Scrooge

Scrooge inched cautiously down the corridor, following the bloody trail and sweeping his eyes everywhere, looking for traps. He scanned the walls, the ceiling, and especially the floor. He was not getting caught off-guard again.

As the light from Huey's phone faded back into the distance, Scrooge pulled out a wooden stick and a box of oily rags, tying them together before taking out a matchbox. Striking a match, he lit the torch, illuminating the further confines of the passage.

At the very edge of this illumination, he could see a body, slumped against the wall. The blood trail seemed to lead towards it.

Slowly, Scrooge approached it, eyes flicking from the body to the floor, to the walls, to the ceiling, then back to the body, blood running cold as he began to recognise it. He positioned himself so that he could look at the corpse in the face, the details clear to him in the flickering torchlight.

The body was that of a tall, lean male chicken sporting a long-sleeved green shirt, a dark open vest and a pair of dark brown trousers. A pair of broken glasses sat on the man's slightly open beak, in front of glassy, lifeless eyes. Through his chest was a deep, circular wound, almost six inches in diameter, through which broken pieces of ribcage and ruptured internal organs could be seen. Thick, congealed blood dripped from the wound, forming a pool of gore that the corpse sat in, soaking it and producing a foul odour. A small yellow hat rested upside-down in this pool, stained red.

Scrooge stared at the body for a good while, trying to piece this puzzle together. He had seen Gyro in his lab just on Friday, handing over what Scrooge had assumed to be the completed map of the ruins. They had left on Saturday and arrived in the evening. For this body to be here, Gyro would have had to somehow teleport from Duckburg to this temple while the rest of the family were on the plane.

But while that wasn't strictly outside the realm of possibility, it didn't make sense. Kneeling down, Scrooge noted that the corpse had been here for at least a couple of days. It would have been down here at while he had been speaking with Gyro only the day before.

…A suspicion began to brew in Scrooge's mind. With the tip of his cane, he lifted the left edge of Gyro's jacket to inspect the inside pockets. A couple of notepads and some pens, some lightbulbs… nothing immediately outstanding. In the pockets of the right side of the jacket, however, he noticed a small, plastic device.

Scrooge frowned. Slowly, keeping his eyes on the body, he reached out and took hold of the device, quickly darting back once he had it in his grip. Giving it a look over, he could see that it was some kind of recording device with a microphone at the edge of the device and a speaker in the centre. A few buttons sat on the edge opposite from the microphone, with buttons that had symbols for 'play', 'record' and 'rewind'.

Hesitantly, Scrooge pressed the play button.

"Stop what you're doing!" Snapped a reedy, arrogant voice from the speaker, causing Scrooge to jump. "This recording is for the ears of my employer, Scrooge McDuck, only. If you are not Scrooge McDuck and you somehow found your way into this place, put this down, walk away, and pretend that you saw none of this!"

Scrooge's eyes darted down the hall where Huey and Webby were waiting, the volume of the recording doubtlessly reaching the two youngsters. He looked over the device rapidly, looking for a volume slider.

"In the event that you are Mr McDuck, you have probably found this device on the body of my clone." Gyro's voice continued to speak from the device. "Yes, I sent a clone into this place to take care of disarming all the traps-"

"Gah! No-!" Scrooge growled.

"-modifying them to reduce lethality-"

"Stop-!"

"-as well as mapping out the temple-"

"Blasted-!"

"-and generally eliminating any point of danger or uncertainty within the ruin's premises, as what you instructed me to do."

Scrooged closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, trying not to swear.

"To keep a long explanation short, I did this so I could simultaneously work both on this and the half-dozen or so other projects that you have also told me to work on." Gyro's voice took on a distinctly annoyed tone now. "I am not a miracle worker, I can only do so much, and since Cabrera has moved on from his internship, which you already know, I saw fit to send in a proxy. I'm not going to needlessly risk my life for what amounts to recreational purposes, and if you have found this device, then I think you'll agree that I am completely right, as usual!"

The voice started to rise in pitch and agitation. "Frankly, I don't even know why I agreed to do this, considering that my speciality is making things more dangerous instead of less dangerous, especially when you consider the logistics of going through an entire ruined temple, disassembling and rebuilding every single trap, doing so without arousing suspicion from your nephews! I may be a genius, but it's hardly a simple task to complete! You're lucky I didn't request extra compensation! And while you're here, who is this Gutefeder wacko? Is he some other mad scientist? ARE YOU REPLACING-?"

The recording abruptly stopped.

