"It Came From Outer Space"


Act III

"Well, as I see it, Officer Baillie, the threat of the alien invasion is looming over us all in a very real, very frightening way!"

"Thank you, Darkwing Duck, I'll look over your suggestions. But I really don't see a need to bring the Armed Forces into this," said the police constable, waffling a bit to keep the duck from being offended when his proposition was refused. Darkwing Duck's visits to the main St. Canard station were usually pretty regular, although he rarely did much more than drop off the latest criminal he'd busted. THIS was certainly a new reason for visiting.

"You don't understand, sir. Even I couldn't beat this thing. It's going to take an army to defeat it, and as I've had some experience in combatting it, I suggest that I be put at the head," said Darkwing.

"Mr. Darkwing! You are stepping out of line! We are quite well- equipped in both the Army and the National Guard for dealing with a threat such as this, and I resent your--" said Officer Baillie, but he was cut off.

"Fine then, sir, don't believe me. But I can show you a young man who has definitive proof of the defense levels we'll be needing. I'll send in Honker Muddlefoot," said Darkwing as he left the room. Honker promptly came in and greeted the officer with a smile.

"Hello, young man. Can I help you?" asked Officer Baillie. He smiled warmly. Being only recently married, he had no children, although he'd always wanted at least three. He had been an only child, and as a result he looked forward to having a big family. At this point in his life, he was attempting to convince his wife that having children wouldn't put a big dent in her career as a lawyer. So far, she seemed less than enthusiastic, and had used the line, "Fine, we can have all the kids you want, as long as YOU give birth to them and take care of them during the day" several times.

Honker smiled again, then took a deep breath and began. "Hello. I've been doing some research in the field of UFOs, and I've come to agree with Darkwing Duck that the Armed Forces are neccessary- possibly even the Marines. The alien force at work here is one we know nothing about... It secretes a chemical that allows it to duplicate the characteristics of any lifeform on this planet, once it has made contact with a specimen. It seems bent on conquering this city, and has sworn that nothing will stop it from conquering the world! There's a pretty good chance that it will accomplish this, actually, since it's a hunter and it possesses intelligence far above anything OUR race has seen. Once St. Canard is secure, it plans on calling in its fellow Surussians to help take over the rest of--"

Baillie couldn't suppress a good-natured chuckle. "Well, little fellow, you just said a mouthful! But, let me ask you, do you really have any definite proof here? You do know what 'proof' is, don't you?" said the constable kindly, albeit somewhat patronizingly.

"Of course I know, you buffoon!" snapped Honker uncharacteristically.

Officer Baillie frowned. "I'm afraid your tale just isn't very plausible to us right now. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you and Mr. Darkwing to leave," he said as he rose and went to the door. He opened it and leaned out, saying, "Darkwing, I regret to tell you that you're going to have to..." He trailed off, noticing that Darkwing was nowhere in sight.

Meanwhile, behind him, Agrajag/Honker was preparing to grab him by the neck so as to gain skin-to-skin contact while simultaneously knocking him out-- but something he saw outside attracted his attention first.

"Hiya, Honk!" said Gosalyn as she came in through the front door. "'Scuse me, Officer, I'm old friends with Honker here, and we have some urgent business to discuss."

"Would you care for a lollipop?" asked Officer Baillie. He kept a big bowl of lollipops for any kids who might come in.

"No, thanks. So, Honker, what have you been talking about with the gentleman here? You're not trying to spread those UFO theories again, are you? Please don't pay any attention to him, sir-- he does this every now and then," she said politely.

Officer Baillie nodded understandingly. "It's so sad when that happens. I hope you're getting the appropriate medical attention," he said quietly.

"Why, you little--" said Agrajag, eyes burning. He pushed his way past the Constable, regrettably catching only the fabric of his shirt, and set off after Gosalyn. She tore out of the office, running as fast as she could. Agrajag shifted to Launchpad's form so that he could run faster, and began to gain on her. Down the street, Darkwing and Launchpad waited in the Ratcatcher. They revved up the motor, and she jumped in as soon as she reached them.

