Stopover in St Canard
By Sharan McQuack, Launchpad's wife.
Based VERY loosely on Boom's Ducktales #5's "Dangerous Currency". Which was more of a DW comic than a Ducktales comic, so maybe I shouldn't have bothered buying it. I ain't buying DW # 17 & 18. Boom's going to chain Launchpad to DW, aren't they? I've already discounted that.
'LAUNCHPAD!" Mr. McDuck screamed.
"You bellowed, Mr. McD?" Launchpad replied.
"Yes. I'm going to Quackwerks in St. Canard." Mr. McDuck began.
"That's the top secret project you were working on when you gave me two months off. The one Flinty tried to prevent you completing, so I ended up working with DW for 6 weeks." Launchpad inquired. (1)
"That's right. I'll be there for at least 4 hours, maybe 5. Dr. Sara Bellum thinks she can return my treasures to me. If she succeeds, I'll need a plane to carry them back home. Fly me there and I'll call you when I'm ready for you to bring me home." Mr. McDuck ordered.
"Fine. I'll visit some friends in St. Canard while you are busy." Launchpad replied.
So Launchpad flew Mr. McDuck to St. Carnard in a cargo plane large enough to bring back Mr. McDuck's treasures to Duckburg.
Then, Launchpad went to the Mallard residence and rang the doorbell. Goseyln answered.
"Launchpad! Is there trouble? Dad kicked Bruno out when Dad finally figured out Bruno wasn't you. I knew that from day one, but Bruno wasn't doing any harm and I couldn't prove it wasn't you till I showed Dad an article in the paper showing you were working for Mr. McDuck at the same time Bruno was working for him." Gos said, all in one breath. (2)
"No trouble, this time. I'm in town because Mr. McDuck had me fly him to St. Canard and wants me to fly him back to Duckburg later. I thought I'd drop in and see how your Dad's doing, as long as I'm here." Launchpad explained. "How IS your Dad doing?"
"OK, I guess. I tried to talk him into letting Bruno go on being his sidekick, but you know how Dad is...he was so embarrassed at being clueless about Bruno not being you... Since then, Morgana has acted as his sidekick; I've acted as his sidekick..." Gos began.
"How you get him to let you?" Launchpad asked.
"Blackmail. I threatened to tell everybody who DW is if he didn't let me. I cobbled together my own gizmoduck suit so I could help...that didn't work out so well. But the real Gizmoduck heard about a fake Giz at St. Canard, came to investigate and ended up working with Dad. So some good came out of it." Gos finished.
Drake came to the door, without Launchpad seeing him. Drake grabbed Launchpad by his hair and pulled violently. Launchpad, taken by surprise, swatted DW so hard the Mallard house almost had a new doormat. And Launchpad wasn't even trying to hurt him, just stop him and loosen his tongue in the process.
"No, Dad! It's NOT Bruno trying to fool you again! It's really Launchpad this time!" Gos said.
"Gee, sorry, Drake! I didn't see you, so I thought you were a bad guy!" Launchpad apologized.
"Hmpf. Did YOU know about Bruno?" Drake asked.
"You mean you didn't? YOU'RE the detective, not me!" Launchpad replied.
"You might as well come in. Gos has missed you." Drake said.
"That's right, Dad. I missed him." Gos answered
MEANWHILE, over at Quackwerks...Dr. Sara Bellum is explaining her plan for returning Mr. McDuck's treasures to him.
"I will attempt to use the same time travel technology from my failed time belt to bring your treasures from nano-seconds before Magica zapped them away to here and now." Sara said.
And she activated a strange device that glowed...then something went WRONG. A black, slimy ink like substance oozed out the floor, warping and distorting whatever it touched. Including a lab cat, a mouser. The inkslime turned the cat into a monster!
"Don't let it touch you! It will do that to you, too!" Mr. McDuck warned.
"Run!" Sara screamed.
And they did so. Mr. McDuck tried to contact Launchpad via cell phone. Nobody had told Mr. McDuck the building was cell phone proof, as a precaution against terrorists. Then, Mr. McDuck remembered his cell phone could "find" Launchpad's, so he used the GPS-tracker to follow Launchpad to the Mallard house.
Mr. McDuck rang the doorbell. Drake answered the door. Seeing Launchpad standing behide him, Mr. McDuck ignored Drake and explained the situation to Launchpad.
"I think you should tell him." Launchpad said to Drake.
"Tell me what? Who IS this guy? Why are you here, Launchpad?" Mr. McDuck asked.
"I'm Darkwing Duck." Drake said.
"Right. Sure. I'll call Fenton and get him to come here as Gizmoduck. Oops." Mr. McDuck replied.
"It's OK, Mr. McDuck. I told Fenton and Drake each other's secrets. It was the only way I could get them to stop wasting time fighting each other and work together." Launchpad reassured him.
So Mr. McDuck contacted Fenton, who soon came as Gizmoduck. The grown ups got to talking and Goselyn got bored and turned on the TV.
MEANWHILE, BACK AT QUACKWERKS...
the situation HAD been under control. The inkslime had pooled inside Quackwerks, but stopped oozing. The building had been evacuated, nobody been hurt. The cops were keeping the curious away. A team in hazard suits had ventured inside, trying to get a sample for analysis. The inkslime warped and distorted anything it touched, so efforts to do so had failed.
Word of this reached the Beagle Boys, who came to steal some inkslime, figuring they could use it to warp their way into the Money Bin. They dug a tunnel and hit inkslime. It gushed out of the ground like oil, warping and distorting the Beagles. Only they LIKED it. It made them feel stronger, eviler.
Magica soon came on her broomstick. She had similar ideas of using the inkslime to warp her way to the Lucky Dime. This led to a stupid and pointless fight between bad guys (and a girl). I somehow think this is a LOT more likely than stupid and pointless fights between good guys.
