Chapter 6 – The Garden of Statues
Scrooge is being flown over to an unrecognizable place, formally his mansion. The shape and color are so dark and dripping with gloom. A face carved on the front entrance is reminiscing of another temple Magica once lived in with her twin brother, Poe.
Scrooge knows he needs to take down this evil Sorceress somehow once and for all. Sure, in hindsight, Scrooge should have grabbed her brother before flying out the window, even though it was not his fault that Magica turned him into a raven. However, he was a different person back then too. If he had to do it all again, perhaps Scrooge could have handled the situation better.
The two shadow demons take him down at the front entrance, where Magica De Spell and Ma Beagle stand waiting. Scrooge is dreading what they have planned. Instead of putting him down gently, the shadows just let him drop from five feet off the ground. The sudden plunge does not give Scrooge time to react; therefore, he lands poorly onto his belly.
Scrooge opens his eyes and sees both Magica and Ma Beagle's feet. He gradually glances upwards until he sees their smiling faces, amused with Scrooge's situation.
"So nice of you to finally grovel at our feet, Scroogie." Magica purrs.
"I have waited a long time for this moment." Ma Beagle chuckles.
"Aye, I suppose you have," Scrooge grumbles.
As Scrooge attempts to push himself up, Ma decides to knock him back down with her foot. The force Scrooge is so rough that he lets out a painful grunt.
"Wait, I want to savior this for another minute." The Beagle Elder grins with delight. She digs her heel deep into Scrooge's shoulder blade, causing him to let out a yelp in agony.
Magica enjoys this moment; seeing the Beagle mother bringing physical pain to her enemy is like a symphony to her eyes and ears. However, this is but only the beginning of Scrooge's torture. She lifts her hand in front of Ma Beagle, indicating for her to stop.
"We can kick Scrooge down again later." The wicked Sorceress smirks. "I want to give him a tour of our lovely home first."
"Of course," though disappointed, Ma Beagle knows Magica is right. Reluctantly, she lifts her foot of Scrooge and allows him to get up onto his feet.
Scrooge uses his cane as an aid to stand. He gives his back a stretch, letting the joints release the tension by cracking. The old duck then dusts himself off and adjusts his top hat before turning to face the women.
"Alright, let's have at it." The old billionaire deadpans.
"What do you mean?" Magica raises her brow in suspicion.
"You know, your gloating. Telling me how you've won – yadda, yadda, yadda…" Scrooge mocks, circling his wrist in the air for emphasis.
Magica's stunned expression shifts into a dark grin.
"Why just tell you when I can show you." The dark Sorceress facetiously chimes.
The two Shadow Demons float back down to Scrooge's side. Each of the demons lies a hand down on his shoulders and leads him inside.
Scrooge stops, and his lower beak drops. In the lobby stands a statue of Flintheart Glomgold. The one thing Scrooge notices is how in pain Flintheart looks in his frozen state. He suffered during the transformation caused by the Medusa's Curse just by his expression. Scrooge, for the first time, feels terrible for Glomgold's fate. No matter how much he tried to ruin him with sharks, the wide stubby duck didn't deserve this.
Magica smiles, noticing Scrooge captivated with her work.
"Oh, do you like it?" Magica says proudly. "I call it, 'Good Riddance to an Annoying Alliance.' He was my first piece, by the way."
Ma Beagle snickers amusingly.
"You are truly sick," Scrooge growls.
"Wait till you see my other works of art." Magica chuckles. "I'm sure you will be very impressed."
Scrooge suddenly is very worried. What is he going to expect seeing Magica's 'art'? He doesn't have to wait long, though; the two women open the sliding door to the backyard.
No longer is his garden of lushes trees, green grass, and a sparkling pool. Instead, Scrooge sees dark thorny vines, cracked cement walkways, and statues – several statues of what was once living people.
When his surviving family mentioned the Medusa's Curse, he had no idea how horrible it is, until now.
"Isn't it glorious, Scroogie?" Magica exaggerates with pride. "I'm quite proud of my work here."
Scrooge is speechless. There are no words that could describe the agony on each face on the stone carvings. He forgot how cruel Magica De Spell is, and this 'garden' is proof of that.
The old duck stops when he spots one of the moon landers, his niece, Della, befriended. Penumbra has her spear positioned to toss. It looks like she was stricken with the curse and now appears in distress at the same time determined.
"Yes, well, what can, I say about this one." Magica shrugs, seemingly not as pleased with this statue. "'The Moon Warrior,' as I call her. She did put up a good fight, but in the end, she did let out a great scream."
Moving forward, Magica addressed the next group of statues.
"Now this piece is called, 'Love Gone Forever.'"
Scrooge feels like he could cry at the sight of Gizmoduck holding a dying Gandra Dee.
