Magica was slightly irritated with her husband; he'd gone on a business trip and had been gone for two days longer than planned; eight days instead of six. She hated him being gone but on the rare occasion he was gone longer than expected she hated it even more; especially on days like this.
That day Magica was again dressed for the office, this time a perfectly, and magically, tailored pair of dark grey slacks with matching blazer worn over a deep purple button-down blouse. She wore a pair of amethyst earrings with a matching bracelet hoping desperately for the stone's soothing properties to take effect before she entered Scrooge's office. With Scrooge away she was to handle the meeting with the CEO who was looking to merge his company with McDuck Enterprises and to avoid the consequences of his own financial screw ups.
Scrooge had grown confident enough in her to leave such things to her when he had to be away and truth be told, as much as Magica didn't really care for dealing with people like the CEO she was about to meet with she much preferred taking care of whatever she could so that when Scrooge returned, he would be able to stay home with her for a while before work, again, inevitably pulled him away. In Circe's name she never realized just how much of a workaholic that man really was but then, she was probably just as bad when she got heavily into working on mastering new spells and potions.
Magica took a deep breath before entering the office and greeting the CEO. After an irritating hour of trying to strike an acceptable deal with the cocky rooster, who kept trying to make passes at her the whole time, she finally got him to agree to the terms Scrooge had outlined, possibly under penalty of a particularly nasty curse though there was no proof she'd made any such threats, but an agreement had been made and that was the important part.
Magica sighed and flopped down in Scrooge's chair after the CEO left.
"I wonder if I shouldn't have just cursed him," She pondered aloud as she pulled a tiny crystal ball and the cellphone Scrooge had convinced her to get from her pockets.
She tried the phone first, tapping the speed dial for Scrooge's phone. Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, voice mail. She just hung up and groaned as she put the phone back in her pocket.
He hadn't answered that morning either but when he'd called to tell everyone goodnight that night the reception had been terrible so it probably had something to do with that; It had better have something to do with the bad reception.
Of course, Magica trusted Scrooge implicitly but she was getting antsy, especially because of that blasted nightmare preventing a good night's sleep, so far it hadn't been too bad but still…
She took the tiny crystal ball in her hands. "Show me Scrooge," she whispered softly so the secretary outside wouldn't hear; she had agreed to do her best to keep the magic to a minimum at the office just because it seemed to unnerve some of the bin employees and Scrooge didn't want anyone thinking that he was using her magic to manipulate his business ventures to give himself an unfair advantage.
The crystal ball glowed softly and after a few moments Scrooge's face came into view.
"Jiminy crickets woman, two seconds sooner and my client would have seen this bauble!" Scrooge smiled into the tiny crystal ball in his hand.
Magica had only agreed to carry a regular cellphone when he agreed to carry one of her miniature crystal balls so they could always be in touch and in some ways, he sort of preferred the small magical orb to the cellphone, it might be him being old fashioned or it might be the draw of reliable mobile communication from anywhere on earth, completely for free. Those cellphone companies always seemed to find new ways raise their rates.
"Well, you didn't answer your phone and with the bad reception I figured I'd try to reach you by crystal ball," Magica said, immediately feeling better at the sight of her husband's face.
"So, how did the meeting go?" Scrooge asked. "It was… successful, I got him to agree to your terms," Magica answered, but Scrooge knew she was omitting something. "Tell me the whole story love, what happened?" She just smiled innocently. "I might have given him an ultimatum he couldn't refuse…" she admitted. "He thought he could talk his way out of your outlined terms with his hands so I made sure he understood that the terms were non-negotiable, but that I'd sweeten the deal by letting him keep his hands,"
Scrooge sighed. "I suppose I'll need to talk to him when I get back," He smiled at his wife's questioning expression. "Just to confirm things and to let him know that if any future meetings go similarly to today's, not only will you make good on your word, but I'll have the hands bronzed and returned to him one at a time,"
Magica looked at her husband, eyes wide in dumbfounded silence for a moment before responding, "Do you actually know someone who would bronze severed hands and not ask any questions?" she asked and he just winked at her. "Surely you know a spell for it," She relaxed. "Oh, you scared me for minute, I thought you had some questionable connections I didn't know about," she laughed and he laughed too.
"Okay, in all seriousness, when are you coming home darling? I miss you terribly," She pouted. "I'm not sure just yet, this client just can't seem to be on time for anything, I'm sorry love," He held the crystal ball and rubbed his thumbs on it as if he was holding her face and gently rubbing her cheeks. "How's everyone at home? The kids doing okay?" He asked, "They're all fine, actually the children are staying the night at Poe's house tonight," she said.
