ToonZ - Freeze Factor Chap1

It wasn’t often that Dudley got to enjoy such different scenery on his way to McDuck Mansion. White crystals littered the ground and children of all ages were outside enjoying a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The radio announcer said that it was like this for most of South California, and more was still on its way.

Snow. Snow in South California. Only a child’s dream to see snowflakes dance to the ground in this part of the country. But what Dudley deemed the best part of it all was that the sky did not empty less than an inch this time; there was well over an inch, and it was still falling.

He regretted calling his mother crazy when she told him to pack his yellow winter coat that morning. The only time he ever took that out of the closet was when his Uncle Scrooge had plans on going up North to ski with the family.

Duckworth had hardly put the limo into parking in the mansion’s driveway when Dudley leaped out of his seat and exited the vehicle. The thirteen-year-old dashed around the garage and nearly slid into the heap of snow in the yard where his cousins had placed their shovels after clearing the driveway. His feet slipped over the ice and he tripped over his scarf but still managed to make it to the front door in one piece, much to the butler’s surprise. Barging through the door, he found Dewey sitting at the foot of the stairs, reading a book while Webby dusted a cabinet nearby.

“It snowed, like, OVERLOAD this morning!” Dudley exclaimed, catching their attention. He closed the door behind him and spread out his arms, sending thick layers of snow into the air. “There’s even ice on the driveway!”

Webby hummed in reply before returning to her work. “Yeah, your cousin Huey noticed that a few seconds late,” she muttered, making Dewey chuckle.

“It’s Winter Wonderland out there, a kid’s dream!” Dudley kicked off his boots with haste, sending them flying into the air just as Louie came into the entrance. “They called school off for tomorrow and probably the rest of the week, too! I LOVE it when it snows in Sou Cal! WOO!”

Louie yelped as the boots went flying and immediately leaped forward to catch them. Dudley rushed up to a chair and set his bag down on it. “Pop is workin’ late with Mom, so I get to stay here for a few extra hours,” he said. “And considering the snow’s still fallin’, it might be a long wait.” He leaped over Dewey, making the duck in blue cover his head as he did, and made to dash up the stairs. “Maybe Unca Scrooge will wanna go slidin’ with me in the backyard; he said he wanted to teach me how to make real igloos too, so—!”

“Whoa, slow down, Dudley,” Dewey said as he reached up and grabbed the boy’s yellow jacket and stopping him in his tracks. “No can do today, Bud. Unca Scrooge is under the weather.”

“He’s what?”

Louie set his cousin’s boots down. “It means he’s sick,” he clarified.

Dudley turned around and frowned in confusion. “But Unca Scrooge never gets sick,” he said while spreading his arms out. “Pop says he’s too grumpy to get sick.”

“Well, he also overworks himself, to the point that we need to literally drag him out of the office,” Dewey pointed out. “He was a little dizzy this morning but he wanted to go to work anyway, and then some worker in the currency department forgot to go through the vacuum showers, so cat smell and hair got all over the place. And when Unca Scrooge made his rounds around ten in the morning he started hacking and wheezing so bad, Fenton had to get Gizmoduck to carry him back up to the twelfth floor. If Huey hadn’t brought his inhaler, we would’ve had to call an ambulance.”

Louie scoffed as he leaned over the stair railing. “Yeah, but then Unca Scrooge would’ve complained about the cost,” he said. “You know him.” He looked at Dudley and shrugged. “So we had to drive him back home, much to his chagrin, and then had to stop action on the currency floor so that it could be quarantined. Seriously, one guy forgets to clean his clothes and BOOM: the entire department goes down and every dang coin going through it has to be purified. Because Unca Scrooge touches every. Single. One. Business is gonna stop and he’s gonna be cranky.”

Dudley sat down on the stairs just above Dewey. “How long is that gonna take?” he wondered.

Louie shrugged. “Eh, probably about a day or two,” he said. “Disney tends to send over the best of the best, so that’s nice. But with this snow fallin’ so hard, I doubt it’ll happen any time soon.”

There was a groan from the top of the stairs, and all four ducks present look up to see Huey walk around the corner, rubbing his back and just putting away his cellphone. “Well, just got off with the head Night Security Officer,” he announced. “He said they’d let us know if the clean up team will come in today. Fenton also texted me saying that he’d make sure everyone got out of the bin before five…” He let out another groan and shook his tail feathers as he descended the stairs. “Dang black ice; it’s not supposed to be around these parts. I’m gonna have a bruise on my tail bone for weeks. The weather’s gone topsy turvy—!” He stopped in his words upon seeing his little cousin and smiled through the pain he felt. “Yo, Doodley-Dudley,” he said as he came to a stop a step higher than the thirteen-year-old. “You here until your folks pick you up?”

“Yeah,” Dudley replied, setting his chin in his hands. “Though it feels useless now.”

“How so?”

