Chapter 1: Darkly Dawns the Duck Part 1
In the metropolis city of St. Canard, it was nighttime and most people were still awake and wandering around the streets doing some usual things. One woman was walking down the street when three burly, muscular boys started following her. The leader, a duck wearing a grey men's top with torn sleeves and torn jeans, grinned, "Hey, baby. What's a sweet little thing like you doing out here?"
The second one, a dog with a baseball bat and a black leather jacket and spiked gloves added, "Yeah, ya must be lost." The third one, also a duck with a red mohawk and black jeans finished, "Maybe we can help." The girl got scared and stammered, "Please, just stay away from me. Whatever it is you want, I don't have anything and I don't want what you have."
"Come on, baby. We just wanna have a little fun." the leader grinned sadistically. Knowing what was going to happen next, the girl screamed and tried to run, but the dog thug grabbed her and held her beak shut. The leader sneered, "Scream all you want, baby. No one's gonna hear you." He said to the two thugs, "Take her in the alley, boys."
On the buildings, a figure was running on the rooftops and jumping from building to building as they looked around, as if looking for someone or something. The figure stopped running and turned to a direction when they heard a woman's screams. The figure ran towards the direction of where the source of the screams was. They stood over the side of a building and found a woman being attaked by a trio of thugs.
"Hey, let's see what she has underneath her jacket. Maybe we can find some good stuff in there." one of the thugs suggested as the other one was holding their hostage. The leader shook his head, "Nah, I wanna see what we can find underneath her clothes." He went over to the girl and was about to do his worst on her. Fearing the worst, she closed her eyes and whimpered while her beak was closed shut by the thug holding her.
But before they could lay a hand on her, the thug holding her groaned in pain and fell to the ground, releasing her. She ran over to the wall and leaned close to it as she watched another figure standing between her and the thugs, who gasped in alarm when they got a good glimpse of the figure; a female duck wearing a red jumpsuit, magenta boots with matching fingerless gloves, utility belt, holsters on her legs, and mask over her eyes.
The leader snapped out of his stupor and glared at his buddies, "Don't just stand there! Let's get her!" The thugs all nodded and ran over to the masked duck to beat her. The duck thug threw a punch at her, but the masked duck swiftly dodged the blow and punched him hard in the face and kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying towards a pile of garbage. The dog thug ran over to her and swung his bat at her, but she avoided his swings and kicked him in the face. The two thugs backed away in fear, and the leader growled, "You cowards! I'll take her myself!"
He brought out a switchblade and made his way over to her with a cruel smile and said, "You're going down, red girl." As the leader advanced towards, the masked duck stayed at her spot and dug into her utility belt. She brought out a small orb and threw it down on the ground. Suddenly, smoke appeared and and shrouded the whole alley in smoke. The thugs looked around for the mysterious girl but they couldn't see her. All of a sudden, the leader was grabbed from behind and he yelled as he was getting beaten. Then he was thrown towards his two friends and they groaned as they collided with one another.
The smoke cleared and the masked duck appeared in front of them. The thugs ran away in fear, but the masked duck grabbed the leader by the front of the shirt and pulled him towards her. She said to him with a fierce glare, "You and your buddies stay away from people like her. I hate street scum like you." She threw him to the ground and the leader looked up at her with scared eyes.
The leader stammered in fear, "W-who are you, lady?!" The duck came over to him closer and glared, "I am the Scarlet Swan." The leader shuddered in fear and ran off to join the other thugs. When he and his friends were out of sight, the Scarlet Swan looked over at the woman and asked, "Are you alright?" The woman nodded.
"You better get out of these streets before they get their courage back. It's not safe here at this time of night." the Scarlet Swan warned her before lifting her hands in the air. She pressed a small button on both of her gloves and a line shot out them and hooks latched themselves in the buildings close to the roof, then she shot herself to the rooftops. The woman called out to her as she left, "Thanks for saving me!"
The Scarlet Swan ran across the rooftops from building to building looking for more crime. As the night went on, she fought a couple of muggers and thieves, and saved children from getting hurt from different circumstances. By near midnight, she rested on top of an apartment building roof and stared at the city's landscape. She sighed at the breathtaking view and said to herself, "So this is how it feels."
