A/N: So, long before the episode The Split Sword of Swanstantine! even aired, I somehow came up with at least two of the major plot points that were included in it: feathers, and mindscapes. And Rockerduck's line about his lawyer at the end of it certainly didn't help. (Edit: And even Hades from New Gods on the Block! Sigh.)
Oh, and special thanks to Reddit user whocaresanymoreright for their brilliant deduction on fictional mermaid biology. Couldn't have done it without ya.
Disney Boy: I already messaged you about this. No need to explain it to you again here.
"You know, I've been thinking..." Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera finally broke the calm, eerie, windless silence of Duckburg Cemetery at dusk.
"...Good habit. Keep it up." Gyro Gearloose simply encouraged him in a expressionless deadpan manner as he readjusted his reflective spare pair of glasses over his eyes.
The sun was just beginning to set overhead in the cloudless orange sky above. The spooky day of Halloween would be here in only a couple hours, and there was something so unnerving about looking down at your own grave with the thought of yourself somehow lying long dead, only buried for weeks underneath.
Lined up perfectly in a row sat four slightly differing but similar tombstones, all with the same ominous final date carved out at the end of each of them. October 11, 2019.
As far as the world was concerned, Dr. Gyro Gearloose, The Hero of Duckburg Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera, the proud moonlander warrior Lieutenant Penumbra, and The Ghost of Manny the Headless Man-Horse, were dead.
"If I'm no longer going to pursue my career as a heavily underpaid underwater lab intern scientist, then what?"
"...Is this just another rhetorical question? What is thi-"
"-Law!" Fenton suddenly interrupted at the last second.
...
"Excuse me. Wha-"
"-Law is an integral part of my family's history." Fenton continued. "All the back to my great great ancestor Sheriff Marshall Cabrera, to my dear sweet M'Ma today!"
"Do you even know it?" Gyro asked, leaving the Latin intern clueless to exactly what he was talking about.
"Know what? What's the it in this, particular frame of reference?"
"Do you even know her full name?" He asked again.
Fenton stood to face him and sighed down to the ground. "...It's María Antonia Magdalena Aldonsa Cabrera okay?"
The two surviving interdimensional time travelers went back to staring down at their graves in silence and respect. Fenton wondering why he had even been caught up in all of this, and Gyro wondering why he had to be laid to rest between two of the most annoying people he ever knew of all people.
"Do you know, what it truly means, to be a lawyer?"
Gyro waited a bit to try and respond.
"...Uh-"
"-It means to always believe in the innocence of your client, and to also help them out and stand up for them in their worst of messes. And when all seems hopeless and that you've reached the final curtain, those are the times when lawyers have to force their biggest smiles!"
Gyro was left indifferent.
"Well that's good and all, but-"
"-I'll..."
"UUUUAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHH!" Gyro let an agonized frustrated scream and got right up in his instantly terrified intern's face.
"WOULD YOU MIIIIIND?! FOR- FOR JUST- FOR TWO SECONDS?!"
Fenton was stunned, still taken far back in silence at his boss's sudden outburst.
"...I'll study hard, earn my degree, and my badge, and become Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera, Defence Attorney at Law! A truce ace of the courtroom."
"OBJECTION!" He held out his left arm and aimed his pointer finger forward.
"Justice, for all..."
...
"Hmm, a lawyer. Who would ever need a- a..."
"A lawyer?" Fenton turned back around to ask. "What's so wrong with a being a lawyer?"
"Ugh, look. Although it pains me to say it, and I hate to admit it, but we really need a Gizmoduck."
"So... Uh, I'm not, completely, disbarred then?" Fenton asked with a nervous, hopeful smile.
"2-BO and the other Gizmosuit are still in the hands of that- unrighteous, piece of..." Gyro paused for a brief second. "Less than human Emil."
"Emil Eagle. He's that... science based, evil inventor villain right?"
"Emil, doesn't, invent!" Gyro suddenly got right back up in Fenton's face. "He's a thief!"
"And with the combined strength and power of the Gimzosuit and 2-BO in the, VICIOUS hands of the that- that FIEND! You know it's bad when I'd rather put my life in your hands-" He quickly reaffirmed for him.
"-We, as a society, are doomed..."
Scrooge McDuck's head scientist opened his eyes and glanced over to a completely unsuspicious older looking duck with glasses minding his own business and tending to the cemetery with a fancy, sliver watering can.
"You, my flowers are wilting. Water them. Do your job." Gyro ordered him before simply walking away.
"I'm a ghost. How did I die?" Manny the Headless Man-Horse clapped after he finished paying his respects and quickly following after him.
"So uh, about this, 2-BO..." Fenton began to say as he left, leaving the older working duck in question to pull his hat from over his eyes and grin darkly at them.
"...Jeeves?"
"Hmmm." A massive, braindead looking well dressed figure in black growled softly in response and slowly emerged from the shadows behind him.
