Disclaimer: I own nothing but Miranda and this chapter takes place during the Ducktales' episode Robot Robbers. The last Chapter took place during Wrong way in Roungway (sorry for not mentioning it anyone who was confused.)
Anyway, enjoy this incredibly long chapter!
It had been a few weeks since the Roungway incident and barley anything had happened since.
Miranda sat on the window ledge of her bedroom, looking outside in complete boredom. Being the niece of the second wealthiest duck in the world, she wasn't really allowed to go to school, because according to her uncle, why go to school when there is a perfect learning system here at home!
Yeah right, the miserable teen duck thought idly as she flipped through one of the many text books she had received from her Nanny. She sighed loudly before reading the same sentence over and over and over...
"Knowledge is power Miranda, never forget that!" Miss Canary said tirelessly as she hit the younger duck over the head with a small dictionary. Miranda yelped in pain before continuing in her reading, doing her best to ignore the raspy coughs of her female mentor.
Miss Canary had been growing rather sickly in the past few months, despite Miranda's and, believe it or not, Uncle Flintheart's attempts to keep her healthy (On a cheap budget of course, no need to overspend on the only maid in the house, after all he could always get a new one.)
The elderly maid herself was rather disinterested in her sickness, she was more bothered with the education and well being of her only student. Miranda wasn't very smart, but she was certainly talented, talented for crime, but talented all the same.
Ever since the incident in Roungway Miranda had been doing her best to excel her talents in crime so that her uncle wouldn't look down on her so much, and so far she had been doing rather well, she and the Beagle Boys even managed to successfully rob a bank once, something that apparently impressed the Beagle Boys enough to leave her out of their jeering, but only for a short time.
But it didn't matter to Miss Canary exactly how well she was doing in robbing banks, what mattered to her was that she was getting better in the first place. Some nights were spent sleepless on how it frightened the elderly nanny to think of what Miranda would become when she finally passed on if she didn't do something.
Unfortuantley due to her failing health and her less of a hold over Miranda actions than her uncle had, all she could do was help her with her pupil's IQ Level.
So far though, the results had not exactly been, satisfactory.
Oh she could read just fine, and in fact had even confessed her love for reading, it was only once and the girl was reasonably tired enough not to know what she was talking about but it was enough for Miss Canary. But when it came to the apparent difficutly of sums and history, Miranda really fell behind.
"Miranda," Miss Canary looked up from her teachings as her Employer strode into the room, inturrupting the younger female from her studies without so any concern for the latter, much to the maid's annoyance.
"Yes Uncle, what do you need?" The teen duck gave her Uncle her complete attention.
If only she'd do the same with her studies, Miss Canary thought bitterly as she watched her student slam her text book shut absent mindedly.
"I recently hired some screw ball that works for Scrooge, He's built me some helpful equipment for construction and I need you to tell any would be builders that come into the building sites that if they don't have any experience in electronics they better shove off, okay?" He said off handily, not noticing the growing annoyance on his employee's face.
But before she could intervene in this obviously boring and not even in the least bit rewarding job that Glomgold obviously didn't want to handle himself, the hopeful and really at times pitied voice of Miranda stopped her.
"Sure Uncle! Anything to keep me from studying!" She said happily, jumping out of her seat and hugging her nanny goodbye before following her uncle out, her farewells to her mentor still sitting in the worried duck's mind.
"I'll see you later Miss Canary, wish me luck!"
With that the Library door closed with an all to final thud, leaving Miss Canary to speak aloud by herself, the dusty books the only witnesses she had as she coughed loudly afterwards.
"I did along time ago my dear, and it seemed to do nothing for you."
It had taken Miranda only a few minutes of loud and annoying begging until uncle allowed her to make an appearance at the press conference at the building site.
She smiled for the cameras as they took photos of her and her Uncle as the Mayor shoveled some dirt out of the sites ground for some reason that Miranda wasn't sure of but was to excited to ask after.
Of course the press asked her the usual questions and she answered them with what her uncle had told her to say on their way to the sight.
"So what is Glomgold like as a uncle?"
"Oh, he's great, tons of fun and always ready to help me in my learning."
"Do you have any siblings?"
"No, sadly I'm an only child but you know its fine, I've gotten quite use to being my uncle's favorite." Miranda lightly cringes at that one, knowing that out of all the fake answers, she wished this one was even remotely true.
Uncle had fortunately chose this moment to confront a rather old looking woman who had been interrupting the press people, offering them apples in exchange for small amounts of money.
Miranda watched her Uncle scam the woman for her profit and giggled at the irony as he bit into the sour apple she had given him. Karma never shined fairly on her uncle when it came to unfair bargaining, something that Miranda had picked up on quickly as a child and had been confident that it was something that she herself could get past when she was older.
But the woman was acting a bit weird for Miranda's tastes, she was about to follow the old woman to make sure that she wouldn't cause trouble but was dragged over to a nearby tent by her uncle.
The teen duck took a seat next to her uncle as he stood in front of a podium, going on and on about how great he was and how he was better at construction sites than Scrooge was and blah, blah, blah.