"And Donald and Della?" He asked. "Donald has a date with Daisy, Della and I have our own plans," She smiled playfully. "Oh really?" He raised a curious eyebrow. "Yes, we've planned a girl's night-in since we're the only ones without any other plans," She explained. "I told Mrs. Beakley to take the night off since the kids won't be home and Launchpad's sister came into town so he was going to visit with her,"
Scrooge nodded, sighing and giving his wife a half smile. "I'm sorry I'm not back yet; but I'm glad you're going to be bonding with Della," "I still would prefer to go with you on these trips," She pretended to pout. "I know darling but I'd never get any work done if you were with me, I'd be too distracted by the beautiful woman in my hotel room," He laughed. "And besides, I want you to stay there because I trust you to take care of things when I'm gone,"
After a few more sweet words they said goodbye and Magica returned to the rest of the office work, hoping to finish quickly.
It had taken longer than she'd wanted as Magica hadn't expected to be quite as swamped as she was but she had finally gotten it all done and was very glad to finally be home when she walked in the door.
"Aunt Magica! You're just in time; I just finished getting everything setup!" Della said excitedly when Magica walked into the living room.
Della had done exactly what Magica had asked her to do; towels, slippers and foot baths were set out in front of the easy chairs, the coffee table was covered with nail polish, facial masks and various other tools and items for an at-home spa night. The TV was on and Della had readied the movies they had agreed on.
"Good job, this is going to be fun and just what I need after today," Magica said, turning back to her niece after taking in the room.
Della stood with a big bowl of popcorn in one arm and a wad of several other snacks in the other and gave her aunt a concerned look. "What happened at the office today?" She asked.
"Oh, the client was annoying but nothing I couldn't handle," Magica grinned. "Let me go and get changed then we can finish setting up the foot baths,"
A little while later Magica and Della were relaxing in the easy chairs, enjoying the warm water and bubbling of the foot baths while applying the facial masks to their faces.
"Say, Aunt Magica, I just got to wondering about something," Della started while rubbing the facial mask cream on her face.
"Wondering about what? Do you need advice about Launchpad?" Magica asked, finishing with her mask application while Della chocked on air for a moment.
"What! No! I don't even know what you're talking about!" She sputtered while Magica just giggled. "I was just gonna ask whatever happened to your crow, um, what's-his-face,"
Magica laughed even more. "Ratface, his name's Ratface," she laughed.
"You know, that's kind of a terrible name…" Della said, now looking annoyed with her aunt.
"What in the heck made you think I wanted advice about Launchpad?" she finally asked.
"Because it seems to me, he has a crush on you dear, but the real question is what do you think of him?"
Della shrugged. "I don't know… I mean he's-he's Launchpad, I guess he's kind of nice but, come on!" Magica just laughed again at Della's reaction.
"I do not like Launchpad, I mean I like him but I don't like him… would you stop laughing at me?" Della was starting to get annoyed with her aunt.
"Sorry, we'll just leave this conversation alone now," Magica said, still snickering. Della just rolled her eyes as the kitchen timer they were using to time their facial masks went off.
The both of them temporarily halted the conversation to clean off their faces but just before they could a voice caught their attention.
"Hello? I'm home early- what's going on here?"
Scrooge stood in the doorway looking over the mess of beauty products all over his living room and his wife and niece, sat in easy chairs with their feet in plastic tubs of bubbling water and pink mineral clay mask smeared all over their faces.
"This is our girl's night-in Uncle Scrooge, Aunt Magica thought we could spend the evening watching movies, stuffing our faces with popcorn and snacks and relaxing with an at-home spa setup," Della said, reaching for a washcloth to clean her face.
"Yes, this was our plan for the night," Magica said, getting up, stepping out of her footbath and walking over to embrace her husband. "But I am glad you finally managed to get home," she said before kissing him.
"Oh, come on, does this mean our girl's night-in is cancelled now?" Della complained as her uncle and aunt parted.
"It certainly does not," Magica said, releasing Scrooge.
"But I just got home," Scrooge started to whine, giving Magica a pouting look.
"Nope. I had to wait for you so you can wait for me," she said, returning to her chair and footbath. "Besides," She continued as she grabbed her own washcloth, "I promised Della some quality time and I do keep my promises,"
"All right, well in that case I think I'll go upstairs and enjoy a nice hot bath," Scrooge said, smiling.
"Hey, how did you get home so quickly anyway darling?" Magica asked as he started to leave.
"Well, the client finally showed up on time, we struck the deal and then I called my brother-in-law on the crystal ball and he was able to zap me back here to surprise you," He explained with a grin. "Sometimes I wonder how I ever did anything without magic," he and Magica both chuckled as left to go take his bath.
After Scrooge finished his bath, he went back down to the living room to check on Della and Magica and could only stand in the doorway silently grinning in amusement as they had their fun singing 'Wannabe' with the karaoke setting on the stereo system Gyro had given them.
