Disclaimer: I don't own The Adventures of Dr. McNinja. Durrr.
A/N: So basically this entire thing can be blamed on Dr. McNinja's TV Tropes page (where in the WMG section I saw that someone theorized 'wait what if Radical knows McLuchador is McNinja, and isn't saying anything because he's trying to get McNinja to join his side?' and also potentially YMMV, depending on whether that's a thing I do), insomnia, and the fact my dad got me a tablet last Christmas. Don't give insomniacs tablets. haha see what i did there
Also this... this can spoil a lot of stuff for you for the comic. Actually the summary kinda does already. So if you're not past A Cumberland Ninja in King Radical's Court, don't read this? yeah that sounds good
Despite the glaringly obvious fact that the dual doctor-ninja was his enemy, King Radical liked Dr. McNinja. He may not be the only radical thing in Cumberland, but he was certainly one of the most radical. Come on-he was a doctor, and a ninja, who was descended from a line of Irish ninja who started out by throwing frozen shamrocks at pirates as shuriken. It was radical even by King Radical's high standards for radical.
What was infuriating about McNinja was that even though he was so radical, he defied King Radical's attempts to make Cumberland a more radical place. For some reason, to him, perfectly mundane things were preferable to completely radical things. This coming from the guy who employed a gorilla and whose sidekick was a gun-slinging Mexican boy with a glorious mustache.
In the doc's latest plan to keep him from making Cumberland more radical, however, McNinja had given him exactly what King Radical needed for his own plan. It was, quite frankly,obvious that McLuchador was McNinja in disguise (to Radical, at least). McNinja was using the opportunity of him being thought dead to infiltrate King Radical's forces. Radical had picked up on the truth fairly quickly (though having someone show up to fake being McNinja had admittedly thrown him off) and decided to turn the doc's plan on its heel-while Doc was working for him, he would show the good doctor just how radical his whole operation was. If the guy's clone was on his side, surely the original could be persuaded as well.
Still, he did need to actually use the fact McNinja was on his side (if in disguise). The doc's skills were unmatched among the rest of Radical's forces, and he would also suspect things if Radical seemed overly interested in convincing him of his radness. What was great was that these tasks doubled as tests to see exactly how far he would go to keep the lie going-and whether Radical had made any progress.
For instance, the Friend Brothers. Sure, it wasn't the nicest thing to do. But sometimes, things had to be done for the greater radness. Doc had complied, and done exactly what he had been told to do, but he didn't accept 'they just weren't radical enough' for an explanation, meaning he'd only done it to keep up the disguise.
Evidently, Radical hadn't done nearly enough to bring Doc over to him yet. Luckily enough, the Bad Dudes hadn't been entirely wiped out, so he went along with some them to deal with the Robster at the Mountain Dew research facility. They would be able to justify burning the research and possibly killing a few scientists easily, while McNinja would just have more qualms. Granted, it probably looked at least a little suspicious not bringing Doc with him, but Radical said something about him doing enough for the day that seemed to quell any concerns McNinja might've had.
Even without Doc accompanying him, the whole thing went well. He assigned someone random to keep an eye on that Derek guy, hiding his excitement competently. Finally, after so long, he could have Ron back by his side again. It had been so long.
Once he was back, Radical found Doc was gone, which, while preventing him from talking to McNinja, did give him the opportunity to plan further. Since the new mayor wasn't nearly as accepting of him as Goodrich had been, he was going to need to apply for a building permit to actually do what he needed to do.
The next day, he set about doing exactly that, but then there was a lot of waiting business which was just plain boring. Radical scrapped actually getting a building permit-he'd figure out some way to get around that-and instead did something radical. He punched a mummy.
Of course, punching the mummy meant getting the Mummy's Curse, but Radical was confident McNinja could take care of that no problem. And it was easily worth it-Herschel reported an impressive increase in the levels. Radical was getting closer and closer, but he wasn't quite there yet.