Honestly, Miranda really did care for her uncle, but he was pretty repetitive when it came to his speeches. She was about to stifle a yawn when one of the sides of the steel building opened like a door reveling four huge robots.
Sadly this seemed a little to much for Miranda, who just sat in her seat, her beak half open as her yawn had long since left her, giving the interpretation that she was gaping at the large metallic robots, which was exactly what she was doing.
She watched in wonder as the larger than life robots walked towards the tent, frightening her to the point where she quickly stood and ran to her uncle's side, knowing that since he owned the robots, they were less likely to crush him to death.
Obviously Miranda hadn't really seen any Monster Movies in her childhood.
Eventually her uncle caught sight of his rival toppled on some of the large wooden beams that had fallen due to the gravity defying robots footsteps.
"Well if it isn't yesterday's news," uncle smirked as he walked over to Scrooge, taking a moment to let Miranda catch up behind him, noting her still dizzy appearance from the robots entrance.
"Allow me to introduce you to the machines that are going to Mcduck's Construction out of business." He said happily, not even lending a hand to his adversary as an a voice boomed out of an intercom that sat on top of one of the Robot's heads.
"Hello Mr. Mcduck, how do you like my newest invention." An awkward yet intelligent voice rang through the intercom. Miranda clearly did not recognise the voice but from what she saw on Scrooge's face, he certainly did.
"That voice..." He said disbelievingly, as if he didn't expect whoever was in the robot to be there. The robot bent down to reach the elderly duck's level, showing the image of a rather strange stick figured bird with short red hair.
"It's me!" The bird said happily, completely unaware of his old employer's anger.
"Gyro!" He shouted angrily waving his fist at the glass screen that protected Gyro from the elderly duck's fury. "It thought I told you never to build another robot!"
"You told me never to build another robot for you Mr Mcduck! I built these for Mr. Glomgold!" The robot held out its arms and gestured to the robots around it.
Miranda nearly laughed out loud at the bird's response, mentally congratulating him for his logic while wondering just how long it took to construct the robots so that they made gestures like a real person.
"But Gyro, the last robot you invented nearly took over the world!" Scrooge shouted, causing Miranda to once again to ponder on just what she had been missing lately, I mean world domination? Seriously? How could she have missed that!
"Not to worry Mr. Mcduck, I've great improvements, the last robot had a computer for a brain, in this model I'm the brain!" He said hapily as the robot gestured towards its head where the bird sat comfortably.
"But why didn't you think of that in the first place?" Miranda yelled out to him, surprising the two elderly ducks near her as they were reminded of her presence.
But for some reason Gyro didn't seem to have heard her (He was ignoring her complete understanding of logic for the sake that he hadn't thought of it.) Scrooge soon decided that awkward silence was best not left to linger as he replaced his top hat on his head.
"I fail to see the improvement." He mumbled, much to the teen duck's amusement.
"The improvement is that my robots are going to make me a fortune!" Flintheart said happily to his rival before turning back to the group of robots.
"Gyro, start the foundations." He yelled up to the strange bird who complied as the three ducks walked away to look at other prospects the robots had at advancing the construction site months ahead in mere minutes.
"I'm telling you Glomgold, building these robots was a mistake!" Scrooge yelled unhappily as he struggled underneath a ton of rocks that had been unceremoniously dropped on him, causing Miranda to wonder on exactly why he was still alive before deciding to not ask after the old duck's apparently unnatural strength.
Uncle just laughed and jeered him some more. "Who are you trying to fool, passing up the chance to build them was the mistake, and you made it."
Scrooge (for some reason) looked at him in shock but Glomgold just continued, metaphorically digging Scrooge a deeper set of worries than the ton of rocks he was currently covered in.
"You're goin soft Scrooge old boy, You've been on top so long you've become to careful. Afraid to take chances." Glomgold said wisely, and pulled his rival out of the ton of rocks with on hand, greatly impressing his niece, who had been lifting them off the richest duck one at a time.
"And as they say, you snooze, you loose." Glomgold laughed before gesturing for his rival and niece to follow him as he show them the robots continuing to advance the construction work well beyond the years it would have taking in the first place.
Miranda watched in continuing amazement as the robots picked up some cement trucks in one hand, taking the cement container off of them and squeezing it like a tomato bottle into the spaces required. And couldn't help but laugh out loud when she saw some of the cement splatter on Scrooge, freezing him in place.
"Quick drying cement," Her uncle laughed as he turned back to the large robots, "Gyro, Get the old stiff outta this would ya?"
"Sure thing Mr. Glomgold." He said over the intercom, lifting one of the robots fingers and watching as the top fell back reveling a drill and in one motion drilled his former boss out of the quick cement, once again causing Miranda to once again question the laws of physics as the elderly duck came out of it totally fine.
"With these robots, I'll get all the construction jobs you use to get, why its like taking candy from a baby. Come to think of it , I haven't done that in a while." He cackled at the end, causing Miranda to frown at her guardian's last comment.
"You did that on our way here." She said idly, noting her uncle's satisfied look before Scrooge took the attention of them both.
