CHAPTER 3

"What is that?"

"What?"

"That!" Megavolt jabbed his finger in the general direction of the little red-haired girl.

The Liquidator stared for several seconds, then replied, "Oh, that. That's Gosalyn. Say hi, Gosalyn!"

Gosalyn just glared.

"Okay, now..." Megavolt put his hands on his hips. "...remind me why she's here?!"

"She followed Luminas."

"Oh, riiight, she followed Luminas! But why is she tied up and gagged on my floor in my lighthouse?!"

Shaking his head in exasperation, the watery villain told him, "Sparky, when someone finds your hideout, you don't let them go. You're really thick as a brick, aren't you?"

"Shutup! And don't call me Sparky!" Megavolt glanced at Gosalyn again (who was still glaring) and sighed. "What did you guys do to her?"

The Liquidator shrugged. "Nothing. Just what--Quackerjack, what are you doing?!"

Quackerjack jumped to his feet guiltily and said in a poor imitation of innocence, "Doing? Whatever do you mean?"

"Why are you poking the hostage?"

Crossing his eyes in concentration, the duck was silent for several seconds, but then exclaimed, "Oh! Um. I was seeing if she wanted to play."

Megavolt and the Liquidator exchanged a glance in a rare moment of empathy before the canine ordered, "Leave her alone." Then, to Megavolt, he remarked idly, "So Dorkwing is still alive."

The rodent, taken by surprise, nodded absently. "Yeah, as far as I--wha--hey! You're not supposed to know!"

Bushroot and Quackerjack looked at each other (the former offended because he'd been lied to, the latter only offended because he'd been left out) and questioned simultaneously, "He's not dead?"

"No," Megavolt and the Liquidator replied after a slight hesitation.

The four of them lapsed into a long silence, broken only by a steady dripping from the Liquidator's hand and a quiet crackling from Megavolt.

Quackerjack, being himself, quickly took to twirling the tassels of his hat around his finger, creating an annoying racket with the bells. When the other three criminals gave him murderous looks of varying degrees, he grinned inanely and said, "So what's the deal? If he's not dead, then where is he?" More silence answered him, and he added, "This one's for you, Megavolt."

Megavolt crossed his arms over his chest, looked at the floor, and mumbled something.

"What?" Quackerjack questioned loudly, cupping a hand around his ear. "I couldn't hear you, could you repeat that?"

"I said," Megavolt responded through gritted teeth, "I don't remember."

"You don't remember the deal or where Dipwing is?"

With a blank look, Megavolt said, "Huh?"

"Never mind," the duck said crossly. "It's impossible to talk to you. Where's Luminas? I'll ask her and make fun of her last name."

"Don't count on me telling you anything, then, QJ." Luminas leaned against the doorframe and watched them, seemingly waiting for a reaction. For his part, Megavolt was careful to keep his face perfectly neutral. he wasn't sure why he hadn't noticed it before, but the cat looked terrible. There were dark shadows under her eyes that he'd never seen and lines that she was too young to have, while her eyes were bloodshot and dark. Though she was trying to appear jaunty, her shoulders were sagging as if she was carrying dead weight on them.

After taking a good look at her, Quackerjack said in his usual tactful manner, "Man, Luminas, you were only gone five minutes; what'd you do to yourself?"

She rubbed at her eyes and clutched her hoody around her. "Nothing. Shutup, you're the last person who should be asking me that."

Bushroot, Megavolt, and the Liquidator shared a glance at this. It was unlike Luminas to stumble over a retort, even more so if she was talking to Quackerjack.

"What?" she said sharply to the three of them.

"You're..." Megavolt began, then stopped and shook his head.

"I'm...?" she prodded.

"Nothing, never mind, forget I even spoke."

"Oookay..."

Quackerjack blinked in puzzlement. "Are you guys okay or should I call the mental hospital?"

Shooting a scathing glance at him, Luminas began, "QJ..."

He sighed. "I know, I know, I'm the last person who should be asking that."

"Bingo."

Silence reigned once again, and Megavolt found himself meeting Luminas's gaze far more than he was comfortable with. Quackerjack, noticing this, took a deep breath and prepared to launch into a typical playground chant, but Bushroot elbowed him and suggested, "Maybe we should go..."

With a rather wolfish grin, the Liquidator agreed, "Yeah, you two can handle the hostage for awhile, I think..."

Quackerjack pouted for a minute, but then he stuck out his tongue and bounced down the stairs. Several seconds later, the door slammed, and Luminas and Megavolt were left alone (well, alone if you didn't count Gosalyn).

Megavolt scuffed his boot against the floor and flicked his eyes towards the cat. "Um...are you...er...you know...sure you're okay?"

"Why do you care so much?"

He recoiled slightly at the unexpected bite in her tone, then replied hesitantly, "Um...because...you're my friend."

Luminas looked surprised. "Oh."

"What, you thought you weren't?"

