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The following is a fan-based

FICTION

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Chapter 3 – Uh Uh~! (John)

Beta-Reader: Ant0nius

I feel as if there's something... not quite right. Even being in Scrooge's house as a guest that just so happened to tag along with his grandnephews, I can't shake this feeling.

The old duck had barely given my a quick look-over, and after getting over his brief moment of surprise on the matter of me not being a 'dog' like he initially expected, decided that I would receive the same treatment as the kids. 'So THAT's what my feeling of unease was warning me about' I mentally chuckled. And that was getting confined in one of the many bedrooms inside the manor. It was unclear to me what line of thinking lead Scrooge to make his decision... or why he didn't question that Donald vouched for me as 'the guy who knew how to handle the kids' when it was my passiveness that was the reason behind him leaving the kids at Scrooge's doorstep. Looking back at Scrooge himself and at his behavior, I could definitely say that his approach to the kids was similar in some aspects to the Scrooge in the comics early on. The tired old man that was no longer interested in adventures after losing so much when it came to family… yet not. Differently from the comic's version, this Scrooge was more friendly to Donald, less resentful mostly, and his abrupt decision to just split us in different rooms with locked doors just felt more like an excuse to… not deal with this matter. He was reluctant, but I didn't know why and what could have pushed him to this action.

A tiny hum leaving my lips, I pulled a bit from my collar, feeling a bit of heat due to the temperature of the room and the fact I was wearing a formal outfit like Donald asked me to. I had to appear geared for 'work' and 'serious' to his uncle if I wanted to make a good impression. I was already regretting the decision due to how terribly hot the room was. Taking a moment to walk around & ponder, I took the opportunity to look around the room. Immediately noticing how dull and lacking this place was when it came to entertaining people to keep them occupied, I realized that the boys would definitely break free the first chance they got in order to find or do something to have fun. During my observation of the room, I found a way to exit these rooms with ease. It was while I was waiting for something to happen, expecting not be forgotten here in the house, that it finally dawned on me that there was something I had missed in crafting my plan of keeping the triplets away from Scrooge, and it would render my plan nearly impossible to succeed with. As some of the rooms in this house had been left untouched for years, there were issues that unfortunately couldn't be solve through cleaning duty. The locks were quite old and brittle, as proven when I managed to break the lock to the room I was in by hitting it with a big book about Airplanes located in one of the corners of the room. Staring at the broken mechanism for a moment, dread seeped into my brain as I realized what this could mean for the kids' room.

The kids were definitely going to be free around this time and I had to find them before they made a mess. Sure, I knew how the story went: they caused trouble, Uncle Scrooge came in and helped only to need the triplets' help back and… yep. I knew this was a classic origin story as to how Scrooge changed his perspective, wanted to get back to adventures, and recruited his grandnephews for this wild ride of their lives. But while I was more than happy to let it happen, I was also a responsible guy that didn't back away from a promise made to someone that helped me. Donald asked me to make sure the kids were fine and I was going to do that. Just as I started to search around, spending just two minutes wandering through that seemingly endless maze of rooms and hallways, I stopped when I felt the ground shake as something nearby had cracked onto the walls. My pace resumed- no, it picked up due to the worry starting to grow at the particularly loud noise and soon I was right at the door where it originated which proved to be a-

A garage?

Despite the unusual setting, my eyes swiftly shifted to look at the three- no, four ducks that currently stood out from the rest of the things in the room. The triplets were staring at the ceiling, or rather at the hole that had been recently created that led to the outside, together with another duckling, this one seemingly being a girl. I tried to think which character she could be, and I honestly expected her to be one of Daisy's nieces back from the old comics. I wasn't sure that was actually the case since the other set of triplets would have looked more like their aunt, but maybe they had received a change of appearance too? I wasn't sure, but this wasn't the element I was focusing on. I had to investigate why there was a hole in the ceiling of this garage and why it looked like the kids had seen a ghost.

