Neb: Last Chapter was a long one, but it gave a lot of interactions for each of the Ducktales kids and Vincent Tailfeather. This one will still follow the show, as we now move on to the Fight for Castle McDuck. In this episode Scrooge's ancestral home comes back out of the mist do to a malfunction of it's magical defenses. The Duck Family head towards the manor to figure out what had gone wrong. I do not own Ducktales, and I hope you all enjoy the chapter.
This was perfect for Vincent. He had been waiting for some form of adventure that fell directly into his expertise. Sure fighting and deciphering codes was good and all, but magic not working properly, he's been studying that for years. Most of it was dedicated to why his magic wasn't working properly, before learning the harsh truth that destruction mages couldn't do anything else besides blow stuff up. But, his initial curiosity had taught him that magic can be tampered with. It can be sealed, severed, stolen, dampened, and even destroyed. Of course Vincent would never attempt to practice such rituals, mostly because he couldn't, but partly because it felt like it stood against something sacred. Magic was unique to the individual and taking that away just seemed wrong. Granted they did seal away Rosina in a Tarot card a while back, and he did destroy the Amulet of Quetzalcoatl to test a theory of his, but that's aside the point.
"So a magic mist use to guard this place," Vincent nodded as he studied the area around the castle. Vincent was headed towards a statue of a warrior duck holding a sword at the front of the castle first, to see if their was any connection towards it and the mist spell. The boys were around that statue also, but they didn't pay him any mind. They were busy discussing their own adventure, or at least the adventure Huey wanted to have.
"The statue has nothing to do with the mist spell," Scrooge called out towards Vincent. "That power comes from the castle itself."
"Can't blame a mage for trying," Vincent shrugged. "Garden gnomes, gargoyles, and ancestral statues are often used to guard homes and are great for protection barriers. But yeah, I don't sense anything from this statue." When Vincent touched the statue a flash came before him. It had been a while since his powers had given him visions, but he saw himself leading a charge towards this exact castle with other mages, adventurers, and mercenaries before being turned to stone at the front steps. Vincent shook his head as he snapped himself out of the vision. "Is that what happened to you?", Vincent questioned the statue.
"What was that laddy?", Scrooge called back to him after doing, what Webby called, his traditional Scottish family greeting with his father.
"N-nothing," Vincent shook his head before following them into the castle. Needless to say Webby was having the time of her life recording all the information she could about the McDuck family. After all everything Scrooge related was her number one obsession, number two on the list was magic related stuff, and number three on the list was going out and experiencing life outside the manor like a normal person. Though she had been learning over time that being normal was overrated. That last one was a trait that Webby and Vincent both had been learning together. Though their experiences were different, the conclusion seemed to be the same.
"Vincent," Huey spoke up. "Tell me you're at least are interested in finding the Bagpipes of Clan McDuck."
Vincent turned to Huey and saw like usual the Junior Woodchuck's brothers were ignoring him and his research. "I'm more interested to see what could have offset a spell of this caliber, but I'm not opposed to hearing about your research along the way."
"See, this is someone who understands," Huey shot at his brothers.
"Just a nerd encouraging another nerd," Louie shrugged. "Nothing new there."
"Watch it Louie," Vincent rolled up his sleeve. "This nerd has you beat in height, age, and in adventuring."
"Oh please, you wouldn't hurt a fly," Dewey jumped in. "You're barely even a mercenary, even though that's all you talk about."
"I hardly talk about it," Vincent shook his head. "And what's with you two, a couple weeks ago the two of you were working hard to make sure I don't hunt down my enemies, and now you've completely flopped in behavior. Is it this castle?"
"Oh?", Webby shouted excited. She pulled out her recording device and started talking into it. "Possible magical effects from the castle are affecting the moods of the youngest members of Clan McDuck."
"It's not magic," Louie facepalmed. "It's me wanting an easy score, and Huey trying to complicate it. I don't know what's Dewey's issue is."
"I don't have any issues," Dewey shrugged. "I'm Dew-lightful."
"Right," Vincent rolled his eyes.
"Don't let them get to you Vincent," Webby encouraged. "I still think you're the coolest adventuring mage mercenary."
"The longer the title gets, the more pretentious I sound," Vincent sighed. "But thanks Webby. I'll help Scrooge figure out what went wrong with this castle, and you can focus on your research of their family."