Just then, something in the distance caught her eye, and she brought out a pair of pocket binoculars from her utility belt and brought them to her eyes. She looked out of them and saw a condor flying over the city. The Scarlet Swan said to herself, "What's a condor doing here in the city instead of the desert?" She looked closely at what the bird was carrying in its talons and it was carrying a box. The red-clad vigilante wondered, "Well, it's not a wild condor, that's for sure. Must be some type of messenger of sorts."
She put the binoculars back in her utility belt and jumped off the building, using the grapling hooks in her gloves to get around as she followed the condor. As she got closer to the bird, she looked down at the streets and noticed an unfamiliar figure riding a strange motorcyle. She said to herself, "He must be following it too." She continued swinging from building to building until she got close to the exit of the city. She ran after the condor without being spotted by it or the figure on the motorcycle until she saw smoke coming from a distance as well as train tracks close by, and the condor was heading for the train's direction. Realizing it was heading for a rendezvous point on the train, she waited for the right time to get onto it and investigate.
After what seemed to be for about twenty minutes, the train reached her location. She shot her grapling hook glove at one of the cars and pulled herself onto it. She looked over and spotted the condor with a ram in a suit, and the ram was talking to someone on a communication device around the condor's neck. She hid between the two cars, careful not to fall between them as the train moved, and listened to the conversation between the two.
"Hammerhead! Is the Waddlemeyer Ram Rod secured?" a voice from the communicator asked.
"Like a baby, boss." Hammerhead, the ram, chuckled. The voice on the other end said with delight, "Excellent! Now proceed with the plan." The Scarlet Swan said to herself quietly without being heard, "Waddlemeyer Ram Rod? I wonder what that is. But that guy talking to this one sounds kinda familiar." She looked over the car and watched as the box the condor was carrying turned into a device with wings and a rocket. The Swan gasped quietly, "He's taking this cart with him! There's something in here that they want, and I'm going to find out what it is."
She got back down and tried opening the door to the car Hammerhead was on, only to find it locked. She reached into her utility belt and took out something that looked like a lockpick, and she used it on the doorknob. After unlocking it, she quietly went in through the door, and something surprised her; it was a giant ray gun! The Scarlet Swan gasped, "So this is what they referred to as the Waddlemeyer Ram Rod! Look at the size of that thing." She checked out the machine to have a better look at it, but then she heard some shouts coming from outside.
"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the switch that derails your train! I am Darkwing Duck!"
She looked outside the window to the door leading to the other side and the figure on the other side of the car; he was a duck dressed in a purple jacket, cape, mask, and hat. Two men, a ram and a donkey disguised as guards, shot their guns at the duck in purple. The female vigilante moved away from the door when the goats started talking to each other.
The ram asked the donkey, "You think he's dead? I think he's dead. You think he's dead? He must be dead." She watched as Darkwing Duck came up from behind them and grinned as he pounded them on the head, "Sorry, I'm fine. But you two are taking a turn for the worst!" He started beating them up and he tied them up when one of the conductors appeared out of the door to the other car with a camera.
The Scarlet Swan avoided being seen, but she saw Darkwing Duck standing there and he smiled with a proud grin, "Photos? You'll never get a good shot from out there!" She watched as he dashed over to the conductor and pushed him outside, and he ran back to the two disguised criminals he beat up and grinned as he struck a heroic looking pose, "Go ahead, take it." The conductor looked at him in confusion, then he started taking photos of the duck in purple.
She said to herself, "What is he doing?! Is he an idiot? He's going to get himself arrested for this!"
She was cut off when she heard the door behind her swing open, and she quickly hid behind the machine as Hammerhead stormed over and groaned, "What are those two morons up to now?" He looked over and saw Darkwing Duck with the two criminals laying by the edge of the car. He called to the conductor, "Listen, I have get back to work. But you make sure you get copies to all the major dailies. Oh, and I'd like a set too!" The Scarlet Swan rolled her eyes and thought to herself, Yep, he's an idiot. A narcissistic idiot, to boot.
