"O-okay," Wyatt looked around one more time before taking off Mark's restraints. "So while y-you're repairing Ellie, I'm going to check on Boyd and make sure he's safe. I'll try to get him out of here too." He opened the holographic wall to Ellie's cell, handing Mark the toolkit. "I don't think anyone will see you, but if they do and question what's going on just tell them I'm forcing you to take apart Ellie or something... p-please don't rat me out."
"I meeeeeaannnnnn, I hate you but I ain't a snitch, chief."
Wyatt nodded. "Okay... I also have to turn the cell on again. S-so people will think that you're still captured." He frantically waved his hands. "B-but don't worry! I'll be right back to help!" Wyatt backed up and turned the holographic cell door on again before speed walking to Boyd's holding cell.
Mark quickly made his way to Ellie and opened up the tool kit Wyatt had provided him. "Yo, are you alright, Ellie? Can you hear me? Can you see me?" Mark waved his hand in front of Ellie's face while he asked that last question.
"Mark?" Man, was she glad to see him. Metaphorically. "N-no. I cannot s-see at all or move v-very well."
The fact she was stuttering also told Mark she couldn't speak very well either. Wyatt really fucked her up. The fact her system survived that much water damage was a miracle.
"A-and I- I am tired." Ellie almost forgot to mention that.
Mark stopped looking for tools long enough to give her a hug. "Shit... I hate that this happened. When we get outta here, and this place becomes Waddle again- okay wait so like, when we come back here but different. Ya feel?" He quickly went back to his point. "Anyways, what I mean is, I will figure out some techno shit to make sure something like this doesn't happen again... maybe something as simple as a rain hat?" He stopped hugging her. "Nope. Bad idea. It's not in fashion just yet. Maybe when it does, yeah?" He smiled before finally grabbing the first tool he needed and walked behind her. He immediately started working on repairs. The first thing he wanted to fix was her eyesight. "Let me know when you can see again, babe."
"Alright." She tried to relax while he went to work but she couldn't. Getting repairs done always felt weird and violating. "I apologize for all the t-terrible things I said to you. I did n-not mean it." She meant all the things she said to Steelbeak and Kyle though. "I was u-upset t-that I c-could not prevent Boyd from getting dragged into another terrible situation again, but I should not h-have let it out on you."
Ellie was going to stop there, but remembered to add one last thing. "I a-also apologize for my plan with W-Wyatt backfiring. I was impressed with my a-acting for o-once, but it did not remain convincing for long. But I will s-say I- I am very surprised I-I m-managed t-to g-get h-him on our side again."
Mark continued to work. "It's chill. I know you were under a lot of stress so I didn't take it too personally. Lmao." He did take it personally but he wasn't about to tell her that and make her feel bad. "Also yeah! Can we talk about how Wyatt is just... good again? Whack. I mean, I'm not gonna question it though. If he wants to help us out, cool! Not cool that he put your head under some water though." After a few more tries, Mark clicked some wires together that he hoped did the trick. "Can you see anything?"
Ellie blinked a few times as her vision blurred into focus. "Y-yes, I can. Much appreciated." She continued on into a ramble before Mark could say anything. "I j-just do n-not u-understand Wyatt's fascination with 'Lucy'. When I told h-him that I was still the s-same p-person, Lucy, but with more memories... that is what c-caused him to break. Just like that. It was i-immediate." And quite disturbing. "I almost felt b-bad for him w-when I-I remembered w-who he was when I first met him, but I will n-never forgive h-him. I know this goes against my word with Boyd, but after all of this is over I am going to k-kill Wyatt. I swear I will. B-Boyd m-may hate m-me for it but I need to do it or I will go i-insane."
The idea of Ellie murdering Wyatt didn't faze Mark in the slightest. He shrugged before grabbing another tool from the kit. "Cool. Just let me know when you're gonna do it so I can record it." He started working again.
About thirty more minutes past until Ellie was fully repaired. Mark worked way faster than he expected and he gave himself a literal pat on the back, though Ellie would definitely need wire replacements after all of this was over. Either way, it was good enough.
She sat up and stretched out her joints. She felt rusted over, which wasn't true, but it wouldn't be a surprise if that were the case when she was drenched in water.
Ellie hopped off the bed to hug Mark. "Thank you very much."
He hugged her back. "No prob, Bob!"
"My name is not Bob."
