Chapter 3: Memory Lane
Fenton had scooped Maria into is arms and carried her to the doors of McDuck manor. Neither he, nor Gandra said anything during the walk up. Gandra only giving worried looks towards Maria and Fenton. Texter had sat down on Fenton's shoulder, not looking away from Maria, who was wincing in her sleep. Once they made it to the Manor doors Fenton turned to Gandra.
"Can you...um..." He tried to ask, but Gandra caught on and quickly pressed the doorbell, and Scrooge answered it a momentarily.
"Ah, lad, you made it, and you caught your daughter. Good, good." Scrooge nodded and gestured for them to come in.
"Wait? Daughter?" Gandra questioned as they came in and Scrooge closed the door.
"Uh, it's kinda complicated. Yes, I am her father, but not yet...I will be...she traveled back in time and...well here she is." Fenton explained and Gandra raised her eyebrow in confusion.
"Okay...I'm gonna let that slide, because time-travel is complicated enough." She said and Scrooge lead them into the tv room, where everyone was waiting.
"Ah, I see you finally caught the rouge time-traveler." Mrs. Beakley observed and Officer Cabrera quickly rushed over to Fenton.
"Polloito, I came as soon as I got your message! Are you alright? Where..." She then looked down at Fenton's arms and gasped.
"Oh my...here let me." Fenton handed over Maria to his mom, who cradled her with the upmost care.
"She's beautiful, but I must admit I'd never though that this is how I'd meet my granddaughter." She said and sat down on the couch, with Maira's head in her lap. Maria stirred for a few moments, but didn't wake up.
"She's probably exhausted from all the running around she's been doing." Huey thought and Texter then jumped down and walked over to Boyd.
"Hi Texter! Glad you're alright!" He said and Texter pointed to Gandra and Boyd gasped.
"I know you!" He cried and rushed over to her, much to Gandra's shock.
"You do? How?" She asked.
"Dr. Crackshell-Cabrera had a photo of you and him on his desk in a heart frame! He smiles at it all the time!" Boyd explained and held out his hand for her to shake. Gandra shook his hand and Boyd's eyes then widened as he felt her feathers on her fingers tips.
"Oh, so your Maria's mother!" He said and everyone gasped. Gandra, however, was frozen in place and Fenton flinched. Gandra slowly let go of Boyd's hand and turned to Maria and then over to Fenton.
"Did you know about this?" She asked cautiously and Fenton rubbed the back of his neck.
"Well...yes, but I only figured it out after we escaped on the boat and...I didn't know how to tell you..." He winced and Gandra sighed as she nodded.
"Yeah, I can understand that." She said and Texter turned to Huey and walked over to him before tapping on his leg.
"What is it little buddy?" He asked and Texter started to sign, but it was slower this time.
"Texter said that something bad happened." Huey translated.
"Bad? Like what?" Della asked and Texter was about to sign, but stopped and turned to Huey and signed something and Huey shook his head.
"No, I'm not very good yet." He replied.
"What did he say?" Webby asked.
"He was asking if I was fluent in sign language, and I know the basic skills, but I'm nowhere near his level. I guess in the future I must be pretty good." Huey explained and Gyro turned to Texter with a suspicious look.
"How do we know we can trust him?"He questioned and Texter gave a thinking face on his screen and then a lightbulb before he jumped up and down and pointed to the back of his head and Huey's eyes widened.
"Of course, we can look at his core! That way we can see if Texter can be trusted, and what happened in the future!" Huey said and Fenton turned to Gandra.
"I guess that's our only option." Fenton muttered awkwardly and Gandra gave him a strange look.
"What?" She questioned.
"Well you know, we may see our future, and...well...Uh..."
"Just, don't worry about it. This is bigger than worrying about changing some simple actions." Gandra said and Gyro then plugged a wire into Texter, who shut off and the t.v was static.
"I've hooked this up to the t.v screen so we can view this much easier. Since Texter's programming is much cleaner, we will be able to look at his core and work up from there." Gyro explained and the t.v was static and it quickly settled into an image of Maria, who was wearing goggles and a lab coat.
"Oh my gosh...oh my gosh...Texter?" Maria asked and the camera nodded and Maria squealed.
"I did it! You turned on! You turned on! This is amazing!" She cried and laughed giddily and she took a breath and focused.
"Okay, hello Texter, can you understand me?" Maria asked, while using sign language and the screen showed Texter move his arms and Maria squealed again.
"You do! Oh my gosh! You work! You actually work!" Maria cheered and tarted running around the room she was is as Texter followed her movements. She eventually settled down and stood in front of Texter.
