Honker and Gosalyn chat, as do Launchpad and Herb Muddlefoot. A lot of random stuff in this chapter that is there only for laughs and filler really.

BTW, I sat down and planned out the rest of this fan-fic the other day (so that now I only have to write it) and I estimate that this fan-fic will have about 26 chapters. So the story's only beginning at this point. ;)

Chapter Ten

Let's Chat

The following morning saw Gosalyn pacing her bedroom again. But this time for different reasons. It was no longer a matter of 'what would SHUSH do if she contacted them,' but rather, a matter of when SHUSH would get here to blow her cover. Thus far, nothing had happened, but it didn't fool Gosalyn. She knew they'd show up sooner or later.

Launchpad was still blissfully unaware of it all, having slept in late, and gotten up to go straight to the bathroom for a very long shower, one he hadn't finished yet. He was still thinking that the real Darkwing Duck was back, and Gosalyn desperately wished that was so. She could ask for his advice if he was here.

The doorbell suddenly rang. Gosalyn was instantly alert. It was a Saturday, and there was very unlikely that the doorbell rang. It had to be SHUSH, she knew it. The doorbell rang again. Gosalyn wondered if she should let Launchpad get it, but then decided that if she got it, she might be able to find a way out of this mess.

The doorbell continued to ring. Whoever it was, they weren't simply going to go away. Gathering strength to prepare herself for whatever might happen, Gosalyn marched downstairs and to the door. Drawing one more deep breath, she grabbed the doorknob and swung the door open.

There stood Honker Muddlefoot, with an odd glare plastered on his face.

"Let's chat." he said, holding up the front of a newspaper.

It provided all the explanation Gosalyn needed. The headline read, "Darkwing Duck a Fake! Real Photos Obtained Showing He is a She!" Below that headline was a crystal clear closeup of Darkwing at the bank, except it was so clear that you could not miss the fact that the Darkwing portrayed had red piggy tails dangling from out under of his hat and a very feminine body.

It was enough information that certain people could easily tell that it was Gosalyn under the mask. This included Honker.

"Who is it, Gos?" Lauchpad called from upstairs.

"Uh, um, oh," Gosalyn stuttered, panicking. "Just Honker! He's, um, here to help butter toast!"

"Toast?" Honker asked, bewildered.

"Oh, okay." Launchpad called in response, completely buying Gosalyn's story. "I'll be down in a moment!"

"Uh-oh." Gosalyn muttered, looking around the front porch urgently. "Quick, Honk, is that paper ours or yours?"

"It's mine." Honker answered. "Yours is over there in the bushes. But don't go..."

He was cut off as Gosalyn rushed forward and grabbed the paper. Rushing back, she shoved Honker, despite his complaints, upstairs into her bedroom. Then, taking the newspaper, she ran downstairs into Drake's bedroom and stuffed the paper through the document shredder. Then, she opened it up, pulled out the shreds and stuffed them back through again, guaranteeing that Launchpad would not see it.

But she didn't stop there. She raced into the kitchen and yanked the cords on the phone, the TV, and the computer. She pulled out the batteries in the radio in the kitchen, and disconnected the car radio. She went around the entire house, insuring that Launchpad would not hear or see this news about Darkwing.

She did it partly for her own good, keeping the fact that she had been posing as Darkwing secret, but also for Launchpad's own good. He really had gotten his hopes up that the real Darkwing Duck was back. She didn't want that to all come crashing done on him, just yet. She'd only let it when she had no choice.

Finally finishing with all of that, she went back upstairs to her bedroom. Launchpad was exiting his bedroom, having just finished changing.

"How's the toast buttering going?" he asked as they crossed paths.

"Huh?" Gosalyn asked, forgetting for a moment her cover story. "Oh! Um, no butter, we're going to, uh, study for a big test next week instead. Really big test, can't wait, or be disturbed, so, um, you better leave us alone for, uh, say...five hours?"

"Sure thing, Gos." Launchpad said, walking down the stairs idly, not seeing anything wrong at all.

Gosalyn let out her breath in a long whoosh and started to open her bedroom door.

"Care for a snack while you study, Gos?" Launchpad called up from the kitchen.

"Uh, no, no thanks Launchpad." Gosalyn quickly stated.

"Okay. I'm going to be out in the garden if you need me."

"Sure thing, take as long as you want."

