Darkwing nodded and said, "Yes, you CAN count on my aid. After all, when it comes to preventing master criminals from harming innocents, well, that's part and parcel with the job," in a firm tone.
"Glad to hear it, Darkwing," Nega-Bulba said as he rose.
"Now, youse two will need ta be familiarized wid da membas of Hoota's gang." Another somewhat-familiar-sounding voice said.
Darkwing and Morgana turned around to see a tall, well-muscled and metal-beaked rooster in a dark green tuxedo with matching dress pants and well-polished white shoes, who pressed a button bringing forth a large screen that started producing images.
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Elsewhere in the Negaverse, Nega-Bellum readied a ray device. "Don't worry. I believe I improved upon the designs of the ray device that turned you into a dinosaur in the first place."
The duck-turned-dinosaur-turned-back-to-duck, lying on a sturdy table with strong metal clamps nodded at this memory. He had once been a lowly street thug posing as a laboratory janitor when he found out about Doctor Fossil "retroevolver ray". The thug, under cover of darkness, tested the ray on himself and was transformed into a super-strong dinosaur. Liking the strength of his new form, the thug-turned-dinosaur murdered Doctor Fossil and destroyed the ray so that it couldn't be used to turn him back. However, Doctor Bellum WAS a scientific genius, so it didn't surprise him that she would be able to find out how the original device was made and then improve upon it.
"Now, just hold still and let me restore your original form, Stegmutt. On the other hand, I COULD take advantage of the fact you don't have the strength to break those restraints and have my way with you before I restored your dino-form."
Nega-Stegmutt gulped with a combination of nervousness and desire. On one hand, Nega-Bellum WAS, from a physical standpoint, a reasonably attractive woman just as infamous for her amorous prowess as her scientific skills. On the other hand, Nega-Gryzlikoff WAS the insanely jealous type and was always quick to point out that Nega-Bellum was "his girl". Even those that were technically more powerful than he was got spooked by his jealousy because that jealousy tended to be mixed with a deviousness that implied that he made a point of figuring out his potential rivals' weaknesses.
"Just kidding, Stegmutt. I wouldn't want to get you in that kind of trouble with Gryzlikoff." Nega-Bellum said, grinning sheepishly at her own poor-taste joke as she powered up the ray. Nega-Stegmutt felt the ray's energy coursing through his body and when he opened his eyes, he was ten feet tall, weighed in at three tons of solid muscle and had large green wings on his back. When he started to speak, he let out a blast of powerful flame.
"Looks like I made TOO MUCH of an improvement on the original "'retroevolver ray'". Well, this is going to take some getting used to, Stegmutt, but that form looks like it could come in even handier than your dinosaur form once you get used to the flight and flame breath. Just to make sure you KEEP the form this time, I've developed this special energy absorption collar. Not only will it prevent any energy, even that derived from sorcery, from harming you in any way OR changing you back into a duck, this collar will also cause those energy attacks to make you stronger. The one stipulation is that, if you harm ANY member of this gang, that collar will revert you to your duck form " Nega-Bellum replied as she put the energy-absorption collar on the duck-turned-dinosaur-turned-duck-turned-dragon.
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Still, elsewhere in the Negaverse, Nega-Morgana commented "It's been two years since Negaduck's last appearance in THIS universe and I've spent most of that time preventing either J. Gander and his gang OR the combined efforts of F.O.W.L., Bulba and the Friendly Four from truly gaining the upper hand in their duel. Sort of acting as the "'sorcerous spoiler'" if you will. After all the times Negaduck and I have worked as a team, it's the least I can do out of respect for our partnership." Nega-Morgana said to Quackerjack.
"I presume you mean "'partnership'" in more ways than one." Quackerjack replied, not being able to help his eyes taking in the sight of this sorcerous she-duck, garbed in a form-fitting black dress that was just the right mixture between stylish and revealing to take full advantage of her figure. That, combined with her raven hair being done up in a Veronica Lake style, made this sorceress look very much like an evil, black-haired duck version of Jessica Rabbit.
