"Grr! Good for nothing- let me go you bastards!" Della yelled as she struggled. "When my Uncle Scrooge gets here, oh boy, he is going to kick your asses!" As she tries to topple over the chair she was tied to.
Of all the predicaments and kidnappings she'd faced, this was the worst. Primarily because she can't get free, but also because these guys seemed actually professional, unlike all the others. Why? Why couldn't it have been the Beagle Boys? Or Glomgold? Heck, even FOWL?! Just someone who was incompetent enough. But worst of all, they came to HER, and she couldn't do a thing about it.
Della was just walking back to the manor, having gotten supplies for an upcoming adventure. She was at the base of Killmotor Hill, when a van pulled up beside her...
"Hey what the, Gah!" As she got grabbed and pulled inside. She kicked, screamed, and fought back as good as she could, but these guys were strong. "You better let me go! I swear, when Uncle Scrooge hears what you tried to do, he'll ki-" She shut up as one points a gun at her head.
"Hold still, and shut up, or we send you back to McDuck in pieces..." One says, and orders two others to restrain her.
Della scowls at them as one starts to tie her up, binding her wrists behind her back, and arms together, as another ties her legs at the ankles and knees. "Gah! The hell!? Do you have to make them so tigh-" As the gun is waved in her face again as a reminder. She soon finds herself more thoroughly tied up than any time before, leaving her completely helpless.
The driver heads off to an unknown location.
Della struggles some, but to no avail. "Alright who ordered this?! Ma Beagle so she can get the deed to Duckburg?! Glomgold so he can become the richest duck in the world?! Santa trying to make Uncle Scrooge suffer more!?" She asks, to which the kidnappers roll their eyes.
"We are doing it for ourselves. Now shut it or we make you shut it!" As one grabs her by her hair. "Got it?!"
"Gah! Fine!" As she mumbles to herself as the van stops. Her writhing form is then dragged out and to a chair, which she is promptly tied to, leading to now...
They take a picture of Della in her predicament, and send it with a short note to Scrooge.
Scrooge is in his office, when suddenly...
SMASH
"What in blazes!?" Scrooge yells out as a brick with note tied to it comes through the window and lands on his desk.
Hearing this, the entire house rush in to his office.
"I heard a window break, what is going on?!" Mrs Beakley asks.
"Uncle Scrooge, what happened?! Are you alright?" Huey asks.
"Is someone breaking in?!" Dewey asks, seems ready to fight.
Webby drops down from the vent, kill mode activated. "What happened?! Beagle Boys? FOWL?"
"Tell me no one stole any of my- er, YOUR stuff?!" Louie chimes in.
"Mr McDee, good news and bad news. Bad news is it seems someone broke your window! Good news is it wasn't because I crashed something!" Launchpad says.
"What's going on!?" Donald yells, confused.
"Everyone calm down! Everything is fine, someone just through a brick in here." Scrooge says.
Webby notices the note. "Not just a brick, a note too..." As a Webby removes it and opens it, reads it out loud.
Dear Mr McDuck,
We have your niece. Call the number below.
(XXX) XXX-XXXX
Do not
-Call the cops
-Tell anyone outside of your family
-Send anyone after us
-Track the call
-Ignore us
Disobey, and she dies.
Signed,
X
As Webby unfold the final part of the note, a picture falls out which, when they see it, gasp in unison, as it shows Della, tied to a chair, a masked figure pointing a gun at her head.
Everyone cries out at the same time in shock.
"Mom!" Cry Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
"Della!" Cry Donald, Scrooge, Webby, and Beakley.
"Mrs Dee!" Yells Launchpad.
Stunned by this, one does call the number and puts it on speaker phone, Scrooge having them be quiet. "Who is this!? Where is my niece!? I swear if you hurt her I'l-"
"Ah-Ah, I am in charge now, so listen. We have your niece. She is fine and in one piece, for now." The kidnapper leader says. "As for who I am, that is not important, unless you want your nephews to become parentless..."
Scrooge growls. "How do I even know she is alive still you rats!"
Silence is heard, followed by the gradual increase in volume of struggles, followed by the leader saying "Talk" to someone.
"Uncle Scrooge! Guys! Help! These bastards got me in-" Della's pleads as it is cut off as the leader gets on.
