kind of nonsense that I'm trying to rid the world of. Secondly," Bradford paused for a second to give Louie a cruel look. "Because I've already torn your family apart once before..."

"What are you..."

"And all it took was moving a few secret documents around so Della could have a look at them."

Louie's eyes filled with rage as he realized what Bradford was implying. "YOU!"

For a moment he lost control and threw himself against the door of his prison. The action was as ineffectual as it was painful. He was lucky he hadn't broken anything. Not that he had the presence of mind to worry about that at the moment.

"Allow me to leave you with a bit of advice brat," came Bradford's infuriating voice. "Luck always runs out eventually, and luck is the only thing that's been keeping your family intact."

"Well if we're exchanging advice now," Louie replied, finally regaining a bit of composure. "Then let me pass along a pearl of wisdom that I was given not long ago."

"If you're going to spout off some drivel about the power of family or the greatness of adventure then please save your brea..."

"You're nothing new..."

"What?"

"You're not original. There's nothing special about you. No matter how desperately you want to pretend that you're something different, I've seen it before. A convoluted yet admittedly impressive master plan? I've seen that before. Creating artificial children so that you can emotionally abuse them into doing your dirty work for you? I've seen that before. Obsessing over Scrooge McDuck and his family as if we're the embodiment of everything you dislike about the world. You can't imagine how many times I've seen that before!"

"You can draw up all the comparisons you want" Bradford replied angrily. "None of that gives you the advantage."

"We don't need an advantage against you. I'm not nearly optimistic enough to think my family is truly invincible. Maybe someday we'll face a threat that we really can't overcome. But I can say one thing with absolute certainty. You're not it!"

Bradford stared at him for a few seconds before turning to leave. "Think what you want."