-The Mirror Match.
"Well, this is the address. It certainly qualifies for the basic bad guy's hiding place." Gosalyn, still on her Quiverwing's identity, jumped down Rhubella's car, giving a good look to the warehouse in front of her. The warehouse was once among many others, located on a district in the city's outsides, and a good sized one.
"I think we got the right information." Wally commented while jumping down from the car as well, and taking a good sniffing. "I can smell a little of Ronald's scent around here."
"Which means his captors might be close as well." Rhubella pointed, getting a concerned expression, and looking around them, searching for any danger. At that moment, the trio heard noises coming from the manhole behind them.
"Talking about a perfect cue." Quiverwing took out one of her arrows, and aimed at the manhole, while Rhubella placed behind Wally, on a fighting stance, and the wolf stood on four, ready to pounce on any enemy.
"What are you guys doing here?" Hillary said in amazement the moment her head emerged, making the other toons to sigh in relief.
"We found out that Ronald might be around here, Hillary." Wally explained while helping her out. "I suppose your nose told you the same."
"Guess we now have 2 strong points to confirm our friend's location." The J.A.M. said while emerging right behind Mary, both getting Wally's help as well.
"And you got something more." Rhubella said while waving her paw in front of her nose. "Hadn't smelled something this disgusting since the last time I was at Perfecto's dressing rooms and the maid was sick."
"Allow me; I don't want our enemies to discover us by that scent." Quiverwing said while taking a spray can out from her body pocket, and using it on the hyena, jaguar, and human girl.
"Nice job, Gos… I mean, Quiv." Mary said while removing her gas mask, and smelling at herself. "What kind of spray is that?"
"It's something Honker invented for me and Darkwing in case we ever have accidents with the stench gas' bombs." Quiverwing explained. "Now, we'll better contact our friends while two of us check this warehouse, just to be sure."
"Wait. Someone is coming this way." The jaguar said while moving one of his ears on the direction he heard a vehicle coming. Wally heard it as well, and got an alert expression, but both predators relaxed in a moment.
"Don't worry, girls. We are getting more help." Wally commented, and a few moments later Fifi's Cadillac became visible. The skunkette parked her car next to Ruby's, and she and Shirley jumped down.
"I guess this means your psychic senses are working again, Shirley." Hillary directed to the avian.
"As well as your noses and Gosalyn's detective skills, I suppose." Shirley shrugged. "Actually, I'm not at my top yet, but, since all of you are here as well, it seems I was right."
"Okay, enough talking. I'm going in." Hillary, getting a serious face, directed to the warehouse, but was stopped by The J.A.M. grabbing her shirt.
"Wait, Hillary, you can't just go inside like that. Remember, we are talking about Ronald's life here." The jaguar said in a calm tone, making Hillary to relax a little but conserved her stern look.
"That's right, pal. Here's is what we are going to do." Quiverwing took control, getting everyone's attention. "These warehouses surely might mess with our cell phones' signal, and my communication sphere only works to contact Darkwing, Honker, Morgana or my dad, so we need someone to go and bring help; since we also need the cars to disappear, I suggest both Fifi and Ruby drive away from here and get the cavalry."
The skunk and rat hesitated a moment, since they wanted to help as much as possible with the rescue, but recognized Gosalyn had more experience in crime fighting, so finally agreed.
"Now, we need to sneak inside the warehouse as quietly as possible. The J.A.M. and I are the best for this, since he is naturally good at stealth, and I'm trained for that." The avian and the jaguar nodded to each other. "Then, after we give the place a good look, the rest of you will enter as well." Hillary, Shirley, Mary, and Wally agreed, realizing it was the best course of action.
Ruby gave Wally a deep kiss right before she and Fifi ran back to their cars, and both girls wished their friends good luck. Once they left, Gosalyn shot a grappling hook-arrow to the top of the warehouse, while the jaguar (after getting a kiss from Mary as well), warped the other side of the building. The duckette climbed on top in a moment, while the feline used his claws the same way a mountain climber uses pikes, and, in a Spiderman-like style, climbed his side of the warehouse, joining Gosalyn shortly later.
