GiddyReflections: Thanks very much for the reviews! I appreciate them! So in response to the first one: Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it. I'm a big fan of Darkwing Duck too, so writing Jim's lines wasn't too difficult. In response to the second one: No surprise there. Imagining the wrong voices only adds to the utter confusion of the situation I guess. In response to the third one: Yes. Unfortunately, he did. And in response to the fourth one: Yeah, let's just hope that he never gets the chance to become one this time around...
Luna: Gracias!
Webbigail: Thanks! And you'll see in due time. And I promise you, it won't be long now. She has almost, made it home.
...
"C'mon. C'mon, wake up."
Webby Vanderquack instantly recognized a dry familiar voice as she was repeatedly dunked face-first and upside down into a large tub full of cool, clean water.
"C'mon, wake up already you lazy little rugrat..." The aloof dunker briefly lifted her up and shook her about in his hands before dunking her back under.
The feeling of the salty ocean liquid rushing into her throat and down her lungs was oddly comforting to the young duckling turned merduck, as like most aquatic creatures that breathed oxygen through their gills, she also couldn't last that long without water in her system.
"...C'mon. C'mon! WAKE UP. UUGGGhh! I swear, this halfwitted little kid could sleep straight through the end of the WORLD! Which, technically, she already has."
And while in completely normal circumstances she'd appreciate the thought, but by the sound of it, of all of the people to she wanted to revive her and save her life, one of the last persons on Earth she now wanted to owe gratitude to had his arms around her and was currently dipping her like a feathered chicken nugget.
"I wasn't sleeping, I was just practically belly flopping on death's doorstep you stuck up sun cooked half-brained brutish brainiac..." Webby spoke as she gradually began to blink and fully open her eyes.
"...WHHAaaT?" The dunker loudly questioned his own hearing with his voice cracking badly.
"Don't fool yourself into thinking I'd forget what you did. That you tried to keep me from Lena, and that-"
"-Where's Lena?" The upside down dripping merduck paused and slowly looked around.
"Where's Lena?!"
"...WHERE'S, LENAAH?! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" Webby immediately grabbed her tall dunker by his neck and threw him into the Time Tub, holding his head underneath the surface of the water.
"AAAA-"
"Where's my DUCKing shadow princess that I love and I'd do literally anything for SAGHEAD?!" The heavily fatigued merduck continued to aggressively interrogate her unexpecting prisoner as he weakly struggled in her unrelenting grasp.
"I swear, if you let anything bad happen to her, I swear... I'll destroy everyone and everything within TEN MILES around myself INCLUDING MYSELF! I SWEAR! AND I'M NOT THAT LAAAAAZZY!"
"...Okay. I think someone might be a little bit, hungry-grumpy. Fenton inside the Gizmosuit gently grabbed Webby by the back of her shirt and lifted her out of the water.
"I think maybe she could use a nap..."
"NOOOOOO, lemme go! He was just about to SPILL HIS GUTS!"
"Here Webby look-" The Latin intern quickly pulled out a aluminium tray filled with a certain fresh delicious dessert and held it up to her.
"-want some pie?"
"NOOOOOO! I don't want any- Pie?" Webby paused and stopped swinging her fists wildly in random directions.
"...Pie? Wait, PIIIIIEEEE! PIE IS FOOD, I LOVE FOOD!" The famished little merduck lit up in sudden joy and tried dig her hands into the pie that was now only inches from her fingertips.
"YES! I accept your offer! Don't taunt me with it any longer! Gimme the PIE! GIMMIE THE PIE!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, calm down people." Fenton smiled and rubbed the back of his helmet.
"She uh- she likes pie..."
Webby's mouth began to water as the pie in question was handed over to her and she finally took a large bite out of it. Unsurprisingly, she was very hungry from Magica not giving her anything to eat for the past two days.
"Mmmmmmm! This is- This is SO GOO-"
"-Blaaaauugh! The merduck's face turned from sweet to sour as she grimaced and spit a large mouthful of chewed up pie onto the ground.
"What kind of flavor is THIS? Shoe polish and fish sticks?!"
"It's, uhhhh, lemon meringue." Fenton slowly answered.
"...Blaaaauugh! These lemons way overachieved." Webby frowned and unintentionally threw the rest of the uneaten pie directly at her prior dunker's face. With a silent frown on his face, Gyro Gearloose stared back at her through the lemon cream and meringue with a dark black eye she had quite aggressively given to him earlier.
