Shadow of His Own

Disclaimer: Loonatics Unleashed and the characters in herebelong to Warner Brothers, not me.

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Danger Duck never saw himself in the shadows of others. He saw himself as his own independent person with his own unique thoughts, feelings, and -of course- a shadow of his own.

As a pool cleaner, which was a thankless job, Danger still wasn't in the shadows. No one ever saw the work that he did nor how hard he tried to make the pool as clean as possible.

However… on some days, while he was walking away from the pool back toward his small apartment, his body weary from the minimum wage job, he would turn around to look back at the pool for just another second. Usually on the weekdays, he would see it nearly empty except for the occasional sunbather who would be on the chairs, sleeping away a good day of swimming.

On the weekends, he would see children jump happily into the pool, squealing as they hit the cold, clear water. He felt a sense of achievement –no matter how small it was- that he had made their day more enjoyable. In his own mind, he was in the spotlight that very moment when he saw those kids splash around.

Still, Danger yearned for more. While at his job, he would carefully fish out some leaves that had fallen into the pool, mumbling about how the stupid trees were making him actually do more work then he normally would, Danger would look up for a brief moment. Just sitting a few feet away in a pristine, tall, white chair, would be the part-time lifeguard.

Usually, they would be similar to those lifeguards a person saw on T.V. It was the typical tan guy with wavy, tangle free blonde hair, wearing sunglasses with an ever-present smile on his face as he waved at the giggling girls nearby who walked -no, strutted- by in their skimpy looking bikinis.

Danger wouldn't have minded that attention, if he was in that situation, he would have winked at them.

Ogling at girls as they walked by was one of those premium benefits of the job, but what Danger really wanted above all else was to save someone. Danger wanted to feel that adrenaline fill his body as he dove into the pool, swimming as fast as he possibly could toward the person who was flailing back and forth in the water, desperate for help, his help.

After that person was fine, Danger could imagine the applause and praise he would receive by the worried bystanders who crowded around him as he lifted that person and himself out of the water and onto the safety of land. Of course, he would be modest and say it wasn't that big of a deal. If they want, he wouldn't really mind signing some autographs either.

This was all in his mind's eye though.

In reality, as he looked down at himself, seeing a watery, distorted version of himself look back at up him, he could still see that overpriced, white polo shirt he was wearing. On his chest, in clean, black stitched, cursive letters in plain view was spelled out, 'pool cleaner'.

Danger would turn his head away from his mirror self. Snorting as he went back to what he was originally doing before he thought deeper about his situation. With added enthusiasm, he would continue sweeping the leftover debris from the cement floor, his back turned from the lifeguard. His jaw would be tight as he glared at the floor, forcing himself to work harder to vent out his frustration.

Beside him, a lone shadow was right there, mimicking his actions as he swept the cold, bumpy cement.

It was his shadow.

Danger Duck wasn't in the shadows of others. If he were, he wouldn't be able to see his own shadow following him nearly everywhere he went.

Yet…looking up at the lifeguard –who looked like he was about to doze off- he could see the shadow of that man cast itself on him, making Danger's own shadow disappear slightly.

Danger would make his way up. When he did finally made his way to the top, he would be able to look down and see his shadow from up above everyone else.

SS: Man, Danger is like, really OOC. o.o; Comments and criticsm about his totall OOC-ness and other horrible things about this fic would be appreciated. Well, the horrible things really wouldn't be appreciated unless there was a valid reason behind it. XD