"...so... you're leaving already? Why?"
Gloria could hear the pain in Heidi's tone that she was trying so hard to hide, but was also failing miserably.
"I'm sorry. I would love to stay and hang out with you longer but Boyd could be back in Duckburg already and we have to leave to make sure he's alright. I'll see you again though! You have my number so we can stay in touch." She gave Heidi a reassuring smile.
"I'll make sure Ding and V get the message." She smiled, but it was frail. "Good luck finding, Boyd. Poor kid... I would've never guessed."
Gyro was just standing in the background, with his arms cross, giving Heidi a death glare from behind. She was ignoring him for the most part but she definitely noticed.
"Alright, we should get going and find Ellie to let her know what's going on." He tried his best to not come off as, well, a bitch. But he failed. Needless to say, he turned to Fenton before he saw Gloria's reaction to his sudden mistake. "Promise to give us updates on the city and its surrounding areas. I know we all doubt he's here but you never know."
Fenton nodded. "Certainly, Dr. Gearloose. I'll continue searching after dinner. My familia believes I'm just doing science research at the city library or something of the sort."
Gloria gave Heidi a quick hug goodbye before walking over to Fenton and Gyro and giving Fenton a hug goodbye as well. "Thanks for all your help, guys!" She was talking to both Heidi and Fenton before turning her attention to Gyro. "Okay, we should get going.... Where's Launchpad?"
"Oh! I'm right here, Miss G!" Launchpad was as tall as a skyscraper but he was also the kind of person you want to ignore when given the opportunity so he was also just vibing in the background. He waved his hand in the air to signal where he was.
"Where did you say your plane was again?" Gloria asked him.
"It's in my hotel room!"
"...what?" Heidi was confused. She didn't understand how often Launchpad crashed so that statement does seem odd without any context of his character.
"It's in my-"
"Shut up." Gloria cut him off before he repeated himself. She took out her phone and started to text Ellie. "I'm letting Ellie know to meet us at Launchpad's hotel. Ready to go?" She looked up at Gyro again.
Gyro was trying to mentally prepare for the crash that was bound to happen in the next few hours, but he couldn't. No amount of preparation could stop his heart from dropping every single time Launchpad almost killed them. "...sure. Let's get going." He shot Launchpad a look before leading the way out.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Ellie's flip phone buzzed in her pocket while her and Mark were walking around Cincinnati. He was very upset he had to use his feet but Ellie convinced him to continue walking because cameras could get better shots of him outside rather than in a vehicle. Really she just didn't want to deal with him complaining about a low class taxi.
The text was from Gloria. "The other organics- sorry, people on the show are meeting us at a hotel room. We were heading there already but it is nice to know they are on the way as well." While she was talking, she was constantly scanning the area around for any sign of Boyd. To the average person her eyes were just darting around frantically and she looked rather paranoid, like she was sure she was about to get jumped.
"Ugh! Why are we even going to a stupid hotel room?! This is so lame there are so many boring ass places here that I need to take a photo in front of. Ohio sucks!" Mark stuffed his hands into his new and expensive cardigan and kicked a pebble while he was walking to express his anger towards Cincinnati. Of course he went shopping for a whole new wardrobe after he was released from the hospital. His old clothes were ruined by his blood. Gross. There were a few high end stores like Gucci and Louis Vuitton for Mark to find some comfortable day wear until he got home.
"I know... I am not much of a fan of the state of Ohio either." And she wasn't. This place sucked ass.
Ellie continued to lead Mark down the street in silence, excluding the sound of traffic, passerbys, and Mark mumbling to himself about how stupid the gameshow was for putting him in Ohio and teaming him up with someone as ugly as Ellie. That made her feel wonderful about herself.
Her thoughts were buzzing. One side was thinking of Boyd and how much of a shit mother she was, while the other was racing with ideas on how to win Mark over and/or regain his memories.
"Mark, may I ask you a question?" She didn't wait for his answer because he was going to say no. "Are you a fan of Jimmy Buffett?"
To him, that question came out of nowhere, but to Ellie it was step one in trying to jog his memory. Maybe if she brought up recent events that had taken place it would ring a bell. Their experience with Jimmy Buffett was rather annoying after all. Except to Gloria, she thrived off of that.
Mark shrugged "I guess? I'll play his music on a playlist whenever I host the Wednesday 2:15 tropical party for my employees but other than that, no." The way Mark answered sounded like he was in no mood to talk to her or answer any of her questions.
