As soon as the Thunderquack landed in Darkwing Tower, Gosalyn bounded out, her travel bow and arrow clutched in her hands. She tossed them aside as soon as she cleared the plane; like those were going to be of any help getting Negaduck out of jail. They were designed for small storage and a one-time use. An emergency set that she'd prototyped with Gyro Gearloose, Scrooge McDuck's brainy inventor.

That was one good thing that had come out of their visit to Duckburg a few years ago: Gosalyn's weapons and suit development with Gyro. She'd have to tell him how the travel bow and arrow had worked. Maybe she could even get a few more sets. It would be helpful to know how it fired instead of just using it as a threat…

"Gosalyn Mallard, I forbid you from leaving Darkwing Tower for the night!" her father said, leaping out of the Thunderquack and following on her heels.

Gosalyn rolled her eyes as she climbed the spiral staircase. "You're overreacting!"

"Oh, is it overreacting to…" Darkwing growled low in this throat, frustrated that she was avoiding him. As she arrived on the second level, she heard her father's feet pounding up the stairs behind her. "Get back here, young lady!"

"'Young lady'. I didn't realize this was so serious," Gosalyn said, walking over to her corner of the Tower.

Ever since she has started fighting crime regularly with her father, he'd sectioned the second level off into three "bedrooms" for himself, Gosalyn, and Launchpad. Each bedroom consisted of a bed, a rack for their clothes, and whatever else they thought was necessary. Gosalyn's corner was the messiest because of course it was. She had squirreled away broken and battered furniture of varying types from the dumpsters of St. Canard, taping targets onto them to practice with on the slower days. Launchpad had a massive toolbox that was large enough to be a wardrobe, filled with all his hardware and necessary power tools to work on the Ratcatcher and Thunderquack. Darkwing stuck with a small bookshelf and his more traditional bedside table, where he kept his boy scout manual and a lamp.

He was big on research. And preferred using books and hard materials to the internet.

Their rooms were separated by folding screens, which they only threw up when they were changing their clothes. They didn't use them otherwise. Not even when they slept; they each crashed on their beds without much thought for privacy. Sometimes — okay most times — it was comforting to have a clear view of the others. Especially after a particularly dangerous case. But they never said that.

Gosalyn reached her room and grabbed her folding screen, spreading it out and reaching for her Quiverwing costume.

"Don't you use that tone with me," Darkwing called. He hovered on the other side of the screen, a misshapen shadow. "Of course this is serious…"

Gosalyn sighed, knowing she was asking for a fight.

But she didn't care.

She was frustrated and, okay okay, she was taking it out on her father. Mostly because he was there. But also because he was the one who had dragged her away from the jail cells at the police station. He had made the decision to leave Negaduck alone with Stellar.

Not that Gosalyn could have done much to help Negaduck with Stellar there. The older duck would have foiled all her better escape plans. He was a piece of work. If she never saw the older "agent" again, it would be too soon.

Gosalyn hadn't given much thought to her father's past, but the few times it had come up, like when they went to his his school reunion or when she saw him as a young boy not able to stand up to bullies, she had a pretty decent idea of how bleak his childhood had been. Seeing Darkwing's father — or the Negaverse version of him — had only painted an even more depressing portrait of what Darkwing and Negaduck's childhoods had been like.

Negaduck's just seemed much more grim.

Or so she hoped.

Because if someone had treated Darkwing that way, regardless if it was his father or mother or aunt or uncle or third cousin four times removed, she would not be responsible for her actions.

Gosalyn breathed deeply, not even wanting to think about it. Negaduck was bad enough. If her father really had been treated similarly…

"… And another thing," Darkwing continued, to which Gosalyn rolled her eyes as she fastened her belt. She hadn't been listening. Not that it mattered; she could guess what his lecture had consisted of. Grounding, it's too dangerous, you never listen to me, blah, blah, blah.

Opening her screen, Darkwing's train of thought was stopped when he saw her in her full regalia.

"You are not leaving!" he said, his brow drawn low. "Didn't you hear me ground you?"

"Like that's ever worked before," Gosalyn said, tightening her ponytail and making her way back to the staircase. She needed to grab her real quiver and bow from their weapons arsenal…

Darkwing stopped her progress, and her thoughts, by grabbing ahold of her arm. She spun to look at him.

"You're not going anywhere with Stellar still out there."

"J. Gander is probably already on his way to the jail now. Don't you have faith in S.H.U.S.H.?" Gosalyn didn't. Not at all. They hadn't done much on the crime fighting front except create the weapons that villains used against them. But, they paid Darkwing and kept him well-stocked on the latest hero tech. So. A necessary evil.