Finally, she slipped inside her bedroom where Honker waited, the odd look still on his face.

Gosalyn stared at him for a moment, unsure how to begin. "Well," she started finally, "What can I say?"

"Why are you impersonating Darkwing, Gosalyn?" Honker asked calmly, but it felt like he should have yelled it or something to Gosalyn.

"So. You figured it out." Gosalyn said, stating the obvious.

"You think?"

"What do you think, Honk?"

"That this is the last thing I expected you to ever do." Honker stated, sitting down on Gosalyn's bed, not making eye contact. "Seven years ago, maybe, but now...it's just not like you."

"A lot has happened in the past few days, Honk." Gosalyn said, sitting down next to him.

"Yeah, I noticed."

He glanced at the paper lying next to him. Gosalyn's eyes followed. The photo of herself was picture clear, and seemed incriminating.

"Look, if it's any constellation, I'm still having trouble believing I'm actually doing it myself." Gosalyn stated.

"But why?" Honker asked.

"Well, it's not without a good reason." Gosalyn assured him.

"What reason?" Honker demanded.

Gosalyn sighed, stood up, and went over to her desk. Quickly shifting through the tangled mess, she pulled out the letter, and silently handed it to Honker. After staring at it for a moment, he took it and began reading.

"'How you act to this is up to you.'" Honker read out loud after having read the letter once. "And this is was how you decided to act?" he pointed at the article on the newspaper.

"It makes sense." Gosalyn pointed out. "By impersonating Darkwing, I could go where I want without hardly anybody standing in my way. Not to mention I had all of his gadgets at my disposal and I could joyride in the Ratcatcher."

Honker thought that through while reading the letter once again. "But why take this job upon yourself, especially when it might end up leading nowhere?" he asked. "Why not hand it over to someone like those guys at SHUSH?"

"Because, one, Darkwing requested I keep the situation secret." Gosalyn began. "Why, I don't know. Two, I felt like it had to be me who did it, because I had to know myself. And three, I already tried discussing this with SHUSH, but they don't want to hear about it. In fact, they know who I am! And if they know that, they can find out anything else they might want to know about me! Where I live is an excellent example! For all we know, they could be coming here to apprehend me right now."

"Why would they do that?" Honker asked.

"Because, Hooter threatened to do it if I didn't stop impersonating Darkwing." Gosalyn answered grimly.

Outside, Launchpad was busy watering the vegetable garden he had started some time back. He used the produce to make his various dishes, all of which only he seemed to enjoy. Gosalyn seemed to hate it all. He didn't understand that, but there was a lot about the teenager he didn't understand.

"Hiya neighbor!" Herb Muddlefoot suddenly called out from the other side of the fence.

"Hey, Herb." Launchpad murmured, focusing on his watering.

"How's life?" Herb went on to say.

"Oh, okay, I suppose." Launchpad answered. "I'm my usual self, while Gosalyn's just the opposite."

"Ah yes, those teenagers can be quite moody." Herb agreed. "Take my Tank for instance. One time a few years back he got so mad that he smashed all of Binky's fine china." he wiped an eye. "That turned out to be a good thing, though, because I was able to get a huge delivery of Quackerware for us and for me to sell."

"Yes, I remember." Launchpad answered, thinking about the many times Herb had appeared at their door selling Quackerware.

"Hey, maybe I can give ya a few pointers, you know, show you the ropes." Herb suddenly thought.

"Oh, no thanks, Herb." Launchpad assured him, turning off the sprayer on the hose. "Being a guardian has made me light and nimble. I see things before they happen. I have the reflexes of a cat!"

He then turned and tripped on the hose, falling flat on his face.

"Oh yes, I know what you mean." Herb said, oblivious to Launchpad's fall. "Felt the same way a few times myself." he chuckled. "But anyway, what's the problem?"

"Well, I don't know." Launchpad admitted, picking himself up. "Gos has been acting odd lately. Odd as in, well, kind of depressed, I guess. I mean, she keeps to herself, hasn't been going to any public events, doesn't eat what I put in front of her half the time, she's been acting very tired a lot too, and very secretive. I feel like she knows something that I don't. Something I should know." he thought it all through once more in his head. "I'm wondering if she's upset about Drake. It was the anniversary of his disappearance a few days ago, but then..."