Ellie burst out into a laugh, a genuine one. There was no way Mark just admitted to lowkey liking Jimmy Buffett. He always acted like he despised the guy. "You must be joking, correct? That elderly man's music is horrid." She moved on, Mark could get mad at her for roasting his music taste in a second. "I met him once while selling Edible Goldfish, also known as cocaine."
Mark eyed her up and down and shot her a look. "You? You sell drugs?" He scoffed, not believing her.
Okay. He wasn't yelling at her so this conversation seemed to be going great. She just had to keep bringing up situations that were familiar to him. Or... the other him.
She shook her head. "Only in that certain situation when my best friend and I were trying to escape the black market that my uncle sold us to. However, she was in charge of selling and I was incharge of the chemistry behind the making." She continued. "I believe teaching children the chemistry behind cocaine would be a wonderful school lesson."
Mark laughed "Okay, uhhh no offense, Elbow, yeah I know that's not your name but I don't care enough to call you by your actual name so #dealwithit, but you don't look like the kind of person who even knows what cocaine looks like. I dunno if the writers of the show told you to say that or not but, like, that's such a fake story no one would believe that. What are the writer's numbers? I gotta give him a few pointers if this season is going to be any good." He started typing away on his phone to start looking into the 90 Day Fiancé writers and seeing if any of their personal information was available to the public.
"Alright..." Time to change subjects. "Have you ever been to prison or kidnapped by a gang?" Ellie not only thought that that was most likely a normal conversation topic between the average organic but she also thought the idea of asking that was genius.
"The fuck? No! God you're so weird. Why can't you talk about normal things like what's trending on Twitter or how cool of a person I am!?"
"...if I was..." God what was that phase Mark went through as a teenager? Goth? No, it was emo! "If I was going through an emo phase I would choose the name 'Deathblade'!"
Mark almost dropped his phone. He stopped walking and grabbed Ellie by the collar of her dress "Who the fuck told you about Deathblade!? Give me a name! I will ruin their pathetic and miserable life!" Someone knew about his emo phase and it must've spread around rapidly if a girl who didn't even have social media found out about it. He was starting to get worried. How come he didn't see anything about it online?! He would've been the first to know if anything new was mentioned about him online!
"N-nobody told me about it!" Ellie was grabbing at his wrist, trying to get him off of her. What an asshole for getting aggressive with a woman like that. Damn. "You simply look like a Deathblade because of how nice the swoop of your hair is...? Did I mention I like the swoop of your hair?" She was so dead.
Mark let go of her and scoffed. "Someone told you about Deathblade. God, it was probably my mom wasn't it?! That bitch..." He clicked on Miss Glamour's IT list that was posted online but found nothing portraying his emo phase. "Hmmm... okay whatever I guess." He muttered before going back to tweeting. He wasn't going to forget that. Ellie knew about his emo phase and he'd be damned if that information was leaked to the public.
Ellie adjusted the collar of her dress before running up behind him. He was leading now although he had no idea where the fuck they were even going.
She ran over everything in her head. So attempting to jog his memories wasn't working. Got it. Also complimenting his hair swoop, which she did all the time, also didn't work.
Mark wasn't looking at her since he was in front, but her face was blank as she was in deep thought.
So far it looked like she should focus on trying to get him to like her again rather than jog his memory because that seemed to be impossible at the moment. She knew what he liked about her, but she had no idea how she got him to like her in the first place.
When she was first built, she was bossed around by him, quickly developed feelings that were her own and not programmed into her, and then confessed to him in prison. Okay. She had to recreate all of that but in a different setting, which was very hard to do considering this was fucking Cincinnati.
Step 1) He bossed her around.
Check. He already did that in the hospital.
Step 2) Confess she had feelings for him.
Okay. No. Absolutely not. That was being skipped over.
Step 3) Get in a fight...
That was it! They always bonded over fighting! That's how they got to know each other AND it was the best feeling in the world when they made up. Score. Ellie gave herself a metaphorical golden star.
She approached his side again and looked at him, though he obviously wasn't looking back. She cleared his throat to get his attention.
"I think your selfies are idiotic. Why bother posting with the disgusting scar on your head?"
Ellie had very little idea how bad she was at this.
