Fireworks Studios


The wafting smell of fresh coffee, hash browns and buttered raisin toast woke Negaduck up. Hunting for the source of the hunger driving scent, he left the trailer and shortly located the breakfast setup.

Seeing Hooter and Bushroot sitting at a table sipping coffee made Negaduck freeze for a moment. When last he'd seen of this duo they had ganged up to kill him.

"That's some excellent makeup work." Hooter told Bushroot.
"You're changing the subject." Bushroot frowned at his breakfast companion. "And if you like it you should really be telling Len and Barbara. They're the ones doing the work for three hours. All I have to do is sit still for that long."
"I've never really had many three hour makeup sessions. I find it is worth it, though."
"It's like I don't feel quite myself anymore when I look in the mirror."
"Aha!" Hooter stated enthusiastically, "Then you are halfway to your role already!"

At this stage in their drivelling conversation, Negaduck decided that in this universe these two guys were off the threat list and on the annoying bystander list instead. No longer concerned for his health in their presence, Negaduck eased himself to the food carts and helped himself.

"Meanwhile, Lenora." Bushroot redirected the conversation.
"Oh, you're really being too hard. You haven't even gotten to know her yet."
"Gotten to ..." Bushroot sat back in his chair and shook his head. His purple petals fluttered freely about with the motion. "I noticed you have a long scene with her today. Let's see you handle it."

"You can't be fed up with someone before you've even started shooting."
"I'm not fed up; I'm mystified." Bushroot finished his coffee and stood up. "Excuse me, I think I hear my makeup team calling me and I'm in the first scene."

Negaduck sat down a few tables away from the actor that looked like Hooter from his Negaverse. There was something messed up with this picture. The Hooter from his universe was a strictly night-time vampire looking in his late twenties. In any other universe, Hooter was an elderly owl who liked sipping coffee in broad daylight. Here this Hooter sat looking in his late twenties in broad daylight sipping coffee and reading his script.

"No, really?" Hooter muttered to himself and pulled out a journal book from his back pocket. "Mystified." He wrote as he repeated the word. "That's a big word for such a young actor."

Shortly an exact duplicate of Negaduck's Negaverse Launchpad lumbered over to the drinks cart. He made two cups of coffee and placed them on a table near Hooter and sat down.

Hooter chuckled, "Remarkable the sparks of animosity between us like life mirroring art; or you might sit at my table instead."
Launchpad swigged one of the coffees in front of him. "No, I'm usually standoffish in the morning."
Hooter laughed again. "You're not a method actor?"
"No, I'm like this normally."
Hooter laughed again.

Launchpad paused in his coffee swigging and eyed Hooter with some caution. "You may want to lay off the sugar for a while."
The youthful Hooter laughed again, "No, I'm like this normally." He grew more serious. "It's an interesting thing, this character I'm playing." He picked up his script. "He has almost a bipolar nature. Hooter is young and superficial one moment and wise and deathly serious the next."

Negaduck groaned and rolled his eyes. "I've got to find me a new chainsaw."

The blonde-haired doggette from yesterday strolled between the breakfast tables. "Scene one shooting is commencing in ten minutes on sound stage twenty, everyone," she advised. "Has Lenora been this way?"
"I'm afraid not, Sarah." Hooter shook his head, reminding Negaduck of what her name was. "Reginald's talked with her though."

"That must have been in makeup. Perhaps she's gone back there instead of to the sound stage."


Negaduck finished his breakfast and followed behind Hooter and Launchpad onto the soundstage.

"Lenora, you can go on the set now, it's your first scene." He heard Bushroot saying.

Moving closer, Negaduck could see a perfect copy of his seventeen-year-old ward Gosalyn in one of her favourite white dresses standing facing Bushroot beside a camera stand.

"Bluebirds and whistling fish are transposed and overdue," Lenora answered Bushroot. She then went to sit on the throne in the set beneath the long-range microphones. Her mild expression fell into a sad and lost expression, studying the edge of the red carpet before her. Behind her the walls were a pink shade of white, the three windows trimmed with gold to match the floor tiles and there was a red sheet of something blocking the view of the skyline outside.

"And action."

Gosalyn's sad, lost expression went into a glassy eyed stare.

Bushroot gently trod up the length of the carpet towards her. "Gosalyn."
Gosalyn's eyes dragged up away from the red fabric to Bushroot's face. "Go away. I'm not happy with you."
Bushroot hesitated for a moment, "If that's what you want." He turned away and headed back down the red carpet.

"Cut, let's try that again." Herb's voice called out.

Negaduck jerked around and glared at Herb, or Bill. "Don't you think this is slow enough already?"