"Follow them." The duck ordered, before quickly realizing that he had been spilling water onto the ground and himself the whole time.
"Ickkk- uh. Got mud all over my- my boot. Jeeves? Jeev- JEEVVVVVVES! Jee-" He paused as his even loyal in death butler handed him a handkerchief without even looking down at him.
"Thank you Jeeves."
The duck took the handkerchief in his hand and began to clean himself off. Unlike his butler, he had been completely rejuvenated. Now decades younger and full of youth, ready and willing to commit every single type of larceny known to man in the name of crooked business.
His name, was John D. Rockerduck.
"Ha-ha! Well we'll see who really waters your flowers after I'm done with- with-" Rockerduck paused, finally taking notice of Manny now staring straight back at him with Magica De Spell's head in silence.
"Greetings. Fellow, ghost." He clapped to him in a friendly sort of ghost greeting way.
...
"What's the matter? Haven't you ever seen a man wipe mud off his boots with the help of his giant Frankensteined butler before?" He asked before going straight back to his greatly meticulous shoe shining.
"Sheesh. People these days..."
"HHHHmmm... HHHHmmm-mmmm..."
"Wait for it, wait for it." Louise held her hand up for everyone in the mansion foyer.
"Uh, Cousin Fethry? What exactly are looking at back there?" Webby asked as she tried to look back at Fethry Duck closely examining her up close and upside down with a magnifying glass.
"Patience please! Patience! A scientist mustn't overlook one tiny, miniscule, detail..." The eccentric former Junior Woodchuck went right back to looking Webby over in her portable little bathtub, moving down lower on her tail, and somehow making her feel even more violated.
"...I feel like he's looking at my butt. Why is he looking at my butt? Please ask him why he's looking at my butt."
Huey in Mrs. Beakley's body sighed. "Cousin Fethry, why are you looking at Webby's butt?"
"Aren't mermaids just like, an upper body, with a fish tail attached?" Dewey in Launchpad's body asked.
"BLUUAAAGHAHHPTH!" Della retches violently offscreen.
...
"Mermaids don't have butts or buttcheeks since they don't need to sit down. The whole part below the waist is a fish, and like a fish, they just have a multifunctional hole. This is common knowledge." Violet simply stated.
"...I believe you still lack hindquarters Webbigail." She confirmed for her aquatic bound friend with a nod.
"UGH!" Louise groaned while still very much chained wrist to wrist close beside her. "Could we please have more intelligent conversations HERE?"
"HHHHmmm..."
Fethry paused to touch his tongue to his finger and press it gently against Webby's scaly tail, and she unsurprisingly didn't seem too happy about it.
"Did he just lick me? I feel like he just licked me. Why did he just lick me?"
"Ah! It's a tail. Nice one Girl Kid." Fethry came to his final conclusion and stepped back in success after forcibly plopping his scruffy looking red stocking onto a very much confused Webby's head to keep it healthy and warm.
"There." Louise finally let her hand drop.
"Oh C'MON!" Webby complained from underneath her new, totally not adorable headwear.
"Come'ere little Donalds! It's feels so great to see you all again!" Fethry smiled, quickly gathering Mrs. Beakley, Launchpad, and Louise all together into a tight family hug. He was still completely clueless to all their mixed-up current situations.
"Awww! Totally not awkward cousin hugs!" Launchpad in Dewey's body just hugged him back.
"Mrs. B, should we tell him?" Dewey asked.
"In his fragile innocent state of mind?" Webby's grandmother in Huey's heavily untrained body asked as well.
"Please." Louise agreed while just letting herself fall limp in her cousin's arms. "I will always choose the bliss of ignorance, over the agony of knowledge..."
"...Subverted Wayne Gerard Trotterman, brilliant British author and quoteist look him up."
"Excuse me. How dare you?" Violet didn't even try to hide the fact of how offended she was.
...
KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK!
"UHHH! Uncle Scroooog- Waaahh-" Della Duck fell flat onto his brother's face and she ran into the foyer to get the door.
"Ughhh! Dumb Donald, and his- dumb luck!" She quacked angrily and threw the front door open, only to be immediately greeted by tall slender stranger wearing a monster clown mask over his face while towering high over her.
"Boo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo!"
Della was unimpressed.
"...Awww, it's just Goofy! Wait, it's Goofy?!"
"Hiya fellers. Happy Halloween!" The stranger pulled his mask off his face and walked in with an unfamiliar costumed child clinging onto his back. Yet dispite giving everyone the same big friendly smile he gave everyone on a daily basis, no one in the foyer said a word to him.
Huey, Dewey, Louise, Violet and Webby didn't know what to say. Just who was this, Goofy?
"Hmmm. Something seems different about ya. New shirt?" The stranger rubbed his chin as he carefully looked over Della trapped in his old friend's body.
"...No Goofy." She replied in her brother's barely comprehensible scratchy voice.
Fethry gasped and quickly waddled up to the two of them.