"Indeed, I do," Nega-Morgana said with a nostalgic sigh and smile and an almost mesmerizing gleam in her emerald eyes before asking, "Now shall we get going?"
*********************************************************
Still, elsewhere in the Negaverse, the large, redheaded male duck with the machine gun had said gun pointed at Megavolt. "Now, give me one good reason that I shouldn't blast more holes into you than two tons of Swiss cheese."
"Negaduck sent me," Megavolt said nervously as he presented Nega-Launchpad with the address Negaduck gave him.
"You mean, after two long years, ol' Negaduck's back?" Nega-Launchpad asked happily as he looked over the address, instantly recognizing the handwriting.
"Well, yes," Megavolt answered.
"Okay, just let me get my weapons loaded up and my vehicle ready and we'll be ready to go, Sparky." Nega-Launchpad stated.
"Ohhhh. Don't call me ....." Megavolt started before he found himself once more with Nega-Launchpad's machine gun pointed right at him and decided not to press his luck.
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Meanwhile, in the Normalverse, Lafayette used his freeze blasts to ice up the walls, floor and ceiling of the entire corridor that he and Magica were facing, making sure the ice was so thick that he and Magica would have JUST enough room to get through the corridor. "Curse me kilts. The walls, floor and ceiling are too iced up for any of that corridor's traps to work." Scrooge said to himself in quiet frustration
"Should have thought of zis in zee first place, oui, Mademoiselle DeSpell?" Lafayette asked with a smile as he and Magica literally crawled their way through the ice.
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Meanwhile, back in the Posiverse, Bushroot and Liquidator looked bored hiding in that thick foresty area. "Want something to pass the time? Wondering what to do in a strange new world? Want to know how to make a little extra money? Well, there's no better way to find out than with discreet research on our surroundings." Liquidator said.
***********************
Meanwhile, back in the Negaverse, Negaduck, in his rarely used civilian attire, came to the Anatidaeopolis home of Nega-Ruddy and Nega-Anatina and knocked on the door.
"DRAKE?! How did you finally manage to get back to our universe?" Nega-Ruddy asked in pleasant surprise as he saw who was at the door
.
"Well, to keep it as brief as possible, I was in yet another battle with my do-gooder double. I had the help of my four usual idiot lackies as well as two allies who were skilled in the art of sorcery. The trouble was, Dipwing ALSO had back up. Well, the two mystics who were working with me and the geek squad combined their energies for an attack, but the sorceress who was helping Darkwing blocked the attack. The resulting combination of energy created two vortexes, one of which brought me, two of my lackies, Darkwing and witchie-poo to THIS universe and another one that sucked away the rest of Darkwing's back-up and the rest of my geek squad. Anyway, those two members of my geek squad and I split up to gather help for taking back Saint Canard. I came to you and the others went to gather the other two of my potential allies. So you and mumsie in?" Negaduck answered and asked.
"You're darn right we're in, son. Let it not be said that the Mallards were ones to back away from a good challenge." Nega-Ruddy answered as Negaduck got into his familiar attire.
As the trio was about to leave, however, the front door (or rather, the front WALL) got blasted to atoms by two rockets. "So, Neggie-boy, long time no see. I've waited more than two years for another shot at you." Destructo-Duck commented as his torso torpedo launchers closed up.
(The Negaverse)
Destructo-Duck's gaze fell on Negaduck's two allies. He whistled at Nega-Anatina. "I always did have an eye for older women!"
Nega-Anatina banged the armored duck with a crowbar. "Don't make me sic my husband on you!"
"I'll sic myself on him, Annie," her husband smirked as he drew a high-powered rifle from behind his back. (Anyone still wondering where Negaduck picked up the habit?)
"I like playing rough," retorted Destructo-Duck, as machine guns sprung out from his shoulders and began to fire.
Nega-Ruddy fired several shots from his rifle, which bounced harmlessly off the armored duck, distracting him long enough for Negaduck to land a web-kick to the beak. The fallen duck suddenly felt something pull him back.
Nega-Anatina laughed. "Electromagnet."
The threesome slipped into a nearby car and sped off.
