...
"Wow Webby, nice outfit..." An over stereotypical goth teenager spoke in a sarcastic voice as she bent down to Webby's eye level.
"Did you get it custom made? Cause this is the most feathers I've ever seen you show." The shadowy teen put her hand on her young friend's frost covered stomach and felt her breathing.
"Muh-ha-ha. Cute..." She sneered.
Unbeknownst to the dazed and shivering duckling, she was currently being dangled upside down from her feet by her and Scrooge Duck's greatest enemy, Magica De Spell.
The bitterly cold temperature inside the large walk-in freezer, combined with Webby's inconveniently skimpy clothing, had brought her a terrible chill. Her teeth uncontrollably rattled in her frozen, tape secured bill, as her cruelly bound wrists behind her back had long lost all feeling from their lack of blood. Despite her eyes barely being open and coated over with frozen tears, she was far from consciousness.
"It's... It's ME?!" Lena watched her upside down double through her friend's tired eyes and blinked rapidly.
"This- This has to be one of Magica's tricks!"
"She must be trying to make Webby think that I- I..." the teenager stuttered as she felt a sudden tickly and painful sensation spread across her feet.
"Wha... WHA-HAHAHAHAHA!"
"T-T-TICKLING?!"
"C'mon Webby. You know very well that the more you foolishly turn down my offers of mercy, the more pain and humiliation you'll receive instead."
Magica chuckled to herself as she dug her dry skeleton fingers into her captive's webbed feet.
"You know it deep in your heart, don't you? You hate me with every fiber in your PITIFUL little body."
"And yet, I'm enjoying this..."
"You wouldn't continue to let me do something to you that I love this much, would you? And at your own expense?"
The now conscious duckling let out another quiet cry of pain as the sorceress stood her upright on the frezzing floor.
"Give yourself up to me, and I can make all your dreams can come true."
"But if you just keep on refusing and blubbering like a puny little fool..."
"Well, I'm afraid the only thing that will come true are your darkest nightmares..."
Webby closed her eyes and trembled as she let more tears fall down her face.
"Well?"
The duckling shook her head and bawled.
"Webby, no, no..."
"Hey, hey! It's okay. Your Aunt Magica understands..." The sorceress pulled her in closely and hugged her.
"Wait. She's hugging her now?!"
"...NOOO WEBBY! It's a trap!"
"Here, look at me..." Magica spoke to Webby in a surprisingly comforting tone.
"WEBBY! NO!"
As soon as the duckling opened her eyes, the sorceress immediately maced her directly in the face with pepper spray, causing her to struggle and cry even harder.
"HA! FOOOOOOL!"
"AHHHH! IT WAS A TRAP!" The teenager rubbed her irritated eyes and laid on Scrooge McDuck's office floor.
"Lena! What happened?! What was a trap?" Dewey in Launchpad's body lifted up the blind teenager in his arms.
"Magica! She- She pepper sprayed Webby!" Lena continued desperately rubbing her eyes.
"She- pepper sprayed HER?!" Scrooge suddenly felt his nephew's stomach drop.
"Why that heartless old broad!"
"Kidnapping the lass was bad enough, but starving and pepper spraying her?!"
"Wait. What is this earth substance you call pepper spray?" Penumbra asked.
"It's an inflammatory concoction used by the police and in self defense to control and incapacitate dangerous criminals or wild animals."
"...Why that's just, uh- heartless!" The moonlander tried to sound sure of herself.
"She's- Uuurrgh! Literally heartless now." Lena stuttered as she tried her best ignore the unbearable mix of insomnia, hunger pangs, cold, and burning in her eyes.
"I got a good look at her... And unless Webby is hallucinating, Magica turned herself into a living skeleton..."
"Well, besides it actually sounding kinda cool, why would she do that?" Dewey asked.
"Aaaaugh! ...Equivalent exchange!" Lena answered while still in pain.
"Hmmmm." Louie in Scrooge's body thought for a bit.
"Yep, makes sense. Great power comes with a price after all."
"Yeah, and she also has her tied up in a freezer..." Lena felt Webby fighting against the ropes around her wrists.
"WHHAaaah?! She's keeping her in a freezer?" Dewey was stunned.