Agrajag was unable to keep up with them and was left in the dust, but didn't let them out of his sight. His eyes narrowed, and he snarled, then turned and ran in the opposite direction, towards where he'd left his ship.

Meanwhile, Honker and Beth were in the tower, making use of the extensive equipment that Darkwing kept there. Beth was impressed; Drake was obviously VERY smart, if he kept all this stuff around. What a guy.

The solvent had been mixed, with a few small changes from what had been detailed in the book that had given them the idea. For one thing, they had doubled the amount of beryllionate, the chemical that was supposed to be behind the strength of the glue's bonding. "Do you think it's going to work, Honker?" asked Beth. She was watching the formula bubble slightly, atop a bunsen burner. The bubbles that it made were suitably thick.

"Assuming that Agrajag has the appropriate reaction to the beryllionate, there's only a-" Honker paused, fiddled with his calculator, and then continued- "three point six eight two percent chance that this will fail."

"What if it isn't as affected by the extra beryllionate?"

"Then, there's a... seventy-three point eight five chance of failure." He looked up at Beth. They gulped in unison. "BUT... the chance of Agrajag NOT being affected by the beryllionate is-" He stopped again to enter more figures into the calculator.

Suddenly the walkie-talkie crackled into life. Beth and Honker both jumped. Honker was the one who had his hands free, so he put down the calculator and answered it. "Um... Hello?" he said tentatively.

"Hey, Honkster! How's it comin'? You gonna be able to meet us on the bridge in a few minutes?" came Launchpad's voice.

"Gee, Launchpad, I don't know... I mean, it has to settle and all...," he said.

"Lemme talk to Beth, 'kay, Honkman?" said Launchpad kindly.

Honker, understanding that they were in a hurry, gave the walkie- talkie to Beth and carefully took the tongs that held the beaker from her hands.

Beth had never used a walkie-talkie before, and was obviously slightly confused by it. She held it to her ear like a telephone and said "Hello?" When she got no answer, she repeated it, then took the contraption away from her face and looked at it. "Oh. I press this, don't I?" she said sheepishly, pointing to a big button on the side. She pressed the button, put the walkie-talkie to her ear again, and repeated, "Hello?" Then she pulled it away, startled by the sudden burst of static.

"Hey, how're things goin'?" asked Launchpad, a note of tenderness creeping into his voice as he talked to her that Beth took no notice of whatsoever.

"Fine, thanks... why? Oh, you meant with the formula... I knew that," she said with a nervous laugh. "Good enough, I hope. I guess we're just about done, but we should make sure that it doesn't cool off too much, or else then it'll solidify early and it won't be of any use to us at all. On the other hand, if it's too hot it might take a while to solidify inside Agrajag's system, and--"

There was some noise in the background that Beth recognized as voices, then Launchpad spoke again. "DW says he's sure whatever ya got is fine." Beth beamed- Drake was saying the nicest things today! "An' I know that whatever ya got'll be great," added Launchpad.

Beth smiled and blushed, then realized that he couldn't see that over the walkie-talkie and said, "Thanks," out loud. "Honker's being a big help. Without him I sure couldn't have gotten this far."

"Yeah, ain't he smart?" Launchpad was grinning, Beth had a feeling. "Anyway, DW says we'll be at the bridge in about three minutes. Think ya can make it?"

"Yeah, we should be able to make that."

"Okay... Well, take care, alright?" he said somewhat softly.

"You, too. See you soon," she said.

"Roger!"

"Ten-four," she said, not sure if it was the right thing to say but liking the sound of it. She turned back to Honker. They made eye contact, each realizing that the other was as nervous as they were. "Hey. I wonder what the probability of Agrajag being affected by the beryllionate really IS?" she said.

Honker glanced at his calculator, which he'd placed on the chair that had been next to him when he'd stood up. "I didn't finish figuring it out."

Beth took a quick breath. "We're probably better off not knowing. Ready?"

Honker nodded. Beth shut off the flame on the bunsen burner.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry! It'll be here any second!" said Darkwing, taking the vial from Beth quickly.

"Careful," she said, "the stopper in there might not be very secure." Darkwing nodded and handled the vial more carefully. Beth followed him around as he paced across the bridge. "Anyway, how would it know that we're here? You were on the Ratcatcher, and it was following on foot, wasn't it?"

