Work Text:
“Who is Gizmoduck?” Mark tore the images of him off his corkboard, furiated. He desperately wanted to know the identity behind the mask, but how? That's what he had to figure out. And he would; he's Mark Beaks, the best billionaire in Duckburg. Despite what his employees constantly told him, he was not obsessed with Gizmoduck. He just wanted the suit for himself, and to be the first one who knew his identity. Obviously. Because there was no way nobody else knew, right? Right. The remaining image on the board stood in the very middle, an image he had taken of the hero's first appearance. In the corner, he had written “Gizmoduck!?” in all red. He ran the back of his finger across Gizmoduck's face. “Gizmoduck will be mine. Wait, that sounds weird. Uhhh.. Gizmoduck will work for me and me alone? Yeah, that's better.”
“Dr Gearloose, Dr Gearloose- ACK!” Fenton, not looking where he was going, ran right into Dr Gearloose, knocking them both onto the floor.
“Oof! Intern..” he grumbled, “I really don't know how you ever became a superhero.”
Fenton picked himself up. “Oh, that's actually what I wanted to talk to you about! See, I have some ideas of some additions we could add to the suit! Do you have the time to talk about it?” Innocent as ever, Fenton looked down at his boss with shining eyes.
Gyro got up off the floor and dusted off his clothes. “I have the time, yes, but it will not be wasted on hearing you out.”
Fenton's face dropped. “What? Why?”
“Because I call the shots, intern. I control what happens to the suit. If anyone else got to add modifications, it could go haywire.”
“Your inventions already go haywire.”
Gyro's face scrunched in anger. “Get out and stop wasting my time, Gizmoduck.”
Fenton sighed, before he suddenly he got an idea. “Say, Dr Gearloose, if I happened to somehow get my ideas funded by Mr. McDuck, would you hear me out then?”
Gyro thought for a minute. “Hm, sure. But you'll never get his approval. He tries not to fund anything I do in fear that he's wasting money on something that'll break almost immediately. So, I guess I give you my luck.”
Fenton's face lit up. “You won't regret this!”
“I hope not..”
“Ugh, these plans all suck!” Mark exclaimed, shoving his papers aside to scroll on his phone and chug a highly carbonated soda, his 5th of the day. He'd go to hell and back to know who was behind the gear, but he still wasn't obsessed. That would be crazy. He just wouldn't quit until he figured out a way to-
“Wait. Wait that's it! Oh, it was so obvious, I should've seen it before!” He slid on his chair to the other side of his desk, pulled a piece of paper on his notepad and scribbled something down. Then he held the papers in the air to get a good look at it. “Oh-ho-ho, I am a GENIUS! Take that, Gyro Gearloose!” He got up and started working on a plan to capture Gizmoduck once and for all.
“Aye, Dr Gearloose, what’s all this about?” Scrooge asked his trusted doctor as he walked into the lab.
Gyro rolled his eyes. “Apologies, Mr. McDuck, my intern had some ideas about innovations to the Gizmoduck suit he wanted funded.”
“Aren't you the one that controls what your interns do, lad?”
“Well-”
Fenton cut him off. “Yes, but he wouldn't let me, so I asked if you would fund it and that.. kinda determines its future?”
Scrooge sighed. “I'll fund your additions-”
“OH THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!”
“-IF, I decide I like them enough.”
“Deal!” He shook Scrooge’s hand frantically.
“Well then, lad, what's the first idea?”
“Well, first I was thinking..”
“... So?” Fenton looked up at Scrooge expentingly, smiling awkwardly, trying to hide his sweat.
“Aye, if you can pull it off, I'll pay for it! I gotta say, that's some brain you have!”
“Really?” His eyes lit up from the approval of his boss. Well, boss’ boss. So basically, if he screwed this up, his ACTUAL boss may ACTUALLY fire him. Not that much at stake or anything.
So, he worked, and he worked, and he implemented the upgrades into the suit. It looked like a dream. He could barely contain himself as he spoke the words and equipped the suit. He did backflips, and he spun around, and he tested every new implementation.
“Ha ha ha! You really did it, lad!” Scrooge complimented.
“I'm impressed, intern,” Gyro agreed, nodding in approval.
“Really? Thank you!”
“If only we had a way to really test it though..”
BOOM
Everyone was caught off guard by the giant booming sound from outside.
“I uh.. think you found it.”
Gizmoduck flew through the air towards.. Where was he going? Ah right, Waddle Industries! Wait, Waddle Industries? Blathering blatherskite, he had a bad feeling about this. But he couldn't ignore the giant explosion; they had all heard it. Mark Beaks could be seriously in trouble. Or maybe one of the other employees. But it was probably Mark Beaks. As he landed at the building, he found the source of the explosion: an overheated machine, causing a giant technical fire. He raced over to find and save any victim's, to find the only one being Mark Beaks, who appeared to be.. crying?
“Mr Beaks! Are you okay?”
“Look around and you decide that!” he shot back.
Gizmoduck sighed. “Alright,” he whispered to himself before shooting off to save the victim. First test, turbo button. He pressed the button placed on his thigh. It sped him faster than anticipated. “WOAHH!” He flew past Mark Beaks. Test 1: fail. They'd have to tweak that one.
“Do I have to save myself over here?” Mark retorted, rolling his eyes.
“I'm coming, just wait!”
