A/N: Well pluck my tailfeathers and call me Baldy... First chapter of October 2020! Yep, it's been almost a full year now since I started writing this fic, and it seems time truly does fly when you're having fun. Now, onto the reviewer replies! Errr- Reviewer reply.
puppydogs68: Thanks! Glad someone appreciates them! And yes, Doofus is a real creep alright. And it certainly doesn't help much that he's soon going to acquire the powers of the gods...
Oh, and one final note. This chapter and some of the following ones have what I'm going to call, unreliable narrative. Basically meaning that not everything that has been or will be stated is going to be 100% true, leaving room for hopefully a few unexpected plot twists/surprises to be revealed in the future. Just be sure to keep that in mind. We good? Thanks.
...
"WaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAHHH- WaaaAAAHHH!"
"Ma, we've gots ourselves some stoaways." Bigtime Beagle peeked out over the edge of the now somehow floating high up in the sky Time Tub to Gizmoduck clinging on for dear life, with Dr. Gearloose, Penumbra, and Webby, all hanging onto him.
"Bouncer." Ma Beagle stepped forward to give all the desperate danglers the thumbs down. "Dump em'!"
"No. No no no no wait!" Fenton began to beg as Bouncer Beagle cracked his massive knuckles together with a wide toothy grin.
"...No hard feelings."
"No. No no no no wait! Wait! Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwahhhhhhhhhhhh-" The poor trio of tired filthy time travelers were slowly but surely pried off the edge of the tub and dropped into the uncertain depths below.
"Gizmo-chute, a-a-activate!"
"NOOOOOO!" Gyro let out a loud wailing scream. "NOT-" The parachute opened upside down, getting them all tangled up inside it as they fell straight out the cloudless, clear blue sky.
"-that. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH-" Crash! All three of the time travelers fell hard onto concrete in a disgruntled battered heap, the Gizmosuit's sturdy armor just barely saving their lives from the high fatal fall.
"Where to next Ma? Our dear old Uncle Bobo in South America?" Bouncer asked. "Last I've heard, he was serving time there."
Ma Beagle paused. "...Well then we'll just send him a get well card."
"Why? Is he sick?" Black Arts wondered.
"No. But he could do much better..."
"Hhrhhrrhrheeyh." Burger said very cleary.
And with a flash, the Beagle filled Time Tub blocking the sun's rays disappeared back into the ever-changing flow of the timestream, completely dispelling the dark shadow it's form cast down onto the ground from above. Since when could the Time Tub even fly again anyway?
"A-Accursed Earth gravity..." The young moonlander muttered, not even bothering to get up.
"This, selfless heroing and daring-do stuff, really isn't all that's it's cracked up to be." Fenton slowly began.
"I think I preferred the simpler days when I was just an average, naive, poorly, heavily underpaid intern..."
"Unpaid." Gyro added.
"...Ughhhh." Webby groaned as she weakly struggled to sit upright on her scale covered end to take a look around. Her eyes stung from the sudden change of lighting from a dark forest bog at night, to a blinding sunlit afternoon.
"Where- Where are we- Huuuuuuuahh!" She was immediately cut off from her own sudden surprise filled gasp at what lay before her.
There it was, just as she remembered it, sat perfectly still and intact high atop Killmoter Hill, was her home of McDuck Manor. Not smooshed completely flat underneath the island of the god's, not raided and robbed by the Beagle Boys of past and present, not even taken over by a magical cult of vengufull swordhorses. Just her Uncle Scrooge's billionaires mansion, just as she remembered it.
And there she was, sat down on the road, just outside it's familiar gates. She was finally, finally home. And dispite the quickly approaching dark black limousine speeding straight towards her head, Webby couldn't hold in her unmatched delight any longer.
"Home sweet HOOOMMME-"
"WaaaAAAAH!" Gyro pulled her and himself flat to ground just as the vehicle now just inches away from them came to sudden, skid-marking, almost crashing stop.
"...WATCH IT!" The angry scientist suddenly sprung back up.
"Sorry!" The familiar duckling driver dressed in blue quickly apologized.
"Wait, DEWEY!?" Webby almost fell back again in surprise. "Wait, when do you learn to drive? Didn't Uncle Donald forbid you from ever driving after that one fast food cheesy chili fries incident?" She asked.
"Wait what?" Gyro questioned.
"...Penumbra? Webby?! Dr. Gearloose?!" The duckling frantically looked over the three time travelers, obvious fear and disbelief filling his now shocked tone of voice.
"Hi." Fenton waved while Pemunbra just stared at him.
...
"AaaaAHHHHH! GHOSTS! LIKE I'VE NEVER EVEN SEEN BEFORE! AHHHHHHHHH!" The frightened duckling driver slammed his barely reaching webbed foot on the gas pedel and speed turned down the road past them as fast as he could.
"Wait, Dewey! We're- We're not-" Fenton and Webby watched in stunned silence as the long abused limousine bumped into a few random roadside obstacles and finally crashed far out of sight.
"...There he goes. Do you think he was dropped on his head a whole lot as a child?" Webby asked.
"Oh, poor baby." Fenton admittedly felt bad for him.
...
"Well moving on from that, home sweet HOOOMMM- Huuuuggh!" Webby paused and let out another loud gasp as she clutched her chest.
"Webby? What's- What's wrong- Oh."
"Uugaaahhh! Curse these FAILING AQUA LUUUNNGS!"
"Oh no! Water! We- We need- Water!" Fenton quickly scooped her in his arms and immediately began to search the surrounding area for a decent source of the valuable life sustaining liquid.
