'Survival of the Cipher'

Chapter 3

Webby POV

I’ve just been up in my room all day, fixing the damage that was done by the attack from June. The word “McDuck” has been echoing in my head all day long. I haven’t talked to Dewey all day, I told him not to beat himself up too much about not being there when I was taken by FOWL and even explained that I went willingly to the FOWL base. He still seemed super mad at himself anyways.

As I’m lost in my thoughts, I hear a knock on my bedroom door. I open it to find a certain purple saberwing.

“What’s up Vi?” I ask her nonchalantly.

“I need to come in.” She says then walks past me, and into my bedroom, she closes the door and sits on my bed, I do the same and face her. “Everyone is acting weird.” She remarks with no further explanation.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Huey has been twitching all day, Louie is being more weird and closed off than usual, you and Dewey haven’t been in the same room at all today, Lena is clearly frustrated about something, she won’t tell me what though, and Gosalyn seems like she knows something but won’t tell anyone else about it.” Violet explains then sighs. “I came to you because I didn’t really know what else to do.”

I hadn’t even noticed anything was wrong with anyone until she came here. Dang I’m a bad friend, but to be fair, I had been in my room all day, so I guess I probably missed out on a few things.

“Wow, that’s… a lot. Listen, don’t worry about me and Dew, we’re fine. The rest… I guess we’ve gotta find out for ourselves.” I told her, then stood up from the bed and grabbed an empty journal and a pen. “Let’s go fix our friends!”

Huey POV

I guess I should explain why I’m acting so strange. Well, after the whole FOWL thing, I saw something that I probably shouldn’t have…
I saw Bradford Buzzard and Black Heron conspiring with Mrs. Beakley. I thought it was a dream at first, as Heron had been thrown into that… thing that nearly killed us all, but then I overheard them say that she was just a clone. So yeah, that’s why I’ve been all twitchy and more mad recently.

Eventually Louie and I stopped bickering and it was quiet in our room, we were both still on his bunk of the bed. Eventually I piped up, “Hey, what’s been up with you lately? You’ve been kind of… well I dunno, just more cagey than normal.”

“What?! No I haven’t!!” Louie immediately spat, defending himself. I raised an eyebrow at him. “Okay, so maybe I do see your point, but I’m just recovering from the adventure, that’s all. Besides, you're the one who's been twitching all day. What’s up with that?” Louie asked.

I took note of him changing the subject and cautiously replied. “Umm y’know I’m just a bit stressed out because uh- JWG stuff?” I lied horribly.

Louie gave me an unimpressed look. “If you’re going to lie, you’ve got to at least sound convincing.” Then he sighed. “Look, I may be annoying and whatever because I’m your baby brother, but I am also here for you and I do care, even if I don’t act like it all the time.” Louie said with a small smile and put a hand on my shoulder.

I inhaled sharply then made a quick decision. “Alright fine, I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to tell anyone not mom, not Dewey, not even Scrooge.” I then added with a shudder. “Especially not scrooge.”

“Deal.” Louie grinned and put out his hand. I hesitated for a moment before shaking it.

“Okay then here’s the story…”