Note: This is a somewhat revised version of a DWD fanfic I wrote earlier on Roaming Tigress's Darkwing Forum. This story is set three years after the end of the "Darkwing Duck" series and three-and-a-half years after the end of "Life, the Negaverse and Everything". Since virtually all of the characters even mentioned in this story are copyrighted either by Disney or by other fan-fic writers (and I VERY profusely apologize to those other DWD fan-fic writers who created almost all of the fan-fic characters in my story), so I'm naturally writing this story with absolutely NO profit motive (please, any fellow DWD fan-fic writers, DO NOT SUE! I'M BEGGING YOU!!! I'M BROKE!!!! YOU CAN'T SQUEEZE BLOOD FROM A TURNIP!!! I'M ABSOLUTELY BEGGING YOU NOT TO SUE!!!!)
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The story opened at the Fearsome Five's latest hideout, where Megavolt, Bushroot, Liquidator and Quackerjack were, as usual, fighting amongst themselves. Wanting very much to get down to business, Negaduck shouted "Okay, you idiots, BREAK IT UP!! I mean all you four do is BICKER!! If you jerks didn't have abilities that actually come in handy ever so often, I wouldn't even TOLERATE you losers. I hereby call this meeting of the Fearsome Five to, well, what PASSES FOR, order.", pounding a huge gavel on the meeting table as he finished.
"Sorry, boss. What is the order of business for this meeting?" Bushroot asked with a hang-dog look in his eye.
"The same order of business for EVERY Fearsome Five meeting, fertilizer face. The elimination of Darkwing Duck and his allies and the total plundering of Saint Canard." Negaduck answered in an even angrier voice than usual, absolutely chagrined that such a supposedly brilliant scientist would be stupid enough to ask such an obvious question.
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Before the meeting could go any further, however, the meeting table got blasted from above. The Fearsome Five looked up to see a cybernetic man-bull flying into the hideout pointing a powerful laser cannon at them. "Perhaps the reason you have yet to eliminate Darkwing Duck is because, up to this point, you've lacked TRUE leadership. I, Taurus Bulba, Saint Canard's greatest criminal mastermind can PROVIDE said leadership. While my OWN efforts to eliminate Darkwing Duck have, admittedly, been less than successful, it is merely because I have lacked the necessary help. However, I believe WE can help EACH OTHER. With YOUR abilities combined with MY criminal genius, we should be able to finally defeat Darkwing, even if he DOES actually swallow enough of his pride to get help." Bulba said as he came in for a landing.
"Look, Bulba, nobody interrupts a Fearsome Five meeting on MY watch and NOBODY bosses these knobs around but ME." Negaduck shouted as Bulba converted his left arm from a laser cannon to a powerful electromagnet that very quickly removed ALL of Negaduck's concealed weaponry. Though now weaponless, Negaduck still tried attacking the cybernetic man-bull with a flying kick, only for Bulba to expertly block Negaduck's kick with his RIGHT arm and fling Darkwing's villainous look-alike clear out of the building.
"I believe THAT makes me the new leader of the Fearsome Five and, as new leader, I propose we increase the team membership to create a team powerful enough to defeat even the Justice Ducks. To that end, I've already recruited the three newest members of the soon-to-be Insidious Eight, Splatter Phoniex, Camille the Chameleon and; thanks to a promise that this team would help her acquire Scrooge McDuck's Number One Dime; Magica DeSpell."
"MAGICA DESPELL?" Megavolt, Bushroot, Quackerjack and Liquidator all shouted out questioningly in unison.
"Yes, because we'll need somebody on this team capable of matching Morgana McCawber's power, just in case." Bulba said matter-of-factly as Splatter Phoniex used her special paint brush to create a giant squid/fire-breathing winged dragon/military tank-hybrid that started attacking Megavolt, Magica started zapping Liquidator with energy bolts capable of hurting even somebody made entirely of living water and Camille morphed into a nine-foot spider and went after Quackerjack and Bushroot.
"Okay, boss. No arguements from US. We'll be happy to have you as our new leader. LONG LIVE THE INSIDIOUS EIGHT!" Megavolt, Liquidator, Qauckerjack and Bushroot all nervously replied in unison.