"Is this, tall and distinguished most charming and intuitive young gentlemen... a close friend of yours?" He asked.
"YEP, he SHORE is!" The stranger let out a peculiar laugh mixed with a lighthearted chuckle.
"Nice to meet'cha pal! I'm Goofy!"
"F-Fethry Duck! Also Cousin Fethry! People say that I'm a little goofy too!" Fethry shook his gloved hand.
"Well now. Huh-huh-huh-Huuuh!" Goofy laughed as he began to rub and pat him on the head. "He's just like one of the family!"
"Yes. Just... pat me. It stimulates the sleeping brain cells." A smile spread across Fethry's bill as he closed his eyes.
"A-hyuck! Huh-huh-huh-Huuuh! Rise and shine! Wake up in there little fellers!"
"Oh they're so perfect for each other..." Louise somehow felt a wave of overwhelming peace and calmness all of the sudden. Like everything in her dark dangerous stressful world of danger was somehow going to end up okay.
"...Daddy daddy daddy daddy! Can we see a ghost? Can we see a ghost? Can we can we can we can we?" The child clinging tightly onto Goofy's back suddenly made her presence known in overly excited joy.
She was wearing what looked like a cross between a set of jet black pajamas and a Halloween costume with cat ears and tail. Her bright orange pigtails hung down from each sides of her hoodie.
And in a twirl of grey ethereal smoke, Duckworth appeared in the foyer with a smile to greet the guests.
"Mr. Ghoooossttt!" She was delighted, while Fethry just gasped loudly at the sight of her in similar excitable joy.
"And you've got a kid TOO?! WOW! What will he do next?! Run for mayor, catch counterfeiters, become a rocket scientist?! I don't KNOW! Probably!"
"Uh Goofy, I'd hate to pry too much into your personal life, but who's the kid?" Della asked in an awkward tone of voice.
"Huh? Oh! When my old pal Pete and his wife died, and since she didn't have anywhere else to go, I arranged for her to come live with me!" He explained.
"Everyone, meet Pistol!" Goofy up held his newly adopted five year old daughter for everyone to see.
"Daddy daddy daddy! Lookie lookie lookie, it's a ghost, it's a ghost, ghost!"
"Isn't she sweet?" She cuddled against her daddy's face like an overly attached kitten, yet Della was still very much unimpressed.
"Hmmm, yeah. Sweet as a..."
"Wait, they literally named their own daughter, Pistol?" Louise asked.
"And that's supposed to be bad?" Dewey began. "Uncle Donald literally named you Ll-"
"DEWFORD!" Louise quickly silenced her much taller, crash-happy older brother by pulling him down to her face.
"Not, a, woooooord..."
...
"Hello there, Della!" Goofy waved to Donald as he suddenly trudged through the foyer on his sister's prosthetic leg.
"Wakkk?! GOOFYYY?!" He jumped back and swung his arms around in surprise. It had been years since he had last seen or heard anything from him.
"Sure is! And knowing how much you loved Halloween and all, I thought that I- Ya know, somethin' just don't feel quite right..."
"Awww. Nothing ever is right."
"Well, what's the matter? Something bothering ya?" Goofy asked, sounding a bit concerned.
"...Family problems." Donald muttered as he laid the side of his sister's head against the wall in defeat.
"Huh?" Goofy scratched his head in thought. "You mean... a bad guy?"
"Who's bothering ya this time? Argus McSwine? Merlock? Azure Blue? Countess Leïla? Mortimer?"
"Whoa. Okay, uh. Not- far as behind as I first thought..." Louise slowly backed away.
Donald just shifted against the wall. The past month had been quite the mess of a hurricane for him and his family, and he just wanted it to end. Dispite countless enemies, to literal gods plotting against his family, there was still one haughty villain in particular who always seemed to go farther than all the others.
Gleefully terrorizing children just to watch them cower in fear before her, to harassing and manipulating members of her own family to further her grim plans of vengeance, nothing was to low for her to stoop down to.
Not even Glomgold and Lunaris could match up to her decades worth of vile trickery and treachery. This was just his luck, oh why couldn't they just have normal family problems?
"...De Spell." He quacked her forbidden surname in his sister's tired voice without even bothering to blink.
"Oh, well if that's all." Goofy was givin a brief moment relief before quickly recognizing that horrible, familiar, feared name.
"Duh- DE SPEEELLLL?!"
Click-click.
The slightest quiet sounds of writing could be heard as Scrooge McDuck and Fenton's mother Officer Cabrera stood outside, the two of them looking very solemn on the doorstep.
"UHH! UNCLE SCROOGE?!"
Completely ignoring his niece's concerned plea, the old duck finished signing some important papers and then tipped his hat to the Officer as she gave him a look of genuine sympathy and prepared to leave. None of them said a single word to each other.
"Uh, Uncle Scrooge? Uncle... Scrooge?" Della was starting to get worried, this was far from a good sign.
