Hey for the dt17 pair snippet askbox, could you do Gabdra Dee and Penumbra? Science rebel and former military turned renegade could be a really fun dynamic to play with. Plus they both have a tendency to problem solve violence first. The chaos they could cause would be impressive.
OHHHHH-HO-HO-OOOO!! I love the way you think you wonderful striped sunhat, you. Lovely parallels. I did write one story where the two of them (and Gosalyn) watched both Della and Fenton rap a Run DMC song together; and honestly, it is SO TEMPTING to include their talkative loved ones in this story, but you know what? Let's not do that.
Punk Goes the Moonlander!
Penumbra was still adjusting to the city of Duckburg, but she knew to overcome that obstacle that she must face it head on. Which is why she was patrolling the city observing as much as she could; in other words, she was sight-seeing
And there were a lot of sights to be seen: tall buildings (which Penumbra found to be too tall for creatures so small), noisy earth vehicles in various colors passing by with their smelly fumes blowing out, and far more Dellas than she could have ever dreamed of seeing
While the noisy vehicles drove past Penumbra, the moon lander kept her attention on her path ahead. She was able to walk a straight path thanks to the citizens of politely stepping out of her path due to not wanting to upset the moonlander who was honestly not too focused on them and more on her surroundings
BWOOM-BWOOM-BWOOM-BWWWWOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!
It wasn't until Penumbra heard what sounded like a loud obnoxious airhorn blaring through the town of Duckburg that the moonlander's focus (not to mention the other Duckburg citizens around her) to be lost in the noise
Once her head stopped ringing, Penumbra decided to investigate the source of the noise, which wasn’t too hard to find thanks to a large crowd that gathered near the source
In front of the crowd stood two figures, one was some gray form of Della on what appeared to be a hoverless hoverboard, the other was her good friend Zenith
"HEEEeeellllooo Duckburg! Your favorite billionaire, Maaarrrk Beeeaaks is BAAAAaaack!!" shouted the loud gray Della who was apparently named Maaarrk Beeeaaks
Penumbra stepped a little more into the crowd, who looked in her direction as she did, but very few actually made direct eye contact with her when she looked in their direction
"And you beautiful people here today are the first to witness the First Day of a New Age of Duckburg!!" the bird on stage continued, "With my brilliant innovations, I will bring Duckburg straight to-..."
The stretched smile on the gray Della's face stood frozen as the entire crowd stayed quiet, he then nudged Zenith
"Oh, right! It's my line." Zenith said to herself with the kind smile she usually had on her face before leaning into the microphone on stage for her, "...to the moon!"
BWOOOOM-BWOOOM-BWOOOOM!!!
Both Penumbra and Zenith could not help but flinch as the sound of loud air horns blast through the speakers along with the roar of the crowd in front of Mark Beaks
As the cheers and the air horns died down, one lone Della's voice could still be heard, however unlike everyone else present it was a shout of rebellion rather than compliance. Penumbra's attention, along with others in the crowd was drawn to the brown Della who was dressed in a black shirt whose sleeves were ripped off
"Boooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" she shouted coning her palms around her beak so that the gray Della could hear every word that came from her mouth
Once she had everyone's attention, the brown Della looked to everyone that was with her, "Are you people seriously falling for this Silicon Valley Hack and all of his lies again?! Remember when he stole Gizmoduck and slapped his logo on it!? Or how all of his phones keep blowing up!?"
"That doesn't sound so b-"
"Not in a viral sense, but they are literally blowing up!" Gandra told the random crowd person who interrupted her
"Oh. Oh yeah, all that stuff was pretty bad..."
Penumbra watched as the rest of the crowd murmured in agreement, but what caught her eye was Maaarrk Beeeaaks typing away on his phone at a fast speed before nudging Zenith who checked her phone while he rolled forward on the hoverless hoverboard
"Yeah and not to mention recently he tried to steal mine and my collaborator's Gizmocloud idea and would've turned that t-"
"Gandra Dee: Everyone!!" the gray Della's voice boomed and interupted the Della that was apparently named Gandra Dee. "Still got that fire in ya I see, love that.”
