By my standards, it was a relatively normal day. Almost a bit too normal.
It was quiet in the mansion, besides the sound of Ms. Beakley in the kitchen, and whatever ghostly task Duckworth had been put up to. Which was actually quite good, for me at least. I had a nice, quiet breakfast, shared a 'cuppa' with Ms. Beakley (British people are so weird with their linguistic differences,) took a nice, hot shower and got ready without a hitch.
I had on my signature tank top and jeans, with my coveralls in hand, as I made my way downstairs and to the side of the manor, to the plane hangar. Of course, it was at this time that the ground shook and I heard a loud crash. Ah. There it is.
I hurried into the hangar, and quickly put on my coveralls, grabbing gloves, my toolbox, and my first aid kit. There's no telling what kind of crash Launchpad had, and I didn't want to take any chances.
I exited the hangar, my stuff in hand.
"LP?" I tentatively called, "Are you okay?"
I heard some rustling, and turned to see Launchpad roll out of some bushes, rubbing his head. I approached him, and he looked up at me, before greeting me with a smile.
"Hey Marina!"
I shook my head. "Oh, LP, whatever happened to touching up the plane?"
He thought for a moment. "Well, now we can multitask!"
I rolled my eyes at that. He had a point. "Alright, well at least let me check your head before we get started."
He let me examine him, and after I checked, I confirmed that whilst he was a bit disoriented, he's no worse off than he's been before. So we got started on the plane.
I brought my stuff back into the hangar, putting the first aid kit back, and disposing of my gloves. I washed my hands, and properly tied my hair up. Then, I put my working gloves on, and went back to help LP.
~~~
I laid on the creeper seat at an awkward angle, working on some wiring outside of the plane when I heard someone enter from the other side of the hangar.
"Where's my plane?!"
Oh. Fun.
I gritted my teeth, but tried to focus on the task at hand.
"Right here Ms. D!" LP answered cheerfully, opening the garage door for her. I scooted down on the creeper, sitting up.
Mom... did not look happy.
"And there... and a bit over there," LP told her.
"What are you doing?!" She all but squawked, approaching us.
I stared at her, plainly. or plane-ly. "Fixing the plane," I answered, semi-enjoying the way her face contorted into anger.
"Don't worry," Launchpad assured, "The sunchaser has been through way worse than this."
She looked up at her plane in horror. "It... has?"
"Yeah, we've been through hundreds, maybe thousands of crashes together. If this old girl could talk," LP sat in the nearby pilot's seat and leaned back, closing his eyes.
This, of course, did not calm Mom down at all. In fact, she looked ready to burst a blood vessel. She looked to me for an explanation, and I scrunched up my face in confusion. What did she want me to say? I was just here to help Launchpad, I don't even like being on the plane half the time.
She glared at Launchpad, picking up the yoke of the plane and lifting it above his head, as if to knock him out. I gave her a skeptical look, and she dropped the yoke, taking a deep breath.
"Listen, LP I need to fly over Fort Duckburg in t-minus three hours," She told him, now ignoring me.
"Don't worry. We can stitch this baby back together in no time. Especially with all three of us. Just need to find Spinny Boy...." He looked around the yard.
"...Spinny boy?" Mom asked.
"The propeller," I explained, scanning the area.
Just then, a creaking noise was heard over us. We looked up to see the propellor all but falling out of a tree. LP and Mom dashed out of the way, just as the propeller hit the ground, sticking straight up.
"There he is!" Launchpad said. I facepalmed.
All I wanted was a nice, calm day, of tuning up the plane, doing the one thing I'm good at - mechanics - but instead I'm going to be stuck trying to hone back my mom's eternal rage. Yay. So much for calm.
~~~
"I did it!"
I looked up from my spot on the creeper, having just finished the wiring.
"Did what?" I asked.
Launchpad popped his bubblegum. "I found a photo of what the plane is supposed to look like so we can piece it together," He said, holding up a photo. Mom looked over his shoulder, unimpressed. "Let's start from the corners!" He told her, handing her the photo and coming my way.
She looked unamused, tossing the photo aside.
~~~
Fixing the plane did go a lot faster with all three of us, I noticed. Launchpad and Mom handled the bigger parts, and I was more content with some of the smaller bits, and then restocking the plane. Although, I was still a bit worried about some of those "safety violations," that Ms. Beakley is always talking about. It would really help if I knew what those were.