As he watched he couldn't help the large grin that spread across his face, he always enjoyed seeing how well Magica bonded with the rest of the family, except for Donald, but he seemed to finally be warming up a little bit to her.
After the song ended Scrooge went back upstairs and settled into bed with a book on mythology he had been wanting to read.
"Hey, aunt Magica, you still haven't answered my question," Della looked up from doing her finger nails, "Whatever happened to Ratface? I haven't seen him at all since you've been here though I know I saw him at the wedding," Della had noticed the absence of Magica's friend and familiar and only just now thought to ask about it, wondering why the raven wasn't living in the mansion.
"He's living with my Granny Caraldina right now," Magica answered, now realizing how much she missed the bird, "you see, Poe was staying with her for a while he was stuck as a raven and she was trying to help find a way to change him back; after Poe came out here with Lena and I, Granny was a bit lonely so I sent Ratface to live with her for a while," she explained.
"Aww, that's sweet of you," Della said and Magica smirked.
"It's also practical; Granny's a little bit senile in her old age and I can't rely on my sisters to keep tabs on her, much less keep me informed on how she's doing but Ratface I can trust," She explained her ulterior motive for sending Ratface to her grandmother and Della just laughed.
A few hours later they called it a night and Magica came in after she and Della had cleaned everything up and slipped into bed beside Scrooge, who by this time had fallen asleep and stirred slightly when he felt the movement.
"I'm sorry I woke you Scrooge, go back to sleep," Magica whispered, gently kissing his cheek and he smiled sleepily at her and leaned up, catching her lips in quick, groggy kiss. "Goodnight darling," he whispered as he drifted back off and she smiled back, cuddling against him and settling in for a good night's sleep… or so she thought.
She and Scrooge were awakened by loud rapping at the window.
They both sat up and jumped out of bed, turning on the light and preparing to defend themselves and then Magica saw the source of the sound.
"Ratface!" She cried, rushing to open the window and let the raven in.
"Magica!" Ratface cawed as he flew in the window and circled Magica and Scrooge for a moment cawing and squawking.
"Ratface, what's wrong?" Scrooge asked, noticing the raven seemed quite distressed.
"Ratface calm down and tell me what's happened and why you're here!" Magica reached up and grabbed hold of the bird, gently stroking his feathers to calm him.
"Granny's in trouble!" He finally squawked after he'd calmed down.
"What happened to Granny?" Magica began to feel panic, and worry, at the raven's words.
"Granny's been locked up in an old folk's home!" Ratface explained.
"What? An old folk's home? Did Hexa finally send her to the Witches Wart retirement home?" Magica asked, knowing Hexa had threated to do it many times before and thinking she'd finally made good on it.
"Not Hexa! Not Witches Wart!" Ratface cawed, "Another witch put a spell on Granny and sent her to a normal old folk's home!"
"What! A spell? A normal old folk's home? Oh, no! We've got to do something!" Magica was now very alarmed; and so was Scrooge.
"Magica, it was probably LaQuack and probably some sort of trap," Scrooge reasoned, rubbing his wife's shoulders to try and soothe her as much as possible given the current situation.
"Even so I can't just leave Granny in some old folk's home," Magica turned to face Scrooge and he nodded.
"Of course, we can't leave your grandmother in such trouble-"
Magica cut him off, "I don't think you totally understand; of course, I'm concerned about Granny; but with her allergies I'm also concerned for the old folks, one wrong sneeze and she could turn the whole place into toads and I know it would come back on me somehow, it usually does…" Magica groaned at the mere thought of it and Scrooge did his best to keep a straight face despite wanting laugh at the mental image she just put in his head of a rest home full of toads.
"Well let's just go back to bed for now," Scrooge said, then looked at Ratface, "You too, try to calm yourself and get some rest, then we'll discuss a rescue plan tomorrow,"
The next day Scrooge called a family meeting and they all discussed what to do about Caraldina and her predicament and it was decided that he and Magica would go undercover to find Caraldina in the old folk's home while the others stayed at the mansion on high alert; with Poe and Lena coming to stay until Scrooge and Magica returned just in case Rochelle attacked while they were gone.
"Okay, what's my motivation again?" Launchpad asked as they stood outside the Golden Elms Retirement Home in the north eastern part of Duckburg.
"For the last time, you're our daughter and son-in-law putting us in the retirement home!" Scrooge snapped and Launchpad nodded.
Launchpad was dressed in a pair of brown slacks and a pale blue polo shirt that matched the pale blue shirt dress Della was wearing, which she adjusted so as to keep herself from slapping him; It had been decided that they would help Scrooge and Magica get in the retirement home and Della was still irritated with her aunt for being the one to suggest she and Launchpad pose as a couple.