"Well, I..." She gave him a flustered glance and Megavolt could have sworn he saw her blush faintly. "It's just...it's nice to hear you say it, is all." Pausing to clear her throat, she added, "And I'm fine, I already told you that."

"You're not fine," he insisted. "I've never seen you like this before."

She bristled. "Like what?"

"Like you just spent an all-nighter in maximum security for the first time ever with a girl named Butch." He gave her a piercing look. "Y'know, if I'd known you'd practically kill yourself breaking us out of there, I wouldn't have let you do it."

Luminas gave a short laugh. "Oh, right, Sparky. And how would you have gotten out? I saved your butts majorly, and I'm still here, so what's the problem? I see none, do you?"

Scowling, Megavolt grumbled, "Don't have to get all defensive. Geez."

"Well, I don't want you worrying about me!" she exploded. "I don't need you worrying about me! So--"

"So if I knew what was good for me, I wouldn't?" the rodent guessed. Luminas's eyes flashed with an odd emotion and she opened her mouth to retort, but Megavolt cut her off with, "Look, it doesn't work that way, okay? You're my friend. I care about you. I don't want you to die. Is that such a hard concept?" He sighed in exasperation. "You've got problems, Cinder. I guess something happened to you, but you don't want to tell me. So don't you think it's a little confusing when you suddenly freak out and get mad at me? Why don't you just tell someone?"

Luminas made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a sniffle, but she commented in a forgiving tone, "You're no good at heart-to-hearts, Megs."

"So sue me. I got the point across, didn't I?"

"Yeah." There was a comfortable quiet, and Megavolt, frighteningly enough, found himself thinking about Luminas. Or was it Cinder? Not that it was unusual for him to think about her--after all, she was basically a constant presence in his life. The problem was, she was just so...so... Maybe that was the problem. He didn't know what she was, besides different. She was totally ambiguous and utterly mystifying. She drew him close, then pushed him away, and worse, she didn't seem to realize she was doing it. Megavolt supposed he'd wormed his way remarkably deep into her affections, considering her temper matched her superpower in intensity. Too bad he couldn't tell what she wanted out of their relationship. Hopefully it wasn't what Quackerjack was convinced of. If there was one thing Megavolt couldn't stand, it was romance. Bad enough that both Bushroot and Quackerjack believed in all that fate and love-at-first-sight stuff, but when they started to shove it down his throat... And with Luminas? No. That was very, very wrong, and it would never happen, and neither party wanted it to happen, so there was no problem.

Megavolt shook himself out of his reverie and questioned, "So are you going to tell me?"

Luminas looked as if she'd been thinking as well. "Huh? Tell you what?"

"About the horrible thing that happened to you."

Sticking her nose up in the air, she replied in a haughty tone, "Nothing happened to me."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

He poked her shoulder. "Then how come you didn't tell me how you really got your superpower? Huh?"

She jerked away and glared at him. "I did. It's not my fault you can't remember."

Shaking his head obstinately, Megavolt maintained, "You fed me some story. Some totally impersonal story. Y'know, I'm not as stupid as Negaduck always thought. You rattled off your little tale of woe like you practiced it every day of your life. Now, most villains don't tell it that way. In fact, most villains don't tell it at all. So either you are completely desensitized, or you're lying. If you ask me, it's the second one."

Luminas stared at him, her blue flickering with a mixture of anger and uncertainty. For a minute or two, neither of them did a thing, but then, finally, she said in a quiet, intense voice, "What I told you is true enough, and I told you to keep you off my back about it. If most villains don't talk about it, then why should I? It's not exactly a pleasant memory. So just stop asking."

Megavolt studied her. "Hey, you didn't blow up." At her irritated expression, he winced and added, "Bad choice of words. Okay, I get the point, you don't wanna talk about it. I guess I can understand that. But...'true enough'? What, did you embellish, or--"

"I don't want to talk about it!" she yelled.

"Right, right, sorry. You can't blame me for being curious though, can you?"

Luminas scowled. "Curiosity killed the...er...whatever you are."

"You're giving me death threats?!" Megavolt exclaimed.

"No!" she told him in an exasperated tone, though she couldn't keep a slight smile off her face. "It's just an...oh, never mind."

Megavolt gave her a wary look, then glanced over at the only table in the room. Spotting an envelope sitting there, he snatched it up and asked, "What's this?"

"How should I know?" Luminas questioned. "Maybe if you were to open it..."

The rodent did so, and his eyes bugged out at the contents. "Sweet Edison..." he said in a strangled voice.

"What?" Megavolt handed her the piece of paper and sunk to the floor while Luminas read over it. "Umm..." she began, "it's an invitation." When Megavolt nodded weakly, she added, "To the...Villains Charity Ball...whatever that is--uh, Megs? Should I call an ambulance?"

He jumped to his feet. "Don't you understand what this is?!"

"Apparently not."

"This is an invitation to the Villains Charity Ball!"

"Yes, I got that. What's the big deal?"