Scrooge took a slow, deliberate breath, looking down the hall where the other two were waiting. He couldn't hear conversation or shocked gasps… but he could hear faint whispering.

He put the device into one of his pocket, thinking rapidly. The cat was out of the bag, he knew, but that was almost irrelevant now. What mattered now was figuring out what was going on in this temple and getting out with his family. And while the recording illuminated a few things, it still didn't explain what had actually happened.

Gently, Scrooge reached out and closed the eyes of the clone's body. Then, he turned around and began to walk back towards where the two younger ducks were waiting.

Then, he heard a deep, echoing boom from deep within the labyrinth.

"Curse me kilts." Scrooge hissed under his breath, immediately speeding up to reach the other two.

Then, the floor in front of him start to give way.

The instant he noticed, Scrooge leapt into a dive, trying to clear the emerging pit before he fell through it again. He hit the other side with a grunt, swiftly getting up before the rest of the floor had a chance to disappear on him. Quickly looking over his shoulder, he saw that the hole was already sealing itself again, after a mere second of being open. Not wanting to see what would happen if he waited, he kept running.

He quickly entered the torchlight of Huey's phone, spotting the two youngsters peering fearfully down the hall.

"Uncle Scrooge!" Huey exclaimed upon seeing him. "I think that boar thing has-!"

Before he could finish his sentence, the brickwork underneath him pulled away, and Huey descended with a yelp.

Thankfully, he didn't fall far, as Webby grabbed his outstretched hand the moment he started to plummet. Scrooge quickly latched onto his other hand, and the two of them began to lift him out of the pit.

They could hear hoof-falls echoing down the labyrinth.

Huey looked down at the pit he'd almost fallen down. "Can we escape through here?" He asked quickly.

Scrooge thought about it. The one he'd fallen through before had taken him to an embalming room. This pit likely wouldn't lead to the same location, but it would at least be away from here. "Aye, we can!" He told them. "Jump down, but prepare to stop yourselves, just in case!"

With that, the three quickly leapt into the pit, the bricks sealing themselves behind them. A short fall greeted them, and they landed on a slope, familiar to Scrooge, but surprising to the other two. They slid down for twenty, forty, sixty feet before any of them could begin to see the end, opening up into a rectangular glint of light.

They flew through the exit and onto the floor of the chamber beyond, landing in a messy pile on top of one another. From the bottom of the pile, Huey weakly held up his phone to try and brighten the area around him. They were in a relatively large room, about a hundred feet on either side, with windows at the far end that opened into a inky, black abyss. In the centre of the room stood a polished stone platform, with a set of steps leading up to it and an empty pedestal at its centre. Scrooge recognised this as the room that was supposed to house the cloak – and yet, no such cloth was in sight.

The group disentangled themselves and stood up, looking around the room. Scrooge took the moment of quiet to compose himself, preparing for the inevitable questions.

"…So…" Huey began slowly. "…This is all… fake?"

Scrooge shook his head. "Not fake – controlled. Or, it was supposed to be… those two cut-rate constructs weren't meant to be here, none of this was supposed teh happen."

"…Alright…" Huey replied, stepping out and looking around. "You… had a map, too?"

"Aye… not that it's of much use now."

The red triplet shone a light over the room. "…So which room was this?"

"The Vault of the Tyrian Cloak." Scrooge replied. "This was where our prize was meant to be, but… there's no sign of it."

"…So this was pointless all along." Huey spoke softly, facing away from him. "On top of being a disaster."

Scrooge's pride chafed at the implied criticism, but he forced himself to remain calm as he explained himself. "We couldn't just throw Louie straight into the deep end, Huey. We had to start with a safe adventure."

Huey turned to him in disbelief. "This is safe?" He demanded, gesturing around the chamber.

"This wasn't supposed teh happen!" Scrooge protested defensively.

"How could it not? This place is innately magical! Nothing good could've come out of messing around with its inner workings! This- This was a bad idea!" Huey spluttered out in panic and anger. "Right from the start! We shouldn't have come here!"

"I didn't just jump into this venture blindly, I'd have ye know!" Scrooge growled at him. "I did me research, made sure it-!"

"Well, it clearly wasn't enough research!" Huey snapped back.

…The boy wasn't wrong. Scrooge gripped the handle of his cane and looked away, trying to formulate a response, but finding that nothing came to mind.

"…You didn't have to lie to us." Webby piped up softly.

Scrooge winced at the hurt in her voice. He turned to look at Webby, still standing by the wall where the slide had been, her expression downcast and her gaze angled at the floor.