"S-S-S-Swimming pool..." The little tired merduck stuttered and gasped for air as she weakly pointed up towards her Uncle Scrooge's mansion and then a few other random unclear locations.
"Wait, swimming pool! That's it!" Fenton realized with a relieved laugh. "You've got a swimming pool! Ha-ha!" He prepared for launch.
"WAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaahhhh!" The launch was successful, Fenton and Webby were both caught straight upwards in the Gizmosuit's sudden, Rocket Thruster renegade.
"Dummy NOOOOOO! Bring her DOWN!" Gyro ordered up the sky and the now randomly shot off Midriff Missile heading straight towards him.
"...Oh gosh."
"You don't have to hold yourself back in my presence." Pemumbra bluntly told him. "I'm still mentally an adult."
Thwoom! The missile in question began to pick up speed as Fenton and Webby uncontrollably spun and twirled around in the air of above Duckburg, their terrified screams and yells completely drowned out by the high wind speeds blowing up their bills.
"Holy Earth mother, we're being attacked! HEY! Release me ya big doodie head! I can walk!" The young moonlander complained as she was lifted up and rushed to safety.
"WaaaaaaHHH!" With a fighting kicking Penumbra in his grasp, Gyro heroically and in no way awkwardly or cowardly dove headfirst straight into the bushes, just as the missile hit the ground with a loud boom and the duckling driver from earlier crashed backwards into his peculiar, far off retreat parking space.
"...Sorry!"
"As the per usual, we have called this emergency meeting to discuss your, recent, costly, less than unprofitable, fruitless, endeavors..." Bradford Buzzard readjusted his glasses and looked back down to the important papers in his hands.
Sitting behind his desk and in front of his office window in a strategic circle, three elderly buzzards sat down before a very bored looking and unmotivated Scrooge McDuck in a chair. At this point, the old duck honestly couldn't care less.
"-by cutting funding from tech and all future resource departments..."
The lead brother turned to the next page as Scrooge blinked in cold dead silence, not even bothering to notice a familiar Headless Man-Horse flash into reality and fall past the window.
"-we feel that..." Bradford continued as his brothers glared ominously at Scrooge, who in the briefest of moments, opened his eyes just wide enough to see Gizmoduck fly by his office window with who looked like his darling wee Webbigail safely in his hands.
"BLESS, ME BAG-" Thud! The old duck feel flat out of his chair into silence on the dirty, unkempt floor.
"Uhhh..." The lead brother was speechless.
"-PIPES!" Scrooge popped up in sudden renewed excitement.
"Uh- Kids! Beakley! Duckworth! Uh, Launchpaaad!" Scrooge yelled as he ran out of the room.
"-AaahhhhhhhHHHHHHH!"
"Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" Splash! Webby was dropped out of the air and hit the surface of the mansion pool with flying flailing crash, causing her to sink all the way down into the Autumn cooled, cold depths.
"-waaahhhhhhhHHHHHHH-" Fenton and the Gizmosuit's failing systems were immediately cut off by an inconveniently planted tree as he flew up and down through the woods and came to a stop in a set of thorny shrubs.
Hearing the commotion outside, Scrooge, Huey, Della, Donald, Launchpad, and Duckworth rushed outside to the edge of the pool while Mrs. Beakley watched from the inside looking very anxious all of the sudden. This was all definitely not going according to plan.
"...Uaaahh!" The little merduck quickly resurfaced from the deep end of the water with a relived gasp of air and floated at the top.
"For a fish person, I've certainly spent a surprisingly large amount of time flying!"
"Tear ME TARTAN, WEBBIGAIIIL?!"
"WEBBYYYYY?!" Launchpad could barely believe his eyes.
Webby turned around in the water to face them. "Uncle Scroooog- UHH!" She was immediately met with a barrage of warm tight constricting hugs from her family as they leaped in the pool all around her.
Who cares if they got wet? Webby was safe, alive, well, and home, and Huey couldn't contain himself anymore. He hugged her. And hugged her, and hugged her, and hugged her. Tighter and closer than he ever had in his life. Webby was finally home, and she laughed as she tried to push him away, quickly changing her mind and just decided to hug him back.
"Oh Huey! I was just with you, and then I saw you die! I- I thought I would never see you guys agaaiiin!"
"...Whoa, Webby. You sure were a big baby." Launchpad said. "Also, what happened to your legs? It kinda looks like they melded together and turned pink."
"Wait what?" Webby questioned her hearing from Launchpad's almost Dewey-like remark, also pausing to take notice of Huey close to tearing up in relief over her.
"Uh, Huey? Huey?"
"...Webby, it's me, 22." Huey said.
...
"Wait, Granny?" Webby looked around the pool puzzled at her family. "Did I... miss, something?"
Suddenly, Donald's eyes shot wide open in horrifying sickend realization. In a coughing, gagging, almost indistinguishable quacky fit, the very wet duck fled the pool and far away from his greatest fear and ailment much to close to his comfort: fish.
"Bluugh! HAAAAAGH! BLAAAAH-AAUUUGH!"
...
"Webbigail, please." Violet politely pleaded.
"Sorry Louie. I- I just can't- GAAAH-HA-HA-HA-HAAA! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!" Webby threw herself backwards back into her portable on wheels baby bathtub in an uncontrollable laughing fit. If she had legs, she'd definitely be kicking them up in air.
"You-re- You're a GIRUUUL?! BAW-HAAA! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"
An annoyed Louise Duck still magically handcuffed to Violet Sabrewing glared coldly forward in complete staring silence from inside his tight hoodie.