"WHAT?!" Mark looked at her and screamed as loud as he could. A lot of people walking by stared at him. "First of all, how fucking dare you! I am Mark Beaks! Anything and everything I do is the opposite of idiotic, especially my selfies! I get more likes from one selfie than you ever will on literally anything you do! Maybe you should think and know who you're talking to before you start blurting out bullshit! Ugh!" Mark started stomping away from her in the same direction that they were going with Ellie following behind. He started to mumble things under his breath that Ellie couldn't make out.
"U-um, well..." She had to start jogging to keep up with him. "With that attitude you will never get a girl. I am your only shot. Money and social media only gets you so far." She really needed to stop but she kept on going. This was getting out of hand and fast.
He stopped to look at her again. "Excuse you?! You're my only shot?! Puh-lease! I have girls lining up around the block just to be seen with me! I have sold my bath water which was sold out in seconds! I am only your fiancé because that's what the reality show is all about! You mean nothing to me and as soon as the show is over I plan on never seeing you again! Got that, Elbow?!"
"You have girls lining up around the block to use you! That is all! And my name is not Elbow, it is Ellie!" She pointed a finger into his chest.
Her subconscious was telling her she was being way too mean and she needed to stop, but now she was actually just getting pissed at him for no reason. The other part of her subconscious felt guilty for treating the man who saved her life like this.
Mark slapped her hand away from him. "And how would you know?! You don't even have a fucking email addess! What could you possibly know about me and my adoring fans?!"
"I know everything about you Mark." She scowled. "Earlier, when I said I did not know who you were, I lied. And I know things you would never tell a soul." Ellie stepped away because she knew she was probably about to get beat up, but her mouth kept running. "You know how your mother hired people to hug you instead of doing so herself? Yes? I know all about that. So you better tread wisely if you do not wish for things to leak."
She would never tell anyone that, although she used it as a threat. But maybe if he knew she knew that... it could change things. She didn't know how but somehow.
"So I'm not going crazy! You do know shit from my past! How did you find out about all of those things in the first place?!" Mark didn't give her a chance to answer. "God, you're probably some psycho stalker bitch! That's probably the reason why you're on this show with me right now! You freak!" Mark started to scroll through his contacts to look for anyone's contact information who works on the reality show so he could get Ellie out of his sight. When he found nothing, he directed his attention to a nearby building security camera, frantically waving his arms at it. "YOOOOOO! GET ME OFF THE SHOW! THIS PSYCHO BITCH WANTS TO KILL ME OR SELL MY HAIR OR SOMETHING!"
Again, more people who were just strolling along the sidewalk stared at him. Some even turned around and started walking in the other direction just to avoid him.
Oh shit. He was going to leave her.
Of course he was when she pulled such a stupid move.
"Wait, no!" She started waving her arms almost as hard as he was waving his own. "The television show wants drama, can you not see that? If the... if the show views me as the villain then your positive publicity will rise... you are the star of the show after all."
He stopped waving his hands in the air and looked at her again. He pulled a 180, from being hysterical to absolutely calm. "Oooooooohhhhh.... Okay yeah that makes sense. Still doesn't explain why you know so much about my past but whatevs. Makes for good television I guess." He stuffed his hands into his pockets.
She sighed in relief. Damn. She really sucked at this.
"Alright, let us continue heading back to the hotel. We may continue to 'fight' for the sake of the show later." She suggested before beginning to lead the way again.
Mark shrugged and followed behind her and started Tweeting about how killer this season was going to be.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
"God... what's taking her so long?! The more time we stay here, the more time we waste looking for Boyd." Gyro crossed his arms. "I say we just go ahead and leave."
Before Gloria could respond, her phone went off. It was Ellie.
Ellie: Mark is with me. Pretend you are on 90 Day Fiancé <3 - Ellie
Gloria laughed. "Ellie just texted me. So Mark is with her and they're on the way. We have to pretend we are on that new reality TV show, 90 Day Fiancé. Do you know it?"
Gyro shot her a look. "What are you even talking about? No, I don't know what the hell that is." God. Someone was mighty snappy.
"It's a reality show. I'm not sure why she wants us to pretend that we're on the show but it must be for a good reason. So basically we have to pretend that we are engaged with one of us being from a foreign country. I can be the one to pretend to be from a foreign country." Gloria already came up with the perfect foreign country that she could pretend to be from.
Gyro rolled his eyes. "You gotta be kidding me. Choose whatever country you want but I'm going to avoid getting involved with this." He paused before his eyes widened and he made heavy eye contact with her. "Wait... Mark is out of the hospital and is okay?!"
She shrugged "Yeah I guess so? Ellie didn't go into detail but yeah Mark is out of the hospital. Pretty crazy how fast he bounced back."
