Phoenix in the Night
by: Syiren
Prelogue
The region of Adubon bay hadn't changed much over the years. The famous bridge still stood strong and tall like a silent guardain watching over the connecting city of St. Canard. It had been well known for it's high crime rate and super-powered villains. However, that had changed in recent years. It had been over twenty years and in that time the streets had cleaned up quite a bit. Every once in a while one of the supervillains would rear their ugly heads to show they were still alive and kicking but, they'd always get defeated by one of the city's heroes. But, it had been some time since any of the villains tried causing trouble.
Despite the city growing in population and more places opening for business and ripe for the villains to prey upon many of the top class villains seemed to have lost all interest. A reporter had caught up with known super criminal and powerhouse Megavolt and asked him why he had seemed to throw in the towel. Aside from the random electric sparks from his annoyed demeaner the villain admitted that it just wasn't as much fun without the medaling duck.
Fifteen years ago an epic battle had taken place that nearly changed the city forever. Negaduck had managed to get ahold of a top secret device that had the power to warp dementions and he had planned to fuse this demention with that of the Negaverse. His plan nearly succeeded until Darkwing Duck stepped in. Things didn't look good as Negaduck always seemed to be one step ahead of the masked hero but, whether it was intentional or by pure accident Darkwing had managed to reverse the device which resulted in an emplosion. Unfortunately, the hero along with Negaduck had been pulled into the vortex and vanished. Whether they were destroyed or thrown into another reality was anyone's guess.
Chapter: One
"Yay! Fieldtrip day!"
"Who cares? It's just a stupid museum."
"You're just mad cause we're not going to the pool."
"I am not! I just didn't want school to start so soon!"
The school bus was packed with energetic fifth graders on their way to the St. Canard Museum of Natural History. Summer Vacation had just ended and the students were as rowdy as ever. "Please settle down back there, we'll be at the museum shortly." Declared the teacher who was sitting in the front of the bus. "Yes Mr. M." the class replied.
"Mr. Pushover." The student mumbled. The young duckling sitting next to the little rooster who made the comment punched him in the shoulder. "Hey, that's not kool. Mr. M. is nice. He's a lot nicer then the other teachers in the school. We should be happy we got assigned to his class instead of Mr. Grizzlykoff's." The rooster rubbed his shoulder. "Yeah, you got a point. That old bear is like the king of grumps. You'd expect a new teacher to be cheerful but, he acts like an old king who got kicked off his thrown."
As the bus pulled into the museum parking lot Mr. M stood up and faced his students. "Now remember class. This is the first trip of the school year and your behavior will determine if we can continue to go on anymore trips. You represent your school and if you don't follow the directions given to you then we wont go on anymore trips. This includes you Brewster." Mr. M said glaring firmly at the young rooster that was sitting near the back. "Now, I'll call you up in pairs. Once called you are to line up outside the bus and wait for me. You'll be sticking with your partner for the entire time we're here and then you'll both write an essay on what you've learned. This assignment counts as two test grades. One for the essay and the other for your behaviour here. I've decided to add this grade as a freebie. It could help you or hurt you depending on your actions. Remember that."
Brewster slumped back into his seat. "Great, I knew this trip would suck." The duckling that lectured him earlier giggled. "Oh c'mon, it wont be that bad. The museum is full of neat stuff." Brewster looked up at her with a pouty face. "Prove it." Mr. M continued calling out names. "Brewster Beak and Jessica Tomas." She smiled as she grabbed his hand. "Ok, I will." Brewster nearly fell into the isle as she lead him off the bus. "Jess! take a chill pill will ya?"
Once all the students had been paired up Mr. M looked at the driver. "Come pick us up around two." With that he stepped off the bus. "Alright class, remember to stay together, I don't want any students wandering off and pay attention to what you learn. you never know, it could be fun." With that he entered trough the sliding glass doors with his class following behind him.
Despite it's simple look on the outside the museum was huge on the inside. Some students gazed in awe at what they saw. The first thing that greeted them was a massive Skeleton of a T-rex. The kids ran up to it, some tried reaching to touch the end of it's tail. Mr. M smiled. No matter how much times had changed every kid was still fasinated with dinosaurs. Something caught Brewster's eye that no one else seemed to notice. "Hey look, here's a dinosaur with all it's scales!" He ran over to it. It was odd that this one didn't have any dumb carpet ropes seperating it from the crowd. Brewster grabbed one of it's tail spikes. "Kool! It feels so real! Jess you gotta check it out!" The duckling from before tried to keep up with him. "Brewster! Mr. M said to stay with the group! You're not allowed to touch the museum peices, we're gonna get in trouble!"