"Buuuh, I knew she was just gonna make fun of me..."
"Relax Louise, I'll handle this." The just as tried as well hummingbird pushed Louise aside and turned to back Webby in the water.
"It's been an eventful duration."
"...Webby, what happened to you?! We were all worried sick about you! Dewey in Launchpad's body asked.
"And more importantly, where were you?! We looked everywhere for you! Mount Vesuvius, The Castle of Drake Von Vladstone, The House of Haunts, The Mines of King Solomon, The Isle of Golden Geese, Ghost Town Railroad, The Swamp of No Return, The Hall of the Mermaid Queen, Hotel Strangeduck, Castle Drekmore, The Land of Tra La La, The Eldritch Academy of Enchantment and Sorcery Studies, The Lost Library of Ron Dosa..."
"Yeah, we- we even tried-" Louise began to stutter. "D-D-Doo, Doofus Drake's mansion. Before he- he kicked us out for- Oh boi, I can't believe I'm saying this..."
"Intruding in on his, steamy hot, gravy bath. And then he offered me and Violet, full-time jobs, with room and board, as his French, conjoined, ma- GAAHHH! I CAN'T EVEN SAY IT!" The duckling threw herself onto Violet and began to cry on her shoulder.
"...Please forgive her." She lightly patted her on the back. "She's emotionally distraught, and highly sensitive."
...
"Well that's were I was." Webby calmly explained. "Doofus Drake's Mansion."
"What?!" Dewey was visibly shocked.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Louise wailed mournfully up towards the kitchen ceiling.
"You were THERE?!" Scrooge asked, sounding quite dumbfounded and confused at the moment.
"Yeah! And you were right about him Louie, he was the absolute worst! I was all tied up on the floor, and then suddenly he was there, and then he touched me!"
"Wait, he touched you?" Webby's grandmother in Huey's body asked.
"He touched me!"
"Where exactly did he touch you?!"
"In a lot of places!"
...
"Webby-" Dewey began to say.
"Yeah! And then he wanted me to marry him, but then I told him off and told him to go die in a hole! He was pretty much the fourth worst living person I've ever met."
"He even gave me this pretty jumbo-sized magnetic prisoner wedding ring see?" Webby held up her ring to show it off.
"Huh? So I guess Lena actually did see him then..." Dewey said with his finger up Launchpad's bill.
"Wai- LENNNNAAAAAAA!" Webby let out a sudden shriek of concern mixed with joy and relief. "Is she okay?! Where's LENA? And please tell me she's OKAY!"
"Lena's... fine. But-"
"-But what? But what?! BUT WHAT?!" Webby tightly grasped Dewey by Launchpad's shirt collar and pulled herself up to his face.
"What are you saying?! If there's a but, there's a very very good chance for there being a doubt! Is she hungry?! Famished?! HURT?! GIVEN PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL AFFECTION?! What have heartless monsters you done with HEEERRR?!"
"Quit STALLING maaaaan! YOU TELL ME WHERE SHE ISSSS!" The unforgiving and unreasonable little merduck shook Dewey more than hard enough to rattle Launchpad's brains out.
"Webby! I don't know where she is! Ask Louise and Violet! Ahhhh!" Webby feel to the floor and stared straight at Louise and Violet. And in an instant, Louise knew she was in danger.
"Oh boi... No, no no no no- Aghhh!"
"YOU TELL ME WHERE SHE ISSSS!" Webby threw herself at the duckling and began to thoroughly interrogate her.
"The- The- The- The- Foy-errrrr!" Louise barely managed to say, and that was all Webby needed to hear.
"...I'm coming LENNNNAAA! GIRL, YOU ARE GETTING SOME HUGS!" The ecstatic little merduck threw herself down on the floor and speed crawled on her hands and tail literally as fast as she could towards the foyer and out of the kitchen door, leaving several puddles and a trail of water behind her as she raced to meet her very best friend.
"Webby!" Her concerned grandmother quickly chased after her with Huey's short duckling legs.
"Is it just me, or did that girl somehow get even stronger since the last time she was held captive?" Dewey asked.
Lena Sabrewing sat in still numb silence back against the foyer wall of McDuck Manor, this wretched place brought back memories, but most notably not too pleasant ones.
It was here many a long age ago that her grand master plan had been foiled by that witless, thoughtless, inferior being... She didn't even want to remember her name, little worthless shadow CREATURE!
Her arms and wrists ached from the coils of ropes bound around them. And her legs, AAAAARRRGHHH! They were bound together too! She wanted to kick something! And she only hoped that Webby was just as miserable and not well taken care of as she was.
They gave her everything she needed, three square meals a day, significance and purpose, a soft bed to lay in, hygiene! They even gave her, EDUCATIONAL ENTERTAINMENT! Everything that nameless brat Lena didn't deserve!
Well of course Webby was. She was weak, they were all WEAK! Those doomed brats Violet and Louise had received a telephone call earlier and dragged her back here. She didn't want to be here, and closer to McDuck! The decor was awful!
But as long as she could focus and hold out on gathering her powers, tomorrow she would finally obtain the grim vengeance she craved. And the last horrible little creature and vile brat she ever wanted to see or hear from right now was...
"-LENNNNAAAAAAA!" The last horrible little creature and vile brat she ever wanted to see or hear from right now tumbled down the stairs and charged straight towards her on her hands.
Ughh! Her happy cheery carefree screeching voice was so annoying! Wait, WHHHAAAAT?! She was shocked, and only fought harder to snap the tape off from around her bill.
Ugggaahh! HUGS! That filthy sobbing wet brat was hugging her now! No, squeezing HER with love! BAAAAAAUGH! SHE HATED IT!
