#drquack

This drabble is a sequel to the ‘I.N.E.P.T Gets Repaired and Freed’ storyline. You can find the beginning of said storyline here. It is also related to the ‘Dr. Quack gets Fired’ storyline.

Quack wandered down into the dark mineshafts where he knew many of the minecarts called home. Many carts rushed by him, not seeming to pay him any mind, but Quack was paying close attention. He was desperately trying to find Kartos, but many of the carts looked almost identical to him. Quack was hoping that Kartos would end up spotting him instead.

After nearly an hour of searching, Quack nearly chickened out and turned around to return to the surface. The caves harshly triggered his claustrophobia and his mind kept imagining cave-ins in front of and behind him. It was terrifying.

Quack stopped and rested himself against the nearby wall, waiting for a few short moments. He was catching his breath and was trying to clear his mind of any negative thoughts. In those moments, he considered going home and trying again another day... but then he heard something.

“Quack?”

Dr. Quack immediately shot his head over to the voice. He was scared at first, but then he saw the cart that had just spoke to him. Again, he looked like most of the other minecarts, but Dr. Quack assumed he must’ve been the right one. “Kartos?”

“That’s right.” He paused. “I reckon that you don’t belong ‘round here. Aren’t ya supposed to be with that bee guy?”

Quack rubbed the back of his head. “I was, uh... fired, actually. I don’t work for Capital B anymore.”

Kartos’ expression remained stoic. “Well, ain’t that a shame. What brings ya down here? I hope you don’t plan on botherin’ mah friend.”

Quack nodded his head. “I-i’m not going to bother him. You’re talking about I.N.E.P.T, right? I just want to talk to him. For a little bit. You know... apologize?”

Kartos grimaced. “Well, I can’t see that he’s interested in talkin’ to you, Quack. After what he’s said, I reckon you don’t deserve his company. Even to apologize.”

Quack sighed. “Is there anything I could do to make it up to him? I just spent the past hour going through this maze looking for you! That should mean something.”

Kartos paused again. “I s’pose it does, but you’ll need to do a little better than that. You put ‘im in a world of hurt, ya see? That robot don’t trust nobody no more. Just me and some of mah friends.”

“I know! I know!” Quack paced in a quick circle, then faced Kartos again. “Look... I’m a changed duck. I made friends with Yooka and Laylee. They let me hang out with them. They let me stay with them on their ship.” He frowned. “I just... I want to right my wrongs. Now that I don’t work for Hivory Towers, I got to see where I went wrong.” Quack looked down to the ground. “Can I please see I.N.E.P.T.?”

Kartos rolled a bit closer to Dr. Quack and looked him up and down, trying to determine how genuine he was being. “I’mma go talk to him. Tell him what you said. If he wants to see you, then I’ll come get ya, but for now... you’d best be on yer way. You won’t be seein’ him today.”

Quack paused for a moment, then nodded his head. “Alright, thank you Kartos.”

“I love you.”

Dr. Quack stood at the base of the elevator leading up to Capital B’s office. He used this elevator almost elevator in order to do various tasks for B, but this time was suddenly so much more difficult. He’d let the doors open... then he’d let them close.

Quack let this go on for several more moments before taking a deep breath and rolling his gumball machine suit into the elevator and pressing the button for the top floor labelled “B”. He closed his eyes, immediately opening them when he heard the elevator make a quiet ding. The doors opened again, and Quack could see Capital B sitting at his desk.

B was going through a series of paperwork that was sprawled out on his desk. Quack could never really tell if he was actually looking at the papers, or if he was just trying to look busy. This time, though, Quack thought it might be the former. “What is it, Dr. Quack?” Capital B muttered, looking up at the duck. “I don’t think I called you up here. Is something broken again?”

“N-no...” Quack said as he rolled to the front of Capital B’s desk. After a short moment of pause, Quack’s gumball machine made a few beeping and hissing noises as the glass head rose into the air and the metal body separated. Quack was easily able to step through his contraption. “Nothing is broken. I was just... wondering if you had a moment to talk about something important.”

“What kind of important?” B asked, shifting his papers to the side as he leaned on his desk to look down at the shorter duck. “Is it business-related?”

“It’s not,” Quack replied quickly. “It’s... personal. But it pertains to the both of us, so... I thought you’d want to hear it.” He gave Capital B an uncomfortable smile.

B blinked. He tapped his fingers on his desk a couple of times before laying them to rest. “Alright, I’m all ears. Whatever has you this worked up must be important.” He rested back in his chair.

Quack nodded his head as he held his wings behind his back. “Yes, very important. We have been together with this business for... quite some time now, and lately, we’ve been spending quite a lot of time together.” Quack lightly clapped his wings together. “And in that time, I think I’ve developed these feelings.”

B’s grimace loosened. His breath quickened as he leaned forward. “... What sort of feelings?”

Quack closed his eyes, quickly bringing his wings behind his back again. “B, I...” He took a deep breath, then another before opening his eyes. “I love you.”

Then silence.

“Do you have an extra blanket?” [Winter Starter Sentences]

“Aren’t you cold?” Banjo asked, staring at Dr. Quack.

Dr. Quack was simply wearing a thin sweater as snow fell all around them. He stood up and rubbed his wings together. “This is nothing. Capital B used to throw me out into the cold all of the time!”