"She must want to keep her fresh until she eventually chops her up drinks her bloo-"
"No, no! It's one of those big freezers that you walk into." Lena interrupted.
"The other me said Webby was showing a lot of feathers, so Magica must be forcing her to wear something light enough to not protect her from the cold..."
"Well, we have to give Magica some credit..." Louie began.
"...What credit could you possibly give to that vile old harlot?" Scrooge folded his arms.
"At least she's not n-" Louie was quickly interrupted by a sharp jab in the back from Huey in Mrs. Beakley's body.
"Heheh. You know what? Nevermind..."
"Well, Webby's been able to easily slip out of ropes before." Dewey walked up to Lena.
"Couldn't she just, I dunno... Webby her way out? She's quite the escape artist."
"I- I don't know!" The blind teenager stopped rubbing her eyes.
"Dewey is right. This doesn't sound like the Webby we all know and love." Huey finally spoke up.
"Why just two weeks ago, she worked her way out of a triple fed constrictor knot in less than five minutes..."
"Wait, how would you know that?" Dewey asked in genuine curiosity.
"I was the one who tied her up."
After an uncomfortable amount of awkward silence among them, Huey sighed.
"It's a Junior Woodchuck thing..."
"I'm beginning to get just a little bit suspicious of you two..." Louie stared accusingly at his brothers.
"Hey, I never left her side for a second! And she agreed to it!"
"And don't forget, you're the one who conned her into being your maid!"
"Well! It's- It's not like I forced her to wear a tastless maid outfit to go along with it!" Louie quickly explained.
"Just a simple, little, frilly laced apron."
"I was just subtly preparing her for life in the real world... Having the honor of serving future rich big-shots like me."
"And I ask you, who's the real victim here?"
"Still Webby. Because she's been kidnapped by a powerful and sadistic sorceress who's torturing and starving her..." Huey replied.
"Oooh, touché Hubert. Touché."
"PLEASE!" Violet in Randy's body intervened.
"Webbigail's situation, remember?"
"The lass is right, we need to focus!"
"Lena! What is going on in that oversized icebox? Who else is there?" Scrooge McDuck's sat the teenager down in his office chair.
"...Lena?"
"Hmm? Oh, besides Magica and the other me?"
"Uh, let me think..." Lena sat forward in her seat with her eyes still closed.
"I- I didn't get a good look at them, but it was two people I haven't seen before..."
"Ok, what did they look like? What were they wearing?" Scrooge asked.
"Well, the first one was a demented looking duck in a cape and mask... And the another one was some weird kid with glasses waving a magic wand around..."
Dewey blinked.
"...Harry Otter?"
"No, NO!" Lena quickly corrected.
"He was a duck too!"
"...A weird duck kid, with glasses, waving a magic wand around?"
Louie felt his heart sink.
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"
"What? Do you think it's Doofus Drake?" Dewey noticed how worried his brother had suddenly grown.
"Doofus... Drake?" Lena questioned.
"Who's- Doofus Drake?" Scrooge looked confused.
"...A psycho and inhuman rich kid that likes to torture and imprison unsuspecting kids in his mansion and treats his parents like SLAAVES!" Louie waved his arms in the air.
"If he ever got his hands on poor Webby, he'd probably chain her to the wall, and- and sniff her feathers, and- and lick her face, and- and stick his sweaty hands up her skirt, and- and-"
"Whoa whoa whoa- WHOA!" Dewey clamped Louie's bill shut.
"There are CHILDREN present. We get the point..."
"C'mon, you've got to be exaggerating." Scrooge began.
"You're making him out to be a psychopathic holy terror..."
"I'm sure he's just some, poor... unfortunately named billionaire child that just needs to make some close friends."
"Mmmmmm! Nuh-uh! Louie pushed his brother away.
"Doofus is an unfeeling monster! He- He could possibly be more evil than MAGICA!"
"Wait, from the way you're talking, you're implying that he's working with Magica."
"Why would he do that?" Scrooge asked.
"...To get revenge on me." Louie quietly answered.
"What, why? What does he even have against you?"
"...Well-"
"Uuggghhhh!"