All of her hard work and carefully planned vile has gone to waste! She wasn't hurt, lost, sad, scared, confused, completely bent over forward to her dark will like helpless little pawn! She was happy! She didn't know true humiliation!
"I WAS- I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT-"
Click! Webby smiled widely and pushed herself up close against Lena, inadvertently turning back on the cassette player still magically lodged inside her stomach.
She didn't care or even seem to notice that she was all tied up like that, all that she cared about was that it was Lena. And it barely even bothered her that her own tortured high-pitched voice was now coming out from inside her.
"Wait what? Uuuaahh!" Magica growled and kicked Webby away from her.
"What is THAAAT?!" She covered her ears from the screaming and crying as her Uncle Scrooge pulled her away and held her up, and it didn't take long for Webby to recognize the glaring demonic yellow eyes underneath her very best friend's bang of messy white feathers.
"Those eyes. They radiate a familiar overwhelming aura of darkness and pure unfiltered, unmatched, baleful evil..."
"Magica?" Scrooge asked.
"Yeaaaah, she about covers it."
Violet quickly dragged Louise behind her in rush to put the imprisoned shadow sorceress back in her place
"Bad Magica, bad! The hummingbird lightly slapped her. "Sit down!"
"Uhhhh, guys? Would you mind giving me a quick recap? I'm a bit, lost and confused here, heh-heh." Webby let out a soft nervous chuckle.
"Oh, would you mind if I did the honors? I'm more than enough prepared for this. It was as if my whole life has lead up to this." Violet felt a sudden warmth of self-importance begin to glow brightly in her chest.
"Sure! I missed the sound of your soothing, monotonous voice." The little merduck replied as she was put back into her source of water.
"...Splendid. Louise? Assistance please."
"Ugh, FIIIIIIINNNE. Little Mrs. Exposition." The duckling slumped forward and pulled a dark green chalkboard back into frame with scribbles and random magical illustrations written all over it.
"Oooh! Nice board. Did you guys make it yourself?"
"We got it on a loan." Violet suddenly struck her board with a stick to gather attention to herself as she began her hopefully not too long-winded informative infodump.
"On the brisk, distant evening of October the Third, De Spell and her still mostly unidentified cohorts broke into the manor and into your bedroom. And within minutes, they immediately overpowered and made off with you."
"Care to elaborate?" The hummingbird held her stick in her hands.
"Sorry, still a bit fuzzy on the finer details. But I for sure remember a loud SLAP, and then a sharp sudden pain."
"Wait..." Webby suddenly came to a certain painful realization and rubbed her face.
"Magica slapped ME!"
...
"Well that would likely be the case." Violet continued.
"We immediately rushed to your defense, but with no definitive clues of your exact whereabouts, and that during the brief malefic attack upon us in the manor, a mysterious shadowy spectre used her dark malevolent forces against us, bringing all progress for our personal searches for you, to a sudden, grinding halt..."
"I think our spirits were ironically swapped between our bodies. Fortunately for the smaller majority of us, the effects of the spell have long been reversed, currently leaving only Hubert, Dewford, Launchpad, Mr. and Mrs. Duck, and your grandmother, displaced."
The rusty gears in Webby's head turned as she tried to fully comprehended the full scope of her family's quite confusing dilemma and thought back for a bit.
"Well, I guess that would explain-" Crash!
"...Sorry!" Dewey's voice quickly rang from outside the mansion.
...
"After Lena was restored from her lowly piggish form, she-"
"Wait, Lena was turned into a pig? Was she cute?" Webby asked with a suspicious smile.
"Completely adorbs." Violet calmly replied. "She then formulated a plan to use, uh, what was it called?" She wondered.
"Scout Interceding." Scrooge reminded her.
"-Scout Interceding." The hummingbird immediately picked up where she had left off. "A highly invasive informative spell. Typically used for spying and intruding on the user's adversaries."
"We figured she could use her powers as a magical link to be precise, to connect to you from a distance, and in theory, discover exactly where you had be taken. Through your eyes. And it worked, but at heavy price."
"One of many negative side-effects of the spell, was that all the bodily sensations of the chosen mark, that would be you, are pulled back onto the original spell caster..."
"Sooooo, uh, what happened? Is that when Magica possessed her and got trapped inside her like that?" Webby asked.
"No. De Spell was inflicting severe physical, emotional, and mental pain upon you, which in turn, only came back on Lena."
"Yeah. She was crying and screaming, and kicking, and laughing-"
"Wait, laughing?" Webby as taken back by Dewey's sudden odd remark.
"She was ticking you." He quickly explained.
...
"Wait, she was tickling me?" Webby was left temporarily and utterly speechless.
"That's like one of the most early cliched forms of villainous torture and interrogation ever! Magica really needs to get with the times!"
"Yeah, but if someone really really didn't like it, and didn't have a way of stopping it when they wanted it too, wouldn't it be..." Dewey suddenly began lightly poking at Webby with his finger.
"Eh-heh-heh-heh! Dewey stop!" Webby tried to push him away from her as she laughed.
"Kinda like..."
"D-D-Dewey! Please, don't!"
"Uh, Dewford?" Louise tried to warn to him.
"Maybe a bit down..."
"-Dewford don't."
"DEW-DEW-DEWEY! STOO-OO-OPPP!"
And with one finger stroke to many, Dewey Duck sealed his fate.
"AAAAAAAAAAAARRGH! I WILL KILL YOU!" In an exhausted flying rage, the little merduck smacked Launchpad's hand away with the palm of her own hand, causing Dewey to pull it back and shake it from the pain.