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Negaduck woke up about ten blocks and five minutes from where and when Bulba flung him out of the Fearsome Five's hideout. After shaking off the residual headache and dusting himself off, Negaduck thought to himself "That does it. Bulba's going down BIG TIME for that. The trouble is, that blasted bionic bull is too powerful for me to try taking on alone. I've beaten his Negaverse counterpart almost four years ago, but THAT Bulba WASN'T a cyborg; just the Negaverse Saint Canard's top cop. Against that massive mass of musclebound metal, I'm going to need help. I CAN'T go to the Justice Ducks; sure they'd help me take Bulba down, but they would insist on arresting me immediately afterwards. What I need is a team with the ABILITIES of Darkwing's Justice Ducks teammates, but NOT the do-gooder mentalities. What I NEED are the Negaverse counterparts of Darkwing's Justice Ducks teammates. For THAT, however, I'm going to have return to the Negaverse. Seeing how Darkwing destroyed the portal to the Negaverse three-and-a-half years, that means I'm going to have find another way of returning the Negaverse. I can't go to Morgana, even disguised as Darkwing; She might scan my mind and spot the deception immediately. That rules out returning to the Negaverse via magical means, which means counting on advanced TECHNOLOGY to get me there. In that respect, that narrows me down to asking either F.O.W.L. or SHUSH for help. F.O.W.L. High Command aren't exactly my biggest fans and they'd be too scared of Bulba anyway. If I go to SHUSH for help, that will mean disguising myself as Darkwing and tricking them into helping me. Actually THAT sounds like the more fun option anyway. Since nobody in SHUSH has mind scan abilities and I certainly know Darkwing well enough to act like him just long enough to get SHUSH to cook up a way for me to return to the Negaverse, I'll go for it after I've spent some time making the proper preparations."
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The following week, at SHUSH Central, Negaduck, dressed up to look like Darkwing, approached the first SHUSH security point and calmly placed his hands and face on the scanners, which indentified him as Darkwing, since Negaduck and Darkwing Duck are physically identical right down to their fingerprints and retina (a fact that Negaduck was only TOO aware of). Through a week of VERY careful preparation, Negaduck was also able to memorize all of the security checkpoint passwords and quickly made his way to the office of J. Gander Hooter. Tossing in a blue smoke bomb and using his best Darkwing voice, Negaduck said "I AM THE TERROR THAT FLAPS IN THE NIGHT! I AM THE RIP IN THE PANTS OF CRIME! I AM ...... DARKWIIIIIING DUCK!", posing dramatically just as the smoke cleared.
The disguised Negaduck then said, in a voice containing convincingly feigned regret, "I am VERY sorry for bothering you, J. Gander, but I need SHUSH's help on a case. You see, I was pursuing a master criminal who escaped into a dimensional gateway that sealed up a split-second before I even had a chance to follow. The gateway generator, incidentally, self-destructed as soon as the fiend entered the gateway. Unfortunately, Morgana kind of had an unavoidable family emergency that prevented me from going to HER for help, but I must find a way of pursuing this felon before he can use the stolen technolgy he brought with him through the gateway to conquer that universe and possibly use THAT universe's technology to return her and ALSO conquer THIS universe. Thus, it falls to your fine organization's top scientists to find a way for me to pursue this cosmos-corrupting creep before it's too late for not ONE, but TWO universes." though it took all of Negaduck's willpower to keep from visibly choking on his own words.
"Indeed, that DOES sound like a dire emergency, Darkwing, but fear not. Doctor Bellum and her team will get right on it. We'll notify you as soon as we think we've accomplished our task" J. Gander said solemnly as he walked off and the disguised Negaduck silently laughed to himself.
"Negaverse, here I come." Negaduck thought with a grin that he flashed as soon as J. Gander was out of the room.
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Yet another week later, Negaduck, resuming his Darkwing disguise, entered SHUSH Central's main labs after carefully intercepting SHUSH's Flashquack message to the real Darkwing (who they THOUGHT was the one who J. Gander was talking to) to make sure Darkwing didn't find out about the deception until it was too late. Fortunately for the disguised Negaduck, Darkwing and the other Justice Ducks were over in Duckburg trying to stop the Insidious Eight from stealing Scrooge McDuck's "ol' Number One". "Well, Darkwing, it took us a week, but we've finally got the interdimensional portal completed and functioning." Doctor Sarah Bellum said with a confident smile.
With that statement, Negaduck walked over to the gateway generator and, being very careful as to keep his back to the SHUSH scientists, adjusted the gateway generator's frequency to match that of the Negaverse and then planted a small bomb on said generator set for five seconds so that he would have enough time to enter the portal, but the SHUSH scientists wouldn't have enough time to spot the bomb before it blew up their precious new interdimensional gateway generator. After that, the disguised villain leapt through the produced gateway, making it through JUST as the generator exploded. "Aw, nuts. I thought for sure we had the device perfected that time. Aww well, knowing Darkwing, his infamous luck will hold out and he will find somebody in the dimension he travelled to that can help him." Doctor Bellum said to herself.