Scrooge and Magica were nearly unrecognizable in their disguises, him wearing very high-waisted trousers and suspenders over a white button down shirt with a clip-on tweed bowtie and fake grey hair with matching beard and carrying an aluminum cane with tennis balls on the feet and her wearing bright purple sweatpants, a shirt with a loud floral print, a fanny pack and windbreaker jacket, sunglasses and a pair of tennis shoes as well as having used a spell to grey her hair and style it in a kinky, curly short perm.
They entered the lobby and Scrooge and Magica put on an award worthy performance of an elderly couple who were going quite senile while Della and Launchpad gave the receptionist their story.
"Excuse me, my husband and I are here about my parents," Della started, "Mr. and Mrs. Eggelston?"
The receptionist looked up from her magazine and glanced over at the four individuals standing in the lobby. "Eggelston? Yeah, I think I've got the information here, just gimme a second," She sounded rather bored as she tapped away at her computer for a moment.
"It should be Arthur and Edna Eggelston," Della said, hoping the disinterested receptionist wasn't going to be a problem.
"I don't need to be put in some home for old farts," Scrooge grumbled looking around the lobby, subtly stealing glances into what appeared to be recreation room where some old folks were playing cards and bingo and he could hear a TV on low from somewhere in the room.
"But dear, we're not in a rest home, we're at the Henny's to have breakfast," Magica corrected Scrooge, taking a glance down a hallway but only seeing several closed doors on either side. "I'm sure the young lady will seat us soon, you'll feel better once you've had your breakfast,"
Scrooge turned to Magica and waived his arms as he spoke, "Are you blind woman, this isn't a Henny's!" Magica followed Scrooge's gestures, having noted the subtle hints he was trying to give her, and saw her grandmother playing bingo with some other women. "It's not?" She asked, a confused look crossing her face and she looked around as if trying to get her bearings for a moment before donning a look of understanding. "Oh, of course, how silly of me… we're at Papa Swan's!" She giggled sweetly while Scrooge facepalmed.
Inwardly they both found it hard to keep straight faces, especially when the receptionist looked over, gave Magica a look somewhere between confusion and annoyance and then rolled her eyes when she said they were at Papa Swan's.
"Now, now, you two just calm down, they'll take real good care of you here, okay?" Launchpad realized he needed to play his part when the receptionist gave him a questioning look during Scrooge and Magica's performance.
"No, you pipe down sonny, I don't need to be here and I demand to be taken back home at once!" Scrooge snapped, again waving his arms.
"Papa Swan's always has good service so I know they'll take care of us," Magica said sweetly then Scrooge turned back to her.
"This isn't Papa Swan's, you nutty woman!" He barked.
Della finally turned around, "Dad, just stop it okay, your memory isn't what it used to be and Mom's mind is isn't what it used to be either, you both need help," Della started tearing up, "More help than we can give you ourselves," She sniffled a little, as if trying to hold back tears, "I would love to keep you both at home but between our jobs and the kids we just can't take care you like you need, please try to understand,"
It took every ounce of their will power for Magica and Scrooge not to get teary at Della's performance and the receptionist had to wipe her eyes.
"Here are the registration and sign-in forms, please fill them out and I will call a nurse to show them to their room," she said, sniffling a little.
About forty-five minutes later Scrooge and Magica had been shown to a room and left to settle in.
The room was like a cross between a hospital room and a hotel room, two hospital beds, a nightstand between them, a couple of dressers against one wall and a couple of small cabinets on another and a small bathroom next to the closet.
Unfortunately, any thought of searching further for Caraldina was put on the back burner for the time being since Scrooge's performance when Della and Launchpad were leaving was just a little too convincing and the nurse had given him a sedative.
"You really shouldn't have gotten so carried away darling… funny, usually I'M the one getting too carried away!" Magica laughed as Scrooge laid down on his bed.
"Well, if that nurse hadn't given me an injection, I could have faked taking it…" He grumbled into a yawn as he felt the drowsiness kicking in.
"It's fine, you just rest your over-acting self for now and we'll come up with a plan when the sedative wears off," Magica took off the jacket and fannypack she was wearing, tossing them on one of the dressers and laid down on the other bed, making herself comfortable. "These beds leave something to be desired," she remarked as she picked up the remote for the TV that was mounted on the wall and started to flip through the channels.
"I'll watch some TV while you sleep Scroogie," she said, then stopped on a classic TV channel. "Ooh, 'I Love Goosey', I used to watch this with Granny all the time when I was little," She laughed as she settled in, watching the old sitcom while Scrooge drifted off to sleep.
A few hours later, Scrooge had awakened and another nurse had brought them lunch. Once she'd left them to eat, they began to discuss their plan.
"So, what's our plan," Magica asked, taking the roll from her tray and biting into it, "Oh, yuck! This roll is hard as rock!" She cried in disgust.