Quiverwing and The J.A.M. found an air vent, and, by using a rope, they descended into the warehouse. The feline, thanks to his night vision, could see in the dark building without problems, confirming they were alone; actually, besides a few crates here and there, the place was as much as empty. Gosalyn turned on a little lantern, and found out the light switch and the main door, secured with a huge lock. The jaguar made a quick job on it, thanks to a good paw hit, and then opened the door while Gosalyn turned on the lights.
"This is weird." Hillary commented while entering the building. "Ronald's scent is quite strong in this place, and very fresh. He should be here." The hyena groaned in frustration.
"Many villains have trap or secret doors in their hideouts." Gosalyn commented while rubbing her beak. "Start searching around the place." The J.A.M., Hillary, and Wally started sniffing around, and Shirley tried to focus her powers to help as well, while Mary and Gosalyn made a more old-fashioned search by touch and observation.
"Like, I don't like this. The evil vibes suddenly became much stronger… it's messing with my powers again, or some junk." Shirley said to no one in particular. The good thing about this, of course, was that it meant the kidnappers were pretty close; obviously, this was also a bad thing.
"I smell something from under these crates." Wally commented, sniffing at some crates almost at the center of the building. "I need some help here."
Hillary dashed next to the wolf, and they both started moving apart the crates, finding a large trap door under them. Right before they could call their friends to tell them about it, the door started shaking, and making a buzzing sound.
"Everybody, stay alert and be ready!" Quiverwing exclaimed as she and other toons got fighting stances. Then, the door opened, and a platform covered with dirt emerged from it; the most curious thing was that there were exactly six large watermelons on the platform.
"What's this? It's a welcome fruit salad or something?" Mary rubbed her head in confusion. Gosalyn, however, became tenser, and narrowed her eyes.
"Don't get distracted! Those plants can be a lethal weapon!"
Before anyone could say a thing about the duckette's weird statement, the watermelons started shaking, and, a moment later, they cracked, releasing a green slimy substance. A couple of seconds later, there were six little slime columns, that quickly solidified and took form. The toons gasped when realizing each column had become an exact green duplicate of one of them, and gulped when they got an evil look and started moving; to make things worse, in a perfect cue, a thick steel door fell over the already open one, trapping the toons with the clones for good.
"Evil clones?" Wally finally got his voice back. "Talking about clichéd plots!"
"It's not so clichéd when it happens to you!" Quiverwing groaned, and then shot a net arrow against the clones. Unfortunately, Shirley's clone stopped it on mid air just by extending a wing on its direction, and then destroyed the arrow with a psychic lightning.
"They have our skills… okay, that's bad." Hillary gasped right before her clone dashed against her, almost punching the hyena's head.
WARP!
UNWARP!
"ZACATEPONGOLAS!" The J.A.M. exclaimed while ducking to avoid a dashing claw attack from his warping clone. Mary and Wally were attacked by their clones in a physical way as well, while Shirley and Quiverwing were attacked at a distance via psychic lightning and trick arrows, respectively. In a split second, each toon and his/her clone got into a personal match, paying almost no attention to the others.
Shirley made a quick mind scanning of the clones, realizing they had actually no conscience, but apparently that didn't stop them from having each toon's skill and strength. The loon levitated just in time to avoid another psychic lightning attack, and replied with one of her own. The Shirley-Clone protected herself with a psychic shield, and then levitated a crate next to her to throw it against Shirley. The blonde destroyed the crate (which contained a lot of light bulbs, by the way) with a psychic blast, and then picked up the broken bulbs with her telekinesis, sending them against the clone. The duplicate replied by levitating as well to avoid them, and then threw a large blast against Shirley, who attacked back the same way; the blasts met each other, and the loons got stuck in a power-to-power struggle.