After making it through the gateway, Negaduck dusted himself off and saw, to his delight, that he did it. After three-and-a-half years of being stranded in Darkwing's universe, he had FINALLY returned to HIS Saint Canard. Unfortunately, there was the little matter of the Friendly Four. It was possible that, during his long absence from his home universe, those do-gooders cleaned up the city enough that. instead of being supreme ruler of the Negaverse Saint Canard, Negaduck might be a wanted fugitive from justice. To avoid getting arrested until he could more thoroughly examine for himself how much his Saint Canard had changed in the three-and-a-half years he was gone, Negaduck decided observe the changes under the guise of the identity he had abandoned when he was eighteen; his birth name: Drake Mallard.
Spotting a black sweater and blood-red vest on the discount pile in front of a second-hand store, Negaduck discreetly stole the sweater and vest and then ducked into a nearby vacant alley where he could slip out of the copy of his do-gooder double's costume that he used to dupe SHUSH into helping him return to the Negaverse and emerge wearing the sweater and vest.
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Through careful observations and subtle inquiries, the Negaverse Drake was able to determine that, except for showing modest signs of repair (i.e. the buildings not looking quite as run-down as they used to, the water and electricity following a little bit more freely than they used to and a few of the trees looking fairly healthy), the city was pretty much they way he left it, which meant somebody else had taken over in Negaduck's absence and was actually doing a halfway decent job of keeping the city under submission.
In his efforts to find out who was running the show, the civilian-attired Negaduck came to the docks, where he witnessed a bar fight in progress. The difference between this and most other bar fights was that it was five tall and fairly muscular sailors against a large green dinosaur in a bright red suit reminiscent of the suits worn most of those 1930s B-movie gangsters. The dinosaur swatted all five of his opponents with his tail hard enough to send them flying into the back wall hard enough to go halfway through said wall. After that the dinosaur peeled all five of them out of the wall; three with one hand and two with the other; and proceeded to slam their heads together and finish throwing them through the wall. "That should teach you bums that, when you don't pay ol' Stegmutt his protection money, you end up paying in other ways. Capeesh?".
Observing the scene, Negaduck said "There's the first of my intended recruits. Indeed, somebody with his strength will be VERY useful under my guidance." with his usually evil grin.
At about that time, however, the evil duck saw Nega-Stegmutt get nailed by a large splash of water which stepped from the dinosaur and formed into a living being, which then blasted Nega-Stegmutt with a high-pressure water blast formed out of his right hand. After the Negaverse Liquidator started to focus on reviving the sailors Nega-Stegmutt was roughing, the Negaverse Megavolt then leapt in and started blasted the severely drenched dinosaur, the water serving to strengthen the impact of the super-charged rat's zaps. As the Negaverse Megavolt zapped his massive foe, he said "Sorry to do this, Stegmutt, but the Nice Nine have to ensure that you learn your lesson this time. We may have, unfortunately, gotten here a few seconds too late to stop you from roughing up those sailors, but we CAN, at least, teach you not to terrorize the innocent.".
As Negaduck slipped out of his civilian attire and back into his familiar costume, he cackled "Well, time for me to step in and trash some do-gooders.". With that, the arch-villain tossed in a bomb that unleashed a thick cloud of red smoke that blinded Nega-Megavolt long enough for him to leap in, nail the super-charged rat with a well-placed kick that sent him flying right into Nega-Liquidator. Using a well-aimed liquid nitrogen bomb, Negaduck then froze both Nega-Megavolt and Nega-Liquidator solid while they were shorting each other out. After that, the evil duck said to the just recovering sailors "Just a little something to show the Negaverse that Negaduck is back.".
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After Nega-Stegmutt came to, Negaduck offered "You know, Steggers, you've got a lot of potential, but you're wasting it shaking down the docks. Strength like yours could be very useful to me in a venture that could give you, shall we say, a lot more to play with; perhaps even to the tune of a good chunk of two entire worlds. Of course, part of it WILL involve going into the city.".
Nega-Stegmutt nervously said "No way, FORMER Lord Negaduck. I'm NOT stupid enough to go messing with the witch's turf. We kind have an arrangement; if I leave HER alone, she leaves ME alone and, personally, I'd RATHER not risk getting turned into pudding, OR WORSE. I mean, her powers and temper would scare ANYONE with half a brain.".