Scrooge just pushed his tray aside, the glop the nurse claimed was grits and the poor excuses for steamed vegetables looked unappealing enough but after Magica's attempt to eat the only decent looking thing on the tray met with abysmal failure, he decided he wasn't hungry at all.
"I think the best plan would be if you could turn one of us invisible, then whoever's invisible can follow the nurses until they find your grandmother," he suggested.
"Sounds reasonable but the only invisibility spell I know that doesn't require a potion only lasts a short time," Magica said, tossing the stone roll in the trash along with her whole tray. "So, you'll have to be the invisible one if it's going to work,"
"Why me?" Scrooge asked. "Because, instead of following a nurse it might be better to poke around on of the computers to find her room, since the spell would only last around fifteen minutes," Magica explained.
"Makes sense but I still don't understand why it has to be me specifically," he was still a little confused.
"I still can't quite figure out those stupid machines, you have more experience using them than I do and we don't want to waste any time, I want to get out of here and back to our own room as soon as possible,"
Scrooge chuckled and understood exactly what she meant; he didn't want to be in this place any longer than necessary either.
That night, Magica cast the invisibility spell on Scrooge and he cautiously crept out into the hallway.
They had waited until after midnight so Scrooge would have the best possible chance of success since there wouldn't be as many nurses and other employees around.
Scrooge moved as quickly as he dared as he made his way to the reception desk, being cautious to not make any noise along the way.
He finally reached the desk and was silently relieved to see no one was there, although he took a quick look around to make sure before he sat at the computer and tried to find the information he was looking for.
Scrooge wasn't the best with computers but he was a fast study with most things so he knew enough to figure out where to look as he clicked and typed, searching for the room number for Caraldina.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps approaching so he stared trying to move faster through the computer files and a quick glance at the clock in the corner of the screen told him he was really running out of time, he only had five more minutes of invisibility!
The footsteps got even closer and he heard the orderly they belonged to mutter something in confusion; he must have seen the glow from the computer screen!
Scrooge was beginning to think he wasn't going to find Caraldina's room but finally a click brought up the list of who was in which room and he quickly wrote down the room number on a sticky note on the desk, jamming the small paper into his pocket as he quickly ducked around the corner, the invisibility spell wearing off at that same moment causing him to sprint back down the hall to the room where Magica was waiting.
Scrooge ducked into the room, just barely avoiding getting caught by another orderly who was making her rounds.
"Phew, I almost didn't make it; but I found her room number," he said between huffs as he attempted to catch his breath after a combination of half sprinting half sneaking and holding his breath for fear of getting caught.
"So, let's go get Granny!" Magica said, moving for the door.
"Hold on a minute, let me catch my breath first!"
They cautiously peeked out the door and once they were certain the coast was clear, they silently and quickly made their way down the halls as they searched for Caraldina's room, finding it after sneaking around the maze-like halls of the rest home for a bit.
Magica tried the knob and found the door was locked. She turned to Scrooge, "Keep a lookout while use an unlocking spell to open the door,"
He nodded and watched the hallway while she worked and in a matter of seconds the door was open and they quickly slipped in.
Caraldina was sitting in a rocking chair busily knitting when Scrooge and Magica suddenly entered, startling her. "Who are you two, are you lost?" She asked, looking at them cautiously.
"Don't you recognize me?" Magica dispelled their disguises so they now wore their normal clothes but Caraldina still looked scared and confused.
"I don't know either of you and I would greatly appreciate it if you left my room,"
"Whatever senility curse Rochelle used on her is worse than I thought," Magica sighed.
Scrooge put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "It's nothing you can't fix,"
She smiled at him, "Thanks Scroogie,"
Magica turned back to her grandmother, who was now threatening to call for a nurse or security, cast a curse removal spell and after a moment Caraldina once again looked confused.
"Where are we? Is this some kind of retirement home? Bambina what's going on here?" She looked at Magica suspiciously.
"Relax Granny, I'm breaking you out of this place, not putting you in it," She laughed, relief washing over her as she could see that her grandmother was back to herself again.
Caraldina smiled at her granddaughter and at that same moment her memory came back to her, "Oh, now I remember," She exclaimed, "I was at home, working on a new potion recipe, when suddenly I was grabbed by a walking pile of mud!"
"One of Rochelle's golems no doubt," Scrooge mused.
"Yes, I believe so because the next thing I knew that awful witch was chanting a spell and now here we are,"
"Did she say anything else" Scrooge hoped to get an idea of Rochelle's current plan but Caraldina just shook her head.
"I'm afraid not,"
"Well, now that you're un-cursed let's get out of here and back home," Magica said, a bad feeling settling in gut as terrifying thought settled into her gut,
"This was far too easy, Rochelle most likely used this to distract us," Scrooge nodded, "I was thinking the same thing,"
The couple shared a concerned look before turning back to Caraldina.