With a low sigh, Scrooge stepped inside the manor and closed the door behind him. Standing his cane upright on the floor, he lowered his eyes to his family.
"...Webbigail's gone."
Dewey gasped in shock. "She died?!"
"What? N-No! We just couldn't find her. They searched the mansion from top to bottom, but there was no sign of her! Well, actually. There was ONE, sign of her..." Scrooge paused to stick his hand in his jacket pocket and pulled out a small, green, sickly looking feather from it.
"Wait? Magica's feathers are green again?" Dewey asked after taking a look at the sad little deteriorating thing. "I thought she was supposed to be a living skeleton."
"It's Webbigail's." Scrooge said.
Dewey and Webby both gasped back in shock and unison.
"Wait, really?" She asked.
"They found it in a room down in the basement. It was covered all over with-" The old duck finally took notice of Pistol and Goofy standing amongst his family in the foyer.
"Wait. Should we, really be discussing this in front of the, random small child?"
"...Hello there, Uncle Scrooge! Y'all got anything to eat?" Goofy asked.
Mrs. Beakley sighed. "Bowl of fruit in kitchen, down the hall to the left."
"A-hyuck! Huh-huh-huh-Huuuh! Thanks! Whoa-oooa-oooa-oooah!" CRASH! Goofy tripped far out of sight as he comically stumbled away while losing his balance as if he was suddenly walking on slippery grease.
"...Don't worry! Nothing's broke! A-hyuck!"
...
"Duckworth, take the young lass on a tour through the mansion or underworld or something. Hades gets awfully lonesome this time of the afteryear."
"Very good sir." Scrooge's faithful butler took up his coattails and Pistol by the scruff of her neck to carry her away.
"Woooo-ooo!" She cheered. "Death! Death! Death!"
"Ugh, kids." Louise just looked at her with pity.
"They found it in a room down in the basement. It was covered all over with feces and urine."
"Wait? What's feces?" Dewey asked.
"Poop Dewford." Violet bluntly told him.
"Oh. Wait WHAT?! Ewww..."
"...Well, uhhh. What- happened to Doofus?" Webby asked while still looking a little disgusted.
"Did the police tackle him and taze him to the floor and all that good stuff? This may be one of the few times I completely endorse police brutality."
"He's been put in juvenile detention." Scrooge explained. "His mother is nowhere to be found, while his father has been intensive care."
"HA! Sevres him right! He can rot in there forever for all I care!"
"WEBBY!" Her grandmother scoled her.
"Oh, sorry. I was talking about Doofus." Webby had almost completely forgotten that she was much more Huey than Granny at the moment.
"Wait, what happened to everyone else there then? There were a lot more than just Magica and Doofus there. Creepy masked old Darkwing Duck zombie guy, not really that edgy magical sorcerer, a definitely real turned evil robot boy, a goddess, Ma Beagle..."
"Wait... MA BEAGLE?!" Scrooge was shocked. "That- slanderous swindler was there too?!"
"Oh, did I forget to mention that? Yeah, Ma Beagle and the Beagle Boys were working with Magica too."
"How does working with Magica even benefit her Uncle Scrooge?" Dewey asked. "What's she even after?"
"The Deed to Duckburg..." Webby held a curled up fist to her chest as if she had just finished a dark, winding monologue. "I think she also kinda, wants us all to burn in heck too."
"...Well, what do we do now?" Dewey asked. "Poor Webby could be in any of the hundreds of places we already checked. It could take us literally forever to find her!"
"Huh. If only there was SOMETHING we had close, and underground, per se, that could help us find out WHERE, she is..." Huey rubbed shoulders up against Scrooge and held his hands together in a coyish, innocent manner.
"What are you doing?" He asked in suspicion and mild annoyance.
"Giving you a HINT..."
"Lad, how did you find out?"
"Wait. We actually do have something like that then?" Dewey wondered.
For the longest while, Scrooge said nothing, absolutely not looking like he was looking forward to what was coming next.
"What is it?" Dewey asked.
"Not what. Whom..."
...
"Years ago, before I even started my very first businesses in Duckburg, the construction crew for me Money Bin dug up something grand from the dig site. An embellished, ancient, golden mirror."
"Despite being buried deep within rock and sand, it was in almost perfect, untouched from the harsh elements condition. I could barely even believe it, I thought it was too good to be true, and I should have known better to trust my first instincts."
"Because after I brought it home to inspect and clean it off, it nearly made me bust a bagpipe. The blasted THING spoke."
"It said he was a limitlessly powerful otherworldly entity, beyond any and all of our mortal comprehensions. And that he was defeated, cast out from his dimension to return in our own."
"But it said he was remorseful, that I was the first person to dig him up, and that he wanted to reform. To offer up his powers for the good of all humanity. Use it's infinite wisdom and knowledge of our world for our benefit. And also, spoke something of purchasing gold, illusions, and other such cryptic nonsense..."