"You're like a somehow, brattier, miniature, Della Duck. And I don't like you. At all..." Gyro glared calmly at her without his glasses over his eyes.
"Somehow, you've gained the love and attention of Scrooge McDuck, a man I hold the utmost respect and dignity for. How?"
"...Hooooowww?!"
"Dr. Gearloose, believe me, she's usually a lot more mellow than this... Magica, she, she didn't hurt you did she?" Fenton asked as he held Webby up close to his visor.
"She kicked me in the face, tied me up so tight I got rope burns and wanted to die, gave me jelly donuts only to take them ALL AWAY, and wouldn't let me go to the STUPID, BATHROOM!" The starving little merduck paused for a moment in long built-up anger.
"I JUST LIKE JELLY DONUTS OKAY?! And her dangling them in front of my face and them stomping them all into delicious gooey pieces while rubbing it in my face, it cut deep into my soul. Somehow, she knew..."
...
"Intern, throw the punchy brat back in the tub." Gyro simply ordered as he began to turn away and Webby was lightly put back in the water before she had the chance to start choking from lack of breath again.
"W-W-WAIT! I- I saw him! Uncle Scrooge, where is he?! He- He saved me from-"
"-You mean Manny?" Gyro casually interrupted as he turned back to her. "He jumped in after you after you fell into time stream..."
"Just, doing, my job." Manny clapped in Morse code as he continued to stand tall in the Time Tub with Webby.
"...Seriously, you can't tell the difference between a man and a horse?"
"Man-Horse." Manny quickly corrected his boss.
"I WAS DYING ON A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION'S FLOOR ALRIGHT?!" Webby yelled in tired anger as she held onto the side of the tub.
"Hmmm, and I thought I had bad eye sight... Do you even stop, for a second, to take a look around, at ANY-THING? Like, ever?" Gyro asked.
"Well, maybe. What exactly am I supposed to be looking at right now? I don't see anythin-" The little merduck suddenly paused with wide open eyes as she finally snapped out of her earlier state of cluelessness to look around at the completely silent, desolate world all around her.
For as far as the eye could see, dozens and dozens of long dark motionless clouds hung in the dull red colored sky overhead, as if the flow of time itself had died along with the entire rest of the universe.
Sitting all alone on the derelict, empty beach of Duckburg bay, the Time Tub sat approximately twenty yards away from the completely still, pure red ocean, as Ma Beagle and her four sons were huddled closely nearby working together on something out of Webby's current line of sight.
All the visible buildings still standing in the city looked like they had all been burnt to a crisp for years in a blazing inferno, as Scrooge McDuck's Money Bin had long been destroyed and sunk into the depths of the bay. For some odd reason though, the speechless little merduck hadn't thought of looking up where her honorary Uncle's mansion used to sit high atop Killmotor Hill.
"...Oh no, we've all died and gone to heck." Webby stared forward sadly, surprisingly not sounding all that alarmed.
"Guess again." Gyro began, not sounding very alarmed himself. "This is the future. Our future. The complete and unadulterated Gospel truth. Quite literally, the end of the world..."
"Oh..." Webby tapped her fingers on the side of the Time Tub and looked around for a bit before speaking up again. "Do you think any bathrooms were spared?"
"Ugh. Again?" Gyro sighed. "You and your basic human needs!"
"I'm not a human, I'm a fish, kinda... I'm not sure. And what do you mean, again? WAIT!" Webby paused and began to stutter rapidly.
"You- You, you didn't make me go already did you? While I was, NOT-SLEEPING?!"
...
"I feel like I should wash my hands just listening to this. Ugh, blathering blatherskite..." Gyro closed his eyes and lightly put his hand to his forehead. "You didn't take her?"
"Ehhh, sorry Dr. Gearloose." Fenton apologized. "There was little to no time for it, with the world ending and all. And time travel wasn't exactly an option, at the time. At that current, specific time, of course..." He quickly stuck his hands behind his back and smiled as Gyro only calmly turned back to Webby in the tub.
"...Which one?"
"I'm not sure. It's kinda hard to tell. I still haven't fully adjusted to all this fish, magical merduck stuff yet." She explained with a sheepish expression on her face.
