Chapter 10

Burning Toast.

Lucy woke up and yawned, she hopped out of bed and headed into the lounge-room, the house was impossibly quiet.

She shrugged and fixed herself some toast.

The absence of both of her parents and their vehicles with no explanations was something that she was used to, on days like today she managed to get Gosalyn to wag school with her and the two would stay at home in the Negaverse and play video games together.

Lucy scowled, of course Gosalyn was the one that got to stay in the Negaverse, Gosalyn got everything her way!

She turned the toaster up and walked into the lounge-room. 'Just cos she's not actually his kid.' Lucy kicked the coffee table, her foot pained and she ignored it.

She sniffed the air as the smell of burning reached her nostrils, she went into the kitchen, not fussed in the slightest, the toaster was smoking, she sighed and shrugged, she was late for work anyway.

She walked out of the kitchen not caring about putting out the fire, she walked into her room.

Neither of her parents had noticed but she had gotten rid of her boxes of things, instead she'd gotten herself proper storage, she pulled out a suitcase from under her bed, this was much easier anyway, she looked the clothes in the suitcase, her uniform was buried under the layer of other clothes, she pulled it out and looked it over, if her father found out about this... how long could she keep it from him? She'd just taken out two gangsters and kidnapped another, surely someone would have noticed by now and mentioned it to the authorities... then the reporters.

She heard the postman drive by and shrugged, putting her uniform down on her bed she walked out of her room to get the post.

The smoke followed her out of the door, she didn't care about it as she opened the mailbox and pulled out the paper and the few truanting letters.

She turned on the spot ripping open the letters as she went, she threw them into the bin casually, and pulled the plastic cover off of the paper, she dropped that into the bin too.

A lorry drove by on the mountain road blaring it's horn loudly and Lucy zoned totally out as she unfolded the paper and looked through it, searching for any reference to what was her first day of work.

The Troublemaker pulled up and Negaduck killed the engine.

He hopped off of his bike and came over just as Lucy deemed the paper clear of any "incriminating" content.

Negaduck's gaze drifted up to the front door which was still letting out the smoke, he looked to Lucy. 'Toast?'

'Yeah.' She handed him the paper and turned on the spot. 'So much for my breakfast.'

'It's noon kid.'

'Not for me it isn't.' She said simply heading into the house to actually get her breakfast.

Negaduck followed her in.

Neither of them were phased by the sight of the toaster on fire on the bench. Lucy contemplated putting it out for a moment, but it was nice to watch, so it remained burning on the bench.

'Anything interesting kid?' Negaduck said referring to the newspaper.

'Nah, but there never really is.'

'What about when they talk about me?' He asked lazily unfolding the paper and glancing over the front page.

'Why would I think that's interesting?' She teased.

He looked to her and glared for a long moment. 'Watch yourself kid.'

She shrugged. 'I couldn't let that one pass by.'

He glared at her harder and his hands scrunched up the newspaper. 'I'm getting sick of this attitude of yours kid.' He stalked over to her. 'You're turning into your mother, stop it.'

'But, if I can't be you, and I can't be her... then who can I be, Dad?'

He glared at her. 'Neither of us!'

'Er... that leaves me with Launchpad.' She said.

He continued to glare at her, though somewhere inside he seemed to be trying to pull out an appropriate role model for her.

There was a very long pause and Lucy waited for him to come up with his argument.

'Alright kid.' He put the paper down on the table and stepped up to her. 'I have a compromise for you.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, you'll like this one, Daddy's going to meet you halfway.' He said as he put his arm around her neck and pulled her to him, he smiled and led her into the lounge-room.

Halfway? Lucy had to wonder about that, how could they possibly meet halfway?

'Alright kid, take a seat.' He said giving her a rough shove towards the couch.

She obliged to sit down on it and looked up at him with that look that he only ever got from her, the look of blind devotion from his own flesh and blood, his awe filled daughter, where other kids had superhero's she had him,

Negaduck, Lord of the Negaverse, Father, Leader of the Fearsome Five, Public Enemy Number... he scowled, three. He sat down on the coffee table in front of her and looked her in the eyes. 'Okay kid, you want to be me?'

Her look didn't change a bit. 'Your my Dad. I just...'

'Yeah, you want to follow me.' He couldn't keep the look of disgust from his face or the annoyance from his voice. 'Like a little lost sheep.' He glared at her. 'Listen kid, it's time you grew up.' Finally the blind devotion vanished. 'You want me to forever call you "Kid"?'

'I'm used to it.'

'Yeah... well get unused to it!' He growled. 'You wanna be me? You wanna follow in my footsteps and be a criminal? Well fine! I'm sick of having this argument with you! You're not listening to me!'

'Yes I...'

'Then why are we always having this argument?' He glared at her harder. 'Either you listen to me or Daddy's going to be ending this with his chainsaw.'

She glared at him. 'I'm not Gosalyn! I'm not little miss perfect! How could I be with you as my Dad, forever threatening me with your bloody chainsaw!'

He seethed, this was Nat he was dealing with, not his daughter... man he hated it when women got emotional! 'Why do you think I dragged you here! I knew you needed some drastic changes but I'm not changing my personality for anyone! Especially not some kid!'