"Doesn't matter! It's some sort of alien genius, remember? Put the barricades up! Faster!" he shouted to Gosalyn and Launchpad, who were each blocking off separate ends of the bridge to keep citizens from endangering themselves. As they were finishing up, the sound of an aircraft overhead became louder and louder. Beth looked up.

"Oh, my-- Darkwing? Darkwing, you might want to move...," she said.

"Huh? Why's that?" he said, a few feet away from her. She was looking up, transfixed, at the gray, darkened sky. A storm was coming, and it was going to be a doozy.

She said nothing for a moment, and then shook herself out of it and repeated, "Drake. Move."

He looked up and saw a strange, silver shape plummeting down from above. As it got closer, Darkwing saw that it was a ship. A spaceship. Its trajectory was headed straight for the center of the bridge, where Beth and Darkwing were standing.

"MOVE!" shrieked Beth, and darted off to the side, in Launchpad's and Honker's direction. Darkwing chose the side of the bridge that Gosalyn was on, and both of them had just cleared the center when the ship struck the bridge. The explosion was deafening. In the aftermath, they stared through the smoke, trying to find any clue as to whether Agrajag was alive or not.

Darkwing took Gosalyn's hand. "I wonder why it crashed," he said softly. "It was like it didn't even know how to fly its own ship."

A strong gust of wind swept most of the smoke away, and a soft hissing sound was heard below the howl of the wind. Beth gasped as the door of the crashed ship slid open, and Launchpad's form stepped out. "Don't worry," said Agrajag, "I'm OKAY!" He grinned, and the red points in his eyes flared up.

"Well, that answers THAT question," muttered Darkwing. He fingered the plug in the vial of the glue solvent that Beth and Honker had fixed up.

Agrajag turned and looked at him. "Say, DW! You an' Gos are all alone over there- Why don't you come join the loser group over here?" He started to lunge at them, his eyes flaring red, and Launchpad grabbed him from behind.

"THIS time we're on equal ground!" he said, and slammed Agrajag to the pavement. Agrajag growled and pulled his prototype onto the pavement as well, and they started pummeling at each other. Beth screamed. At that moment, a roar of thunder tore through the air, and abruptly the rain started pouring down on them.

"Hold this," said Darkwing, and shoved the vial into Gosalyn's hands. He ran to help his sidekick.

Beth watched the fight, absolutely horrified. She'd actually lost track of which Launchpad was which, and couldn't do a thing to help her friend. With a roar, Agrajag made his identity clear as he morphed into its natural form and began to overwhelm Launchpad again. Launchpad muttered, "Not again," and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Ah, ah, ah," said Darkwing. "That's cheating." He squeezed the trigger on his gas gun. The gas enveloped Agrajag, and then seemed to be absorbed by the creature. It pulled away from Launchpad. Beth ran to Launchpad's side and helped him up, and away from the alien. Agrajag coughed violently, and Darkwing called, "Gosalyn! The vial!"

"Right!" she called, and ran towards him with it.

Agrajag, still coughing, began to recover. "FOOLS," it said. It morphed into Beth's form and stuck her leg out in front of Gosalyn. She tripped, and the vial went flying. Darkwing made a grab for it, but Agrajag made a grab for him at the same time, knocking him to the ground. "We've got to stop meeting this way, Drake darling," she said hoarsely. Her features looked a little blurred, as though they were smoky.

Beth and Launchpad both jumped for the vial at the same time and tripped over each other. Honker ran for it and got it just before it hit the ground. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Agrajag looked up. "Looks like something awfully interesting is in that thing," she said.

Darkwing, who had been pinned by Agrajag, rolled over and pinned her to the ground instead. She just smiled at him coldly. "Now I KNOW there's something interesting in there," she said. She shifted again into the transitory form and covered Darkwing.

Gosalyn held up her arms. "Honk! Over here!"

