A video image flashed on the projector. A calm, soothing voiceover came on as the logo for Glomgold Industries appeared. "Welcome to the Glomgold Industries Second Chance program. We know it's hard to get a job if you have a criminal record. That's why we believe in second chances and providing work for people who have been in jail. And that's just one of the many charities we provide here at Glomgold Industries with our founder, Flintheart Glomgold. Here, our employees are the greatest treasure of all."

Donald rolled eyes at the cheesy line. The lights in the room turned on and the projector screen rolled up. A short, roundish duck stepped forward. Glomgold. Donald glanced at the other ex-convicts in the room. He couldn't believe that people actually bought this malarkey.

"Thank you to everyone who joined the Second Chance program," Glomgold greeted with a smile. "Now, as the richest duck in the world, I decided to put my money to use and bail a select few out of jail and hire you." He rested his hands on his cane, being and older duck. Then he passed out some small cards to everyone with names. "These are name tags and they will also give you a discount on medical expenses in case of emergency. Here we have Gabby McStaberson, Hack and Slash Smashnokov, and Donald Duck."

Donald took the name tag. In truth he didn't really want to be here. Currently they were in the middle of the ocean on a large boat. He was never really a fan of water. Or boats.

"Remind me what we're doing again?" Donald asked, raising his hand.

"I'm glad you asked. I've discovered that there's an opening to Atlantis and that it holds a very powerful gem. A gem that could power the city and give a clean energy source for years, maybe even centuries. So, you guys can help me find it as your first step to redemption," Glomgold said.

"Oh goodie," Donald said sarcastically.

"But we have to hurry. I heard rumor that Feathry Duck, my rival, will try to get it first. But he only wants it to up his status and popularity," Glomgold added.

Donald grumbled under his breath about his cousin. Feathry had the boys right now, and Donald knew only trouble would come from that. If he found out he abused them, Donald might never get them back. Plus, he still had to teach those kids a lesson. He just knew one of them had ratted him out to the cops.

Glomgold made a few more announcements to the group, drawing Donald's attention. "Alright, there's a salad bar out on the deck if you want anything, and we'll meet back here before we reach the shore. Break." And with that, the old duck walked off.

Donald moved towards a phone mounted on the wall. He quickly dialed the number and waited.

"This is Feathry Duck," a voice answered.

...

Feathry held the phone up to his ear. "Who's this?"

"Your cousin."

Feathry's tone dropped. "Oh. Hey, Don."

"You've got the boys right? Where are you?" Donald asked on the other end.

"Like I'm just going to tell you," Feathry said, putting a hand on his hip. Just then, Huey poked his head out of the submarine. Yes, they were also in the middle of the ocean in a yellow submarine.

"Hoist the main sail! Turn starboard! Uh... Other boat words to Atlantis!" the red triplet shouted, sporting his hat on backwards. "DIVE, DIVE, DIVE!" He punctuated his statement with a whooping sound, pumping his fists in the air.

Feathry's eyes widened, and the sub began to descend. "Wait, no, Launchpad! The hatch isn't closed yet!" Huey continued jumping up and down excited and Feathry noticed his feathers were on fire. He put them out with his hand and hurriedly moved to close the hatch. A good amount of water still got inside, soaking the two.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

Feathry hopped from foot to foot, idly trying not to step in the water. "Ew ew, wet wet wet!"

Huey shook himself, splashing some water.

"Don't do that! And why were you on fire!" Feathry panicked.

Huey put on a wide, cheeky grin. "Because I'm a hottie." Then he ran off, splashing in the little bits of water.

Feathry just rolled his eyes with a smirk and continued down the ladder. Once he was two or three rungs away from the bottom, he hopped down. "Hello? Hello?" Donald pressed. By this point, he had completely forgotten about his phone. He pulled it up to his ear again.

"Donald, hey, what do you want? I'm trying to watch the kids YOU abandoned," he remarked.

He heard Donald grunt on the other end. "Excuse me? I never asked to be a parent. Why don't you tell that to Dells?" he said. Then he sighed. "Just let me talk to Louie."

"Heck no," Feathry said, walking through the sub.

"I'm still their legal guardian and I demand to speak to Louie," Donald said.

