Heather stared at the box Reggie had just handed her. She'd only known him for a day and he was already giving her jewelry. But something made her take it, open it and accept the solid gold locket with no argument. It was beautiful. She would keep a picture of Marvin in one side of it. She didn't know what she'd put in the other side, but in the back of her mind, she was thinking that if she and Reggie got romantically involved she would keep his picture opposite Marvin's.
Bushroot heard her thoughts and knew that he was unconsciously planting them. He was projecting his desires onto her. He tried to shield his mind. He wanted her to like him for him, not because he used his powers on her.
Gosalyn wasn't used to walking home from school alone. Honker usually walked with her, but Mrs. Muddlefoot had kept him home today. He was running a slight fever and had a sore throat.
As she came out of the gate to the school yard, she saw all the traffic. There didn't seem to be any evidence of an accident. What was going on? A lot of the traffic seemed to be heading for the banks or the police station. Dad and Launchpad had skipped patrol the night before. Drake wouldn't give her all the details. All she knew was that it had to do with Shush and the Fearsome Five. Gosalyn wondered if all this traffic had something to do with that.
She stopped and blinked. One second she was leaving the gate to the school, the next she was a block away. She didn't remember anything between stepping through the gate and now. This had never happened to her before. Why would she black out like that? It worried her because it felt so strange. Should she tell her dad? Maybe not; he'd probably just worry. She would wait and see if it happened again. If it did, she would definitely tell him. She didn't know it yet, but her blackout was caused by Negaduck probing her mind and then wiping her memory so she wouldn't know what he was doing. He'd finally gotten the information he'd been trying to get at the school the other night.
"Very interesting," Negaduck thought at the others on the way back to the hideout. "Gosalyn is Darkwing's daughter. We can definitely use her to get to him. I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this mission."
"What are you gonna do?" Bushroot asked. Negaduck could sense that he was worried. He was still soft; he still didn't want that little girl being hurt. That was OK. He knew Bushy couldn't' change over night. That would look too suspicious. Negaduck wasn't worried. By Christmas, Bushy was going to be a full team player and there would be no turning back.
"Well," Negaduck thought back at him, projecting to the others, as well, "we can't invade Darkwing or Launchpad's minds because of those helmets, but we can play with her. We'll get her to help Quackerjack."
"Help me?" Quackerjack thought back at him. He was excited that he was going to have a playmate.
"Why not? It's perfect! She'll go into a toy store and steal some toys for you. We'll make the clerk catch her. Darkwing will be too busy trying to save his little girl from being sent to some juvenile detention center for shop lifting to give us a second thought. With him out of the way, we can do whatever we want. Saint Canard will be ours for the taking."
"With any luck," Drake was saying when Gosalyn opened the front door, "we can have this wrapped up tonight. All we need is a clear path to wherever the homing device leads us to Negaduck and the rest is downhill. Hi, Gos."
"Hi. Does this have to do with whatever Shush wants you to do with the Fearsome Five? Hi, Launchpad. What the heck are you guys wearing?"
She had just noticed the shield helmets.
"Hey, Kiddo. These have to do with the Five, too."
"They're shield helmets," Drake explained. "They protect us from the Fearsome Five's new psychic powers. They stole the Norma Ray yesterday and they're using their new powers to terrorize the city."
Gosalyn suddenly felt afraid when Drake mentioned some of the Five's victims having mental blackouts. That decided her; she had to tell her dad what had happened on the way home from school.
"We need another one of these helmets for Gos," Launchpad said when she finished telling them about her blackout.
"Yeah, but J Gander said they didn't have another one."
"Gyro!" Launchpad said suddenly, as if he thought he should have thought of it before.
"Your inventor friend from Duckburg?" Drake asked. "What about him?"
"He works for the DIA! That's a sister organization to Shush, so he's gotta know about these helmets! We can ask him to copy one of ours."
"But one of us would have to take his helmet off and would have no protection from the Five."
"But the Five won't be in Duckburg," Gosalyn pointed out. "We could go there and they'd never know. They can't be able to reach Duckburg with their minds this soon, can they? I mean, it takes time to learn how to use any new power, right?"
"Right," Drake said decisively. "Launchpad, you take Gosalyn to Duckburg and find your friend, Gyro. Until her mind is protected, she's safer away from Saint Canard. I'll go on patrol tonight and-"
"No you won't!" Launchpad and Gosalyn said together.
"You're not going up against the Fearsome five alone again!" Gosalyn said firmly.
"No, I'll contact the Justice Ducks before-"
"The Justice Ducks won't have shield helmets until we get back from Duckburg!" Gosalyn said, frustrated. "You can't do anything until we get back. Don't you dare try to face those guys on your own again!"
"She's right, DW. Remember what happened the first time they teamed up and yah drove the Justice Ducks away."
"You even drove us away that time, Dad; you can't beat them yourself!"
"All right," Drake said, feeling a mixture of frustration and affection for both of them. He knew they were right and that they loved him, but it frustrated him that he had to wait for them, and for someone he'd never even met, to act before he did. The affection won over the frustration. "I'll wait for you to come back. I promise not to do anything until then; I won't even leave the house, no matter what they do."