Wally blocked a sharp kick from his clone, and replied with a fast punch. The wolf-clone avoided the attack and then tried to bite Wally's neck, who stepped back just in time to avoid his jaws. Wally threw another punch against his clone, but he caught the fist and made a judo toss on Wally, sending him over his shoulder and against the floor; Wally reacted by rolling the moment he touched the floor, and stood up just in time to catch a kick and twist the clone's ankle, sending him over his back. The clone then stood on four and tried to bite Wally again, who jumped back to avoid him and then pounced over the clone to try submitting him with a wrestling grapple; unfortunately, Wally-Clone knew that move, and released himself, hitting Wally's back in the process. The clone stood up and spin-changed into one of Wally's favorite impersonations, El Kabong, and attacked Wally with his guitar. Wally ducked to avoid the hit and spin-changed into El Kabong as well, starting a guitar sword-like battle with his duplicate.
Hillary and her clone were practically stuck on their match, since virtually every punch or kick one tried on the other got blocked or dodged. Hillary tried to grab her opponent on a head lock, but the hyena's clone avoided it and tried kicking Hillary's legs; the hyena jumped to avoid that attack, and then made her classic hammer-like fists move, in an attempt to knock out her enemy. Hillary-Clone blocked the attack crossing her arms in front of her, stopping the fists with her bracelets; then, she threw a kick against Hillary, but she blocked that attack too by raising her knee. The hyenas jumped back, and then attacked each other with a savage punch, both of them connecting with her opponent's low jaw. The fighters shook their heads, and then adopted wrestling positions; a moment later, they were holding each other's paws, their muscles tensed to the max, getting stuck in a strength test while one hyena tried to twist the other's wrists, bite her neck, or push/pull her enemy apart to surprise her with a grappling move.
WARP!
The J.A.M. disappeared to avoid a direct kick to his chin.
UNWARP!
The jaguar reappeared behind his clone, and tried to apply his sleeper grip on him.
WARP!
The clone avoided the attack.
UNWARP!
The clone grabbed The J.A.M. in a full-Nelson. The J.A.M. growled, and tensed his muscles.
WARP!
The J.A.M.-Clone warped just in time to avoid The Feline Defense Spin, the jaguar trademark way to escape from a tight grappling.
UNWARP!
The clone reappeared behind a crate, and lifted it to drop it on The J.A.M.'s head.
WARP!
The J.A.M. avoided the crate.
UNWARP!
The jaguar reappeared a few feet over his clone, extending his claws to get him.
WARP!
The clone disappeared right before The J.A.M. could catch him.
UNWARP!
The clone tried to rip The J.A.M.'s throat with his right paw's claws, but the feline could block the attack and reply with one of his own, that got blocked as well. The clone jumped back, snarling, and extending all his claws.
"I had no idea I looked that scary when furious!" The J.A.M. said to himself while adopting a fighting position as well, right before he and his clone returned to warp and un-warp all around the warehouse.
Quiverwing and her clone got involved in an aiming battle. Each time the heroine shot an arrow against her enemy, she stopped it with one of her own; Gos' explosive arrow was intercepted by a glue one; the clone's arrow net got cut by a saw one; a bola arrow was avoided by Quiverwing, who replied with a stunning one, that couldn't connect because the clone protected herself jumping behind a crate; the clone shot two explosive arrows against her enemy, who stopped one with a freezing arrow, and avoided the other by mere inches. Quiverwing then put her bow on her back, and dashed against her clone, and, once she avoided a regular pointy arrow, jumped on top of her with a double kick, trying to knock her out. Quiverwing-Clone blocked the attack with her wrists, and rolled over to gain some distance and attack Quiverwing when she touched the floor. The clone used her bow in a fighting staff-like way, almost hitting Gosalyn's head, and then threw several attacks to her body; the heroine took out her bow and used it the same way, exchanging staff-blows and fast kicks with her enemy, blocking and avoiding a lot more than they received.