Feathry balled his fists, eyes wandering to the duckling in blue (that was Louie, right?). The boy was helping Webby pump water out of the sub. "I- Just- ugh! Alright fine!" Feathry said, realizing he was defeated. He put out the phone to the blue triplet. "Talk to your uncle."

...

Dewey fumbled with the phone for a bit before answering. "Hello? Uncle Donald? What do you want?" he asked. Webby watched the conversation.

"Dewey? Can I talk to Louie?"

"Louie's in the other room, but anything you can say to him you can say to me."

He heard his uncle sigh on the other end. "Alright fine. I heard you're going to Atlantis. Isn't that dangerous?"

Dewey ran a hand through his hair nervously. To be honest, he had been worried about the danger, but he wouldn't admit it. "Um... I guess it could possibly be dangerous. But since when do you care?"

"Just looking out for the runt of the family. Don't want anything bad to happen to you kids."

Donald often called Dewey the runt, but he always thought it was stupid, since he wasn't even the youngest. If anyone was the runt, it'd be Huey. The thought crossed Dewey's mind that his brother had been dropped as an egg, but he quickly dismissed it. "Wait a minute, I see what you're doing. Stop it."

"Doing what?"

"Using me!" This was the most Dewey had ever talked back to Donald, and it gave him a somewhat sense of empowerment.

"Dewey-"

"Yeah, you know what? I'm going to hang up."

Dewey frowned and pressed the end call button before Donald could protest. A chill went up his spine just thinking about what he'd just done. He'd hung up on his uncle. AndDOnald couldn't do anything about it. It was a scary thought. But he was also proud.

Webby tilted her head. "What was that all about?"

"Well, he asked if we were going to Atlantis, and he said that was dangerous, and he was just fishing for information to find an excuse to show Feathry as not being capable of watching children," he said, shoving the phone in his coat pocket.

Webby looked down. "Oh. Well I think Feathry is capable of watching children. He's taken care of me so far," she said, smiling.

"Doesn't matter what you and I think," he said, leaning on the pump. "It's what Donald can convince others to think. Just the slightest thing and Feathry can be deemed 'unworthy' or whatever," he said, sadly. He frowned, wishing with all his heart he wouldn't be sent back to Donald. He'd been living with Feathry for just over a week now, but it was already the best home he'd ever had.

She tried to make lighter conversation. "So, what was life like with Donald, anyway?" She failed.

The question caught Dewey off guard and he awkwardly shrugged. "Um..." Chills went up his spine as he reminisced the beatings. He shuddered. "Bad," was all he could say.

"Sorry," Webby said, fiddling with her hair.

He smiled sadly. Something about her made him want to pour out all the pain and just tell her the truth. He blew his feathers out of his face. "It's alright. I don't think I would've made it without my brothers." He glanced towards the main part of the sub, where he could see his brothers having a water fight. Feathry began to reprimand them after they kept splashing him. Dewey chuckled to himself.

"So you kinda depend on them?"

He blinked. Depend? That made him sound weak. "Well... I mean, I can take care of myself, they just make things better." He wasn't entirely sure he could survive a day on his own, but whatever.

"So Louie's like the leader, Huey makes you guys smile and you..." Please say the brave one. Please say the brave one. "Make sure no one does anything to hurt themselves." Webby smiled innocently, unaware of what Dewey was thinking.

"What! No, I can be risky! I do things!" He threw his hands in the air, letting the pump slip. He quickly caught his side before it could cause any problems.

She tilted her head. "Dewey, you made us walk to the docs because you said it would be safer than driving in a car."

"I've never been in one of those things! How can I trust it! For all I know it could eat children!"

...

Up in the front of the submarine, Feathry talked with Launchpad. "So, have you ever piloted a sub before," he wondered, leaning back in a seat.

Launchpad shrugged. "Eh, can't be too hard, can it?" he said.

Feathry leaned his head on his palm on a small desk in the cockpit. "I guess. I don't know, I've never piloted one either."

"ROAD TRIP!" Huey shouted, jumping between the two. Launchpad flinched from surprise. "I. Love. Road trips!" he cried. He began pacing in circles energetically.

"Have you ever been on a road trip?" Feathry asked, smiling at the boy's enthusiasm. To Launchpad it was like a headache being around that kid.

