"SPONTANEOUS FAMILY TRIP!" Gladdy whooped loudly into a megaphone, pumping his fists in the air. Huey covered his toaster's ears.

They stood out in the driveway while everyone else was finishing putting their bags in the jeep. Warm sun welcomed them to their new day. The bright red cargo plane sat open just ahead of them. Launchpad was struggling to shove the last suit case in the back, and Fethry was helping, Bradford complaining about how they didn't need that much stuff.

Webby stepped out of the house, a small bag strapped across her chest. "Where are we going again?" She looked up at Gladdy, standing between him and Huey, Bready in his arms.

"WE'RE GOING-" Realizing he still had the megaphone on, Gladdy brought it lower and turned it off. "We're going to Monocrow!"

"And why the Jeep? I thought we were going by plane."

"Well, we're gonna need a car when we get there, so we'll just put the Jeep in the plane."

Huey and Webby exchanged a look before shrugging. Gladdy walked off to go help Fethry help Launchpad with the car trunk.

Stepping down the stairs came Dewey and Louie, refusing to look at each other. Huey rolled his eyes, telling where this was going. "Huey, can you tell Dewey that it is totally reasonable to bring four sets of pajamas on our trip?"

Huey let out a groan, tugging at his hat. Webby frowned. Noted: Dewey and Louie were still mad at each other.

"Well, tell Louie that we're only going for a week, so that is an unruly amount of pajamas to bring." Dewey crossed his arms, stepping ahead of Louie down the steps.

"Ugh! Even I know this is a stupid argument!" Huey marched off towards the plane, his brothers' argument tagging along unwelcome. Ever since the situation at castle McDuck, they'd been like this. Huey was getting exhausted of their constant arguing, especially when they wrapped him up in the middle of it. Hopefully they wouldn't annoy the red triplet on their vacation.

...

"No, wait, we can make it fit." Fethry grunted, pressing down on the trunk of the Jeep. Bradford shook his head at the sight. Launchpad pressed his shoulder into the car in unison with his boss. Gladdy gave them a wavering thumbs up.

Finally, they heard a click, telling them they had somehow shut it. Fethry put his hands on his hips, smirking at Bradford. "See, I told you we could do it. Easy peasy."

"Yes, easy peasy." Bradford didn't sound convinced.

"Nice job, Feths!" Gladdy approached Fethry.

He stopped his cousin, extending his arms. "Careful, Gladdy! Don't want your bad luck to make it pop open or explode or something." Fethry walked Gladdy back a few steps.

"Are you sure it's even safe to bring him on the plane?" Launchpad asked, leaning against the car. Fethry gave Gladdy an awkward grin, hoping it hadn't come across too harsh.

"Not to worry, cous." To Fethry's surprise, Gladdy smiled. "I'm actually bad luck free today." He walked past Fethry and pat the back of the Jeep. "See?" The back popped open, spilling half the contents and hitting Launchpad in the back of the head. Fethry frowned, sagging at the sight of his work undone. Gladdy stared at the mess. "Well, that wasn't actually my fault, that was due to your poor packing skills. But the point still stands. I temporarily don't have Murphy's law."

"One, my packing skills are great, and two, how?" Fethry raised an eyebrow skeptically.

Gladdy folded his hands as he talked. "Well, there's this whole thing with this eclipse for magic and curses and stuff. It makes magic wonky, and there's some weird imbalance in power that changes depending on random circumstances. The eclipse is in four days, and my curse gets weaker. So, until the eclipse passes, I've got no bad luck. Make sense?"

"No, I feel like you left out half the stuff that would make any of that make sense, but ok." Fethry had given up trying to understand Gladdy's strange curse years ago.

"Anyways, nothing bad that happens on this trip will be my fault. So, if we crash, or some crazy family drama happens, or if the plane were to catch on fire, or some horrible combination of them all, it won't be because of me." That somehow made Fethry more concerned.

"Let's wrap things up. Once Launchpad gets everything back in the car, we should be ready to go." Bradford looked down at his watch. "I've left a key under the doormat for Mitzy to house sit. She'll be here soon." Bradford started helping Launchpad finish reloading the car.

