SwapTales

Goldie's Optimistic Schemer (01)

"Can you believe that that stifling swindler has herself a new sidekick?"

Webby paused, her hand hovering over the tongs to the plate of waffles. She'd only been up for half an hour (at the most) and was expecting sort of a low-key, taking-it-easy day in the mansion after all that adventuring lately - because, in the past two weeks alone, she'd set off a gold dragon, fought off a rogue Gizmosuit in the archives, and single-handedly got her family talking to each other again. She deserved to take a break.

But the word sidekick made her stop.

"Sidekick?" Webby echoed, confused.

Scrooge glanced at her from over the top of his newspaper. In annoyance, he smacked his hand at the paper. "Look at this, lass," he said, clearly frustrated. "Goldie O'Gilt somehow has a sidekick. It's all over the news."

This puzzled Webby completely, even as she leaned over Scrooge's shoulder to glance at the article. Sure enough, she spotted the big, black, bold article that read "Goldie O'Gilt Grabs a New Sidekick!"

"Who's the sidekick?" she asked.

"Doesn't say." Scrooge shrugged. "The article makes it sound vague. But if I had to guess," he added, folding the paper and putting it aside, "she's probably got some genius or newly-graduated-scientist wrapped around her finger. The article said something about Goldie being able to break into security systems with surprising ease."

Then he finally noticed Webby's baffled expression.

"Ach, don't worry about it," he said, waving it away. "She does this thing all the time. I'm sure whoever her sidekick is will end up realizing she's swindling 'em and there'll be a whole article about that."

"But they don't even know who it is," Webby mumbled. She forced herself to grab the tongs and take a waffle anyway, but her focus wasn't on it, even though she stared at the waffle now on her plate when she was done. Goldie had a sidekick? But - but that hadn't happened anywhere in her universe, had it? Was this just a thing in this universe or would Goldie end up doing this in the normal-verse, too?

This was bothering her more than she wanted to admit.

She stabbed her waffle with her fork, cutting a piece off and starting to nibble at it. Well, she supposed she could find out who this sidekick was . . . but where would she start? How would she even find a con-artist?

An idea sparked in her mind. She dropped her fork onto her place with a clatter in surprise.

"Lass?" Scrooge asked, confused.

"I'm fine," Webby said quickly, picking up her fork again.

But, as she took another bite of her waffle, she smiled to herself. She could find a con-artist by getting help from a con-artist . . . Louie.

~

As soon as she called the houseboat after breakfast (with Mrs. B's phone, of course) and asked for Louie and then explained to him she needed help tracking down a con-artist who could break into security systems . . . she realized her mistake.

She rubbed her forehead in exasperation. "Sorry, I need Dewey," Webby said, frustrated. She'd been stuck in this universe for however-long and she still couldn't get everyone's roles right. Sigh.

Louie was a little more than concerned, but Dewey got handed the phone soon enough and Webby was back on track. "Hey, Webs," he said casually. "What's up?"

"Did you see the news?"

Dewey snorted. "No? I don't read the news, I'm a kid."

"Okay, listen - one of Uncle Scrooge's rivals has this new sidekick. The rival is a con artist - you know, Goldie O'Gilt? Her? Anyway, she has a sidekick but the news doesn't know who it is, so -"