"Is that Launchpad! What is he doing here?" Miranda looked in the direction of the elderly duck's glare, greeting her with the entertainment of watching someone crash their plane in the most creative of ways, which somehow ended with the pilot landing right in front of them.
"Say , are you paying me by the hour or by every loop." He said in a dizzy voice as he slowly climbed onto his feet, met with the strange looks of Miranda, the glare of her uncle and the tired look of .
"Neither, your fired." Glomgold said off handily as he walked off, dragging his niece along with him.
"Wow uncle that's probably the fastest I've ever seen you fire somebody." Miranda commented off handily, who was answered by a grunt from her guardian who lead her over to a small desk in front of the entrance to the sight, a sign in front of it that read Answer Q's then get hired!
"So this is where I'm supposed to turn down some poor builders who don't know an internet connection from a home page?" Miranda asked her uncle in a rather bored tone, her excitement from seeing the robots well but worn out as her uncle nodded once, handing her some piles of empty paper.
"Use this to write down any potential employee's info on and take it back to me at the end of the day with the list." He said simply, gesturing for her to take a seat at the desk. Miranda sat quietly and was about to start on the first poor schmuck that was waiting in the now large line when she noticed her uncle was still there.
He looked as though he was about to say something but held back, letting his normal snarl cross his face as he walked away, leaving Miranda with her mission.
"Do you have any electronic skills?"
"No..."
"Then what are you still doing here?"
It had been like this for a while, another schmuck, the same question and the same result. Every single time for nearly three hours.
Honestly, you'd think that the word have spread or some-
"Alright, pack it up day's over."
Well that was just a waste of time.
Miranda looked down at the pitiful blank papers, a feeling of disappointment clear on her features, she'd failed her uncle at this one simple job, how good was she supposed to be when she couldn't even do this one simple thing!
The fifteen year old sighed, about to pack up shop herself to head home and wallow in her coffee when she heard a voice from behind her.
"Is there any chance of still signing up?"
Miranda gave the person behind her a good look over. He was a rat that looked around Miranda's age but was possibly older, he was wearing a black t shirt and grey pants. He looked just like a normal teenager so why was he here?
Shrugging Miranda decided to give this boy a chance and quickly sat back in her chair and looked up at the teen with tired eyes before sighing and asking the same question that she now hated with a burning passion so much that when she asked him it, it almost sounded like she was ready to kill the poor boy if he said the wrong answer.
"Do you have any electronic skills?"
"Yes."
"Right, that's it I'm gonna- wait what?"
Miranda was about to jump the desk to beat the snot out of the teen when his answer finally got through to her brain, causing her to pause in her efforts and give the rat teen a strange look.
"Seriously?"
The rat nodded and was nearly surprised by the girl's response as she continued to jump the table and shake the boy's hand as fast as she could, her words coming out in a jumble as she was clearly more tired than she had been showing.
"Oh thank god! Okay welcome aboard Glomgold enterprises! You will be placed under the instructions of Gyro and be paid a decent amount."
"How much is that?"
Miranda walked back over to her desk and gave the rat a weird look.
"A decent amount."
The rat nodded before taking a seat on the other side of the desk as they settled out his information.
"Name?"
"Elmo Sputterspark." Miranda nodded happily and quickly gave the boy the papers to sign for employment, looking more happy than she had been all day.
"Well welcome aboard Sparky, you will receive a call sometime this week regarding the rest of your employment details, until then have a nice week." She said happily, smiling at the rat's new nickname she had given him before taking the info paper from the boy and putting it in her pocket and starting on her walk home with the large pile of empty papers in her arms, unsure of exactly what she was going to do with them. Her plan at that moment landed on possibly burning them so that her uncle wouldn't know how many sad people there actually was in the world.
"Wait, your just gonna walk home?" Elmo ran after the duck teen, a worried look clear on his face as he took some of the empty papers out of her hands, despite her objections.
"Well, yeah that's how I usually do it, now will you give me back those papers?"
Elmo frowned at her and refused to comply, instead he just walked ahead of her, gesturing with his head for her to follow him.
Miranda growled and ran back up to him, not noticing as she lost one or two of the empty pages, they were useless to her anyway since her uncle wouldn't need them.
"Now look Sparky, you don't even know where I live so how exactly are you helping me?" She asked the rat, who paused in his efforts and turned to her, a little shame faced as he spoke.
"Where do you live?" Miranda couldn't help but laugh at how cu-silly he looked as he blushed before finally deciding to let him help, besides how much damage was he doing?
"I live at Glomgold Manor, I suppose you know where that is?" She inquired, though she already knew the answer of course. Glomgold Manor was the only other mansion in Duckburg apart from Mcduck's so of course he was going to know where it was.
"Oh so you work there?" He said in what sounded a little too much like a pitiful voice as they walked down a few alleyways so that they could short cut it to her 'home'.
"No, I live there." She said in a steely voice, already regretting her decision to let him help her.
Elmo nearly dropped the papers he was holding in realization as he finally recognized Miranda, he had to stop for a moment to put the papers on a wooden bench before pointing at her in disbelief.