She watched as Hammerhead charged over to Darkwing Duck and sneered, "Yeah? Well, paste this in the scrapbook!" He rammed his horns into the duck and sent him flying towards the train car. Knowing this was her chance to escape without being noticed, the heroine ran towards the other door as Hammerhead called out to the duck in purple, "You're out of your league, duck! Better run along to your costume party!" He released the coupling connecting the two cars, leaving the one Darkwing Duck was on behind.
One of the lackeys noticed the Scarlet Swan leaving the cart. He poked Hammerhead on the shoulder and said to him, "Hey, Hammerhead! There's a lady in red here!"
"Where?" Hammerhead asked as he and the other lackey turned around. But the girl was gone and the door was closed. The ram chuckled nervously and Hammerhead frowned at him as he slammed him on the head, "You idiot! There's no one here."
The train made a turn at a hill and the car the three criminals were on took flight with the device on the roof of it. The Scarlet Swan, who managed to escape and reached solid ground, watched as the car flew in the sky with Darkwing Duck hanging by a rope and hanging onto it as he yelled. The vigilante sighed as she covered her eyes in annoyance, "What an idiot!" She ran off to return to St. Canard to look for more answers about the voice she heard Hammerhead talking to.
Meanwhile, at St. Canard Prison, a bull wearing a red suit watched from a communicator in his cell. His name was Taurus Bulba, the most notorious villain in all of St. Canard. He was famous for carrying out the biggest crimes ever commited, including robberies, kidnappings, and of course, murders! He was also very power mad, ruthless, and dangerous, that even the rookie police officers feared him.
He watched Darkwing Duck hang from the rope he shot at the car his henchmen were stealing, and said in disbelief, "Who is this clown? He don't look like one of mine." He said through the speaker to the condor, "Tantalus, take care of him!" He watched as the condor cut through the ropes holding Darkwing Duck and he fell to the ground. Taurus Bulba grinned in relief, "That fool doesn't know who he's messing with." Then he remembered something he saw on the camera he put on the condor. He rewinded the video footage from a few minutes earlier and noticed something in the trees. He said to his secretary, "Clovis, zoom in on that red spot there."
"Of course, sir." Clovis said glumly. She pressed some buttons on the keyboard and zoomed in on the spot Taurus Bulba mentioned. He looked closely at it and noticed a female duck with loose dirty blonde hair wearing a red suit standing in the tree branches. He glared, "That woman knows what I'm planning, and she also knows about the Ram Rod! She must be found and killed before the authorities know what's going on!"
He looked at the girl duck in red and sneered, "You don't know who you're dealing with girl!"
The next afternoon, Marissa was taking a walk around the streets of St. Canard. She hasn't seen her Uncle Drake all night and all morning, and she was a bit worried that something happened to him. This morning, she read in the newspaper that told something about a duck in purple trying to hijack a train, and about a mysterious woman in red seen getting off the train before a top secret piece of equipment was stolen from the military on that train, and she might have been partially responsible.
Marissa said to herself, remembering the things she read in the paper, "There's something wrong going on around here."
She snapped back into reality when she heard some yelling coming from close by. She ran as fast as her legs could take her to the source of the yells and saw a little girl with reddish orange pigails and green eyes and wearing a purple shirt with the number 1 on the front and purple sneakers being ganged up on by two rams and a donkey.
She ran over to them and shouted, "Hey! Leave that kid alone!" She shoved the three away from the girl and asked her, "Are these guys giving you any trouble, kid?" The little girl nodded, "Yeah. They wanna take me away somewhere, and these guys are bad news."
The three men moved closer to the two girls, and Marissa defended the little girl from them. The ram wearing a blue suit grinned, "Take it easy, kid. Taurus Bulba wants to have a little... talk with ya." The girl glared at them, "Yeah? Well, here's a message for him!" She swung the roller blades she held over her shoulders into the ram's face, and his teeth fell out before he fell to the ground, knocked out cold from the impact. Marissa smiled at the little girl, "Hey, not bad for a little kid."