"No, it's okay. I don't mind." Jessica stopped as both she and Brewster looked up at the statue and it was smiling right back at them. Both kids screamed. Mr. M came rushing up to them. "What's going on?! Are you kids alri-...Stegmutt?" The teacher adjusted his glasses just to make sure. "Yep. That's me." Brewster looked back and forth between the two. "Wait, you know that thing?" Mr. M. glared down at the young rooster. "Show some respect! This is one of the Justice Ducks!"
"But, he's not a duck." Jessica pointed out. "I used to be." Replied the dinosaur. "I've been a stegasaurus for a long time now but, I forget how long it's been." Mr. M. smiled. "It's been almost twenty years since we first met and you were a dinosaur then to."
Stegmutt looked at the other kids that were starting to come over and see what was going on. "Are these your kids?" He asked. Mr. M motioned for the rest of the class to stay put. "I'm a teacher. My class is here on a fieldtrip to learn about what's on display here." Stegmutt smiled. "Oh neato! Then I'm one of your tour guides! C'mon, lemme show you guys around. This place is a lot of fun!" As the dinosaur led the way the other students fell in line behind their teacher. Jessica was quickly bored with the tour but, Brewster wanted to find out more about the Dinosaur and how he got turned into one. Once Stegmutt led them into an area where they could freely roam around and check out some of the interactive displays he and Mr. M. started to converse.
"Who knew you'd end up working for the same museum you were transformed in." Mr. M. began. Stegmutt shrugged. "It's okay, I don't mind. It was only Dr. Fossil that was bad but, this is the only place people don't run away or think I'm a bad guy. I was going to the store the other day and a few teens called me a freak." Mr. M. patted the dinosaur's back. "I know the feeling. High school was a nightmare for me." He then looked up at the dinosaur and hoped he might know something. "Hey, about what happened fifteen years ago, the last time the Justice Ducks fought together, you wouldn't happen to know what happened to them by any chance? I mean is there a way to find him?" Stegmutt's smile vanished. "No. All of us looked. Gizmoduck searched the whole city and Neptunia searched the entire bay. There wasn't a single trace of either of them left. Morgana took it real hard." Mr. M. slowly nodded. "Gosalyn took it pretty hard as well."
Stegmutt looked down. "How is she?" Mr. M. smiled thinking about her. "She's on another mission for SHUSH. Somewhere in the Amazon last I talked to her." The dinosaur looked over at the kids as they moved about the room. "I still can't believe she's a secret agent." Mr. M nodded. "I beleive she took that job in hopes of finding her dad. The device did come from them so, she figured they might be her best chance of finding any leads."
The dinosaur looked at a mirrior that was refelcting the light spectrum. "It's still hard to believe we've grown up. It may be because dinosaurs live a long time but, I don't feel much older then from when I first met you and Gos. Even though I'm much smarter now." Stegmutt laughed. "I remember how scared you were when I was trying to chase you two down. It made me smile when you guys didn't make fun of me after you found out I was a real dinosaur." The mallard chuckled. "I remember. I used to be so timid. I guess I still am but, thanks to Gosalyn I toughened up enough to survive high school."
Some of the students approached the two. "Whats next? We're getting bored looking at the same stuff." Mr. M looked at his watch. "Five more minutes then we'll move on." As the kids walked back over to the displays Stegmutt scratched his head. "Why do they call you Mr. M? Why not your full name?" The mallard lightly chuckled. "Because Muddlefoot is too easy for the kids to make fun of. It was bad enough in middle school."
"You didn't like school very much." Stegmutt replied. Honker smirked. "I think I only survived it because of Gosalyn." Stegmutt looked at Honker's hands and noticed he wasn't wearing a ring. "So, are you two together?" The mallard nodded. "We are but, she doesn't want to get married until she finds her dad and I'm fine with that. We live together in the same house she grew up in that way we'll be there if he comes back."
Stegmutt sensed that their conversation was starting to turn down a sad road so he stood up. "Well, Don't worry. I bet he's just waiting until the perfect moment to make a grand entrance. That's what he's best known for right?" Honker stood up and called the class over. "You're right. We can't just give up cause he'd never give up on us." Once the tour had gotten back under way the students were shown the rest of the exhibits and Stegmutt led them to the cafeteria where he treated them to lunch. Before long it was time to leave and Mr. M. was calling the last students to board the bus. Stegmutt was waving to some of the students as they said how kool he was. He then called to Honker. "Tell Gosalyn I said hi when you get the chance." Honker waved goodbye. "I will. Later Stegmutt." With that the bus headed back to the school.