GOSALYN MALLARD RETURNS TO ZOMBIE ACRES (By Gosalyn Mallard)

CHAPTER THREE

PART 4

So then Gosalyn and her father went home and had a nice ordinary dinner with ordinary potato and sub-ordinary tofu salad. Then Gosalyn went to her study session with her new science tutor who just happened to also be an ex-super villain and Darkwing Duck went to work on the people who were still being crooks. At the time neither of them suspected that Yamie the Necromancer was loose in the sewers of St Canard again. They also didn't know that while they were busy with their regular lives, Yamie was applying the finishing touches to his plot for revenge against the whole world.

'Starting with St Canard.'

'But of course, he had to start with the people he had his latest gripe with: the people of St Canard; be they good, bad or indifferent. And who better to begin his apocalypse with but the broken axle on the applecart of crime himself?'

The scene was outside the greenhouse dwelling of one mad half-plant-half-duck scientist by the name of Reginald Bushroot. With silver bells and cockle shells, Bushroot was currently engaged in a very unvillainous plot of watering his flower buddies all in a row.

"This game is over, Quackerjack!" Darkwing Duck's voice called just that bit too close.

Bushroot turned around to the ruckus with the watering can in his hand. "No, no, Quackerjack!" Bushroot squawked, trying to herd the jester's toy teeth from his flower beds. "Ach-no, Daisy!" He swept the teeth away, making a big dent in his vines.

"Sorry, Bushy ..." The two villains both spun around, Darkwing pointed his gas gun at Quackerjack.
"Tag you're it, Quack-..." The vampire staggered back, putting his hand to his head. "No ... I ... N-no you can't ..."

Quackerjack made like a deer and bounded off. "Later, Bushy!" He called out.

"Darkwing?" Bushroot usually had a good sense of Darkwing Duck now he was a vampire. But not this time.
The vampire looked up stonily at Bushroot.
"Darkwing Duck?"

There was no response, no flicker of recognition. Not even a single delta wave from the vampire. His mind was completely empty.

Bushroot took a moment. "Uh ... should I be running?" Darkwing took a step towards him. "Yes!" Bushroot squawked, turned around and Darkwing was directly in front of him. There was no expression on the vampire's face as he grabbed Bushroot up into his arms. A moment later Bushroot felt drowsy, and shut his eyes.

Over at the lighthouse, Gosalyn was having fun.
"So, then," Megavolt in his yellow jumpsuit without his battery continued, "How many degrees does it need to be heated to?"
"To make the whole machine stop working it'll have to be coming up to room temperature."
"Ye-es, ideally if we managed to get to the control room. But right now we're sitting in the belly of the biggest refrigeration system you've ever seen."
"Man made, you mean. Perhaps it doesn't need to be exactly at room temperature?" Gosalyn looked into the textbook. Then she yawned. "Can't we just ... close the refrigerator and go to bed?"

"Oh, sure, Gosalyn. We can come back to it next week. Whoops." Megavolt put a hand to his brow, "I didn't realise how late it's gotten."

"Well, Felicia usually comes in and reminds ... ten o'clock? Whoa!" Gosalyn stared at the blinking TV that had alerted Megavolt. She shoved her books back into her bag. "I don't do these things on purpose to bug dad!"
"Oh, rea-lly?"
"Well, I mean," Gosalyn back-pedalled, "not all the time and I don't mean to overdo it, you know, I just want to have some fun in my life."

"Flis' probably won't be that long, Gos ..."
"No, I gotta get home now, Megs." Gosalyn put her jacket on. "See you next week!"
"Sure."
"Thanks. It's been ... educational."
Gosalyn hurried out into the cold night, dropping her skateboard onto the ground and taking off.

She was in the thick of the city, when she came across the rat-catcher. A port in a storm, she dumped her bag into the sidecar and looked around. "Launchpad?" She turned around again, jumping with a squawk. "Darkwing Duck!" He just appeared out of nowhere, "that sure is creepy ... Darkwing? I ... lost track of time at ... Dad, are you awake?" He picked her up, and they vanished from the street.

"Your stomach's growling." Drake interrupted at this moment, "Come on, Gos, now is a good time for a break."

"Yeah." Gosalyn replied, "This is so mad keen it's like being there all over again. Is that why you write your case files like stories?"
"Actually I do it mostly with you in mind." He stated affectionately, "People have been telling stories to teach their kids since before the dawn of time and you know I'm 'old-school'."

Gosalyn laughed, "I didn't mean that 'old', dad."