Episode 3: Have a Nice Nightmare
At the McDuck household, away from the House of Mouse, the three duck nephews and niece were all tucked in bed, sleeping soundly, especially 3 nights ago when the nightclub was attacked by the plemlings. Some people would take longer to get over a trauma like that, but not these four, they had good guardians, and most importantly they had heroes. Any supernatural threat looming around the world, Zack and his newfound group would get on it pronto.
That all changed, in the dead of the night a strange shadowy figure loomed over the siblings and girl, so discreet none of them could detect their perpetrator. He took out a strange bag with some glistening powder, whispered, "now the nightmare begins, master will be so pleased…..", and sprinkled it all over the quartet and then slipped away without being detected. In a matter of seconds after he sprinkled the powder on them, they all began to twitch horribly, then grimace, rustle, moan and groan, and then shriek. Their shrieks alerted the entire McDuck family up from their slumber, who came racing in, and then struggled to wake them up. Shaking them proved no effect, so was talking to them. Scrooge, Mrs. Beakley, and Duckworth didn't know what to do to help the children get out of their nightmare. Suddenlty, a black hole appeared in the up above and out came Zack Burner, plus the other members of his group.
"Did someone scream for an investigator?" asked Zack in his cool hotness, but then noticed the commotion. "Hmmmm, I think I know the answer to this problem…." he looked around and noticed a glass of water on the side table, he immediately grabbed it and then poured it all over the children's heads. In an instant, all of them awoke, shaken. The group noticed some sparkles coming off the children as the water came off of them. "So the Shadow Sandman has worked his awful magic on them."
"Shadow Sandman?" pondered Scrooge. "I've heard of the regular Sandman who makes dreams, but a Shadow Sandman, that's unusual supernatural fluff."
"You might think it's fluff….." Zack pulled out a big book titled "The Guide to Ghosts, Magic and Monsters" and opened it up to a page that showed the figure, a hooded figure with no face holding a glittering bag. "…..but it's 100% real. You've already seen some magic and other phenomenon you can't explain. Luckily I know the secrets of the dark world, I've devoted my life to studying and defending the innocent from these abominations that traverse the Earth". Zack's words astounded the entire family.
"Did your parents every approve of it?" asked Huey. Zack turned with an eager, sympathetic ear and smile towards the young ones.
"With the only parent I ever had, my own mother, yes. Long and interesting story, but let's not waste time, that weasel could be lurking around again, I'd like to defeat him before he spreads more nightmares…." he then turned to the staff and Scrooge. "Including to you…..though he seems to target the young ones as they're much easier to scare." He then turned back to the young ones, and knelt down to there level. "Tell me little ones, what were your nightmares like?"
"I felt like I was falling through what felt like a space, but with all sorts of horrible things, hands coming from out of nowhere, giant eyeballs, open mouths, disembodied laughter, and a slew of monsters that looks like they were going to eat me, plus what looked like a huge horned black knight's head…." Huey replied with fear, the other young ones eyes widened at the sound of what was said.
"No way! That's the same nightmare I had!" added Dewey.
"Me too!" added Louie.
"I got it as well!" finished Webby, Zack's eyebrows raised at the sound of what Huey said as well.
"Did you say huge horned black knight?" he replied with suspicion.
"Yes….." replied Huey back, Zack grimaced at what he heard.
"Why is that beyond horrible?" asked Donald.
"Yeah do you know this huge horned knight?" added Moana.
"I may not know him per say, but he's probably the most dangerous not to mention most evil demon of all time. He's called Dakmogon, the Dark Master…..about as ancient as the cosmos itself…..fear, pain, corruption, all that gives him his power….he cannot be defeated with any spell or craft that is of this Earth. The only way to defeat him is to become a Lightbringer, a warrior of light who wields sacred weapons."
"So how do you become a Lightbringer?" asked Scrooge.
"That's for another time, but for now, let's get back to hunting down this Shadow Sandman." Zack turned to his group. "We'll have to split up but don't use magic, remember we're in private property, so try to minimize damage, but watch out, he could appear and ambush you when you least expect it." The group nodded in response and split up around the house.
"Kids, you stay close to Scrooge, I have a feeling he could get you again." The quartet did as Zack suggested without complaint. With that everyone dispersed throughout the mansion. Zack, Moana, Donald, and Simba took the main level, Jasmine, Minnie, and Nala, and Aladdin took the upper level, and Goofy, Mickey, Pluto, and Mulan took the basement level. The animals had their noses to sniff out the Sandman, but since he was a supernatural being, that would be difficult. All around the dark house, the rooms were with a deadly silence filling the air. On the upper levels, in one room, the Shadow Sandman burst out and managed to get all four into nightmares with his powder, it happened so unexpectedly, no one could even detect it.