"Are you going back home Granny?" Magica asked her grandmother who also wore a concerned look, "I think I'm going with you if that's alright, you may need my help,"
Magica nodded, knowing that despite her grandmother's occasional absent-mindedness she was dependable when it really counted, and cast her transportation spell to take them all back to the manor.
When they arrived, it was to complete chaos.
Rochelle had managed to get in to the manor was fighting with Mrs. Beakley, Donald, Della, Poe and the kids as they all tried to defend the home.
There were several golems and dirt and mud smeared almost everywhere, implying the struggle had been going on for a little while and the piles of mud and dirt reforming into large duck-shaped masses was evidence enough that Rochelle had somehow improved her golem magic since they last fought with her, not a good sign but Magica and Caraldina could sense something more to it.
Rochelle's magic felt much stronger than it had before, and that was alarming enough but something about it also felt different than before but Magica couldn't quite pin down exactly how it felt different.
However, there was no time to figure out what Rochelle had done to strengthen her magic because of the most alarming part of the scene of muddy carnage; Donald was clearly injured and unable to fully fight, though he forced himself, in spite of the tell-tale wobbling and heaving breath, to stand and had Huey and Louie behind him, trying to protect them.
Poe was standing guard over Mrs. Beakley, Webby and Lena, as Mrs. Beakley was also injured and so was Lena, Webby seemed to be alright but was trying to administer first aid to her grandmother and friend.
The worst part was Della and Dewey; Rochelle held Dewey by the scruff with one hand, her wand raised in the other and two of her golems held Della, who squirmed and struggled relentlessly, trying desperately to break free and help her son.
"Let me go, you big palookas!" Della snapped, then turned her glare to Rochelle, "Don't you touch one feather on his head or I swear I'll-"
"You'll what?" Rochelle cut her off and laughed, "You can't do anything to me, but I can do whatever I like to him," she looked at Dewey with cruel and icy eyes and he began to struggle even more.
"Just try it, I dare you!" He snapped, trying to swing at her only to suddenly find himself wrapped in mud; "Hey, what is this?" He felt himself sink and get more stuck as he struggled, as though in pool of quick sand.
"Go ahead and struggle you little brat, you can't escape no matter how hard you try!" She cackled, for only a few seconds until a spell zapped her hand and caused her to drop her wand.
That was when everyone saw Scrooge and Magica had returned, with Caraldina in tow.
"So, I see you broke your looney grandmother out the rest home," Rochelle rubbed her hand, then with a flick of her wrist, her wand flew back into her hand, "You know, it was actually rather kind of me put her into good care when I could have easily put her out of her misery instead," she started to cast another spell but Magica once again knocked the wand from her hand.
"What? You got tired of facing us and losing so you decided to act like a coward and attack our family instead?" Scrooge snapped, clenching his cane tightly.
Rochelle laughed again, "Oh, please. I came here with a specific goal, distracting you two with that nutty old bat just made it easier for me to do what I came here to do," she then looked back to Dewey. "But I thought I might have a little fun before I left,"
Suddenly Dewey vanished from her mud, and appeared beside his brothers. Silently, he was extremely relieved to free of Rochelle's grip as he, Huey and Louie huddled a little closer behind their uncle, more concerned for Donald than themselves.
"The only thing you're going to do is get out of our house, now!" Magica demanded, hand still glowing with magic; her voice was calm but held an anger that smoldered like a volcano about to erupt.
Rochelle laughed, made a small gesture with her hand and the golems holding Della began to grip her tighter and she yelped as they roughly slammed her to the floor.
Scrooge and Magica had had all they could stand from Rochelle and one could practically see the steam coming from their ears as their faces reddened with anger.
"How dare you come here and think you can get away with this!" Scrooge spat, his accent rising in his anger as he continued, "You get your dirt heaps off of my family and out of my house; you vicious, diabolical swamp creature!"
Scrooge continued yelling and the more he yelled, the thicker his accent got, until he finally began yelling in Gaelic, the others not totally able to understand whatever insults he was lobbing at the intruder.
Magica too, had started to yell and very quickly the words coming out of her mouth were no longer in English, but her native Italian.
They had both had more than enough of Rochelle's antics.
Suddenly, Scrooge lunged at Rochelle and Magica followed suit, both swinging their respective weapons at the witch, his cane and her staff, surprisingly in perfect sync with each other and with just as much skill and tact as ever in spite of their lost tempers, still yelling at her in all their fury.
"I don't totally know what all Scrooge is saying as my Gaelic is a bit rusty; but trust me, you don't want to know what Magica is saying," Poe couldn't help chuckling as they all watched Scrooge and Magica going ballistic on Rochelle.