Mary received a good uppercut from her clone, but took the chance to grab her wrist and, once she had her enemy secured, gave her a sharp punch on the cheek. The clone growled and replied with a fast spinning move to break Mary's grip, and then threw a jab against the girl. Mary blocked that attack, and threw a direct punch to her clone's head, that was dodged, and Mary hardly could avoid another uppercut. The clone got an evil smirk, and then spin-changed into Mary's regular skater outfit, complete with protective gear, and tried to kick Mary with her skated feet. Mary blocked the kick and pulled her enemy's leg, trying to make her to slip, but the clone was quite agile and kept her balance while trying to kick Mary with her other foot. Mary realized that her clone now had an important speed advantage, and made a fast spin-change of her own, getting the skater outfit to fight the duplicate back. The two girls exchanged a fast series of punches, and then started skating around the warehouse, trying to hit each other at high speed.
"This is a no-win situation!" Gosalyn thought while blocking another of her clone's attacks. "Even if we defeat our duplicates, at this rate we'll be totally wasted when finding Ronald, and Sparky and company aren't going to be a piece of cake. And if there are more of these clones, then the cavalry will have a tough time as well!" The duckette then gave a fast glance to her companions, and had an idea; she made a flip-back jump to separate from her clone, and took out a freezing arrow. Quiverwing made her shot, that missed her clone because she made a cartwheel to avoid it…
CHILL!
… but hit Mary's clone instead, freezing her legs right when she was moving at her top speed. The girl couldn't stop, and hit the closest warehouse's wall, head first, getting knocked out.
"Mary, we can't waste time fighting our duplicates! We have to exchange them!" Gosalyn yelled to the Afro-American while avoiding an electric arrow. Mary nodded in reply, and made a dash against the loons, jumping a few feet in the air to grab Shirley's clone, breaking the psychic struggle. The clone and the human rolled on the floor, getting apart from each other, and then Shirley-Clone threw a psychic lightning against Mary, giving her… not even a single scratch. Surprised, the clone summoned all her force to attack again, but, before she could do it, Mary gave her a powerful punch at her beak, sending the cloned-avian several feet in the air, and, when she descended, received her with a kangaroo-style kick, impacting the loon against some nearby crates.
Shirley realized Mary and Gosalyn's plan, and looked around to find a new target while her clone pretty much became Mary's punching bag. The human girl, just like her boyfriend, had a strong protection against magic, so Shirley-Clone's attacks were totally useless, and, in a totally physical confrontation, Mary was strong and skilled enough to beat ten Shirley's duplicates.
UNWARP!
The J.A.M.-Clone grabbed the original's wrists, and opened his jaws to break his enemy's neck with a well placed bite, when he froze on the spot and released his prey. The J.A.M. got a surprised expression until noticing Shirley extending her wings at the clone's direction; since the magical protection came from a very strong faith, and that's not linked to the skills or the strength, the clone lacked it, so was vulnerable to Shirley's power.
"Like, I'll handle him, J.A.M.! You go help Hillary, or some junk!" The loon said to the jaguar, who thanked her in a hurry and warped next to the hyenas. The jaguar placed himself behind the clone, and applied her Vulcan-like grip on her while using his free paw to attack a pressure point of the duplicate's shoulder and make her left arm lose its strength; Hillary-Clone tried to defend herself, but her paws were still being held by Hillary's, so couldn't fight back and started losing conscience. On the meantime, Shirley focused all her might on the jaguar-clone's body, and zapped him with enough force to light on a regular house for a year, knocking him out.
Once the jaguar pretty much dominated her clone by himself, Hillary separated from them and charged against Wally's duplicate. The wolf-clone attacked her with his guitar, but Hillary smashed it with a single punch; then, she grabbed the canine-clone by his shoulders and threw him apart from Wally, who immediately turned his attention to Quiverwing and her clone. While Hillary exchanged a series of furious blows with his clone, Wally spin-changed back to normal, and, howling, dashed against the duckette's duplicate. Quiverwing-Clone, who was aiming at the original with an exploding arrow, heard the canine, and used her weapon against him instead; this was exactly what Wally wanted. The wolf took a deep breath, and, a split second before the arrow could hit him, he blew with his hurricane-like breath, sending the explosive back against the clone.