"Your Miranda Glomgold!" He said in a shocked voice as Miranda placed her papers on the bench next to his, her arms growing tired from the wieght as she used the last bit of strength in them to slap away the rat's accusing finger.
"Oh my gosh really, I never knew!" The teen duck exclaimed sarcastically as she stretched the muscles in her arms, before taking one of the piles and shoving it into the still shocked rat's hands, catching him off guard as she grabbed her pile and quickly walked ahead of him, not really wanting to be apart of the discussion they would inevitably have.
"What's it like having Glomgold for a guardian?" Elmo asked as soon as he caught up with the clearly agitated teen, his eyes showing keen interest while Miranda was grinding her teeth together in annoyance.
"What do you think it's like Sparky?" She shot back, already feeling a headache growing from her sudden choice of a conversation partner.
"I imagine it would suck."
Okay that caught her of guard. Most of the time when people asked her that question, they made it sound so glamorous, like there was a side of her life that she apparently wasn't seeing and she felt as though she had to give them the answer they were expecting. No one had ever told her it was okay to say that it sucked, in fact she even felt a little better now that she got to say it, like a weight was lifted off her shoulders.
Her life sucked. It sucked being ignored by the only blood relative you have, it sucked being constantly bullied by some of the saddest burglars in the world, it sucked to know that the only good influence she had in her life probably won't even be around for that much longer.
It sucked.
Meanwhile, during Miranda's sudden inner realization, the two teens heard the ever familiar sound of the robots being released from their steel containment.
"Isn't it too late at night to start work again?" Elmo asked quietly, watching as one of the robots seemingly walked out of the construction site and around town.
"I don't think they are starting work again." Miranda answered, quickly wiping away any tear she may or may not have shed during her realization, dropping her paper pile at the same time as she ran in the direction of the robots, her new acquaintance unknowingly to her following right behind her as the forgotten pages littered about freely in the street, an unimaginable fine for littering most likely going to be sent to her Uncle the next day.
They were running for quite a bit and only managed to make it half way to the first robots destination in time to see it leave. Elmo watched it leave for a moment in confusion before following Miranda as she ran/walked/dragged themselves all the way back to the Construction Site.
"Why would they go to a jail? There noting there but-" Elmo began but was cut off by his acquittance, who growled in response.
"Crooks." Miranda finished, glaring as they arrived back near the construction site in time to see the robots robbing clothes stores and terrorizing the town, knocking down buildings and roads, the works. She watched them go for a minute before finally running up to an abandoned push bike and quickly jumped on it and turning to Elmo, clear determination on her face.
"Are you coming?" She asked, and was about to take off when she felt added weight on the back of the bike, the weight somehow upping her confidence in a way she probably never knew until that night.
"I've got nothing better to do." That was all she needed.
Elmo nearly fell off the bike in surprise as Miranda peddled as fast and as hard as she could all the way to the Robots, and had unconsciously wrapped his arms around her waist in order to right himself. Elmo blushed but noticed that Miranda hadn't said anything so he didn't move them.
Miranda meanwhile, was peddling faster towards the robots, determination stirring up her endorphins, making her push faster, nothing was going to stop the desperate teen to catch the crooks that were most likely going make off with Scrooge's money and god forbid, her uncle's property.
What surprised her however, was how long it took to reach them, since by the time they had finally gotten to the robots it was early morning.
Elmo yawned loudly from behind Miranda, scaring the teen into almost swerving into a wall as she tried to stop the bike.
"Damn Elmo would you be careful." She muttered angrily before finally stopping the bike, her legs tired and wobbly from all her work and was about to walk off when she nearly fell, but was luckily saved at the last minute from falling by Elmo.
"Sorry Miranda, but maybe you should rest for a minute, you're going to hurt yourself." Elmo said worryingly, picking up the teenage duck and placing her on a nearby bench, noting the teens tired eyes as he sat beside her, knowing full well that she was probably planning on what to do next.
She was about to get up him for helping her when she saw her uncle walking up to the robots in the corner of her eye and quickly followed/wobbled after him, Elmo running after her in surprise and worry as they watched the confrontation from behind one of the partly broken buildings thanks to one of the four robots.
Glomgold stood in front of one of the sitting robots and kicked it as hard as he could, his furious attitude giving him more confidence than he had earlier.
"Take that you robot robber!" He yelled before shouting in pain and grabbing his leg, his anger forgotten by his pain.
Suddenly the other robots quickly stood and surrounded her uncle the one in the middle's voice becoming instantly familiar.
"Hey nobody can kick our Mama around and get away with it!" Bigtime...
"Lets teach this punk a lesson!" Babyface...
Miranda face palmed as she recognized the voices, damn those Beagle Boys. She was about to go over and help her uncle when she one of the robots grab some boom gates from a nearby train line and held one in its hands like a hokey stick.
"Let's play some hockey!" it's driver yelled happily, handing the other boom gates/ hockey sticks to the other two robots, that readied themselves for the fun.
"Are they actually going to.." Elmo trailed of, a little surprised as his question was answered.
