From a relaxing sleep, the thirteen-year-old blue shirted duck slowly awoke to find himself descending in a dark abyss. With nothing to see upfront he turned his body around to see a small spot of light that grew as he fell toward it. The light began to clear its image of a glass portraiture of his own smiling face with closed eyes in a circle surrounded by smaller circles. His decent slowed and came to an end as his feet planted on the glass. A voice unknown called him.
A great journey awaits you… It is time to prepare… Can you walk towards the middle?
A simple question to act upon, the boy slowly walked toward the center of the mural, between the middle of his eyes. Reaching the designated area, three lights formed an unlined triangle at the edge of the platform. From the lights came a pedestal for each, then materializing over them were items waiting to be possessions. The first item was facing him, a short, one handed, double edged sword with a three circled insignia on the face of the hilt. On his left, the pedestal had a small kite shield, it had a larger version of the insignia and colored red.
And to the right pedestal was a small scepter with a green pole and a small blue insignia acting as the head.
Power sleeps within you. If you give it form… It will give you strength. Choose wisely…
The boy was confidently excited to take the sword. He ran up to and climbed on top the pedestal and grabbed the weapon by the hilt and held his free hand on the blade.
The power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. Is this the power you seek?
With a brave smirk he raised the sword, stretching his arm out and pointing it upwards towards the limitless blackness.
Very well…
The surface he stood on disappeared with the other pedestals and weapons and the boy fell on his tailbone. After standing back up and rubbing his backside, he braced himself holding the sword with one hand on the handle.
You've gained the power to fight… Try it out!
He shrugged his shoulders and swung the sword to the side, then pulled it back and swung it across the other direction then swung it down like a hammer and thrusted it forward.
Good enough… Now take caution… There will be strangers out to find you.
On the other side of the portrait, fading in on the ground was a pure black shadow and with a familiar effect, the shadow rose and took form. It was a strange homunculus with a ball shaped head with zig-zagged antennas, stubby legs and arms with claw hands. All of it was pitch black except for its pure yellow eyes. The duck was stunned at the sight of the beast. Flattening again, the shadow creature rapidly rushed over to the boy and rose again and higher.
In mid-air the monster scratched the air as it descended to its prey. Panicking, the boy stumbled backwards. He managed to avoid the attack but fell on his posterior again.
Don't be scared… Stand and fight.
As the creature began to waddle towards him, he gripped his sword, planted his first foot to stand back up and instead leaped high in the air. Swinging down the sword, the shadow was cleaved in half and dispersed. He straightened back up with the return of his confident smile.
Very good… but don't rest… or celebrate yet… there will always be more enemies.
On que, four more of those shadow monsters appeared in front of him. He nervously readied his sword again, at the sight of the enemies first step he charged swinging wildly eyes closed. As he foolishly swung, the shadows either waddled or flattened their forms to move around him.
Calm down!
The boy stopped swinging at last and reopened his eyes when realizing he was not hitting anything. He could hear one of the creatures had leaped in the air for a pouncing attack. He turned around and swung his sword to cleave the shadow into nothingness.
That's better… now focus.
Three of the shadows remained standing in front of him for an afront to him. He made another charge with more focus and precision as he cut down the enemies one by one. After the creature disappeared by his blade, a door appeared at the head of the portrait facing his photographed forehead. The duckling walked up to it but did not touch the knob and scratched his chin for pondering.
It's okay… nothing dangerous for this part.
He shrugged and opened the door, only to be blinded and engulfed by light. When he opened his eyes, the blue one found himself on an outdoor staircase to a mansions entrance. At the foot of the stairs was a ghost of an old dog in a tuxedo like a butler smiling at him. In front of the steps was a dry fountain with a mound of gold coins instead of water. Relaxing on the treasure was a duck of grander age, as shown with his cane and top hat, wearing a red coat.
Sitting in front of the fountain was a young adult duck with more muscular build in a flight jacket fishing, oblivious to the lack of aquatic life and aqua.
But the door won't just open yet. First, tell me more about yourself.
The boy walks up to the butler.
"What are you so afraid of," the butler asks? The boy struggled to answer when he realized that was the answer.
"Being indecisive," the boy answered despite not hearing his own voice.
"Being indecisive," the butler asked? "Is that really so scary?"
The boy walks to the fountain and looks up to the elder duck lounging on what should have been most uncomfortable.
"What do you want outta life," the elder asked?
"To see rare sights," the child answered more easily.
"To see rare sights huh," the elder nodded with an arched eyebrow.