BOOOOM!
Quiverwing got a big grin when her dizzy clone fainted, totally blackened by the explosion. At that moment, a mighty wind invaded the whole warehouse, making her and her already victorious friends to lay chest first to avoid being carried away, and turn their attention to Hillary's battle with Wally-Clone.
The hyena was receiving the whole power of the hurricane-like wind produced by the wolf-clone's mighty lungs. Fortunately, she and Wally had already faced once in Cartoon Violence, so Hillary knew how to fight back this attack; she focused all her might on her legs while crossing her arms in front of herself to break some of the wind's force, and, making an effort to keep her balance, advanced slowly towards the clone. The moment she was at the right distance, the hyena extended both her paws and grabbed the clone's muzzle, cutting the wind, and then surprised him with a mighty knee impact on the guts. The canine-clone lost his breath totally, and before he could recover, Hillary lifted him over her head, and placed him on her shoulders, getting the clone on a wrestling move with one of her arms on his chin and the other at one knee, pressing his back against the hyena's shoulders and head, making him howl in pain and his back to make cracking noises. Hillary finished the fight by lifting the clone again, and, throwing him as high as she could; then, when he was still at a good height, the girl jumped and grabbed him by the waist, and used her full strength and combined weight to impact him head first, sending a shockwave through the whole warehouse because of the hit's force.
"Remind me to never make that girl anger." Wally, very impressed and slightly afraid, whispered to Quiverwing, who nodded in reply without losing sight of Hillary and the knocked out clone at her feet.
"I've heard that the worst enemy you can have is yourself, but never thought about it literally." The J.A.M. sighed in relief while rubbing his forehead to get rid of some sweat.
"I know what you mean, J.A.M.; never imagined I was that tough." Mary said to her boyfriend while skating next to him, carrying the unconscious loon-clone and looking a little tired as well. Then, the human directed her attention to the clone on her arms, and gasped.
"Hey, she is breaking apart!" Mary gasped, making everyone to look at her and Shirley-Clone. As she claimed, the loon's body was cracking while getting paler by the second. Wally then pointed at the other clones, all of them on a similar situation, and, less than twenty seconds later, they turned into dust.
"Like, can someone explain what happened here, or some junk?" Shirley exclaimed, confused. Everybody looked at Quiverwing with puzzled expressions.
"Well, neither Liquidator nor Megavolt has the skills or knowledge to create clones, but this confirms what I feared; they aren't working alone. And I know one villain who can do the most amazing things with the simplest flower." Gosalyn rubbed her beak in thought, and then directed to the platform where the clones emerged.
"Anyway, now it's obvious that Ronald and his captors are right under our feet, or paws, or whatever. And that platform is our entrance." Quiverwing pointed; the other toons moved next to the platform, and then all of them took a mallet out from his/her body pocket.
CRAAAACK!
The platform broke because of the six mallets' impact, revealing a large and dark basement. Quiverwing shot a flare arrow to the bottom to get some illumination, and then took out three of her hook arrows with ropes attached; after securing them to the edge of the trap door, she and the other toons descended.
The moment Shirley touched the basement floor, she got a blank expression, quite similar to the one she had at the Loo right before Liquidator's attack, and, a second later, grabbed her head's sides and cried in pain.
"Oh, my… Shirley, are you okay?" Wally asked the loon in a very concerned tone. The other toons got worried expressions as well. At that moment, they heard several voices coming from the darkness around them.
"Do you have a sudden headache? Problems to concentrate? Then come and visit the Fearsome Hideout to get a permanent treatment."
"Oh, yeah! We can arrange that by cutting her head off!"
"That's not nice, Mister Banana Brain… but surely is funny!"
"Not as funny as giving them a shock therapy."