The red triplet shook his head. "Absolutely not. But if I've learned anything from tv, road trips are amazing. Something always goes wrong that send the family on some wild adventure!" he said, pumping his fists in the air. "Maybe we'll get a flat tire!"

"We're in a submarine."

"Or run out of gas!"

"We filled the tank before we left and stocked up on gas cans."

"Or forget somebody on shore! Let's see..." Huey counted everybody on his fingers. "Feathry, Launchpad, Louie, Webby..." He held up seven fingers and gasped. "Oh my gosh! We forgot Dewey and me!"

Launchpad held in a laugh, not wanting his boss to hear.

"Um Huey," Dewey said, standing behind him. "I'm right here and you're... you." His voice was just loud enough to be heard. Each one of these kids were annoying in their own way, weren't they?

"Oh, thanks," Huey said, letting out a sigh of relief. He patted himself down just to be sure. Launchpad rolled his eyes.

Dewey pulled a piece of paper from behind his back. "To distract myself from worrying about every possible thing that could go wrong on this mission, I've put together a travel itinerary." He was about to hand the paper to Launchpad when Huey took it and ripped it up. At least this red kid did one good thing.

"Boo!" the youngest triplet cried.

"But-"

"Boring! There are no plans in an adventure!" Huey continued. Dewey frowned.

"Besides, kids, I don't think there will be much time for any of that," Feathry put in.

"Yeah, we'll be too busy screaming in terror at all the random monsters we're going to face!" Huey said, holding up his hands like monster claws.

"M-monsters?" Dewey stuttered, tucking in his tail.

"Oh, yeah, loads of them," Launchpad commented. "They'll rip apart your flesh and tear out your soul and destroy everything you know and love." Maybe this was fun.

Dewey glared at the pilot. "Cut it out!" he said, though very obviously trembling.

Feathry waved his hand. "No, there won't be any in monsters in Atlantis. At least, I don't think so. Unless you count that Glomgold. Always giving to charity and stuff." He rolled his eyes.

None of this was helping the boy, as he just looked more frightening.

"So, if we did face monsters, could I be in charge of defenses?" Huey asked. Before Feathry could answer, Louie cut in.

"I'm oldest, I would be in charge."

Huey let his arms sag and sent a look at his brother. "No fair! You always get to be in charge!"

"Exactly, because I'm oldest," Louie said, holding his beak in the air.

"You guys, this sub isn't even equipped with defenses," Feathry put in.

"Wish I was the oldest," Huey grumbled, crossing his arms.

Huey and Louie frowned, Dewey standing in between them. "But you know what it is equipped with?" Dewey said grinning. How come Launchpad had a hunch what he was about to say?

...

"Seatbelts!" Dewey said, smiling. Now all the kids were strapped in the back, waiting to arrive at their destination. "I love seatbelts!" He lugged to himself giddily. He was like a kid on Christmas morning.

Huey rolled his eyes, holding the toaster on his lap. "Good thing I brought Bready, or I might've died from boredom!" He shouted that last part at his brother. Dewey ignored him. They would thank him for the safety later.

Feathry looked over the kids, making sure they were all buckled. "Remember kids, safety first or whatever," he said, then walked off to go sketch out a map.

"Wait, aren't we going to a boobytrapped city just for fame?" Louie pointed out from the back, but everyone ignored him.

"Cousin Feathry and I are so alike! He said 'safety first' and that's in my top ten favorite sayings list," Dewey said to Huey. Then the blue triplet remembered what Webby had said. "Uh, I mean, next to 'Take risks', of course." His cheeks burned red, stealing a look at Webby to see if she noticed.

The red triplet raised an eyebrow, staring down at Bready. "You have ten favorite sayings? Also, I have never heard you say 'Take risks'."

Dewey waved off his comment. "Do you think I'll ever be as famous as Feathry? I mean, we have such a great relationship, I'm sure I'm already a tiny bit famous by association."

Huey shrugged, fiddling with the toaster button. "I don't think he even knows our names," he said.

"What?"

"Yeah, I think he called me Herbert earlier," he said.

Dewey shook his head and glanced back at Feathry. "That's nonsense. Watch." He spoke extra loud. "Hey, Feathry, when are we going to set off, Feathry?" He made sure to enunciate his name.