Finally, the boy walked over to the more foolish and strongest looking duck.
"What's most important to you," asked the strong duck?
"Friends and family," the duckling answered.
"Are those such a big deal," the strong duck asked?
You're afraid of being indecisive. You want to see rare sights. You want friends and family by your side. Your adventure begins at midday. Keep a steady pace and you'll come through fine.
"Sound good," the boy agreed without hearing his voice.
The day you will open the door is both far off and very near.
He was engulfed in another light, and when all was clear again, he was back in the black void on a different mural. Divided into thirds with three different colors, red on the bottom left, green on the bottom right and at pink at the top. Each had a white silhouette of a different duckling. The one in the red section had a baseball cap standing proud. In the green section, the silhouette was leaning his back against an invisible wall.
And the pink portion houses a female silhouettes, identified with the skirt, who was jumping for joy with her fist in the air. A pillar of light shined above down on the girl; the boy walked toward the silent guidance. Once under the light, it faded and a whole dozen of the shadow creatures rose from the ground and the blue lad readied himself for battle.
With the last monster vanquished, another light shined down on the mural and dragged itself to the front and over the edge where it switched off. And, in its place, a swirling set of glass-stained stairs materialized leading to another tower. Up the staircase he reached another roof mural. The main color was yellow, with a chain of airplanes decorating the rim surrounding a female duck with her hands on her hips. One more light shined down on the center and the boy walked towards it.
The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes.
And so, his shadow did grow as he stood still to oversized proportions. Surprisingly the shadow turned on its own with glowing yellow eyes. It took on a third dimension as it rose and changed its figure and grew twice more.
But don't be afraid.
His shadow had become a massive muscular humanoid with black skin, disproportionately short legs with thin and curly feet. A heart-shaped hole in his chest was perfectly see through its back and Its head is covered in dozens of twisted tentacles.
And don't forget…
Taken a gasp by the new monster the boy tried running, forgetting he was on a tower until reaching the edge. With no way of escape, the blue clothed duck turned back to face the monster and readied his sword, for possibly the last time.
To his lucky surprise, the boy easily read the monsters first attack, pulling back his arm and making a fist. It punched as quick as it could and the duckling ran to the side, but once the fist impacted the ground, a shockwave spread and pushed him away in injury. The fist stayed planted as a swirling pitch-black shadow mist formed a wide circle. Recovering from the shockwave he turned around to see three of the smaller shadow creatures rise from the dark. The monster pulled back its fist, clearing the cloud and leaving its minions to deal with the boy.
The lower beasts had his full attention as he struck down the first shadow in four strikes. Down a soldier, the big boss lowered to its knees and held its chest out. From the hole in its body, it unleashed a purple orb that targeted and followed the teen swordsman. Preoccupied with fighting another small shadow the orb made contact, damaging him. The weakened shadow was still on the offensive, so he still had to defend himself as the giant fired another orb at him.
With recent experience, he could see the attack coming and jumped back at the last minute, it imploded with no pushback and he finished off another of the small monsters. The giant paid no mind as it then shot three orbs at once at him. Without any small opponents as obstacles, he outran them as he circled the monster until they imploded, and he face the boss again. Standing back up against its deformed legs, the monster pulled back the same arm and fist again. Now reading the attack more clearly, the young amateur swordsman ran instead of preparing to dodge as the beast punched the ground and he avoided the shockwave.
He stopped to turn back around to notice as the smaller shadows rose into their monster forms, the fist stayed planted on the ground surrounded by the mist. Smirking with confidence, the boy bolted for the hand, once near enough, he jumped on it and ran up the arm. He made it to the shoulder and swung it across the giants face. But the beast barely flinched or winced at the attack. Ceasing his surprise, he swung again and again to no effect.
After the umpteenth useless attack, the giant rose up causing the duckling to lose his balance and fall off the shoulder. He managed to land on his feet better than a cat could, but one of the smaller recently summoned monsters jumped on his back. Now, fully distracted by the minions, the boss again bowed to his knees and raised his chest to the air and shot a purple orb. Too busy fighting, the dark energy sphere made contact, knocking the boy on his back. And before he could have a chance to recover, the sword disappeared in a flash from his hand.
The smaller ones ambushed and smothered him, and a pool of darkness formed beneath.
But don't be afraid…
The shadow pool sprouted mist like tentacles, wrapping all atop of it.
You hold the mightiest weapon of all.
In a panic, the boy squirmed trying to free himself as he is ensnared by the darkness while the giant leans in on the mess.
