Something in the Air


Act VII

"You almost ready, babe?" Steelbeak called from the sauna room. She could see him from where she was standing, and was greatly embarrassed. Something about being invited to sit in a hot room with a strange man clad only in shorts was very, very nerve-wracking to her.

"Um, yes!" she called back, tiptoeing back away from the doorway to the sauna. Now that she'd gotten herself into this mess, she had no idea how to get back out of it. Plus, the heat coming from the room was so oppressive through her clothes that she was sweating intensely; she had no intention at all of shedding the least stitch of clothing, however.

She'd have to stall. "Um, Steelbeak?" she called timidly.

"Yeah, sugar?"

"Uh, I forgot my purse- I'll just go get it, okay?" She prayed that he wouldn't notice that she hadn't had a purse when she'd arrived.

He paused for a second, and then called back, "Whaddaya need a purse for in here?"

She caught her breath. "Uh- lipstick!"

"Oh. Okay!" She let out a sigh of relief, and he said, "Hurry back!"

Not likely, you arrogant jerk, she thought. Out loud, she said, "Of course!"

She slipped quickly back into the main room of the hideout, and then to the stairs Steelbeak had led her up earlier. From there, she assumed, it would be fairly easy to find the room that the Philosopher's Stone was kept in.

Too late, she found that making assumptions was not a good idea. There were at least three doors down this hallway, all shut. She hadn't been paying enough attention earlier- which one was it?

Finding out took almost too long. Of course, it was the last one she checked, which unfortunately was also the last room of the three. But, she found as she flipped the lightswitch on, it was the right one! There was the safe! She knelt and tried it; naturally it was locked. She hadn't seen the numbers Steelbeak had twisted the dial to earlier, but maybe...

Crossing her fingers mentally, she tried entering Steelbeak's measurements as she'd estimated them to be. The safe swung open, and she clapped her hands happily before catching herself. She was going to have to break that habit. Still, she had reason to be proud- she'd actually managed to accomplish her mission!

She held the Philosopher's Stone up in front of her face. It was truly amazing, so light in her hands, and its glow painted her hands a deep yellow.

The sleeve on the arm that grabbed her wrist was also a deep yellow, she noted just before panic jumped in her chest.

Steelbeak, now fully dressed again, didn't look happy, nor did his Eggmen standing behind him. "What's this?" he said, dangerously quiet.

"I-uh- I... I was going to try to make it work for you," she said desperately.

He shook his head. "I trusted you. I can't believe you did this."

Beth actually felt sorry for him. She had taken advantage of his feelings, after all. Suddenly she couldn't bring herself to lie. "I- I... I didn't mean to, but... Steelbeak, I'm really sorry..."

He blinked, his expression turning odd suddenly as he stared past her. When he focused on her again, he took a step back and signalled to the Eggmen to grab her. "Y'know, as much as I don't like intruders, FOWL High Command is even less thrilled with 'em," he said casually, plucking the stone from her hand and setting it down on an agonizingly close by table. Beth struggled against the thugs holding her, to no avail. Steelbeak looked at her closely, as if seeing her for the first time. "You're not my type," he announced, "but that'll just make it that much easier to get rid of ya."

She was confused for a moment, then blinked. The potion! It must have worn off! Her stomach plummeted into her knees as she realized how stupid she was for not considering this turn of events. She tried one last time. "Steelbeak, please... Didn't I mean anything to you?"

Evidently when the potion's effects wore off, the memory of the effects went with it. Steelbeak gave her a pitying look. "Chill out, babe, it ain't like we had a history or nothin'!" He turned to the door and beckoned to the Eggmen holding her prisoner. "C'mon, boys, let's take her down and cage her up until FOWL High Command tells us what to do. She might be a good hostage, too." He smiled at her coldly. "I hear it's shark season," he said simply, and chuckled.

The panic that had been rising in Beth's chest burst through all of a sudden, and she screamed.


