"No, no," Gosalyn said. "I get it. You want to exact revenge on your enemies. You're feeling down on yourselves, maybe even are questioning if you're good at being villains…"

"I was, kinda," Megavolt agreed.

Overall, he understood what she was doing. Stalling. Trying to give him time to break free of his bonds, but the Fearsome Four had worked on their knot tying and had managed to actually make them pretty tight. He was having more difficulty than he was willing to admit breaking out of them. Pretty soon, he'd have to bust out his buzz saw cufflinks then the Fearsome Four would really have to watch out.

"… So what do you do?" Gosalyn continued. "You think, 'We'll break into Darkwing's hideout!' So you wait and watch, follow Darkwing here after a caper or two just to make sure this is where his base of operations is."

"I had almost no sleep for two days." Bushroot nodded.

Darkwing wasn't sure if this was the best way to go about distracting them. Wouldn't trying to single each of them out be better? Point out the flaws in the plan, help figure out who was to blame, and make the Fearsome Four tun on one another? Gosalyn knew that, though. He had faith in her.

Besides, he was still trying to break free so who was he to talk?

"Then you climb up here today, the day you will exact your revenge. And you think, 'Oh, wait! We can't go up there without Quackerjack's new and improved teeth. We don't want to look like idiots.' So you bring them with you."

"I carried them up here. They were pretty heavy," Liquidator said.

Maybe Gosalyn would turn this around. She was nearly there as it was. He needed to work all the harder, try to sync up his time of breaking free when her distracting started to waver.

"And you sit up here, waiting until each of the heroes return, tying them up and you're feeling pretty good. You got them all in one spot, immobilized, and then bam! break out the teeth. I mean, what a great revenge story!"

He wasn't any closer in breaking out of his bonds. Darkwing glanced at Launchpad to see his sidekick hadn't made any progress either. Time for the buzz saw cufflinks.

"You're making fun of us," Quackerjack sneered.

Oh, no.

Darkwing paused, his fingers frozen on the ropes as he pensively watched Quackerjack. The others were ready to turn on him, but instead of getting frustrated with his lackeys for thinking he had done a poor job, Quackerjack was getting angry at Gosalyn.

Darkwing's fingers began moving along his ropes again, eagerly searching for the button to activate his cufflinks.

"You're a genius," Gosalyn said, rolling her eyes.

"Don't taunt him!" Darkwing wanted to screech. If there was one thing Quackerjack didn't like, it was to be made fun of. Darkwing continued to search for the button, hoping he would locate it in time.

"Only I get to decide when we have fun," Quackerjack said.

She didn't. She wouldn't. She knew better.

But.

Gosalyn laughed.

Darkwing was scrambling now. Why was the button so hard to find?

"Don't laugh at me," Quackerjack snarled, his hands balling into fists.

"Don't," Bushroot agreed.

"It's pretty dangerous," Megavolt added.

"Yes, it is!" Darkwing was on the verge of saying. But he would be free soon. And he could help Gosalyn out. He didn't want to look divided in front of the Fearsome Four. Better make it look like this was all part of the plan.

"Oh, what are you gonna do?" Gosalyn challenged. "Bring out more teeth?"

Almost there.

"I only carried up the two," Liquidator said.

Almost there!

"So, what, there's nothing else? How—"

Don't, Gosalyn!

"Don't say it."

"Don't do it."

"You'll regret it."

"—stupid!" Gosalyn finished.

Oh.

No.

Oh please no.

She hadn't. She couldn't have.

"That's it!" Quackerjack lunged toward Gosalyn, the sight igniting the fire deep within Darkwing's gut. No one messes with his girl. His fingers, now focused, found the button.

But Quackerjack was faster.

He grabbed ahold of Gosalyn and dragged her to the window.

Darkwing pressed the button and cut through his ropes.

Just as Quackerjack tossed Gosalyn out of the window.

"GOSALYN!" Darkwing cried, his voice louder and more desperate than Launchpad's, who had called out Gosalyn's name simultaneously.

No more Mr. Nice Duck.

Grabbing his severed ropes, Darkwing flung them aside. Not even bothering to take out any of the villains, Darkwing headed straight for the window Quackerjack had thrown Gosalyn out of.

His gas gun was out.

He loaded his grappling hook.

As he fell towards the water — towards Gosalyn — he would fire his gun. He would tie the rope around his waist and, hopefully, catch his daughter just before, or just as, she hit the water.

Darkwing leapt.

Quackerjack grabbed him.

"No!" Darkwing cried, scrambling against the villain.

"Don't worry, Darkwing," Quackerjack cooed in his ear. The villain wrestled the gun from Darkwing's grasp before shoving the hero to the floor, practically sitting on him to pin his arms and legs down.

"Let me go, you demented clown!"

"I'll let you go free. In about ten minutes." Quakerjack laughed.

"Launchpad, can you—" Darkwing glanced sideways at his sidekick, but Launchpad didn't have buzz saw cufflinks and had yet to release himself from his ropes. He shook his head at Darkwing, panic swirling in his gaze.

It couldn't end like this. It had been going so well. Gosalyn had been distracting them. It was a mistake. A little mistake. She had just laughed at Quackerjack. That wasn't worth her life. Nothing was.

Darkwing tried to free himself still, but Quackerjack's grip only tightened.

"I'm sure it'll be easy to find her," Quackerjack jeered. "She'll be exactly where we dropped her off. At the bottom of the bay."

Darkwing continued to struggle. Tried to tire Quackerjack out. Anything to release him sooner so he could find Gosalyn. He didn't need his gun. He didn't need a grappling hook. He didn't even need a plan.

He just needed to get to her as quickly as he could.

A/N: Oh, no! A cliffhanger! I promise I won't leave you in the lurch for long; I have the other chapter written, I just need to edit it. But my weekend is going to be pretty busy, so I probably won't be able to get around to posting until early next week. Keep checking; maybe I'll get the chance to post sooner! Thank you, as always, for reading! I hope you're still enjoying the adventure :) ~RS