Hey, everyone!

Thanks for the new reviews! I figure it's about time I start responding to comments, so….

TheoryOfWeirdness: Thanks for the suggestions! I really do need to dive back into the GF fandom, especially since I still need inspiration to finish my GF/ Owl House crossover. I also do want to find more good writers in the DuckTales community, so thanks for the tips!

Guest (the one who left the really long comment at the top): Thank you so much! That review seriously meant so much to me and gave me a confidence boost! I'm glad I could help with writing May and June. It's a little hard and weird at first with characters no one knows a lot about, so I'm glad my interpretation meant something to you. Also, about the whole tentacle concept…

A few years back, my sister and I were talking about something (and we were also probably very sleep deprived). I have the tendency to make up stupid, nonsensical words when I'm tired, and on this occasion I randomly uttered the word 'hayfelday'

My sister and I thought that was so dang funny we scribbled up some rather disturbing doodles for a design of a monster by the same name: an octopus with the head of a woman with sharp teeth, the body of a rubber duck, with a cane, bow tie and top hat similar to Bill Cipher. (I was also like, 13, so the doodles sucked, making them even more disturbing.)

Anyway, one morning a few weeks ago I was trying to figure out how to drive my story forward. I knew I wanted Goldie to be weakened or injured in some way or else she'd escape the mansion and her and Scrooge's more romantic interactions wouldn't happen, but I didn't know how or why she'd get hurt that badly. Then I remembered: that stupid thing I made up with my sister once…

Not long after I got the idea to use the hayfelday, I remembered a video I'd seen in school of people making burnt toast into diamonds under high heat and pressure, leading to another idea about just what the tentacle's suckers could do. After I got these ideas, I just barfed the concept out onto my Word doc, and it ended up working really well. Honestly, I think the best writing concepts come from your experiences in life. If you draw inspiration from stuff that happens to you, it will make your writing unique and come off as very creative to people. Thanks so much for the question!

By the way, part of this chapter is a text chain that includes several emojis that I don't think will go through to the website. So, just imagine what emojis the characters would use in the conversation. Have fun with it! Alright, it think that's all.

……

There was something undeniably romantic about an empty library at nightfall. Webby could tell because Huey and Violet both looked rather anxious as they entered the archives in the Bin after hours with only the librarian for company. Of course, they could have also been stressed out because it was their first time there. Or because the family's lives were in jeopardy.

"Why are we here again?" Asked Huey to Violet. "I thought you and Lena knew what to do."

"We have a vague idea. It will require further study." Violet elaborated. "I didn't realize just how quickly it was spreading to its victims, or that it was a diamond Hayfelday we were dealing with. It looked more like aquamarine-ification in the photo, which I do know how to cure from off the top of my head. But, different stone, different variety of Hayfelday, different potion. I just can't seem to remember it."

"If anywhere has the recipe, it's my dad's archives." Webby said.

As they sat down, despite her fears of her dad, Louie, and even Goldie being lost forever, Webby breathed in the classic smell of old scrolls. It calmed her more than she expected. Then, dust got into her beak and she sneezed. Miss Quackfaster glared in her direction.

"Sorry. We're just here looking for info on Hayfeldays." Webby whispered with a sheepish smile.

Quackfaster looked intrigued. "Hayfeldays, you say? Yes, I have knowledge on those beasts around here somewhere…."

She climbed six or seven steps up her ladder and rummaged through a few scrolls and books while saying, "Great mysteries are these creatures. Fiendish, yet friendly. Caring, but cruel. The very thing that could rip our world apart if we let them!" She yelled, her crazed voice echoing across the archives.

"Uh…Hayfeldays are all that?" Huey timidly asked.

Quackfaster jumped from off the ladder and walked right up to his face. "No, no, my boy. Not the Hayfelday. Tis books and scrolls I speak of!" She straitened up, grasping fistfuls of ancient papers in each hand. "There is no greater power on Earth! The very fabric that binds our society and reality together! Books! The monsters we must endure, for it is they that we adore!" She cackled. Huey and the two girls leaned as far away as possible.

Quackfaster suddenly snapped out of it and hurried to the other side of the shelf, coming back with armfuls of thick leather-bound books and several ancient scrolls. "Well, here's the information. I hope some of you know how to translate ancient Japanese."

The three kids looked at each other knowingly. They each grabbed a text. Huey unrolled a scroll and read aloud:

"The monster known as the Hayfelday, named after the strangled noise of alarm that was made when the first person laid eyes on it, had the ability to turn others to priceless stones. These creature vary in color and size, and each has the ability to turn others into different types of stone. The largest and most majestic of these is the Mother Hayfelday, large enough to wreck buildings and level towers."