"This one is one of my personal favorites, 'The Traitorous Child.'" The witch leans up with her arm over the statue of Lena.
"I personally like this one," Ma Beagle points at a gargoyle shape statue.
With bat-like wings spread out, Manny the Headless Man Horse of the Apocalypse, frozen in what appears to be in mid-roar. Beside Manny is cousin Fethry. The loony duck is crouching in agony, but at the same time, he is reaching out as if to plea for help.
"Oh, this is a good one." Magica points at another pair of statues, Darkwing trying desperately to protect his adopted daughter, Gosalyn. Sadly, to no avail, both are forever encased in stone. "If you ask me, this is just an example of heroic nonsense."
The more Scrooge sees these statues, the more he realizes the sacrifice they made, trying to defeat his enemies. Suddenly, the former billionaire is regretting coming here to see this torment. Perhaps Magica and Ma Beagle won after all.
"Finally, this is my greatest masterpiece, 'Death to Scrooge's Family.'" The Dark Sorceress sings with greedy delight.
The impact of seeing his nephew Donald collapsed at the sight of Daisy cuddle the clone twins, May and June, is the last breaking point. Just by viewing this, it would appear Daisy and the twins were hit with Medusa's Curse first. Most likely, they were trapped and had no choice but to hold each other until the end came. Donald looked devastated and didn't even put up a fight when the curse struck him. The agony on his face shows both loss and actual physical pain.
Scrooge suddenly has no strength to stand. He falls hard onto his knees as he lets out a gasp and sob. Again, even though he was told by his niece and nephews of this curse, seeing it in person is more than he can bear.
"Eventually, I do plan on making more," Magica promises.
Both women snicker at Scrooge's suffering. Knowing now is a perfect time for the final phase of their revenge, Magica wriggles her hand in the air to instruct one of the Shadow Demons to lift Scrooge's hand.
Scrooge doesn't even put up a fight. He is wholly drained emotionally at the moment.
"I've waited fifteen years for this moment," Magica's perusing yellow eyes twinkle in anticipation.
She raises her black staff and points the purple stone at Scrooge's hand. The stone glows, and an outline of a bracelet is about to form around his wrist. The spell is quickly interrupted when a plane sores over their heads.
"What in tarnation?" Ma Beagle hollers over the engine noise.
Even Scrooge looks over with the ladies as the plane lands on the backyard runway. Low and behold, Don Karnage hops out of the plane. His once suave look has scars across his face and a patch covering one eye.
"Oh, it's just him." Magica groans.
"What do you want?" Ma Beagle says in a salty tone.
"It is I, Don Karnage, here to greet my favorite villains in their victory." The wolf pirate walks up to them with charisma.
"Thank you, but we don't need any praises from the likes of you." Magica temporarily lowers her staff wave the pirate off. "Now, if you don't mind, I am in the middle of something…."
"Ah yes, I can see that." The pirate captain nods his head.
Before Magica could return to casting her spell, Karnage turns the two ladies around and starts leading them towards his plane with both arms around their shoulders.
"However, I must interject your time for one quick moment." The wolf insists. "You see, out there in the real world, we pirates rule the skies. Even though we made a truce, when it comes to invading Duckburg, I still must insist on following a certain request from a particular client of mine."
As Karnage gives his longwinded excuse, behind the trio, a raid of three other pirates emerges from the bush. They rush up to Scrooge and the two Shadow Demons. Two pirates swing swords at the dark aberrations, and the spirits disappear in a poof. The third pirate shoots a sleeping dart at Scrooge, knocking the old duck out cold. The third pirate picks up Scrooge and carries him off with the other two crewmates following behind.
"What are you talking about?" Ma Beagle grumbles.
Karnage briefly turns his head and smiles.
"I am talking about completing my job to receive a big payoff. A fellow notorious pirate by the name of Duke L'Orange wants to see Scrooge McDuck."
"Who?" The two ladies say concurrently.
"Duke L'Orange," Karnage repeats. "He sort of reminds me of a younger me; only he is less of a performer than I ever was. I do admit, though, he is a snazzy dresser." He adds, hopping into his plane and starting up his engine.
"Well, that's too bad because we ha –" Magica stops in midsentence when she realizes someone is missing. "Where is Scrooge?" She shouts.
"Sorry, I can't hear you." Karnage pretends the engine of his plane is too loud. "I am off!"
The pirate proceeds to lean the steering forward, and the plane lifts off the ground.
Both Magica and Ma Beagle are beside themselves with anger. They were so close to achieving their final phase of victory, and now they are watching a pesky pirate fly off with their prize.
"If I ever find out who this 'Duke L'Orange' is, I'll feed him to the sharks before turning him into stone!" The evil Sorceress seethes.