So, don't forget:
The boy stops struggling with great fear as his vision turns to complete darkness.
You are the one who will open the door.
Slowly, the darkness opened up to a partly cloudy sky in response to the duckling drowsily opening his eyes. He sat up to look out at his pool to see nothing else but the stone wall and the forest horizon beyond them. Passing all he had experience in the dark realm as a dream, he yawned and laid back down on his lounge chair. He sat up to see the horizon on the other side of his in-ground swimming pool and the end of his chair over the water.
He yawned and laid back down.
"Wait," he considered, "when did my chair get so close to the-AAH!" The back of his chair tipped and rose up and he was flipped and fell face first into the water with the furniture.
Laughter from three other ducklings came from where the chair once was. They were two boys, one in a red collared shirt and matching baseball cap and one in a green hooded sweater. And the third was a girl with a pink bow in her hair and a matching dress shirt under a blue vest and a purple skirt. The duck in blue rose from the waters cowling at the three comedians.
"Give me a break you guys," he scowled
"Hey," the green one shrugged, "naps are my thing. This is what you get for stealing Dewey."
"Whatever Louie," Dewey rolled his eyes as he swam out the pool with his long chair in tow. The three met up with him at the pool stairs when he exited and helped him pull out the chair. "So, any reason you two wanted in on this?"
"Webby wanted more experience in mischief," the duck in red stated.
"And Huey," Webby pushed him, "it's time to get ready for our next adventure!"
"Then drying off will have to wait," Dewey declared. "For adventure never does! Let's go!" The four pre-teen ducklings ran out the gated wall on the other side of the mansion towards the airstrip where the Cloudslayer was being loaded. Scrooge McDuck stood outside the plane while Della and Launchpad di the actual loading.
Once he heard the children coming from behind him, he rolled up the map he was looking at.
"Ah, good, you found him," Scrooge smiled as he turned around and was wrapped in his daughters' arms. He hugged her back as the boys ran up to their mother for a group hug.
"Glad you boys finally made it," Della hugged her kids.
"Aww," Launchpad sweetly admired as he carried an oversized wooden crate on his back into the plane.
"Launchpad," Della called, "there's more than one dolly."
"No time to play with dolls Ms. D," Launchpad climbed up the ramp grunting. "We got an adventure to brave!"
"Right," Della chuckled. "Anyway, I got a big surprise for our destination." The boys gasped in excitement as Webby walked away from her father and gasped in excitement next to them. "Your Uncle Donald's gonna be there!" They cheered and jumped up and down but when they stopped, Webby was the only one still smiling as the boys stared out in shock.
"Wow, I had no idea how much I missed him," Huey stated.
"Yeah, who knew he'd be so loveable," Louie agreed.
"He snuck his way right into our hearts," Dewey referenced a song not of their universe.
"To be fair," Webby interjected, "I'm more excited to see May and June. I can't wait to see how much they've grown. Donald's not that bad of an example, is he?"
"If he is, they have Daisy to set them straight," Della reassured. "But first, Donald asked if we could bring him some memorabilia that he forgot to pack with him. Dewey, since you were napping while we were packing why don't you gather them up." She pulled out a list and handed it to her blue son.
"Well, we originally made that rule for Louie, but I guess I deserve it," Dewey accepted the list.
"Great," Della appreciated. "We'll finish preparing here. Your uncles' stuff is scattered everywhere in the mansion. Better get to it!"
"Wait," Huey halted, "why are they all over the mansion?"
"If you've seen them, why did you just make a list of them instead of gathering them in one room?" added Webby.
"And why are you talking like an NPC?" Louie added. Della only shrugged and Dewey ran back to the mansion for his first quest.
He ran around to the front door and dynamically entered the foyer.
"Alright, let's Dewey this," Dewey said and looked at the list. "Now, I'm looking for Uncle Donald's pink nightgown, boxing gloves, rapier and guitar case. I think I've seen these around…" He ran up the first staircase and up the right stairs into the east wing. Down the hallway, he ignored the opened rooms, as they were for beds and bath.
He opened the first door he sees closed to the laundry room. At a quick glance Dewey spots something pink under other folded fabrics in the shelf above the washer and dryer. Dewey jumps on the machines and yanks out the pink article, sending the above clothes falling and scattering all over the floor. He unfolds it and identifies it as his uncle's nightshirt, or gown as the boys once mocked him for it. He wraps the gown around his neck like a scarf, jumps off the machines and runs back into the hallway.