Bill, in his watermelon printed green shirt, shrugged back at him. "Yes, but that's life, you know," Bill chuckled, "A dentist chair in every corner and locks on all the doors. You get used to it after a while, or you go mad." He snorted in derision, "Or both. Take your pick."

"Except that it's me that's getting tortured!" Negaduck complained. "If I walk away and come back in two hours time will they be doing the same thing?"
"Yeah, probably. I've asked the boss about getting you that match. I asked her for a whole matchbox for you first thing this morning as a matter of fact. She say's there's a line at the supermarket but she's working on it." Bill settled back in his chair. "Can we have Hooter in position now, please?"

"I have to wait for a box of-what is this?" Negaduck stared at Herb. The jovial giant seemed as unflappable as he was in any other universe.

"You do know you can't go on with this charade for much longer." Hooter spoke up from behind Gosalyn's chair and stepped out to face her.
"Go away!" Gosalyn stated in annoyance, "I'm not happy with you either! You were supposed to be my friends and instead you killed my father."
"I'm not going away until you do something about yourself." Hooter countered. "How long do you think you can get away with pretending that Negaduck is still alive?"

Gosalyn stood up. "I've still got the Ramrod!" She declared.
"But is it your inclination to use it?" Hooter pressed her, "What upon? Will you unleash it on Bird Cage Apartments? Are you to get even with Doctor Bushroot for conspiring with me? And what of everyone else in that building? Will you revenge your father on them also?"

"Well... no ... I ..." Gosalyn's expression went from confusion to upset.

Through all the retakes Negaduck sat, trying to figure out where the sick feeling in his gut was coming from about all this. Right now in the Negaverse, Gosalyn and the others really would be thinking he was dead. While this 'acting off a script' was all excruciatingly slow, it did seem to have a ring of truth to it. This was probably how they'd be reacting to his death. What the heck was the deal with this pink universe?

"Launchpad, make him go away and leave me alone!" Gosalyn cried out.
Launchpad crossed from the other side of the room to get only three steps in front of Hooter and stop. "Uch, I ... can't move."
Hooter casually walked around Launchpad as he stayed as though stuck in one place, "You see, Gosalyn, my sweet, how little power you in fact do have."

"Oh, no." Negaduck groaned. It wasn't enough that he had to watch it five times; it also had to be a pathetic show as well. "Kill me; this can't be happening."

"Cut! Great work everyone; let's break for lunch." Bill declared.


The morning had finally finished crawling by getting take after take in. Watching the last scene with the actors trying to play like there were vampire powers in effect made Negaduck's head hurt. It made him seriously wonder if maybe he hadn't make it out of the warehouse after all and this was instead his afterlife punishment. This whole pink tinged place needed burning down but Negaduck had to know what was happening to him before he could do that.

Negaduck reconsidered the buffet cart serving calamari, chips and herring salad. Surely, heaven would have more fluffy bunnies and if this was damnation then why didn't they let him keep his chainsaw? Was it some ghostly halfway house and were they playing a game of proof or dare? Whichever way it went, Negaduck had a strong feeling in his gut that something had gone amiss with his trans-dimensional trip. The world around him was just too pink.

If something had gone wrong, that meant he wasn't where he was aiming for. He wasn't in the Darkverse after all and these people were acting as if the Negaverse was nothing but fiction in between the covers of their script. They thought it was fiction but it wasn't fiction to him.

"You were very quiet this morning." Jane came up to him by the coffee machine, "I expected you to say she was crying too much."
Negaduck glanced at Jane. "Nah, that's her. She'd do that right down to the wimp out session. She did it in spades." Negaduck dropped the serving spoon back into the vat with a splatter, "She didn't need a single retake." He glared up accusingly at the tall brown-haired woman. Not that Jane could help it, but it was her universe so technically it was all her fault.

"What about the other actors?"
Negaduck begrudged her an answer, "Sure, it looked like Launchpad was pretending when Hooter stuck him. That could've done with a retake."
"We have to do that part with the computer." Jane discounted, "On this side of the camera we still rely on our imagination to fill in those gaps."
"He had to stay stuck to the spot; where's the computer based stuff in that?" Negaduck rolled his eyes. "Geez, can't you even get your own reality right?"
Jane twisted away from him, "Hey, Bill!" She called out and hurried off as though Negaduck had just televised some sort of newsflash.

A moment later, Negaduck realised he'd just volunteered the whole crew for another retake just when they'd thought they'd nailed the last of that scene. He chuckled with the sense of power over that.