"Oww-wwwww..."
Webby suddenly realized what she had done. "Oh sorry Dewey. Your face just transformed into the entirety of Doofus Drake for a bit." She quickly and he genuinely apologized to him.
"...Wait wait wait wait, hold on. Let me see if I can understand what guys are trying to say here! She was torturing me?!"
"But- But- The worst thing Magica ever did to me was, left me alone with Doofus, deprived me of food, and had me turned into a mer- person..." She paused for a bit to gather her thoughts.
"I mean sure, it was bad, but it's hardly what I would call professional torture!"
"And that's not even the worst of it." Violet added.
"The details are a bit vague, but it appears that at some point during your captivity, Magica regressed you back into a near infantile state, and then..."
"Then what? What happened?" Webby asked, quite desperately wanting to know what happened next.
"Mrs. B?" The young hummingbird glanced over to Webby's grandmother still trapped in Huey's pubescent body, who only have her a look of silent, solemn approval.
"She, molested you."
...
"Wait. Isn't that where..."
Webby felt the light fade away from her as a thick shadowy darkness covered her eyes. She couldn't even pretend she was innocent anymore, she knew very well what that word ment, but wished she never, ever had to bring up the subject of-
"Webby, you okay?" Dewey put a comforting hand on her shoulder to try and cheer her up. "Also, what's this chain?" He asked, taking up the end of long link still connected to the metal band around her neck.
"Oh!" Webby suddenly perked back up and rubbed the back of her neck. "That was, Magica. Long story."
"It's kinda rubbing my neck a whole lot. Do you guys think you can find a way to take it off? It's really heavy and makes it harder to breathe..."
"You should probably get some long-deserved rest then." Violet told her. "You do appear to be a bit flustered."
"Huh? Oh yeah, about that. Magica kinda, forced me to drink something that magically keeps me from falling asleep."
"Oooh, that's rough." Dewey had to admit.
...
"Getting back on subject, October Eighth, early morning hours. De Spell launched a surprise attack on us through the magical link created between you and Lena."
"Is this when Louie was turned into a girl and you got handcuffed together?" Webby asked.
"Precisely." Violet responded.
"Wait, how long have you two been together like that?"
"Three weeks, twenty-one days, five-hundred and four hours, and one million, eight hundred fourteen thousand, four hundred seconds. Ugggggghhhh..." Louise sighed sadly and began to fall to the floor before Violet just pulled her back up to her webbed feet.
"What about baths, and- and sleeping?" Webby wondered.
Violet just stared forward in her usual, stoic silence. "...We've gotten to know each other quite well."
"Yeah, she taught me how to be a girl, and I thought her how act and tell genuinely convincing lies." Louise smiled, actually feeling proud of herself. "Go ahead, tell them a good lie."
"But would it be proper?" Violet asked.
"Oh yes, absolutely."
Turning to the rest of her family, the young hummingbird gave them all slight subtle smirk. "...Where you all aware that Louise here is surprising skilled at knitting?"
"Oooh! Nice one! Even I believed that that for a second!" Webby was impressed, while Louise just turned bright red in anger and embarrassment.
"Vi! You specifically promised you wouldn't tell them THAT!" She got right up in her face. Despite this, Violet showed no emotion whatsoever.
"I lied." She said.
"...My own fault, I've created a monster." Louise only blamed herself.
...
"Ahem." Violet cleared her throat. "After the quick altercation, De Spell forcibly possessed Lena's body, seemingly unaware that she-"
"Wait, what's an altercation?" Webby asked.
"A fight. We had a fight."
"Yeah, we almost all died. Yet dispute all that, it was still somehow pretty anticlimatic." Dewey admitted.
"...Heh, heh heh." Webby let out a dark mix of a cheated and disbelieving soft creepy laugh.
"You guys had it easy! You were all probably wearing clothes or something! I was naked!"
"Webby what?" Dewey questioned.
"You were naked?" Mrs. Beakley asked. "Who saw you naked?!"
"Only everyone that was there probably!"
"Wait, you beat Magica, without legs?!" Dewey asked in wide-eyed Dewey bewilderment. "Webby, even for you, I'd think that's impossible!"
"No no no. You've got it all wrong. Of course I had legs, and it was much more complicated than that!" She explained.
"Time travel, alternate universes, angsty gods, ancient curses, Moonpocalypse, deepest miseries, broken promises, chainsaws, skeletons, mermaids, cockroaches, spies, Beagle Boys, tanks, Darkwing Duck, delicious oysters, Gladstone Gander, Lanuchpad, all commonly expected end of the world stuff."
...
"After the quick altercation, De Spell possessed Lena's body, seemingly unaware that she could use her amulet to hold back De Spell and her powers within herself. She's been a prisoner in her body ever since."
"In conclusion- Excuse me, Webbigail?" Violet finally took notice of Webby once again looking very down and heavy-hearted.
"Lena, sacrificed herself, to try and save me? But- But she's already been through so much." The little merduck stared down at her hands and began to twiddle her thumbs.
"Magica told me, when I was there. She hurt Lena, said she was nothing but a slave to her. That she cut her open, and made her suffer so much... I didn't want to believe her, but she told it so convincingly. I just couldn't shake the feeling that, maybe all that she told me, wasn't a lie..."
"Man, could we either just stick with the relived happy to finally see you again joy or deep emotional angst for once?" Dewey asked. "I'm not sure whether to laugh, or cry..."
"Lena told us." Her Uncle Scrooge told her. "She said she was worried that Magica was just going to do the same to you."