Someone screamed from the building down the street; Tonya heard it quite distinctly even through the closed window, and it startled her so that she added twice as much magnesium powder to the mixture as she'd meant. That was the final straw! She put her instruments down carefully, resisting the temptation to throw them across the room, and stalked off down the hall towards the elevator. Sure, she could just call the police on them from here, but her temper was so high that she was actually yearning for the argument that would surely result when she confronted them.

She was actually disappointed- and further frustrated- when no one answered her bangs on the front door. She doubled her efforts, still to no avail. So she tried the doorknob, but it was firmly locked- and, she noticed for the first time, the keyhole had wood lodged in it. From the looks of things this building was abandoned, so who...?

The noises were continuing from inside, so she knew it was indeed this building. Well, someone had to teach the occupants a lesson. She was going to get inside if it killed her. She wandered around to the side of the building, ending up down an alleyway, and was surprised to see a light coming from one of the windows. Not just candlelight or a flashlight, but a real overhead, electricity type light. If they were bums in there, how did they have the electricity on?

She decided to ignore the mystery and stood on her tiptoes to try and see into the window. It was significantly over her head, but she could see a table on the far side of the room which had some objects on it, including a cut jewel of some kind that seemed to be glowing in the light. No, she realized, it was glowing on its own! Something about it was hauntingly familiar, in fact. She stared at it, intrigued and filled with the irresistable urge to examine it more closely, if only she could find a way to open this window...


Beth paced nervously around the confines of the cage she'd been put in. She wondered why Gosalyn always wanted to join Darkwing on his cases, if it turned out this way for her at any time. She was determined not to let Steelbeak see how scared she really was, however; he was smug enough as it was. Trying to look confident, she said, "Darkwing Duck will come rescue me!"

This, she found out immediately, was a mistake. Steelbeak turned almost as red as his comb and for a moment she thought steam was going to come out of his ears. Then he shook himself into a slightly more dignified pose, and straightened his tie. "Figures," he muttered. "Everything I do seems to come back to that duck somehow. But I got the upper hand as long as I got you as a hostage!" Looking suave again, he laughed- that same staccato laugh she had heard him use several times when they'd first met. Her heart sank; she'd practically played right into FOWL's hands. It seemed that no matter what she did, she messed things up further.


Tonya looked around for something to break the window with, and found nothing. It figured; when she had a bad day, she had the worst day. The gem up there was obviously just a cosmic joke, another way to make her feel worse, by dangling an amazing thing in front of her and not letting her have it.

She heaved a frustrated sigh and began schlumping back to her building. This, she thought, must be the sort of day that turned people into criminals. When she reached the end of the alleyway, she heard noises behind her and half-turned, expecting to see rats scurrying in the filth behind her.

Instead she saw movement just beneath- and then in- the window she'd been examining. Her eyes widened- whatever it had been, it was gone now, but she ran back to the window anyway.

The glass was gone from it, but it hadn't been broken- someone had used a glass-cutter on it, rather expertly in fact. So someone had broken in? But, she double-checked to make sure, the stone was still there. Well, if there was one set of thieves in there, they'd be blamed for anything missing. Including the stone. There was a set of cardboard boxes in the corner, and she set about piling them below the window to get a higher position to climb inside.


Darkwing crept along the hallways, which were much dimmer than the room he'd entered from. Launchpad kept pace behind him.

"DW?" Launchpad whispered. Darkwing whirled on him and violently shushed him. Launchpad cowed, and whispered even more softly, "I- I was just wonderin' why we came in this way, instead of through the wall passage?"

"Because," Darkwing whispered in response, "they no doubt have alarms all over the place in that passage, and they're probably expecting us to boot! We'll have some advantage of surprise this way." He fell silent again, and beckoned Launchpad to follow. It would have been so much easier if Beth weren't involved! She always had to stick her beak into things, didn't she? Well, she was just trying to help, but she should know by now that he didn't need help! And when he did, Launchpad was there! Now he had to go about this twice as carefully, to make sure nothing happened to her.