Miranda watched furiously as the robots used her uncle as a hockey puck in their demented game and was about to intervene when she felt Elmo pull her away just in time as one of the robots came running past, nearly destroying the top half of the apartment building that was just across from the teens.
"Watch what your doing Miranda, or you'll be crushed!" He whispered harshly, deciding then not to let go of the girl until the robots were finished with her uncle so she wouldn't be hurt.
Eventually the robots grew tired of their game and with one final hit, threw Flintheart against a road work sign and into the sewers below him. Miranda shouted out in shock and immediately ran after him to see if he was okay, easily breaking Elmo's hold around her middle as she did so, making the rat teen wonder if she just allowed him to keep her from harm.
"Miranda, wait up!" He shouted, running after her as she quickly climbed down the ladder into the sewers where her uncle laid hurt.
"Uncle are you okay!" Miranda exclaimed as she jumped down the ladder, briefly noting that Elmo wasn't following her into the sewers before helping her guardian to his feet.
"I'm fine and- what are you doing here?" Flintheart grumbled, pulling himself out of his niece's hands, a little bit grumpy to see her but otherwise all right.
"I saw you get beaten up by those Beagle Boys, I was worried." Miranda mumbled, looking pointedly at the water below her feet, a little unhappy that her uncle wasn't grateful in her attempt to help him.
"Hey , didn't Gyro's last robot short circuit when we splashed it with water?" Launchpad said, absently cutting off another guilt trip for the Glomgold teen who looked rather surprised to see him and Scrooge in the sewers with her uncle.
"Of course! All we have to do is find a way to lure them into the Duckburg Reservoir!" Scrooge exclaimed, helping Flintheart to walk, making sure that he was leaning on his shoulder as he did so.
"And we can do it with your helicopter, but we still need an electronic expert, since we can't find Gyro." Scrooge mumbled the last bit, but Miranda fortunately managed to overhear him.
"Oh really? Cuz this just might be your lucky day." Miranda smirked at the elderly duck's expression before turning to her still rather dizzy guardian, amusement written all over her face.
"Uncle I managed to find an electronics expert for you like you asked, in fact he's just up this ladder." She said, watching her Uncle's expression change from confused back to the same old snarl.
"Well, we better go meet him then right Glomgold." Scrooge said, looking over at his rival who by this time had shrugged off his competitors helping hands and was climbing up the ladder.
"Quit talking and start climbing, the less time we waste the less damage I have to pay for." He grumbled.
Elmo winced for a moment as he stood in front of the sewer hole, suddenly rethinking his tactics to follow the strange girl he only met a few hours ago, instead he decided to wait until Miranda and her uncle climbed out of there before he went with them to help with their problem.
The rat teen walked himself over to the bench where he and Miranda had been sitting only minutes ago and thought over what had just happened to him today before asking himself whether this job was really worth the trouble.
It was his first job on his own and he really did need the money, but was it really worth the life death experience?
While he was thinking this, Miranda, her uncle and Scrooge McDuck had managed to climb their way out of the sewers, Miranda instantly smiling at him expectantly as she waked over, the smell of sewer apparently completely oblivious to her.
Elmo immediately thought back to the moment he had with her on the push bike and blushed, deciding that maybe the job would be worth a little danger, maybe even a lot who knows?
"Uncle this is the electronics expert I was telling you about, he can help take down the robots!" She exclaimed happily, quickly pulling Elmo by the arms so that he was now standing next to her, a little to close apparently, judging by the elderly duck's expression.
Elmo shuffled a little bit away from the other teen, a motion that didn't go unnoticed by the elderly ducks, who both smirked at his action.
"And how good is he?" Scrooge asked Miranda, making a point to poke Elmo in the chest with his walking stick.
"Oh he's ummmm..." Miranda trailed off, unsure of what to say next but was gladly saved by the subject matter himself who cleared his throat before talking.
"I'm at the top of my class in electronic skills and I actually consider myself quite good at it , and I'd be happy to help in the putting out of these robots if hires me?" He said carefully, this time it was his turn to pointedly turn to the second richest duck with his last remark, his eyebrows raised.
Miranda smirked at the teens sudden leap in confidence and also turned to her uncle, making sure that Elmo and Scrooge couldn't see the pleading look she was giving her guardian.
True Miranda didn't really know Elmo but she thought it could be cool to have someone around her age to hang out with and talk to. Besides, he seemed like a pretty intelligent guy, not anything like what she was expecting since all that she knew about boys her age came from the Beagle boys and TV so you could say her expectations were way lower than what Elmo had presented.
"Ugh, fine!" Flintheart exclaimed, unhappy as he saw his niece and the strange teen jump in happiness, a little bit to much happiness if you asked the elderly duck.
Launchpad eventually ran back to the group, completely ignorant of the strange conversation that had taken place as he looked over at his employer.
" The helicopter is ready." He said, obviously desperate to take of in the air.
"Good Launchpad, you two,"Scrooge said suddenly turning his attention on the two teens in front of him who immediately ceased in their celebrations to listen to the richest duck in the world.