Negaduck thought to himself "Witch? Could it be?" before answering him own question "Of course it is. This fits into my intentions PERFECTLY; I was going to recruit her anyway.".
The evil duck grinned slyly at Nega-Stegmutt and said "Steggers. WE are going to go into the city and make "'the witch'" an offer she can't refuse." not being able to resist finishing like a certain fictional gangster who shall remain nameless.
Nega-Stegmutt repeated "No way. Like I already said, there is NO WAY I'm going to be dumb enough to go messing with the witch's territory.".
"Listen, you over-pumped poultroon, I'm going to negotiate with the witch, but I need to be able to focus ON THE NEGOTIATIONS. For THAT, however, I'm going to need somebody around to keep at least a few of those do-gooders busy, especially since there are nine of them if what Megavolt said was true. Just out of curiousity, though, how DID the Friendly Four expand into the Nice Nice?" Negaduck asked.
"Well, five new members joined the group soon after the last time you were in this universe. First, Splatter Phoniex and Camille the Chameleon joined about a month after your last appearance in this universe, which expanded the group into the Sweet Six. About a month after that, Taurus Bulba joined the group, which expanded it to the Sensational Seven. Finally, Moloculo McCawber and Magica DeSpell joined the group a little over three years ago, which expanded it into the Nice Nine. The nine of them together have done a pretty good job stalemating the witch, which is why the city still looks in somewhat better repair than it did the last time you were here." Nega-Stegmutt answered.
"I think we found our way of making sure she cooperates. If she can stalemate them on her own. Then I'd say she could actually BEAT them with our combined help." Negaduck said matter=of-factly.
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A little while later, at the hidden headquarters of the Nice Nine, the Negaversions of Gosalyn and Tank gently carried the frozen forms of Nega-Megavolt and Nega-Liquidator into the middle of the room. In a concerned voice, a half-mechanical man-bull dressed in a light blue police lieutenant's uniform asked "Who did this to them?".
"According to five just recovering victims of one of Stegmutt's attacks, the culprit was Negaduck, Mister Bulba sir." Nega-Tank answered in an understandably grim voice.
Nega-Bulba's mind's eye flashed back almost four years, to his efforts to stop Negaduck from stealing a super-weapon that would allow him to terrorize and plunder Saint Canard more than he already was as well as bring the villain to justice once and for all. Nega-Bulba was able to track the villainous duck to Saint Canard Towers, where the resulting battle between Nega-Bulba and Negaduck caused an explosion that blew the top five stories of the tower and severely injured BOTH combatants. Bulba however, got the far worse of it and had to be transformed into a powerful cyborg by a team of brilliant but anonymous scientists in order to stay alive. "Negaduck is back in Saint Canard?" Nega-Bulba asked grimly before adding solemnly "Well, that fiend's crimes against the innocent citzenry of this city will NOT go unpunished. He WILL be brought to justice. First, however, we need to free Megavolt and Liquidator from the trap Negaduck left them in.".
"Do you think they are going to be all right?" Nega-Gosalyn asked in an understandably worried tone.
"I honestly hope so, Gosalyn." Nega-Bulba said truthfully while looking at the sickeningly cute and sweet twelve-year-old.
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In the middle of the city, Negaduck and Nega-Stegmutt came across the Negaverse Bushroot, who was telepathically persuading a tree to gently lower a small frightened cat stuck in his branches. After the cat was safely returned to the relieved little girl and both the girl and the cat were gently gestured away, Nega-Bushroot saw Negaduck and Nega-Stegmutt coming his way. Launching a pollen cloud attack, Nega-Bushroot caused the two evil-doers enough of a sneezing fit to distract them while he caused two sets of extra-thick giant vines to sprout out from the ground and ensnare his enemies. However, Nega-Stegmutt's strength proved to be more than a match for the vines, which he easily snapped apart and threw at Nega-Bushroot.
After Nega-Stegmutt freed Negaduck, however, the duo came under attack from four robo-dragons who were attacking the two villains with both flame breath and wrist-rockets. While the evil pair was dodging these attacks, Negaduck spotted the Negaverse Splatter Phoniex on the roof of the ten-story building almost directly above them. While Negaduck dashed up the roof to confront their paint-wielding foe, Nega-Stegmutt grabbed one of the robo-dragons by the tail and swung it right into one of the other three, afterwhich he let go and both robo-dragons fell unconscious.
As Negaduck got to the roof and nailed Nega-Splatter with a flying kick, Nega-Stegmutt slammed the remaining two robo-dragons' heads together and slammed them down on top of the first two. "I KNEW that dinosaur's strength would come in handy." Negaduck thought to himself as he nostril-flipped Nega-Splatter off the ten-story roof right into the just-getting-up Nega-Bushroot.