They found the staircases to the basement, where Steelbeak had been stationed before. Darkwing listened carefully, then turned to Launchpad and mouthed, 'They're down there!' Launchpad nodded. Darkwing loaded the gas gun with a smoke canister, and kept a grappling hook ready, then they snuck down the stairs.

Steelbeak and the Eggmen were keeping their eyes on the passageway from the side of the building, which due to the setup of the building meant that they were facing away from the staircase. It took him a few moments of searching to realize that Beth was huddled at the back of a medium-sized cage in the room's corner. Good- out of the way of the fight. No problem, he thought.

Darkwing aimed his gun about midway across the room, and fired, then quickly shoved the grappling hook into the gun. Then he fired the hook to the ceiling above where the smoke was now exploding. Time to start the intro, too. He switched on the mini-amplifier he kept in his sleeve for entrances like these, and spoke into it.

"I am the Terror That Flaps in the Night!"

Steelbeak did a startled take, looking like he was about to break a blood vessel. "What?! How did he get in here? That's impossible!!" He looked around and saw the open staircase door. "GAH!!! I knew it!!"

"I am the nail that blows out the tire on your getaway car! I... am DARKWIIIIING DUCK!" With that, Darkwing swung out of the smoke and kicked an Eggman over before landing. "No applause necessary, please," he added smugly.

"Don't worry about that," Steelbeak snarled. "C'mon Eggmen- you know what to do!" They nodded and opened fire. Darkwing evaded them, flipping about the room and occasionally landing a blow on an Eggman. He was obviously teasing them, Beth noticed. She tried to catch his attention and let him know that she was okay, but he didn't even seem to look at her. His attention was focused completely on Steelbeak and the Eggmen. As one of the Eggmen in question got tossed to the side and hit the wall of her cage, she cringed. If Darkwing wasn't going to do anything, then... where was Launchpad?

She saw him a little ways across the room, not yet noticed by the FOWL agents but evidently not sure what to do. Despite the situation, she felt relief just at seeing him. As soon as the Eggman near her cage stood and ran back into the fight, she dared to try and talk to him. At least any noise she made was under the cover of gunfire. "Launchpad, get the key!"

"What?"

"The key!!"

"Oh!" he said, and looked around for it, then looked back at her questioningly. "Where is it?"

"Uh..." Uh-oh. She wasn't sure. "I think one of the Eggmen has it!"

He looked stricken. "Do you know which one?"

"The... the one Darkwing knocked out?" she guessed. She looked at him and became pretty certain. "Yeah, it's him!"

Launchpad shot her a thumbs-up sign and tried to sneak over to the unconscious Eggman. Darkwing, meanwhile, had recovered his gas gun and shot a canister of something at the remaining Eggmen. They were incapacitated by coughs. Beth saw Steelbeak back out of the gas cloud, however, and grope for a weapon. Some of the gas reached her and she began coughing lightly, too. Hurry, Launchpad, she thought to herself. This was only going to get worse from here, she was certain.

He stood up from the Eggman's body, triumphantly holding up a ring of keys, and ran over to her. Nearby, Steelbeak opened fire into the gas cloud, trying to tag Darkwing. Launchpad fumbled his way through the keys and tried each on in turn, without success. "Must be this one," he said, holding up the last key confidently. Beth frowned, and clung to the cage bars in fear. He turned it and they both relaxed when they heard the lock give.

"Thank goodness!" Beth exclaimed, and propelled herself out of the cage and into Launchpad's arms.

"You okay?" he asked her, for the second time that day.

"Déja vu," she mumbled, then smiled up at him. "Yeah. The spell wore off of Steelbeak though." She looked over to where the FOWL agent was standing; he was looking about wildly for Darkwing, but didn't see him. She hoped he hadn't been shot.