“Yeah and I see that you’re still full of s-”
“Here’s a fun fact about our little protestor here: Did you know that Gandra was once an employee of mine?!”
A collective gasp and whispering overcame the crowd while the extra sassy Della rolled her eyes, “Yeah. It was one time and I broke off our partnership when you breached our contract by endangering the McDuck kids. I do what I can to get my funds, not all of us can inherit our mommy’s fashion-line fortune”
“Oooooooh ouch!” The gray Della’s forced smile somehow looked a little more twisted to Penumbra as he let out a chuckle. “That’s right folks, Waddle may have had a small loan of a million dollars in upstart money, but at least none of our resources came from a terrorist organization, such as FOWL!”
Another collective gasp overcame the crowd while they whispered even louder amongst themselves. Penumbra noticed the fire in Gandra die down as she started her response, “I-, Yes, I was once part of FOWL but I left them! I didn’t know how truly bad they were when I first joined-”
“And here she is bringing up my dirty laundry,” Mark Beaks cackled as his board hovered in circles, “Not to mention I did already publicly apologized for my mistakes” Mark Beaks signaled to Zenith whose phone's screen was being shared on the giant screen behind the two, waiting for Beaks to signal her to play the first video
“For stealing and rebranding Gizmoduck”
“For capturing those McDuck kids”
“And even for when I attempted to steal your little Gizmocloud project, which I admit is pretty impressive but I would never use because of you know, how you were able to get it made”
“I’m reaaaally sorry.”
“Aww, he said he was really sorry” some random guy from the crowd chimed in
“And I am.” Beaks said in a very solemn tone, “I even made apology videos for every single time one of my new line of phones blew up...literally...and virally!!!"
Once again the crowd roared with cheers from everyone except for Gandra whose jaw was dropped in disbelief, Mark Beaks who was soaking all this praise in, and Penumbra who was still observing everything
"That's right! And where is your apology video, Dee?!"
"Take a look at this everyone!" Mark interrupted as he once again signaled to Zenith, "the first and only video our friend Gandra Dee uploaded after she left F.O.W.L"
In the video Gandra was sitting at her desk when the sound of a familar voice spoke up,
"Gandra!" Huey spoke up from behind his phone camera getting the hen's attention, "The Gizmocloud is officially up! What do you have to say to everybody?!"
"Uhhhhhhhhh..." Gandra awkwardly began, "thank you everybody who helped contribute to our project. Obviously it's free to use, free for everyone. Annndd...I'm, very very proud of how it turned out." The hen then put on an even more awkward forced grin as she gave a couple thumbs up to Huey who gave a thumbs up back in front of the camera
"Uh, okay some notes:" Dewey Duck said as he stepped in front of the camera, "could use some more energy from you, Dee. Bigger smile too and Huey maybe we should put some googles or something on her to make her look extra smart and more like a scientist."
"NO!" Both Huey and Gandra responded in unison, the latter of which glared at the blue triplet.
Gandra covered her face in embarrassment as more murmurs and whispering overtook the crowd.
"Not a single apology from our feisty friend here," Beaks motioned to Gandra, "not to mention that anger directed at that sweet innocent McDuck kid."
"Terrible stage presence too!" Someone from the crowd the chimed in which got some "Yeah!"(s) from everyone else.
"Look, I had no idea they were going to film me." Gandra defended herself, "It was just cute little promotion that Huey wanted to do for the Gizmocloud and I just find his brother kinda irritating."
"Still terrible at working with others, huh Gandra?" Mark Beaks asked with his snakish smile. "Me, I'm one of the first tech billionaires to collaborate with a Moonlander: Zenith! Everybody give her a round of applause!"
The crowd once again cheered while Zenith just bashfully waved back.
Gandra made her to the stage and over to Zenith. "Zenith! Look, you seem like a nice Moonlander, but you should not be working with Mark Beaks! He's a liar and a fake! And you are ignorant of his past deeds becau-"
"Did she just call that Moonlander ignorant?!" Someone from the crowd shouted out
"What?!" Gandra turned around, "No! I was just-"
"Sounds like the only person who needs to change here is you, Dee." Mark Beaks leaned down from the stage in Gandra's face before facing the crowd again, "Amirite people!?"