A second after he leaves the housekeeper Mrs. Beakly notices him in the hallway and the mess, he left behind in the laundry room. She grumbled putting her hands on her hips and got to work. Dewey speared on ahead turning left and right into different hallways and passing open doors. Finally, he found another closed and opened it to a combat studio.
Punching bags were hanging from the ceiling and standing on the ground on one side of the room, its doorless and mirrorless wall had shelves full of helmet guards and boxing gloves. Opposing the side for hand-to-hand training, was a near empty space if you counted the one large sparring mat. Its own doorless and mirrorless wall had shelves full of fencing uniform suits and helmets and training rapiers. First, he ran to the boxing gloves but was too puzzled as to which pair was his uncles, that was when he noticed a portrait of his Uncle Scrooge. Alongside him in the picture was his mother and uncle Donald as children.
He noticed his younger uncle had blue boxing gloves and knew which to take from the present-day rack. He hung the tied together gloves around his small waistline and ran to the rapiers. Again, he did not know which belonged to Donald, but he had the aid of another portrait. It was a solo painting of Donald in a musketeer uniform. He was holding up a rapier with a lucky rabbit's foot chained to the bottom of the hilt.
Smiling, Dewey took out the rapier with the lucky charm while keeping it in its scabbard and slid it in his makeshift boxing glove belt.
"Okay," Dewey said, "all that's left is his guitar case. Maybe it's in his old room." He ran out the room and through several hallways and up a flight of stairs in the southwest tower. He opened the door to Donald's childhood bedroom. "Hmm… Looks more or less the same when I time traveled twenty years into the past." When Dewey could not find it in plain sight on the walls or floor, he went to the oversized wardrobe against the wall, but there wasn't even a jacket inside. He turned around and looked under the bed and mattress, but still nothing there.
"Come on Uncle Donald, talk to me…" Then he looked back at the wardrobe and realized a door frame was behind it. He gasped for his exciting discovery and ran to the side of the wardrobe. Pressing his hands against the enormous furniture piece, he gave it a push with all his might and screech slid it across the floor until the closet door was in perfect view. Dewey opened the door and looked inside to see a broom on the left, a pair of dirty underwear on the right, and in the center of the back wall was a short, blue, rectangular, hard-shell guitar case.
"There you are," Dewey pointed at the case grinning. "But why would Uncle Donald want to hide this?" He walked over to the case with an arched eyebrow. At first study, there seemed to be nothing special about the guitar case, no decorative vinyl or ancient language on the frame. While letting it continue leaning against the wall Dewey flipped it over to be startled by what was in the center of the other side. It was a three circled insignia.
"But that's… the one from my dream sword." Slowly, Dewey laid it on the ground to open its single lock. But there was no knob, combination dial or anything to flip open, only a single large keyhole over the seam beneath the handle, leaving only for Dewey to scowl at. "I think Uncle Donald has some explaining to do…"
Dewey picked up and carried the case and left the closet and room, making his way back out of the mansion to the Cloudslayer, walking. He stepped aboard the plane and paid no mind to his brothers chuckling at his outfit.
"There's my favorite copilot!" Della recognized from the flight deck. Launchpad smiled and inhaled deep through his nose. "Come on up, you've got some flying to do!"
"On my way mom," Dewey called. He removed and rested the nightgown, boxing gloves and rapier on one of the crates and brought the guitar case over to Scrooge and Webby. "Hey, you guys, do you know what this symbol is?" He held up the guitar case for them to present the mysterious icon.
"Hmm," Scrooge studied quickly, "can't say I do lad."
"Although it's shaped like that watermelon friend Donald made when he was stranded on that island," Webby determined.
"I don't know myself, but I saw it in my dream that I just woke up from," Dewey explained.
"Ooh…" Webby's eyes glittered in awestruck.
"Aye, that's interesting," Scrooge agreed and pondered. "But it looks like we'll have to wait for answers until we see your Uncle Donald. Right now, you're mother's waiting on my second-best pilot." Scrooge winked at the blue one who smiled and ran up to sit with his mother as Launchpad continued smiling and took in another long deep breath and took a passenger seat.
"Someone close the hatch," Dewey smiled the order as he to the seat next to his mother's. Louie completed the simple task of pressing a button and Dewey and Della began engaging all systems. Once the engines were growling and the propellers were rotating, Della leaned back and smiled to her son and waved her hand at the windshield. Dewey confidently scowled and grinned as he took the controls and set the plane in motion. "Next stop; adventure!"
And the Cloudslayer was in the air.