This is the final chapter. Hope you've enjoyed reading and thank you for your reviews!
HOSPITAL:
A SHUSH agent emerges from the FOWL eggmen's room in the intensive care ward of the hospital. In his hand is a single sheet of white paper with the colored composite sketch on it. He glanced down at the sketch and tilted his head with interest as he approached the nurse's desk, leaning over the counter to speak to the nurse on duty.
"Excuse me, may I use your fax machine?"
POLICE STATION:
As Draco made his way out the station's front door, struggling to make his way down the stairs to the sidewalk with his lame foot. Agent Bear passed by the cripple before he made his exit and wandered passed the fax machine. A 'beep!' sounded from the machine, bringing Bear to a stop to read the message on the screen that said 'RECEIVING.'
RADEN'S OFFICE:
Back in Raden's office, Agent Cujo sat on the top of the desk with a fresh cup of coffee in his hand. A look of disappoint was apparent on his face as he stared forward at the bulletin board on the wall. Raden was sitting in the chair behind the desk and sighed while shuffling through mounds of unorganized paperwork.
"You still don't know anything," Raden commented in regards to the case.
"I know what I wanted to know about Darkwing Duck," Cujo corrected before taking a sip from his coffee.
"Which is nothing."
Cujo shook his head in response. "It doesn't matter. He'll have to know how close we came."
Raden kept his gaze averted from his partner and focused on attempted to clean the top of his desk. "Negaduck or no Negaduck, if Darkwing's alive, he'll never come up again."
"I'll find him," Cujo insisted with confidence, bringing the coffee mug to his mouth again.
"A rumor is not a rumor that doesn't die," Raden mumbled more so to himself.
Overhearing his comment, Cujo tilted his head with a suspicious raised eyebrow. "What?"
"Err...nothing."
Cujo shook his head with a slight amused smile. He gestured to the desk. "Man, you're a slob."
"You want a real horror show?" Raden asked snidely. "You should see my garage."
Cujo smirked, finally beginning to loosen up from the day's events. He returned his gaze to the bulletin board again and continued to sip his coffee. His eyes scanned over the board, reading the various wanted adds, newspaper articles, and magazine clippings. While he seemed to not be looking at anything at all, he was lost in thought.
Outside the police station, Draco managed to descend the challenging stairs successfully and stepped onto the crowded sidewalk of St. Canard. He glanced up and down the sidewalk before deciding to turn right and shuffle on his way. Cars choke in front of the police department as they wait for passengers. But one car that was parked across the street, a black sedan, noticed the crippled mallard exit the building. The driver wore a pair of sunglasses to help shield his face and features, even though it was a rather cloudy day. The car was put into drive and pulled out into the street, slowly following his target....
Raden began to hum as he started sorting the scattered papers on his desk into piles. Cujo continued to stare blankly at the bulletin board in front of him. Suddenly, his face changed. The canine leaned forward and squinted his eyes to see better. His face changes again. First a look of puzzlement, confusion...and then realization.
The coffee mug he had been holding in his hands slipped from his fingers which had suddenly gone numb. The cheap porcelain mug hit the floor and shattered into pieces, splashing coffee everywhere. Raden snapped out of his focus and stared up at him questionably.
Cujo is still staring not at what's on the bulletin but the bulletin board itself. His eyes follow the aluminum frame mounted firmly on the wall. While most people would be focused on the board's vast size and sturdiness or the disregarded facts and notes pinned on it, Cujo's eyes were focusing on the manufacturer's sticker in the lower left-hand corner.
Draco's voice was suddenly repeating in his head.
'You know, back when I was involved in that barbershop quartet in Duckburg...."
Cujo read the manufacturing sticker over and over again to be sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. It read "QUARTET: Duckburg."
He couldn't believe it. Cujo's eyes flashed all over the board. Next, his gaze fell onto an ld newspaper article on the board with the headline: "BARBERSHOP Robbed Leaving Two Dead."
A magazine article in the upper right corner caught his attention quickly. Cujo's eyes narrowed to read the title of the article: "GUATEMALA: Ideal Vacation Sights." Draco's voice was in his head again.
'Back when I was picking fresh beans in Guatemala...'
