Electronic Ink
By Eoraptor
AN: set after the TV series, and including some events from the Boom Studios Comic. DarkWing Duck and associated characters created by Tad Stones and are property of The Walt Disney Company.
"Director Grizzlikof, Darkwing Duck is here for his appointment." Buzzed the old fashioned intercom.
"Let him wait. Noodenut Duck is fourty-seven seconds early or his appointed timings."
"That's where you're wrong, Grizz old boy," A cloud of dark blue smoke exploded in one corner of the wood paneled office of the director of S.H.U.S.H. "I'm always on time! And it's about time you called…"
"Darkwing Duck!" the great, slightly greying bear spun and glared on the spot, only for the smoke to dissipate, revealing nothing.
"Director Vladimir Goudenov Grizzlikof, huh?" Darkwing appeared standing next to the desk behind the bear, reading and flipping the name plaque of the director of the super-secret super-spy agency, "You know, never knew your full name, even after being stuck on the moon with you for a week."
The massive director snorted and snatched his name plaque from his guest, "Da. Regulations strictly prohibit revealing of personally identifiable information to those lacking clearance sales."
"Grizz Grizz Grizz…" the darksome duck chided, "After all we've been through together? But, I know how you are about schedules… so, why'd you call me here after all these years? I haven't heard from S. .H. since J. Gander retired."
"Da. Former Director's policies required much reexamining, particularly after incompetent bungling of Quackwerks robots infiltration." The Russian bear crossed his arms over his chest and snorted, causing papers on his desk three feet away to flutter. "You are not here as constituent."
"Consultant."
"Da, is what I said, constituent." The big man confirmed ignorantly. "You are here because of involvement of former agents with you. Agent Appeal, you may be coming in please."
Darkwing looked over at the opposite door, and could practically hear the sultry saxophone music accompaniment as Agent Femme Appeal entered. The vulpine secret agent was the very definition of sexy female secret double agents, from her thick British accent to the black body suit she wore. The mighty masked mallard found himself momentarily gobsmacked.
"Ah, Darkwing Duck," She smiled as she shook the dumbstruck duck's hand before leaning on the director's desk suggestively, "It's been a while."
"Ye ya, yuhuh…" Darkwing finally got his faculties back together and shook his head out, "It has. You kind of disappeared after the whole Duckthulu incident."
"What can I say, it's what we spies do best," the foxy agent shook her head with a smile, "But I'm afraid I asked to have you called here. Took us quite a bit to locate that flashquack gadget of yours too."
"Oh, hehe, yeah… most people just call me or beep me these days," Darkwing rubbed his head through his hat, and the bump there where the miniature jet plane had clocked him on arriving a few hours earlier.
"Yes, just like my niece Kimberly. In any event," Femme nodded as she picked up a folder of papers, "I want you to make a delivery for me."
"Now you wait just a minute!" Darkwing's dander instantly went up, "Why is it that whenever S.H.U.S.H. calls, you want to treat me like a messenger boy? First it was Oompas, then it was Norma Rays; now what is it? I am the terror that flaps in the night, not the ducking Postal Service!"
Eyebrows went up at the outburst as Darkwing continued to fume before the fox and bear.
"Boisterous duck will find out, if you will just Be Quiet." Director Grizzlikof shook his head irritably vibrating the room with a growl.
"Your young friend Gosalyn Mallard is turning sixteen soon, isn't she luv?" Femme picked up the file and tapped it against her free hand as she watched the arrogant duck.
"Gosa… Yes… yes she is, why?" Darkwing's suspicions instantly arose. What did the spy agency want with his daughter? At least they didn't seem to know she was his daughter.
"And Gosalyn was born Gosalyn Waddlemeyer, da?" Grizzlikof added as he returned to his seat.
"Ye- yes…" Again the masked mallard looked between the two super spies.
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to stop Ovis Hannigan when I had the chance… if I'd have known just how… unstable… all those blows to the head had made him, I would have blown my cover to put the brute down." The brunette fox narrowed her eyes at unseen memory.
"Stop him? Cover?" by now the vigilante was thoroughly confused. "Hammerhead Hannigan? What's he got to do with the price of tea in China?"
"One of Special Agent Appeal's assignments was in infiltrating Taurus Bolva's organization. It was how he was originally apprehended and his criminal underworld dismantled." Grizzliof nodded as he rapped his clawed fingers on his desk.
"Yeah, and then F.O.W.L. resurrected him after I cleaned up that mess… Oh, and then there's the little matter of taking over all of St. Canard for over a year with Quackwerks." The terror of the night sniped as a sensitive subject was touched.
"Ye- yes… all those things. You see. Hannigan was responsible for the death of Doctor Anatidae Waddlemeyer. As well as… well… Give this to your friend Gosalyn. It explains everything." The curvaceous agent handed the folder to Darkwing.
"Why in the word would I give Gosalyn a folder full of bad news?" Darkwing glared at the spy.
"Because," the vivacious vulpine shook her head "Her parents would want her to know about it. And I promised them she would when she was old enough."
"Her pa- her pare… her…" the masked mallard moved instantly to open the file and look inside.
The director of S.H.U.S.H. reached out with one massive paw and snatched the vigilante off the floor, causing him to drop the folder, "That is not for your eyes, Duck. Either give to leetle girl, or leave here."
