Author's Note: Just so you guys know, there's a sequel with its first chapter already partially written for this fic. I haven't come up with a title yet, though. -_- It'll be up next week.
Gosalyn had recited the instructions for the Ramrod three times by now and her heart pounded. She knew that with that information in his grasp, she no longer served a purpose to Taurus Bulba. However, maybe he'd let her go. After all, she couldn't help him any further and there was no need for senseless bloodshed, right?
"You have what you want from me-let me go," Gosalyn said. Taurus Bulba sneered, using the Ramrod to lift a bank off its foundations and then rob it. His eyes narrowed at her.
"You are right. I do have what I want from you. You are no longer of use to me, but you have seen too much. Therefore…"
He stepped back from the controls and grabbed Gosalyn by the front of her shirt. It then dawned on her how high up they were and how far it was to the ground. Of course, it wasn't the falling that killed you-it was the landing. If she thought her heart had been pounding before, it was fit to burst her chest now. He was dangling her over the railing and she gulped.
"On second thought, maybe there's something else I can help you with?" Gosalyn said with a sheepish smile.
"You can help me by dying," Taurus Bulba snapped. He leaned forward and Gosalyn felt the wind brush past her face. She swayed, trying to kick her way free, but as she did so, he began to open his hand. She whimpered.
Purple gas surrounded both of them and Taurus Bulba sneered.
"What is this?" he demanded. "Who is there?"
"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the cold weather that just won't go away! I am Darkwing Duck!" Darkwing announced and then grabbed both of them. He freed Gosalyn from Taurus Bulba's clutches and she clung to him.
"And you have something that belongs to me," he said, putting her down on her feet.
"I should have known you would show up to save the kid," Bulba snapped. "Well, you are too late, Darkwing."
"You know, villains always say that. It's never true, though. Something invariably goes wrong. Like if someone 'accidentally' presses the wrong buttons…" Darkwing said and swept over the control panel. "Now...I don't know the order that these buttons are supposed to be pressed in, but you know what? Let's get dangerous!"
Then, as if he were playing the piano (badly, she might add), he proceeded to slam his palms down, creating a discordant sound that made her shudder. Taurus Bulba roared, lunging for him. Darkwing jumped in time for the Ramrod's muzzle to swing about and point at Taurus Bulba. Darkwing smiled.
"Any last words before I send you to the slammer, Bulba?" he said with a smirk.
"You fool! You've ruined everything!" Taurus Bulba snapped. The bank had fallen back to the ground with a tremendous crash, making the roof beneath her shudder, and it had landed lopsided, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, except with money. She thought she spied the Beagle Boys moving in on it. Like vultures to the scene of carnage. She rolled her eyes.
However, terror had not left her yet. As far as she was concerned, Taurus Bulba had not been vanquished and he could still hurt her or her father. That was if he could escape the acceleration beam he seemed to be stuck in. He muttered threats against Darkwing Duck and a figure swooped up onto the roof with them. Gizmoduck. Darkwing groaned.
"Oh, great. Not you," he said. Gizmoduck stared at him blankly. At least, Gosalyn thought he was staring blankly. It was really hard to tell with that visor over his eyes.
"Not me what?" Gizmoduck said, baffled. "I'm here to apprehend Taurus Bulba."
"He's already apprehended," Darkwing said dismissively. "Go home and play the superhero in Duckburg. Some people have better things to do than babysit wannabe superheroes."
"I'm not-look, we're on the same side. I can restrain him while you and the other adults get the kids safely home. I know what I'm doing."
"Sure you do," Darkwing said sarcastically. "And how many banana cream pies have you thrown today?"
"That's not fair! I mean...I hit the wrong button and-"
"You're powering the suit. With your brain. Wait, no, I see the problem. It's your brain."
"Dad, you could be a little nicer to him," Gosalyn whispered. "It's not like he's done anything to you."
"He's trying to upstage me!" Darkwing retorted. "I am the one, the only Darkwing Duck!"
"Yes, yes. No one would mistake you for anyone else," Taurus Bulba snapped. "Spare me your arrogance."
"You're one to talk about being arrogant," Gosalyn said. She felt safer now with Taurus Bulba restrained, though she wished Darkwing would stop picking on Gizmoduck. What'd he ever do to him? And without being able to curl his lip, Darkwing still radiated contempt. It was amazing. How was Gizmoduck upstaging him, anyway? Just by showing up?