"Now that THAT'S taken care off," Negaduck started as he swung down off the roof nailing both Nega-Splatter and Nega-Bushroot squarely in the jaw with his webbed feet as he reached the ground, "WE'VE got a sorceress to see." finishing with, again, his trademark evil smile.
To Be Continued
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The story opened at the Fearsome Five's latest hideout, where Megavolt, Bushroot, Liquidator and Quackerjack were, as usual, fighting amongst themselves. Wanting very much to get down to business, Negaduck shouted "Okay, you idiots, BREAK IT UP!! I mean all you four do is BICKER!! If you jerks didn't have abilities that actually come in handy ever so often, I wouldn't even TOLERATE you losers. I hereby call this meeting of the Fearsome Five to, well, what PASSES FOR, order.", pounding a huge gavel on the meeting table as he finished.
"Sorry, boss. What is the order of business for this meeting?" Bushroot asked with a hang-dog look in his eye.
"The same order of business for EVERY Fearsome Five meeting, fertilizer face. The elimination of Darkwing Duck and his allies and the total plundering of Saint Canard." Negaduck answered in an even angrier voice than usual, absolutely chagrined that such a supposedly brilliant scientist would be stupid enough to ask such an obvious question.
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Before the meeting could go any further, however, the meeting table got blasted from above. The Fearsome Five looked up to see a cybernetic man-bull flying into the hideout pointing a powerful laser cannon at them. "Perhaps the reason you have yet to eliminate Darkwing Duck is because, up to this point, you've lacked TRUE leadership. I, Taurus Bulba, Saint Canard's greatest criminal mastermind can PROVIDE said leadership. While my OWN efforts to eliminate Darkwing Duck have, admittedly, been less than successful, it is merely because I have lacked the necessary help. However, I believe WE can help EACH OTHER. With YOUR abilities combined with MY criminal genius, we should be able to finally defeat Darkwing, even if he DOES actually swallow enough of his pride to get help." Bulba said as he came in for a landing.
"Look, Bulba, nobody interrupts a Fearsome Five meeting on MY watch and NOBODY bosses these knobs around but ME." Negaduck shouted as Bulba converted his left arm from a laser cannon to a powerful electromagnet that very quickly removed ALL of Negaduck's concealed weaponry. Though now weaponless, Negaduck still tried attacking the cybernetic man-bull with a flying kick, only for Bulba to expertly block Negaduck's kick with his RIGHT arm and fling Darkwing's villainous look-alike clear out of the building.
"I believe THAT makes me the new leader of the Fearsome Five and, as new leader, I propose we increase the team membership to create a team powerful enough to defeat even the Justice Ducks. To that end, I've already recruited the three newest members of the soon-to-be Insidious Eight, Splatter Phoniex, Camille the Chameleon and; thanks to a promise that this team would help her acquire Scrooge McDuck's Number One Dime; Magica DeSpell."
"MAGICA DESPELL?" Megavolt, Bushroot, Quackerjack and Liquidator all shouted out questioningly in unison.
"Yes, because we'll need somebody on this team capable of matching Morgana McCawber's power, just in case." Bulba said matter-of-factly as Splatter Phoniex used her special paint brush to create a giant squid/fire-breathing winged dragon/military tank-hybrid that started attacking Megavolt, Magica started zapping Liquidator with energy bolts capable of hurting even somebody made entirely of living water and Camille morphed into a nine-foot spider and went after Quackerjack and Bushroot.
"Okay, boss. No arguements from US. We'll be happy to have you as our new leader. LONG LIVE THE INSIDIOUS EIGHT!" Megavolt, Liquidator, Qauckerjack and Bushroot all nervously replied in unison.