"My urges are a bit indecisive now, it could be both. And it also feels like it could be slightly involuntary..."
"I'm, getting, out of this." Manny clapped as he began to climb out of the Time Tub before his boss interrupted with a loud cracking groan of frustration.
"UUUUuuuuuggh! Here! Just-" Gyro quickly snatched Webby out the water by her shirt and walked her over to the shoreline.
"-Just do it in the ocean! Like all the other fish do! Be one with your people!" He chucked her into sea and watched her instantly sink underneath the dense red liquid.
...
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH-AAAAHHH!" Webby almost immediately resurfaced in a screaming, flailing panic as her clothes had already been permanently stained bright red.
"There's something alive in HEEERRE!"
"Of course there is, it's the ocean!" Gyro quickly scooped up the violently splashing little merduck and closely examined her now pure red shirt.
"What did you expect-"
"-this isn't seawater..." He paused after smelling a familiar foul stench all over her clothes.
"It's-"
"-Blood..." Webby began breathing heavily in realization as Manny, Fenton, the four Beagles and their mother stared in silence.
"Well of course it's blood." A particularly friendly feminine voice rang out with a short giggle as a small pink horse stuck it's head out of the ocean nearby. "After all, it flows all throughout you mortal's veins and had to go somewhere..."
"What where you all expecting-" Another small horse surfaced from the blood and spit it out like a stream of water.
"-sweet tomato sauce?"
"Wait, the kelpies?" The little merduck questioned up in Gyro's grasp.
"Hi, ladies." Manny politely clapped to them.
"...Hmhmmm-hhhm?"
Hearing the familiar confused muffled voice, Webby quickly turned to see her close friend Huey Duck standing blindly amoung Ma Beagle and her four sons with his F.O.W.L. mask still locked over his eyes and into his mouth.
"Wait, Huey?"
"Sorry Gearloose, this thing's shut tighter than a steel trap, and twice as stubborn." Ma Beagle said as she roughly guided the blind duckling towards the Time Tub.
"Yeah, we even tried using magic..." Black Arts spoke sadly, as if it was obvious to the entire world that it wouldn't work.
...
"Oh, and Manny swam him back too..." Gyro quickly explained.
"Why would you care? You're the Beagle Boys, the bad guys. Wait-" the merduck paused as she began to look around for someone in particular.
"-where's... Penny?"
"Still out, like Fenton's paycheck for the next five months..." Gyro lifted up the still unconscious moonlander's head from behind the Time Tub. As expected, she was also still much younger and wearing her oversized ancient Greek garb.
"Wait, is that-" Webby quickly turned her attention up to where Killmotor Hill and Scrooge McDuck's mansion used to sit proudly in the middle of Duckburg.
"-Ithaquack?" She held her hand above her eyes to shield them from the blinding light that emanated from behind the Temple of Heroes at the top of the high island peak. Somehow, the unnatural beam of bright light didn't cast the large building's shadow down upon the small group of time travels on the desecrated beach below.
"...Okay, so my best friend Lena is a living shadow, so obviously I've done my extensive long hours of night research on how light and shadows work. So I can say one thing for certain-" Webby paused for a bit to gather her thoughts.
"-this is just plain weird."
Gyro sighed as he rubbed his feathered forehead with his fingers. "Look down, we don't have shadows, nothing has. They're all gone. Probably forever..."
"For- FOREVER?! WAIT?!" Webby stuttered before throwing herself up at Gyro and getting up close to his face in a sudden tearful emotional outburst.
"How- How can you be so SURE?! Since when have you become an expert on the poor loney absences of light of the world and the cold infinite night of the Shadow Realm?! HUH?! HOW?! TELL MEEEEEEE!"
"...Since I created a ray that controls, manipulates, and banishes them from our reality." Gyro told her in an almost emotionless tone as the little duckling turned merduck struggled to breathe heavily while trying her best to remain calm.
"Lena... Lena... Len- No Webby! Get a hold of yourself girl! You will not CRY! Graceful beautiful merducks DO NOT CRY! THEY DON'T HAVE TO! The tears from the heavens above supply you with more than ENOUGH!"
"Uh, Webby? I'm pretty sure that Lena is still safe in the pas-"
"-Lena... Lena... LENNNAAAA!" Fenton was abruptly interrupted as Webby began to silently cry with an intense scowl spread all across her messy, tired face.