"What? No, I meant-"
She cut him off when she let go of him, pointing to the tool box. "What is the sharpest object you have in there?"
"Oooooh! Murder time! I love it!" Mark handed her the tool kit while he started digging around again. "Let's seeeeeeeeeeee... Ooh! We have a hammer! That's a classic! Annnnddddddd... oh oh! How about pillars?! We can use it to yank out his teeth!"
Ellie took the hammer. "This will do. You can join in if you want." She was monotone as usual, but secretly pretty excited. She missed murder dearly. "As soon as he closes the holographic door, we attack. Then we take his key to the cells and get everyone out of here. Somehow." She didn't know how they were going to fight off evil robots or any of the other F.O.W.L members, but they always figured something out.
Mark grabbed a handful of nails and stuffed them into his cardigan pocket just in case. He also made sure to grab the pillars before putting the toolkit on the ground. "Awwwwwwwww yeahhhhh! This is gonna be so much fun oh my god I can't wait to see him cry like a baby when you- oh shit he's coming back!"
Wyatt approached the door and turned off the holographic panel and stepped inside. He looked pale and he was shaking a little. "U-ummmm... I- I am not sure how to say this but... Boyd is... gone. I don't know where he is. I checked his cell and he wasn't in there. The only thing I noticed was that the air vent was tampered with inside of his cell."
Ellie decided to put murder on hold for a second. "What do you mean he is gone?! Did he escape?! Did you check if he was with Mr. B?!"
He started to shake more. "I didn't tell Mr. B that he was gone! I-I really don't know where he went! I'm so sorry!"
Alright. That was all the information Ellie was going to get from him so he may as well have been useless to her now. She immediately tackled him, raising the hammer up. She brought it down and he dodged it just by a hair. It practically grazed his cheek as it smashed into the tiled floor, causing a major dent.
Wyatt used his arms to cover his face while he squeezed his eyes shut. "Ellie! P-P-Please don't kill m-me! I-I know you're mad!" He started crying "B-But please! PLEASE! Spare my life! I-I really want to be good again!" His crying started getting louder.
Ellie was about to bring the hammer down again but stopped last minute, her eyes softening. He truly was a really good guy when she first met him.
Still holding Wyatt down, she turned to look at Mark to hear what he thought about this. If he believed Wyatt still deserved to die then she would do it. Pretty stupid to put a life or death decision in Mark's hands but that's what she was doing.
Mark knew what she was getting at by looking at him and he shrugged again. "Let him go, Ellie. The more people we have on our side the better." Damn. He really wanted to see his wife beat the shit out of Wyatt...
"Alright." She let go of Wyatt and stood up. "Apologies. Perhaps another time." Duck Jesus. "Mark and I will search for Boyd while you free the rest or our family and get them out of here."
Wyatt quickly got up from the floor. He was still shaking. "Y-Yes! I will! Thank you f-for not killing me and everything..." He opened the cell door again.
"You are not welcome."
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Gyro groaned as he sat up, holding his head. He first laid eyes on Launchpad but decided to ignore him, instead turning his attention to Abigail. "What happened?"
Abigail gasped and scooted closer towards him "You're awake! Toodles he- he threw you against the wall and took Gloria. You've been unconscious for a while."
"He took Gloria?!" Screaming definitely didn't help his head. "Do you know where?! Did he kill her?!"
She shook her head "No I don't know! We haven't seen Toodles since..." Abigail started to fidget with her hands anxiously. She wasn't sure what else to say. That was all the news she could really give him.
"Damnit!" Gyro sounded more pissed than worried. "You know, Abigail. Gloria and I have gone through so much shit and I am absolutely done. It seems like more people hate us more than they hate the McDuck's! Ridiculous!" He crossed his arms. "Whatever. We'll get out of it. We always do."
Sure. He was super worried they wouldn't before, but at this point he didn't give a shit about anything. Gloria was right. They always got out of shit so it was only a matter of withstanding it all.
"But are you okay?" He had to keep reminding himself that Abigail was only 15.
"Y-yes I am alright. Launchpad was kind enough to keep me company."
"Anytime, Miss A!" Launchpad gave her a thumbs up. "We were playing eye spy! Your unconscious body was usually the thing that I picked as the thing I was spying!"
Gyro tried to ignore that as best as he could. God that was so weird.
"Okay, well-"
The holographic door turned off, and Heidi, along with two robots, entered. She snapped her fingers. "Robots, get the girl and the himbo out of here."