Feathry just kept his eyes locked on the map. "In just a sec, little Donald," he said.

Dewey frowned and blew his hairs out of his face. "Told you," Huey said.

"Yeah, whatever. He knows my name. He's just trying to unlearn the habit of calling us that horrible nickname," Dewey shuddered.

"Whatever you say, Dew."

Fethry got up and handed the map to Launchpad. The path had red marks labeling places that were too dangerous to travel. That made Dewey smile.

"Now, to Atlantis!" Fethry said, turning to the kids. They cheered. "In 16 hours!" the adult added. The ducklings sunk in their chairs.

"Whoo! Safety!" Dewey said alone, earning a stare from everybody. His face turned red and he sat back down. "I- I thought everyone would cheer with me," he muttered, clearly embarrassed.

...

The trip was long and boring, making Huey and Webby whine the whole time. Louie and Fethry tuned them out and chatted, while on the other hand, Huey and Webby's complaining was driving Launchpad insane. Dewey found it hard to get comfortable in his chair and rearranged himself several times. But eventually, all the kids fell asleep.

At one point, Dewey woke up to see everyone except the pilot sleeping. He got up from his chair to stretch his legs. Walking over to the front, he decided to make light conversation with Launchpad.

"So, where are we on the map so far?" he asked, picking it up.

"There."

"Where?"

Launchpad put his forefinger on Dewey's shirt, then flicked the boy's beak. Dewey stumbled backwards while Launchpad snickered.

Dewey laughed timidly. "Heh, good one," he said quietly. His voice always got quiet when he was worried or scared. And being Dewey, that was often. He took a deep breath. Stand up for yourself. "Look, I know we got off on the wrong foot the other day in the plane, but maybe we could be friends?" he asked, putting out his hand.

Launchpad didn't make eye contact and kept driving the sub. "Me? Friends with a loser like you? Nah, not a fan of children," he said with a slight laugh.

Dewey stiffened, the conversation getting awkward now. "O-okay. Um... what are those blinking lights?" He pointed to three green dots on the radar.

Launchpad squinted at it. "Oh no."

"Oh no what?"

"Oh no there are a bunch of mermaids heading straight towards us," he explained.

Dewey's eyes widened and he took a step back. "Mermaids? Like nice ones or the ones in movies Louie won't let us watch?" Mermaids are nice. At least, that's what he told himself.

"Probably the second one," Launchpad said, flipping a few switches on the sub.

Dewey tucked his tail. "But the map was supposed to lead us AWAY from danger!" he yelped.

"This stupid conversation probably distracted us off course," Launchpad remarked.

Before Dewey could say something, the submarines alarms went off. Everybody woke up and Fethry came to the front. "What's going on!" he asked.

"Dewey and I were just having friendly conversation when the radar showed mermaids heading our way," Launchpad said.

Dewey just watched the man lie to his boss' face with a gaping mouth.

"Alright, kids, get ready for a fight!" Fethry said, turning to the kids. The others rubbed sleep from their eyes, still not really knowing what was going on.

While Fethry debriefed the other kids, Launchpad turned to Dewey, stinking out his tongue. Dewey wanted to make a comment about how immature he was being, but thought better of it. He would probably be just like Donald. Only he was pretty good at getting away with it.

The submarine shook as the mermaids made their attack.

....

Louie looked for something to use as a weapon, the mermaids making their way into the sub. He finally settled for a spare pipe he had found. When he turned around, he found himself face to face with one of the sea creatures. With a scream, he hit the mermaid across the face with the pipe. He panted once it fell to the ground unconscious.

He looked up and scanned the sub over. His entire family were all occupied with their own mermaids to fight. Huey and Webby fought one together with a toaster while Feathry and Launchpad fought off a couple together. Louie's attention was drawn by a yelp from Dewey. He was being cornered by a creature, drool dripping from it's razor teeth. Dewey pressed his back against the wall, whimpering. Unlike Louie and the others, he didn't have something to defend himself with.

Louie ran for the mermaid and hit it as hard as he could with the pipe. It was knocked back and glared at Louie. With it distracted, Dewey attempted a kick. But the creature caught him with a scaled hand.

"Dewey!" Louie cried. He swept for the mermaid's head with the pipe and it fell back, knocked out.