"I'm gonna show Mommy and Daddy!" She said and went to the door and turned back.
"Don't move!" She added and rushed down the hall, but her voice could still be heard at a distance.
"Mommy, Daddy! I did it! I did it! I did it! You gotta come see this!" She cried and Officer Cabrera chuckled.
"I can tell she got your enthusiasm." She said towards Fenton, who laughed.
"Yeah, she sure does." He said in awe and looked towards Maria who was sleeping before the voice from the screen became audible.
Maria was squealing as she was dragging Fenton and Gandra into the room. Both seemed confused, but were smiling down at their daughter.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down honey! What's going on?" Fenton asked and Maria gestured towards Texter.
"I did it! He's working! He understands me, and can sign all on his own! She squealed and Fenton bent down to examine Texter.
"Amazing, you managed to wire him and everything." Fenton said in amazement and Gandra patted her daughter's head.
"Did you add my suggestion?" She asked playfully and Maria shook her head.
"No, not yet anyway. I don't think Texter has enough power to shoot electricity more than once like you." Maria explained and a Fenton's eyes widened and turned to Gandra and Maria.
"What was that?" He asked.
"Nothing!" The two chorused cheekily and giggled at one another. Maria walked in front of Texter.
"Watch this!" She said and turned to the camera.
"Texter this is my Mommy and Daddy, can you say hi?" She asked, while signing and Texter then replied and Maria squealed again and started jumping in one place.
"I did it! I can't believe it! I'm gonna show Uncle Huey, and get my robotics badge...and...and...I don't know what else!" Maria cried and Fenton laughed as he ruffled her hair.
"You sure did, I'm proud of you." He said and Maria hugged him.
"Thanks Dad." She said and the doorbell rang and her eyes widened.
"That must be Abuela." Fenton said and Maria's smile widened and she ran out of the room.
"Abuela! Abulea! I did it, I did it! Texter turned on, and he's working!" Her voice grew distance and Gandra placed her hand on Fenton's shoulder.
"You taught her well." She said and Fenton wrapped his arms around her.
"We taught her well." He corrected and the two leaned in for a kiss. The screen went static and Fenton felt himself blushing. He averted his gaze from Gandra in an attempted to hide his embarrassment.
"So, that was Texter's core." Huey said.
"What exactly does that tell us?" Beakley asked.
"It shows us that Texter loves Maria, Fenton and Gandra. They're his family." Boyd explained and Gyro nodded.
"Yes, yes. Now that we know he is trust worthy, we can actually get some answers." He said and fiddled with his device and another image appeared on screen. This time it was Maria sitting outside a door. Texter was next to her and it appeared he was looking at her from the side.
"What is this?" Officer Cabrera asked.
"Another memory. We may have to go through a few until we find out what happened." Gyro explained as the memory played.
"Mommy's been in there a while..." Maria muttered and turned to Texter, who was signing and she sighed.
"I know it's not my fault, but we both got sent to the Principal's office! They had to call mom in! What if this gets put on permanent record?!" She asked and another voice spoke up.
"Hah! Little goodie two shoes is gonna get scolded by her mommy!" Texter turned to see a pig who was sitting on the other side on the door.
"You're the one that tripped Zoey! I was standing up to her! It's not my fault you slipped and fell!" Maria snapped and the pig snorted.
"She was asking for it!" He retorted. Texter then got up and started walking over towards him, but Maria grabbed Texter and pulled him back.
"No Texter! It's not worth it! She said and sat him back down.
"Haha! What's the matter? Scared?" He taunted and Texter signed something that caused Maria to giggle.
"Hey, don't use that nonsense on me!" He cried.
"It's not nonsense, it's sign language." Maria corrected. "A lot of people use it to communicate."
"And I though Zoey was the nerd." The pig muttered that's when the door opened and Gandra stepped out with an older pig women and a dog, who was wearing a name tag, most likely the Principal.
"Thank you both were coming, I'm glad we could settle this." He said and the pig nodded.
"Of course, Mr. Hamilton. I'll make sure this doesn't happen again." She said and turned to Gandra.
"Will I see you at the parent meeting next week?" She asked and Gandra nodded.
"Yes, Fenton and I will be there." She confirmed.
"Great. It'll be nice to meet him." She said and turned to her son. "Johnathan, I expect you to apologize to this nice girl, and write a letter to her friend."
"But mom!"
"Don't even start! Now apologize!" She ordered and Johnathan huffed and turned to Maria, who was standing next to Gandra.
"Fine...I'm sorry I yelled at you." He muttered and Maria gave a soft smile.
"Thank you." She replied and Gandra took her hand.
"Let's get going. Bye Sarah!" Gandra waved as the two walked off and Sarah waved.