As expected, Doc dealt with the Mummy's Curse easily-not without a moral quandary, though, which did put a downer on things. He was becoming more and more frustrating as tiime passed. What would Radical have to do for Doc to join him? Old had been nowhere near as difficult.
Just as he'd been cured from the curse, the guy he'd had watching on Derek reported exactly what Radical wanted to hear. Doc heard too, being right next to him, but he probably didn't know enough to piece everything together. Curiosity led the doctor to follow him into his really lame office, and as fortune would have it, Doc saw the Inocktek's book, providing a perfect opportunity for Radical to explain his motivations (granted, he'd explained a little of his history during the whole Sparklelord incident, but that was while driving through the tunnels and also fairly abridged). Surely knowing the whole story, or more of it at least, couldn't hurt McNinja's faith in him.
Then Herschel came in, inadvertently revealing Doc knew about the portal. Well-Radical already knew Doc knew, but this meant he'd been down there while disguised as McLuchador, something Radical hadn't accounted for. The problem was when. If he'd been down there at the wrong time, he might know enough to figure out Radical's end goal. Would he object to it, necessarily? Well... he didn't know enough to know about the unfortunate, but necessary part of the plan, so, logically, it couldn't make him any more opposed to Radical's cause than he already was.
Radical provided Doc with an excuse, which the doctor immediately used, and then explained his story. Whether or not it had any effect, he couldn't tell-and the errand he sent the doctor on wasn't really a way to tell, as McNinja would've gone through with it anyway.
In any case, Radical was now aware that the possibility Doc knew what he was trying to accomplish was very real-which was exactly why the doctor had disguised himself as McLuchador in the first place. So, his next action would likely be to start sabotaging things. But Doc didn't know Radical knew that, and so Radical implemented countermeasures.
Since McNinja was a ninja, it was probably impossible to keep him from listening in on at least a few secret conversations. That didn't keep Radical from trying. He didn't discuss important operations out in the open, but in more secluded rooms nobody could hide in. McLuchador didn't need to hear in on those conversations, so McLuchador was not invited.
It worked better than Radical had expected-his plans were left untouched, meaning he could put some focus on convincing the Doc to actually join him. He didn't do anything too overt, knowing McNinja would be suspicious. Subtly, however, he set about showing Doc just how rad the things he was doing were. He talked to the doctor probably more than he needed to, and found he actually enjoyed their conversations-it wasn't just to bring McNinja over to his side, it was also just because talking with him was fun.
With McLuchador utterly in the dark about any key goings-on, everything went off without a hitch. He'd been forced to ask for the doctor's help with installing the planks due to a shortage of men after so many of them had been injured fighting the gorilla. As it turned out, though, a double dose of the ninja drug used on the guy made him do the entire job himself, so any worries about Doc trying to sabotage the thing were forgotten. With that last thing, Radical's plan was nearing completion.
Finally, Radical heard back from Hortense on her investigation of McLuchador a little while after the planks were all installed and McLuchador had reappeared. He asked her to stay for a few minutes longer, and got someone else to fetch McLuchador. It was time for the big reveal-where Radical could see if his plan would play out like he wanted.
To his credit, the doctor managed to hide his surprise at seeing Hortense working for Radical pretty well (although the mask probably helped). But he wasn't able to hide his nervousness as she stared down at him, and then glanced at Radical questioningly, one eyebrow raised.
King Radical glanced at her with an assured smile and then turned towards McNinja, leaning forward slightly with his hands clasped together. "McLooch! Hort here-" he nodded towards Hortense, then turned back to McLuchador. "-just came back with her report on you. The real McLuchador, it turns out, died in Arizona a couple years back."
McNinja looked just about ready to bolt, but Radical held out a hand to stop him and shook his head. "Don't worry, you're too rad to get rid of, even if you're not the real McLuchador. Still, the truth's been waiting long enough."
The silence seemed tangible, almost like Radical could reach out and touch it. Everyone was looking straight at him, waiting for what he was going to do next. "So," he said, drawing out the word purposefully, "I figure it's about time you took off that extra mask, Dr. McNinja."