I did notice something. Mom kept going back behind Launchpad and redoing stuff that he had already done. It was pretty frustrating.
"Hey," I approached her, whilst she was working on the smoke pump.
"I'm working, honey," She told me, removing some of LP's gum from the filter. I grimaced. I forgot that he did that.
"Okay, well, look," I began, trying not to panic and not to set her off, "You don't have to like the way LP does some stuff, but he does have his reasons. I know it seems... gross or weird, but he has flown this plane for," I tried to think back on the years, "... well, I don't know, he's never told me, but he's been doing this a few years now. It's an old plane, so maybe don't re-do some of the stuff he's done so far?"
She shoved the filter into the hose, connecting it properly. "Look, kid, if he's doing it wrong, I'm gonna make sure it's done right. No harm, no foul, right?" She asked.
I shrugged, and she walked away. Okay, so... that didn't really work. I picked up the tile that went over the area with the smoke pump and began to seal it back on.
~~~
Launchpad worked on the propeller, whilst mom and I worked on the under-wing floats of the plane. I worked on sealing the float with some light heat and... I'm not really sure what Mom was sealing the float with.
"Ew," she spoke up, "Why is everything sticky?" She asked LP.
"I used to use superglue to assemble the plane, but it proved... tricky," LP explained, holding up his hand to show some small tubes of superglue attached to it. "Now I use gum."
I smiled to myself. This is why we use gloves and coveralls whilst assembling the plane. That, and you have to work with dangerous fuels.
Just then, the plane creaked, and I looked over to see the float that mom was sitting on lurch, before becoming disassembled from the plane, causing it (and her,) to fall. This, in turn, caused the float to roll onto its side, knocking Mom off. She knocked into the can that Launchpad was standing on, causing him to go flying off of the can and into the float.
I looked at the both of them. This is why we use heat and a small blowtorch to assemble large hunks of metal. "You guys okay?" I asked. LP stuck his thumb up, rubbing part of his head.
Mom laid on the ground, shaking her head, before turning to Launchpad. "So you like, don't know what you're doing at all?"
"When it comes to planes, everyone knows their own way," He replied, folding his arms and looking majestically off into the distance. I snickered at that, earning a harsh look from Mom.
She looked over to the side, seeing the Turbo Hamster, as I like to call it. "Is... is that a hamster wheel?" She asked.
"Yeah, well obviously a gerbil couldn't spin the propeller," Launchpad explained, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Mom just facepalmed into the ground.
~~~
We finished! And the sunchaser looked better than ever, so A plus!
I sat on the ground near the scaffold Mom was using to finish the decal on the mouth of the plane.
"Ah, she's smiling. Happy plane, happy flight," LP mused, approaching us.
Mom jumped off the scaffold, landing in front of him.
"Ooh," he mused, going in to touch the side of the plane.
"Don't! Paint's still wet," She blocked him.
He then went to touch the axle of the wheel.
"Don't!" She blocked him again, "I just detailed that."
He began to walk towards the scaffold, and she stopped him, "Don't! Because I," She began pushing him away, "I... don't want you near my plane at all," She told him.
I gasped. Rude! Launchpad gave her a sad look.
She waved her hands. "Sorry, it's not personal, it's just that..." She sucked in a breath, looking around, before turning back to him. "You know you're a bad pilot, right?"
His eyes widened in realization, before he slumped and turned away.
I glared at Mom, and she turned back to him, "No, no- Only in the sense that you crash every time you fly," She explained, laughing nervously, "Look, maybe with a couple of lessons..."
He gasped, turning back to her. "That's it! I can be your co-pilot!" He exclaimed.
"What?!" She looked incredulous, "Noooo."
"I should learn from the best, right?" He justified his thinking.
"How do I say yes without agreeing to this?" But Launchpad didn't hear her. He cheered.
"Yeah! Best teacher ever!" He sang, walking away.
"Oh no, don't do that," He ran past her, putting on his aviator cap, and rushing to get on the plane, "Don't, ugh...get on the plane," She sighed.
I stretched, getting up. "Well, I think I'm gonna head inside," I told her.
"Aw, really?" She offered. "Don't you wanna... take a flight with your ol' mom?" She asked awkwardly, before cringing.
I clenched my hands together. I really didn't want to, but... I don't know, she's really been trying? Maybe I should try too...
I sighed, before giving her a forced smile. "Uhm, sure. Okay."
She smiled back, genuinely, and I mentally facepalmed. What was I getting myself into?