"But I easily saw through his trickery, it wasn't to be trusted. It was a beast, an ancient evil, a complete monster."
"It seemed that it couldn't do any substantial harm to our world as long as it was trapped within the golden frames of it's glass prison. So when The Other Bin was completed, I locked it away, safe from the unsuspecting world above. That beast hasn't seen the light of day ever since..."
"So, that taught you all never to deal with dark magical forces you shouldn't trust and couldn't possibly comprehend right?"
...
"Are you kidding? Entities? Ancient evils? Cryptic nonsense?! This is all straight up Dewey's alley!" Dewey pushed straight past his Uncle Scrooge to the door of room 0326 in dimly light hall of The Other Bin.
"But I- I just said-"
"Fair try." Louise waved his Uncle off as she, Violet, Huey, Donald, Della, Cousin Fethry, Launchpad, Goofy eating banana, and Mrs. Beakley pushing her granddaughter along in her portable bathtub followed soon after.
"AhHA!" In a thrill seeking burst of energy, Dewey flung open the door and ran towards the end of the chamber, only to find exactly what his Uncle Scrooge had described to all of them, an oversized, golden, floor mirror.
The duckling slowed down to a discouraged crawl, suddenly looking very disappointed as it's not so threatening regal appearance fully sunk in.
"Wait, this is what you were so afraid of?" Dewey asked as he put his hand on the side of it and looked back to his family. "It's a just a mirror."
"...HEY THERE NERDS!"
"AAAAAAAUUUGGHH?!"
Dewey jumped back defensively as a high-pitched, jovial male voice rang out loudly from inside it. But it didn't sound anything like a normal person at all. It was crazy and unhinged, almost like it was literally yelling every single syllable it spoke.
"HEH HEH HA HA HA! SORRY THERE MONEYBAGS! 22, QUACKSTER, DIPPY, THRID ONE, SLIDE RULER! RED BAT! LONG TIME ALL SEE!"
Everyone but Scrooge himself was left utterly speechless. Stepping forward, he stood up with his cane beside to the mirror.
"Alright beast, we don't have time. Give them all the usual rundown..."
"SURE THING! HEY THERE FOLKS, PRY OPEN YOUR EYES AND EARS AND LISTEN WELL!" The old duck's reflection in the mirror suddenly gained a mind of it's own as it's eyes turned bright yellow and acted out in the beast's highly animated will.
"AS YOUR RICH UNCLE MONEYBAGS HAS ALREADY TOLD YOU, FOR ONE TRILLION YEARS I'VE BEEN TRAVELING THE MULTIVERSE IN MY QUEST FOR WISDOM, ADVENTURE, FORTUNE, AND GLORY."
"FROM MY HOME OF THE FLAT MINDED 2ND DIMENSION, TO THE NIGHTMARE REALM, TO DIMENSION 46'\, AND FINALLY, TO YOUR DIMENSION."
"IN A DIFFERENT FORM, IN A DIFFERENT TIME, TO OFFER UP MY POWERS AND INFINITE KNOWLEDGE TO YOU ALL, TO ATONE FOR THE PAST SINS I'VE COMMITTED AGAINST HUMANITY..."
"UNTIL THEN, YOU CAN CALL ME THE GOLDEN INFINITY PASSAGE TO THE EVER-EXPANDING MINDSCAPE. HIYA!" He tipped his hat off to them.
"...Excuse me, a word." Louise quickly pulled everyone aside into a huddle. "Uncle Scrooge is right. I know a con when I see one. Take it from a professional, he's obviously lying."
"Well, he certainly seems knows a lot about sin." Goofy mentioned in slightly noticeable, southern draw.
"WHAT ARE YOU ALL WHISPERING ABOUT BACK THERE DECOYS?" The beast asked in a darker, much more suspicious tone of voice.
"Nothing that sounds this good comes without a price. It's just a trick to get something from us or something!"
"I CAN HEAR STILL HEAR YOOOOOOOOUUUU..."
"Just watch. Hey uh, what is it that you say you do again?" Louise asked as she walked up closer to it while simply dragging Violet sitting down behind her. Both of them had grown quite accustomed to this.
"OH, I DO LOTS OF THINGS. LOTS OF TH- WAIT..."
"Just now, you called yourself The Golden Infinity Passage to the Ever-Expanding Mindscape. Yeah, just what is that? That, mindscape?"
"...HEH HEH HA HA HA! OH I'M SO GLAD YOU ASKED!" The beast held his hands together in great delight.
"THE MINDSCAPE IS THE PHYSICAL AND ASTRAL MANIFESTATION OF A PERSON'S MOST INNER MIND. LOCATED DEEP INSIDE ARE A PERSON'S PERSONALITIES, QUIRKS, TRAIN OF THOUGHT, ANTHROPOMORPHIC PERSONIFICATIONS OF THIER EMOTIONS, AND MEMORIES LOCKED AWAY SAFELY IN THE WINDING HALLS OF LONG-TERM STORAGE."