"Thanks, lady." the little girl complimented her before hitting the donkey in the face. The short ram with the large horns was about to grab the little girl, but Marissa threw an uppercut to the face at him and sent him off his feet. The little girl grinned, "That was awesome! How did you do that?" Marissa replied, "I did some martial arts class since I was a kid. I became a black belt by the time I was nine years old." The little girl ran away from the three men and Marissa, and said, "Nobody kidnaps Gosalyn Waddlemeyer!"
Marissa stopped and said under her breath, "Waddlemeyer?" But before she can react, a motorcycle sped past them and grabbed the little girl named Gosalyn. Marissa called out in alarm and anger, "Hey! Stop! Put that kid down!" She ran after the duck on the motorcycle, leaving the three brutes behind. She felt angry and annoyed when she heard a voice from the duck on the motorcycle.
"Never fear, little miss! Darkwing Duck has you now."
She muttered under her breath, "Oh, this guy again?!"
She watched as Gosalyn was trying to beat up Darkwing Duck and the motorcycle took a turn at an alley and towards the other street. She found a shortcut in the alley to get to them and she reached them near the food stands. She ran over some crates near one of the stands and jumped off of the top one and into the motorcycle. Darkwing Duck looked at her with surprise and exclaimed, "What are you doing here?! This isn't a place for you!"
Marissa punched him in the stomach and protested angrily, "Shouldn't you be at home thinking about the consequences of being seen in broad daylight?!" They were cut off when the ram and his lackeys caught up to them in their car and started firing their guns at them. The ducks ducked down to avoid getting hit by the bullets, and Darkwing Duck said to the girls, "I take it you two are convinced now?"
He pushed Gosalyn and Marissa down into the sidecar of the motorcycle and said to them, "Stay down. I have a little surprise for them." He pressed a button on the dashboard and Marissa and Gosalyn watched as grease came out from the back and spilled all over the road. Before they took a turn, the girls watched as the car the criminals were in swerved off and lost control.
Marissa smiled, "Wow, I'm impressed. For a fool, you know how to get away from bad guys."
Gosalyn said with glee, "Gee gear! What else does it do?" She leaned towards the dashboard and Darkwing Duck gasped, "Don't touch that!"
"Why not?" Gosalyn shrugged as she pressed the button. Suddenly, the seat on the motorcycle ejected and sent Darkwing Duck flying and yelling. Marissa said to Gosalyn, "I think that's for avoiding crashes." She got out of the sidecar and took control of the motorcycle for a while. Gosalyn asked her, "You can drive a motorcycle?"
Marissa nodded, "Yep, my father taught me when I was fourteen." She took control of the bike for a bit until Darkwing Duck landed back on the motorcycle and said to her with a frown, "Get off of there! Do you know how hard it is to drive things like this?" Marissa rolled her eyes and said to him, "I know perfectly well, thank you."
"Hang on, DW! What's the rush?"
Marissa and Gosalyn looked over and saw a duck dressed up as an aviator following them on a bike. Marissa said to Darkwing Duck, "Who's that guy? And how does he know you?" Darkwing answered, annoyed by the duck on the bike, "Just a crazy fan of mine. It's a long story." Marissa thought to herself, For an photo-crazy amateur crime-fighter, he does have a bit of a fanbase.
They looked over and saw the criminals back on their track and hot on their tail. Darkwing Duck said to Gosalyn and Marissa, "The orphanage isn't safe and I can't take you back to where you live, but you two will be okay at the police station." They were almost at the police station, but they noticed a baricade of police cars blocking their way, and the cops were firing their guns at Darkwing Duck. The masked duck turned around to avoid getting shot, and Gosalyn said sarcastically, "Oh yeah, we feel real safe now."
"I guess they think you're kidnapping us, and they want you arrested for that." Marissa added.
Darkwing Duck tried to explain the situation, but the duck on the bike pedalled beside them and panted, "What did you do to make those guys so mad? And hi ma'am. My name's Launchpad McQuack. You look very pretty!" Marissa rolled her eyes, "Men. Typical."