"Goddamnit!"
Gloria gave him a look and he put his hands up.
"Sorry. Sorry. I'm 'glad' he's okay but Jesus. I really do not want to deal with him on the way to-"
He was cut off by the knock of a door. Gyro sighed and looked through the peephole. Sure enough, there was Mark. He was the one who knocked and was standing in front of Ellie with an irritated expression. Clearly he didn't like waiting.
Gyro walked away. "You're answering the door."
Gloria did an "Aye-eye" salute before opening the door for Mark and Ellie. "Yo! The fuck you want?" She spoke with a very fake New Jersey accent, making New Jersey her "foreign country" of choice. She sounded ridiculous but she didn't break character.
Gyro nearly passed out from behind. New Jersey as a foreign country?! Was she serious?!
Ellie made the same expression before stepping politely in front of Mark.
"Hello, Gloria." Ellie's accent made Gloria internally wheeze. It was so good but god it was ridiculous at the same time. "I am Ellie and this is my fiancé, Mark Beaks. We are both very excited to be on the show with you."
Mark and Ellie stepped into Launchpad's hotel room. Mark was already bored and started texting again, not bothering to look up at anyone. "Sup."
Gloria wrapped her arm around Gyro and patted him on the chest with her other free hand. "And this is my fiancé, Gyro. He ain't from Jersey like I am but whatever." Yes, Gloria knew that New Jersey wasn't a foreign country. Everyone in the room probably knew that with the exception of Mark because he didn't question it.
Ellie's smile was strained. "Goodness. New Jersey? What an exotic country! I am rather jealous."
Gyro rolled his eyes, knowing that this encounter had to happen at some point. He figured it was best to get it over with. "Hello, Mark."
Mark finally looked up to see who was talking to him. He immediately cringed. "Ewwwwwwwwww! Gyroooooooooo! What the fuck are you doing here?! Ugh! You totally ruined my entire day just because you're here!" You know the mini notepad and pen that's on the nightstand in hotel rooms? Mark grabbed that pen and threw it at Gyro.
Ink blotted on his shirt. Gyro squawked in protest. "EXCUSE ME?! THIS WAS FROM BANANA REPUBLIC, YOU SWINE!" He shot Mark a death glare, picking up a sheet from the notepad and patting his shirt like that would actually get the ink off. There weren't any napkins and running into the bathroom for a piece of toilet paper took too much time in his mind. Gyro does Gyro, whatever. "And I'm on the show because I was selected to be on it. Just as you have, thank you very much." God. He was actually playing along with this now.
Launchpad decided to chime in. "Hi, Mr. B! Hi, Ms. E! Haven't seen you guys in awhile!"
Ellie screamed and literally grabbed Mark to use a shield. "YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!"
Launchpad started laughing. "Haha! Funny story really! But it's too long so I'll skip over it!"
"Alright alright alright, I'm tired of just standing around like this! What are ya, Bennies?! We don't do this shit in Jersey! Let's go already." Gloria is getting a little too into her role but who's gonna stop her?
Launchpad, who didn't realize the change in accents from Gloria and Ellie, agreed with her. "Good plan, Miss G! I'll go start up the plane." He ran inside his place. He was still seen through the front plane windows, pressing away at buttons and switches to get the plane to start.
"Okay...." Gyro ignored all the chaos that was going on and took his gaze off of Launchpad to look back at the Glomsquad. "The plan is to head back to Duckburg which is where the majority of 'show' will be filmed."
He knew that Ellie was smart enough to understand that is where they would be looking for Boyd.
She indeed did and nodded. "A wonderful idea on behalf of the producers. Duckburg seems like such a beautiful city."
"Trust me, it isn't." He turned around and waved his hand. "Let's go before they charge one of us for the damage." Gyro was referring to the wall that Launchpad literally crashed through for a hotel room. It was a mystery why the hotel staff hadn't noticed yet, but it was also a mystery how Mark survived a shot to the head. Gyro lowkey wished he did die but would never say that. But he knew Mark with no memories was going to make everything more of a hell than it already was. This TV show better not go on for long because he didn't want to be forced to be around Mark any longer than need be.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
The Glomsquad was finally able to leave the hellish city of Cincinnati to never return.
Man, being back in Duckburg after all the shit they had been through was going to be the strangest thing. But as long as Boyd was there, everything would be alright.
Gyro and Gloria made sure to sit on the opposite side of the plane from Ellie and Mark, as of Gyro's request.