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Negaduck woke up about ten blocks and five minutes from where and when Bulba flung him out of the Fearsome Five's hideout. After shaking off the residual headache and dusting himself off, Negaduck thought to himself "That does it. Bulba's going down BIG TIME for that. The trouble is, that blasted bionic bull is too powerful for me to try taking on alone. I've beaten his Negaverse counterpart almost four years ago, but THAT Bulba WASN'T a cyborg; just the Negaverse Saint Canard's top cop. Against that massive mass of musclebound metal, I'm going to need help. I CAN'T go to the Justice Ducks; sure they'd help me take Bulba down, but they would insist on arresting me immediately afterwards. What I need is a team with the ABILITIES of Darkwing's Justice Ducks teammates, but NOT the do-gooder mentalities. What I NEED are the Negaverse counterparts of Darkwing's Justice Ducks teammates. For THAT, however, I'm going to have return to the Negaverse. Seeing how Darkwing destroyed the portal to the Negaverse three-and-a-half years, that means I'm going to have find another way of returning the Negaverse. I can't go to Morgana, even disguised as Darkwing; She might scan my mind and spot the deception immediately. That rules out returning to the Negaverse via magical means, which means counting on advanced TECHNOLOGY to get me there. In that respect, that narrows me down to asking either F.O.W.L. or SHUSH for help. F.O.W.L. High Command aren't exactly my biggest fans and they'd be too scared of Bulba anyway. If I go to SHUSH for help, that will mean disguising myself as Darkwing and tricking them into helping me. Actually THAT sounds like the more fun option anyway. Since nobody in SHUSH has mind scan abilities and I certainly know Darkwing well enough to act like him just long enough to get SHUSH to cook up a way for me to return to the Negaverse, I'll go for it after I've spent some time making the proper preparations."
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The following week, at SHUSH Central, Negaduck, dressed up to look like Darkwing, approached the first SHUSH security point and calmly placed his hands and face on the scanners, which indentified him as Darkwing, since Negaduck and Darkwing Duck are physically identical right down to their fingerprints and retina (a fact that Negaduck was only TOO aware of). Through a week of VERY careful preparation, Negaduck was also able to memorize all of the security checkpoint passwords and quickly made his way to the office of J. Gander Hooter. Tossing in a blue smoke bomb and using his best Darkwing voice, Negaduck said "I AM THE TERROR THAT FLAPS IN THE NIGHT! I AM THE RIP IN THE PANTS OF CRIME! I AM ...... DARKWIIIIIING DUCK!", posing dramatically just as the smoke cleared.
The disguised Negaduck then said, in a voice containing convincingly feigned regret, "I am VERY sorry for bothering you, J. Gander, but I need SHUSH's help on a case. You see, I was pursuing a master criminal who escaped into a dimensional gateway that sealed up a split-second before I even had a chance to follow. The gateway generator, incidentally, self-destructed as soon as the fiend entered the gateway. Unfortunately, Morgana kind of had an unavoidable family emergency that prevented me from going to HER for help, but I must find a way of pursuing this felon before he can use the stolen technolgy he brought with him through the gateway to conquer that universe and possibly use THAT universe's technology to return her and ALSO conquer THIS universe. Thus, it falls to your fine organization's top scientists to find a way for me to pursue this cosmos-corrupting creep before it's too late for not ONE, but TWO universes." though it took all of Negaduck's willpower to keep from visibly choking on his own words.
"Indeed, that DOES sound like a dire emergency, Darkwing, but fear not. Doctor Bellum and her team will get right on it. We'll notify you as soon as we think we've accomplished our task" J. Gander said solemnly as he walked off and the disguised Negaduck silently laughed to himself.
"Negaverse, here I come." Negaduck thought with a grin that he flashed as soon as J. Gander was out of the room.
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Yet another week later, Negaduck, resuming his Darkwing disguise, entered SHUSH Central's main labs after carefully intercepting SHUSH's Flashquack message to the real Darkwing (who they THOUGHT was the one who J. Gander was talking to) to make sure Darkwing didn't find out about the deception until it was too late. Fortunately for the disguised Negaduck, Darkwing and the other Justice Ducks were over in Duckburg trying to stop the Insidious Eight from stealing Scrooge McDuck's "ol' Number One". "Well, Darkwing, it took us a week, but we've finally got the interdimensional portal completed and functioning." Doctor Sarah Bellum said with a confident smile.
With that statement, Negaduck walked over to the gateway generator and, being very careful as to keep his back to the SHUSH scientists, adjusted the gateway generator's frequency to match that of the Negaverse and then planted a small bomb on said generator set for five seconds so that he would have enough time to enter the portal, but the SHUSH scientists wouldn't have enough time to spot the bomb before it blew up their precious new interdimensional gateway generator. After that, the disguised villain leapt through the produced gateway, making it through JUST as the generator exploded. "Aw, nuts. I thought for sure we had the device perfected that time. Aww well, knowing Darkwing, his infamous luck will hold out and he will find somebody in the dimension he travelled to that can help him." Doctor Bellum said to herself.