Meanwhile, down in the basement level, Mushu provided some light to some candles to sniff out the perpetrator. After a minute or two of searching the small group caught sight of the shadowy figure, in the faint light, and then charged at him, but before they knew it, he passed through the wall, out of sight. The small group pondered where the menace could have gone, searching around some more. Out of nowhere from another wall, the Shadow Sandman emerged, and sprinkled some powder on Pluto, asleep in a matter of seconds and then later started twitching and whimpering.
"Nighty night, don't let the bed bugs bite!" cackled the Shadow Sandman, who then vanished out of sight again. Then emerged again and this time sprinkled on Mickey next, who fell into sleep then a nightmare. Seeing the threat is more serious than ever, Mulan and Goofy raced upstairs to warn the others.
"Zack!" Goofy panted as he caught upstairs with the remaining group members.
"Has anyone fallen to the Shadow Sandman's spells?" asked Zack.
"Yes, Pluto and Mickey have succumbed to his power!"
"Then that must mean the other four have been knocked out!" Suddenly, the Threat Detector beeped. Zack pulled it out and it pointed in the direction of the Money Bin. "Oh great not in there, Scrooge will have a big cow if we have to do some investigating in there…."
"What's this all about?" asked Scrooge in a stern manner, coming down the stairs.
"I'm afraid that weasel went into your vault, thinking we won't be able to catch him…." Scrooge pondered what to do next, it seemed like a tough decision, he didn't even know if it was completely wise to trust this stranger. Realizing what needed to be done, with a slight roll of his eyes, he stepped forward.
"You may go in, but I will search you if you steal me fortune!" He growled, but Zack remained unflinched.
"Don't worry, I have no interest in your money, what matters is your all safe." With that the group and Scrooge proceeded over to the Money Bin, Scrooge reluctantly opened the Safe.
"Moana, stay by the door and keep the Shadow Bane up, that should at least trap him in there!" Moana nodded and held up the amulet as told. With that, Zack jumped into the bin, his sword out in his right hand, and the Threat Detector in the other hand. It all felt quiet for a while as he searched around. Suddenly the Detector beeped and it directed him upwards, the Shadow Sandman was attempting to fly out, only to be stopped by the Shadow Bane, pushing him back.
"Flame Blade!" shouted Zack seizing the opportunity, flames shot out of Zack's sword and in a matter of seconds the Shadow Sandman caught fire, causing him to scream in pain, he slowly started to fade away.
"You may have beaten me Zack, but you won't stop the Dark Master!" the Sandman shouted as he then burned into nothingness. Zack immediately crawled out of the Vault, and had his arms up ready to be checked by Scrooge. After frisking through him a few times, Scrooge felt or saw no resemblance of his wealth on him, and smiled happily.
"You've proven me wrong big time Zack, I'm so sorry to have doubted you."
"Thanks, but now, let's get our teammates back to normal!" shouted Zack. Grabbing some glasses of water, everyone searched around for their fallen teammates and poured water over them snapping them out of their nightmares. With everything back to normal, everyone was waiting at the Vault area.
"You've done us all an enormous service, you bunch. For that you should be rewarded, I saved this for anyone who could do us just that." He held up a bag of money.
"But I can't accept that, Scrooge….it's part of your wealth!"
"Take it Zack, I insist, you might need this in your endeavors" Scrooge smiled. "It's $5,000, you never know when you'll need it. I think you should give your group a name Zack."
"How about…..the Z-Team!" The group behind him smiled at the sound of it.
"Then the Z-Team it is!" Scrooge smiled.
"And your young ones can sleep well tonight" Zack came down to the young ones level and kissed them all goodnight. "Right to bed you bunch!" All four of them marched back to bed happily.
Unbeknowst to the Team, they were being watched by a strange shadowy face on the walls out of their sight and then disappeared. In another dimension on a wall, illuminated the same face appeared.
"Your great Dark Master…..I'm afraid the Shadow Sandman has been defeated by mere mortals!" the face reported.
"Hmmmm….." boomed an ominous voice. "Guess those bunch were lucky, minor setback, we'll just continue on with the progress made so far. My time will come, the Earth shall soon be mine!" the ominous voice laughed evilly…...