"Proof enough?" The leader asks.
"Grr, what do you want from me?" Scrooge asks in frustration.
"If you want to see her alive and well again, you will pay us $10 million in cash-" The leader is cut off by Della yelling.
"I'm only worth ten million!?" Della yells out, seemingly insulted by the ransom demand, it loud enough for all to hear.
"W-what?" The leader asks.
"Make it fifty!" Della seemingly demands, feeling herself worth more than $10 million.
"Shut up Della!" Donald yells at the phone knowing all Della is doing is making it worse.
Off the phone, the leader can be heard saying "Yes, please do shut her up", followed by a Della arguing and her voice suddenly muffled.
"Anyways, $25 million in cash. You will come alone to the pier. You will give the money to our middle man at the location who will make sure you didn't try to skip out on the money. After he has verified it is all there, he will drive you to the pickup location." He demands. "I will make myself clear, you will come alone and you will obey our instructions. If we see one cop, she dies. If any associate of yours is even within sight of the pickup point, she dies. If the money is one dollar less, if even one bill is fake, if we find any tracking beacons, if you are followed... In short, you disobey us, and we kill your niece and send her back piece. By. Piece. Understood?"
Scrooge pauses for a moment, the others looking at him worried, the boys scared of losing their mother, Donald his sister, and Scrooge himself the girl who he saw as a daughter, again, this time permanent, the old duck, finding no way around this, sighs. "Deal."
The others gasp at Scrooge actually agreeing to this.
"Uncle Scrooge!" Huey cries out in shock, only for Scrooge to stop him.
"Good choice, Mr McDuck. We will see you tomorrow at 9:00 PM. Goodbye." The leader says as the call ends.
Scrooge looks mortified, for only the second time in his life, the first being after all his plans during the Moonvasion failed, did he have no way out. He looks at the picture, worried for Della, more so than when she took the Spear of Selene. Who were these guys? How were they so prepared? What was he to do?
Seeing this, everyone gets worried.
"Uncle Scrooge, maybe they are bluffing? Maybe if we find where they are at we-" Dewey tries you reason but...
"No. We canane risk it." Scrooge says as he shoots the idea down.
"Maybe we can use some of the magical artifacts you've got collected to get through? O-or maybe Lena can-" Webby suggests, the idea shot down as well.
"No. Again. Too risky..."
"I, I think he needs some time alone, you know? To think?" Huey suggests, to which all leave the office, Donald being the last, giving Scrooge a worried look implying 'please, bring her back this time'.
Scrooge sits alone in his office, pondering, a ghostly dog figure appearing in front of Scrooge's desk.
"Sir, do you, need me to get you anything? Perhaps some tea to calm your nerves?" Duckworth offers, himself concerned for Della's well being as well, despite being a ghost.
"No thank you Duckworth, not right now..." Scrooge answers.
"Sir, please, you need to calm yourself. Worrying will not resolve this situation any more or quicker than not."
"I know, but what else can I do? I lost her once because of a mistake, a stupid decision on my part. I thought I'd cost Donald a sister, the boys a mother, and..." As he looks at a picture of him, Donald, and Della with the boys' eggs, somberly "... me a daughter. I spent my fortune to near bankruptcy, sacrificed numerous employees, nearly destroyed my company, all because I thought I could fix the greatest mistake of my life. Then, over a decade after I thought I lost her, she arrives on my doorstep, as much the woman she was all those years ago. That was the happiest day of me life, to know I hadn't cost me nephew a sister, the boys their mother, and most of all, that I hadn't lost her..." Scrooge starts to smile at the old family picture, before the smile fades away. "And now, barely a year after I get her back, I risk losing her again. Not because I ignored reason. Not because of a mistake. Not because of recklessness. But because of who I am. The richest duck in the world, and again, I cannae seem to protect my family. Because of who I am, Donald might lose his sister, the boys their mother, and me my niece, all over again, but this time, no hope of her coming back. No hope of fixing a mistake. No nothing. Gone for good..." As a tear flows down his cheek in partial shame onto the framed picture. "... And all because I had to be Scrooge McDuck." As the old duck starts to sob, needs to think up a plan fast, something that lets him ensure Della is saved.