Both of them high-fives each other before moving on. Webby starts speaking into her recorder again.
"Treasures of the past, tales of the future, and a mystery for now. What could have made Castle McDuck, reappear from the mists four years early?"
"Druid Stones," Scrooge spoke up as he poked at the crystals on the chimney.
"Mage Crystals," Vincent argued.
"Clan McDcuk didn't have mages in it," Scrooge shook his head.
"It doesn't matter if a wizard, druid, or witch uses the dang crystals, they are called Mage Crystals. Either way, what sapped the magic from them?"
"Unsure," Scrooge admitted has he poked it with his cane. Some sparkles came off the crystals, but they glowed only faintly. "But we've got to be careful when dealing with unpredictable Druid Stones. Which means, don't touch them Vincent."
"Yeah I'm not going to blow up your castle," Vincent reassured. "I've at least learned to control that part of my abilities."
"I've got it," Scrooge's dad spoke up as he kicked the wall, and then started hopping on one leg in pain. "Now you've gone and broke my castle and my foot."
"You're the one who kicked it," Vincent facepalmed.
"Watch it lad," Scrooge's dad shot back. "This is a family matter."
"I'll have you know Vincent is one of the brightest minds when it comes to the mystic arts," Scrooge defended Vincent. "I don't trust anyone else more in solving this mystery."
The boys looked shocked by that statement and Webby's eyes widened with excitement.
"And if you don't like how we do things you can call one of your other kids instead," Scrooge humphed at him.
"Who do you think I called first?", the dad questioned.
"Ouch," Vincent responded.
"Hello brother," a woman called out from behind them. She wore a yellow button down shirt, had a pink flower in her hair and she wore blue jeans, which wearing pants was kind of unusual for the McDuck family and ducks in general.
"What?!" Webby shouted.
"What is happening?", Dewey questioned.
"Scrooge's youngest sister, Matilda," Webby explained. "A McDuck I've never met? This is the coolest! Stay professional Webby... this is the coolest."
"The name sounds familiar," Vincent tapped his beak. "Can't quite remember from where though."
"Hey have you ever tried to slap your sibling so hard that your other sibling felt it?", Dewey questioned her, before slapping Huey causing him to bump into Louie, knocking Louie off of the chair he was perched on. "And then they did?"
"Seriously, what has gotten into you," Vincent yelled at Dewey who only looked back at him unimpressed.
"Dewey Please," Webby explained. "They are better than that, they are McDucks."
"Yes," Scrooge's dad spoke up. "Your sister is back at home."
"Just until I get my next big idea on it's feet," Matilda explained.
This was clearly a family conversation, and Vincent wanted to get back to studying the castle, so he went his own way. He saw Webby was now gawking at Matilda. Huey and Louie were both off looking for the bagpipes, and Dewey was just laying around. Vincent ran his hands along the walls and then felt a spark from them that almost caused him to be sapped of energy. "Well that's not normal? Something or someone must be draining this place of it's manna." Vincent was worried that it could be Magica who hadn't made an appearance in a while, Mr. Elite who hasn't made an appearance in a while, or Phantom Blot who also hasn't made an appearance in a while. They were overdue for an antagonist that could actually do some damage to them. And this had boss enemy written all over it. Vincent shook his head. He should jump to conclusions right away. It could just be a flaw in the castle itself, or maybe Scrooge's dad or mom touched something that they should have. "Why's their an Emu in that room?"
"Animals outside," Scrooge's mom yelled as she dragged the Emu away.
"She has a problem with the bird," Vincent figured. He then saw a black dog with glowing green eyes and chains walk past him. "But she's fine with ethereal dogs." This place made less sense then the manor. For instance a lot of the magic items still worked, so it was only the outside mist that was being affected. "Should I go back to looking outisde then? Where would I start?" Vincent tried to remember back to Artifact, the shop had it's own cloaking system. Though the mists of this castle kept it out of view from everyone where as the magic shop only cloaked itself away from non magic users.
"Vincent," Webby yelled as she ran over to him. "I may have broke clan McDuck."
"I... how?"
"Scrooge and Matilda are fighting, and everything I do to help it is making it worse."
"It's nothing," Dewey groaned from down the hallway. "Siblings fight all the time. Don't you two fight?"