"What is going on here?" I asked loudly enough to catch the children's attention.

"AH! I mean- Oh, hi John," Louie jumped in fright at my question, managing just barely to pull a fake and fairly weak smile while trying his best to subsequently appear calm and collected. "Nothing wrong here."

"There is a hole in the ceiling," I remarked flatly and he chuckled nervously.

"There was a… problem with… artifacts," Dewey commented slowly, trying to come up with the right words before Huey nodded at his words with an equally nervous smile.

"Yes, just a tiny problem."

I doubt a tiny problem can cause a hole that big.

"Mr. McDuck got kidnapped by a Dragon!" The fourth unknown duckling exclaimed, having no reason to lie and yet really giving me quite the outlandish claim over the current situation. Knowing the settings… I could only nod. It was possible and… I was a bit worried. What was a dragon doing in a garage of all places instead of possibly safer rooms within this manor?

I didn't ask, not when the situation appeared quite critical.

"Still, how are we going to catch up with a flying dragon?" Dewey asked the smartest question possible in that very circumstance. There wasn't exactly an immediate solution to it and I was about to suggest chasing with a car when someone else spoke up and-

"I'm a pilot."

I turned to look at the one who just spoke up. That was Scrooge's car driver, and he seemed genuine with that affirmation. Before I could inquire more on this, he spoke up again.

"Wait, what is exactly going on?" The big guy, Launchpad, asked and I decided to fill him up with the matter as quickly as possible.

"Your boss has been kidnapped by a dragon that had been stored in this place," I replied swiftly. "Dunno how it woke up, but we need to give chase. Now."

He made a quick military salute at my sense of urgency. "Yes, sir!" And then proceeded to rush out of the garage and take us to the plane we were meant to use. I wasn't thrilled to bring the kids along for the ride, but I knew better then to expect them to stay safe and away from adventure. Not when their granduncle's life was in peril. The plane was quite big, and I expected the thing to take a while to get ready to take off, but I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly the engines turned on and were prepped to take flight.

The big red plane, the 'Sunchaser', soared rapidly over Duckburg, and I stood by the pilot seat beside Launchpad to see if I could see the dragon. "There!" I exclaimed while aiming a finger at the golden-scaled creature, the ferocious beast trying its best to shrug Scrooge off of itself while trying to get to the Money Bin but failing due to the stubbornness of the old Duck. Despite his best efforts, soon Scrooge was sent flying away from the mythical monster, seemingly falling to his doom… until his fall was interrupted as he was pulled by yours truly back in the plane. The kids had initially wanted to do it, but since I had a longer arm's reach, I decided to go through this to avoid any accidents.

Scrooge looked surprised, but incredibly… well, injured. Not too much, but he was definitely going to need a long break before being able to be at 100%.

"I-I told you to go to you-"

"No time, we got to work fast," Dewey interrupted with a serious tone.

Huey turned to the female duckling. "Webby, how do we stop it?"

I was a bit confused by that question considering that I had quite the troubling moment trying to think up of ways to stop the fiery beast with what we had at our disposal. But… I realized that the girl wasn't exactly unprepared on the topic from the way she reacted.

"It's mystical. So we need a mystical device," 'Webby' replied confidently, sparing a determined look at the rest of the triplets. "Like an Oblivion Mirror, or a Medusa Gauntlet, or-"

"Like this?" Louie asked suddenly, lifting up his left hand and showing that he was wearing a gauntlet with… well, the face of Medusa on its palm's section. Having been a first hand witness of Louie's recent interest in calling dibs on interesting things, I wasn't really surprised that he had decided to bring with himself some artifacts that had been left in that garage. The rest of the solution was plotting the best use of that artifact to petrify the dragon. Scrooge was tied up with some garden hose 'of destiny' and meant to be thrown down just so that he could grasp the dragon from its tail and paralyze it for good.