"You will be coming with us," He said pointing at Elmo before turning his attention on Miranda. He sighed and thought over it for a moment before gesturing towards the helicopter that was parked nearby.
"You might as well come to, just don't cause any trouble." He said grudgingly, knowing full well that she was going to anyway.
Miranda smiled happily and walked over to the helicopter with Elmo, not really noticing when the teen rat took her hand, but her Uncle fortunately did and walked right in between them, much to the teen rats unspoken annoyance since he didn't want to be fired on the first day after only two seconds of being hired.
But, Elmo noticed with satisfaction the elderly duck could not stop the pair sitting together in the helicopter since the Flintheart had been pretty determined to sit next to his competitor, a choice he later regretted as he saw the pair settled in the back of the helicopter and glared at his new employee.
Miranda didn't seem to notice this and instead turned to Elmo as she had decided to get to know him a little better, especially since she was partly responsible to him getting employed.
"So why did you want to work at the construction site?" She asked curiously, noting the strange teen's blush as he unknowingly slid his hand away from hers with interest, what was he embarrassed about?
"Oh, my parents just moved to Duckburg and well, they basically told me to get a job and since there apparently isn't that much working going in many places except construction, I decided to sign up." He said meekly, staring pointedly at his shoes and blushing for some strange reason that Miranda still hadn't found a reason for.
"Oh," Miranda let the conversation drift of there since it started to feel a little awkward to talk to him, especially since he didn't seem to be able to look her in the eyes.
Luckily their apparent silence in the otherwise empty helicopter didn't last long as the other the pilot finally climbed in after doing whatever the both elderly ducks had asked him to do while the two teens had been talking. Launchpad quickly started up the engine as soon as he had climbed into his seat.
The helicopter took off with a lurch that seemed to startle the rest of the occupants, causing Miranda to fall a little sideways so that she was accidentally leaning against the already nervous teen rat whose face turned an even darker shade of red than before, if that were possible.
Miranda quickly pulled back, the blush on her face now equally matching Elmo's as they turned to opposite ends of the helicopter, helping the others in their search for the robots so they could lure it towards the Duckburg Reservoir.
Apparently, during the two teen's awkward conversation, Launchpad had spent his time tying a rather strange poster to the end of the helicopter that suggested that the Beagle Boys mother had fleas. Miranda watched the robot driving criminals reactions with amusement before turning back to the rat teen that was sitting right next to her, still wanting to know more about him.
"So..." Miranda tried to think of something to ask him but found herself suddenly to nervous to talk, so she made something up on the spot.
And we all know how well that usually turns out.
"How old are you Sparky?"
Elmo raised an eyebrow at her question before shrugging and looking out the window, His voice breaking through the sudden silence that had happened between them.
"I'm 17, how about you?"
Miranda blushed, suddenly happy that he couldn't see her as she looked out the other window, unsure of what to say.
If she told him she was fifteen...He might laugh at her, or treat her like everyone else did, like she was a stupid kid. So instead Miranda went for the easier path and lied, trying not to notice how fake she sounded.
"Oh, I'm 17 to." She said, watching as her uncle straightened up and appeared to suddenly be very interested in their conversation and decided to change the subject.
"Exactly how good are you at electronics by the way?" She asked him, suddenly aware of how much trust she was putting on his so called 'abilities' that she hadn't even seen to believe yet.
"Oh, I'd say pretty good, I mean I've even built my own TV and computer on my own." He said modestly, almost as if he didn't really think much of his achievement.
"Cool Sparky." Miranda said in an awed voice, clearly impressed by the teens talents and felt a little jealous since she knew she wasn't really good at anything but stealing, and even then she messed up every once in a while.
Elmo smiled and looked back down at his feet again before asking Miranda a question that was left to hang in the air for a moment, mostly because Miranda didn't know how to answer it.
"What are your hobbies?"
Miranda had to think on that one for a moment, suddenly aware that she didn't really have any hobbies outside of reading and crime. And she certainly wasn't going to tell him that she robbed banks as a part time thing so she decided to go with the first one that came to mind.
"Oh, I like to read, you know boring stuff like that, I'm not really that talented at anything." She said quietly, scratching her head in thought , Elmo frowned at this and tilted his head so she was looking him in the eye, he smile reassuring her as he spoke.
"Everyone's talented at something, you just haven't found yours yet. I'm sure you'll find something." He said cheerfully, his happy attitude somehow rubbing off on Miranda, who smiled back.
"Hey we're here!" Launchpad called out to the other passengers in the helicopter, causing the teens discussion to come to a close as they watched the strange pilot fly them over the Reservoir and to the lake beyond, then looked out the window in time to see the robots jump in after them, immediately sinking under the lake after doing so.
"Hah!" Flintheart laughed, obviously to happy to notice that he was now going to have to pay for the damage not only caused by the robots, but also the damage the water would have done to his robots.
"Hey I just got a call from Gyro Mr. Mcd, he's saying that the new models were made to be water resistant." Launchpad said nervously watching as his employers face of victory immediately fell. Miranda slowly moved back towards the window and nearly screamed in fear as the helicopter slowly started to fall with the water, the large bodies of her Uncle's robots now completely standing over them.