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH! CURSE YOU DE SPEEEEEELLL!" She cursed loudly and shrilly out into the complete, eerie silence of the desolate city of Duckburg, finishing as the loud, uncomfortable sounds of bones violently rattling and cracking could be heard from close behind her.
"...Wait what?"
Webby turned around to see the two pastel colored kelpies in the ocean began to contort and scream as if they were in severe pain and tried to cover their ears with their hooves.
"What's with you guys? All I said was- CURSE YOU DE SPEEEEEEL-"
"-QUIET!" Gyro quickly held her bill tightly shut in his hands. "I don't think they like that name!"
"Wmmmmmnnmn- Waaugh!" The irritated little merduck pushed the adult away from her.
"Well neither do I! And you don't see me throwing a big hissy fit over hearing- CURSE YOU DE SPE- Mmnnnmmm!" Gyro quickly held her bill shut again as the screaming only grew louder and louder.
"Just... SHUT that brat up before she gets us all screamed to DEATH!" Ma Beagle yelled over the worsening screaming as she and all her sons covered their ears.
"HEY! I RESENT THAT STATEMENT!" Webby angrily yelled back. "DEFINE BRAT YOU OLD HUSSY!"
"SHUT IT CUPCAKE!" Ma Beagle slapped her in the face.
"HEY! I DARE YOU TO DO THAT TO ME AGAIN! In other, NON-SPECIFIC PLACES!"
"...MAAAAA! WE- WE NEVER CRIED LIKE THIS WHEN WE WERE ONLY LITTLE BEAGLES DID WE?!" Big Time asked as he continued to cover his ears, getting himself sharply slapped in the face by his mother.
"-WAAAAAAAAAHHH!"
"AAHHH! LOOK!" The little merduck turned around in the Time Tub and pointed towards a small army of bone-dry skeletons that slowly dug themselves up out of their resting places in the sand and began to weakly stagger towards them.
"Okay, truce?" Gyro quickly held his open hand out to Webby who also gave him a silent look of panic.
"Truce..." They both shook hands.
"...NOW GET THIS THING OUTTA HERE!" She suddenly screamed into his face.
"WE CAN'T! WE'VE RUN OUT OF FUEL!"
"Wait. NOOOOOOOOOO- Wait, what do time machines run on anyway?" Webby calmly asked.
"Gold Tech!" Gyro explained as he threw himself in the tub and behind Manny. "The Time Tub runs on Gold Tech! BUT WE'VE RUN OUT OF GOLD!"
"My mother, didn't, raise me, to be, a, man-shield!" The ghostly bipedal horse clapped.
"Ugh, seriously?!" Ma Beagle began as she marched forward and knocked away one of the screaming skeletons with her heavy purse. "You're McDuck's head scientist and Duckburg's beloved inventor! The used to be-"
"-Ughh! Richest duck in Duckburg! And you're out of gold?!"
...
"Trust me, however long you might think it took us to get here, I promose you, it took ten times as long." Gyro sighed.
"And it's all thanks to one, SILLY, little, alien..."
"Wait, THAT'S IT! Webby suddenly perked up. "We need a hero, a defender of the innocent. Someone capable and violently dependable in the most desperate times of need. We need, a warrior..."
"HEY PENNY! AUNT DELLA FORGOT TO WASH THE DISHES AGAIN!" The merduck bent down as she yelled into Penumbra's closed eyes.
"WHHAAAT?! How many Earth times do I have to tell that Earther, not to leave the Earth sustenance trays- Wait..." The young moonlander quickly sprung up off the sandy beach and to her feet in anger, pausing for a bit in confusion after taking in her dire, apocalyptic surroundings.
"Wait. WHAT, WHAT, WHAT?! What have you Earthers done to this planet?! Wait..." She stopped after realizing how short she was in comparison to everyone else around her.
"AAAAHHH! It wasn't only a rage induced Earth dream! It was REEEAAL!"
"Uh, Penny?" Webby lightly tapped the livid moonlander on the back with her finger.
"CURSES! Even in death she oppresses me!"
"D-Depresses?" The little merduck questioned while slightly tilting her head.
"OPPRESSES! Wait..." Penumbra suddenly paused for the third time in less than minute and turned back to face Webby, who in return only smiled and waved to her.
