Chapter Text
The Duke of Making a Mess is no more. Huey quelled the enraged gremlin inside of him by joining with his calm, meticulous public facade. As perceptive as he is, Huey didn’t realize his anger is a part of the Duck family. Uncle Donald tried his best to hide his anger management issues from the boys while they were growing up. Huey opened up to him about his own anger issues and his uncle counseled and consoled him.
Lena’s advice still echoed in his brain from time to time: “You can’t ignore the parts of yourself you don’t like. They can be your true strength.” While Huey still led with his rule-abiding code, occasionally his anger would go up from a simmer to a boil, usually as a result of Dewey’s shenanigans. But with the Duke of Making a Mess under control, Huey is much more comfortable not having to expend so much energy suppressing his anger.
Peace settled over the McDuck and Duck families after FOWL’s downfall. They could return to their normal, adventuring lives. For the first time in months, he needn't worry over FOWL’s next move or research a Missing Mystery. “It’s nice to do things for fun now,” he told Fenton. He devotes his time to old and new passions. He’s ready to try again at graduating to Senior Woodchuck. He and Boyd collaborated on some projects for the Junior Woodchucks. Fenton promised him some time in Gearloose Labs. Their project in the lab is focusing on the Solego And of course, relearning how to enjoy their adventures without the threat of an organization looming behind him.
Scrooge made an unusual choice for that summer. After their “last adventure”, he decided the family needed a break. Della and Dewey argued with him for three days. “I came too close to losing you all, I don’t want it to happen again,” he explained. “Some of you twice,” he pointedly added. Della took that personally. Huey heard the yelling all the way from Scrooge’s office.
Louie was thrilled and Huey couldn’t help but agree. He didn’t mind staying in Duckburg for the summer. The Junior Woodchucks are offering a High-Tech summer camp. It’s been a while since the last tech focused activities. Excitedly showing the flyer to Fenton and Boyd, Gandra looked up from her project. “Isn’t that camp sponsored by Waddle?” she asked.
Huey stopped and reexamined the poster. “No, I don’t think so. I wouldn’t have missed that.” Sure enough in the lower corner of the poster is a small ‘W’. He grimaced. “Oh. I don’t think I want to go to it then…” he trailed off before something occurred to him. “Wait… Didn’t Beaks get into any trouble for breaking into your house?”
When Fenton and Huey returned from the Gizmocloud, they found the Waddle CEO passed out in Fenton’s hamper. Conveniently, Officer Cabrerra arrived at the same time and arrested Beaks for breaking and entering. Charges were pressed, but the billionaire escaped punishment without so much as a slap on the wrist. Huey was so wrapped up in FOWL conspiracies, he forgot about the break in.
“No, not really. He got away with it,” Fenton sighed. To him, Beaks breaking into his house, attempting to steal his and Gandra’s work, and harming him and his friends only to get away with all of it is rubbing salt in an open wound.
“Oh, how it is to be rich,” Gandra groused.
Huey looked at the poster again. Conflict bounced around his brain. Yes, going to a Woodchuck camp would be amazing. On the other hand, going to a Woodchuck camp sponsored by Waddle is an uncomfortable idea. If he had never interacted with the guy, he’d feel fine going to the camp. But after seeing the parrot’s dubious and illegal actions, Huey wasn’t too sure if this would be a good idea. What if he is planning something?
Boyd chirped, freeing his friend from his thoughts . “Don’t worry Huey. I doubt Mr. Beaks will actually be there. I think he is trying to use his money for good! We’ll be fine as long as we are together!”
That was all the validation Huey needed. “You know what? You’re right, Boyd. Let’s go!”
Gandra and Fenton wished they could share Boyd’s optimism. After putting up with the Waddle CEO’s actions, they came to the same unspoken decision. If Huey and Boyd are going to the camp, they would go too.
Across Duckburg, the Waddle CEO groaned dramatically, laying across his desk. He can’t believe he’s been reduced to sponsoring some cringy camp for kids. “I’m Mark Beaks! Why am I doing this?”
Sitting on the other side of his desk, a senior member of his legal team explained why for the fifth time.“Sir, you need some good publicity. One summer camp won’t hurt your image. In fact, it should make all the difference.”
Admittedly, Beaks had no idea what took place in those types of camps. When he was a kid, he pleaded with his father to not be enrolled in the Junior Woodchucks. It was either that or baseball. Talking Coach Dad out of baseball too was a wasted effort. “So, like, what are we going to do? Teach them how to use a computer?”
The gull got out of his seat. “It’s your camp. You decide what to do with the expanding minds of today’s youth. Have a good night.”
Mark watched him leave. He groaned again, repeatedly hitting his forehead against the desk. “Ugh. Gross.” Pulling out his phone, he looked up what type of science and tech focused projects the Woodchucks have done in the past. Bottle rockets? Blech. Environment conservation? Who cares? Space Exploration? Sure could be cool, but kids got nothing on that yet. Robotics? Now hold on.
This caught his attention. Sitting upright, he clicked on the ‘robotics’ link. A large picture occupied most of the page. In it, the red kid of McDuck and that robot boy he ‘adopted’ for that party stood in front of a large robot amongst other campers. It must have been something they made. That robot kid… What was its name again?
He completely forgot about the robot until he heard about it on Twitter. The robot went on a rampage through the city. Beaks read about it in an online article, but it didn’t elaborate on what its fate was. He assumed it was destroyed. How interesting. A robot kid wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to go to a tech camp. Time to make some calls.