"Well, now we're dead." Elmo said despondently while the adults quickly freaked. Miranda jumped away from the window as she saw one of the robots hands move closer to the window and accidentally fell into Elmo, who held her as far away from the Robot's hands as he could.
"Launchpad get us outta here!" Scrooge yelled as the pilot complied, the helicopter lurching forward as they quickly took off into the air.
They managed to take off just in time as the robots were about to crush the helicopter in their hands. Miranda sighed with relief as they stared to gain height over the city she had been in all her life.
"So what to we do now ." Launchpad asked as they flew closer to Duckburg, the helicopter slowly dropping as his employer decided what to do next.
"We go and pick up Gyro Launchpad, he's the robot expert around here." The elderly duck said confidently, not noticing the glares he was receiving from behind him by two suddenly rather angry teens.
The helicopter soon landed and Elmo and Miranda decided to stay in the vehicle until the grown ups come back with the apparent 'robot expert.'
Silence reigned for those few moments, something that had been happening quite a bit ever since Elmo had met this strange girl.
But of course right now his thoughts were focused on the elderly duck's unintentional insult. Elmo glared out the window at the fallen down wood shack where the apparent 'expert' lived. Right, like a guy who knows all there is to know about robots would live here.
Then again... Elmo thought back to his own home, a small dingy apartment in the middle of the slums part of Duckburg where his parents were always ruining his experiments, whether or not it was by intention Elmo didn't know but it always managed to put him behind in his own research. Maybe it wasn't so different for Gyro?
The grown ups came back out of the shack, both of the elderly ducks dragging a rather unhappy inventor to the helicopter as the teens heard his apparent excuses not to go up into the air.
"Come on Mr. Mcduck, I'm sure you don't need my help, besides didn't you say you had another expert with you?" The red headed bird said desperately as Elmo smiled at the (again unintentional) compliment.
"Yes we do Gyro, but he's not the one who built the infernal things so you have to help." The richest duck in the world said forcefully as they all pushed him into the helicopter, giving the inventor only minute to strap himself in before Launchpad took off again, taking them over the city again in search for the rampaging robot robbers.
Miranda was in the middle of wondering exactly how many times they would have to do this when she suddenly spotted the robots doing what could possibly be the only thing that could make Scrooge any angrier than he was now.
"Ummm...Mr. Mcduck? You're gonna want to see this." The duck teen said meekly as she pointed out the window, the elderly duck's eyes following as his expression went form confused to incredibly angry in a millisecond.
"I hope you're satisfied Gyro! Your robots are destroying my Money Bin!" He growled at the gangly bird who shrugged, an act that surprised every one else in the helicopter as they all knew that you don't just shrug off Scrooge McDuck.
"That's good." He said simply, not noticing his employer's face grow even angrier, if that were even possible.
"Good!" he exclaimed as the bird nodded before continuing, his explanation most likely saving his career.
"Yes, the harder they work, the more energy they use, eventually they'll have to recharge their batteries, when they do we'll be waiting for them!" He said happily as he directed for Launchpad to fly to the nearest electric control center. They soon flew over it and Miranda watched amused as the rat teen next to her spoke suddenly, his voice filled with excited understanding as he looked at the building below him, really he just reminded Miranda of a cute nerd.
Wait what?
"Oh, I see you'll connect all the power in Duckburg into one electric cord each for the robots and they'll be over charged, right!" Gyro nodded at his explanation, obviously happy that someone else understood his plan without him having to explain it.
They landed the helicopter again, this time the teen joined them as Elmo wanted to help Gyro with the electrical work whilst Miranda, well she was just bored and decided to watch some science being done.
Once Elmo was done with his part in the proceedings he walked back over to Miranda, his expression one completely made up of exhaustion.
"Working hard Sparky?" She said amusingly as the older teen raised an eyebrow at her, obviously observing the fact that she hadn't done anything but his mind was elsewhere.
"Guess so, by the way, your completely stuck with calling me that aren't you?" He asked, leaning against a nearby wall as they spoke, his exhaustion not allowing him to stand.
"Guess so Sparky, why does it bother you?" She asked back, hoping quietly she hadn't offended the only friend she had made in a long time. Luckily Elmo just shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck in order to relax the tensed muscles.
"Not really, it's just that I've never had a nickname before." He said happily, allowing the conversation to drop there as he was suddenly called back to help in the plan. Miranda watched him go happily before going to help herself, knowing full well that she didn't even understand the first thing when it came to electrical work.
She really just wanted an excuse to talk to Elmo again.
"Here they come!" Miranda yelled excitedly from the window she had been looking out of unhappily after she may or may not have blown a few fuses when trying to help.
"We better start then." Scrooge said quickly as he, Glomgold and Scrooge ran over to the switches, waiting for Gyro's instruction to start.
"We have to wait until all four of them are recharging." He said simply, his hand gripping the switch tightly as the group watched the robots rip the electric cords from their places and stared to sip from them like one would water through a straw.