"That's it! Her memories!" Webby finally spoke up.
"Do you think we could see someone else's memories, or maybe just talk to them and ask where she is? Kinda like the tiny voices inside your head? Do you think we could do that?!" She asked excitedly while hardly being able to contain herself.
"HEH HEH HA HA HA! SURE! JUST TELL ME THIS PERSON'S NAME AND I CAN TAKE YOU TO IT EASY! ALL I NEED IS SOMETHING OFF YOUR CHOSEN MARK'S PERSON."
"AN EYEBROW, A TOENAIL..."
"A feather?" Webby asked as she pulled out the sickly green wet feather her Uncle Scrooge had given her earlier.
"HEH HEH HA HA HA!" The beast laughed. "SURE THING! A FEATHER WOULD DO NICELY! JUST, HAND IT OVER, AND YOU DUCKS GOT YOURSELVES GOT A DEAL." The reflection stuck his hand through the glass to accept the little feather.
"Hold it." Louise quickly held Webby's hand back. "If Uncle Scrooge was the first person that dug you up, and you need something off a person to enter thier mindscape, how exactly did you know what to expect in there?"
The beast remained eerily silent and expressionless in it's prison.
"What was exactly are you playing at here?" She gave it an accusing look.
"...LISTEN CADDIE. I DON'T MAKE THE RULES, AND I DON'T BREAK THEM EITHER. MY POWERES ARE NOT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY! WITHOUT THAT FEATHER, YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE. AND YOU WOULDN'T WANT YOUR LITTLE FRIEND TO DIE ALL ALONE AND SAD WOULD YOU?"
The handcuffed pair of friends backed away as the beast pressed his bill hard against the glass and began to glow in a flickering blue flame in held back anger.
It was just a little unnerving to see Scrooge McDuck of all people look so unhinged and completely demonic over something seemingly insignificant as a feather.
...
"Alright. Her name is- Webby Vanderquack." Louise gave in.
"HMMM. LET'S SEE. WEBBY VANDERQUACK. WEBBY VANDERQUACK, WEBBY VANDERQUAAAAAACK... AH! WEBBY. YES, CUTE NAME."
"NOW, WHICH MINDSAPE WOULD YOU THIRSTY LITTLE PERVERTS LIKE TO ENTER?" The beast asked in mocking unmatched glee.
"THE ONE INSIDE THE CLEVER LITTLE SLIDE RULER SITTING RIGHT BESIDE YOU? THE ONE WITH SHATTERED BROKEN DREAMS THAT'S BEEN OVERTAKEN BY SWIRLING DARK SHADOWS? OR THE ONE THAT'S BEEN SET FREE FROM THIER SHACKLES OF CONFINEMENT WITH BIG PLANS TO GET WEIRD AND TURN OF ALL KNOWN EXISTENCE ON IT'S HEAD?"
Nobody in the hidden underground chamber knew what to say.
"TAKE YOUR PICK! I'M NOT FUSSY!"
"...Excuse me, we're not perverts!" Violet argued.
"Wait, three?! How can there be three?"
"EH HEH HEH HA HA HA HA!" The beast just laughed at Dewey's hilariously high level of dumbness. "DO THE MATH BRAINIAC! ONE, TWO, THREE! THREE MINDCSAPES FOR THREE WEBBY VANDERQUACK'S! HEH HEH HA HA HA! SERIOUSLY, HOW DUMB CAN YOU BE?"
"Whoa... THREE WEBBYS?!" Webby's eyes grew wide from underneath her mind-warming stocking.
"THERE'S THREE OF ME NOW?!"
She was still feeling quite a bit loopy from her half traumatizing trip through time and her serious lack of sleep, and yet things were only getting crazier and crazier.
Two Webby's and most of her family being magically mixed-up the way they were was just about as crazy and weird as her own poor mindscape could handle, and now there was a third of her?!
This wasn't even her own universe. Everyone in it died she thought, and her friends and family she loved and cherished didn't even belong to her, they belonged to her lost double. Could things possibly get even worse? Just what the HECK was going on?!
"Well, who's the third one then?" Dewey finally asked. "Is it somehow possible that's there's another unrelated person out there also named Webby Vanderquack?"
"Not a chance..." Mrs. Beakley said.
"...TICK TOCK. CLOCK IS TICKING KID." The reflection held his hand out again as it burned alive in the fiery inferno.
Louise signed and handed the beast the feather. "The one with shattered broken dreams and that's been taken over by swirling dark shadows. What else would it be? And it's a just feather. What possible harm could come from a innocent little feather?"
"OH, YOU'D NEVER KNOW KID..." The beast smiled devilishly at her.
"Wait, what?"