Vincent and Webby looked at each other for a moment. "On occasion," Vincent admitted.
"This isn't a playful tussle Vincent," Webby shook her head. "They actually hate each other."
"No they don't," Vincent shook his head. "Scrooge cares about Matilda."
"How do you know?", Webby questioned.
"It took me a minute to remember," Vincent tried to explained. "But Scrooge and I took a trip from the Caribbean straight to Egypt due to a magic portal created by Rosina Evermore. There she started messing with our minds and memories. In order to get to Scrooge, she used the memories of Matilda to hurt him. She wouldn't have used Matilda if Scrooge didn't care about her."
"Oh, maybe you're right," Webby sighed in relief.
"See," Dewey facepalmed. "This is what I've been saying the whole time."
The two of them ran off and Vincent shrugged before continuing to check out the area. "Madame Aurora kept her cloaking runes on the roof, maybe Clan McDuck does the same."
Vincent was now running back down the stairs in a hurry to try and find anyone. He saw what was causing the issue, it was some sort of magic sapping device taking the magic from the castle. Vincent tried to blow it up, but his own powers were being absorbed by the machine the moment he tried to use them. "So it was Phantom Blot. I am not losing my powers again. This time I can get Scrooge, Webby, and the boys, and we can take him out together." At least that's what Vincent hoped, but when he finally found the family, he saw they were all fighting each other along with giant statues of their ancestors also fighting each other. "Oh come on!" Vincent scanned the in home battlefield until he saw Webby sitting on a pedestal looking down in disappointment. "Webby." Vincent ran through the chaos towards her, but then was blasted back by a green blast.
"Great shot Blot," an egghead girl grinned.
"What a treat," Phantom Blot yelled with glee. "We get the bagpipes and I get to remove the one who's destined to destroy."
Vincent groaned as he tried drawing from the power of friendship to blast Phantom Blot back.
"Oh no, I've calibrated my gauntlet to deal with you and that shadow's friendship magic," Phantom Blot explained before blasting Vincent again. "And unlike the shadow, you aren't made of magic, you have a limited supply."
Vincent groaned before grabbing a few runes from his pocket and chucking them under their feet. Some explosions went off and Vincent managed to slip through the smoke.
The guantlet reached out from the smoke and grabbed onto Vincent before tossing him into one of the other family statues.
"Careful child," the archer statue shouted at Vincent. "I almost stepped on you."
"Maybe if you'd watch where your going, you wouldn't almost step on children," one of the women statues scolded the archer.
"Why you!" The Statues begun fighting again and Vincent rolled his eyes.
"Vincent," Webby yelled as she ran towards him.
Vincent pushed himself back to his feet, before the two of them nodded at each other and started fighting Phantom Blot together.
The Egghead Girl tackled into Vincent and swung the bagpipe at his face knocking him back next. Then she nodded at Phantom Blot who nodded back.
"Ok, he's got a partner also," Vincent groaned as he wiped his beak with his sleeve.
"Hi, I'm Pepper," she smiled.
"Pleasure," Vincent replied before moving to tackle her, but then was grabbed by Phantom Blot.
Webby then kicked Phantom Blot, but she was now tackled by Pepper and the two were rolling on the floor.
Pillars were collapsing around them as they tried fighting off the intruders.
"Vincent," Louie called out. "Over here."
Vincent saw the triplets were trapped under as chandelier and tried to blow it up, but Phantom Blot blasted him again with his gauntlet. "Stop it!"
"Stop having magic," Phantom Blot laughed at him.
"Oh good one," Pepper also laughed.
"Let go of him," Webby shouted as her own aura flared up and she blasted Phantom Blot back.
"She has magic?", both Phantom Blot and Pepper yelled in surprise.
"Not for long," Phantom Blot yelled before blasting Webby back next.
"Webby," Vincent yelled as he tried to get up, but was tackled down by Pepper. A pillar begun to collapse over and was falling right towards her.
Scrooge and Matilda had noticed this and ran over to help Webby, but they were going to be crushed in the process as well.
"No," Vincent yelled before he saw the statue woman in the dress caught the pillar before it could hit her. "Oh thank goodness."
"Yeah that was a close one," Pepper admitted.