"Just uh... don't be mad if I get sick," I told her, "I'm still not used to flying..."
"Really? I figured Uncle Scrooge would've taken you flying a lot over the years."
I grimaced. Oh yeah. That. She still didn't know that Uncle Scrooge and Uncle Donald fell out after she left... Yeah.
"Uh, yeah... Maybe you should take that up with him," I told her, hurrying onto the plane.
~~~
I sat in the back of the plane, tightly strapped in, and I attempted to distract myself by being on my phone. I really, really was not feeling air-travel today, but I wasn't able to tune out parts of the conversation Mom and Launchpad were having.
"You've gone 5000 miles?" I heard Mom ask incredulously.
I snickered at that. Yeah, sounds about right.
"Why don't you just, heh heh, stare out of the window to make sure we're still in the air?" She said, nervously sweet. I scrunched up my face at her tone.
"No prob!" Launchpad replied, ever-so-eager to please. "Still in the air, still in the air- Wait!"
I shot up in my seat looking out the window. We were...
"Ah, still in the air," He stated.
Hoo boy.
~~~
"Why is this stupid seat so loose?" Mom asked no one in particular.
Oh boy, here we go. I sat up in my chair, rolling my eyes.
"So you can talk to the people behind you. It reassures the passengers when you look into their eyes while you crash," Launchpad explained smoothly.
"Yeah, yeah," She replied snarkily. "Running light, okay!" She began to pep talk herself, "Get to fort to celebrate ancestor. Just me, the open sky, and-"
"You seem tense!" Launchpad all but shouted.
"Shhh!" I shushed him. I almost told him to use his inside voice, and then I remembered that I wasn't talking to one of the kids.
"Sorry," he replied sheepishly, before turning back to Mom. "Just relax. Turn your mind off. Just gaze at the clouds. Nothing matters," He soothed, or attempted to. Unluckily for him, Mom snapped.
"Everything matters!" She exploded, "It's six tons of metal in the air that I just had to completely reassemble!" She exclaimed, anxiously, "Just sit over there, and don't distract me!"
Launchpad slumped in his seat and looked out the window. "...Still in the air," he quietly mused.
"Great going," I snarked, loud enough for Mom to hear, but not loud enough to shout. She shot me a harsh glare, and I shut my mouth.
And then I realized that she might've been on the verge of a panic attack, and I immediately regretted my words.
"Hey mom, I-"
"Marina," She began harshly, before softening a bit, "Honey, I need to focus on flying."
I sucked in a breath before nodding and putting in my headphones for what I hoped would be the rest of the flight.
~~~
I must've dozed off at some point, because I woke up coughing. I sat up, looking around, to see the front part of the plane full of thick, black smoke.
"What's going on?" I coughed, making my way up front.
"Must be the hose you repaired in the smoke pump," Launchpad told Mom.
"What?"
"I usually just block it a little with gum, so that the smoke can still vent," He explained. I glared in Mom's direction. I knew Launchpad had some idea of what he was doing! "Ah, but what do I know?" He slumped.
"I- I can't see. We're going to crash!" Mom panicked.
"Crash? I'm on it!" Launchpad stated, taking over the wheels.
"Aaaah!" Mom and I both screamed. I grabbed hold of LP's chair, not wanting a repeat of a few months ago when I all but sprained my shoulder trying not to fall 6000 feet out of the plane.
We soon made impact with the large mountain before Fort Duckburg, sending everyone jolting forward in their seats until we slowed to a stop. I, of course, banged my head on the back of the co-pilot seat, because Gods Forbid I come out of an ordeal with this family unscathed.
I rubbed at my head, following LP out of the plane, Mom bringing up the rear.
"You madman!" She roared, "We almost died!" She began panting, calming herself down. "But we didn't. Weird."
"I figure by now you'd be used to the feeling," I mused.
"Della!" Webby shouted.
"Kids?" Mom asked.
"The Beagle Boys!" Louie exclaimed angrily.
Mom sprang into action, effectively managing to tie up Bouncer, Burger and Ma Beagle.
Hang on, where's Big Time?
"Um, did you just become the hero of this adventure by accident?" Huey asked rhetorically.
"Leave it to Mom to make the lamest adventure ever awesome," Dewey commented.
"Go Mom!" Huey cheered.
"I thought you were at the fort," She stated.
"Webby led us down here, and," Louie began, before looking over, "Wait, where is she?"