'Earth- Earth-" She stuttered with tears of relief in her large eyes as she threw herself at the floating little merduck in the Time Tub and hugged her tightly.
"SWEET SMOL Earth CHILD!"
"Hey, hey. Shhh, it's okay, it's okay. I'm fine." Webby closed her eyes and patted her crying moonlander friend on the back to comfort her.
"Yes, I love you too..."
...
"Intern, FiiiIIIIIIRE!" With an audibly cracking shrill voice, Gyro cautiously stuck his head out from behind Manny and pointed at the still screaming and crying mass of dry skeltons lurching ever-so-slowy towards them.
"Uhh, Yes. YES! Right! Fire. Uh, fire what?" Fenton asked.
"Just, THINK OF THINGS! ANY-THINGS!"
"R-Right! Any, things." From inside the tough, burly armor of the Gizmosuit, the Latin intern simply punched the front compartment of it, only causing a single fresh pie to weakly be shot out onto the ground in front of him.
"Nuts..."
"...UUUuuuuGGH! YOU'RE GIZMODUCK! YOU'RE WORSE THAN THIS! BLOW THEM ALL UP! Think, MILDLY destructive THOUGHTS!" Gyro ordered very loudly as he shook Fenton about from inside the Time Tub.
"Dr. Gearloose, nobody on Earth except Launchpad could be reckless and destructive as-"
"-AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"
With a fierce, all too familiar battle cry and a reved-up barely functioning chainsaw in his hands, a tall hooded figure suddenly dashed out from behind the small army of mournfully wailing skeletons on the beach and crashed into them, somehow taking them all out in a single unskilled swipe and returning the world to complete silence as the chainsaw finally ran out of gas and died.
"...Oop." The two kelpies in the ocean stopped screaming and submerged themselves back down into the thick blood below.
"Wait... What?!" Webby questioned as she and everyone else except Huey stared surprised down at the unmoving, slient, ragged figure in front of them.
"So, uh..." Penumbra began as she tapped her fingers together. "Should we do something about the buff hot dead man lying on our turf, or?"
Webby's eyes wided. "...WHAT?!"
"Oh hey guys!" The large hooded figure quickly stood to his feet and pulled his hood off his head with a smile.
"Wait. LAUNCHPAD?!" Webby, Gyro, and Fenton all exclaimed in perfect unison, as Manny didn't say a single word.
"Hhhhmm?" The duckling dressed in red only shook his head and shrugged.
"Oh Hey Huey. Whoa! Neat tub! I was wondering when you guys would show up." The shabby looking tall pilot walked around as everyone else was speechless and Huey was still under disciplinary time-out from his F.O.W.L. mask.
"I've been waiting for days and days and days and days, or was it weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks, or was it years and years and-"
"-Wait wait wait wait. Hold it! Hold it! HOLD IT!" Webby held up her hand to Launchpad's scruffy bill.
"Launchpad, you survived the end of the world? All by yourself? WITHOUT HELP?!"
...
"Not without help!" The pilot perked up and pulled out a fancy cracked golden plate filled with cockroaches from behind his back.
"Meet Crash, Smash, Bash, Car Crash, Plane Crash, Wreck, Pile Up, Head-on Collision, Takedown, Fender-Bender, Sideswipe, Gotta Call a Tow Truck, Why You Need An Attorney, and Arnie! Say hey Arnie!"
"Hey Arnie." The cockroach squeaked to them in soft insect dialect.
"He's nice..." Launchpad gently patted Arnie's head.
"...WELP! The clueless pilot leaped into the water filled Time Tub with a splash. "I promised the guys I'd show them around the mansion after we got back. Off, to the past."
"Hey! Get out! You're dirtying up my invaluable source of life!" Webby quickly tried to push him out of the tub.
"But, isn't that why you're here? To take me back to the past?"
"Launchpad, what are you talking about?" Fenton asked.
"You see, this huge time storm came down on Mr. McDee's mansion while Louie and me were busy hiding his time treasures all around and stuff, and it was all stormy and stuff, and it sure was nice of the Beagle Boys to help you guys out!"
"Trust me, we never would..." Ma Beagle growled as she slowly turned away.
"...Wait, THIS is the future you went TOO?!" Webby gasped, remembering the night the El Pato Timephoon hit her Uncle Scrooge's mansion.