"BUT I THINK IT WOULD BE FAIR TO WARN YOU. THE NATURAL BORN LAWS OF PHYSICS AND REALITY CEASE TO EXIST WITHIN THE EVER EXPANDING REALM OF THE MINDCSAPE. IT MIGHT BE DANGEROUS."
"Dangerous?" Launchpad suddenly perked up again in excitement.
"AND THERE'S A VERY, VERY, VERY HIGH CHANCE OF YOU SEEING SOMTHING YOU'D SOON REGRET... ANYWAY! BEST OF LUCK!" The other Scrooge McDuck began to slowly float backwards into a rapidly spinning golden pentagram of otherworldly magical energy.
"REMEMBER, THE EARTH IS A SHAM, ONE OF YOU IS NOT WHO THEY SEEM! SEE YOU DUCKS ON THE INSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE!"
The mysterious beast tiped his hat one final time as the gate through the mirror opened up, finally stabilizing the swirling passageway into silent, thick darkness.
"Essh. What a character..." The real Scrooge McDuck said under his breath.
"Dangerous?" Launchpad grinned like a vigilante obsessed duckling madman.
"You mean, who's that cunning mind behind that shadowy disguise kinda dangerous?" He asked.
"Launchpad..." Scrooge began to say.
"...What we need is, Darkwing Duc-"
"Launchpad, please. Not know."
"Wait, we're actually going to do this?" Webby asked in quickly growing excitement. "We're actually going to enter the mind of my younger sister expect actually my younger twin self through possibly demonic MEANS?!"
She gasped and held her hands to sides of head.
"Finally, a real adventure! Oh wait, forgot. No legs, can't breathe without water." She sighed and hung her arms out the side of her little carrier. "This seems to be my fate. Stuck as a waterridden adventureless merperson for all eternity."
"I could carry you. I'd be your wingman." Dewey gestured to himself with a smile.
"Dewford, do you even know what that is?" Louise just gave him a weird look.
"Thanks Dewey. But without water..."
"Right! I just remembered. Here." Her Uncle Scrooge handed her a small paper box with writing on it.
"Wait, what's this?" She asked after looking it over.
"Aqua-Chew. A nutrient survival taffy that provides a continuous supply of liquid as long as you chew it."
"Mmmmmm." Webby took out a piece and put it in her mouth to chew it. "Tastes like sea salt... I LOVE IT!"
"...Whhhaaaattt?!" Della exclaimed in a combination of horror and fuming anger. "She gets sea salt?! While I was stuck on the moon with black licorice for the past ten stinking YEARS?!"
...
"I deserve this..." Webby held her valuable pack of gum close to her.
"Just a minute, you children are in no way going unsupervised. I'm going with you. As it seems there's no way to talk any of you out of this." Mrs. Beakley said.
Her excited in even possible death granddaughter just gasped again.
"A Webby, HueyGranny, mindscaping demonic Halloween spy adventure?! YESSS! This just keeps getting better and better!"
"Well you can count me and Vi out." Louise began. "As temping as it sounds, it just doesn't appeal. Especially the whole dangerous part, wanting to avoid all of that."
"Aww c'mon guys, come with us. It'll be fun!" Webby offered.
"Nope! We'll be taking Lena home for the night. Here, take Huey instead. Sounds more than nerdy enough for a true nerd like him to enjoy."
"Well... If you insist." Huey quietly accepted his fate, dispite him actually freaking out on the inside.
"I'mmmmm REAAAADY!" Out of nowhere, Fethry pulled out a scuba mask and harpoon gun with a plunger attached to the end of it. "Your Cousin Fethry's in too!"
"You sure you'll all be alright in there?" Scrooge asked. "I still wouldn't put all my faith in that, beast's words..."
"Your Uncle is right." Mrs. Beakley began. "We'll mark our path back with string. If things ever get too perilous, we immediately head back and try another approach. We are not losing any more members of this family over this."
"Oh c'mon guys. If you're just going prepare for failure like this, then what's the point of even trying?" Dewey asked.
"We've dealt with demons, curses, wrathful gods, plane crashes, dozens upon of dozens traumatic near death experiences and heart removing sacrifices. Honestly, it's a miracle that we all don't have crippling PTSD yet."
"We don't?" Violet suddenly spoke up.
"Wait what?" Dewey questioned aloud.
The young hummingbird sighed and pushed herself past him and up to Webby still in her carrier. "Observere."
"Wait Violet? What are you-"
"My apologies Webbigail." Violet apologized and began her incantation. Her expression quickly changed from a stoic but observant stare, to an unnatural downwards gaze filled with dark malevolent malice.
She cackled, holding her fingers upwards into claws while perfectly imitating Magica De Spell's all too familiar vengeful speech patterns.
"From the pit of bile and darkness I rise, free from the binds of shadows puppets to this lowly guise, holding still your untimely DEMISSSEEEE!"
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaAAAHHH?!" Dewey and Webby hugged each other tightly in fear.
"VILOEEEEEET?!"