"We're here for the kids," Gizmoduck said, sounding a little exasperated, but mostly confused. "I can take Taurus Bulba downtown."
"Oh, no, you're not getting off that easily," Darkwing said. "I will take the criminal downtown and you will bring the kids home. I'm the real superhero, in case you haven't noticed."
"I'm not really sure how that works, but okay," Gizmoduck said. "Let's not waste time arguing."
"Ha, told you I was the real superhero," Darkwing said, thrusting out his chest. Gosalyn facepalmed. Leave it to her father to win in a braggadocio contest. Not that she was surprised. Just...ugh.
"Dad, did you take your meds this morning?" Gosalyn said.
"Why, whatever do you mean, Gosalyn?"
"Because you're acting crazier than normal," she muttered.
"We'll discuss that when we get home," Darkwing snapped.
Gosalyn rolled her eyes. She was standing by her comment. Darkwing Duck definitely felt like he was off his rocker right now.
"Hey, uh, does anyone have any idea how to shut this thing off?" Darkwing said, suddenly sheepish. "It's firing rays everywhere and, uh, oops. There goes the school."
"Yay!" Gosalyn cheered. "I mean, uh, wow, what a tragedy."
"That was not in the least bit convincing," Darkwing informed her.
Gizmoduck rolled his eyes (or Gosalyn imagined he had) at Darkwing and then wrenched Taurus Bulba out of the beam. As he did so, the machine shuddered and seemed to gather itself for a final breath. That couldn't be good. The front display was lit up and though it resembled nothing more dangerous than a giant computer, it looked like it was about to explode.
"Bicker later. Let's get out of here now!" Gosalyn said.
"I agree with her," Gizmoduck said. Before Darkwing had a chance to protest overly much ("hey, watch the cape-I just ironed that!"), he seized both of them and flung himself off the roof. Gosalyn whooped, Darwking groaned, and Gizmoduck halted, hovering about fifty feet from the building and scanning its occupants. Or so Gosalyn thought.
"Everyone's out," he said. "That's good, because-"
He didn't get a chance to finish his statement. The Ramrod exploded in a glorious rush of colors, mostly red, and knocked them for a loop. They crashed along three rooftops before settling on the fourth with her and Darkwing on top of Gizmoduck, who was lying on his back. The building they'd been in shuddered again and then began to fall apart. That...wasn't good.
"Did you evacuate the surrounding area?" Darkwing Duck demanded.
"Of course I did," Gizmoduck said, a tad defensive. "Part of SHUSH standard operating procedure."
"Don't tell me you're in SHUSH. Seems like they'll take just about anyone these days."
"Guys," Gosalyn said, impatient. "We need to find out how the others are. And we need to get out of here before that building knocks over anything else near it. Plus, did anyone see where Taurus Bulba went?"
She looked around. Taurus Bulba had landed on the rooftop near them and faceplanted into a garden. He looked like he was down for the count and Gosalyn hoped that he was. She didn't trust him to be, but her patience for the situation was at an end. If Doofus had been apprehended, it meant her sister had won. But that didn't mean her sister was in good condition. She had to find out how Webby was.
Bouncing on the balls of her heels, she watched Gizmoduck grab Taurus Bulba and prepare to lift off.
"No, that's my criminal," Darkwing said.
"Who cares?" Gosalyn interrupted, peeved. "It's not like you own him. Let it go, Dad. Or do I have to sing you the whole song to get you to shut up?"
"Not that song," Darkwing said and shuddered. "Okay, fine. I'll let you have him this one time."
"Hopefully there won't be another time," Gizmoduck pointed out. After doing a final check of the area, he departed with Darkwing Duck eying him like the superhero might make a detour and leave Bulba on a street somewhere. Gosalyn rolled her eyes.
"Let's go. Now," she snapped. "Before I start laying eggs."
"Don't be ridiculous, Gosalyn. You're not old enough to lay eggs," he said, distracted. She glowered at him. "Oh. Heh, heh. All right. We can go check on Webby and the others."
"Finally," she muttered. Searching for the stairs, she located them and then darted down. Aside from a brush with death, she was fine. Hopefully, the same could be said of Webby, but she had a dread feeling in the pit of her stomach that said otherwise. She needed to make sure her sister was okay.