"You couldn't have kept this from Louie if I'd told ye." Scrooge responded gently. "The boy's just as sharp as I was back in the day. He would've seen right through you."

"…Yeah." Webby shrugged, still not meeting his gaze. "You didn't have to lie to him, either."

A silence befell the three of them. Scrooge looked away once more, finding that he couldn't argue with her.

Don't feel sorry for yourself, he chastised himself. You knew what could happen.

The old duck turned towards the door that led out of the room, sighing. "Well, none of this matters anymore. We need teh find the others and get out here."

"You can't just shrug this off!" Huey protested. "We at least deserve an apology!"

"And you'll get one. Everyone will." Scrooge promised him. "Once we're far from the confines of this treacherous death-trap."

Huey looked like he was going to argue back for a moment. Then, with a hesitant, worried expression, he said, "…Alright."

"…Whatever." Webby murmured.

Scrooge looked at her again, an apology on the tip of his beak, but then forced himself to focus. "Alright. Everyone behind me."

With that, he opened the door into the dark hallway beyond, the two young ducks following behind.

"Careful. There's a trap here."

"What does it matter? We know it's rigged."

"We're not riskin' it. I don't trust this place anymore."

The trio carefully navigated the ruins, avoiding the various hazards and snares that threatened to hinder their progress. They moved in silence, Scrooge leading the pack as the two kids followed behind. After about five minutes of navigating winding corridors, the group eventually came across a wooden door that opened back into the main hall – once again ending up right back where they had started.

"Blast this ludicrous labyrinth!" Scrooge growled as they emerged into the hall. "We cannae find the others like this!"

"So, what do we do?" Webby asked worriedly. "We can't stay here. That boar will chase us out, just like it did before!"

"Nor can we wander about blindly until we find someone…" Scrooge drummed his fingers against the handle of his cane. "But we might not have a choice…"

They were quiet for a moment, each of them thinking to themselves. Scrooge saw Huey wandering off out of the corner of his eye.

He turned back to Webby. "Have ye tried callin' them? On yer…?"

Webby shook her head despondently. "We couldn't get a signal."

"Hmph. Worth a try…" Scrooge muttered.

"This place has to have rules, right?" Webby proclaimed. "I mean, if it didn't, and it wants us dead, then it could've just crushed us in the first corridor we went into."

"Aye." Scrooge agreed. "There are limits on what this place can do with us, we just don't know exactly what those limits are. Until we do, the only thin' we can do is explore."

"…We haven't explored down here."

Scrooge and Webby turned to face Huey, who was standing near the edge of the chasm that divided the hall from the entrance doors. He was gazing down towards the great abyss below, and turned towards the other two as they got closer, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"All the shifting doors we've been through have all been manufactured in some way, right?" He told them, verbalising his thoughts. "Maybe it's only the unnatural entrances that are affected by all this, and whatever's doing this can't affect natural terrain. I mean, why would this even be here?" He gestured towards the ravine. "If this place can change its appearance on a whim, why not just cover this over with tiles?"

Scrooge took a guess at where Huey was going with this. "And ye think that there might be something at the bottom?"

"It kind of makes sense, doesn't it? If you're creating an ever-shifting labyrinth, you don't want to fall victim to your own maze. You want a safe place that won't shift like the other entrances, and… and people won't think of going down because of how deep it is! I mean," Huey hesitated. "This is operating under a lot of assumptions, and it's possible that I'm completely wrong, but…"

He shrugged. "I mean, we just don't have any real answers. The best thing that we can do is exhaust all the things that we haven't tried."

Scrooge looked at Huey for a moment, considering. He turned to Webby, silently asking her opinion.

She shrugged. "I mean… it isn't any less risky than our other options."

Scrooge thought about it for a moment longer, then sighed. "I don't suppose either of you left yer backpacks in here?" He asked. "The ones with the full climbing kits in them?"

The two kids blinked and looked between each other in realisation.

"We, uh… we kinda left them behind." Huey admitted with a sheepish grin. "We were in a hurry."

Scrooge sighed, then took off his rucksack. Opening it up, he pulled out his own climbing gear, laying out a tightly wound rope, a harness, pitons, and various other pieces of equipment. "Huey, strap on this harness. You still remember how you earned that rock-climbin' badge?"

Huey seemed to brighten for a moment. "Distinctively!" He frowned as he looked between Scrooge and Webby. "But what about you two?"

"We'll be floatin' down with ye on this."

