by Roaming Tigress
Chapter Nine:
The Light at The End of The Tunnel
It was well past midnight when the effect of Steelbeak's sleeping pills began to wear off. Awakening with a jolt, he staggered around for a moment in disorientation before sitting back down. Gosalyn, who promised to keep watch on the snoozing scoundrel during her father's absence, was upstairs, watching television in her bedroom.
If there would be any opportunity for Steelbeak to slip out and escape, now would be the time. In spite of his grogginess, he was still manically bent on taking care of The Trigger-Happy Trio his own way. To hell with throwing them in jail; he wanted them dead. Even the chance of being put on death row for their murders did not phase him.
After stealing a few valuables, Steelbeak quietly snuck out the back door. He laughed quietly to himself, mocking the attempts that Darkwing made to assist him with his private affairs.
"Damn it . . . " He growled, ducking behind a car as the bright lights of a motorcycle came into view. Sure enough, it was the Ratcatcher being driven by a very proud but tired Darkwing Duck.
As he stepped into the house, the mallard sensed something just wasn't quite right. Steelbeak was gone, and Gosalyn was also nowhere to be found. Panic struck his heart. The first thing that came to mind was that he kidnaped her and fled. It was something that he had done in the past.
"I knew I shouldn't have left that cowardly criminal here!" Darkwing Duck said in despair, searching around for clues of her disappearance. "I knew I should've left the police go after Ammonia Pine for a change . . . "
The couch was still warm from were Steelbeak was sleeping and there were no signs of any struggle in the room. Darkwing knew he was a calculated criminal and often left very little traces of evidence behind in his crimes.
"GOSALYN?!"
"What?" Gosalyn moaned, lazily slipping out of bed and trudging her way down the stairs. "What's wrong, dad?"
Darkwing sighed with relief and hugged Gosalyn, tightly, nearly cutting off her circulation. "Thank heavens you're safe!"
"But . . . What's wrong?" Gosalyn asked, hugging her distraught dad and trying to gasp for breath at the same time.
"Is there something I should be concerned about?"
"I thought that scum Steelbeak took you and ran off while I was gone!" Hexplained, catching his breath. Clearning his throat, he returned to his usual confident, cocky self. "Of course I knew you'd fight back and probably defeat him, but it' a dad's duty to ensure his young are safe!"
"I kept watch over him as long as I could but then I started to drift off," Gosalyn replied truthfully. "I didn't know how long those sleeping pills lasted! He looked so peaceful lying there so I thought I'd use that opportunity to go to bed."
"Not to worry, Gos. I know why he's gone and I know were he's gone!" Darkwing answered confidently. Without a moment to loose, he was back out on the Ratcatcher with Gosalyn alongside him in the sidecar.
"Man oh man does dat guy ever sleep or does 'e 'ave a clone?" Steelbeak moaned, slipping back behind a building. When he was certain that Darkwing was out of sight, he resumed his hunt for Javert and his associates.
"Looking for someone?" Hissed a hefty cloaked figure, shoving a gun in the center of his back. "Or are ya runnin' from Darkwing Duck again?"
Steelbeak sharply elbowed his attacker in the face and took off, dodging bullets from the enraged thug. The sight of the Ratcatcher came into view again and he dashed inside an abandoned warehouse. Once again, the FOWL fellow escaped from the face of death - - and the law.
"Dat was close . . . "
A block away, stopped at a red light, Darkwing Duck impatiently drummed his fingers on the vehicle's handles. He had caught sight of Steelbeak running across the intersection. "Why is it whenever I'm after a crazed criminal the light always has to change the moment I see them?"
As soon as the light turned, Darkwing turned around the corner at full speed. If he could nab Steelbeak soon, maybe, just maybe there won't be a bloodshed. That is, if there hadn't been one already. Staying optimistic, he had heard the gunfire and dismissed it as a bored punk shooting cans for target practice.
In the warehouse, Steelbeak took to the basement and found it had been occupied recently. There was a desk and three chairs set around it and a filing cabinet. Perhaps the most curious item in the paper-strewn mess was a diagram of well-detailed chicken skull. It included ineligibly written notes in blue ink and an arrow pointing between the eye sockets. At the bottom of the sketch was the initials J.J. Adair.
Without further ado, Steelbeak sat back into one of the chairs and rummaged through the rest of the papers. He calmly concluded that this 'abandoned warehouse' was Javert's hideout and that he would be back soon - - and he would be waiting for him.
At the crack of dawn, Darkwing's search for the now-dangerous Steelbeak continued. The last report of his whereabouts was from a homeless white terrier who had spotted him run into an venerable automobile factory. Finally, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Someone knew were he was.
"Thank you kind sir!" Darkwing praised in a somewhat arrogant tone, placing a coin in the homeless fellow's begger cup.
"Oh, anytime!" The scruffy terrier replied, looking at the coin in astonishment. "Good luck catching ' him, and thanks for the money!"
"The warehouse district seems such an unlikely place for Steelbeak. I mean, wouldn't he complain about the rats?" Gosalyn asked, looking around at the derelict buildings for any sign of the suave
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, Gosalyn. If my memory serves me, that abandoned warehouse is Javert's hideout!"
For the third time this night, Steelbeak heard the sound of the Ratcatcher echo through the warehouse's crumbling walls. Over the years, he had learned to distinguish it's sound from other motorcycles.
It had been nearly nine hours since he had eaten anything edible and was growing desperate to eat even a rat. Yet, he was unwilling to step out of the warehouse and risk arrest or being lectured by Darkwing Duck. Especially not when he was getting close to winning his revenge on the duck who had nearly taken his life.
As he hunted around for something to eat, Steelbeak heard a soft, timid and recognizable voice call to him.
"Steelbeak? A-Are you there?"