“Seriously? That’s terrible,” Yooka said as he wrapped himself into a second jacket. He held his hands out to grab some of the snow. “Well... we won’t throw you out into the cold, Quack. Except, you know, right now. Until we can get all of the holes in the ship patched up.”

“That’s why you don’t tickle a cannon while it’s facing your home,” Banjo said. “Do you have an extra blanket?”

Yooka handed Banjo a big green blanket. “And this is why you don’t come to winter wonderland wearing nothing but shorts.”

“I’m a bear. I have a thick layer of fur... I thought it would be enough.”

“Well, now you’re getting two more layers,” Yooka said, handing Banjo another blanket. He looked up past Banjo and noticed someone coming up from the hill. “Hey, who’s that?”

Dr. Quack followed Yooka’s gaze, then took a deep breath. “Oh... false alarm. It’s just my former boss.”

“Got room for one more?” Capital B asked.

“I’m out of blankets,” Yooka said. “Also... no. You’re not welcome.”

“I’m still getting used ta the whole ‘hang out with your enemy’ thing,” Banjo said.

“What do you want?” Dr. Quack asked Capital B.

“I, uh well...” Capital B rubbed his hands together. “I just wanted to talk to you. Maybe somewhere private.”

“What could you possibly want to talk ab-...”

1. “Do you want me to leave?”

Dr. Quack slowly rolled into Capital B’s office and kept his gaze at the bee for a couple of moments before saying, “I was in the middle of optimizing the lobby. What do you want?”

Capital B got up from his chair and put down a manila folder onto his desk. “I’ve been reviewing your file and comparing it to some of our records. There’s been some... problems.”

Quack immediately froze from the sound of that. How was he going to get out of this one? “W-what kind of problems?”

Capital B cleared his throat before leaning against his desk. “All of your little... modifications to Hivory Towers, most of which got damaged within the first couple of days of installation. They were never tampered with, were they? They were faulty by design.”

“Eh-heh... I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dr. Quack looked away. “It’s clearly the Corplets. So sloppy.”

Capital B shook his head. “No. It wasn’t them. And this would be something I could let go, but none of your precautions to stop the chameleon and bat from coming in have been successful thus far.”

“But...”

“And one more thing,” Capital B said as he opened up Dr. Quack’s file and pulled out several handwritten documents and placed it in front of Dr. Quack. “This is the research you submitted to me. Notice how clean the handwriting is? It looks a little like Puzz’s handwriting, doesn’t it?”

Dr. Quack hesitantly smiled, letting out a couple of small chuckles. “N-no.”

Capital B sighed. “Well, I’m glad I know that I worked with a fraud this whole time.” He put down the papers and glared at Dr. Quack. “And I think it’s time I found someone else who actually can do anything.”

Dr. Quack gasped, a sorrowful look in his eyes. “Do you want me to leave?”

41. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”

Capital B stamped his feet as he walked over to Dr. Quack. He was glaring sinisterly at him. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”

Dr. Quack slowly moved backwards as he watched his boss move closer and closer. “N-no... I think it’s a really good idea. Maybe we can just ask the chameleon and the bat to hand over their Pagies. They seem reasonable.”

“That’s just a cop-out,” Capital B said, throwing his hand up into the air before finally turning around. He crossed his arms behind his back. “Are you just getting lazy, Dr. Quack? Have those quiz shows of yours made you soft?”

“No, of course not!” Dr. Quack exclaimed, quickly moving forward towards Capital B’s side. “My quiz shows are really slowing them down, I swear.”

“No they’re not!” Capital B exclaimed. “They’re a terrible game mechanic and everyone knows it.” He grumbled to himself. “You said that you were smarter than your counterpart, Dr. Puzz. You did all of that amazing research. Why don’t you show me what you’re made of and get out there and stop that chameleon and bat?”

“Y-yes, sir!” Dr. Quack said sheepishly before quickly rushing out of Capital B’s office.

87. “Hey! I was gonna eat that!”

It was such a long day for Dr. Quack. Since Capital B always just enclosed himself in his office and dealt with the bosses many demands, Dr. Quack was left to do all of the chores and “lesser jobs” throughout Hivory Towers. If the minions weren’t so lazy, Dr. Quack wouldn’t have to work so hard.

The only consolation was that Dr. Quack had a very delicious sandwich waiting for him in the upper staff break room. As he rolled himself into the room, the dreams of eating that peanut butter and honey sandwich... were suddenly crushed. “Hey! I was gonna eat that!” Dr. Quack quickly rolled over to the table that Capital B was sitting at. 

Capital B was munching away at a small sandwich, already halfway through it. “This is yours, Quack? Peanut butter and honey? This sounds like something that I would make for myself.”

“But you don’t make food! Your minions make all of your meals. I explicitly put that in the container that was labelled with my name.”

“You know I don’t have the best vision, Quack,” Capital B said, going through the rest of the sandwich.

“That’s Dr. Quack. I didn’t go get my PhD in Duck Science just for you not to call me by my proper title.” Dr. Quack growled.

“You expect to be called Dr. Quack?” Capital B asked, standing up and bringing himself close to Dr. Quack’s glass tank. “Then you gotta call me King Capital B, since I’m the king of everything here.”

“That’s not how it works!”

Capital B chuckled. “It is now.”