"Scrooge and Louie's conversation was abruptly interrupted by a loud cry of pain as Lena winced in her chair.
"NO, LENA!" Louie immediately came to her aid.
"Uhh! Tell me, where does it hurt?!"
"R-Ribs..." The teenager clutched her chest.
"...It feels like Webby was kicked in the ribs."
"Ohhhhhhh, a swift kick in the ribs. Heheh, should have seen that one coming."
Louie paused.
"Wait, NO! That's terrible!"
"Uugghhh- urk!" Lena feel onto the floor in pain.
"...S-Stomach."
"I- I can feel it. Webby is sick and injured. I- I think she needs to go to the hospital..."
"Webbigail." Violet picked up a framed picture of Webby and Mrs. Beakley on Scrooge's desk.
"I don't know when, and I don't know how, but somehow we'll get you out of there."
"Uhh- UGHH!" Lena accidentally bumped into her friend, causing the picture to fall to the floor and cracking the glass across Webby's face.
"That's- ominous..." Dewey commented.
"...Stay strong Webbigail."
...
"Webby,"
"Woo-oo."
Magica stopped choking her blind captive to stomp down hard on her legs.
"In my clutches, you'll need CRUTCHES!"
"Webby,"
"Woo-oo."
"Screams of terror, be with you..."
"Uh- FOREVER!"
"Webby,"
The sorceress violently threw the crying and shivering duckling onto the freezing floor.
"Woo-oo."
"Ah-hahahahahahaha!" Magica let out a joyful laugh as she crushed Webby's stomach underneath her foot.
"Rule number one of life, do what makes you HAPPY."
"And I deserve to be happy Webby! I deserve to live a life to be excited for! And I'm not going to let some old FOOL of a duck take it away from me..."
Magica finished with a sharp slap to the side of Webby's pepper spray burned face, causing her to squeak through her still tape secured bill.
"Say, uh- Do you think we're going a little too far?" A masked duck in thick jacket and parka asked.
"Noooo-oope!" The sorceress replied in a immature tone of voice.
"Honsetly, she deserves every second of this living circle of Hades I'm putting her through."
"It doesn't matter if she's a child or not, she brought this all onto herself."
"And now she's paying the heavy price, of antagonizing- Magica De Spell..."
The former actor rubbed his hands together and gave a wicked smile.
"I was HOPING you'd say that..."
"May I?"
"...Be my guest darling." Magica stepped back.
Lifting the duckling off the floor and putting her on her feet, the duck tore the tape from around her bill.
"Heh-heh-heh-heh! ANY OB-JECTIONS?" He smirked devilishly.
Webby remained silent as she breathed short and heavy breaths.
"...I don't mind." Doofus said as he dug out another handful of frozen canned tuna and scarfed it down.
"She needs a lesson, in obeying orders..."
"At her current state, she's like a wild, bucking mare, in desperate need of a good bit."
"Okay... Now then-" Starling pulled out a long cigar and lit the end of it.
"-Let's, get, merciless."
The masked duck pried open Webby's bill and stuck the fat stick of dried leaves inside.
After quickly recognizing the scent of tabacoo, Webby shook her head and spit it out.
"Blah! SMOKING?!"
"I'm- I'm too young to smoke! And much too innocent!" The still blind duckling struggled against the ropes tying her wrists togther and kicked at nothing in particular.
"Spirited eh?" Starling laughed sadistically and gripped her tighter.
"I hate that..."
"I- I, I won't be spirtred!" Webby began blinking rapidly in an attempt to see again.
"...Just- Please. Why are you doing this to me?! I didn't even do anything to you!"
"Hey, don't give up yet-"
"-Here, have another cigar... In fact, you can have all of them."
"They're one the HOUSE!" Starling stuffed two large handfuls of lit cigars into the duckling's mouth and held her bill closed.
"N-No, no NO- Mmmmmmm-"
"C'mon, puff."
Webby held her breath and struggled fiercely as the masked duck plugged her nostrils with his fingers.
"Just give it up..."
"You have to breathe SOMETIIIMME."
The duckling only shook her head and whimpered.
"You're being SPIRITED AGAIIIIN! And you know I HATE that..." Starling spoke in a low, growling voice.