After making it through the gateway, Negaduck dusted himself off and saw, to his delight, that he did it. After three-and-a-half years of being stranded in Darkwing's universe, he had FINALLY returned to HIS Saint Canard. Unfortunately, there was the little matter of the Friendly Four. It was possible that, during his long absence from his home universe, those do-gooders cleaned up the city enough that. instead of being supreme ruler of the Negaverse Saint Canard, Negaduck might be a wanted fugitive from justice. To avoid getting arrested until he could more thoroughly examine for himself how much his Saint Canard had changed in the three-and-a-half years he was gone, Negaduck decided observe the changes under the guise of the identity he had abandoned when he was eighteen; his birth name: Drake Mallard.
Spotting a black sweater and blood-red vest on the discount pile in front of a second-hand store, Negaduck discreetly stole the sweater and vest and then ducked into a nearby vacant alley where he could slip out of the copy of his do-gooder double's costume that he used to dupe SHUSH into helping him return to the Negaverse and emerge wearing the sweater and vest.
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Through careful observations and subtle inquiries, the Negaverse Drake was able to determine that, except for showing modest signs of repair (i.e. the buildings not looking quite as run-down as they used to, the water and electricity following a little bit more freely than they used to and a few of the trees looking fairly healthy), the city was pretty much they way he left it, which meant somebody else had taken over in Negaduck's absence and was actually doing a halfway decent job of keeping the city under submission.
In his efforts to find out who was running the show, the civilian-attired Negaduck came to the docks, where he witnessed a bar fight in progress. The difference between this and most other bar fights was that it was five tall and fairly muscular sailors against a large green dinosaur in a bright red suit reminiscent of the suits worn most of those 1930s B-movie gangsters. The dinosaur swatted all five of his opponents with his tail hard enough to send them flying into the back wall hard enough to go halfway through said wall. After that the dinosaur peeled all five of them out of the wall; three with one hand and two with the other; and proceeded to slam their heads together and finish throwing them through the wall. "That should teach you bums that, when you don't pay ol' Stegmutt his protection money, you end up paying in other ways. Capeesh?".
Observing the scene, Negaduck said "There's the first of my intended recruits. Indeed, somebody with his strength will be VERY useful under my guidance." with his usually evil grin.
At about that time, however, the evil duck saw Nega-Stegmutt get nailed by a large splash of water which stepped from the dinosaur and formed into a living being, which then blasted Nega-Stegmutt with a high-pressure water blast formed out of his right hand. After the Negaverse Liquidator started to focus on reviving the sailors Nega-Stegmutt was roughing, the Negaverse Megavolt then leapt in and started blasted the severely drenched dinosaur, the water serving to strengthen the impact of the super-charged rat's zaps. As the Negaverse Megavolt zapped his massive foe, he said "Sorry to do this, Stegmutt, but the Nice Nine have to ensure that you learn your lesson this time. We may have, unfortunately, gotten here a few seconds too late to stop you from roughing up those sailors, but we CAN, at least, teach you not to terrorize the innocent.".
As Negaduck slipped out of his civilian attire and back into his familiar costume, he cackled "Well, time for me to step in and trash some do-gooders.". With that, the arch-villain tossed in a bomb that unleashed a thick cloud of red smoke that blinded Nega-Megavolt long enough for him to leap in, nail the super-charged rat with a well-placed kick that sent him flying right into Nega-Liquidator. Using a well-aimed liquid nitrogen bomb, Negaduck then froze both Nega-Megavolt and Nega-Liquidator solid while they were shorting each other out. After that, the evil duck said to the just recovering sailors "Just a little something to show the Negaverse that Negaduck is back.".
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After Nega-Stegmutt came to, Negaduck offered "You know, Steggers, you've got a lot of potential, but you're wasting it shaking down the docks. Strength like yours could be very useful to me in a venture that could give you, shall we say, a lot more to play with; perhaps even to the tune of a good chunk of two entire worlds. Of course, part of it WILL involve going into the city.".
Nega-Stegmutt nervously said "No way, FORMER Lord Negaduck. I'm NOT stupid enough to go messing with the witch's turf. We kind have an arrangement; if I leave HER alone, she leaves ME alone and, personally, I'd RATHER not risk getting turned into pudding, OR WORSE. I mean, her powers and temper would scare ANYONE with half a brain.".
Negaduck thought to himself "Witch? Could it be?" before answering him own question "Of course it is. This fits into my intentions PERFECTLY; I was going to recruit her anyway.".
The evil duck grinned slyly at Nega-Stegmutt and said "Steggers. WE are going to go into the city and make "'the witch'" an offer she can't refuse." not being able to resist finishing like a certain fictional gangster who shall remain nameless.
Nega-Stegmutt repeated "No way. Like I already said, there is NO WAY I'm going to be dumb enough to go messing with the witch's territory.".