"Erk! Okay OKAY! I'll give to leetle girl- erm Gosalyn!" Darkwing flailed at the iron grip of the Russian bear.
"Good, then our business is concluded." The bear put the mangled mallard back on his feet and straightened his own suit.
-DwD-
"What in the world would S.H.U.S.H. know about Gosalyn's family?" Darkwing eyed with dubious attention the bright red folder sitting in the sidecar of the rat catcher. "I mean, I know that Doctor Waddlemeyer was working for the military when he built the ramrod, and S.H.U.S.H. specializes in weird weapons, but this? And her parents…?"
"Hey DW," Launchpad looked up from his usual perch beneath the body of the Thunderquack jet, "Sure was weird, getting clocked by the flashquack like that, what did S.H.U.S.H. want?"
"Um… I'm not really… it's sorta…" the defender of the darkness fumbled, still a bit shocked by anything relating to the tragedies surrounding his adopted daughter's biological family.
"Hey Dad!" came the enthusiastic greeting from the girl in question as she bounded down the ladder from the computer platform , her game of Wiffle Crisis 360 paused on the giant display. "What did old Grizzlepuss want anyway?"
"Oh! Gosalyn!" Darkwing snatched the folder quickly out of view behind his great purple fedora, concealing it from the spirited teen, "Um… just some back pay from some old adventures, you now how Grizzlikof is with his paperwork."
"Yeah, that bruin could make Honker feel uncomfortable about accuracy, and that's sayin' something." She snorted and crossed her arms over her hockey jersey. Say, Can I take the Ratcatcher out?"
Darkwing was thrilled for the change of topics and pounced on it like a rabid mongoose on a slinky, "Young Lady! You know the Darkwing Vehicles are strictly for Darkwing Business Only! And for another thing, the last thing I need is for the world to find out that you're my daughter if you get caught joyriding in my things!"
"But Dad!" Gosalyn stamped her foot petulantly, "It's not like you're ever around to give me driving lessons in the station wagon! You're always off saving the city from something or other!"
"She's right, DW," Launchpad popped his head up and into the discussion, "You've ducked out of a lot of chances to teach Gosalyn to drive ever since she got her permit."
Suddenly the masked mallard didn't feel quite so glad for the topic change as he was hit from both sides. "But, but I… I just."
"and another thing!" the redhead continued, "Honker already has a car fund! I don't even have a piggy bank! And if you think I'm going to drive the Mallard family truckster to school…!"
"Well Honker also has an IQ of 154 and an investment portfolio," Darkwing countered, "How that boy came from Muddlefoot stock I'll never know, incidentally…"
"But! But!" Gosalyn whined.
"But nothing!" Darkwing continued, "Honker works hard for his money. If you had half his responsibility, you could buy any car in St. Canard."
"I'll bet Morgana would help me get the money for a car…" the teen huffed, sniffing indignantly.
"Morgana isn't any better with money than you are," the mallard asserted, and then looked around since saying things like that tended to get a lightning bolt or yak to drop on him.
Fortunately, the curvaceous sorceress was apparently not listening in on the astral plane at the moment, as no mystical mischief befell him.
"Why not a part time job?" he offered to placate his daughter, still keeping the red S.H.U.S.H. folder hidden until he decided what to do with it.
"As if!" the gosling snorted irritably, "In this economy? What do you think I'd do, sell Quackerware? It comes over the counter now you know!"
Before he could get another word in, his teenaged daughter spun on her heel and scurried back up the ladder to her game in a huff.
"Gee, DW," Launchpad looked at the crestfallen hero, "I mean… even my dad helped me get my first plane."
"I know Launchpad…" the mighty mallard looked up at the violent videogame as it resumed exploding on the giant monitor, "But it's already hard hiding where my money comes from as Drake Mallard. If I tried to fill out an auto loan, things would really start to get complicated. It's not like I don't want Gos to have everything other little girls have."
"Except that you do…" the big pilot quietly added to no one, "and except that shes' not so little any more."
-DwD-
Several hours later, the red folder from S.H.U.S.H. sat abandoned on a table in the Audubon Bay Bridge tower. A breeze rolled in through the open parapets and flipped it open, revealing piles of pictures of a pair of young spy geese, as well as dozens of printed pages stamped [classified] in brilliant red. At least, the pages were stamped like that for a moment.
In the darkness, even if anybird were there to see, it would have been difficult to tell in the darkness of the quiet tower, one of the pictures suddenly rippled and pulled. The glossy lamination of the antiqued photo peeled away of its own volition and crawled away from the folder, along with the red stamped letters. They crawled off of the table and disappeared into a shadow, where a low pitched chuckle began to echo around the tower and the shadows to shift and swirl as though made of wet paint.
AN: My first Darkwing Duck fic... I remember watching the very first premier of this show WAYYYYYY back in the stone age of the early nineties as a kid, a special primetime Friday premier on ABC. I still watch it a lot, keeping it on a shuffle for noise in the background. Femme Appeal is, of course, based on agent Emma Peele from The Avengers. She comes from the most recent Darkwing Duck comics from Boom Studios. If you haven't picked up on it already, this story takes place a few years after the tv show, giving us not only an adult Gosalyn, but things not shown in the original TV seriese like cell phones, and the internet.