Pressing one of the small buttons upon the cane's handle, a large black umbrella sprouted from the tip of the accessory, eliciting a jump of surprise from the two youngsters.

"You brought the Von Drake Action Cane?" Webby gasped.

"Of course!" Scrooge replied matter-of-factly. "Figured it'd pay better to be over-prepared than under."

Over the next few minutes, the trio got to work. Webby and Scrooge set up the rope, anchoring it into the floor with a climbing piton, as Huey hastily put on the harness, clipping it to the rope once he was certain it was secure. With that, he jumped off the edge and began to rappel down the face of the chasm.

As he did, Webby and Scrooge approached the edge of the pit. They shared a look of confirmation, both grabbing the cane before leaping off into the inky darkness.

Their descent slowed, they manage to keep pace with Huey, fixing their gaze below them. Huey wasn't able to keep up with their descent, as they fell faster than he could climb, so Scrooge's eyes swept the ravine for ledges. Finding one such narrow outcrop, they landed and waited for Huey to catch up before leaping back into the abyss again.

The group eventually saw the chasm break into a large, hall-like room, divided into two sides by the earthen fracture. Kicking off the wall, Scrooge and Webby glided to one side of the hall, landing, and looking up to see Huey reach the point where the chasm intersected with the ceiling. He shook his head and held up what little of the rope remained, somewhat helplessly.

Scrooge scanned the area, trying to search the area for something that could aid his nephew. The hall was barren, pillars holding up the ceiling, but nothing immediately useful presented itself. They couldn't get up as easily as they got down, nor could Huey get down from where he was. The only thing they could really do was send Huey back up, while he and Webby continued down, but that'd split the family up again. He tapped the handle of his cane anxiously, trying to come up with a solution.

"I could catch you." Webby suggested, calling up towards Huey. "Like, disconnect yourself, and I'd grab you as you fall. I'd need something to anchor me though, so I don't fall with you."

Huey nervously peered into the darkness beneath him. "Uh… can we exhaust our other options first?"

That's when they heard a deep, insidious hiss from the bottom of the ravine.

Scrooge looked down, seeing a glint of something long and golden slithering its way up the chasm wall. He heard Webby gasp in horror. "That's the other golem!" She cried.

Scrooge watched as the giant metallic snake began to make its way up, climbing towards his nephew. He could see Huey desperately trying to climb back up the wall. He wouldn't make it in time.

"Kids! Cover yer ears!" Scrooge yelled, darting up to the lip of the chasm and pointing his cane toward the beast as it rapidly advanced towards Huey. Pressing one of the buttons upon the cane, Scrooge winced as a warbling sonic screech emitted from the tip, shaking dirt and rock from the walls and causing the very air to vibrate.

The snake shrieked in pain as it was hit by the shockwaves, thrashing its coils and slamming into the nearby walls. Their ears covered, Webby and Huey avoided the brunt of the effect, while Scrooge had to try his best to remain standing in the brunt of the sonic attack. After a few seconds, however, he felt his own pain start to overcome him, leaving him no choice but to turn off the blast.

The snake wavered back and forth, recovering from the strike. Cracks were visible in its metal exterior.

"Huey! Jump!" Scrooge ordered, taking a few steps back himself before running towards the edge. With a grunt, he leapt off the edge and grabbed onto the serpent's body. He heard a "Hup!" behind him and saw Webby jump onto the beast's golden scales beside him.

Above, Scrooge watched as Huey rapidly disentangled himself from his harness before leaping down to join them. Once he grabbed onto the beast's scales, the snake began to twist around viciously, recovering from the blast.

"What are we doing?" Huey cried.

"Finishing this splendiferous serpent!" Scrooge replied, pointing to a particularly fragile set of scales. "Webby! Here!"

Instantly understanding, Webby leapt towards the scales with an intense focus. With a cry, she struck the already fragile metal with her palm, shattering the shell with a loud crack. Scrooge moved up beside her, jamming his cane into the newly created gap and angling it to point towards the beast's head.

Pressing a button, he activated the sonic blast again.

The snake screeched in agony once more, sonic energy rippling through its body. Spared from the worst of the waves, the ducks watched as fractures started to appear all along the serpent's body. Scales began to split, then shatter from the force of the attack, exposing the dark purple vapours that seemed to power its form from within. As the fractures reached the head of the monster, they saw the bright red light that emerged from its eyes blink out, leaving only darkness.

Then, the beast started to fall.