The next thing Webby and Dewey became aware of was that they were sharing a room in the ER. Dewey was getting stitches and she was getting her back sterilized and treated. She felt exposed in her hospital gown and she glanced over at Dewey in the next bed over. He didn't look like he was aware of what was going on, however. For one thing, he was hooked up for a blood transfusion and for another, he was on a strong sedative. It seemed like he was in a considerable amount of pain or had been before the nurses had hooked him up. She could sympathize.
"Webby!" Gosalyn cried and burst into the room along with the remaining triplets, Darkwing Duck, Scrooge, and Mrs. Beakley. Gosalyn rushed forward to hug her sister and then stopped, seeing the nurse there bandaging her up.
"What happened to you?" she asked.
"Doofus," she said. It felt like the room was spinning and she was floating on air. "Doofus had an electrified whip."
"When I get my hands on that guy, he'll be so sorry," Gosalyn hissed.
"He's already sorry," Mrs. Beakley reassured her. "He's in juvey right now awaiting formal charges. And aside from some...collateral damage...everyone is relatively intact."
"And I get a cool scar!" Dewey added.
"Yes," Mrs. Beakley said, rolling her eyes. "And you get a cool scar."
"Nothing happened to you?" Webby pressed. The urgency wasn't there, thanks to the meds, but she was still worried about her sister. "You're okay?"
"Almost fell to my death, but, hey, all in the line of duty, right?" Gosalyn replied with a bright smile.
"I think that's enough adventure for one day," Mrs. Beakley said. "And there are too many of us in the ER room."
As she said this, a nurse gave them a dirty look, up until her gaze met Scrooge's. Then she smiled meekly and vanished, her little dog tail tucked between her legs. Scrooge smirked.
"Still got it," he muttered, looking smug.
"We're staying here until you get discharged," Darkwing Duck added. "Whenever that is."
"Thank you," Gosalyn said and smiled at Darkwing. "I mean it."
"I'm sorry we snuck out," Huey said, looking down at the floor.
"Aye, you shouldnae have done that," Scrooge agreed. "And wee Webbigail suffered because of it. But we can discuss your punishment later. Your Uncle Donald should really be in charge of that."
"Or maybe you could avoid punishing us entirely?" Louie suggested.
"Don't press your luck," Scrooge said darkly.
"We can discuss your punishment later too, young lady," Mrs. Beakley said and Webby grinned sheepishly.
"Still, all's well that ends well, I suppose," Scrooge said. "Taurus Bulba is in jail and Doofus Drake has been apprehended. It all tied up very neatly, I must say."
"What about Taurus Bulba's henchmen?" Huey asked. "You captured them too, right? And the Beagle Boys, who were robbing that bank?"
"Wait, what?" Scrooge said. "When did all of this happen?"
Huey groaned, facepalming. "You didn't catch any of them, did you?"
"Hey, cut the man some slack. He's a good man, isn't he?" Louie said and smirked at Scrooge. "Good enough to keep from punishing us."
"I told you not to press your luck, Louie. I meant it," Scrooge said and grimaced. "I'll send Gizmoduck out after the Beagle Boys and the henchmen, but I suspect they're long gone now."
"Guess I should've been paying more attention to what was going on around me than arguing with Gizmoduck," Darkwing muttered, blushing.
Scrooge groaned.
"Just what I'd expect from Darkwing Duck. Buffoonery," Mrs. Beakley said.
"I've never done anything to you," Darkwing snapped back.
"Let them argue, lassies," Scrooge said when Webby and Gosalyn looked like they wanted to intervene. "Guess it wouldnae have been much of a conclusion without some loose ends."
"So...when's our next mission? What bad guy are we going after?" Gosalyn said, interrupting the arguing adults.
"You're not going anywhere. You are going to stay home and be a normal kid, do you hear me, Gosalyn?" Darkwing demanded.
Gosalyn smirked. "Yeah, sure, Dad, whatever you say. Whatever you say."
"That's right. Whatever I say. Wait, you're just humoring me, aren't you?" Darkwing said.
Gosalyn smirked. Well, you can't fool everyone all the time.
Taurus Bulba had been maimed in the explosion. He had nearly perished, as a matter of fact, and FOWL had interceded, taking him directly out of jail after Gizmoduck had dropped him in. He would have been more appreciative, had he been conscious at the time. FOWL had a plan in mind for him, though whether Bulba would agree would be something else entirely.
The Steerminator would rise and put an end to SHUSH and Darkwing Duck once and for all. They could rebuild Taurus Bulba, after all. They had the technology.