Scrooge whistled to the fighting statues to get their attention. "Ay ay clan McDuck," Scrooge called out. "We've got outsiders muscling in on our turf, and fighting our family."
"Nobody fights our family but us," the well dressed woman statue growled before cracking her knuckles.
Unfortunately the statues didn't actually get to fight as Pepper still had the bagpipes. She blew into them and sapped the life from the statues causing them all to collapse and break.
"Haha, Well done," Phantom Blot laughed.
Webby tackled Pepper again and kicked the bagpipes to Louie.
Vincent tackled Phantom Blot again. "You might be right about me not being made of magic," Vincent admitted. "But that only means there will be a part of me left to kick your butt even if you sap it away."
"It will be worth it to remove your destructive power Spawn of Balor," Phantom Blot growled.
"W-what?", Vincent questioned before he got punched back this time.
Scrooge punched Phantom Blot next in response, and then Vincent pushed himself back up and kicked the center part of gauntlet where the gem was. Vincent felt some of his power return back to himself when he did so.
The family surrounded Phantom Blot and Pepper.
"Get out of my house," Scrooge's mom commanded.
Phantom Blot obliged as he slammed his gauntlet down on the ground creating a green flash that caused them all to look away. Then he was gone.
Vincent sighed in relief that the fight was over. To think a couple weeks ago he felt as though he was ready to take on people like Phantom Blot by himself, but clearly he was wrong. "Great job Webby... Webby?"
Webby stared at the mess she made, the destroyed pillars and statues all over the ground of the statue room. "It's all destroyed," Webby sighed.
"It's not your fault lass," Scrooge assured. "Sometimes families fight, but the mark of a great family is one that can work through their petty differences to be closer than ever. But next time we won't try to put ourselves on a pedestal."
"You guys realize that's what we're doing right now right?", Louie commented as he carried a piece of the statue across the room.
Then the family started grabbing parts of statues everywhere and worked together to build the ancestors of Clan McDuck back. Vincent showed Scrooge where Phantom Blot's device was on the roof and the two of them managed to destroy it. Once again F.O.W.L was defeated and the Duck Family came out on top.
I can't believe I got so worked up over nothing," Webby sighed. "I created more problems than I fixed them."
"You were just looking out for them," Vincent explained. "It's not your fault."
"But it is, the destruction of property might be more on Phantom Blot, but their wouldn't have been an actual conflict if I didn't keep pushing them. I was even getting Dewey to fake being injured in order to bring them together."
"I... ok that's kind of messed up," Vincent admitted. "But Webby, they worked out their differences, that's what families do... at least that's what they should do." Vincent remembered his last meeting with his old man on Halloween. His old man tried patching things up with him, but he was being stubborn. No Vincent had a right to be, after everything that had happened. The old man used him, and if they became family again all the old man would do is use him more. Not to mention bringing Teddy Paddlefoot into the lives of the other residents of McDuck manor would cause more harm than good. The old man was a crafty gambler who was great a scamming, the only person he'd get a long with is Louie. Then he would inevitable betray Louie. Vincent shook his head to try and get out of thought. Then their was Webby.
"Vincent?", Webby spoke up. "Is everything ok?"
Vincent looked at her and nodded.
"Her fate was decided the moment she was born gullible," the words of Madame Aurora echoed in his mind.
"I can't let that old man get near Webby," Vincent decided in his mind. "She doesn't deserve to be around someone so rotten. Even if that means I never see my father again for the rest of my life."
"Vincent if somethings wrong you can tell me," Webby assured.
"I was thinking about my own old man," Vincent admitted. "I.. we don't need to think about him. Let's just go to the people who actually care about us."
"R-right," Webby nodded before taking Vincent's hand. "We managed to stop Phantom Blot from taking our magic. Just like we stopped him from taking Lena's."
"Yeah, but Phantom Blot knows about you now," Vincent sighed. "He knows more than that, he says I'm destined to destroy."
"Well duh you're a destruction mage," Webby reminded him. "Phantom Blot hates all magic, his quest to remove it all isn't a noble one. So don't worry about what he says."
"Right," Vincent agreed. "Maybe I was listening to the ravings of a lunatic. Alright, let's go back to the others. I'm sure Huey wants to talk about how he actually wanted the adventure to go."
"And I'm sure the boys will be fighting some more," Webby nodded. "But it doesn't mean they don't love each other."