The robots didn't even need to ask who the himbo was. It was obvious Gyro was the incel.
A crying Abigail and a smiling Launchpad were escorted out to be taken to another cell as Heidi smiled, waving her hand for someone outside to come in.
It was none other than, ya boy, Toodles. He held Gloria in front of him and pushed her onto the floor. Hard.
Gyro immediately panicked, worried she had hurt her head as badly as he had.
"Oh my god, Gloria!" He knelt down beside her, immediately hugging her though she was still on the ground. "Are you alright? What happened?" He didn't even question why the hell Heidi was evil all of a sudden. At this point he was just going to go with it. He didn't like Heidi anyway.
She hugged him back but she was clearly shaking. "Gyro, you have to get out of here. They're going to hurt you!" She whispered so Heidi and Toodles couldn't hear.
That only made him hug her tighter. "Obviously they're going to hurt me." Dude could never stop being snarky no matter the situation. "But I'm not just going to leave you here."
Heidi and Toodles had no idea what they were saying but both decided to let them have a moment considering what was about to go down. Heidi decided to turn the holographic door back on while they had their little chat.
"Damnit!" Gloria cursed under her breath when she heard the cell door close. Now he couldn't even attempt to leave. "No, Gyro, this is bad. I don't know how but you need to figure a way out of here. I'll do my best to stall them." There wasn't a way out but that was the only thing she could say to him given her state of panic.
"If you stall them then they'll hurt you." He said. "They want you alive for awhile Gloria, so you have a higher chance of escaping, okay? I've been hurt before. And we always get out of sticky situations, right? That's what you said so it'll be fine." For once, he sounded pretty confident.
Gloria started crying into his shoulder and clutched onto his shirt. "No, not this time... I-I am so scared."
Fuck. When Gloria cried, you knew it was bad. And it only made it harder for Gyro to stay composed.
He started rubbing circles on her back. "Hey hey, I promise you it'll be okay. You have to trust me. F.O.W.L is nothing compared to Tina and T-bag."
"Alright. That's enough." Toodles snapped. "Let's move the show along, Heidi. I don't got all day. My lunch break is soon and I have a Lunchables waiting for me."
"Fine. You better have one for me though."
"Why the fuck would I have one for you?! I didn't know we were getting a new crew member today!"
Heidi ignored him and walked forward, pulling Gloria away from Gyro with unsettling ease.
Gyro was getting up to go to her aid when Heidi kicked him back.
"Heidi! What the fuck?! I thought you were on our side! I thought you and Gloria were best friends!"
"No!" Heidi spat. "We never were."
"Oh, so she hurt your feelings and you decided to join F.O.W.L?!"
Man. No one was catching on that she was basically being mind controlled.
Heidi ignored him and pulled out a knife.
Gyro didn't have time to speak, scream, or think as she drove the knife down into a major artery of his.
Well, not exactly. It was a major vein connected to the aorta.
Gyro knew immediately what she was doing. He was going to bleed to death but she wanted it to be slow.
Heidi ripped the knife out, wiping the blood on her shirt before turning to Gloria and smirking. "There. It's a gift from me to you. He'll stay alive for a little while longer."
She was in shock. It took a few moments for her brain to catch up with her and for her to realize what had just happened. "Gyro?! GYRO?! Oh my god! Oh my god!" Gloria started crying harder and crawled next to him. She was afraid to even touch him for fear that she might cause him even more pain.
Her sadness turned into anger that she directed at Heidi and Toodles. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
Heidi's evil smirk sent shivers up Gloria's spine. She couldn't bear to look at either of them anymore, and directed her attention back to Gyro again.
"No no no no no no this- this can't be happening!" She went against her own past judgement and put her hand and head on his shoulder.
"We'll be back in a few hours. I really need a visit to Starducks." Toodles gestured for Heidi to follow them and they left without another word, leaving Gloria in tears.
They both ignored them. Gloria lifted her head up and continued to sob, keeping her eyes shut. "I am so sorry! Please... this can't be happening! Please tell me what to do! How do I save you?!" The only thing she knew to do was to apply pressure to the wound, but that wouldn't be enough to save his life.
"Just keep applying pressure, okay?" He lifted his hand, which thankfully didn't have blood on it, to stroke her cheek. "Mark survived a bullet to the head. You really think I'm going to die?"