Good news, it worked perfectly as, despite the old duck being released to the green tube, he managed to land 'safely' into his money bin and into his money. And like all kinds of versions of Scrooge, he knew how to swim through money as if it was liquid. Bad news, we crash-landed shortly after right in front of the manor. No one got hurt, but it was a really frightening moment. I found four kids suddenly latching onto me as fiercely as possible, and I held them as close as I could to avoid any harm from happening to them.

Relief washed over me as the plane stopped moving, but the next bit was particularly serious nonetheless. The children were allowed off, while I went to check Launchpad, helped him out of his brief moment of embarrassment for messing up that landing procedure, and got him to start helping me with the fire extinguisher and the garden house standing outside. The impact caused some small flames, which kept us both distracted by the time Scrooge caught up with us. Glancing to the side, I saw Scrooge speaking with the kids, at first taking a serious and frustrated tone regarding the fact he came so close to die on multiple occasions. But then he subverted his seemingly angry-induced rant with a chuckle, admitting that it had been so long since he felt this much 'alive' and that's what he had been missing when it came to adventures.

Speaking of adventures, he decided to personally oversee the 'wee ones' while Donald was busy with his job interview by taking them… on their first adventure. Atlantis beckoned and… I was suddenly conscripted without being asked much of my opinion. In fact, as I brought this one up, I was surrounded by the triplets.

"John please, we promise we will not do anything risky while there," Dewey muttered with a sad tone, really showing how committed he was to go on a real adventure for once.

"Yeah, Uncle Donald doesn't need to know."

"I will stop stealing- I mean, calling dibs on things," Louie concluded and I really felt incredibly besieged by two voices of reasons.

Either I went along with it at the risk of facing an angry Donald or I didn't and I got the triplets and Scrooge scorned. In fact, at that very moment, Scrooge looked confused by the fact the kids would suddenly rush to ask me permission to go for the adventure, and I could tell he was going to ask about this as soon as they were from earsight. I was particularly leaning towards one decision considering the circumstances I was dealing with and… I agreed. The kids suddenly jumped up to get a big hug in, and I used this development to remind them that I was going to watch over them to make sure they didn't do anything stupid. While they all agreed to this, I could tell I was immensely going to regret it. Especially with how giddy Dewey was with action in general. The triplets were soon back to speak with their Granduncle, leaving me alone once again to help Launchpad with fixing the fiery mess that remained to be ended for good. And just as I was about to resume my fire-fighting duty, I was stopped once more, this time by 'Webby'.

"Sir, can I help?"

The question had me looking back at the girl in shock. "What? Oh no, it's alright-"

"Sir, please. I want to help," The girl pushed with a stubborn tone. "Grandmother wouldn't want me to not help around with this mess, and I think it's the right thing to do."

That determination to help caught me off-guard. I glanced back at her, thinking about her offer and realizing that I would really need some help to carry the extra extinguisher. The one I was using was almost done for, so I would have to exchange it with the other one I brought up with me due to this circumstance.

"Extinguishers are tough to use at your age, but I guess you can learn how to use those by helping carrying that one for me while I use this one," I offered weakly, knowing that I couldn't ask to what I was quite sure was a ten years old to operate a fire-extinguisher with her current size and strength. She seemed to be accepting of this, but before we started, I pushed a fairly important question. "By the way, what's your name?"

She smiled, holding her right hand out for a handshake. "Webby. Webby Vanderquack, sir."

"John Bukharin. And you may call me John."

"Okay, si- John."

I nodded at her cheerfulness, smiling back at the girl happily listening to my explanation on how to use the extinguisher properly. All in all, a lovely new friendship and a sweet sugar cube to help my brain digest the dread rumbling from within at the idea of going to my first adventure. I had to make sure the kids were fine and… I knew I had to put myself at risk to avoid the worst to happen.

Despite that, I couldn't help but feel a strong hunch that not telling Donald of this was going to bite us back in the near future...