"But- But I thought-"
"-It's time travel, don't overthink it kid." Gyro ruffled her wet head feathers as she closed her eyes.
"No. I- I mean- Okay, okay! Let's see if we can take a quick recap here. Ahem." The little merduck cleared her throat after diving down into the now slightly Launchpad-dirtied water and resurfacing.
"So first, I got kidnapped by, you know who, and got taken to, you know where. And then two days later, you guys come from the future, the past, to rescue me. And then we end up in the future, where we are now, where the world has ended, where Launchpad was sent to from the past, and where he eventually gets sent back to the past. And we also picked up a currently unexplained, possibly alternate timeline evil future Huey, that works for The Fiendish Organization for World Larceny, which leads us all here. Have I got this all right?"
"...Buh?" Launchpad tilted his head.
"So, what happened to past, future me, and Lena? Both of her? The stuff Penumbra said while we were still in that mansion. Penny, can you repeat all tha- Penny?" Webby paused after noticing the young moonlander eyeing her close pilot friend in an unusual, adoring silence.
"Penny?"
"...Haah, you're everything I've ever Earth DREAMED!" Penumbra suddenly dove forward in unrequited precocious love and tightly hugged Launchpad by the leg.
"So, uh, who's your friend?"
"Don't worry, you'll meet her again eventually..." Webby simply told him.
"How could I have been so blind?! You're perfection! Complete Earth born perfection!"
"Uhhhhh-"
"-Let's get MARRIED!" The moonlander clinged tighter onto Launchpad's leg as the rusty cogs in his brain continued to turn.
...
"I'm like, thirty. And you?"
"I don't know, and I don't CARE! JUST LET ME WORSHIP YOU!" Penumbra smiled wildly with her eyes closed as she hugged him.
"...Woof."
"Huh? I guess Penny has a thing for the tough, gruff, tall hero types. Heh, who knew... Wait-" Webby paused for a bit while looking over the shiny, cockroach covered tray behind behind the pilot.
"-That, that plate. Is that made of gold?!"
"Huh?" Launchpad stood still as the little merduck snatched the plate away from him.
"Where did you find this?! Is it made out of gold, or- or is it just gold plated? Where is Louie when you need him?"
"Oh, I found it outside that big mansion up there. The folks living in it just threw it out the window. Crashed it like a pro..."
"Launchpad, that's a temple. The Temple of Heroes. You know! Ithaquack, The home of the gods! Zeus, Selene, Storkules! All of them!" Webby explained to her friend.
"But- But is it really made of gold? You don't suppose actual living gods would settle for the cheap stuff instead of the real deal would ya?"
"Ugh... Here, give it to me!" An impatient Ma Beagle quickly swiped away the plate from the merduck's hands and sniffed it.
"Uuuggh. Revolting little pests." She lightly shook the cockroaches off the plate.
"Well Ma, is it really made of gold?" Big Time excitedly asked, getting himself smacked in the face with the cracked plate and following with a loud clang.
"YOOWWWWAAAHH-"
"-It's made of gold."
"Thank the- I'm tired of spending time with you clowns!" Ma Beagle marched over to Gyro and handed him the gold plate. "Here's your time fuel, now take us outta here..."
...
"No." The half-blind scientist crossed his arms. "Not only will we need way more gold than that to get us back to our own time, but you're the head of all organized crime in Duckburg. You cost our city thousands and thousands of dollars a month because of your constant looting. Now tell me, why should we REALLY take you five along. Just because you MIGHT have dealt the final blow to, you know who?"
"The man's got a point." Manny clapped in agreement.
"Dr. Gearloose, we could just take them all to prison after we get back. They may be hardened criminals, but they really don't deserve to die here all alone..." Fenton said.
"...Well, it looks like you have two choices." The proud criminal mother of the Beagke clan began as she turned and walked away with a smirk.
"You could take us along with you, no problems. Or-" Webby and Fenton audibly gasped as Ma Beagle stood aside to reveal Huey struggling blindly in Bouncer Beagle's massive hands.
"-you could leave us all behind as we keep this red hatted little nerd with us as a hostage... But don't worry, we won't harm him. I just wonder how well suited he would be in surviving in this barren wasteland without being able to see. Or, eat..."