Gyro did think he was going to die, but there was no way in hell he was going to tell Gloria that.
Gloria couldn't answer that question. She kept her hand on his wound. He was already losing a lot of blood. "I'm so sorry, Gyro! For everything!" She put an arm under him to help support his head. "I've messed up so many times and now you're-..." She couldn't find her words so she started over. "I love you. I love you so much, Gyro! I wish I had said it more..."
He laughed. "You didn't mess up. I messed up. But, like I keep telling you, it'll work out." Gyro tried to keep his snarky tone to try to make her feel better but he eventually sighed and gave up. "Look, when Heidi left I noticed a chip on the back of her head. There is no doubt in my mind that she is being controlled somehow. Mind controlled, brain washed, whatever you want to call it. So don't hold this against her, okay?"
That made sense. Mind control was something they used on Launchpad back in Agartha. Of course Toodles would bring that back to use against her. Especially since she was the one that was able to knock out Launchpad's chip all of those years ago. She nodded "I won't. I'll do my best to help her snap out of it." Again, she had no clue how that was going to happen, but she promised him anyways.
"Good." There was a long pause. Gyro wanted to fall asleep but he knew he couldn't. He decided it was best to keep talking to help stay awake. "Alright. I can't trick you. If I don't get professional treatment now, I'm going to die. I have a few hours, maybe a day if Heidi really knew what she was doing and wanted it to be that slow." He winced. Hopefully his body would go numb to the pain soon. "I love you so much, Gloria. I'm sorry for everything I did to you. I don't deserve you."
She still had tears streaming down her face while she shook her head. "No. Don't say that. That you don't deserve me..." She looked up around the room as if there would be an answer somewhere. "There has to be something I can do! Anything! Please, I-I don't know what to do here. What would I have to do to help stop the bleeding?" Gloria held him closer to herself, practically cradling the top half of his body.
He shook his head. "Gloria, even if we had a medical kit, stitches aren't going to cut it. I need a full on surgery here." His voice had turned shaky; now it was beginning to be hard to speak. "Listen... I just- I really need to close my eyes for a little while. I know that doesn't sound good but you can shake me awake if you feel my pulse slow down."
She hated that, and she felt her heart drop after he said it. "O-okay..." She gently kissed him. It was the first time they had kissed since that whole argument started, which felt like years ago now. She adjusted the hand that was supporting him and kept it on his pulse. "I'll need you to wake up again, okay? Promise me that you'll wake up."
Gyro nodded. "I promise I'll wake." He actually couldn't promise her that but he closed his eyes anyway.
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Wyatt was sprinting up and down the halls of the new F.O.W.L headquarters, trying to find everyone and them escape. All he knew was that he needed to find Gyro, Gloria, Abigail, and Launchpad, and Steelbeak. He was tasked to look after Ellie, Mark, Kyle and Steelbeak. He had no idea where the others would be and what has happened to any of them. That wasn't his field. The worst part was that he couldn't ask for any help and he barely functioned under pressure. This was taking a lot of out of him to say the least.
He was searching for what seemed like an hour until he bumped into Mr. B. Shit.
"Wyatt, what are you doing down here? This isn't where Ellie and the others are being held..."
Wyatt felt like he was just caught red-handed, and him shaking and sweating wasn't helping his case. "O-oh! M-Mr. B! Yes, I know where they are being held... I just..." He looked around the hallway before back at him "I was looking for a torture chamber perhaps?... You know, l-like a place to really h-hurt Ellie."
Mr. B crossed his arms and glared at him.
"U-uh... yeah... I-I'll just be going now-" Wyatt tried to walk past him but Mr. B quickly grabbed a hold of his arm. His grip was so tight Wyatt could tell he would get a bruise from it.
"You're not going anywhere!" Mr. B easily saw right through Wyatt and figured out what had happened. He swiftly punched Wyatt in the gut before grabbing a hold of his hair and forcing him to follow.
"Ow! L-let go of me!"
"No. You think you could just betray me and F.O.W.L without facing the consequences?! You knew when you came here what this organization is capable of and now.... Now you're going to see it first hand."
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Boyd peaked through the window of Goth IHOP and gulped. "I- I think Mara is in there. It's too dark for me to make out a lot of features."
After escaping F.O.W.L headquarters, Boyd immediately went into rocket feet mode, with Kyle on his shoulder, and flew to the nearby town outside of Duckburg. They had been looking for hours but eventually Kyle noticed one of Mara's four remaining butlers enter the Goth IHOP.