Gosalyn secretly checked to see if he had his fingers crossed. Satisfied that they weren't, she followed Launchpad to the spinning chairs.
Drake waited until he was sure they were gone, then went up to the tower himself. He would change into his costume and wait for Launchpad and Gosalyn up there. He decided to speed up things by contacting the Justice Ducks and alerting them of the situation. He told them for their own safety to wait until he contacted them again and explained that LP had gone to get protection for them from the psychic Fearsome Five. He even managed to stay civil to Gizmoduck and reason with him calmly. Gizmoduck wanted to come charging into Saint Canard and take control of the situation. Without losing his temper, Darkwing managed to convince him to stay in Duckburg by telling him that one more gadget would make him even more powerful. Gizmoduck was the last Justice Duck he called. After disconnecting with him, Darkwing had nothing else to do but sit back, watch the news casts and wait for Gos and Launchpad.
As he waited, he worried. What did the Five want from Gosalyn? Why had they made her black out? Had they made her steal something? Darkwing didn't think so; there hadn't been enough time.
What had they been doing at the school the other night? Did that have something to do with why Gos didn't remember anything about those few seconds?
"It had to be information they wanted," Darkwing thought. There was no time during Gosalyn's mental blackout for them to get anything else from her."
The question was, what information? It couldn't be Darkwing's real identity, although they could have gotten that out of her head and Negaduck probably knew it. If it was something general about the school, why would they pick Gosalyn to get it, and why would they need it in the first place.
Had they picked a child at random? Darkwing didn't think so. If they had, Negaduck would have pounced on anything he could get about Darkwing once he realized who she was.
Darkwing instinctively knew it was definitely not random; Negaduck had wanted whatever information he'd gotten out of Gosalyn alone. No other person could give him what he wanted, except Darkwing and Launchpad, and maybe Honker, and Darkwing didn't think Negaduck counted Honker.
Gosalyn was with Darkwing and Launchpad a lot more frequently than Honker was. Besides, Honker was home sick. Fever clouded the mind, so Negaduck would have had trouble getting what he needed from him today, even if he had been the target of Negaduck's mental probing.
Why had they gone to the school at all, then? That was before they had developed psychic powers, but even then, if they wanted information about Darkwing, why go to the school to get it? There was a piece missing to this puzzle and Darkwing intended to find it.
"Uh-oh," Gosalyn said during the flight to Duckburg. "I just thought of something. How are we gonna explain me to Gyro? I mean, he doesn't know Dad's Darkwing, so-"
"I've thought about that. We can let him think two of the helmets are for you and your dad."
"But what if he asks why Dad isn't with us?"
"We'll say he's at your parent/teacher conference."
"That's a good idea," she thought, "and he and Dad didn't have time to talk about it before we left. He usually asks Dad stuff like that and compliments Dad when he comes up with the answer."
Gosalyn felt suddenly guilty. She suspected sometimes that she and her dad underestimated Launchpad and now she was sure of it. She was beginning to think she knew why, too. Darkwing's ego was bigger than the rest of him. How would he react if he knew Launchpad had figured out something before he did? She could picture him feeling jealous and trying to downplay Launchpad's role.
"Launchpad knows it, too," she thought, "so he downplays his own role so Dad can get the credit. He wants to help Dad catch the bad guys and doesn't care about the headlines."
She felt a pang of annoyance at her dad. She would never tell Darkwing that he wasn't a real hero; he was, but Launchpad had the right idea. His lack of ulterior motive made him a hero in his own right. Dad craved recognition and publicity. He wanted to help, too, but why did he have to get all the glory and fame? She thought that was kind of selfish. After all, Launchpad was always beside him, willing to do anything he could to help Darkwing earn the popularity he was so desperate for. He was so much more than just a sidekick. She wondered if Darkwing knew how much more. She didn't think he appreciated Launchpad enough, and in that respect, she was as guilty as Darkwing. Neither of them had ever given him enough credit. Darkwing could pretend he was dumb because that was his way of keeping himself above his sidekick.
"Well, I'm not gonna pretend Launchpad isn't as smart as he is. That's not fair to him and sometimes it's downright mean."
She remembered some of the wisecracks she herself had made about Launchpad's intelligence. He wouldn't remember at least one of them because it happened in a future that had been changed, so it actually never happened. She blinked, then decided not to try to make sense out of that thought; it would only give her a headache.
She felt bad about some of the tricks she'd played on him, too, then wondered why he'd let her do it. He had to have known she was tricking him.
A thought struck her and she smiled. At least one time, he had gotten back at her. She was positive. She had tricked him, or so she'd thought, into doing her homework for her by pretending to be able to speak Swahili. She was sure now that he knew she couldn't, but he'd played along, acting hurt that she'd tricked him. Then he started to ask how to spell something, then acted surprised when Drake caught them.