"You guys stay here, and stay safe. I'll find her," Mom said, before running off.
I made my way down from the rubble, joining the kids.
"We are never going to get out of here," Louie mumbled, latching to my side. I fluffed his hair.
"You got that right," A menacing voice announced from above.
The boys and I turned around to see a figure lowering itself from the ceiling. We all gasped.
"Eugh! Spiders!" Ma Beagle shrieked.
Then, the figure spun a bit, before revealing itself to be...
"Bigtime?" Ma Beagle asked.
"Oh for heaven's sakes," I mumbled, putting my face in my hands. I should've just stayed home. Then I wouldn't have to deal with plane crashes, or dark, musty caves, or Spider-Bigtime.
"Nope, made a name for myself, Ma," He bragged, "I'm BugTime, now," He mused, before he began laughing and hissing. This caused spiders to crawl off of him and onto the floor, heading our way, and from above.
I pulled the boys closer to me and held back a scream. Gods, I hate bugs and spiders and bugs! Where was Launchpad when you needed him?
~~~
Well, we found Launchpad. Now he was tied upside down with all four of us, covered in spider-string. If it wasn't for the fact that I was upside down and therefore, couldn't really breathe, I would lose my lunch.
"Keep them away! Ah, Big Time, you moron. Have you lost your durn blasted mind?" Ma Beagle shouted.
"You see how she talks to me, Turantu-Ma?" Bigtime asked a large spider in his hand, who screeched in response.
"But I got no need to impress her. She could watch as we grab the loot. We're gonna succeed where the Beagle Boys failed.. nobody can stop the Buggle Boys!" He mused.
I groaned. "Oh my gods, I do not have time for your dysfunctional family!" I shouted, thrashing back and forth in an attempt to free us all.
"Dysfunctional?" I heard someone ask.
"Bigtime, just go to therapy and stop taking it out on us!" I shouted frustratedly, before pausing.
...What's that popping sound?
"It's Coot's ghost army back to get us all!" Bouncer gasped.
"Wow, the myths are true!" Huey shouted.
"I sure hope they recognize us as Coot Kin!" I responded.
Just then, we were cut from the ceiling by... Webby! Thank goodness Mom found her.
I hit the ground, and immediately sat up, trying to brush the sticky mess off of me.
"Get to the plane!" Mom ordered.
"What is that?" Dewey asked.
"The Golden Armory of Cornelius Coot!" Webby mused.
"That explains nothing!" I shouted, picking up Huey and Louie, the slowest runners as we made our way back up to the plane.
We all stood in the cockpit, as Mom turned the plane on. The lights caused me to squint, but as my eyes adjusted, I saw... popcorn?
"Is... is that Popcorn?" I asked no one in particular.
Mom tried to start the plane but...
"We can't back up! There's no way out, unless we..." She turned toward Launchpad, who was looking nervously out the windshield, before sighing. "Launchpad, do your thing," She told him.
I pulled all four kids close to me, preparing for a crash.
Launchpad gasped giddily. "Nibbles, give me a boost," He turned towards the hamster, who saluted Launchpad, before going ham on the hamster wheel. Soon enough, I heard the sound of the spinning propellor.
Launchpad turned his seat towards us, saying in a soothing voice, "Everyone relax, we're about to crash."
"That... actually is comforting," Mom mused.
Launchpad took hold of the controls, and put the plane into overdrive, bringing us up to around 5000mph. We all held onto each other as we began to move slowly before bursting into the air.
"Woo!" We all cheered.
"I need a nap," Louie groaned.
"Alright, get buckled up," I ordered, "No more unexpected crashing or injuries until we get home."
Dewey groaned, but all of the kids went and sat down, buckling up. At least everyone's okay.
"So... everything good?" I asked the two adults in the cockpit. Both of them stuck their thumbs up and I went to go sit back in my seat until we made it to the fort.
~~~
The boys took over once we got to the fort, telling tall tales, fixing the historical accuracy of the fort, and making a profit. It was quite the sight, so I went around and took pictures to send to Gus so that he could show Grandma Elvira. After all, Cornelius Coot was her grandfather. Maybe one day we could get the whole family down here for a reunion or something. That could be fun.
I thought back to Mom. I wonder if she has seen Grandma since she's been back. I'll definitely have to put some of this stuff down on a calendar. Oh well.
For now, I'm content with just enjoying the company of my family.
~~~
( you know what's coming next. Are you ready? >:D)