Violet flipped her book open, searched for a time for the right section, and read aloud,

"The Hayfelday is a creature of great size and unbelievable strength. It is native to the seas by Japan and occasionally preys on travelers who don't know what areas to avoid." She closed the book. "That's all there was in here. Disappointing."

"You can read Japanese too?" Huey asked, very impressed.

"Yes, I actually studied it with my fathers for a time."

"You are amazing." Huey sighed.

She put a hand to her collarbone, flushing. "Thank you."

Webby peered at them from behind a stack of books, smiling warmly.

The other two quickly busied themselves with their research again. After a few moments of silence, Webby flipped a page over and cried, "Yes!" Quackfaster glowered from behind her desk. "Shh!"

"Sorry, Quackfaster!" Webby whispered. "Listen, guys, I found an entire chapter on Hayfeldays! Now let's see…"

Her phone rang. She dug it out to see it was Dewey calling her. She answered it. "Hi?"

"Webby, you gotta come home right away! Something really, really bad is happening!"

"What sort of 'bad thing'?" Webby asked.

Dewey talked to her for a few seconds more, talking so fast Violet and Huey could no longer tell what he was saying. Webby's face fell. She looked horrified. "Dad…" she numbly said. She hung up. "We need to get back home. Now! Dewey says the diamond-ification is spreading twice as fast!"

"It was already spreading quite rapidly." Violet reminded them. "Perhaps we should take the reading materials to go."

The others nodded and stood up, gathering scrolls into Violet's bag. "Sorry, Miss Quackfaster, we're borrowing these without a card for the greater good, hope you don't mind, okay, thanks, bye!" Webby called.

Quackfaster glanced up. The kids rocketed out of the archives with the bag before she could process the sentence and grab her nearby axe. The axe sliced through the door as they rounded the corner and sprinted down the stairs. They reached the limo where Launchpad sat patiently waiting. "We gotta get home!" Huey called to him. Launchpad saluted and slid inside the car, and the others piled in after him. Webby noticed she was between Violet and Huey and subtlety traded seats with her purple friend, putting the two shipped ones right next to each other. Once this was accomplished, she moaned, "We shouldn't have left the mansion! Now Dad and Goldie are literally dying!"

"Hey, you didn't know." Huey reminded her, patting her hand by reaching across Violet in the middle seat.

"If anyone can find this cure, it is us." Violet assured, turning to Webby as well.

As they flew across the bridge by the bin, Huey decided he'd better check his phone. He found he had twenty five new messages, all from the kids' eight-person group chat, that had been sent while his phone was abandoned in the limousine. He opened his messages app and read:

Louie: Guys, I think I'm dying.

June: Huh??

May: I'm confused…

Louie: the diamond legit spread all over my arms and I'm typing this with my foot while trying to avoid the bathroom floor because it turns out it contains some sort of carbon. Yay

Webby: Oh no! Do you need any help getting out or something?

Louie: nah, I've accepted this stupid room as my grave. So, for my will, I guess: Huey gets my hoodies, webs gets my kopesh, Scrooge can have his stupid golden idol back, his new gf gets to be haunted by me forever, dewey gets my chapstick butter and only my chapstick butter….(part 1/18)

Dewey: Hey! I'm your brother!

Webby: wait….Scrooge's gf? As in….girlfriend?

Louie: Ya

Webby: ?

June:

Louie: ya, him and goldie were totally kissing when I found them. Anyways, uncle donald gets my diamond hoodie cuz this darn curse does NOT spare your clothes, but good luck getting it oof me, uh, aunt daisy gets my blender chop coat sheep…(part 2/18)

Dewey: wurt?

Louie: stupid architect, I meant blender chip can't sheep

Webby: ?

Louie: IM TYPING THIS WIT MY FART OK?

Louie: *foot

Dewey: LOL

June: lol

June: oh, wait, ur still dying aren't u

Lena: y'all woke me up from a great nap. Wtd is happening?

Louie: just literally dying from diamond-ification over here

Lena: oh, ok

Dewey: so, lemme get this straight, you can type the word diamond-ification with ur toe but not the word foot?

Louie: MOM GETS ALL THE MONEY I EVER EARNED TELL HER I LOVE HER PLZ️

Huey closed his messages with a sigh.

……

When they reached the manor, the three kids practically knocked down the front door and found the cage in the front entryway. Two almost completely diamond masses greeted them. May, June, and Lena were already kneeling on the floor by the cage. "You got here almost too late!" June called to them.

"Mom and Dad are nearly done transforming." May said.

"Mom?" Asked Webby with a raised eyebrow.

Her sisters nodded. "Look." They pointed to the diamond mass that was Scrooge, sitting right beside diamond Goldie. Her head was on his shoulder. His hand overlapped hers.

"We found them like this." June explained.

"True love never ages." Huey said. "Maybe there really was still something there." He glanced at Violet, then changed his mind and glanced away.