"Was he really surprised?" she wondered now. She doubted it, and she didn't think he was pretending to be hurt either. It had been a mean thing to do, not only because she had lied to get her way, but because she was supposed to be his friend and she'd insulted his intelligence. She had thought he was dumb, and the fact that he really wasn't somehow made what she'd done even worse. He was her friend. Friends shouldn't take advantage of each other. She knew he would never do that to her.
She was going to try to make up for it. She was going to show him that she knew his secret, not to use it against him to get him to do something she wanted, but to show him the respect she now knew he deserved. She decided to try never to underestimate anyone again, and to respect everyone the way she wanted to be respected, especially the people she loved. Gosalyn had learned a lot about true friendship and respect in the space of a few seconds.
"No problem," Gyro said when Launchpad explained the situation. I made these helmets. In fact, all I have to do is put this one into my cloning machine and I can make as many as you want in a matter of minutes."
"Cloning machine?" Launchpad asked nervously. He'd been told what had happened the last time Gyro had made something that made duplicates of things.
"Don't worry; I've worked all the bugs out of this one and it won't clone anything living. Now let me have that helmet and I'll put it in there. How many will you need?"
"Well, we'll need at least six."
Launchpad thought that would be enough; one for Gos, one for each of the Justice Ducks, and one for Drake, or so Gyro would think. The sixth could actually be used to protect Honker's mind. He was very smart and the last thing they needed was for the Five to use his mind as a psychic library. He didn't know how they would explain the helmet to Herb and Binky, but they would cross that bridge when they came to it.
"Maybe we better take a few spares back just in case," Gosalyn said.
"Good idea," Launchpad said. "Can yah do that, Gyro?"
"I'll give you twelve; that way you'll each have a spare. Once this is over and you've beaten the Fearsome five, just give all the spare helmets to Shush when you give back the originals. I'm sure they'll make better use of them than I will."
Negaduck was growing increasingly frustrated. How could he play with her mind if it was fading? Why was it fading? His mood darkened every minute, then became pitch black when her mind disappeared completely. Darkwing must have found a way to protect her. To vent some of his anger, he used his mind power to break every window in the condemned apartment building they were using as their hideout.
Darkwing was waiting at the tower when Gos and Launchpad got back with the helmets. To his surprise, Gizmoduck was with them.
"Hey," Gosalyn said angrily. "I thought you said you wouldn't leave the house!"
"Well, technically, I didn't," Darkwing said reasonably. "I used one of the chairs to get up here.
"He's got a point, Gos," Launchpad said calmly. "We got five helmets and a few spares, DW. Gyro said to give them all to Shush when it's all over. We figured since Gizmoduck was gonna come here anyway, we'd pick him up."
"Hi, Wingy," Giz said cheerfully. Darkwing gritted his teeth. He hated when Gizmoduck called him that.
"Hello, Giz. I told the others we'd need them, but to wait for you two to get back. I'll call them again and tell them it's safe to come."
"Maybe we should go to them," Launchpad suggested. "That way none of the Five can get into their minds and find out where the hideout is."
"Good idea, Gosalyn said approvingly.
"Yeah," Darkwing said sheepishly, "I was just gonna suggest that."
Gosalyn rolled her eyes and Launchpad pretended not to hear him.
They rounded up the others and went back to the tower to develop a battle plan. Darkwing hated to admit it, but he had no idea how they could beat the psychic Fearsome Five. They could protect their own minds, so their powers would have no affect on the Justice Ducks, but Darkwing didn't have the slightest idea how to protect the rest of the city.
"I could play Put out the Bushroot," Stegmutt suggested hopefully.
"You may need to do that," Darkwing said, "but that won't stop him for long and it won't affect the others."
"We have spare helmets," Launchpad said. "Some of us could capture them while the others go give some of the cops the helmets. The protected cops can't be controlled by the Five, so they can't be made to release them."
"Yeah, but what about the other cops, the ones we can't protect?" Neptunia asked.
"I could freeze them with a spell," Morgana said.
"But how do we capture them?" Stegmutt asked.
"Some of us will have to be with the police," Gizmoduck said," so we'll be divided. It might not be a good idea to face them all at once if we're not all together."
"We also need to get the Norma Ray back," Darkwing reminded them.
"My caped colleague is correct," Gizmoduck said dramatically, "Shush must have their weapon returned to them."
"We still have to find their hideout, then, don't we, DW?"
"Not necessarily, Launchpad, because the Five will be looking for us by now. Negaduck's sure to notice that Gosalyn's mind has completely disappeared from his psychic radar."
"Dad," Gosalyn said, suddenly worried, "what if he got our location out of my head before?"
"It's a chance we'll have to take. For that matter, he might even know my true identity."
Launchpad and Gosalyn exchanged alarmed looks. Neither of them had thought of that.
"We can't worry about that now," Darkwing continued. "I have an idea of how to protect us, but I can't do it without the Norma Ray."
"But how do we find them if we don't know where they're hiding, Dark?" Morgana asked
"We divide and conquer. The ones who go to the police will stay protected. The rest of us will separate in different directions and temporarily remove our helmets, just long enough for them to get a fix on where we are. We tease them mentally until they find us, then we strike individually. If everything goes well, we'll have the city safe again before sunrise."