Dispite hearing this and finally getting an honest answer, Webby really didn't feel that much better.
"I- I don't get it, Lena is my best friend. Why didn't she tell me about it? I thought she could trust me with everything. I just don't get it? Why didn't she tell me?! Lena... why? Why?"
"Well she- probably just thought that it would upset you. You can understand that right?" Scrooge put his hand on her shoulders, yet Webby still refused to make full eye contact with him.
"Maybe. But, if we knew, we could have all helped her a long time ago."
Suddenly, an idea came to her. "Wait, do you think she can hear us all right now?"
"Without question." Violet replied.
"...One moment please." Webby politely excused herself and pulled herself onto the floor up close to Lena. Gently putting her hand on the teen's forehead, she felt her familiar warmth and gave her a comforting friendly smile.
Dispute Magica still having full control over her born from shadows body, Webby knew her best friend was still very much alive and well on the inside.
"Hi Lena. It's me Webby. You don't have to worry about me anymore, I'm safe now, everything's fine. You can let go of Magica now..."
"Magica is still in possession of her powers, it would just be putting you at risk again." Violet informed her.
"She most likely feels responsible for Magica being let back out into the world in the first place. I doubt Lena would ever let go of her as long as she's still a threat to you and us all."
"...Well then we'll just have to damn well exorcise that witch straight out!" Webby proclaimed with a curled up first in the air.
"WEBBY!" Mrs. Beakley was shocked by her granddaughter's unusual use of profanity.
"Mr. McDuck, this all doesn't add up." Violet scratched her chin in deep intensive thought. "It's almost as if Webbigail experienced an entirely different outcome from what we first thought, like she's an almost completely separate person. But is it even possible?"
BANG! The twin doors to the foyer were suddenly and without care first their hinges thrown open. In walked Manny the Headless Man-Horse and a grumpy half-blind Gyro Gearloose carrying in Launchpad with Fenton beside them as he rolled in inside the heavily damaged Gizmosuit.
Although it was a bit odd to see Magica's decapitated head upon Manny's neck, Scrooge and his family knew better not to really question it at this point, there were much more important pressing matters at hand anyway.
"HMPH!" Gyro lightly tossed the annoying small rescued child on his head onto the floor.
"Next time you almost run me over and get me KILLED, I'll- Well, by law, there's little I can do to you besides standing you in the corner."
"So," He crossed his arms down at him. "there's that..."
"Appreciate it!" Launchpad thanked him while still very much upside down.
"Great galloping gallifrey! Impossible!" Scrooge could barely believe what his old aging eyes were seeing.
"What?" Gyro questioned aloud.
"You're- You're all dead!"
"...What what?"
"You, Fenton, Penumbra, the, Man-Horse... I saw them put you all in the ground with my own eyes!" The old duck was practically speechless.
"I'm a ghost. How did I die?" Manny asked with a series of slow, distinctive claps.
"How is- How is this even possible? Wha- What in all the high holy Loch Ness even went on out there?!"
Gyro frowned.
"...Nothing. Definitely NOT that we transcended though literal time and space into an alternate dimension where we all died probably painful horrific deaths, and that the Beagle Boys definitely did NOT steal the Time Tub to steal the deed to Duckburg away from you to destroy all of the time stream and our lives. I mean, definitely nothing at ALL similar to that."
...
"What? Oh, s-sure."
"I'm a ghost. How did I die?" Manny clapped.
"Your- Your lab. There was a huge explosion, and the lab was flooded, so Fethry re-purposed it into an underwater lab." Scrooge tried his best to explain.
"And there's a difference? It's always been an underwater lab."
"No. It's LITERALLY an underwater lab now." The old duck told him.
"What what?"
"He said he found it easier to connect to the sea life that way..."
"WHAAAT?! That HACK, took over my lab?!" Gyro rushed over to look out a window.
"...Well, since you were dead and all."
"-We're not dead and all! They were just mindless, left over time clones or something like that!"
"What?" Scrooge was even more confused than usual.
"You see, time is. Well, more like a big ball of-" The scientist paused, realizing how mad he actually sounded right now.
"It's- It's unstable, complex, and wildly unpredictable. Alternate timelines open up, chances of your body fizzling into infinity all across spacetime rise through the roof, and- You're not actually buying this right now are you?" He asked as if he already knew the answer.
"...I'm- I'm just an old duck! What in blazes would I know about time travel?"
"Soooo uh, would that explain what happened to poor Huey then-"
"Of course, time travel!" Webby suddenly interrupted Fenton. "Launchpad, the Timephoon, didn't you say you were sent to the future?" She turned to face him on the floor.
"What? Oh noooo. I didn't go to future, I was sent to the past!" The pilot replied.
"To the same exact year I was born! To my old childhood home Illinois! To the night I was conceived." Launchpad paused in deep, existential, inner thought.
"Crashed in right through the roof..."
...
"Oh, and then I was sent to the future!"
"Oh thank God. I was worried you got sent all the way back to the Ducktanic and crashed it into an iceberg or something..."
"Webby what?" Dewey questioned.
"Huh? I wonder what's happening to us in the universe where we're having normal, family problems?" She wondered.
Meanwhile. In an alternate timeline. Several days in the past.
...
"Suck on stone ye scabrous scorpion scoundrels!" Scrooge McDuck threw a rock down onto a massive sumo wrestling sized desert arachnid and hit it smack in the middle of the head, causing him and his fellow buddies to hiss up at him in spite.
"Finch's Journal says the lost lamp of Collie Babba is here!"