Steelbeak suddenly saw Launchpad and Beth, and his eyes grew wide. "No way! You're our hostage!" he yelled, and aimed the gun at them. Launchpad threw himself in front of Beth protectively, just as Darkwing swung out of the dispersing gas behind Steelbeak and knocked him over.

"You want to settle this here, or should we take it outside?" he quipped. Steelbeak snarled in answer and got to his feet, then threw a punch at Darkwing. Launchpad took advantage of the distraction to swoop Beth up and carry her to the staircase.

"That was too close," he said, setting her down at the doorway, and then following her up the stairs. They both stopped then, catching their breaths, the dim monotony of the hallway muting the memory of the danger below.

Darkwing had barely even looked at her, Beth realized. It sunk in then, that the potion had worn off of him, as well. She felt a deep sense of regret well up inside her. "He's back to normal too, isn't he?" she asked quietly.

Launchpad seemed uncomfortable, but put a hand on her shoulder. "Yeah," he said gently. "It wore off him just before we came."

She put her hand over his for a moment, then looked up at him. "What about you?"

He gulped, surprised, and muttered, "Uh, heh-heh, yeah... Seems to have gone off me, too!" He chuckled and grinned at her, and somehow she was utterly unconvinced. If he was no longer in love with her, why wasn't he behaving the same way as Darkwing? Why wasn't he more focused on the fight? Of course, he'd always spent more time paying attention to her, but it was like nothing had changed while he was under the spell.

Suddenly, out of the blue, she remembered why she had come, and gasped. "The Philosopher's Stone! We have to get it- I know where it is!" She grabbed him by his hand and dragged him along the hall.


It was the most incredible thing Tonya had ever seen. The amber-coloured stone glowed steadily in her hands, its light powerful enough to give a solid colouring to her feathers. She turned it over several times in her hands, trying to find some clue about what it was, but aside from observing the smoothness of its cut and how deceptively light it was, it didn't give any hints. It was like nothing she'd ever seen, anywhere.

One thing was clear: this was no ordinary stone.

She had to possess it. She would take it home and test it until she found out what it was, and if it did anything or was worth anything. Maybe she could be its official discoverer. But more than that, she was sure it had power- power she needed, for herself.

She held it in front of her face and stared into it, past the multiple reflections of her own weary amber-coloured face, into the centre. Something pulsed there, a light which almost seemed alive.

A noise sounded from the hallway. Tonya's heart skipped in her chest; the thieves were coming back! Well, this was one object they'd never get! She skittered to the window and tossed herself out of it, landing heavily on the sidewalk outside and feeling her ankle twist uncomfortably. She forced herself to hobble quickly out of the alleyway, before she was seen, ignoring the surges of pain until she was back on the well-lit street.

Beth burst into the room Tonya had just exited. "It's in here!" she said breathlessly. Launchpad came in right after her. "Yes! It's definitely in this room, that's the safe it was in!" she pointed. Looking around the room, she didn't spot it, so she said, "They must have put it back."

As Beth knelt at the safe to re-enter the combination, Launchpad looked around. "Hey, this is the room DW and I came in through!" He looked down at Beth when she gave a whine of disappointment. "What's wrong?"

"It's not in here," she said, shutting the door to the safe again. "I should have known this wouldn't be easy. Do you see it anywhere? It's a dark orange-yellow kind of colour and it glows."

Launchpad was pretty sure he would have noticed something like that by now, but he looked around obligingly. When Beth started to search more thoroughly through the objects in the room, particularly on and around the table by the door, he did the same.


"Open fire, ya stupid jerks!" Steelbeak shrieked at the Eggmen. The henchmen, still weak from coughing, did as ordered- unfortunately without waiting for Steelbeak to get out of the line of fire near Darkwing. He covered his head and darted to the side, then used the opportunity of Darkwing's distraction to search for more heavy-duty weapons.

