Ch.10: Return To Villa Rose
Meanwhile, at the second largest structure in Duckburg, Scrooge McDuck's money bin, the old duck was busy, sitting behind the comfort of his desk, fielding business calls and counting profits he made throughout the day.
He always had such fun when things came to cash, and Ms. Fetherby knew that her boss didn't like to be disrupted. But, even though the secretary was very nervous about disturbing Mr. McDuck, she knew she had something in her hands that was absolutely urgent for Scrooge to see.
"Excuse me Mr. McDuck," said Ms. Fetherby, walking in.
"What is it Fetherby?" asked Scrooge " Can't you see that I'm busy?"
"Yes Sir" said Ms. Fetherby, fingers twitching on the envelope she held " but I think you need to see this urgently. It was dropped off early this morning."
Slightly concerned by the fear in his secretary's tone, Scrooge took the envelope out of Ms. Fetherby's hands, and opened it up for himself. Seconds after seeing the contents, his eyes widened in horror, barely believing the truth in his mind.
Scrooge McDuck shivered, and he had never shivered before, not even during all those treasure hunts he'd shared with the lads. The lads…oh…how was this affecting them? They had to be just heartbroken about it. Did they even know?
"Ms. Fetherby" said Scrooge, putting the envelope down. Business could wait. " Cancel all my plans for today. I have something urgent I need to address."
Meanwhile, over at school, Louie could barely concentrate on his schoolwork as the teacher droned on, trying to explain math to everyone in the room. He had felt some peace after he and his brothers had stood up to Slab, but that peace couldn't bring their uncle back.
Donald was still gone. There was no telling what he was doing now. Louie just hoped that he was alright.
The bell soon rang and class dismissed, but before the green-clothed duck could move on the next room, the teacher called him back and said the prinicipal just phoned her, wanting him to report to her office at once.
"Why?" Louie thought confused. He hadn't gotten into any trouble had he?
Confused as to what could be going on, Louie turned and headed back towards the principal's office, and was very surprised to see his brothers there when he arrived.
"Huey and Dewey too?" he thought " Man, this can't be good,"
Why were all of them here? What was going on?
The principal's expression was grim as invited all three boys to step into his office, and the uncomfortable atmosphere could be felt as they sat down in chairs.
Louie looked up at the principal, whose eyes were focused, but also drifting away. It was like he didn't even want to look at the boys, but had to because of troubling news. News so horrid, that words could barely express it out loud.
"Principal Mayweather?" asked Dewey cautiously.
Finally, the large duck seemed to snap out of his trance, and glanced down towards the boys.
"Boys" the principal said softly " Your Uncle Scrooge called me just a few seconds ago with some terrible news. He's on his way here right now to deliver it to you in person, but thought that you should be warned."
"Warned about what?" asked Huey.
"Your uncle…Donald…may be…," the principal couldn't finish the thought, but the boys were left in dread at his missing words. " Go back home. I'll your teachers you're done for the day."
With that said, the boys were dismissed. Walking out of school they headed back towards Daisy's place, morbid thoughts filling all of their minds. Fear reached up and throbbed in their hearts. It couldn't…it just couldn't be true!
Finally, they arrived back at the house to see that Uncle Scrooge and Daisy were already there. Both elder ducks sat in the living room with grief and frustration painted along their faces, although Uncle Scrooge appeared to be the most, and Louie decided to risk a daring question in order to break the silence.
"Uncle Scrooge, what's wrong? What happened to Uncle Donald?"
The rich mallard glanced over at the boys, his eyes showing how fiercely he was trying to hold in his depressed rage.
Calmly as he could, Uncle Scrooge began to explain that earlier in the afternoon he had received a letter from someone who reported that Donald was dead. The jerk had even sent pictures in order to prove his claim, but Scrooge wasn't able to accept it, so he came here in case, to see if Donald was still alive.
"Only I learned from Daisy" said Scrooge " that he got a call last night and had to leave in order to help out a friend. And you have no idea where he's gone?"
The boys shook their heads, they had no clue. And maybe if they hadn't been such idiots lately, maybe Donald would have never left.
"Maybe that call was a trap" said Dewey " This 'friend' may have actually threatened Uncle D's life."
"A lot of people have tried that" said Huey " but why would Uncle D keep it a secret from us?"
"There is much about this situation we don't know" said Uncle Scrooge " but I'm not going to vanquish the hope until we find this fiend and prove that Donald is alive, not dead. Pack your bags lads and lassie, we're going to hunt this guy down!"
"It's been a long time since I've been here," thought Donald, as he looked upon the collapsed structure of the Villa Rose.
This was the place where his whole journey began. An unlucky duck whose fate finally changed, due to some mix-up in the mail. He had won a place called the Villa Rose, and discovered the secrets on how to be an avenger, and take revenge against those who had did him wrong.
The house had definitely seen better days, being blow up by Gladstone when the usually lucky duck unluckily lit the dynamite candle the old avenger left behind. The Phantomallard was truly a genius in disguising his traps as ordinary objects, making the victims feel a brief moment of safety, before everything went wrong.
Donald sighed as the sun set over the horizon, and he prowled through the ruins of the Villa Rose. How did he think he would ever find a clue here? There was nothing here to tell him more about his predecessor or those shadow things that had attacked One.
"Huh Paltry really a slippy guy,"
Wait a minute…Paltry…of course! The Phantomallard's real name! How could Donald forget that?
If he and One broke into the city records and discovered more about the Phantomallard's real identity, then maybe the mystery of those shadow creatures could at last be explained.
"I got to get back to the tower and tell One," thought Donald, liking his plan.
However, before the duck could even return to his camouflaged Duckmobile, a sudden hiss caught Donald's ears, and the mallard turned around to see a horrifying sight.
The sun had disappeared almost completely from the Earth, and in the orange glow of its death, three figures stood silhouetted on top of the ruins of the Villa Rose as day faded into night. Their eerie eyes glowed, and claws and teeth looked ready to tear.
Donald immediately prepared himself for a fight. Whatever these creatures were, whatever their game, they were going to learn that the Duck Avenger was not someone who would go down easily.