"What do we do? Scrooge already said there's no cure." June reminded.

"We got some stuff from the library to study." Webby said. "There might be hope."

"And we already sent Dewey to round up the grownups." May said. "We need all the help we can get. And we're pretty sure Louie's stuck in that bathroom."

At that moment, Dewey and Beakley rounded the corner. The twins and Daisy weren't far behind, Daisy gripping Donald's hand tightly. Duckworth floated through the ceiling.

"We're here." Beakley said. "How bad is it?"

"See for yourself." Violet told them. The adults all looked at the two diamond statutes and gasped. "Impossible! That shouldn't have happened for days, maybe weeks more! Or so I thought…" Beakley said.

"Are they…holding hands?" Daisy asked.

Duckworth nodded. "Might I suggest that that, paired with…reckless mouth contact…sped up the process."

"Mouth contact?" Donald repeated in disgust. "With her? Ugh."

"You act like you and Dais don't enjoy it." Dewey said. "I've seen you at it, you know. It's pretty gross." The two engaged ducks flushed superbly.

"Well, dang, Scrooge." Della said, amused. "Wooing the enemy after a century of effort. Well done. Up top!" She leaned over and slapped the statue's other hand.

"Della, no!" Everyone cried. Her arm glowed a bright blue and became encased in a diamond layer. "Phooey."

"You idiot!" Cried Donald.

"Sorry, I forgot."

"How could you forget? You-"

"Ahem!" Beakley loudly coughed. "Everyone, quiet. We need to figure out how to cure this."

"My thoughts exactly." Duckworth said. "Might I suggest all who can read Japanese should grab some reading material from Miss Sabrewing's bag and try to find an answer."

"And those of us that can't translate Japanese?" Asked Daisy.

He shrugged, grabbed a few scrolls, and floated away. Beakley grabbed a few books with the thickness of dictionaries. "I'll be in my quarters." She carried the books up the staircase with as much ease as if they were decorative pillows.

"We'll be in the living room." Webby said. Dewey, Violet and Huey followed her into the adjacent room. "Seriously, what are we supposed to do?" Called Della from the entryway.

"Get in the cage, for starters." They heard Donald remind her.

"Augh! Noooo!"

Lena trudged in after the four other children. "I'll just read some of the spellbooks I stole from Magica. Maybe there's something in them."

She sat next to Webby and flipped one book open.

"Wait, you can read this?" Webby asked, looking at the blue triplet.

"Nerp." Dewey replied. "This looks like chicken scratch. I'll be using my phone. Phones are amazing at translating, dear Webbigail."

"If you're sure…"

"I'm positive." He snapped a photo of one of the scrolls and started tapping buttons.

After only a few minutes of blissful silence and concentration, a door burst open. Gyro Gearloose strode commandingly into the room, his faithful assistant, Fenton, right behind. "Everyone! I have come to tell you exactly how to save Scrooge's life!"

The four kids stepped outside the room to greet the newcomers. Beakley came back downstairs, looking more than a little annoyed.

Della shot up and pointed at the scientist.

"Since when do you know anything useful, black licorice lover?"

"Oh, I know plenty, Della Duck." Gyro replied pridefully. "Much more than the woman who stranded herself on the moon for years on end. Say, how's that cold hunk of junk you call a prosthetic treating you?"

"Oh, really great, actually." Della said. "Almost as nifty as my arm. So, watch it, or you'll get a matching one."

"A prosthetic limb or a diamond limb?" Gyro raised an eyebrow.

"Whatever I feel like." Della growled.

He rolled his eyes, resulting in her reaching out nearly enough to grab his collar. He backed away a safe distance.

"Feel like there might be some history there." Lena muttered.

"So, family of the cursed ones, I have come to present my hypothesis." Gearloose continued. "It is my belief that this ailment upon all in this cage was bestowed by a creature known as the Hayfelday, an octopus-like Kaiju that presses on its victims to diamond-ify them."

Della slow-clapped. "Impressive research, doctor."

"We already knew that." Beakley explained, frustrated. "And, Gyro, might I ask how you even knew we were in this situation?"

"A scientist never reveals his secrets." Gearloose replied, straightening his bow tie with a flourish.

"Uh, sir, that's magicians." Fenton timidly corrected. "Which I think would serve the McDuck family far better than a couple of scientists. After all, magical diseases are far beyond either of our fields of study. As researchers of only the natural world, we can offer almost no real help."

Gyro rubbed his forehead. "My intern-ah, assistant, is right, to a degree."

"I-I am?" Fenton looked very surprised.

"Sure, sure. Now go sit with the kids studying scrolls or whatever and get out of my feathers for the next few hours, mmkay?" He said this way too nicely.

"Will do, sir."