The Gosalyn actress was getting herself some juice and Negaduck went to get some information out of her. "Hey what's your name when you're not on the set?"
"Lenora." She answered, and then looked at her glass of juice, raising it to her eyes. "Sojourn of the twittering flapjacks."
"What?" Negaduck blinked at her words. "You telling me you're a nut cake? But you were perfect on that set; a perfect Nega-Gosalyn."
"Mario and Luigi eat out at Bangladesh." She curtseyed to him and turned away.

If Negaduck wasn't fiction, then who or what was this Lenora the loon?

"Negaduck," Negaduck turned around at Jane's voice, "Could you explain to us what the effect is that you're talking about?"
"Oh, come on." Negaduck gritted, looking between Herb, Launchpad and Jane standing there, "Quit the horseplay and tell me what's really going on!"

They all blinked at him.

Negaduck rubbed his face, "The idea was that Hooter stopped him from moving, right? Well, when a vampire does that, their victim stops moving. Period. Hey, if the vampire is really touchy he could stop him from breathing altogether. Pfft. Death by vampire induced asphyxiation."

"Wow, great, let's try the take again. Positions-somebody-Jane, fetch Lenora."


Jane helped martial Lenora back onto the set and back to the throne. "Now, you just sit down there."

"I'm amazed she can do her lines. I mean; where does she come from?"

Negaduck looked over at the owner of the new voice. He was a tall rooster with an air of decorum to match his Queen's English accent. "Steelbeak?" Negaduck frowned up at him. "Well, you look like you in that ER outfit. Although what the heck happened to your Ducklyn accent?"
Steelbeak smiled with a very normal beak, "I'm on in the next scene."

So he was an actor in this pink universe too, Negaduck accepted, meaning his beak could be just made up to look like he was from Negaduck's universe.

"Silence on the set, and action."

Negaduck eased over to Lenora's handbag and started rifling through the contents while the actors busily took and retook the last part of the scene. The bag had lipstick, a compact mirror and a hairbrush in it. Negaduck snapped open her purse, looked inside, and found one single ID card.

Lenora Vanderworth
Proof of Age 18+

In both the Dark Duck universe and his, Gosalyn was seventeen and had a driver's license. His Gosalyn had been so keen on getting that license and Negaduck remembered the whole incident with great satisfaction because that was the day Gosalyn had openly declared him a much better teacher than that rule-for-every-occasion rodent.

Home address: 1 Ashdown Crescent

Negaduck knew that in most St Canard universes, 1 Ashdown Crescent was a lunatic asylum. He closed Lenora's handbag and dumped it back on her seat. There really wasn't much more to Lenora other than what had driven her into a madhouse and who had volunteered her for this alleged movie.

Meanwhile on the set, Negaduck observed the story slowly moving forwards.

Launchpad crossed from the other side of the room to get only three steps in front of Hooter. He stiffened, frozen to the spot. "Uch, I ... can't move."
Hooter casually walked around Launchpad as he stayed as though something had him stuck there in place, "You see, Gosalyn, my sweet, how little power you in fact do have."

Gosalyn stood up. "Let him go, Director Hooter."
"Why, my dear, when I have not yet made my point clear to you?"
"I-I'll use the Ramrod."
"On what building, my dear?" Hooter asked, "Bird Cage apartments? For really; I cannot think of any other building of any particular interest to me."
"I'll use it on your place!" Gosalyn declared with emotional bluster.
"I rather think not since I live beneath the sewers."

Launchpad fell onto the carpet, gasping for air.

"That is a futile threat upon me, dear Gosalyn, but could you really go through with it for another miscreant ... like me? Could you really defend yourself against another who seeks to do you harm, Gosalyn?"
She frowned at him and turned her eyes on Launchpad. "Oh, Launchpad, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Launchpad grunted, "Let me at him, I'll get him this time."

"No, it's okay, Launchpad." Gosalyn stepped down off the throne. She grabbed one of Negaduck's black capes hanging over the arm of the throne and hooked it over her shoulders. "Let's go out for a walk instead and he can stay here until he gets bored and leaves."

Left behind at the throne, Hooter watched the two receding down the carpet from his view, "You are vulnerable, Gosalyn. Are you going to at least think about that fact?"
"Yes." Gosalyn turned for a moment to answer him, "But I don't need your help for how to solve it because I'm not happy with you."

"I don't care that you're unhappy with me." Hooter turned to look at the empty throne. "If you could just sit here in safety I wouldn't have a complaint at all."

"Cut everyone, let's wrap that and head over to stage sixteen." The green shirted movie director declared in his friendly voice. "Bushroot, Hooter, you're off the clock for today."

Letting out a final exasperated sigh over all the retakes to get this far, Negaduck watched everyone obediently heading out like hypnotized zombies. He felt his temper flaring. The act of carnage making would be really therapeutic right about now.

"I need my chainsaw." He paused, "Where's that kid going now?"