"Right, now make sure you're polite on your playdate."
"Alright."
"And use your manners, ask the help if you need anything, don't try and do it all like you always do."
"Alright…"
"And make sure you have fun, that's the most important thing!"
"Alright, aunt-er Tiamat!" Eldridge finally waved off her hands that were attempting to straighten down any imperfection she saw on him, definitely not in embarrassment. "And he's paying me, it's not a playdate."
"Oh that's how they get you. I remember the old days, first a goat, then three, eventually they give you a cow and your parents ask when the wedding is!" She put her hands to her cheeks and stared up at the ceiling with a fond smile.
"I… don't even want to ask how old that memory is. Point is, my job is to keep the girl from getting into dangerous magics. Not to have fun."
"That's not any fun, not having fun."
"That's, ugh, fine, I'll have some fun, okay? I'm sure something normal kids do'll be fun."
"That's all I ask, dear."
Eldridge nearly jumped as he looked at the clock. "Right, I gotta go, be back later!"
The run to Mcduck Manor wasn't too bad. It was the height of summer, and there wasn't any terrible strange weather today, so it was a brisk walk to the gate.
With a press of the button of the intercom, an old woman's voice crackled out. Eldridge rolled his eyes at how old the box must have been, Scrooge really spared every expense. "Mcduck Manor, who is it?"
"Ahem, uh, I'm here from… two days ago. I'm here to see Webby? To uh… Apologize."
There was a stretch of silence, and Eldridge already thought he had blew it, when finally, the voice came back.
"Come on in."
With a clank and a buzz, the gate moved sideways, allowing him entry. The front lawn was well taken care of. Neatly trimmed bushes lined the front of the mansion.
"Uh, I… Hm, two doors… I guess I just… knock?" Eldridge seriously doubted how necessary two doors were as he pounded on the door.
A large old woman with an honestly questionable attire opened up the door. Eldridge didn't think even in England maids wore full business attire with an apron.
"Hi… um… I'm… Eldridge…" He tried to say more, but his voice petered out into a squeak at the end under her unfazed stare.
"Essex or East Anglia?"
"Uh… London… when I was a child…"
"You're still a child."
Eldridge was about to angrily retort, he was thirteen! When she opened the door wider.
"Come on in."
"Oh, uh… thank you?" He confusedly replied, stepping into the mansion.
"Webby! You have a visitor!" She called up the stairs.
"Just a minute, granny!"
"Ow!"
"Ow!"
"OW! Why do we keep being on the opposite team!?"
"Alright, Granny, who is- oh." Webby flung herself down the stairs, her enthusiasm dying the moment she laid eyes on him. "Hi…"
"Uh… Hi…"
The silence lasted longer than he liked before the woman who let him in lightly coughed. "Young man, you were here for something?"
"Oh, right." Eldridge slapped his cheeks. It was just a job, and here he was letting his aunt's- er, Tiamat's words get in his head.
"Ahem, right." He rubbed his hands together and walked towards the girl with the pink bow. "I want to apologize for running out without letting you say anything two days ago. It had been a week since I had been back, and I rushed off to my Aunt. I sometimes help her at the shop and… I'm rambling. I'm sorry."
He held his hands behind his back and tried to put on his best smile. Something about her neutral look just made him feel bad.
"Ahh, no, I'm sorry." She rubbed her foot along the carpet. "I uh… haven't had a lot of friends, and… recently lost one…"
Eldridge had to keep his smile from falling. He already knew about Lena from Scrooge, but hearing it from her own mouth sounded… worse. Instead he held out a hand. "Well, friends?"
"Errr… YES!" Whatever sadness that kept her in place seemed to explode away into cheer as she glomped onto him.
"O-okay!" He couldn't help but laugh. "Right so… what do you kids usually… do?"
"Oh, right, well, I don't have extra night vision goggles, but we do have an extra dart-gun." Webby said as she put on a helmet.
"Oh… well…" Eldridge wasn't sure this was normal but… "I've made due with less… probably."
"Great!"
And that was how he was stuck crawling through the house's ventilation with nothing but a foam dart pistol. He was supposed to be the surprise ambush.
"Right, t-junction with the knight armor and picture of scrooge… how many knights armor does one rich guy need?"
"Quick, this way!" A boy's voice was heard from the vent below him.
"Feathers!" Eldridge was pretty sure he was going to be late. If he had any chance he had to take it.
With a breath, he kicked the vent below him open and grabbed the edge before dropping down. He spotted the three boys from the adventure, dressed in blue red and green shirts respectively, running down the hallway.
Right, six shots. With one hand holding himself by the vent, he took aim…
And hit a vase.
"Ambush!"
Right, bugger all aiming. The boys stopped in surprise, and before they got a chance to raise their own armaments at him, he unloaded all his remaining five shots.
He got the boys in red and green by chance before his gun was empty. And there was no chance he was going to be able to reload while hanging from the vent by one arm.
So he let go, just in time to dodge a barrage of fire from the blue one. Rolling to a stop, he was looking up at the tip of the blue one's barrel.
He couldn't help it. He subconsciously used his magic to move the barrel a little to the right, moving his head the other way.
Obviously he was too late. And in dramatic fashion he pushed himself backwards as the suckered end of the dart planted itself into his forehead.
"Nooo!" He heard Webby cry before the blue one was barraged in a hailstorm of foamy bullets.
He couldn't help but laugh. If this is what other kids were doing for fun, well, it was fun.
"Wha- Webby? Who is that?" The red one spoke as Eldridge sat up and pulled the dart on his forehead off.
"Oh, right. Heuy, Dewey, Louie, this is Eldridge."
"Wait." The green one, Louie, started. "The duck who conned scrooge out of money? You are simultaneously my hero, and my worst enemy."
"You are like, Webby, 2.0." Dewey, the one in blue, spoke with his eyes wide open in amazement.
"Right, well, nice to meet you, I'm Webby's friends now… I think."
"Right, well, I think that was completely unfair, I mean, we didn't even know he was playing!"
"Well, yeah, Heuy, that's why he's the secret agent! Though he was supposed to ambush you two hallways ago." Webby spoke, gesturing to Eldridge like she was showing him off.
"Look, it's a big house, I got lost." He put his hands up defensively. "I'm surprised I even found you guys."
"right, well," Louie once more spoke up. "I think that's been enough fun, it's going to be impossible to win with two Webbys working together."
"Aww, but he just got here!" Webby cried.
"Look, it's alright, we can find something else to do… uh…" He scratched his cheek, realizing his only hobby was magic, "Alright, I really don't have that many interests, what do you like to do?"
And oh boy was he in for it. With a squeal of delight, she brought him to her room.
"Soo… You have an entire evidence board of the Mcduck family… neat?"
"Oh, right!" With the sudden exclamation, Webby quickly left his line of sight before coming back and blinding him with the flash of a camera.
Which she then proceeded to place on the board under her picture and connect to it with a red string.
"Right, who's that?" He said, getting up and pointing to the picture of the duck to the right of her picture.
"oh… that's… Lena."
Feathers.
Feathers times a hundred.
"She was… well, a spy for her evil aunt, but she didn't want to be. See she was the shadow of her aunt magicka de spell brought to life the last time Uncle Scrooge fought her but trapped her in his number one dime…"
Well, Eldridge settled in. It was much better than what he thought was going to happen. He could handle a few stories…