"...Okay, what do think about THIS!?"
The masked duck immediately pulled out all of the cigars from her mouth and clamped down on one of Webby's front teeth with a pair of pliers.
"AHH! S-STOP! STOP!" She fought hard against the ropes around her wrists.
"TOO LATE! It's already, coming, OUT!" Starling violently yanked the tooth free from the duckling's mouth.
"Aw look, you're bleeding. How sad for you..." The duck wiped away the blood from her inside her bill and chuckled softly.
"Let's see how many of your teeth I can pull before!-"
"OKAY OKAY OKAY!" Webby cried and kicked blindly in the air on the floor.
"I'll- I-ll puff..."
"...Nice to see you're finally seeing things my way kid." Starling held the shivering duckling on the floor by her neck and stuck the several lit cigars in her bill.
"Why, Jim darling. You're a natural." Magica complimented him and stroked Webby's feet with her fingers, causing her to wriggle underneath them.
"Heh-heh-heh, Thanks I know."
"I've always wanted to do stuff like this full-time when I was a kid."
"But mom... she was very disappointed in me. Me taking after my old man like that."
"Just because I liked to do... certain things to butterflies, kittens, other kids."
"So she sent me to acting school, where I became that, OH SO goody-two-shoes, night flapping vigilante, Darkwing Duck..."
"WHA-Uughh?!" Webby suddenly coughed up a thick cloud of tobacco smoke in shock.
"JIM STARLING!?" Her eyes opened widely in fear.
"Dewey told me you were DEAD!"
"...I did die. But I've returned from the dark depths of hell to terrorize to populace!" Jim proudly announced.
"Just you wait, bombs will go off in the hospitals! Churches will burn down to the ground! Trucks will plow through the crowded streets! Entire CITIES will be blown SKY HIGH!"
"It will be- so beautiful..."
"And just WHO DO YOU SUPPOSE will try to stop MEEEEEE?"
Webby blinked as she pulled her knees close to her face.
"Gizmoduck?"
"...NOOO!" The deranged actor's eyes glazed over in madness as he lifted the terrified duckling in the air by her bill.
"That self-centered, empty-headed jackanape that stole my role as Darkwing Duck!"
The duck stopped to breathe heavily as his fingers shook and twisted.
"And once he shows his pug-ugly ponce face out there in the open-"
"-I'll skin him alive..."
"You're insane!" Webby managed to say as she was still being held up by her bill.
"...You call it insanity."
"I call it... enlightenment..."
"After all-" Jim gently laid the duckling on her bare stomach and put his right foot on her back.
"-I am the HORROR that stalks in the NIGHT!"
"I am the overpowered final boss, in the game of life!"
"I- AM- still not sure what to call myself now..."
"...What about Negaduck?" Webby asked.
"You know, like negative, Darkwing Duck?"
"Hmmmm... Not bad kid."
"...Wait." The duckling paused.
"I didn't mean-"
"Say, how would you like to be my personal sidekick? The masked duck offered with a smile.
"Just you and me, out there together. What do you say?"
Webby just stared upwards and frowned.
"...No?"
"Aw, such a pity. I actually like you you know..."
"Nnnhg!"
"If you really liked me, you- you would't treat me like this!" Webby strained against the ropes around her wrists.
"What about Magica?! You obviously like her!"
"Treat her the same way you've been treating me, and then maybe I'll accept your offer!"
"...Don't get smart with me kid." Jim pulled Webby's face close to his.
"I don't think you need to GUESS what happens to smart-mouthed little kids around here!"
The masked duck dug out an oversized gun from his pocket and stuck it in the duckling's amouth with a smirk.
"W-WHAT?! N-No-" The defenseless duckling froze in wide eyed fear as Magica, Doofus, and Lena watched with twisted malicious smiles.
"...Suck gas, angel face."
He pulled the trigger.
A/N: So yes. I know that the past few chapters (including this one) have been mostly dialogue and exposition filler, as in not forwarding the plot as fast as some readers might prefer.
But have no fear! As I can confirm that the next chapter will mix things up a little bit and hopefully leave you pleasantly surprised... as it will bring back some of the characters that have dropped out of the spotlight a bit and answer a few of the questions you may have.