Dewey closed his book. “He was hoping to do something with Unca Scrooge,” he replied.

Huey whistled in response before leaning down and rubbing the boy’s head. “Don’t worry, Buddy; knowin’ Unca Scrooge, he’ll be back up on his feet in no time. Probably best that he’s sick today than on a day where you actually leave the house to do something.” He got back up and stepped over Dudley and Dewey. “That way, he can’t complain about the cost of things. If I told him I had to pay for a snowplow on a summer day, he’d boil my head.”

“Why would you even do that?” Louie asked.

“I’m being sarcastic, Birdbrain. But I did have to get a snowplow to make a route for the workers to leave the Money Bin. Unless Unca Scrooge wants them to all break their necks while they slide down Killmotor Hill to their cars…”

Dudley watched him walk by and enter the kitchen, just as Duckworth opened the front door and entered the house, covered in snow. He shivered and shook snow from his body before closing the door. He held out a trumpet case. “Master Dudley, you forgot your instrument in the backseat,” he said while setting it down next to the boy’s backpack. “Brrr; the snow is falling dreadfully hard out there. Very odd for this time of year.”

Louie scoffed while pushing himself off of the stair rail. “More like this part of the country,” he muttered. “I’ll be outside, shoveling the drive again.”

“Already?” Dewey wondered as he sat up.

“If Duckworth is covered in snow, then it means it’s gonna come down again. And considering Huey’s little trip out the limo when we were carrying an angry Uncle into the house, I think it’s best to get the drive cleared up and then pour some salt over the concrete.” He walked into the closet to gather his winter things. “Unca Scrooge is gonna hate the mess of salt over the drive, but I’d rather be on the safe side of things.”

Duckworth dusted the snow from his shoulders and followed Louie out as soon as he had gotten dressed. “I shall aid you, Sir,” he said.

Dudley watched them leave before groaning and burying his face in his hands again. “I can’t believe I’m bored at Unca Scrooge’s house,” he complained. “That’s never happened in the history of things happening in the Duck family history.”

“That’s a mouthful,” Dewey muttered with a smile, looking at Webby who was giggling behind her hand.

“This isn’t normal for this house, there’s always somethin’ to do here.”

“You can still play outside,” Dewey pointed out as his cousin looked at him over his shoulder.

Dudley looked on flatly. “Ya can’t play in the yard alone when you’re thirteen, Dewey,” he said. “Not in this time period. It’s lame!”

“Come on, I’m sure Ashton plays alone in the snow all the time.”

“Not the point.”

“But I’m right, right?”

Dudley groaned and pulled on his feathers. “Ya can’t play alone in Unca Scrooge’s yard!” he complained. “It’s boring as heck! With all this land and no one else to goof off with, what’s the point? Ashton lives in a little house, wayyyy out in the suburbs by the forests. He’s got loads of things to do there, which include his dad teachin’ him how to burrow. But I’m a duck; I don’t burrow, and I like to play with someone in such a huge yard…” He set his head in his hands again and glared across the room. “That and Mom would kill me if I played outside in Unca Scrooge’s yard after dark alone.”

Dewey placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled pitifully. “Aw, cheer up, Dudley; there are a ton of things you can do in this house without Unca Scrooge.”

Dudley scoffed. “Yeah, like curl up in a corner in fetal position and mutter ‘this is all a bad dream’,” he said unemotionally. “You an’ Huey are probably gonna need to make phone calls in Unca Scrooge’s name to cancel appointments, either that or help Louie and Duckworth with the driveway, so that leaves no one to hang with and nothing to do until dinner.”

Webby set her duster down. “Well, if you’d like, you could help me take up some soup to your uncle in a little while,” she said. “I still need to make it, but you can carry it up for me while I bring his tea. Then we can eat dinner and wait for your parents.”

Dudley looked at her as she spoke before hoisting himself up and getting onto his feet. “Fine, I guess,” he mumbled while dragging his feet up the stairs. “I’ll go do homework until then, I suppose—!”

“You’re gonna need your backpack for that, Squirt,” Dewey said while pointing at the bag sitting on the chair. “But maybe don’t touch the trumpet until—!”

“You’re a party pooper, you know that?” Dudley groaned as he stormed back down, leaped over his cousin and stomped up to his things. Placing his bag over his back and simply leaving the instrument where it was, the boy walked back to the stairs and stormed up once more, heading towards the library.

Dewey giggled as the boy reached the top of the stairs. “You might get hot with that coat on,” he added. In response, Dudley undid his jacket and tossed it at the duck, where it landed over Dewey’s head and knocked his glasses off. Then came the mitts and scarf, and lastly the toque. With a groan, Dudley disappeared around the corner, leaving Dewey to pull the things off of his head while Webby laughed. “Boy, I can tell who’s gonna inherit the McDuck temper,” he muttered.

“He only lets it out because you boys tease him,” Webby pointed out before returning to her work.

*****