The two boys breathed heavily. Louie smiled at his brother, but it was surprisingly met with a frown. "I could've done it myself, Lou," Dewey said.

Louie helped him to his feet. "Sure thing, little bro. I just want to make sure you're safe."

Dewey was quiet a moment, staring at the submarine floor. "Okay, fine." But Louie wasn't entirely convinced.

But he could ask questions later. Right now they were under attack.

...

After fighting off mermaids, the kraken, and a tsunami god, all the kids plopped down on the floor of the submarine, breathing heavily.

Fethry wiped sweat from his brow, panting. "Ugh, you kids will be the death of me," he said. He got to his feet and dusted himself off. Then he went to inspect any more damage done to the submarine.

"Dewey! Dewey will be the death of you!" Dewey called after him.

Huey raised an eyebrow at him. "Dude, why would you want that?" he asked.

"Because I just want him to address me by name," Dewey said, sitting up.

"Whatever, you do you, Dew," Huey said. Then he smiled. "Hey. Do and Dew." He nudged his brother. "Guess you'll just have to Dewey it," he chuckled.

Dewey smiled. "And, um, you can, um, Huey it...?" He attempted to make a joke with the red triplet's name. Dewey was never good at comebacks. That was more Huey's expertise.

Huey shook his head. "Doesn't really have the same ring to it."

Louie walked over and rested his arms on his brothers' heads. "Come on, Huey, don't Hue-miliate him," he snickered. The three boys laughed.

Webby stepped towards Fethry and tugged on his coat. "Fethry, I have to use the bathroom, but, um, it's a little... occupied," she said, pointing to a mermaid trying to break in through the bathroom.

Fethry gasped and kicked the mermaid back. He slammed the door and locked it, just to be safe. "Right, that won't work, but we don't really have a rest stop in the middle of the ocean." He bit his lip, looking for a solution.

"How about that random, unmarked tanker?" Louie said, pointing out the window. Outside was a large boat.

There he goes again, fixing everyone's problems. Dewey shook himself, dismissing the thought. He was used to pushing feelings down. How come with this newfound freedom it was harder?

Fethry tilted his head, staring out at the boat. "Well that's convenient."

...

Back with Donald, he sat around with the other criminals. Glomgold was making them get to know each other and talk about their lives as an exercise. Currently, they were sharing about their families.

Donald scrolled through his phone pictures. He had been partnered with Gabby. "And this is my ex wife Daisy. I still every once in a while drive by her house and throw eggs at her mailbox. It's funny how cute she looks when she's angry," he said, showing Gabby a picture of a duck in a purple dress. He swiped to the next one. "These are my pals Jose and Panchito, but they're in jail right now. Man, we were so drunk in this picture," he said with a laugh. This picture had him with a parrot and rooster.

"And this," Donald said, flipping through multiple pictures. All these ones were blurry and just the corners of feathers or an eye. "This is when I asked Huey, my nephew, to take a picture of something for me. But he accidentally ended up just taking a picture of himself," he snickered. The next image held blurs of red, blue, and green. "And then the boys started fighting over who should take the picture. Heh, they're so stupid," he said.

Gabby stared at the picture. "That's not very nice. I'm sure they were trying their best," she said.

"Yeah, well, their best sucks. Those three can't do anything right. Which is why they need me to do everything for them," he said. Then he put away his phone. "So, tell me about your family."

Gabby put a finger to her chin. "Well, my mother was always a patient woman who was kind and always taught me to be kind. I only ended up with a bad group in high school, and it broke mother's heart. I just wish I could make up for all the mistakes I've made. A few years back, I..." She kept talking but Donald zoned out. He honestly didn't care for anyone's life story.

An alarm rang overhead, making Gabby stop. Finally, Donald thought. They got up and went to go investigate the noise. Glomgold was already there at the security cameras, where they saw who had triggered the noise.

Donald's eyes widened to see Fethry on the camera screen. He stood outside a room, tapping his foot. The room door opened and out stepped a duckling dressed in a pink headband and dress. Then, out of another room a bit more down the deck, the triplets walked out. Fethry turned to leave, but Dewey ran back to wash his hands. Then rejoined the rest. Fethry ruffled the boy's hair and they walked off.

"Feathry! I'm going to kill him! And when I get my hands on those brats-" Donald started.