Destructo-Duck struggled. "I should see Dr. Bellum about getting my armor magnet-proofed."
(The Normalverse)
Magica crawled through the ice. "We're almost to the vault, dah-link."
Lafayette collapsed. "Freezing zose walls drained my energy. I need blood."
Magica helped him up. "We'll just have to come back. Scrooge is way too cheap to have this place heated, so that ice won't melt. And it's too thick to drill through."
(The Negaverse)
After Destructo-Duck finally got his beak worked over to the teleportation device given to him by Nega-Bellum, he was face to face with Nega-Hooter and the rest of the gang. Just as he was about to attack the dragon he saw in the gang, he noticed the look of familiarity in the dragon's eyes. "Steggers?! Love the new look. A lot more imposing. Let me guess, Doctor Bellum's handiwork." the armored duck asked, to which Nega-Stegmutt nodded with an evil grin.
"Indeed, Destructo-Duck. He was converted back to his original duck form briefly, but I used an improved version of the same ray that turned him into a dinosaur in the first place to switch him back to his dinosaur form. As you can see, however, I improved the ray more than I intended to. Speaking of lab work, we'd better get to work magnet-proofing your armor," Nega-Bellum commented.
"Well, Negaduck succeeded in gathering all of his allies and I'm disappointed in all of your failures to stop our rivals. Now we will have a bonafide gang-war on our hands, but we can't let that stop us." Nega-Hooter said in a displeased but still determined voice.
"Well, Mister Hooter, sir, maybe we could lure our rivals out into the open with a false tip on a super-caper Negaduck and his allies won't be able to resist." Nega-Gryzlikoff suggested.
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"Hmmm. I've got to admit, this is one of the best meals I've had in a long time, son." Nega-Ruddy said as he, Nega-Anatina, Negaduck and all their allies sat down to some of Nega-Launchpad's shiskabob flambe`.
"Well, our world's Launchpad DOES cook the best shiskabob flambe` in EITHER Saint Canard. That, along with his absolute loyalty to me, his tastes in weapons AND his eye for details when it comes to machines, all comprise the primary reasons I've kept him around as long as I have." Negaduck admitted as he took another bite of his favorite meal (why not? the sight of seeing so many things skewered and set ablaze WOULD appeal to Negs).
"Well, now that we have full stomachs, we can focus on thought," Nega-Anatina said after the seven villains all finished eating.
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"Dis is Vladimir Gryzlikoff. Dis bear is Hoota's second-in-command. Watch out; dis bear is ruthless, devious n' tougha dan nails. Rely'n on both brains n' brawn, dis bear is Hoota's second-in-command fer GOOD REASON. He has spent most'a 'is life afta he left Russia at age fourteen mak'n a liv'n as a solidier 'a fortune; go'n ta whoedda had offer'd 'im da most. Dan he arrived in Saint Canard ta work fer one'a da biggest crime rings 'n Saint Canard at da time. Afta do'n a few paid jobs fer da syndicate; including shoot'n 'n investigative report'a who'd been snop'n a bit too close fer da syndicate's like'n. Negaduck had targeted da reporta himself, but 'n soich'a doit he could use against 'is competition. Anyway, Grizzly and Negs' have been rivals eva since. He signed on full time wid Hoota afta da ol' owl bust'd 'imself and Grizzly 'N agreed ta not only provide Grizzly wid 'is best salary eva, but also provide help in compete'n wid Negaduck." Nega-Steelbeak explained as he showed Darkwing and Morgana the picture of Nega-Gryzlikoff.
****************************************
Launchpad was testing the gadgets in Gyro's "extreme emergency use only" gadgets vault, the global monitor finished its' search; finding nothing.
"Well, they're not anywhere on this world." Gyro observed as he adjusted his search equipment.
"Sorry, DW. I guess I let you down." Launchpad said quietly with a hung head.
"No. I said they weren't anywhere on THIS world. I'm just going to have to broaden the search to include different time periods and/or alternate universes. If they ARE, well, we'll bring them back with this dimensional gateway generator," Gyro said as he showed Launchpad a device greatly resembling a super-large screen television, except a bit more high-tech-looking.