Cujo's eyes were fixed in a wide-eyed, disbelieving stare. He shook his head in denial until he glanced downwards at the shattered porcelain by his feet. Tiny red print was still readable on a large chunk of ceramic facing upwards. There were two words on the piece of porcelain.
McIntyre Porcelain.
Realization filled Cujo's eyes as he jumped to his feet and sprinted out of the office, leaving a dumbfounded Raden behind. He ran past Agent Bear who was still standing by the fax machine. A piece of paper was in the process of being printed from the fax.
Draco continued to make his way down the street, trying to avoid people walking in the opposite direction as best he can. He glanced over his shoulder, noticing the police station becoming further and further away. A sad sigh escaped his bill as he made his way down the sidewalk, not noticing the black car creeping on the street behind him.
Cujo burst out the police station's front doors and looked around frantically. He began to pant, already feeling short of breath. A police officer was standing beside the front door to enjoy a cigarette.
"The cripple! Did you see which way he went??" Cujo asked the officer desperately. The words were spat out so quickly that the officer passed him a puzzled expression. "The cripple! Which way did he go??"
"Oh! The crippled mallard?" the police officer deduced and looked towards the busy sidewalk. "He....He went that way, I think." He pointed to the right in the direction Draco had disappeared.
The sidewalk was crowded with dozens and dozens of people. Cujo shook his head as he ran down the steps. He attempted to push his way through the crowds of people while looking for any sign of the mallard. But he was nowhere in his sight. The throngs of citizens obstructed his view. Cujo grunted and shouted while shoving people aside, looking in all directions.
Further ahead, the car continued to follow the limping duck. The driver's hand tapped the steering wheel patiently as his eyes followed Draco fumbling through the crowds. Draco moved through the people, not knowing that Agent Cujo was several hundred feet behind him and trying to catch up.
Suddenly, as Draco's feet hobbled along the curb, his twisted lame left foot seemed to relax a little. The inward angle straightened itself out as he continued to stagger over the sidewalk. Within a few paces, he was gliding across the pavement effortlessly on two perfectly formed feet as if there was never anything wrong.
Draco came to a stop on the sidewalk, no longer standing in a haunch now that his limp had suddenly disappeared. His hand came up and took a hold of the elastic band holding the black patch over his right eye. He removed the eye patch, revealing his bright green eye matching his left with absolutely no deformities or sign of blindness. Blinking to adjust his eye to the sudden brightness, Draco tossed the eye patch into the nearby garbage can.
Back inside the police station, the fax had finally finished spitting out the colored composite sketch into Agent Bear's hand. He tilted his head and examined the picture curiously. The drawing was of a white mallard with features strikingly similar to Darkwing's own; only he wore a black mask and red fedora and turtleneck. And his eyes were a bright green, in contrast to Darkwing's known blue eyes. The composite looked more like Draco than Darkwing...
Draco reached into the pocket of the jacket he was wearing and retrieved an item in his hand. He stroked the material in his hand momentarily before lifting the black mask up to his face, tying it securely around his face. A triumphant and absolute evil grin crept across his bill. His eyes were narrowed in an expression of pure deviance through the black mask, the people moving around him not even noticing and too involved in their own busy lives.
The black sedan pulled up to the curbside to Draco's left and came to a stop. Draco noticed the arrival and stealthily stepped to the edge of the sidewalk. He flung the door open and sat down in the passenger's seat, promptly closing the door behind him. In the driver's seat, McIntyre smiled at Draco, who nodded in reply.
The car was put into drive and pulled away from the curb and back into the street just as Agent Cujo skidded to a halt only feet from where Draco had been standing a moment before. He was glancing back and forth, looking in all directions. Cujo began to curse angrily under his breath in defeat to find him nowhere in sight. Draco's voice came into his head once again just as the sedan turned a corner down the street and out of view.
'The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. And like that, he's gone....'
THE END
Now for the disclaimer. All original Darkwing duck characters mentioned are copyright by Disney. All other characters mentioned are based off of those created my Christopher McQuarrie except for Molly Dove, who appears courtesy of Amanda Raymond. 'The Usual Suspects' was written by Christopher McQuarrie. 'The Unusual Suspects' is a Darkwing duck crossover written by ME, 2004.