Kyle was peaking into the window too. Luckily he was a cockroach so he was able to see into the wonderful establishment that is Goth IHOP. He looked up at Boyd. "Yeah, they're in there. Let's roll!"
"Wha- I'm not sure if I can go in there. It's scary..."
"It'll be fine! It just looks intimidating but just think of it as an IHOP that's celebrating Halloween! Do you like Halloween?"
"Um... yeah? What kid doesn't like Halloween?" Boyd was finally convinced enough to enter. The first thing he noticed was the prominent "Goth" music. Bauhaus.
It was darker than any fancy restaurant imaginable, but Boyd could still make out the waiters and waitresses with heavy black makeup, crosses, heavy jewelry, piercings, dyed black hair and so forth. Everything goth and cliche you can imagine. Not to mention the inside kind of looked like either a satanic cult or a vampire's lair. Maybe both.
A part of Boyd wondered why someone such as Mara would go to a dining facility that was less than five stars, but he didn't really want to know the answer.
"Um... do you wanna be seated or something? Or are you just going to stand there, kid?" The hostess asked. Her tone was monotone, not as much as Ellie's but still. Another tiny detail was she was chewing black gum that was dying her teeth grey. Ew.
"Ummm... n-no thanks. One of my family members is already here."
The waitress shrugged and pulled on some wicca book to start reading.
Luckily the place wasn't too crowded so Boyd made it over to where Mara and her butlers were sitting fairly easily. He almost bumped into a group of emo teenagers that gave him a mean look, but now wasn't the time to cry.
"H-hi, Aunt Mara..." Boyd said as he approached.
Kyle remained silent. He wasn't sure how Mara would react to roaches, or a post F.O.W.L agent.
Mara immediately pulled out her gun and pointed it at Kyle. "Kid, you have 20 seconds to explain why you came here with the enemy."
Her butlers were ready to fucking kill Kyle when given the command.
"Oh shit!" Kyle put his tiny cockroach hands up.
"HE'S WITH ME BECAUSE HE'S GOOD! DON'T SHOOT HIM!" Boyd never yelled, but he was not about to see a new friend of his die. "HE HELPED ME ESCAPE! PROMISE!"
Mara shrugged and put her gun away. Her butlers leaned back in their seats. "Okay, good enough for me. Sit."
Boyd sat at one end of the booth, next to one of Mara's butlers. He was nervously fiddling with his hands.
"What do you want, kid?"
"Well... everyone got kidnapped. My entire family. So I was hoping you could help them escape?" He quickly remembered something Kyle had requested. "Oh. And Steelbeak. He's good now too. I promise." Boyd crossed his definitely real boy heart.
"Yeah figured as much. Either they were kidnapped or your pussy-ass family just decided to ditch me..." She continued "I was planning on bombing the place right after I got some good goth pancakes. Why should I push my schedule back just to save those disgusting heathens?" She took a long sip of her coffee, which was black. They didn't serve any other type of coffee at Goth IHOP.
"Bomb them?!" Kyle screamed. "But my mother and father are in there! You can't do that!"
"Of course I can, brat. I just said that was my plan after pancakes."
Boyd shook his head. "Y-you can't do that! Please, Aunt Mara!" He had already begun to cry. "My family offered to help you if you needed it so why would you kill them in return?! I know they would help you if you needed it! Even Mark would help you!" Actually, Mark probably wouldn't but whatever. "If you kill them then you're no better than F.O.W.L!" Boyd balled his fists. "If you don't save them... then- then... I'll kill you!"
...well damn.
All of the butlers glared at him, making Boyd feel small. Mara let out a very loud laugh. "That's the funniest thing I've heard all day! And this asshole over here," Mara pointed to the butler sitting next to her. "Told me earlier that it wasn't okay to drop kick a kindergartener!" Mara controlled her laugh and composed herself, wiping a fake tear from her eye. "Okay, kid. You convinced me. I really don't have anything else going on so I guess I could be the amazing badass I am and save all of your pathetic family members." Damn, was she implying that she didn't view Mark as family? "It won't be too difficult to get them out." Mara laughed again. "Those pussies..."
Both Boyd and Kyle sighed in relief.
"T-thank you... Mara." Yep. Boyd wasn't calling her Aunt anymore. "I promise I'll make it up to you."
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