More Darkness

16

Gizmo-Chase

The La Croix restaurant on the harbour-side of Duckburg had a blue themed decor. The tables were small and rectangular, the chairs white with blue cushioning and an old sailing ship's wheel hung from the ceiling as a chandelier. While a lot of the stuff on the menu was fish or pizza related, two things Starling wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, La Croix also happened to have the best lamb shanks this side of a country pub.

Starling was three quarters through his meal, enjoying potato mash and gravy, casually reading over the pages of script he'd written.

The climax didn't seem to want to sit right. And the payoff in the final scenes somehow wasn't lining up with the first two scenes.
"What have I done? What? It doesn't seem cheesy..."

He glanced up at some extra ambient noise. It was just some nervous kid with his girlfriend.

He thought back to the Darkwing First Darkness script again. That kid'd turned it into a circus. There barely had even been a Megavolt. It was all just one guy slowly falling apart like a wedge of ice pulled off a windshield. Sure, it had a moral indignity to it. About suffering.

But it was quiet. A little too quiet.

The door burst open and a blaze of white lit up Starling's unseeing vision.

"You think you could hide from me forever, villain?"

Fork still in hand, Starling gazed at Gizmoduck pointing back at him, "Oh, no. Here we go again." He rolled his eyes and stuffed his script in his jacket. "Get a life, Buzzlight; some people are trying to eat!" He flipped up the table at Gizmoduck and took off out the front door.

Starling zipped around the corner, wide eyed, back to the wall.
"What I gotta do to get some dinner in this town?!"

"Surrender, villain!" Gizmoduck called.

"What are you, robodog? Quit following me around, you K9!"
He ducked the robotic hands, landed a sliding kick just above Gizmoduck's uni-tyre, sending him crashing over. Starling rolled and jumped on Gizmoduck's back, jamming the fork into the nearly invisible panel, ripping it open and pulling a bunch of wires and bits. There was a moment of electric discharge.

"Nobody messes with me while I'm eating!" He thundered at Gizmoduck and walked off.

Starling got to his bike parked in the lot. "Well, that takes care of that buzz-head for a while. I could probably just stroll through the front door of that party now..." He debated.
"Eh, I dunno... Would I do that?"

Half-minded about his new persona, Starling headed to the big fancy building that all the cars were currently lined up outside of. He parked on the side street.

"Well, feels right, so far..." He shrugged and walked up the lamp-lit street to the building. Even the streetlights in Duckburg had that extra touch of fancy; giving off a warm and inviting feeling.

Duckburg; such a nice place. It was so easy to write something grim and gritty here. For every warm light, and every cheery flower box, served an echoing reminder of the cold, dark world they were so desperately hiding.

The cracked world. This world. Where heroes were villains, trapped in a losing battle against their own flaws. Alone, shunned and un-forgiven; no matter how hard they tried.

Darn, if he could only fit that stuff into script form he'd be the king of this.

A bit away, across the street, Starling considered for a time. Who was he in respect to taking up those fanciful steps?

"Nah, don't think I'd get along much in that doodied up place. Wrong kind of party... Yeah, I'm more of a..."

He eyed the orange shirted figures heading up the front steps.

"Beagle Boys? They're actually gonna...? For real!" He raised an eyebrow. "Oh, man, I have got to see this show!" Curiosity and excitement made him break into a run. He raced around to the back of the building, climbing with motivation up the brickwork, "Man what a window! And the curtain's wide open. I'm gonna see everything from here!"

Just in time, he saw the three Beagle Boys storm through the open door at the other side.

"Alright, folks, this is a hold up! You know the drill."