The ducks clung tightly to the monster's scales as it plummeted deep into the chasm, dark stone rushing past them in a blur. Switching off the sonic blast, Scrooge gestured to the other two to approach, holding his cane upwards. Once all three were tightly gripping the Action Cane, Scrooge pressed another button. The umbrella emerged once more, and the trio was lifted from the rapidly falling beast.

Although the umbrella slowed their descent significantly, they were still falling fast. Hearing the loud crash as the snake hit the ground below them, they each braced for impact at the rapidly approaching ground. The trio hit the rock floor hard and painfully, despite falling to their knees and rolling to absorb the shock.

Slowly and shakily, they stood up, bruised and scratched. But alive.

The corpse of the golden behemoth was coiled around them, most of its scales shattered into a fine golden powder around it. Violet fog seeped from the creature's wounds, revealing what looked like a wooden frame within.

Scrooge knelt and inspected the gold dust. It seemed to shift in his hand, as if being pulled by a weak magnet. As he looked up, he realised that it was being pulled toward the serpent's body. In fact, as he looked around, he saw that the dust was slowly re-attaching to the snake's body, re-forming into the same, golden scales.

"It's rebuildin' itself!" Scrooge shouted, backing away from the beast.

"There's a cave over here!" Webby shouted, pointing and running towards an opening the rock walls around them. Without hesitation, the others followed, darting into the tunnel and running as fast as they could in their injured state.

Rounding a corner, they found themselves in a wide circular chamber. Large rocks littered the ground, with a massive stalagmite jutting out in the centre of the cavern, surrounded by a shallow pool of stagnant water. Strangely, the natural cave formations intersected with a brick wall.

At the very top of the cavern, hanging from a thin spire of rock, against all logic and reason, was a deep purple cloak with intricate golden stripes adorning it from the collar to the bottom, etched into geometric patterns along the fabric.

More importantly to Scrooge, however, were the two individuals who were currently scaling up the rock to the cloak.

"Dewey! Della!" He cried in joy, rushing forward.

The two ducks upon the stone turned around as the rest of the family ran towards them. "Huey!" Della cried out. "Webby! Scrooge!"

"You guys are okay!" Webby exclaimed happily.

"Are you guys okay?" Huey shouted, simultaneously relieved and anxious.

"Yeah, we're fine!" Dewey shouted from atop the spire, an exuberant smile on his beak. "We rode that snake thing all the way down this cavern, then hid between those two stalactites there so it couldn't get us!" He pointed towards a densely clustered group of stalagmites. "Mom had to fight it off with her robot leg! It was so exciting! You should've seen it!"

Della leapt from miniature mountain, sliding down and landing in front of them. She was quick to embrace Huey tightly. "I'm so sorry." She murmured to him. "I won't leave you like that again."

"It's okay, mom." Huey replied quietly, returning the hug. "We're okay."

Della let out a deep sigh. Then, her eyes snapped open, and she pulled back, fear on her face. "What about Louie? Do you know what happened to him?"

"We haven't found him yet." Scrooge told her. "We're going to, now that we're back as a family." He looked up, squinting perplexed at the cloak. "But what on earth is that artifact doing here?"

"…I don't know." Della replied, clearly still anxious. "We were going to take it, see if it could help us. Do you think we can use it against those things?"

"Should do, it makes you invincible." Scrooge replied, the wind starting to pick up around them. "But it won't help us get out of this place. Are there any other…"

He stopped talking as he realised that the wind shouldn't be picking up.

He gripped his hat tightly as a strong gust started to spin around them, source-less but powerful. He watched as Dewey, seemingly undaunted, continued to climb up the rock towards the Tyrian Cloak.

As he did, the winds coalesced into dark, dense storm clouds, forming around the cloak in a strangely protective manner. A blast of electricity erupted from the clouds, impacting against the stone beside Dewey. He yelped, losing his grip and tumbling down the stone into the pool at the base of the spire. Before he could stand, Della was pulling him out and away from the pool, lifting him to his feet as the rest of the family formed a protective barrier around him. Scrooge stood at the front of this wall, peering into the clouds where he could just make out two large, dark figures.

"Slaves of Zeus!" Bellowed two voices from the cloud in synchronicity, one masculine, one feminine, and both deep. "Our patience has run dry!"

"Wh- slaves of who?" Scrooge spluttered in bewilderment.

The storm grew in size, the figures within growing larger and larger. The family backed away as two pairs of glowing, piercing blue eyes shone from the cloud, the wind still whipping around them.

"If you will not fall to trap or beast," The voices growled in unison. "Then you shall fall to US!"