"Listen, you over-pumped poultroon, I'm going to negotiate with the witch, but I need to be able to focus ON THE NEGOTIATIONS. For THAT, however, I'm going to need somebody around to keep at least a few of those do-gooders busy, especially since there are nine of them if what Megavolt said was true. Just out of curiousity, though, how DID the Friendly Four expand into the Nice Nice?" Negaduck asked.
"Well, five new members joined the group soon after the last time you were in this universe. First, Splatter Phoniex and Camille the Chameleon joined about a month after your last appearance in this universe, which expanded the group into the Sweet Six. About a month after that, Taurus Bulba joined the group, which expanded it to the Sensational Seven. Finally, Moloculo McCawber and Magica DeSpell joined the group a little over three years ago, which expanded it into the Nice Nine. The nine of them together have done a pretty good job stalemating the witch, which is why the city still looks in somewhat better repair than it did the last time you were here." Nega-Stegmutt answered.
"I think we found our way of making sure she cooperates. If she can stalemate them on her own. Then I'd say she could actually BEAT them with our combined help." Negaduck said matter=of-factly.
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A little while later, at the hidden headquarters of the Nice Nine, the Negaversions of Gosalyn and Tank gently carried the frozen forms of Nega-Megavolt and Nega-Liquidator into the middle of the room. In a concerned voice, a half-mechanical man-bull dressed in a light blue police lieutenant's uniform asked "Who did this to them?".
"According to five just recovering victims of one of Stegmutt's attacks, the culprit was Negaduck, Mister Bulba sir." Nega-Tank answered in an understandably grim voice.
Nega-Bulba's mind's eye flashed back almost four years, to his efforts to stop Negaduck from stealing a super-weapon that would allow him to terrorize and plunder Saint Canard more than he already was as well as bring the villain to justice once and for all. Nega-Bulba was able to track the villainous duck to Saint Canard Towers, where the resulting battle between Nega-Bulba and Negaduck caused an explosion that blew the top five stories of the tower and severely injured BOTH combatants. Bulba however, got the far worse of it and had to be transformed into a powerful cyborg by a team of brilliant but anonymous scientists in order to stay alive. "Negaduck is back in Saint Canard?" Nega-Bulba asked grimly before adding solemnly "Well, that fiend's crimes against the innocent citzenry of this city will NOT go unpunished. He WILL be brought to justice. First, however, we need to free Megavolt and Liquidator from the trap Negaduck left them in.".
"Do you think they are going to be all right?" Nega-Gosalyn asked in an understandably worried tone.
"I honestly hope so, Gosalyn." Nega-Bulba said truthfully while looking at the sickeningly cute and sweet twelve-year-old.
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In the middle of the city, Negaduck and Nega-Stegmutt came across the Negaverse Bushroot, who was telepathically persuading a tree to gently lower a small frightened cat stuck in his branches. After the cat was safely returned to the relieved little girl and both the girl and the cat were gently gestured away, Nega-Bushroot saw Negaduck and Nega-Stegmutt coming his way. Launching a pollen cloud attack, Nega-Bushroot caused the two evil-doers enough of a sneezing fit to distract them while he caused two sets of extra-thick giant vines to sprout out from the ground and ensnare his enemies. However, Nega-Stegmutt's strength proved to be more than a match for the vines, which he easily snapped apart and threw at Nega-Bushroot.
After Nega-Stegmutt freed Negaduck, however, the duo came under attack from four robo-dragons who were attacking the two villains with both flame breath and wrist-rockets. While the evil pair was dodging these attacks, Negaduck spotted the Negaverse Splatter Phoniex on the roof of the ten-story building almost directly above them. While Negaduck dashed up the roof to confront their paint-wielding foe, Nega-Stegmutt grabbed one of the robo-dragons by the tail and swung it right into one of the other three, afterwhich he let go and both robo-dragons fell unconscious.
As Negaduck got to the roof and nailed Nega-Splatter with a flying kick, Nega-Stegmutt slammed the remaining two robo-dragons' heads together and slammed them down on top of the first two. "I KNEW that dinosaur's strength would come in handy." Negaduck thought to himself as he nostril-flipped Nega-Splatter off the ten-story roof right into the just-getting-up Nega-Bushroot.
"Now that THAT'S taken care off," Negaduck started as he swung down off the roof nailing both Nega-Splatter and Nega-Bushroot squarely in the jaw with his webbed feet as he reached the ground, "WE'VE got a sorceress to see." finishing with, again, his trademark evil smile.
To Be Continued