"Or we can use them as organic fertilizer. Power to the plants, that's what I say!"
"Cool down, boys. We'll have enough time to decide their imminent and painfully agonizing fates in a moment."
Quiverwing gasped, recognizing the voices. At that moment, the basement's lights turned on, and the six toons found themselves in the middle of a deep pit. Right over them, they could see their enemies; a dog made entirely of water; a duck with a wacky expression, large beak and huge teeth wearing a buffoon disguise and holding a banana-faced puppet; a rodent-like guy with a yellow jumpsuit, a plug-like hat/helmet, blue thick gloves and boots, a large battery strapped to his back, and a large socket on his chest; a duck so green it would make Plucky envious, with large wine-like arms, leaves-shaped hands, a purple petal-like hairdo, and brown root-like legs; and, finally, in the middle of them and showing a sinister look, a duck who liked exactly like Darkwing but with a different colored outfit, consisting on black and red cape, red fedora and turtleneck, and a yellow Thirties-style jacket with black buttons.
"Well, well, Quiverwing, aren't you going to introduce us to your friends?" The sinister looking duck said in a mocking tone. "Doesn't Dipwing teach you manners, young lady? What a shame."
Quiverwing growled at the comment, but before she could reply, Shirley moved in front of her, and got an extremely pale look (and that's a lot, considering her feathers are white) while looking right at the mocking villain.
"Like… you are the one I had been sensing!" Shirley exclaimed in anger and fear. "YOU ARE PURE NEGATIVE ENERGY! LIKE, AN INCARNATION OF EVIL, OR SOME JUNK!" The loon's companions gasped at her words; the last time she used that tone, it was when her powers failed at trying to read the jaguar and his friends' minds, and even then she didn't sound that scared or furious.
"Oh, you know, flattering isn't going to save you, missy… but it's appreciated." The duck chuckled evilly. Shirley's companions looked at him; even if, besides Gosalyn, of course, this was the first time they saw any of these villains, the duck's cruel and ruthless nature was evident to all of them.
"Shut up, Negaduck!" Quiverwing finally snapped at him. "If you want me to talk to accelerate this nonsense, then I'll do it," the duckette turned at her companions, and pointed at the villains, "Pals, here are The Fearsome Five, or The Bozo Squad, as Darkwing and I like calling them; you can call them Licky, Quaky, Sparky, Bushy, and Negs."
"Don't call me Sparky!" The rodent yelled in anger, making some sparkles appear around his head. "My name is…" the villain got a puzzled expression, and started rubbing his nose, "… my name is… don't tell me, I know that one. Just give me a minute…"
"You're Megavolt, dummy!" The buffoon duck said to him through his puppet. "And I'm Mister Banana Brain, and over here is my friend Quackerjack."
"Thanks, Mister Banana Brain." Quackerjack replied to his puppet in his normal (at least, for him) tone. "And over here are Bushroot…"
"You can call me Reggie as well, if you want."
"… and Liquidator."
"Your school needs a major cleaning? Had you always dreamed with an indoor river? Then, look no more, and, for a professional job, call the one and only Liquidator."
Hillary growled softly and scowled at the water-made dog. If looks could kill, Liquidator would be frozen, beaten, squished, blasted, diced, destroyed, turned into a ghost, and then killed again by now.
"And of course, you already know me… but you made a little mistake, Quiverwing darling." Negaduck said in a fake gentle tone. "We are no longer The Fearsome Five… but The Fearsome Six."
"I like the new name better, Mister Negaduck." A voice was heard from behind the five villains, and then a tall human toon, with a wacky black hairdo, glasses, and a lab coat approached the group.
Quiverwing, The J.A.M., Hillary and Wally got puzzled expressions, ignoring the guy's identity, but Shirley and Mary recognized him from some chats with Buster, Babs, Hamton, and, in the case of Shirley, Plucky as well. The girls looked at the man, and got stern expressions.
"Doctor Gene Splicer."