He huffed, turning to Gloria. "This is absolutely ridiculous. Why are you going along with it? Tricking him like that." He looked back at Mark and glared, not that it mattered since the dude's eyes were glued to his phone. "It's better to tell him the truth and let him go back to being the old Mark, that stays in Waddle the majority of the time and doesn't get involved with us." He looked back at Gloria so his final sentence could have more of a punch if it was more one to one. "I don't think Boyd would have a problem with that once we find him."
"It wasn't my choice to pretend to be on a reality show. That's just what Ellie told us to do so I'm following along. Maybe it's easier for him to believe that he's on a stupid reality show rather than him coming to terms with the fact that he was shot in the head and losing a lot of his memories." She continued "As for Boyd, I agree that he probably wouldn't want to see Mark again but who's to say that he doesn't want to be involved with us either? I mean, after what just happened with him, do we really know what he wants to do?" Gloria didn't want that to be the case but she felt like it should be brought up on the off chance that when they do find Boyd, he still doesn't want to see them.
"Duck Jesus..." Gyro was in so much denial about that, but Gloria was right. She just reminded him of how wrong he was. Boyd hated them just as much as he did Mark. "What do we do if that's the case? We can't just let him be on his own."
"I'm not sure. I guess when we find him we ask him what he wants to do." She had no idea what Boyd would do if he wasn't living with either her and Gyro or with Ellie and Mark. She had it in her mind that Boyd was with Huey at the McDuck manor playing video games together but now she was starting to have second thoughts. If he truly hated all of them, then why would he go back to the place where they live? That was something she wasn't going to share with Gyro. He already has enough grief as is and her doubts about Boyd wouldn't help anything.
"Yeah..." He didn't know what else to say to that, so he trailed off and let the silence sit for a while, listening to the hum of the engine. And it wasn't a good hum, but that was normal. "Listen, I'm sorry I've been extra rude lately. I just have a lot of mental stuff going on still, which is obvious, but it's not an excuse to be mean to you so..." He laughed. "I can't even tell Ms. Kris about over half of the things that are bothering me, unless I really want to end up in prison. I was all for turning myself in before... but I just can't bring myself to do it."
"It's alright, Gyro. I'm not taking any of it personal because I know you're going through a lot right now." She laughed as well "Maybe Ms. Kris would be more out to help us if we bribed her to keep her mouth shut or something. But on the off chance that she doesn't accept bribes, you can always talk to me about anything that's bothering you. I promise I won't turn you into the police." She laughed again.
"Well... you're going through a lot too so if you need to talk just lemme know." He glared at Mark yet again. "And I'm sure this situation isn't helping."
Across the plane, Ellie was tapping her knee again, glancing every so often at Mark. He was playing Mario Kart.
"I apologize for my behavior earlier, it was simply for the sake of the show which I am sure you understand. The producers know a lot about you." She said. "But there is no need to act now. They do not allow filming to take place on aerial vehicles."
Her behavior was bipolar as fuck today, but she was so desperate to get something out of him to work with. For him to show just a hint that he liked her, hell, even tolerated her. But after her fuck up earlier, even if it was for the 'show', that was going to be hard to do.
"Eh, it's whatever." Mark was too busy playing Mario Kart for him to properly respond to her. He sunk in his chair and propped his feet up on the seat in front of him.
"Alright... well, you should know that I do indeed like the swoop of your hair and believe you are a... wonderful person." That second part was the biggest lie she has told thus far.
"Yeah, I already know that about myself. You're a little late figuring that out but it's better late than never."
She sighed and turned away from him, crossing her arms. This whole thing seemed pointless so far and, honestly, she felt like she was going to cry again.
Launchpad stood between both the section where Gloria and Gyro were seated, and the second where Mark and Ellie were seated. He had a PEP in hand. "Wow! Easy flying today, huh guys? I gotta tell Mr. McD about this later! He likes my weather updates!"
Fun fact: Scrooge did not enjoy Launchpad's weather updates.
Gloria switched on her fake Jersey accent again to yell at Launchpad. "Yo, why the fuck ain't you flying the plane, Launchpad?! You tryna kill us?!" She was actually worried though despite the fact she was doing a fake accent. No one knew how long he'd been away from the wheel.
"Oh! Don't worry, Ms. G! Just trust me!"
The engine began to sputter and the plane fell downward immediately.
Gloria jinxed it.
_____________________________________________________________________________________