"WHAT IN ALL THE BLAZES-" Scrooge quickly held her up by her arms to try and hold her back without hurting her. Even if it was Magica on the inside, he still didn't want to harm her because of it.
"No worries." Violet immediately went back to normal and pulled a clove of garlic out from under her shirt. "Garlic weakens De Spell's growing influence over us. I suggest you keep some close to you at all times to keep something like this from ever happening. You all should be very careful, please put me down..."
Huey, Dewey and Webby were stunned while Louise just grinned proudly to herself. Violet was coming along just fine.
"Okay. Is anyone else but me terrified right now?" Dewey asked.
"Point proved." Huey quickly added.
"Yeah, you taught her well." Webby agreed with a slow sincere nod.
"...Well we've still never dealt with anything like this before. We're taking every single necessary procaution. Stay close to me, don't wonder off."
"You heard your Granny. This is far from a normal adventure, you can't be sure what to expect. Keep together, stay alert, and follow her EVERY order."
"Yes Uncle Scrooge." Dewey and Webby said together, while Huey followed customary procedure without even thinking.
"Yes-s-s sir..." He stood at attention in respect as the group prepared to leave.
"...Wait. I know it kinda makes sense if there's somehow two of same person. But would happen if somebody tried to enter thier OWN mindscape this way?" Webby pondered.
...
"Best not to overthink it. JUST BE SURE NOT TO DIE!" Louise yelled backwards as she waved goodbye and left with Violet.
"We will! Don't stay up for us! We'll be back in two shakes of a fish tail!"
"BLUUAAGHPTH!" Della could barely hold in her dinner this time.
"...Sorry!" Webby quickly apologized.
"See you fellers later! HAVE FUN!" Goofy waved goodbye while accidentally dropping his used banana peel to the floor right in front of himself as he took a step forward. And at that moment, all manner of heck began to break loose in The Other Bin. Oh why couldn't they just have normal family problems?
"Whoa-ooo-ooo-oooah-WHOA-OOOOOO-OOOOOO-" He slipped and slid all around the chamber at cartoonishly high speeds.
"Oh no!" Donald froze solid in place. Noting his past decades of misey and misfortune, and knowing just how much Lady Luck was against him, he knew well enough that this wasn't going to end well.
He tried to dodge to the side, he tried to escape his sudden adventure's calling, but only got himself caught up in Goofy's wild barrage in process. It didn't matter if he stood still, or if he just tried to run for it. No matter what he did, no matter how hard he tried, gave misfortune after grace misfortune followed him everywhere.
The universe was definitely plotting against him, everything in it hated him and was just out to get him, that was the only possible explanation. And now he was heading straight towards that doggone crazy golden mirror with poor Launchpad and the kids directly in their path.
"Aaaahhhhh! He's crashing!" The pilot screamed out in Dewey's voice as they plowed right into him and getting him stuck up against Donald's face. And Huey, Dewey, Webby, Beakley, and Fethry were up next.
He may have thought he was done with adventure, but adventure obviously wasn't done with him. This was just his luck. Why oh why couldn't they just have normal family problems?
"Whoa-ooooh-ooooh-oooah-WHOAAA-"
"-AAAAAAAHHH!"
"No no no no no no NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-"
Everything grew silent as the eight mindscapers were thrown deep into the mirror, leaving only Scrooge and Della alone in the now eerily quiet chamber. The soft rustling of the wind blowing through the tress could be heard from above.
"Kids! Beakley! Uh, everyone!"
"Well, as long Mrs. B is with them, they should all be okay right?" Della asked in quickly growing concern for them.
"R-Right. I'm sure they'll all be... Wait what?" Scrooge paused after noticing something out of place and peculiar lying on the chamber floor.
Picking it up and looking it over, the two of them were left puzzled to what exactly they were seeing. It looked like a piece of dry, flakey, multicolored shedded skin.
"...What the devil?"
A/N: HEY THERE FANFIC READERS! BEFORE YOU LEAVE AND CLOSE DOWN THE WEBPAGE, YOUR FELLOW PUPPET NOT PONYTAILS OR COTTONTAILS WANTED ME TO LET YOU ALL KNOW THAT ONE OF THE 5 VILLAINS THAT OLD DIPPY GUY MENTIONED EARLIER IS GOING TO APPEAR SOON IN THIS FIC, SOME TIME NEXT YEAR.
HERE'S A HINT FOR YOU MEAGER PATHETIC LOSERS: THEY WERE NAMED AFTER A PET ONCE OWNED BY THIS SUPER FAMOUS RICH GUY HARDLY ANYONE CARES ABOUT ANYMORE. GO AHEAD, GUESS! GUESS WHO THEY ARE! GUESS WHHHHHHOOOOOO.
AND IF YOU'RE STILL NOT COMPLETELY SURE WHO I AM, WELL THOUGH LUCK KIDS! AAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
JUST REMEMBER! I'LL BE WATCHING YOU NERDS!