"Stellar's clever. I'm sure he's thought of some way to escape. And until he and Negaduck are locked away for good, I don't want you wandering around on your own…"

"I don't wander," Gosalyn interrupted, tugging her arm free from her father's grip. "Since when have you worried about me going out to fight crime with Negaduck roaming the streets?"

"Every day!"

Well, that was probably true. Her father was the type that was concerned about everything.

Seeing something in his eyes, something he wasn't voicing, Gosalyn swallowed her snarky comment. Fear and anger tightening her chest, she inhaled deeply before asking her next question.

"Was your dad like Stellar?"

"Like… what?" Darkwing seemed genuinely taken aback by the question, blinking rapidly.

"Your dad," Gosalyn said, modulating her tone to a gentle one. "Was he like the Negaverse Stellar we met?"

Darkwing studied Gosalyn in silence. "I mean," he said after a moment, shrugging. Gosalyn held her breath.

"Not as bad," Darkwing continued. "My dad would mostly drink until he passed out. He took it hard after Mom…" Eyes trailing off to some far-off point on the wall, Darkwing cleared his throat before saying, "I think Negaduck had it worse. His father seemed to have taken out everything on his son instead of burying it all away under alcohol."

"Oh, Dad," Gosalyn said, moving forward to take his hand. Darkwing's fingers curled around hers reflexively, but his eyes snapped back to her, round with surprise. As if he had forgotten that she was standing there.

"I'm sorry," she said, squeezing his hand in reassurance.

He nodded, his eyes trailing back over her shoulder.

"I… I wish you didn't have to go through that and that your childhood was as happy as mine was. But mostly I wish you'd look at me instead of whatever it is over my shoulder." Gosalyn turned to look behind her, searching for what her father had been looking at.

Flashes of light flickered on the walls. Similar to lightening, but far too frequent. And without any clouds in the sky. Or thunder to follow.

Darkwing squeezed Gosalyn's hand and she glanced back at him. He smiled at her briefly, silently thanking her for her wishes, but then the two of them were off and running towards a window, both peering down into St. Canard, eager to find what was causing the lights to flash.

The power plant. It was surging, it's lights flickering between blinding and dim.

"Megavolt," Darkwing breathed.

"And he brought some friends," Gosalyn said, pointing down to Audubon Bay where a yacht was sailing towards the shore. Liquidator's face could be made out in the waves of the Bay, pushing the boat along, Quackerjack and Bushroot at the helm. There were a few other villains on the deck, but no one Gosalyn could recognize from this distance.

This whole thing struck her as odd. There wasn't anything scheduled for tonight.

They could have come to break Negaduck free…

No.

If Gosalyn hadn't heard of his capture, there was no way his underlings had. Negaduck had disappeared for weeks at a time before; his cronies had all learned to just wait for his return.

So, then what…?

"Come to break out their fearless leader?" Darkwing asked. When Gosalyn glanced at him, he was looking at her with such a bitter expression, that Gosalyn snorted in response.

"They can't raid a sandwich shop during business hours. You think they're gonna be able to break into a police station?"

"You know them better than I do," Darkwing said petulantly.

Gosalyn sighed. She knew this was coming. All the silence and brooding had been escalating to a talk like this one. She just wished her father had picked a better time to have this conversation. Not that any time was a good time as far as Gosalyn was concerned, but seriously, any other day was better than right now.

"I'll go down and find out why they're here before I…"

"You'll go find out what they are doing?" Darkwing asked, one eyebrow hitching high above the other.

"Yes," Gosalyn breathed, irritated. "I've been spending time around them and they've seen me with Negaduck lately. I might be able to get them back to the Negaverse without a fight."

"You've been… They've seen you…" Darkwing shook his head. "My brain might explode with how much of what you just said is wrong."

"Then don't think about it," Gosalyn said, waving it away. "Just promise me you'll stay here. You swooping in with 'I am the Terror blah-blah-blah' would not help in getting them to leave peacefully."

"Blah-blah-blah?" Darkwing asked, both his eyebrows shooting up and disappearing under his fedora.

"I can't listen to all your intros," Gosalyn said. "They change every time!"

"That's the point! I tailor each of them to the situation!"

"Well, this situation doesn't need the Terror that Flaps in the Night, it needs Quiverwing to talk sense into them. Please promise me—"

"If you expect me to sit idly by—"

"Please, Dad, just trust me."

Darkwing shook his head. "Trust you. When you've been going behind my back and working with my archiest of arch nemeses?"