"Eh, we don't have to wait for her. Kids, get into the plane, and we'll leave in a sec." The kids obeyed, though none of them seemed too thrilled for the trip. Webby was quiet, Huey was annoyed, and Louie and Dewey were bickering. Fethry figured they would probably be over it once they got their vacation underway.

Gladdy must've caught the thinking look on Fethry's face. "What are you thinking about, Fethry?"

"A year ago, if you had told me I would actually enjoy hanging out with my family, I would've thought you were crazy."

"You do think I'm crazy."

"Yeah, but that's for other reasons. Maybe it's because they're just kids and haven't learned how to be jerks yet, but for the time being, it's a nice change of pace." A smirk crossed his beak. "Which reminds me what the point of this trip is." He dug through his pocket and pulled out a folded packet of stapled papers. "Kachow. Adoption papers." He beamed proudly, showing them off to his cousin.

"Wow! You didn't tell me you were getting a dog!"

"What? No, Gladdy, it's for the boys." He folded them back up and put them in his pocket.

"Oh, that's even better!" Gladdy grinned, his eyes bright. "And then you can get married to Mitzy and you can buy a little cottage and be a happy little family, and I'll be the weird uncle and Bradford and Goldie can be the grandma and grandpa, and Webby can be the cousin, and-"

Fethry stopped him, putting a hand in front of his beak. "No need to get ahead of ourselves, Gladdy. I'm gonna tell them once we get to Monocrow. Don't spoil the surprise, ok?"

"My lips are sealed." Gladdy gave Fethry a salute, but the red clad duck wasn't convinced.

"Gladdy."

"What? I'm really good at keeping secrets! You don't even know how many things I don't tell you."

Fethry moved towards the plane, Gladdy following. "Like what?"

"I'm not falling for that one." He nudged Fethry, rolling his eyes.

"Worth a shot."

...

After constantly arguing with Louie for the first hour of the flight, Bradford split him and Dewey up. Dewey frowned, leaning back in his seat. The new quiet gave him a chance to take a step back from the argument. Maybe bickering over pajamas was petty, but at the root of the problem, they weren't arguing about pajamas.

Out of habit, Dewey had his hands wrapped tightly around the armrests of his seat. Launchpad wasn't particularly flying to make the boy throw up, now that Fethry was there. Dewey forced himself to relax, folding his hands in his lap.

His eyes wandered around the plane, trying to find something to distract himself from thinking about Louie. The adults were upfront. Bradford, complaining about how many safety violations Launchpad was breaking, and Fethry, trying to ease his complaints. Gladdy, pointing at random buttons asking what they did while Launchpad tried to focus on flying and staying sane. Louie was sitting across the gap, his expression still upset. And Huey and Webby were talking about something in the stomach of the plane.

"Hey, Dewey!" Huey called. "Can you come down here!" Webby shushed him, raising a finger to her beak.

Dewey eyed them curiously, rising from his spot. "Okay..." His hand followed along the railing, and he made his way down the ladder.

...

"Relax, Bradford, I'm sure this plane is as safe as it can be." Fethry pat Bradford on the back, but the vulture didn't looked eased.

"Your seat is missing a seat belt." He crossed his arms, giving Fethry a deadpan look.

"Life doesn't give you seat belts, Bradford. You're old, I thought you'd know that." Launchpad readjusted his grip on the steering, smirking.

Bradford glared at him. "I have little faith in your piloting skills. How many times exactly have you crashed this thing?"

Rolling his eyes, Fethry said, "Please, Bradford, I'm sure he's never-"

"Well, just last month, I crashed into the Waddle building, but to be fair, I was being attacked by Greek gods, sooooo..." Launchpad shrugged, wincing.

"You know what?" Taking Bradford by the shoulders, Fethry moved him to the side. "Launchpad, you can give Bradford a tour of the plane, show him there's nothing to be afraid of, and Gladdy and I will manage stuff up here." Launchpad gave up his spot to Fethry, but Bradford protested.