"Yeah!" The entire crowd except for Penumbra and Gandra replied back
"Looks like I've made my point. Security, if you don't mind escorting that punk outta here."
"Don't bother," Gandra said before breaking from the crowd. "I'll see myself out."
Penumbra watched the hen and kept her attention on her till it was taken away due to Beaks' loud talking.
"And now that the Party Pooper has left the building it's time for me to unveil innovation!" Mark hyped the crowd up once again as he hopped up of his hoverboard and walked toward centerstage where a vehicle covered in a large tarp rose from the bottom of the stage
"And now, say hello to Earth's Very First-" Mark attempted to dramactically throw the tarp off, but it was much too heavy for him to do it in one swoop, in fact part of the vehicle unceremoniously peeked it's way out in the process. "Uggghhhh! Zenith! Be a dear and help me with this!"
"Oh! Of course, Mr. Beaks!" Zenith joined Mark Beaks and helped him take the tarp off the vehicle.
"Earth's Very First Hovercar!!!!" Mark Beaks announced as he revealed what looked like an expensive electric earth vehicle that was currently not hovering
"OOOOOOoooooh!!" The crowd reacted
"Now it's only a prototype but in no time Waddle will be launching these babies nationwide so we'll all be one step closer for the average man to make it TO THE MOOOOOOOOOON!!! Pew-Pew-Pew-Pew! Zenith if you may do the honors."
As Zenith pulled out a small remote, Mark Beaks rushed over and grabbed it from her, "Actually! Nevermind I wanna do the honors!"
It was that moment when Penumbra saw the car start hovering and heard the noise it was making when she knew had enough of this loud gray Della's nonsense and went after the snarky brown Della
It wasn't until she was a couple blocks away from the Waddle presentation when Gandra finally stopped walking and sighed to herself as she slid against a nearby building and sat down in defeat as she hugged her knees
With nothing else to do, Gandra turned on her Eye Bud as it displayed nearby transportation options.
"I had no idea Earth technology could be so impressive."
Gandra turned off her Eye Bud as the display disappeared and she faced the Moonlander who decided to follow her. "Yeah, I heard. A hovercar. So futuristic, bound to cause some accidents I'm sure..."
"No." Penumbra shook her head, "Not that 'invention' Maaarrrk Beeeaaks was showing off but that mini computer you have in your eye. Where did you get it?"
"Oh." Gandra Dee as she let go of her knees and stretched her legs on the ground, "I actually made it myself. Eye Buds, started off as a camera for your eyes and I kinda upgraded them to essentially a mini computer like you called it."
"You made them?" Penumbra inquired as she stood in front of the hen who kept her attention up at the towering moonlander. "So you're an Earth scientist."
Gandra scoffed. "Yeah, I guess that's one way of putting it."
"And I saw that you and I share some common allies, are you an Earth scientist for McDuck?"
"Pfft, no! I'm a freelancer. I go where I'm needed...but I'd be lying if I said I haven't collaborated with his team a lot lately."
"That 'Gizmocloud', right?"
"Yeah...I'm sorry, but is there something you need from me?"
"I do actually, but first I think I should properly introduce myself: my name is Lieutenant Penumbra, I was once part of the Moonlander army."
"Gandra, Gandra Dee. I was once a member of FOWL, you probably don't wanna associate yourself with me, you moonlander have enough trouble trying to fit in here as it is."
"That is were you are wrong, snarky Della."
"Gandra," Penumbra corrected herself before continuing, "like you, I see through Maaarrrk Beeeaaks's lies and need your help to expose him and free my good friend Zenith."
Gandra could not help but chuckle. "His name is actually just 'Mark Beaks', but why me? You're big and strong, I'm sure you can manage."
Penumbra picked up Gandra off the ground causing the hen to start kicking her legs in the air in resistance
"Hey! What the hell!? Put me down!"