"Well, what about these devices? What does that one cannon do?" Launchpad asked as he pointed to a device resembling a black-and-purple cannon (with a television antennae-looking attachment on the upper back) attached to a floating platform.
"Well, that device is designed to be an improvement upon the Norma Ray developed by my E-mail friend, Doctor Bellum, a few years back."
Launchpad only nodded silently, remembering all too well when the Norma Ray gave him great physic powers temporarily.
"Anyway, this device is designed to protect the brain with a partial force field while the ray is in use; nothing to prevent the mind from being super-charged, but just enough to eliminate the "'no thinking while being blasted'" design flaw from the original ray. Furthermore, I attached it to this floating platform to make it more portable. However, the device is in the "'extreme emergency use only'" because it IS rather powerful," the inventor continued.
"Okay, but what about this one?" Launchpad asked, showing Gyro the bright green pinky ring.
"That's a combination teleporter/gravity control ray/heat ray/freeze ray/lightning bolt-blaster pinky ring. The thought activated arsenal can teleport somebody anywhere in the world in an instant, either reduce or increase the strength of gravity within that person's immediate area and can allow somebody to fire powerful blasts of heat, cold or electrical energy. Thanks to a special power source collected from an alien world Mister McDuck, the nephews and I traveled to a few months ago, this ring is completely thought controlled AND can regenerate itself instantly. The only restriction is that the ring CAN only use one function at a time, but it's still powerful enough to be placed in this vault," Gyro answered as an alarm sounded. Gyro answered it and it turned out to be Scrooge.
"Gyro, I need something to thaw out the inside walls, floors and ceilings in my Money Bin quickly. Magica De Spell and that ally Launchpad warned me about left all the corridors in my money bin too iced up for any of my traps to work." Scrooge said over the monitor.
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(The Posiverse)
Bushroot dropped the microfilm in horror. He and the Liquidator had gone to the St. Canard Public Library to do some research. "I'm a cold-sapped killer!"
The Liquidator glanced over a newspaper article. "But didn't you kill Larson and Gary back home?"
"Yeah, but they deserved it. And I at least made it swift and painless. This place seemed pleasant when we got here, but now it's giving me the creeps."
"Nothing like a dip in a parallel universe to wash away your worries -- and your peace of mind!"
*******************************************************
(The Negaverse)
Negaduck entered the scheduled meeting place, his two allies in tow. "I see everyone is here."
Nega-Ruddy glanced at Nega-Morgana. "How come you've never introduced us to this dame, son?"
Nega-Anatina glared and smacked her husband on the cheek.
Negaduck ignored them and continued. "As you know, Darkwing Duck is a persistent thorn in my side. Now that I've got the home advantage, I'll have him removed once and for all. Sure, he beat me the first time, but I didn't have as many allies as I would have liked. Any questions?"
***********************************************
(The Normalverse) A red button on Gyro's machine glowed as the device blipped. The inventor glanced at the monitor. "Well, I've found Gizmoduck, Neptunia, Stegmutt, and two members of the Fearsome Five." He moved to a keypad and typed '4 exp 91 x cscx+7'. I'll just open a portal for them and keep the scanners going to pick up traces of the others.
(The Posiverse)
The Normalversions of Bushroot and the Liquidator wandered the streets. The few people they met simply handed over their money and fled. "Guess we've got a bad rep in this universe," commented the plant-duck.
"Impersonation is strongly discouraged for health!" came the infamous bubbly voice.
"Liquidator, can you not do those cheesy lines?"
"That wasn't me," replied the Liquidator.
The two members of the Fearsome Five whirled around. Exact mirror images of themselves were a few feet behind them, approaching.
There was a puff of environmental-friendly white smoke. It dissipated, revealing Posiduck and his new allies.
"What? No cheesy entrance lines?" muttered Neptunia under her breath. "I could get used to this Darkwing."