Smacking his forehead, Megavolt turned away from her and muttered under his breath for several seconds before facing her again and informing her, "We have never ever in the history of St. Canard been invited to this!"

"Why?"

"Negaduck."

"But...how would they know that Negaduck's gone?"

Shrugging, Megavolt theorized, "Probably got some FOWL agents working for him. This whole party's Tuskernini's thing. He's terrified of the Boss."

Luminas seemed to have tuned out most of this comment--her eyes had a faraway look and she was smiling slightly. After a moment of this, Megavolt waved his hand in front of her face, and she snapped out of her trance. When he gave her a questioning stare, she shrugged and told him, "I wanted to work for FOWL when I was in high school."

"You did?"

"Yeah, I wanted to be a spy."

"Oh." Megavolt blinked. "I didn't know that. Anyway...umm...you read the invitation...you're invited too...gonna go?"

"I guess. Are you?"

"If everyone else does."

"You're not...bringing anyone, are you?"

"Are you?"

"No."

"Me either."

"Well..." Luminas thought for a minute. "I'll go with you for sure."

"What?! You mean like a date?!" he asked incredulously.

"Nonono!" she assured him quickly. "I mean we'll show up in each others company. Not a date, I mean...no. No. Never. Don't worry about that."

"Good," Megavolt sighed.

Suddenly, Luminas snickered, and when Megavolt shot her a puzzled glance, she laughed, "Just picturing you in a tux!"

Megavolt grimaced. "Not just me...Quacky and Veggie, too. Geez, he's gonna ask that heroine to go with him." He cracked his knuckles and added ominously, "I've got a score to settle with her--"

"Wait." Luminas held up a hand, and the other villain stopped with a surprised blink. "You don't know any more about her than I do--"

"Wanna bet?" he interrupted. "How much time have you spent with Quackerjack lately?"

"--but she's young," the cat continued, only acknowledging his comment with a glare. "She's young and Quackerjack obviously cares about her, so let's not gruesomely murder her, okay?"

"Planning on giving this speech to Veggie and Licky?"

"If I have to," she replied sourly. "Show a little compassion, okay? I know you're capable of it."

"Fine," he sighed. "I won't barbecue her if you won't."

"Deal."

The two of them clasped hands to seal the rather sarcastic pact, then parted--Megavolt to his lab, Luminas to her home.

~

The moment the two supervillains left the room, Gosalyn exhaled loudly. She'd hardly dared to breathe during their conversation in case they remembered her presence, and it was a good thing they hadn't. The things she'd just found out...oh boy, she had enough to ruin the Sinister Six. It was just a tiny problem that she was tied and gagged with no visible escape and no real plan.

She wasn't quite sure what had made her follow her babysitter the previous night. Well, that wasn't true--she'd followed her because "nice" Miss Litress had been within moments of blasting her into oblivion. And all because of one teensy weensy innocent remark about her being part of the Sinister Six. Gosalyn hadn't meant it literally. After all, no one knew what Luminas really looked like, so...it was only natural for her to be suspicious of someone new to St. Canard. Constant vigilance, she'd heard somewhere. And really, was it so terrible to accuse someone of being an extremely dangerous criminal? Especially if that someone, say "Cinder Litress" (if that was even her real name), turned out to be Luminas?

So Gosalyn had watched her go home, then leave again not ten minutes later. The only logical thing to do was to trail her and see where she was going while in such a fury. And it wasn't surprising when Cinder, or should she say Luminas, proceeded directly to the Audubon Bay lighthouse.

Alright, so maybe it had been a bad idea to go in. But the Sinister Six had just left, and from the sound of thins, Gosalyn had figured they wouldn't be back for awhile. Unfortunately, she'd gotten a little preoccupied, and when Luminas and the Liquidator returned, she wasn't able to get out, especially since the latter stalked around the room for the three hours that "Cinder" slept. And then they'd found her, and she was really stuck there now. If only she could get some message to her dad...

Gosalyn grimaced. Poor Dad. He was probably worried sick thinking she'd gone downtown or something. Either that or the was angry. Argh, why did he have to give up crimefighting?! Darkwing Duck already would have found her by now--in fact, she wouldn't even be here if DW was still around--but no, he was just Drake Mallard now. And with the information she'd just garnered... If she could just get a peek at that invitation--everything else she knew was basically useless without the date of this ball--then she was sure she'd be able to get out somehow.

Taking a deep breath, Gosalyn struggled to her feet and stood for a moment, regaining her balance, before hopping over to where the envelope sat on the table. Amazingly, she made it without falling over or making much noise, but when she tried to stop and stand still, she lost her equilibrium and toppled over, hitting the table and knocking that over as well.

Gosalyn landed flat on her face and screwed her eyes shut, waiting for the lab door to bang open and Megavolt to come storming out.

It didn't come, however. Instead, something settled against her bill, and she opened her eyes to see the invitation that she so coveted. And there, glaring up at her, the date: September 8th.

The girl smiled as best she could with someone's old sock stuffed in her mouth. Jackpot.

~