"Bye Gandra." She called and took her son's hand and they went in separate directions. Texter then looked at Maria and she smiled.
"We don't always have to resort to violence." She said simply and looked up at her mom. "But how did you two not argue?"
"Sarah's a reasonable person, and Mr. Hamilton handled the situation very well. We're lucky to have people like that in the world." Gandra explained.
"That sounds like something Daddy would say." Maria said playfully.
"What can I say? He's a good influencer." She winked and the two laughed.
More static appeared and Gyro looked down at the tablet.
"This happened around 2 months after Texter first activated. I suppose this means that it has had a great effect on him." Gyro reported.
"So those are the memories we are looking at, the ones that had a great effect on him?" Gandra asked.
"I can't help but wonder what lead up to that, or what happened in that office." Fenton wondered out loud and Gandra just smirked.
"When does it get interesting?" Dewey asked and the screen changed to one where it appeared Maria and two other duck girls were sitting on a couch. Texter was looking at them from the side and seemed to be sitting on the table.
"Ooh! Slumber party!" Webby cheered and the scene started to play.
"I still don't get how and why he had a vile of poison on tour with him." A white duck with short blonde hair and pink glasses said as she stuffed popcorn in her mouth.
"I guess he was messed up to begin with." Maria replied and the other duck next to her adjusted her pillow on her back and sighed.
"Zoey does have a point, where the heck would he have gotten poison in the first place, did he just buy some at store all causal like?" She asked. She was brown duck with her hair up in two buns. The three giggled as Texter got their attention by signing.
"What's he saying?" Zoey asked and Maria clamped her mouth shut.
"It's not age appropriate." She replied and the three giggled again.
"Hey Taylor, I forgot to ask how the pictures you took with your parents turned out." Zoey asked and Taylor smiled.
"They cam out great, thanks for asking. I can't wait to show you guys." Taylor replied and Maria smiled as she relaxed.
"I wish every night could be like this." She smiled.
"Sadly, we still have school for 2 more months." Zoey groaned.
"Gonna be the longest 2 months of my life." Taylor added and they giggled again and Maria looked back at the screen
"Guys! The best song is playing!" She gasped, Zoey and Taylor quieted down and the screen was static.
"Aw, friendship." Webby cooed.
"Well that was sweet and all, but we still don't know what the heck she's doing here." Della added.
"Indeed, Gyro is there any way you can speed this up?" Beakley asked and Gyro looked down at the device.
"If we watch this one memory, I'm sure I can zoom through the rest." He explained.
"Then lets watch it." Scrooge urged and the image that popped up was of Maria inside Gyro's lab, her head collapsed in a book.
"Hey, that's me!" Boyd cried and pointed to himself in the background. "I look...different."
"Wonder what this could be." Gyro muttered and the scene started to play.
"Ug, my brain hurts." Maria muttered, her voice muffled by the pages and Boyd walked over to her.
"What's wrong?" He asked gently and she sighed.
"I need to write a paper on someone we learned about in history this month, but I'm tired from doing homework from my other classes." Maria explained, turning her head to the side.
"Sounds like you could use a break. Why don't you play with Texter?" Boy suggested. Maria pointed ahead.
"He's charging." She said and Texter waved as Boyd thought for a moment.
"Well, then I'll play with you!" He said and Maria's head shot up.
"You will, but what about Uncle Gyro? Won't he be mad?" She asked and Boyd smiled.
"You need my help more than him, and he only acts grumpy. He won't mind." Boyd said and Maria giggled.
"So, what do you wanna play?" He asked and Maria through for a moment and she tapped her fingers. Then she poked Boyd and started running.
"Tag, your it!" She cried and Boyd got over his shock and chased after her.
"I'm gonna get you!" Boyd laughed and Maria giggled as Texter watched them.
Maria suddenly stirred from the couch and her eyes locked on the screen and widened in horror.
"No...No! Don't look!" She exclaimed and hopped up from the couch and rushed over to Texter.
"You can't know what happens!" Maria cried and attempted to grab the cord, but Boyd pulled her back.
"Maria wait! We need to help you!" He insisted and Maria sighed and turned to him.
"You don't understand! I've changed things too much already, and it could get really bad if you find out what happened! I wasn't even supposed to come here alone!" Maria cried then covered her beak with both her hands.
"Wait, what?" Fenton asked and Maria shook her head and looked away from him and started to shake. Officer Cabrera then walked over and bent down.
"Maria." She started and Maria looked up at her. "Please, we want to help you, I know you're scared, but this is serious. We need to understand what happened."