Honker threw the vial. Unfortunately, it didn't go very far. Beth caught it before it hit the ground, and held on to it. If they froze Agrajag now, Darkwing might be trapped inside it forever... And she had no intention of letting that happen. She had to get Agrajag away from Darkwing. She took a deep breath. "Hey, slime mold! Over here!" she yelled, and waved the vial. Agrajag slid itself off of Darkwing and started for Beth. She hadn't expected it to move as fast as it did. "Oh, dear," she whispered, and then took off running.

"Beth!" yelled Launchpad. He ran after her, grabbed the vial, and doubled back. Agrajag saw this, and gave up its pursuit of Beth in favor of Launchpad. It was making good time.

Beth stopped running completely and watched. No, not Launchpad. Lightening flashed momentarily, followed almost directly by thunder. "NO!" she screamed, and took off running after both of them. If she got hurt, or even killed, that was it, but she didn't want to think of what would happen if LAUNCHPAD got hurt or... worse. He was her dearest friend in the world, and she knew then that she would willingly lay down her life for him.

She realized that she couldn't catch up to Launchpad while the alien was chasing him, so she did the next best thing and tackled Agrajag. It was absolutely disgusting, like falling into a pool of slightly coagulated grease. There was almost nothing to hold on to. In a second, Launchpad was with her, pulling her free from the mess.

"It's not that easy, Terran," growled Agrajag. It spread its form across them, beginning to envelop them both. "We are not restrained by physical dimensions the way YOUR race is."

Launchpad chose to ignore it, and instead tried to gain some footing in the slipperiness. Beth cried, "Launchpad, forget me! Use the formula!"

"No way!" he said, and managed to make some headway. "I won't leave you! 'Sides, I don't have it anymore!"

"You don't!" Beth looked startled. Launchpad pulled her out from Agrajag's body most of the way. "Who does?"

As he got her out completely, he said, "He does," and jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

"What?" said Agrajag.

"Suck glue, Slime Bag," said Darkwing. He aimed his Gas gun and fired.

The vial hit Agrajag right in the middle, and lodged there. Agrajag looked as smug as a shapeless being made of gelatinous matter can. "You foolish being. I will not be stopped by your 'glue'; this effort has been made before!" Then it stopped its gloating. "Erg... What...?"

What could have been its jaw dropped open, and then a shrill sound filled the air. Agrajag was screaming something in its own language. Launchpad still had his arm around Beth's shoulder. She turned to him and pressed her face against his jacket at this, and he put his other arm around her and held her protectively.

Gosalyn watched, entranced. "Keen gear!" she breathed. Agrajag's mouth got wider, and then seemed to stick open. The rain poured down onto it, and steam began to rise from it gently. The scream faded, and everything was still. Darkwing made his way up to the frozen alien and prodded it gently.

"Got 'im!" he said triumphantly. "It's frozen solid!"

Honker pushed his glasses up. "Actually, it's molecules have bonded together-"

Beth picked the explanation up. "-Fused completely in a manner that prevents any sort of motion, even interior, so that-"

"Looks frozen to me," said Gosalyn. Beth and Honker looked at each other, then shrugged.

Darkwing sniffed proudly. "Well, once again, Darkwing Duck has saved the world from whatever daily danger threatens life as we know it- be it criminal conspiracies, dimensional disasters, or alien invasions!"

"It's only an invasion if there's more than one, Drake," said Beth. She grinned at him.

He didn't seem to see the humor. "You've been spending too much time with Gosalyn."

"You're learning!" said Gosalyn to Beth.

For the next few days, there were recurring storms that would barely let up for more than an hour before another one set in. But eventually the storm front cleared up, and St. Canard had its first clear day in a almost a week. "On a clear day, you can see forever," Beth attempted to quote, looking out the window of the Bay Bridge Tower. "It's a nice day. The first one since that... STUFF happened."

"It is a nice day," agreed Darkwing.

"'That stuff'? You mean the slime alien?" asked Gosalyn. "Wow, that was sure exciting, huh, Beth?"

"Uh-huh," said Beth, still watching the bridge.

"I mean, we almost got killed! If it wasn't for me, you guys would never have made it out of the closet, and the world would be doomed, isn't that right, Dad?"