Darkwing Duck sped away from Launchpad and said in disbelief, "I didn't do anything!" They stopped over at a newspaper stand, and Gosalyn picked up one of the daily papers and they got back on the road. Gosalyn read one of the articles and asked, "How about robbing a train?"
Darkwing Duck couldn't believe what she was saying and exclaimed, "What?! I didn't rob-" He looked at the picture of him beating up two guards, who were revealed to be the ram's lackeys in disguise, and grinned, "Ooh, that's not a bad picture, though. You don't think it looks pretentious, do you?" Marissa grabbed the newspaper and glared at him, "Do you hear yourself?! You seriously care more about your image than what you did to get yourself caught? You are such an idiot!"
"Hey, don't you talk to me like that, young lady!" Darkwing Duck glared at her. Marissa glared, "Hey, you're not my father! And by the way, you should pay more attention to the road than your image, especially at a time like this!" Darkwing Duck looked over and saw the criminals catching up to them. He sped faster past them and the criminals followed them along with the cops.
The chase went on until they reached the docks, and Darkwing Duck said with pride, "Drastic times call for drastic action!" He asked Gosalyn, "How are you holding your breath?" Gosalyn answered, "Okay, why do you ask?"
"Trust me." he said to her while Launchpad protested and yelled at him not to do what he was going to do next. Darkwing Duck turned to Marissa and said, "You need to stay out of this. Just go home and stay there, and think about what you've done, young lady." Marissa glared, "I'm not going anywhere! I wanna know what's going on here." But Darkwing Duck pushed her off the motorcyle and she landed by the docks just as the cops arrived. Two of them asked her if she was alright and they asked her some questions about the duck on the motorcycle. She answered, "I don't know what he's doing, but it looks like he's trying to protect that girl from those three trying to hurt her. They said something about Taurus Bulba wanting to talk to her."
"Taurus Bulba?" the chief said with a raised brow. "But he's still in prison. There's no way he could still carry out his crimes from there." One of the cops took a good look at her and he said with joy, "Hey! I know you! You're Mallard's kid! Marissa, right?" Marissa nodded, "That's me. You knew my dad?"
The chief nodded, "We knew John since he joined the force before you were even born. We remember the days he used to take you to his office and we let you colour, play, and pretend to be a police officer. You were the best part of being at the office." His smile turned into a sad look and he said to her, "I'm sorry to hear about losing him last week. He was a very brave man, and he saved many lives that day before he got killed. He was a good friend to us."
Marissa sighed, "It's alright."
"You did mention Taurus Bulba, right?" the chief asked. "I remember the day your father arrested him, and you helped him in his arrest when you got involved in one of his crime." Marissa nodded, remembering the day she was saved by her father from Taurus Bulba. She asked the chief, "Do you think he was involved in my father's murder? Judging by their history?"
The chief shook his head, "I don't think so. But don't worry, sweetie, we'll find the man who killed him, I promise." Marissa smiled a little bit. Then they asked if she needed a ride home, and she said she could use one over to her uncle's house. After the drive, the chief asked her, "So you're living with your uncle now?"
Marissa nodded, "Yeah, but he's not always home when I'm around. He says he's got a lot of work to do. And besides, he's a total loser." She got out of the car and thanked the police chief for giving her the ride, and she walked towards the house as he drove away. After taking the house key out and unlocking the house, she went to the kitchen to fix herself a BLT sandwich for dinner.
As she ate her dinner and drank some diet cola, she turned on the TV and watched a couple of shows. She finished her sandwich when something caught her attention and a newsflash appeared, and the reporter announced, "This just in! Taurus Bulba, criminal master mind and serial murderer has escaped from St. Canard Prison! The warden explains that he escaped in some aircraft that they didn't know was hidden."
Marissa got up from her spot and said to the image of Taurus Bulba on the screen, "They say you didn't kill my father, but I know you were involved!"
So what did you guys think? We meet our heroes Darkwing Duck, Gosalyn, Launchpad, and of course the Scarlet Swan. Gosalyn meets our heroes for the first time and our heroes get involved in Taurus Bulba's biggest crime yet.
Darkwing Duck belongs to Disney, and Marissa and the Scarlet Swan belong to me.