"Please listen to me:" Penumbra began as the two once again made eye contact with one another. "Look, I'm still learning your Earth and all of it's people with their strange cultures, tendencies, and everything else. But one thing I can recognize anywhere is a charismatic phony telling people what they want to hear to take advantage of those people and when someone else is standing up for what they know is right despite what others might say or do to them to silence or humiliate them. Whatever happened in your past doesn't matter to me now, because the you that you are now is someone I know who can help me help my friend. And there's something I noticed about Mark Beaks' hovercar that just didn't sit right with me; I'll ask you one more time, will you help me?"
Gandra looked down for a moment as she processed all that the Moonlander had told her, when she looked back up at Penumbra, a devious smirk grew on Gandra's beak. "Tell me EVERYTHING, you noticed, Penumbra..."
Back on the Waddle Stage, Mark Beaks was showing off Waddle's next new phone.
"Not only did we remove EVERY single port on this device, we also guarantee that this phone will not literally blow up!"
Once again Mark Beaks soaked in the roar of the crowds as they cheered him on. He was on cloud nine. Right up until Penumbra jumped onto the stage and did a sick superhero landing right near the Waddle Hovercar.
"Oh, hello Penumbra!" Zenith waved to her friend who waved back. "Did Mark Beaks also hire you?"
"Nope." Penumbra then proceeded to punch the exterior of the car.
"AAAUGH!?" Mark Beaks clamped his head in distress. "What is that alien freak doing!? Somebody stop her!"
"Alien freak?" Zenith repeated in confusion.
Meanwhile backstage Gandra walked up to a random Waddle employee, "Excuse me. Did you know that if your head is the size of my palm you might have cancer?"
"Oh no! I better check that out!"
"Yoink!" Gandra said as she grabbed the employee's lanyard and placed it around her neck as he fell to the ground. Gandra then made her way to a large group of Waddle employees, "You guys better get out there! Some Moonlander is totally wrecking the hovercar! Beaks said the first one to knock her down will get to pick the next work retreat!"
"Oh boy, Duckburg Pottery Classes here we come!"
Gandra smirked as she watched everyone leave and looked over to the screens and saw that Penumbra was doing just fine beating up Beaks' car and knocking back anyone who dared fight her off.
"This should only be just a couple of minutes, Penny." Gandra cracked her knuckles and sat down at one of the computers, "Okay, Beaks; what do you got for me?"
"What the hell!? Do none of you nerds know how to fight!?" Mark yelled at his employees who retreated.
The crowd gasped in shock as the exterior of the car fell apart to reveal a Moonlander spaceship!
"...Aw, crap." Mark Beaks said to himself
Everyone on stage turned away and watched as Gandra Dee joined them as she slowly clapped, getting everyone's attention. "Thank Penumbra."
Penumbra nodded at Gandra
"That's right folks; Beaks' 'Innovative' 'New' 'Hovercar' is nothing more than a Moonlander spaceship covered in the exterior of his failed electric car line!"
"Gary! How could you betray the company like this?!" One of the random Waddle employees asked as he rubbed his arm.
Gandra looked down at the lanyard around her neck and then ripped it off and threw it to the ground causing the crowd to gasp.
Gandra ignored them as her Eye Bud displayed some blueprints for the Waddle Hovercar for the crowd to see, "You see folks, after my good friend Penumbra recognized the sound of the hover of Beaks' car as one of her fleet's smaller spaceships, we decided to do a little digging and found out that his car nothing more than...well you see the mess on stage."
Zenith walked over to her boss with a look of concern and anger, "You told me you were going to use your brilliant skills and my Moonlander technology to build a Hovercar for the people! Our ships were not built to be flown this low by the average earth person, they're much too powerful!"
"Pfft!" Mark Beaks scoffed, "No they're not! Here watch, let me set it to Sunday Drive." The gray parrot then pulled out the remote and turned a knob, causing the small spaceship to zip out of there and crash into a nearby building marked 24/7 Wicker Store! Open All Day, Every Day, Except Tuesday
"Whew!" Some random person in the crowd sighed in relief. "Good thing it's Tuesday!"