Sadly only three of them managed to start sipping the electric currents before Gyro called out for him and the two elderly ducks to flip the switches.
"We can't wait any longer!" He cried as they pulled the switch, Miranda watching humorously as the Beagle Boys yelled out in surprise, the duck teen being able to see the three burglars jump as the electric shock went through the controls and shocked them.
Finally the three robots fell forwards and were unresponsive to their mother's call for a few minutes before Bigtime was finally able to answer, Miranda clearly seeing him lifting himself off the floor f his control room.
"We're okay Ma. But we might glow in the dark for a while." He said tiredly as he climbed out of the now opened head of the robot, his mother's robot hand lifting him into her control room before doing the same for the rest of her children.
"We only got three of them!" Gyro yelled afraid as they all slowly stared backing towards the door.
"Then let's get outta here!" Glomgold yelled fearfully, the others following him as they ran out into the helicopter, immediately taking off into the air for what felt like the hundredth time today, causing Miranda to briefly wonder just how much gas this helicopter had.
"How much gas does that Robot have again?" Launchpad asked curiously as they once again flew over the city, the pilot's frown confirming the duck teen's fears as the elder inventor answered, obviously perplexed at the pilot's question.
"Another 24 hours why?" He asked as Elmo began to frown, obviously picking up on what Launchpad was going to say next, just as Miranda had done only a few minutes ago.
"Because we only have 24 seconds until we run outta gas!" he exclaimed. However the two elderly ducks didn't seem to be as worried as the others in the helicopter were as Scrooge quickly ordered his pilot on where exactly they were going to go next.
"Launchpad, can you make it to Glomgold's construction site?" Launchpad shrugged at his employer's question as he tried to speed up the helicopter just as Ma Beagle's robot was about to take another swipe at them.
"We'll find out soon ." He said quickly as he flew the helicopter over to the Construction Site where this all began.
They flew over to the Site's loading bay before the richest duck in the world frowned, quickly seeing the large iron doors were closed. Luckily Glomgold manages to open it quickly with one of his many remotes that he happened to have in his coat at the time.
"I have to admit, there is a certain style about you Flintheart Glomgold." Scrooge said as they flew inside, the elderly duck quickly relaying his plan to the others in the helicopter before ordering them up the sides of the building to ready the quick hardening concrete.
The robot crashed in only moments later, destroying the helicopter with one quick stomp of its foot, the Beagle Family that resided in the robot celebrating happily while Miranda and Elmo frowned at their overly violent ways before quickly turning on the concrete valves, the rest of the group on the other side of the building following suit as the robot was quickly subdued, the Beagle boys immediately trying to make a break for it, despite the quick warnings of their mother who was still inside the large robot.
"No boys, wait!" She yelled in vain as the concrete hardened, quickly stopping the Burglar brothers in their escape attempt.
Miranda and Elmo quickly climbed back down the tower they had been on to meet up with the grown ups, who were currently talking to the authorities as the Beagle Boys were taken away, their mother having escaped only a few moments ago.
The duck teen turned to her unexpected friend, a grin placed on her face as she spoke to him, happy that the events of today were finally over.
"So Sparky how did you like your first day?" She asked, Elmo shrugged as they both walked over to the rat teen's new employer, watching as the construction site was investigated for any other signs of robbery before answering.
"Oh, I dunno, it was pretty boring now that I think about it." He said sarcastically, smirking at the laughing Miranda as they finally reached the second richest duck, who was surprisingly angrier than Miranda had seen him all day.
"I have to rebuild half the city and I can't use my robots!" he yelled , meanwhile Scrooge tapped him on the shoulder, his grin assuring Miranda of dirty tricks.
"McDuck's Construction would be glad to help you in the repair work." He said, his tone could melt butter but Miranda and her Uncle knew better.
"And exactly how much is this help gonna cost me?" He snarled, knowing that it was impossible for him to refuse. Scrooge's grin grew as he answered, his response causing Miranda to laugh out loud as Elmo smirked, looking away so that his new employer couldn't hear his muffled giggles.
"How much you got?" Glomgold however, did not find his answer as amusing as the teens behind him and yelled loudly.
"Scrooge McDuck you are a low down, ruthless rat!" Elmo frowned at this for a second but couldn't help but continue in his giggles at the elderly duck's competitor's response.
"What can I say Flintheart? You bring out the best in me." Scrooge walked off then, his laughter following him as Miranda's uncle cursed angrily, the two teens deciding to leave him to his angry fit as they went of to buy ice cream in celebration of Elmo being employed and you know, the whole not dying thing.
Plus they were really hungry.
Miranda sat with Elmo in the Ice cream booth, her mind clearly else where as she watched the city beginning to repair itself, almost amazed at how fast it took for the city to react. Say what you will about Duckburg, but it sure did know how to put everything back to normal after a crisis.
Miranda looked over at Elmo, giggling as she saw the Ice cream mustache that was left on his face.
Then again, The teen duck thought to herself happily, change is something this city is suprisingly good at, maybe I should give it a try sometime.
Finally, jeez that was long.
Review if you want but I don't blame you if your tired at this point, I know I am.