"That's right, Gos," said Darkwing passively. He was sitting at a table playing solitaire. He'd been forced to put up with this sort of thing for the past few days, and was getting pretty good at tuning it out.

"Boy, you two are a couple of drags!" said Gosalyn, unhappy with the small amount of praise she was getting. "If Launchpad were here, I bet he'd be livelier than you!"

"I bet you're right," said Darkwing mildly. Looking from left to right shiftily to make sure no one was watching, he sorted through all the cards in the deck until he found one he could use in a move.

"Sorry, Gosalyn. But this is something I'd just rather forget. I didn't enjoy the whole thing as much as you seemed to," said Beth. She leaned out of the window a little to catch the breeze that was drifting by, and changed the subject a little. "You know, I still think that you should have let those science people have the alien to study instead of giving it to the museum," she said to Darkwing.

"THAT would have been extremely dangerous. If they'd found a way to revive it, even accidentally, the earth could have been in some serious trouble. Besides, it's a great museum exhibit, and you get to share a 'donated by' credit with me."

"Mmm," said Beth, not nearly as impressed by having a 'donated by' credit as she was at having her name next to Drake's in the papers- even if he WAS listed as "Darkwing Duck" instead of "Drake Mallard".

Darkwing interpreted her silence as a lack of enthusiasm, and tried another tactic. "Think of all of the children of St. Canard who are learning from the alien's presence!" he said.

"I guess you're right, then," she said. "But stop cheating at your solitaire game."

"How in the heck...?" he muttered to himself, gathering up the cards and reshuffling them.

"Busted! Ha ha!" said Gosalyn in an attempt to get attention.

Suddenly Launchpad came into the tower, carrying a short stack of newspapers. "Hey guys, we're still makin' the papers! There's a little story in the back about our museum donation," he said, turning to the page and pointing at a brief paragraph.

"Well, thanks, LP, but I already have a good seventy-five copies of today's paper!" said Darkwing.

"I know. I just thought that maybe Beth would like a few copies," he said. She turned around from the window to face him.

"Thanks," she said, and smiled. "I can send copies to my family and friends." She didn't mention that she only had two family members who would be interested in reading it, and that she didn't have ANY friends who would care. "It's a nice day."

"It is," he agreed as he put the papers down on the table that Darkwing was playing cards at. "Mind if I join ya?" he asked. She smiled and shook her head, and he joined her at the window.

"Thanks, Launchpad," said Darkwing irritably as he tried to salvage his cards out from under the stack of papers. Looking at the two of them, he felt a little bit... odd. 'The alien didn't say anything about Beth loving LAUNCHPAD,' he thought, and then caught himself thinking that and wondered what had inspired it.

"Well, guys, I guess everything's great now, huh?" said Gosalyn, her tone indicating that she was leading up to something with that pointless comment.

"Everything's great," sighed Launchpad.

"Uh-huh, things have been nice lately," said Beth, more or less as oblivious as she usually was to Launchpad's love.

"Where are you going with this, Gos?" said Darkwing suspiciously.

"Oh, I don't know... I just thought I'd mention that everything seems to be great. But there's just one thing we have to ask ourselves, isn't there?" she asked with a grin.

"What would that be?" Darkwing asked.

"Well, we got rid of the alien... But I just have to wonder: What if it already contacted its armies of alien invaders, and they're planning an attack even as we speak?" asked Gosalyn. Everyone froze. Gosalyn, enjoying their reactions, went on. "After all, it said it was a genius... Suppose it planned ahead in case we did outsmart it? After all, every great monster movie has... a sequel."

The other three stood where they were, contemplating this fact in silence and wondering just exactly how long they might have left to live.

THE END?

Next: The Wedding of the Century! (Maybe, kinda, a little...)


Copyright Rebecca Littlehales, 1995. Beth Webfoot created by me, R. Littlehales; all other characters are owned by Disney and are used without permission. This story is not intended to infringe on the Walt Disney Company in any way. It may be duplicated as long as it is not sold or altered in any form. If you wish to distribute it I would like to be notified- I am not stingy at all and will almost definitely let you use it. Unless it's at Christmas time, since I turn into a real miser then and won't even give an extra lump of coal to my workers. Bah Humbug!