The weapons room was right nearby- as was pretty much everything they figured they'd need any time soon. He grabbed a handful of heavy-duty firearms and ran back in to the fighting room. That duck was gonna pay for messing up his suit! Did he have any idea how much white suede cost to have cleaned?!

Darkwing was getting a pretty decent workout avoiding the shots from the Eggmen. Nothing out of the ordinary; they weren't armed very heavily this time around and would probably run out of ammo shortly. In fact, Darkwing figured he was probably working off that cheesecake he'd polished off a few days ago.

Then Steelbeak ran back in, and Darkwing's eyes went wide when he saw the FOWL agent taking aim with a small missile launcher.

"DWAAH!" he bellowed, diving to the side just as the wall behind where he had been standing exploded.

Steelbeak was furious. Rather than reuse the same weapon after it failed, he tossed it aside and grabbed a bazooka, then tried to aim as Darkwing ran around the room desperately. Shots were fired, and zoomed past the fleeing hero only to explode against the walls. The foundation of the building was being destroyed, and the walls began to shake.

"Stop it, you idiot!" he screamed as he ran. "You're going to bring the whole place down on us!"

"I don't care," Steelbeak yelled back at him over the roar of the explosions, "as long as it gets you!!!"

Darkwing wondered if he'd live to be able to take advantage of the fact that Steelbeak's hatred of him overran his own self-preservation.

An ominous rumbling began, and the Eggmen looked at each other and scattered out of the building. Steelbeak ignored it, dropping the tommy gun he'd been using and picking up a flame thrower. Darkwing took advantage of the pause to aim his gas gun and fire a canister at random at the irate villain; it impacted and Steelbeak's eyes went wide as he dropped the weapon and squirmed about, itching madly.

Darkwing breathed a sigh of relief. "Gotcha!" he said, and handcuffed Steelbeak as quickly as he could while the rooster glared daggers at him. He looked around for Launchpad and Beth, but saw no sign of them; were they still in the building? From the way this place was shaking, they'd better not be!

Searching for them with Steelbeak in tow wasn't likely to work, since the agent wouldn't likely be very quick to help him look. So, should he stay with Steelbeak to make sure he stayed captured, or go after his friends?

Well, there was very little choice in the matter, really.

As soon as Darkwing ran out of the room, Steelbeak bit through the metal chains of the handcuffs in one strong chomp and dashed for the passageway out of the building.

It didn't take Darkwing long to find Beth and Launchpad; they were in the room he and Launchpad had come in through, the only one with a light in it. Relieved, he ran to the window and beckoned them to follow. "Come on! Steelbeak trashed the foundation and the building's going to collapse any second now!"

"That's what this shaking is?" Launchpad asked, following Darkwing to the window.

"Yep! Come on, Beth!"

Beth didn't move, but kept looking around the room desperately. "But- the Philosopher's Stone!"

"Forget it! It's a lost cause now!"

"No!" She shook her head, a determined look on her face. "It was my responsibility, and I'm going to find it! What if it gets destroyed?" She was interrupted by a loud crash outside the room as something, probably a wall, collapsed. "Drake, think of the loss to the scientific community! To the world! This could make building anything possible if applied correctly!"

He could barely hear her now over the rumbling. "Get her, LP," he said to his sidekick, who nodded and then picked Beth up and physically carried her to the window. The protests she yelled along the way were almost inaudible by now. They jumped out of the window just in time, as the windowsill gave while Launchpad was holding onto it. Within the next few moments, the walls folded like paper and soon all that was left was a pile of rocks, a cloud of dust, and the barely visible traces of what seemed to be a sauna poking up near the top.

Beth, who had long since stopped struggling and was clinging to Launchpad during the implosion, sighed sadly and rested her head against Launchpad's chest. Launchpad made no move to put her down. Looking back at the building, she said, "It's my fault, isn't it? I messed it all up."