"Wait, you have no idea how to fly a plane. This is supposed to make me feel better?"

"Come on, it can't be that hard." Fethry took the steering a little too eagerly. Gladdy was excited to take the copilot spot, immediately quieting about buttons, as if to prove that he was being a "good boy" and totally deserved to sit upfront. "Right, LP?"

"It's like flying a car in the sky.. sort of." Launchpad rubbed the back of his neck, an unsure smile on his beak.

Bradford sighed. Waving his hand back at him, Fethry kept his eyes focused on the dashboard. "Go make sure everything's up to code or whatever."

"You just want to fly the plane, don't you?"

"Shush, don't crush ten year old me's dreams." He didn't have to call him out like that. Fethry and Gladdy took on the headsets, Gladdy grinning and laughing giddily.

"Now, what buttons shall I push first?" Gladdy's hands hovered over the dashboard, wiggling his fingers.

Launchpad took Bradford off on his tour. The pilot gestured to the open area of the cargo plane. "This is the tummy of the plane. Let me know if this gets too technical for you." He snickered a little.

"Crack one more disrespectful joke like that, and you're sleeping outside the week after we get back." Bradford didn't bother giving the duck a glance. He stiffened at the threat. "The mansion might belong to Fethry, but it's my house."

...

"Huey, I said we've got to be quiet about it," Webby said in a hushed voice. The red triplet shrugged apologetically.

Dewey came down to join them, sliding on the last few rungs of the ladder. "What's up, guys?" Webby shifted with the bag she had, a nervous chill running through her. Dewey's eyes moved to the bag.

"I know Louie said we should stop looking for Della, but..." She unzipped the bag, pulling out a thin, worn, and glitter covered journal. "We still have one last clue we haven't looked into." She handed it to him, giving him a reassuring smile. He hesitated before taking it. A few pages almost fell out, but he pushed them back in. The book had clearly been mangled by time. Della's journal they had found in the box.

For once, Huey was the worried one out of the two. "I don't know, you guys, Lou said-"

"Since when do we have to listen to Louie?" Dewey's eyes were glued to the book. His beak formed a frown, before, very subtly, curving up at the ends in a smirk.

Huey went quiet, his gaze leading from the journal, to Dewey, curiously up to Louie, side glancing at Webby, then landing on Bready, held tightly in his arms. "Alright. I want to know too. What happened to Della Duck?"

Turning the cover, Dewey began flipping through the pages, his face frozen in thought. "It's a diary, it looks like..." His bit his lip, finding himself on the last page. "The last entry, five years ago." He looked up. "According to Selene, that's when she disappeared."

Huey peeked over his brother's shoulder, squinting at the book. "Maybe she explained what happened."

"Or why she left." Webby pushed a strand of her hair back. Her comment drew Huey's eyes.

"I don't think she left on purpose. There must be something else behind it."

"Huey..." After thinking, she decided to drop the debate. "Maybe she was kidnapped by ninjas."

"That's a good theory." Huey nodded, more to himself than her, and took the book from Dewey's hands. "But we won't need theories in a minute." Bready in one arm, and the book in the other, he puffed up with new confidence. "Once we read this page, all our questions will be answered! Then we can start the hunt to find her, and save her from whatever treacherous beings are keeping her from coming home to her family. Soon-"

"Stop milking the moment!"

"Just read it already!"

"Right." Huey lowered the book, eyeing it nervously. "Just gotta read it, and then we'll know the truth." He turned the pages slowly, one at a time. "What really happened... Why she still hasn't come back..."

Dewey rolled his eyes and took the book back, probably deciding his brother was too slow. Webby frowned, reading the uncertain fear in Huey's eyes. "I'll read it," Dewey said.

The plane jerked violently, knocking the kids over. The book went flying, a few pages sliding out as it skittered across the floor. A chorus of yelps followed, at both the jerking and the journal.

Accompanied by a screechy click, Fethry's voice came over the intercom. "This is your captain speaking. We maybe, sort of, uh... crashed."