'Yeah well who's fault is it I'm around anyway!' The door opened and in walked Nat. Who looked from Negaduck to Lucy. Lucy and Negaduck looked around to Nat, Lucy stood. 'I'm going to my room.' And off she went to her room.

Lucy picked up the phone and dialled Mith Co. 'Hey... send a car around, I wanna work.' She put it down on the receiver and got into her uniform, putting her trench-coat over top.

She cast a look to the door with the chair propped up against it, she opened the window and headed out.

Negaduck paced around the warehouse floor, it was not a good day for him, he was stuck doing nothing until the city had a chance to recover from his rampage, and he was utterly sick of his kids antics.

The whole "Daddy I wanna be like you" routine was old and made him feel sick.

The majority of the Fearsome were currently elsewhere doing their normal routines, minus Megavolt who was currently fixing the broken kettle so that Negaduck could have his coffee.

Megavolt was the only villain in the group who was able to fix the kettle when it broke, and right now he was busy assessing the current damage and muttering 'Next time I get to pick the kettle!'

The two villains continued on their own mental thought paths ignoring each other, Negaduck still fuming about the way his daughter had changed from being like him to being exactly her mother in such a short time.

Megavolt fixed the kettle and looked around, ready to announce to Negaduck that it was fixed in his usual self satisfied way, but Megavolt caught wind of some of Negaduck's mutterings, bizarre things that Negaduck would never say out loud to anyone.

But Negaduck was too upset to realise he'd been overheard, 'Exactly like her mother!' He muttered. 'Ungrateful little brat!'

Megavolt remained standing still and quiet, letting Negaduck continue fuming to himself as he paced around trying to get rid of the mood he was in.

'Never listens to a word I say!' Negaduck turned and started pacing around in the opposite direction. 'Like it's my fault!' He avoided the table again. 'One minute she wants to be me the next she's her mother! Will she make up her mind!'

Megavolt got sick of holding the kettle and cleared his throat. 'Er... Negaduck.'

'What!' Negaduck looked at him still furious, then he faltered realising that Megavolt wasn't Nat or Lucy.

Megavolt rose an eyebrow. 'Er... the kettle's fixed.' He said.

'Finally!' Negaduck stormed over and snatched it from him, he headed to the sink to fill it up.

Megavolt remained where he was, watching Negaduck and wondering what he'd been talking about. 'So...' He said awkwardly. 'Who's "the kid"?'

Negaduck straightened, dropping the kettle in the sink. 'What kid?'

'I don't know, the kid you were-'

Negaduck spun around and crossed to Megavolt so fast that Megavolt didn't have a chance to react. Negaduck grabbed Megavolt by the outlet on his chest and dragged him down to height, glaring at him with such intensity that Megavolt became quite nervous realising his mistake of asking.

'You have a death wish Megavolt.'

'No I don't.' Megavolt replied.

'I think you do Sparky.'

'Don't call me-'

'I didn't mention any kid!' Negaduck cut across him in the exact same tone. The use of the duplicate defensive and argumentative tone wasn't lost on Megavolt. 'Got that?' Megavolt nodded. 'Good.' Negaduck dropped Megavolt and turned around and headed straight back to the kettle.

Megavolt stumbled back and watched Negaduck warily for a long moment, a strange neutral respect for the Duck replacing the fear that had encompassed him a moment ago.

Megavolt straightened his plug and battery and Negaduck turned around to look at him, a long moment passed. 'Get the milk Megs.'

Megavolt obliged, any way to get back to the neutral point with Negaduck was worth the effort.

Negaduck waited impatiently for Megavolt to get back with the milk as the kettle boiled away behind him, he'd just blown all of the hard work he'd gone to to make sure no one in the criminal world knew about his daughter, well it was about time she faced the real situation anyway, maybe then she'd see things for the way they were.

'You're certainly starting late today, I thought that you were working the school shift.' Her driver said conversationally.

'I had a fight with my Dad, we're both annoyed right now.' Lucy admitted.

'So he's off committing crimes too?'

'No, he has to wait for the reality of the other night to sink in till he can do anything again, he's probably hanging out with the Fearsome Five.'

'Well, aren't you concerned he'll find out you've slipped out without him knowing and are in his vicinity?'

'No...' Lucy admitted. 'Now, hand me today's hit list.' She held out her hand and the paper was handed to her from the back seat of the van.

'The boss wants this one done quickly.'

Lucy stared at the list, today's hit list was much bigger than she had imagined, not in length but in deed, today she was going to be noticed, she checked her mask in the mirror, well this certainly was one way to grow up in her fathers eyes. She looked around at her ninja companions, she'd be very grown up now.

A/n: Apologies about the strange lack of continuities in this story, my dreams tend to be interactive, where I play with details in a concious sort of way, unfortunately I tend to jump back and forth through the story and get all confused and things change... Yes, I dream exactly as I write, the only difference is I am fully submerged into the world I'm making, instead of having it just in my head and me staring at a screen for hours, as a result though I don't get many dreams.