"Aw, poor Drake." Herb interrupted. "Haven't seen him for a good seven years now." he fell silent for a moment. "Funny, they've been saying in the papers that's how long Darkwing Duck's been missing."

"Uh-huh." Launchpad said, half-listening, rolling up the garden hose.

"Have you been following those stories about him? They're saying he's a fake now." Herb stated.

"Really?" Launchpad asked. He thought about it. "Nah, it can't be." he said dismissively.

"Yeah, I agree." Herb said, nodding. "I mean, how do those reporters know who he is or isn't? Maybe they say in the newspaper." he looked around his yard absentmindedly. "There was a little blurb about it in the paper, but I can't find ours anymore."

"That's funny, I can't find ours either." Launchpad remarked, straightening. "I guess the paperboy slacked off on his route again today."

"No, I saw it somewhere today. Maybe Binky knows where it is." Herb rubbed his chin in thought. "Well, seeya neighbor."

"Bye Herb." Launchpad answered, and they went their separate ways.

"...Okay, so we can't try to hide you, because SHUSH would track you down, unless, we hid you in Darkwing Tower. They don't know about it, right? So that could work, if we, no, maybe if we presented them with the evidence...oh, but you pretty much tried that already, didn't you?" Honker muttered something under his breath for a moment, before continuing pacing and thinking aloud, "Possibly, if we can somehow prove that it's really not you who's impersonating Darkwing..."

Gosalyn had long stopped listening, and sat on her bed, flipping through the newspaper Honker had brought. The article declaring Darkwing a fake was only the tip of the iceberg for her. There were several articles on the subject that discussed various other things about Darkwing, all of them his worse moments. If Gosalyn didn't know better, she'd say the papers was trying to make Darkwing look bad. Whatever the case, they were succeeding.

"...so then all we'd need is someone who's willing to get themselves arrested, which would prove to be problematic because, let's face it, who would want to willingly get arrested? But think about it, if we did manage to get someone, it could work, the only drawbacks would be, well..."

Gosalyn then turned the page and found an article she had missed, shoved to one corner of the page to make room for all of the Darkwing-bashing articles the publishers of the paper felt were more important. The headline simply read: "Megavolt Escapes! Police Suspect Supervillain had an Accomplice."

"...itching, swelling, all of that allergy stuff that I normally get. Which isn't too bad, seeing that I've lived with it for sixteen and a half years now. You'd think I'd have found a way to relieve myself of it in emergencies though, but no..."

Intrigued, Gosalyn read the article. It didn't say much though. All it did say was that Megavolt escaped through an underground drainage pipe, and that it was unanimously agreed by the police that Meagvolt must had someone working on the outside in order to escape. Who that could be, they didn't know, nor where the two could possibly be.

"...of course, that incident had it's merits, because I discovered how much Tank disliked garlic. No, not disliked, he hated the stuff. Literally, he wouldn't touch the stuff with a ten foot pole. Naturally, I used that to my advantage sticking it wherever I saw it fit, like under his bed, in his homework, in his lunches, I could go into full detail about it, but that would be ranting. Anyway..."

This explains a great deal, Gosalyn thought. In fact, it explains everything about that bank robbery. The electrical burns, the stunned guards, the welded safe door, everything. It had to have been Megavolt that robbed the bank. The bullet holes fit into this too. Even though Megavolt had no need for any kind of gun when he had his powers, it fit into the police's theory of him having an accomplice. Obviously, if he had one, the accomplice would need some alternate means of defense. In this case, a machine gun. But it didn't say anything about who the accomplice was, and there was no real article describing the bank robbery in the paper, thus providing no more clues towards that.

"...which would be like taking a stick of butter to a hot oven burner. And that brings us back to our problem with SHUSH. What do we know we can't do? Well, we can't hide you, we can't somehow convince them to not go after, and we can't get them believe our side of the story without more evidence...hey, Gos, did you look for clues to your Dad's disappearance in the Tower?"

"Huh?" Gosalyn asked, looking up from the paper. "Oh, yeah I did. Didn't find anything in the conventual places, though."

"Conventual places." Honker repeated, sitting down next to her. "Gos, what if your dad put a clue in a non-conventual place?"

"Then we're sunk." Gosalyn said, throwing aside the newspaper. "When dad got thinking outside the box, he really got thinking outside the box. The odds of me finding something outside the box are real slim."

"Maybe for you." Honker agreed. "But what if I could take a look around?"