"Scram, Magica! This is OUR "black gold" We is going to charge our brothers a bunch of dough so they can be "were"d, too. They can feel stronger and more evil, too!" Big Time said.
"Fools! As if you can keep ME from anything I want!" Magica said.
And she used her magic to drill a hole into the earth. More inkslime gushed out of the hole, bathing Magica. Making her stronger and more evil. And warped and distorted.
Magica zapped the Beagles. The Beagles threw inkslime at Magica, who returned the favor. Soon, a full-fledged inkslime fight was on. This was REALLY dumb, since the victim just got stronger and more evil. And more warped and distorted.
Then, Morgana arrived on a flying carpet.
"Scram, Magica! St. Canard is MY turf!" Morgana said.
MEANWHILE, back at the Mallard house, Gos called the others to the TV set, which showed what was going down at Quackwerks.
"Too bad I don't have the Thunderquack. I left it locked up back in Duckburg." Launchpad said.
"Bruno had a copy made. He was pretending to be you, remember? He told SHUSH he crashed it and gave them your blueprints and they made another Thunderquack. He's flown Dad in it when he was Dad's sidekick." Gos said.
So Launchpad flew the gang to Quackwerks in the Thunderquack II. When they got there, the cops had the public behide barricades. But when the public saw how the inkslime warped and distorted Magica and the Beagles, the public got scared and ran. The cops had their paws full trying to prevent people from getting hurt panicking.
Magica and Morgana were having a duel of magic, trying to zap each other. Hurling spells at each other, trying to stop or destroy the other. Trying to change into something the other could not defeat. Magica kept throwing inkslime at Morgana, trying to warp her. Morgana kept ducking. Morgana tried causing the inkslime to boomerang and go back to Magica, but that just made Magica stronger. Morgana didn't try that twice.
"DW! Don't let the inkslime touch you!" Morgana said, seeing them arrive. "It will do horrible things to you!"
"Let's try a little freeze ray, then. It was payback for making the new shortcut airworthy." Launchpad said.
He saw that the Thunderquack II also had its latest "toy": a freeze ray. Launchpad aimed it at the the inkslime, freezing it solid. The Beagles and Magica ran, lest they'd be frozen, too.
"Come on, brothers! Let's dig and get more inkslime!" Big Time ordered.
"I will use my magic to drill for more, too!" Magica said.
But before they could do anything, Launchpad landed the Thunderquack II as close to the inkslime as he dared, so the good guys were blocking access to the inkslime from the bad guys. Morgana kept Magica busy, while DW, Launchpad, Mr. McDuck and Giz fought the Beagles. But the villains were stronger than ever and our heroes were getting no place until...the moon rose. A lovely, full, harvest moon.
Remember Big Time saying the inkslime "were'd" people? As in were wolves? Made them stronger, more evil? Guess what a full moon does to the "were" effect? It increased that effect. Which at first delighted the bad guys. They felt stronger than ever. Also more and more warped and distorted. But the effect kept increasing. Kept growing, spreading. Like a cancer. Until, like a cancer, it started to KILL.
Worse, the villains realized what was going on. Heck, they doubled over in agony, getting weirder and weirder looking.
"Launchpad! Aim that freeze gun at them!" Mr. McDuck ordered.
This order shocked my kind hearted Launchpad.
"Aim it at PEOPLE? That would KILL them!" Launchpad objected.
"No, it won't. At least I pray not. If I'm right, it will just freeze that stuff, not hurting them." Mr. McDuck explained.
"OK. Hope you're right." Launchpad replied.
And Launchpad aimed and fired the freeze ray at Magica and the Beagles. The inkslime seemed to absorb the cold. Instead of it killing the villains, as the freeze ray normally would, only the inkslime froze. And it fell off them, leaving them back to normal.
"Scrooge! You saved my life!" Magica said.
"Only to save the world, Magica. If that inkslime kept coming, it might have warped, distorted and taken over the whole world. You being under its control would have made it easier for it to take over the world." Mr. McDuck replied.
Magica used her magic.
"I have no wish to be in your debt. Your treasures are now back in your possession. We are even, now." Magica stated.
Then she got on her broomstick and went home.
The Beagles were less grateful. They merely left without giving our heroes any more hassle since (a) the cops had returned and b) the Beagles were back to the normal strength.
Soon, the frozen inkslime had been collected and was back in- or rather, under, Quackwerks.
"You knew about this stuff, didn't you, Mr. McD?" Launchpad asked.
"That's one of the reasons I built Quackwerks. To house dangerous substances like the inkslime. It was buried under Quackwerks in an indestructible glass container deep under Quackwerks. Dr. Bellum's time device must have shattered it somehow." Mr. McDuck replied.
Dr. Sara Bellum caught the monstrous lab cat and had Launchpad aim the freeze ray at it, which restored the cat to normal.
Bruno Von Beck had been watching this whole mess from a safe distance. He had already dyed his hair red. Bruno hated giving up such a perfect hiding place from the cops. A few minutes after Launchpad went back home to Duckburg, Bruno went up to DW.
"DW, I forgot something at your house. is it OK if I come back to get it?" Bruno asked.
"Sure, Launchpad. Why don't you stay and be my sidekick again?" DW asked.
"Really? Sure! If you don't mind me working for Mr. McD during the daytime, that is." Bruno said. (3)
"Why should Dad care about that, "Launchpad"?" Gos asked, winking at him.
THE END
(1) See "What Launchpad Did During His Summer Vacation" by Me.
(2) See "War of the planets,Battleof the Worlds" by Me for Bruno pretending to be Launchpad and being DW's sidekick.
(3) WHY would Launchpad WANT to be DW's sidekick? And if DW's such hot stuff, why does he need Launchpad?