Gosalyn ran a hand over her face in exasperation. Okay, she totally deserved that. But it was still so not the time. "I might not have a great track record, but at least trust that I know what I'm doing. That I've known what I have been doing from the beginning."

Darkwing studied Gosalyn for a few moments in silence. She just maintained eye contact.

Please say yes.

Please say yes.

Please say yes.

He sighed heavily before nodding. "All right."

Gosalyn beamed, kissing Darkwing on his cheek on her way downstairs.

"But I'll be watching the whole time," Darkwing said, following her down just as he'd followed her up, "and if anything happens at all, I'm joining the fight whether you want me to or not."

"Right, because the villains and I will have some nice conversation over sandwiches and tea and then they'll leave." Gosalyn glanced back just to send him a raised eyebrow. "Face it, Dad, these guys are gonna try to intimidate me. Just cause things might look a little bad doesn't mean you need to swoop in…"

"It's not negotiable, Gos. Launchpad and I will be following you the whole time or else you don't get to go at all."

Gosalyn just scoffed as she walked over to the kitchen.

"I'm still not convinced that they aren't here to get Negaduck," Darkwing muttered, more to himself than to Gosalyn. "It can't be a coincidence that he's in jail and these four happen to show up…"

Gosalyn rolled her eyes. "Even if they were here for Negaduck, I wouldn't let them go anywhere near the St. Canard police station because I'm gonna bust him outta jail."

She heard her father stumble behind her as she mounted the ladder to the kitchen.

Launchpad and Christine were sitting at the table, the former wolfing down sandwiches and Christine sitting with a half-eaten sandwich, her fingers covered in mayonnaise.

Gosalyn grabbed a sandwich from the pile on the table and nodded her thanks to Launchpad, who grinned up at her around a bit of roast beef. Leave it to that man to make lunch; he was always led by his stomach.

Taking a bite of her sandwich, she poured milk into both of the empty glasses sitting on the table. When he'd calmed down, Darkwing would want some food before he went out to fight their visitors. And he always forgot the milk. Having it out in plain sight would actually get him to drink it.

"You are not—" Darkwing started to say, his voice fatigued as it traveled up to the kitchen.

"I wasn't asking!" Gosalyn called. Taking her glass in one hand and stuffing her sandwich in her beak with the other, she climbed back down the ladder one-handed. Reaching the ground, she grabbed ahold of her sandwich, took another bite and talked around her food. "I was letting you know as a courtesy. But I'm not going to leave any friend of mine with Stellar for a second longer than I have to."

"You sure he's just a friend?" Darkwing asked.

"First of all, ew," Gosalyn said, her face scrunching up in horror. "Second of all, you want me to say that he's a father figure? Because he is. Kind of. More like an uncle. A badly tempered uncle." She took another bite of her sandwich and walked to the weapons arsenal, eyes scanning the wall. "But I like him and he likes me. I think. Maybe. I don't really know. I'm still figuring it out. But that doesn't matter; I'm still busting him out. Right after I talk to those losers down there."

"You even sound like him," Darkwing said, shaking his head.

"Chill out," Gosalyn pacified, stuffing the rest of her sandwich in her beak before downing her milk. "He and I have spent time together; I'm gonna pick up some of his phrases." Setting the now empty glass down on a nearby table, she expertly chose her arrows, filling her quiver to capacity. Slinging it over her shoulder, she grabbed her bow and turned to her father.

"Do you have anything else to add to this lecture?" Gosalyn asked.

"Just…" Darkwing's eyes roved her face before he sighed. "Be careful. And I love you."

"Sentimentalist." Gosalyn smiled.

Darkwing reached out, pulling her into a hug. Gosalyn rested her head on her father's chest.

"I am sorry, Dad."

Darkwing hummed in response, resting his beak on her hair.

"For your childhood," Gosalyn elaborated. "And for lying to you about Negaduck. I'm just… I'm sorry."

"I know, kiddo. And even if I am disappointed, it's all right."

Gosalyn relaxed into his hold, snuggling into his chest further.

"That doesn't mean we don't get to talk about it all later," he warned.

She sighed as he pressed a small kiss into her hair. Detangling herself from his hold, she nodded at him before running off.

Opening the hatch in the floor usually used for the Ratcatcher, Gosalyn half-ran, half-slid down the Audubon Bay Bridge, hands out or balance as she made her way down. Her eyes followed the yacht, wondering why this little discussion had to take place on the water of all places.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she continued towards the Bay and hoped this wouldn't take long. She had a dangerous criminal to bust out of jail.