"How many lamps did this jerk have?" Louie didn't even bother to look up from his phone.
"All we have to do is beat the scorpions, survive the gauntlet, and travel four through the desert on foot!"
"...Aw! I wish we could just have normal family problems!" Donald mumbled to himself as rocked back and forth with his kness in his arms, unknowingly rubbing against a magical golden lamp that heard his desperate wish loud and clear.
Pulling everyone's attention away from the scorpions, the lamp spun around in the air and sparkled as it released a trail of magical purple smoke that just so happened to be Donald's most desired lord and savior, a benevolent, honest-to-goodness, wish granting genie.
"Ha! Ha ha ha ha!" The impish floating figure laughed as the magical lamp floated back into Donald's hands.
"...Your wish, is my command. Shoobey!" The temple was immediately filled with smoke.
...
"Mehhhhh..." Webby refused to believe it.
"Wait, what day is this again?" She asked.
"It's- October Thirtieth. One day until Halloween." Her Uncle Scrooge told her.
"One, two, three, four-" Fenton began to count down on his Gizmo fingers, coming to a certain horrible realization as reached the final digital.
"Dr. Gearloose, Webby has been missing in this universe for almost four weeks..."
A heavy wave silence and dread filled the mansion foyer.
"If you all don't mind, I have to go pay respects to myself." Gyro walked off to leave, but stopped himself to turn around with his hand on the wooden doorframe.
"Oh. And you're welcome, punchy..." He shut the doors behind him.
"...Now what did he mean by that?" Scrooge wondered.
"Uh, Uncle Scrooge, do you think we should we tell her?" Dewey asked.
"About what? Oh, that..."
"Webby, we've got some bad news to tell you about Circe."
"Yeah. I- I know... She's evil, and teamed up with Magica." Webby started to look a little sad again.
"Huey and Lena both died because of her. I swear, I'll never let it happen again..."
Silence filled the foyer once again.
...
"Guys! I almost forgot! I know who the leader of F.O.W.L. is! They're still out there!"
"Webby, you're sure?!" Her grandmother asked.
"Yeah! I'm sure I'm sure! He even threatened to destroy me himself! His name is-"
"Uh oh." Bradford Buzzard and his brothers watched nervously together from the top of the foyer stairs and carefully aimed a fully loaded F.O.W.L. ray gun at her head. The seconds were ticking by, and they only had one shot at this, they couldn't take a chance.
PEEEW! The invisible laser hit Webby directly in the back of the head.
"-Mickey Mouse!" She threw a single proud of herself fist up in the air.
"Webby what?"
...
"...Mickey Mous-" The little merduck paused in sudden self-realization.
"Huh? Maybe I wasn't as sure about that as I first thought I was..."
"Excuse us, pardon us. Coming through. Pardon us please..." The three elderly buzzards walked by with their suitcases in hand and straight out door.
"...They seem nice!" Webby smiled to herself.
"?" Manny clapped once on the floor, he wasn't too sure if he was just imaging things or not.
"Wait. If- If this is an alternate universe, then- then does that mean that there's two of me now?!" Webby gasped in excitement and held her hands to sides if her head.
"That is soooooo cooooool! It'll be just like having a younger sister! Except your younger sister is actually yourself! And we'll get to spend our first Halloween together, and go as the creepy hotel hallway forever and ever twins!"
"C'mon guys! Let's go raid that rich kid's overgrown tree house, kick their butts, and- Well actually, you'd have to do most the butt-kicking for me..."
"Uh, Webby? I don't think she'd like that." Dewey said.
"Wait, why?"
"The other you probably spent like a full month stuck in that mansion with those monsters, not to mention Doofus. I think she's had more than enough Halloween and spooks to last her a lifetime."
"Aww, c'mon Dewey." Webby just laughed it off. "I'm sure she's just... fine..."
"You know, for someone who was kidnapped by an evil dark shadow sorceress and almost got tortured by her just for being part of our family, you're taking this shockingly well. Webby, you sure you're going to be alright?" Dewey asked, sounded a lot more concerned for her than usual.
"Sure I'm sure! We're the Ducks, we've been through much worse than this! I mean just look at Granny! She held through well enough."
"Pain is just another social consruct..." Mrs. Beakley held Huey's left shoulder in her grasp.
"Webby! But you didn't actually get LITERALLY tortured! The other you has!" Louise suddenly cried in Webby's face.
"Even though Magica was far out of the picture, who knows what those horrible monsters there have done with her! Uh, you! She already beat you till Lena broke down and begged us to make it to stop, half strangled you to death while forcing you to smoke, and then cut open your tongue and hung a weight from itttt!"
"Not only that, but they also brainwashed you into thinking Lena was never truly your BEST FRIENDDD!"
...
"Wait, whaaat? You're, making this up right?"
"...You all stay here. Lad?" Scrooge walked up to Fenton.
"Oh c'mon!" Webby complained.
"Mr. McDuck, sir!" He sat still in attention.
"This is a hostage situation. We'll need backup, it'll be dangerous."
"Dangerous?" Launchpad perked up and grinned in sudden, fanboyish excitement. "You mean, when there's trouble you call D.W. kinda dangerous?" He asked.
...
"Cloud of smoke and he appears,
The Master of surprise kinda dangerous?"
"Launchpad..." Scrooge began to say.
"...What we need is, Darkwing Duc-"
"Launchpad, no. This is job for trained professionals only. Stay with Beakley and the kids, we'll handle this."
"That's right, M'Ma! I've got to let her know I'm alright! But how does one go about telling their mother that they're just not quite as dead as they first thought they were?" Fenton wondered.