"But wait folks: that's not all!" Once again, Gandra got everyone's attention as her Eye Buds then displayed a video of Mark Beaks in a position that looks like he just hit record.
"What!? NOooooo!" Mark Beaks shouted in fear
"Oh right, I forgot I can also show this on the big screen!" Gandra said as she showed the video to everyone present at the Waddle Presentation
"Hey FOWL! Heard about what happened with Agent Dee! Tough break! Who could've possibly told you that she's not an employee to trust, oh wait me! Anywho! Heard you had a spot open and just figured I'd send you another application with a kickass presentation. I know Black Heron loves her theatrics! So once again, hire me! I'm the founder of the Uber popular Waddle, I know science, I have pizzazz, and I know like all the karates! Hi-yah!" Mark Beaks then karate chopped his table, only no chopping happened. "Ow..."
"You tried to join FOWL too!?" someone from the crowd shouted.
"Whhhaaaaaaatt nooooo....okay, yeah, but that's in the past right?"
"Okay, look: full disclosure. I think my company might go bankrupt so I like really need this job! There's only so many money-making schemes I can come up with! Anything to get away from my loser employees and their dumb pottery class dreams!"
"Hey! You're nothing but a phony!" One of the Waddle employees glared at Mark Beaks
"Yeah!" The crowd agreed in unison.
Gandra changed her voice slighty as she talked out the side of her mouth closest to the crowd. "Let's kick his ass!"
"Ohhhh no!" Mark Beaks then hopped on his hoverboard and started to hover away from the crowd.
"Hurry! He's hovering away at a speed faster than the average person walks!" One of the members of the mob shouted as they went after Mark Beaks.
Zenith watched as her boss got away from the she felt a gentle tap from Gandra
"Excuse me, Zenith? Is that your work phone?"
"Do you mind if I have your number?"
"Oh, sure!" Zenith then dropped her number to Gandra who quickly added her to her contacts
Gandra then grabbed Zenith's phone as her eye bud's scanned the distance Mark Beaks was currently at, the speed he was moving, and the direction he was going.
Gandra then took some steps back as she reeved up her arm and then ran forward throwing the phone into the air directly towards Beaks' direction. She then quickly started typing a long message filled with random characters, emojis, gifs, videos to Zenith's phone
"You can run, but you can't hover!" Mark Beaks taunted the mob after him when all of a sudden a phone landed on his head. "Ow! What the fu-"
Penumbra and Zenith's jaws dropped as they watched the phone explode causing Mark Beaks to fall of his hover board and into the ground where the mob dealt with him
"Wow. I guess those phones do literally blow up still." Zenith observed.
"I'm sure we can replace it, Zenith" Penumbra placed a palm on her friend's shoulder.
"I see that as very unnecessary since I no longer work for that Mark Beaks." Zenith smiled at her friend as she patted Penumbra's palm
"Sorry about your job," Gandra awkwardly joined the two moonlanders with her hands in her pockets. "I know what a pain-in-the-ass Beaks can be, but I know the job market ain't a walk in the park either."
"You know, my friend Gandra here is also a scientist," Penumbra spoke up, "maybe she can let you work with her"
"Oh," Gandra blushed as she kicked the ground, "well the payment is nowhere near as good as somewhere like Waddle or even McDuck's since it's mainly just me."
"Not a problem with me!" Zenith smiled, "I think I'm growing quite fond of your 'punk' approach to science over the flashiness of Mark Beaks."
"Perhaps we should discuss this over lunch," Penumbra suggested, "I heard that is something Earth people do."
"It is Penumbra;" Gandra smiled up at the moonlander before walking ahead with her two new friends, "come on, I know a great food truck that has the best kababs in town."
"Oooh! I heard about those 'food trucks'!" Zenith excited exclaimed before explaining to Penumbra, "They're these trucks that the Earthers use to drive around cook food for other people! Isn't that delightful, Penumbra?!"
Penumbra nodded, "Yes. The Earth has a lot of strange delights that I'm learning about everyday."