"Dr. Gearloose, it's Huey." The little merduck began. "He may be on the side of evil, but I know him. Dispite his obsessive controlling nature, he means well."
"We accept." Both Webby and Fenton said in unison.
"...WHAAAT?!" Gyro started to freak out. "I'M IN CHARGE HERE! END OF STORY! What I say goes! You are all, BENEATH ME-"
"-Hhhhgh- Hhhhuugh!" Huey barely managed to say as he weakly punched and kicked about as he was held off the sandy beach by the front of his cold mask.
"Me too." The scientist accepted defeat.
"...You're all a lot smarter than you look." Ma Beagle turned around and smiled. "Bouncer, drop em'."
"Hhhhmmnnulllugh." The blind young duckling struggled to speak as he was lightly dropped to the ground and lifted quickly back up in the air by Gyro.
"Still, who would actually be lucky and rich enough to own and throw out something as valuable as this, at a- a time like this? This being the literal end of the world, I mean..." Fenton pondered as Webby just gasped.
"The gods! They're immortal! They must have survived and moved to Duckburg! ...On, top of my Uncle Scrooge's mansion of all places." The little merduck paused.
"And since that we're their closest friends, they should be more than happy to help us out! Selene is nice, and Storkules is a pure-hearted sweetheart! I'm sure they'll let us borrow all the gold plates we need! LET'S, GOOOOOO-"
"-No..." Gyro sternly interrupted.
"Alright, so you may not be as empty-headed as I thought, so hopefully you'll clearly understand my reasoning here. YOU, ARE, NOT, GO-ING."
"...OKAY." Webby smiled.
"Wait what?" Gyro suddenly questioned his hearing.
"Well obviously you're right. I'm a merduck now, so I don't have legs to walk with, and I'll quickly die without water, and it would also take you guys twice as long to carry me all the way up in the Time Tub. Lena is waiting for me, so okay!" The merduck fully rebmerged herself in the water and swam circles around Manny's legs.
"I'll stay..."
"...Next time, warn me before you say something actually intelligent. You almost gave me a heart attack. Okay, alright team!" Gyro clapped.
"Gizmoduck, Manny, Beagles, McDuck's pilot, you're with me. Penumbra, you stay behind and watch after the kids-" He paused after turning to the young moonlander still clinging onto Launchpad's leg and sighed with his hand on his forehead.
"Since your obviously not going to let go anytime soon, and that I woudn't trust this crash-happy pilot very much in child safety, alright!" The scientist clapped again. "Who wants to volunteer?"
...
Without making a single sound, Big Time's three much taller brother stood behind and not so obviously held his right hand up in the air.
"You, stand here." Gyro simply pointed towards the ground.
"WHAAAT?! But, but but but I- I- I can't be a babysitter!" The short Beagle started to become indignant. "I've- I've never sat before in my life!"
"...Big Time's right, he can't be a babysitter." Ma Beagle agreed with a nod. "He can hardly take care of himself."
"Phew! Thanks Ma."
"Cupcake, you take care of him." She ordered.
"Wait. Cupcake?" Webby questioned as she swam back to the top of the tub.
"You..." Ma Beagle pointed to the confused little merduck in the Time Tub before she turned and began to walk away.
"...WHAAAT?! But, but but but Ma! I- I- I can take care of kids! I even used to be one myself!"
"I feel for you." Manny clapped to him with sympathy as he climbed out of the tub and followed after Gyro and everyone else.
"G-G-Guys, seriously! Just, give me a chance! I can do right! Just give me a chance!"
"Talk to the hand..." His mother spoke to him in a dismissive tone without even caring enough to look back.
"See ya!" Launchpad McQuack turned to wave goodbye as Penumbra continued to tightly cling onto his leg.
"Okay then, fine! I'll show her, I'll show em' all! I'll show EVERYBODY! I going to be the best darn babysitter you little brats will ever have in your dang lives!" Big Time yelled as he hopped up to grab Webby by the front of her shirt.
"...Hopefully, we'll live long enough for you to prove it."
"Hmmm-hhhm." Huey agreed with a nod.
...
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH-"
"-Hey!" The little merduck interrupted the Beagle Boy's brief temper tantrum with a quick slap the side of his face.
"OW! What do you want you little dessert?!"
"Do you think you could like, I dunno, dig a little hole in the sand for me?"
"...WHAT?!"