Caraldina turned her attention to Donald, Mrs. Beakley and Lena, using a healing spell on their injuries; Meanwhile Poe turned his attention to the golems holding Della.
"Hmm, let's see, how to deal with so much dirt and not harm the lady…" He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, eyeing the golems and Della analytically.
"A little help sometime today would be nice!" Della snapped, struggling with the Golems; no matter how hard she pulled and tugged their grip was much too strong to brute force her way out and every time she managed to kick one of them, the damage repaired itself almost instantly.
Poe scanned their surroundings for moment and grinned wickedly when something caught his eye and sparked an idea.
"I think I know just the solution for this problem," he said, motioning with his index finger, flicking his wrist and chanting a few words, "Abra Duckabra! Come on broom and vacuum, time to clean this dust and bust those dirt devils!"
Suddenly, the vacuum Mrs. Beakley had been using just before the chaos started sprang to life and began to suck up the golems as the broom and dust pan from the kitchen beat on and swept them up.
In a matter of minutes Della was finally freed and she began to throw punches and kicks at her former captors, and soon they were nothing more than piles of dirt and dust in the vacuum's canister.
Once Donald and Mrs. Beakley were up again, they joined Della and Poe in finishing off the last of the Golems while Caraldina guarded the kids with a magic barrier and before long, Rochelle's army had been beaten into fine dust.
Rochelle hadn't noticed this however, she was still busy defending herself from Scrooge and Magica's attacks; He swung his cane while she swung her staff and Rochelle barely dodged one before being hit with the other and then having to quickly jump away before Scrooge's next swing took her feet from under her, only to be hit with a spell Magica sent her way while she was distracted.
It still amazed everyone how perfectly in sync they were, each move either meticulously planned or well anticipated, it was the evidence of just how long they had spent fighting each other that they could know each other so well as to be so effortlessly able to fight together like they had against Rochelle before and again now and their ability to do so despite their fury was evidence of other things; Scrooge's ability to keep his cool under pressure for one, Magica's ability to focus her rage for another, but more than anything it was the evidence of just how much they both cared for their family.
Finally, Rochelle was backed into a corner and she saw that her golems had all been defeated, she had lost another battle.
"Any last words, before I turn you into a slug?" Magica ginned smugly, pointing her staff at Rochelle as she prepared her spell.
Rochelle remained silent and Magica began to cast her spell, then Poe noticed her doing something and immediately flew into action.
"Magica! Watch out!" He said as he quickly grabbed a shield off the wall and jumped in front of Scrooge and Magica to block whatever Rochelle was going do.
Rochelle made some gestures and chanted a short spell, causing a massive cloud of smoke to fill the room as she cackled and a strong wave of magical energy knocked Scrooge, Poe and Magica to floor.
"I told you; I got what I wanted," She continued to cackle, her voice reverberating in the smoke. "You may have won this battle, but mark my words, the war has only begun!"
As she laughed even more maniacally, there was a bright, green glow in the smoke and then her voice faded out along with the glow.
Caraldina used a spell to clear the smoke while the others opened windows and after several minutes the smoke was finally cleared and Rochelle was gone.
"She got away again!" Magica snapped, getting back to her feet, then she turned to Poe as he got back up, "And what was that? Are you trying to get yourself cursed again?" She snapped at her twin, her voice harsh but her eyes filled with fear and fighting back tears.
Poe hugged his sister, despite her trying to push him away. "I'm sorry I scared you Magi, I just… I didn't want anything to happen to you and there wasn't any time to do anything else,"
"And what if you had gotten cursed again, or even worse? What about your daughter, what about Lena?" Magica snapped, doing her best to maintain her composure as she pulled out of her brother's embrace and looked him in the eye. "You're her father and the only parent she has left, think about that the next time, before you do something stupid again!"
"Alright, alright, I get the picture. That's the last time I save your tail feathers," Poe laughed and Magica punched him in the shoulder, just hard enough to make him flinch.
"Ow," His laughter turned in to a scowl as he rubbed his shoulder.
"Jerk," Magica muttered, scowling back at him.
"Rochelle said she 'got what she wanted', obviously she stole something and we need to figure out what," Scrooge said, a look of concern on his face.
Magica turned to him and nodded. "That's right, we need to know what she took so we can figure out what to do, and maybe what her plan is,"
Everyone searched the house and the only thing they found to be missing was the green stone pendent Scrooge had found in the money bin and given to Magica.
"Why in the world would she want that thing? There wasn't anything particularly special about it," Magica wondered aloud as the family all sat at the dining table, discussing Rochelle's stunt.
"I honestly have no idea, I couldn't find that it even had any magical power stored in it when I examined it," Poe said, just as confused as his twin.