Darkwing poked his foot into the rubble, and shook his head. "No, it isn't," he replied. "You had nothing to do with the building collapsing. This sort of thing happens a lot more than you'd think."

"But the stone. I should have grabbed it when I had the chance." She shook her head, still feeling guilty, and wriggled her way out of Launchpad's arms. He reluctantly set her down.

"SHUSH will probably agree that it's better that it didn't fall into the wrong hands," Darkwing said as she joined him to peer into the rubble. "Besides, maybe they'll be able to get another one someday!"

"But-" She sighed again. "How do we know that it didn't fall into the wrong hands? What if it wasn't destroyed, what if Steelbeak has it?"

Darkwing grinned. "Oh, don't worry about Steelbeak. I've got backup." He indicated the front of the building, and she saw that some of the occupants of what she had assumed were ambulances here to take care of anyone hurt in the building's collapse were actually SHUSH agents. They were now holding onto Steelbeak and a couple of Eggmen. Darkwing gave them a salute, and they returned it before herding the FOWL agents into their unmarked cars and driving off. "If Steelbeak knows where the stone is, they'll get it out of him."

Relieved, Beth smiled. "Well, I guess it's not so bad then," she said, and forced all her will into throwing her arms around Darkwing and hugging him affectionately. "Thank you so much for rescuing me, Drake," she said quietly.

He became flustered, obviously uncomfortable, and patted her on the back awkwardly as he gave her a loose hug in return. "Hey, I'm Darkwing Duck, it's my job, what'd you expect?" he said in a half-mumble. "And ix-nay with the Ake-dray in ublic-pay, alright?"

She slipped away from him, forcing a smile. "Sorry... I forgot. It just ... slipped out." As he walked down the street to where they'd left the Ratcatcher, she followed silently, well behind him. Launchpad walked just behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"No- no, it's okay," she said, shaking her head. "Really. I mean, I knew... I knew it was too good to be, you know, true." She cleared her throat, trying to keep the tears down. "And it really wasn't the right way to have someone l...love me. Let alone him. I know that." She took a deep breath and tried to smile at Launchpad, which was a mistake as it only seemed to make the tears closer to the surface. "Besides, it's like they say... It's better t-to have loved and lost, than to..." She couldn't finish the thought, instead dissolving into tears and burying her face in her hands. Launchpad stopped walking and put his arms around her, and signaled to Darkwing that they'd catch up later.


Down the street, Tonya was barely aware of the crash and the sirens outside. Her new possession fascinated her, and she set up a place for it on her lab table, putting aside the love potion for the time being. Tomorrow she would begin the tests to see what it did, but for now, she was content just to look at it... and dream of the future.


Next: Beth Discovers Her Limits!


A/N: So that's it - only one more story to go and then we hit the part of continuity I haven't written yet. :P The good news is that I'm actually WORKING ON IT AGAIN! I've been blocked on the story I'm doing now for more than seven years, but it's finally coming.

We have not seen the last of Tonya Skitting. Granted, I haven't written anything for her since I wrote this story - nearly 8 years ago (OH GOD how can it have been that long?!), but she's got a big part to play.

When I wrote this, I hadn't even read any of Harry Potter, so the first HP book was not at all an influence. I don't even need to mention that Fullmetal Alchemist didn't even EXIST yet, so as much as I'm a huge fan of that series, it also had no inspiration on this story.

I don't think I have any other notes to leave this time. Until later!


Story and situation © 1999-2000 by R. Littlehales. All characters © the Walt Disney Co. except Beth Webfoot and Tonya Skitting, both of whom are the creation of the author. I have played fast and loose with many things in this story, notably alchemy, the Philosopher's Stone, and the exact workings of pheromones. Forgive me? This story is the property of R. Littlehales, and may not be copied, distributed, archived, or altered from its original form without express permission of the author. You may not make any money off this story. You may not eat off this story. You may not particularly care. You may think I'm delirious for doin' the things I do... You may think I'm crazy, but all I want is you.