Fenton sat next to Huey and the girls on the couch and picked up one of the scrolls. "Huh. Ancient Japanese. No problem." He slung his bag off one shoulder and pulled out a red- and-white helmet with a purple visor. Violet and Lena glanced up, curious.

"I-I-I am close friends with Gizmoduck, and he lent me this spare helmet for situations like this one. The tech inside will allow me to translate any language instantly." Fenton nervously explained. It wasn't entirely a lie. The sisters seemed satisfied and went back to their reading.

Huey was still a little confused. "Why exactly does Gyro want to be a part of this? I thought he hated magic, especially after the Shadow War."

"He does." Fenton said. "He just…thinks that if he single-handedly saves his employer's life, he'll finally get that raise he's been after for two and a half decades."

"Ah." Huey said. "Well, what about you? Oh, and how's Gandra?"

"She's well." Fenton said, pulling off the helmet. "I really should have stayed home with her, I just…needed a break tonight. My wife isn't really herself right now. What with the baby due soon and all, who could expect her to be?"

Huey nodded for a second, then stopped and swiveled to face his best friend. "Wait-the WHAT now?" The two sisters and Dewey whipped around as well.

Fenton looked panicked. "Oh my gosh! Pretend I didn't tell you! Not even M'ma knows yet." He smiled. "But, yes, sometime this winter, we'll…be a real family."

The kids looked overjoyed.

"Fenton, that's amazing! Oh, how am I ever gonna keep this one a secret? This is like GizmoCloud times ten thousand!" Huey began to worry.

"Dude! Congrats!" Dewey said from the floor.

"Why aren't you with Gandra right this minute?" Violet wondered. "Are you excited?" Webby breathlessly asked.

Fenton smiled. "I'm thrilled! It's just, when someone with extreme mood swings also has electrified hands, you realize it might be safer to give her some space at times."

After talking for a few minutes about Gandra, the group slowly trailed away into silence and went back to reading Japanese, one way or another. Then, after some internal debating, Huey decided it couldn't hurt. After all, this couch was ridiculously long. If he whispered, no one could hear them. The way they were all laid out, he and Fenton were on one end of the couch, and the three girls were huddled all the way on the other side. Dewey was on the floor next to them with a laptop. It should be safe to talk. So, he did.

"Fenton, how did you and Gandra ever end up together?" He whispered as quietly as he could.

His friend paused, then replied at a similar volume, "Well, it was a strange set of circumstances. It's not every day you find out your date is a F.O.W.L agent. But, after that little mishap, she texted me and explained her situation, that she didn't actually want to be a part of F.O.W.L, and we met up to discuss things."

"Unarmed?"

"No, no, I wore the suit." Fenton said. "After an hour or two of talking, we realized we had more in common than just an affinity for science and decided to go with it. We became a couple just a few days later."

"Wow." Huey said. "Weren't you scared?"

"Of asking her to be my girlfriend and just trusting her in general." Fenton said. "But, it was the best decision of my life."

"If I were to ask you for love advice…"

"Be yourself." Fenton said. "Nothing works better or faster with any woman."

"But what if 'being myself' means I can barely get three unscrambled words out around her?"

"Hmm, that is a problem. I'd say…be your best self? Write it down? Compose a chemical equation with iodine, livermorium, and uranium?I have no idea, Hue. I never had to romance a woman as calculating as Violet Sabrewing."

"Wait, I never said it was her!" Huey whispered, mortified.

Fenton chuckled. "I just had a feeling. It is her, isn't it?"

Huey flushed. "She's literally right there, she might hear you! I mean, um…okay, suppose it was her…what did you say again? Write it down? Use…livermorium?"

Fenton shrugged. "I don't know. Honestly, you might not want to take my advice on this one. Besides Gandra, I've never been good with girls."

"Oh."

Fenton patted his shoulder. "But that doesn't mean I won't try to help. I know what it's like to be frustratingly in love with someone you basically consider a goddess."

Huey nodded. "You know, it's funny. I've met quite a few goddesses. Violet is…infinitely better."

The two friends individually got lost in thought, stared off into space for a while, then eventually remembered the task before them and picked up the scrolls again.

Webby contemplated the situation for a time. Fenton and Gandra are gonna have a baby after years of happy courtship and marriage. And why is that? Because of me and Huey's shenanigans to get them together, of course! Hmm…..

……

Authors notes: Although it didn't really make sense, I'm glad I included Gyro and Fenton in here. They were hilariously fun to write. And, yes, I adore Fendra and think the two would be adorable parents!

This story will probably only be a couple more chapters. Then again, I feel like I said that one or two chapters ago…

Oh, yeah, and I have been working on a cover art for this story. I'm not too good with digital art, so it'll be in colored pencil, but I think it'll turn out nice!

Love y'all! See you in about a week.

-MMMAAGGICCC