"Well, it's safe to say that you two may have missed or overlooked something about it, if that she-devil wanted it so bad," Mrs. Beakley said, her tone stern yet sincere and her expression filled with concern.
"I wish you had let me look at it… maybe I might have been able to glean a little more from it," Caraldina sighed, looking at a sketch Poe had given her of the pendant. "This drawing can only tell me so much…"
Scrooge lifted his gaze from the drawing at looked at the elder DeSpell. "What does it tell you?"
"Well, simple though the design is, a smooth ovoid stone hung from a gold chain by such a minimal though intricate bale, it appears to be a very old talisman of some kind; I've seen a similar one depicted in one of my books and a spell book, though only as one of the required items for a spell," Caraldina answered, her bespectacled eyes scanning over every detail repeatedly in a vain attempt to discern why Rochelle wanted the pendant.
"I… had no idea, Granny, I am so sorry we didn't consult you about it," Poe said, now realizing that they may have just lost a powerful talisman.
"Don't feel too badly bambino, like you said, you didn't know; these kinds of talismans are very rare and their simple appearance is deceptive," Caraldina tried to reassure her grandson.
"So, what kind of talisman is it exactly?" Scrooge asked, his curiosity piqued and a bad feeling rising in his gut.
"I don't know much, and without being able to examine the talisman myself I cannot say how powerful it is or isn't, but it looks like the kind of talisman only used by the most powerful of sorcerers and witches," Caraldina waved a hand and an old leatherbound book appeared, she opened it to a page with depictions of similar pendants and showed everyone as she continued explaining. "They were usually hand-crafted by the witch or sorcerer themselves from the finest and purest of materials and used for very specific purposes, often times the purposes determined the necessary materials, and then infused with powerful magic for the intended purpose,"
Everyone nodded and listened in worried fascination; Caraldina wasn't making anyone feel any less uneasy about the situation but they all remained silent and let her continue her explanation.
"Sometimes they would have these types of talismans commissioned from the most talented and skilled artisans if they couldn't devote themselves to the task or if their purposes didn't require any, questionable materials, to make the talisman; but each talisman was said to be unique to their creator or user, one of a kind,"
"Okay, so if these things are so special then maybe you could figure out who originally created or owned it, then that would tell you what it's for or what it does, am I getting this right?" Louie suggested.
"That's good idea lad, but I found it after Haguk attacked, it was probably his," Scrooge said, appreciative of his nephew's attempt to help.
"Actually, he might be on to something Scroogie," Magica said, looking at her brother's sketch. "This doesn't look like something he would have made or had made for himself, that medallion fit much better with his robe and remember, he did try to steal my family's magic so he very well could have stolen this talisman from someone else,"
"That is true, but how would you discern the original owner? I highly doubt these things come with authenticity papers or ownership records," Scrooge nodded thoughtfully, the wheels in his mind turning as he pondered the situation.
Huey looked at Caraldina and her book, "Are there any books or historical records that might list some of the powerful magic users who owned these kinds of talismans?"
She nodded, "There are some records, but unfortunately there aren't many; it could be a good starting point though,"
That sparked an idea and Webby spoke up, "Well, maybe you could use genealogy; you know, family trees and historical records to try and help fill in some blanks and make some reasonable speculations," she offered, pulling out one of her notebooks on the McDuck family tree as an example. "Even if you can't pinpoint exactly who made the talisman you might be able to at least pinpoint the family or descendants of whoever created it based on its design and then work backwards from there, I mean I'm sure there's a good chance that an all-powerful witch or sorcerer might base their special talisman design around something like their family's coat of arms or crest or vice versa, right?"
Caraldina's eyes lit up with excitement, "Yes, you are absolutely correct! There are many who used such designs throughout multiple aspects of their magic and lives so that could indeed be a good way to find out where this talisman came from, and by extension, what it might have been intended for!"
"Excellent thinking kids!" Scrooge praised the kids for their help.
"Sounds good, but it also sounds like there might still be a problem," Della chimed in, beaming proudly at her boys for a moment before her expression became serious again. "That kind of thing can be time consuming, and it sounds like doing it with those kind records could be even worse and, well, we may not have that kind of time before Rochelle uses that talisman; honestly, she might already know exactly what it's supposed to be for,"
Scrooge nodded solemnly. "That is true, no matter how you look at it, we may be caught unprepared regardless of what we do,"
Poe sighed. "I don't exactly like the idea, but we may have to call in some reinforcements, both to help with the research and just in case,"
Magica caught on to her brother's wavelength and sighed too. "I hate to admit it, but you're right… we'll have to call in our sisters," she could already hear Hexa chastising her and Poe for losing a powerful ancient talisman, not something she wanted to deal with but, it was necessary to deal with this new situation and Magica could handle her sisters' berating, it was better than Rochelle's prattling and whatever she planned to do with talisman