"O-okay...Texter's memories captured most of it..." Maria revealed and Gyro pressed a button on his device and the screen showed and image of Maria and she was holding Fenton's hand.
The memory played.
"So, where should we go next?" Gandra's voice asked and Maria hummed to herself.
"Could we go to Zoey's? She got back from her grandparents yesterday and I wanna say hi." Maria asked and Fenton chuckled.
"Sounds like a plan to me." He said and Maria chuckled. Then she suddenly stopped and turned towards a puddle. There were ripples in it.
"Mommy? Daddy? Do you feel that?" Maria asked nervously and Texter looked over to Fenton, who was frowning in concern.
*CRASH*
Several people screamed as robots apprehend from out of the ground and started running around in a panic. The robots then started to shoot down several people and Gandra quickly scooped up Maria and held her close.
"GANDRA RUN!" Fenton cried and it was revealed he was holding a duffle bag and quickly tossed it up.
"Blathering blatherskite!" Fenton cried and changed into Gizmoduck as Gandra ran with Maria and Texter.
STATIC
"Several robots have been appearing all over Duckburg." Roxane Featherly reported. Maria was in the bunker with Gandra and Texter was on Maria's shoulders.
"Despite Gizmoduck's best efforts, the robots are still advancing and many...many have been shot down. No one knows who these...GAH!" Roxanne was then attacked by a robot and Maria screamed.
STATIC
"Curse me kilts, what are those things?" Scrooge asked and Maria felt her breath hitch in her throat.
"Mom and I were in the bunker for two days...the robots were getting smarter and..." Maria was cut off by the screen coming into focus again.
"Gandra listen! I know what powers these robots...the Third Eye Diamond!"
STATIC
"Mommy, they're coming!"
"I love you!"
"I love you too!"
STATIC
"We're going to use that and get the Third Eye Diamond, and hopefully destroy it before it gets into the wrong hands."
STATIC
Maria then ran out of the room, not willing to watch anymore. Boyd then unplugged Texter, who rebooted and looked around.
"Dr. Crackshell-Cabrera and Gandra Dee...they...they didn't make it did they?" Boyd asked slowly and everyone looked at one another in fear. Texter then started to sign and Huey gasped.
"He...he doesn't know. Gandra bought Maria some time...that was the last they heard from her..." Huey explained and Fenton felt his fists tightening.
"All of this...she's been through all of this...and we still don't know who is behind this!" He cried an Gandra placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, I'm upset by this too, but like I said up there. If we get the Third-Eye Diamond, we can destroy it so the robots are never built." Gandra revealed.
"The Third-Eye Diamond was in Isabella Finches Journal. We can use that to find it." Huey said.
"Actually, Black Heron has it." Gandra corrected.
"WHAT?!" Beakley, Scrooge and Webby exclaimed.
"How do you know that?" Beakley asked and Gandra sighed.
"I worked with her in F.O.W.L, and..."
"YOU'RE A MEMBER OF F.O.W.L?!" Beakley cried and rushed to Gandra and picked her up by the shirt.
"Whoa, hey! FORMER agent! I just betrayed them!" Gandra said, slightly in fear.
"Give me one good reason I should trust you!" Beakley demanded. Fenton the rushed over.
"I'll give you a great reason! She saved me and Maria, if it weren't for her, we'd be prisoners! So put her down!" Fenton said sternly and Beakley hesitated, but put her on the ground. Fenton quickly made sure she was alright, only for her to hold her hand out.
"Relax, I'm fine."
"So what do we do now?" Louie asked.
"We find Maria, I don't like the idea of leaving her..."
*CRASH*
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
"MARIA!" Fenton cried and rushed over to the entrance to the manor along with everyone else. Only to see Maria in a robot's hold and Steelbeak standing next to her as she struggled.
"Well hello Gizmodork! I think I have something of yours." Steelbeak taunted.
"Let her go!" Fenton cried. Steelbeak laughed.
"Sorry, but you don't call the shots here. He does." Steelbeak gestured to a figure coming through the broken door way.
"Hello, intern." He greeted and Gyro's eyes narrowed.
"Akita."
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Happy Father's Day! I know this chapter isn't much, but I wanted to post something family related today.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I had a hard time deciding on what memories Texter would show the others. If you want in the future I could write more on that.
*wink*
Also, bonus points if you can guess what movie Maria and her friends were watching.
And, please please please, PLEASE leave a review. They make my day. I may only have three chapters of this story left. Maybe 4, we'll see.
I had tried to post on the weekend, bit that might be the case this week. I want to work on other stories. So please be patient.
LunaWolf44 (Guest): Thank you so much for your review. It made my day! Hope you liked this chapter.