Once Mom identified the particular 'hero' she was talking about recruiting, I found myself a little concerned. After all, even given his track record he apparently had no supernatural abilities whatsoever - unless you counted the gods' own luck - and the tech he apparently had available was...well, aside from his plane, the schematics Uncle Bentley was able to call up looked at least a decade out of date. I had my doubts.
Still, Mom seemed confident in his abilities...and I noticed in the list of his accomplishments Uncle Bentley called up a mention of someone that apparently was an employee and acquaintance of Uncle Scrooge. If anyone could tell me if this 'hero' was tough enough and smart enough to keep up with us, it was Uncle Scrooge. So I gave him a call...
Coco held the phone to her ear as Deik-Beck hooked into the telephone network to connect to whatever phone was closest to where Scrooge was at that exact moment. Admittedly, it was more time consuming than calling him directly at home or the office, but it did mean getting patched directly to him. Before long, there was a voice on the other end. "Yes? Who's calling, and how did you get my car number?"
"Hi Uncle Scrooge!" Coco responded eagerly as she recognized the voice.
"Ah, Coco!" Scrooge replied much more warmly as his voice relaxed. "That backpack crab bot of yours is full of tricks, isn't he?"
Coco giggled happily. "He certainly is," she confirmed. "I hope I didn't call at a bad time-"
"Ach, away wit that lass!" Scrooge interrupted immediately. "Ah'm on my way to a rather frustratin' meeting. It's a pleasure ta hear from ya. Now whit can ah do for ya, eh? You wouldn't be hacking the phone network for immediate contact if it weren't urgent."
Coco grinned widely. She definitely wanted to spend more time with Uncle Scrooge if she could manage it when this job was finished. He didn't look that tough or that smart, but she knew both appearances were incredibly deceiving. "Well, we have a bit of a situation on the current part of our latest job, and I was hoping you could-"
"Lass, do get to the point," Scrooge interrupted drolly. "Deik-Beck's obviously made the line secure, and ah know thief speak."
Chuckling, Coco went straight for it. "Well, we're in St. Canard-"
"Yer bein' careful, right lass?" Scrooge interrupted intensely. "There's a lot of dangerous types in that city, and one e'en I step carefully around. Ya wouldn't want ta tangle with him, that's fer certain sure! He's..." She could hear Scrooge shuddering. "Just stay far away from any masked duck dressed in orange, ya hear?"
Coco blinked in surprise. A duck dressed in orange? She had been calling to ask about a duck in purple. Still, she needed to reassure her Uncle Scrooge first. "Don't worry, Uncle Scrooge. I'm being very careful. Besides, I've got some potent magic from Down Under helping me-"
"Don't get overconfident, lass!" Scrooge snapped out intensely. "The one I speak of rightly scares gods! About the only way ye'd be at all safe from him is if ye had the Mask o' Dark Earth at yer command, and even then ye'd just be on a even playing field!"
"...what if I also had the Staff of Moonfire?" Coco asked hopefully.
Scrooge was silent for a time. "...by Merlin's beard, I'm going ta need that story in full when yer done," he groused out. "For now, no more spoilers. But still be careful of the one I spoke of." He took a few calming breaths. "Now, yer probably gonna run inta a duck in purple. He's a real headache when he's on the wrong track, but a powerful ally when he's on the right one. And he'll be teamed up with a pilot by the name o' Launchpad McQuack."
"How do you know that?" Coco asked in surprise.
"Cause I want ya ta ask him when he's comin' back ta Duckberg!" Scrooge declared smugly. "I got another mission comin', and ah need mah pilot!"
"And if he asks who the message is from...?" Coco coached curiously. She doubted this Launchpad would take such a message from a complete stranger...especially if the one he was currently working for thought the Coopers were the bad guys for whatever reason.
"If ya don't think he'll believe ya that ya know me, yer overestimatin' him," Scrooge murmured dryly. "Loyal he is, clever he ain't. Still, if ya want a code phrase so he can talk his partner around...tell him ye got a mutual acquaintance who's tougher than the toughies-"
"And smarter than the smarties?" Coco finished eagerly. "I didn't realize that phrase was so important."
"It ain't, but it'll make his partner think it is. The one who outsmarts him th' most is himself." Scrooge chuckled for a time. "Well, I gotta be goin'. It's time fer meetin' with the IRS. It was good talkin' to ya, Coco."
"I love you, Uncle Scrooge," Coco offered impulsively.
"And ah love ya too, lass," Scrooge replied after a few moments, his voice somewhat thick. "Now git!"
With that playful rejoinder, the call was broken.
Uncle Scrooge's warning had me worried. With everything I'd seen of him, anyone that made him that scared made me nervous...especially since the Mask and Staff weren't at full power. As such, I instructed Deik-Beck to search the local net for 'a duck in orange', to see if I could find anything.
There weren't any results. Normally, I'd have shrugged it off...but Deik-Beck located several instances where criminal activity had occurred, the one we were seeking to meet with had thwarted it...but there was no record - electronic or otherwise - of who had initiated it. It was as though someone had excised a duck shaped hole in the records, in the very history of the city.
...that scared me. Someone going to the effort of making sure there was nothing anywhere for a stranger to familiarize themselves with them? And how were they even able to do it? I decided not to mention that part of the call - or my discoveries - to Dad, Mom, or my Uncles. All it would do is terrify them, and make sure they didn't take me along. Not only was I the only one with a chance to circumvent Magica's spells, staying in one place was asking to be hunted down.