He turned back around with a squeal, and grabbed Mark Beaks before the fire could burn him. They sped over to wherever Mark told him to, and set him down on his suspiciously high platform.
“Oh thank you, Gizmoduck!”
Gizmoduck tilted his head. “You're.. thanking me? Mark Beaks is thanking me?” He chuckled. “That's a first.”
“I was really scared back there! I may not've made it.”
“Don't worry, sir, I always make sure every citizen is safe!”
Mark grabbed his phone from his pocket. “Ooh, let's go down and take a celebratory picture together!”
“Oh, uh, alright!”
Gizmoduck glided down to the floor while Mark took the stairs. They posed about 15 feet in front of another suspiciously placed machine of Mark's. He pulled out his phone and angled it.
“Mm, not good enough. Let's go back a bit.” 10 feet. “A little more…” 5 feet. “Perfect! But augh, the lighting is bad. Lemme just fix it. Stay right there!” As Gizmoduck twiddled his fingers, Mark ran back up the steps to “fix the lighting”. As he flipped the switch, the machine standing behind Gizmoduck suddenly extended. Two arms wrapped around his waist, while the other stabbed into his back to lock him in place.
“Wha- what is this?? Let me out of here!” He tried to use the new add ons to the suit, but they weren't responding. He started to panic. He was sweating inside his suit, his breathing was picking up, and he was scared, really scared, for the first time since he became Gizmoduck.
“I GOT YOU! AHAHA! How does it feel to be busted by Mark Beaks?”
“What are you doing? I saved you!”
Mark just laughed evilly. “Who do you think caused the fire?”
Gizmoduck completely stopped breathing for a good few seconds. “You.. what?”
“The fake crying, the celebratory photo.. This was a set up! And you fell for it!”
“Ah, damn it!” He shouted something in Spanish, under his breath so Mark wouldn't hear him.
Mark grinned, a toothy grin, to show off his sharp teeth. “Now, for the important part.”
Gizmoduck looked up. “The.. important part?”
Without warning, the arm of the machine clinging to the suit's waist started removing the suit, dropping it to the ground with a loud clank. Gizmoduck started to panic. “Stop it, stop-”
But he wouldn't listen. Next was the forearms, then the shoulders, then the chest and neckplates, until finally, all that was left was the helmet. The answer he'd been waiting for since he saw the hero would finally be answered: Who was Gizmoduck? The arms lifted up to the helmet, and slowly started removing it. Gizmoduck was revealed, to be none other than..
“… Gyro Gearloose's dorky intern?” Mark took a step back. He genuinely couldn't believe what he was seeing. How could this guy be Gizmoduck? What even was his name?
“Let me go, let me go, please-”
“What's your name?”
“I- what?” He looked up.
“Name. What is your name?”
“I-I.. Fenton. Fenton.. Crackshell-Cabrera.”
“Interesting name.”
“Excuse me, why are you making small talk? You captured me. You won.”
Mark thought for a moment. “I'm gonna be real, I didn't think about what would happen if I caught you. I didn't think I'd get this far.”
“Really?” Fenton started calming down at the realization that he wasn't really in any danger.
“I..” For once, Mark was speechless. He didn't know what to say. For some reason, his face was heating up and his hands were sweating. “I think you need to go.”
“What? Then what was this even about?”
“All I really wanted was to know who you were, and now that I do.. I have no need for you.”
“So.. I can just go?”
The machine let go of him. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Can I take the suit?”
“What difference does it make?”
“A-alright. Blathering blatherskite?”
The suit attached itself to him once again, and he flew off. Beaks was stuck there, wondering what just happened. Luckily, his hidden cameras took pictures every time someone new entered the building, and Fenton was unknown to the system. Hm. Beaks had a lot to reflect on.
“Dr Gearloose, it didn't work. I was caught, and Mark Beaks found me out, and-”
“WHAT?” Gyro started freaking out. “What do you mean?? How did he find you out?”
Fenton smiled sheepishly. “Well, you know that explosion? Turns out it was a plot to capture me and..”
“Oh, for the love of-” He calmed himself briefly and turned to Fenton. “Are you hurt?”
“No, but the extra features – they didn't work out. I'm really sorry.”
Gyro sighed. “It's fine, it's fine. I can help you fix them.”
Fenton perked up. “Really?”
“Why not? Mr. McDuck already funded it, the least we can do is show him you're worth all the trouble.” He ruffled the feathers on Fenton's head. “Oh, by the way, how did you escape? You said he captured you?”
“That's the weird part, actually; he let me go.”
Gyro looked unamused. “What?”
“Seriously! He could've killed me, or taken over the suit or kept me for ransom, but he didn't. He let me go quite easily. Which is.. odd, isn't it?”
“It's very strange. But you're safe, so I guess that's what matters right now. Alright, you gonna help fix the suit or not?”
Mark Beaks took the pictures from his hidden cameras and pinned them up next to his picture of Gizmoduck. He knew who Gizmoduck was, couldn't he give all this up now? Why did he let that guy go? Why was he suddenly feeling something weird? The same thing he'd felt the first time he ever saw Gizmoduck! It was unnatural. He wasn't familiar with it, therefore he didn't like it. Beaks was hyperventilating in his room, about to burst. He grabbed a nearby pillow and screamed into it. He wanted to destroy Gizmoduck. He had the stupid duck in his grasp and he slipped up. But Gizmoduck, or Fenton? would be back, he'd just have to be patient.