"I'm a ghost. How did I die?" Manny clapped.
"Don't know Manny. I just don't know." Fenton said as he, Scrooge, and Manny left, leaving Webby, Huey, Dewey, Louise, Violet, Lena, Magica, Mrs. Beakley, Duckworth, and Donald alone in the foyer.
"...Duckworth, hold me up and float over there please. And could you also transform into your big scary door-to-door salesmen warding demon form? It adds a whole lot to the slow dramatic tension."
"Ah-hem hem hem. Is it really necessary, Miss Vanderquack?" The ghostly butler asked.
"Just do it."
At her order, Duckworth quickly transformed into his Demonworth form as Magica just glared murderously at the two of them from behind Lena's bloodshot, yellow eyes.
Everyone watched as Webby was slowly lifted up out of the water by her arms high above the dark sorceress trapped inside the teenager's body and frowned down coldy at her.
"You've lost Magica. Your region of terror and vile is over. It's all over for you, dirty shadow abuser..."
"All Lena ever wanted was a family, people that would love her and cherish her. She's a beautiful, intelligent, sensitive person, that somehow came from a cold-hearted spawn of darkness and evil like you."
"You didn't deserve her, but she deserved better. Well she showed you. And if I ever have to hear another screeching loud voice ever again, I'll be much too soon..."
BANG! The front doors were kicked wide open.
"Break out adoption papers boys! You kids just got yourselves a new big sis!"
"NOOOOOO! Birth your own Earth offspring yourself! The high Moon courts will see you CHAIIINS!" Penumbra fought and struggled with all her might for freedom as Della cradle carried her through the crowded foyer and up the stairs.
"...I mean, Aunt Della was always a few years older than Penny anyway. It was expectantly inevitable." Webby said.
...
"So guys! Do you think you could wheel me up to my room real quick then back to the pool? And then later, you think you could also run down to the beach and find me a couple of seashells to help me complete the authentic merduck look?"
"If I'm going to be stuck like this for a while, I might as well get fully culturally appropriated. Or is it actually offensive to the merfolk women to assume they all wear seashell bras?"
"Webby! You will wear what you usually wear, and not something so conspicuous!" Her grandmother clearly disagreed.
"Awwww, Granny..."
"Hey, what's the big deal? Just let her wear whatever she wants. It's her choice." Huey in Mrs. Beakley's body finally spoke up, causing Webby to give him an extra long double take and stare at him in disbelief.
Something was very, very wrong. And she just couldn't shake the feeling the she was forgetting somebody.
"...What's up with Huey? Why's he acting so weird?" She asked as she turned around to face Dewey.
"It's the stress. It got to him." He told her.
"I'm just so glad to see you again Webby! I was so worried about you!" The Juniorwood Chuck stepped forward to shake her hand. Webby was still not at all impressed.
"Huey, listen to me. Look at me, look me straight in the eye, and tell me you're not a spy!"
Huey gave her an uncomfortably long pause.
"Webby, I'm not a spy..."
...
"Okay. So uh, what's the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook say about merpeople then? Anything good in there you're just itching to tell me? Do they glow in the dark? Sleep with their eyes open? Lay eggs?!" She gasped.
"DO THEY SWIM IN SCHOOLS?! I'd be nice to learn more about my own kind, and I may or may not have deus ex machina life saving emotional adrenaline magic now..."
Huey gave her another uncomfortably long, awkward pause.
"Sorry! But the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook has nothing about merpeople." He finally replied.
"...I'm a Junior Woodchuck, not fish scientist."
"You mean an Ichthyologist?" Louise asked, getting herself put on the spot again of unwanted attention.
"Okay, FIIIIIIINNNE! You got me! Violet got me into books too." She admitted with a tired sigh.
"Knowledge is strength, use it wisely." Violet stepped forward and simply quoted herself.
"Yeah, but who would know all about fish and sea life stuff?" Dewey wondered. "Like a close but slightly mixed-up eccentric relative that lives and breathes under the sea?" They all thought for a bit.
"...Cousin Fethry!"
...
"Pick a card, any card. Which cards, will they pick?" A tall grey Beagle Boy all dressed in edgy black and purple held out a hand full of shuffled playing to his three brothers in the close woods outside McDuck Manor.
"Hmmmm. I chose, that one!" Bigtime picked the first card at the far end of the hand.
"This one!" Bouncer picked his card.
"Hhrhhrh." Burger took a card.
"Excellent! Now... Put them baaaaaaaack." Black Arts spoke in a mysterious creepy voice and poorly shuffled all the cards together as his brothers watched.
"...Let's see, your cards were, the Queen of Hearts!"
"Hey, that's was my card!"
"Ahhhh! That was mine too!"
"Hhrhhrrh!"
"Wow! How'd he do that?" All his brothers clapped for him as Black Arts took a bow, while their thieving mother silently slipped out of Scrooge McDuck's office window and slid all the way down a gutter.
"Look, there she is. There she is!"
"You got it Ma?" Bigtime asked with a wide hopeful smile.
"Got it." She smiled back with an old piece paper rolled up in her hand and then climbed back into the Time Tub with her sons.
"...This is it boys! All your Ma's hard work and dedication has finally paid off! For the future of Duckburg is ours! AHHH- HA-HA-HA! HA-HA!"
"C'mon boys! Laugh with me."
"AHHH- HA-HA-HA! HA-HA!" They all laughed an evil laugh together in villainous victory.
"I just love me some good ol' fashioned family reunions..."
Flash! The Time Tub disappeared back into the timestream. The new age of the Beagle Clan, had finally began.