Glomgold held up a hand, "Ah, Donald, watch it. That attitude is not welcome here."

Donald crossed his arms and grumbled.

...

Feathry waited at the edge of the boat, helping the kids back into the sub. "Come on, kiddos, let's go before whoever owns this boats sees us," he said, waving the kids in with his hand. The ducklings climbed back in, one by one. Then Feathry joined them.

Once everyone was in the submarine, Launchpad started it up and they were off on their adventure again. Feathry sat in the back, not really wanting to interact with the children. Sure, they had saved him from that dragon and they were now helping him find this treasure, but he still didn't know how to interact with them. He didn't even know they existed until the day they'd come, and it had been so long since he had seen Della or Donald.

One of the ducklings, the blue one, walked up to him. He still hadn't exactly learned their names yet. The boy blew his hair out of his face. "Hey, little Donald, what do you want?" Feathry asked.

The boy fidgeted with his hands. "It's Dewey actually. Umm, I- I- I just wanted to say..." The boy mumbled so Feathry couldn't hear him.

Feathry rolled his eyes at how nervous the boy was. Were they even related? "What was that?"

"Thanks for taking us in. We wouldn't have anywhere else to turn if you didn't help us. I know we're asking a lot," Dewey spoke up, avoiding eye contact.

Feathry softened. "I- It's no problem." It wasn't entirely true. It's always strange inviting someone you hardly know to live with you. Even if it almost effects nothing, it's still weird.

Feathry was caught off guard when the duckling hugged him. He hesitated before hugging back. When they stopped hugging, he raised an eyebrow. "Did one of your brothers dare you to do this?"

Dewey shook his head.

"No secret motives?"

"Other than to get away from Huey's singing, I don't think so," he said.

"Come on, your brother's singing isn't THAT bad," Feathry smirked. The two ducks looked to the red triplet, who was standing in his chair, belting out in song about his toaster. Feathry was right. It wasn't that bad. It was worse.

Dewey and Feathry covered their ears at the extremely out of tune song. They exchanged a look and laughed.

"Sir, we're coming up on Atlantis," Launchpad said.

Huey stopped singing and jumped out of his chair, running to go see.

"Thank goodness, he stopped," Feathry chuckled quietly to Dewey. The boy smiled. "Come on, let's go check it out!"

They joined with the others, who all had their faces pressed against the window. Atlantis was a gorgeous temple, decorated in stone statues of water gods and goddesses. The ducklings oohed and awed at it.

"Imagine how much cooler it must look inside, with booby traps and stuff like that!" Huey said, bouncing up and down.

Louie's eyes widened and he set a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Maybe don't run into the booby traps, okay? That- that would not be good," he said, trying to calm him.

"All the treasure would be so pretty!" Webby beamed, her eyes bright. She did a twirl.

Launchpad pulled the submarine into the city. They found a small opening where air had been trapped inside, and got out there. The kids and Launchpad swam to a ledge on the temple and waited for Feathry.

He stood on top of the sub, noticing the gap of water between the craft and the city was quite large. He gulped, eyes widening at the water. He started getting hot flashes. Having an irrational fear is worse than having a normal fear because you can't even justify it.

"Dude, just jump. You're not going to get wet and it's not that far," Louie said from the city.

Feathry nodded, more to himself than to the green duck. He readied himself to jump across, palms getting sweaty. He couldn't embarrass himself in front of children. Finally, he shut his eyes and leapt. Only, his foot slipped on the last part and he fell into the water.

He gasped, paddling at the surface. "Water! Wet! Can't swim!" he painted and yelped. Visions of drowning and choking filled his head and his heart raced. Oh gosh! Body, quit overreacting! I'm fine! I'm not dying! Telling himself that did not stop his arms from flailing about.

Louie rolled his eyes and stuck out his hand. The distance wasn't really that far. Louie pulled Feathry to shore and he plopped himself on the stone floor. He coughed and shook water from himself. "I hate water!" There was a ringing in his ears, adding to the stress and how dramatic he was being. He really hated this random fear of his.

Once he had caught his breath, he stood still a moment. He shuddered, now cold and dripping. He sat down on the floor, trying to ring out his suit. Webby planted a kiss on his forehead, probably feeling bad for him. He smiled at that.