Posi-Bushroot raised an arm. Several vines, covered with black thorns, sprung out of the ground, which Posiduck nimbly dodged. Gizmoduck punched a button on his suit. Several pairs of hedge clippers popped out and sheared at the vines. Another button activated a net which trapped the Posi-Bushroot. Stegmutt tried to grab the Posi-Liquidator, but being water, it was difficult -- at least until Neptunia used a mop to soak him up. She stuck the mop in a nearby bucket.
A black hole opened.
"Four of five guesses this is an ideal escape!" called the Normalverse Liquidator, leaping into it. The Normalverse Bushroot shrugged and followed. Anything's better than here, he reasoned.
"We've got to go in after them," announced Gizmoduck. He turned to Posiduck. "Are you sure you don't want to come with us?"
"As I said before," answered the green-coated duck. "I am bound by responsibility to this city. And I cannot leave it. I'm deeply sorry."
In the Normalverse, the black hole opened up in Gyro's workshop and Bushroot and Liquidator came out first and slipped out just before Gizmoduck, Stegmutt and Neptunia followed.
Launchpad, test-firing the freeze-beam from the pinky ring he got from Gyro, tried to stop them, but missed; accidentally creating a patch of ice that tripped up Gizmoduck, Stegmutt and Neptunia just as they crossed through the portal themselves.
"Well, we seem to be back in our own world. More importantly, we're back in Duckburg," Gizmoduck observed, looking carefully at the surroundings.
"Yeah, but the two jokers we were chasing still got away." Neptunia said with a grumble.
"Only for the moment, Neptunia. We'll get them later. Now that we are back in our own world, however, we've got to contend with Magica and that Plasimeaux cad, which are easily the bigger threat." Gizmoduck reminded his teammate.
"Hey, hey, you guys are back. I guess Gyro's dimensional gateway really worked. Sorry I tripped you guys up accidentally." Launchpad said as he test-fired all the different beams on Gyro's multi-purpose pinky ring, this time away from any area that might pose a chance of hurting or tripping up the three heroes.
Gizmoduck nodded and said "Quite all right, Launchpad. Your heart was in the right place, but your aim was a bit off. It could happen to the best of us."
(The Negaverse) "And dat's all of Hooter's gang," Nega-Steelbeak concluded the lecture. "Any questions?" A heavyset woman with short brown hair poked in. She wore a simple black dress with white shoes. Amazingly, the shoes did not have a speck of dirt. "Steelie, Hooter and his gang have just been spotted at the docks!" "Dat is bad news, Ammonia. Dey're probably after the shipment of uranium." Darkwing leaped up. "Then we intercept them. Let's get dangerous!"
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Darkwing, Morgana, Nega-Buba, the Friendly Four, Nega-Steelbeak and Nega-Ammonia were already well on their way to the docks, courtesy of the high-speed transport of the Fearless Organization for World Liberty when the sensors picked up Negaduck and his allies already at the docks, courtesy of Nega-Morgana's teleportation spell. Darkwing looked tenderly at his fiancee` and simply said "Look, Morg, I know you offered to teleport us all there, but I ... ".
"I know, Dark. You didn't want me to over-exert myself. With my powers only at half-strength, we all agreed it's best if I save my strength for the villains." Morgana finished understandingly.
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In the the Normalverse, Launchpad, Gizmoduck, Stegmutt and Neptunia tracked down Magica and Lafayette just as the half-vampire warlock let his fangs out of the neck of his eighth victim. He and Magica knew there was a chance that some of the heroes they banished to other worlds might return and track them down, so Lafayette deliberately refrained from drinking ALL of the blood from any one victim. Instead he drank only a portion from each of eight, which turned all eight of them into vampires themselves (each with twice the powers of a normal high-level vampire and without the vulnerability to sunlight [though all of the other vampire weaknesses still apply]). Unfortunately, Magica and Lafayette also both saw the four heroes.
"There we go, mon cherie. Now that I am back to full-strength, we can get back after that dime and leave our enemies to my victims, oui?" the half-vampire ladies' bird commented as he used his mind powers to take full control over his victims' brains and then carefully took ahold of Magica's hand and, with considerable concentration, turned them both into mist as the eight newly vampirized Duckburg citizens started attacking the four heroes.