About a week after he told Mr. McD and the kids he was leaving, Launchpad bought two hangers in the Saint Canard airport. He would freelance until he either met Darkwing or found some other way to help people. He wanted action and adventure and to do something important, but he also needed to earn a living.

The hangers were full of his planes; some needed repairs or other maintenance, others were fine, others were still being built. Contrary to what Mr. McD and his other friends seemed to believe, not all of the repairs that needed to be done to his planes were due to crashes, and not all the planes that looked like they needed repairs did; some of them just hadn't been fully constructed yet. He loved building planes; it was one of his favorite hobbies. He sold some of them when he was desperate for money.

As he was putting the Thunderquack into the second hanger, he heard a scream and a crash come from the first.

He ran into the hanger and saw a short duck in purple standing by his biplane, the Joy Rider.

"Clever of me to use my spine to break my fall like that," Launchpad heard the stranger laugh to himself.

"Hold it right there, yah pirate!" he cried, startling the duck, who looked toward him, blinked and did a double take, probably registering Launchpad's size.

"No, no, no," the stranger said, shrinking back with wide eyes and holding his arms out, shaking his hands in an "I surrender" motion. "I'm a-"

Launchpad flew at the stranger like Jungle Duck and slammed into him, knocking him to the ground. The shorter duck fell into a pile of miscellaneous items.

"Nobody but nobody messes with the airplanes in my hanger," he grunted as he pummeled the stranger, "Or my name isn't Launchpad McQuack!"

Launchpad very rarely lost his temper, but he didn't like thieves; he thought anyone who would steal from anyone else was a bully who didn't care about anyone but themselves. As he spoke and punched the duck, he managed to somehow get him into a plane tire. The duck's eyes were wide.

Launchpad stormed behind the plane tire with the duck rolling in it, hovering over him and talking down at him. His brows were knitted and his hands were balled into fists. As he told the stranger his name, he stopped walking and put his hands on his hips. He took a step forward, but he was so intent on the potential thief that he wasn't looking where he was going and stepped into the hole caused by the stranger's fall. Launchpad's eyes went wide as he fell and his anger was replaced with surprise.

"You don't understand!" the duck said, struggling to get the tire off him as Launchpad climbed out of the hole. "I'm not a thief; I'm-"

He hopped towards Launchpad as he spoke and Launchpad struggled to help him remove the tire. His eyes were closed as he struggled until he finally got it off the stranger, who fell at Launchpad's feet.

Launchpad couldn't help smiling. He never could stay angry for long, and apparently he had misjudged this odd character.

The stranger sat on the ground, looking confused and a little roughed up. Launchpad suddenly realized who he was!

"Darkwing Duck!" he squeaked, amazed. He couldn't believe his eyes. Here was his purpose for choosing Saint Canard in the first place! He hadn't even moved here yet and he was already meeting his hero. What were the odds?

"You know me?"

"Know you?" Launchpad asked, standing Darkwing up and dusting him off. "I'm your biggest fan!"

Darkwing clasped his hands together.

"A fan? Really?" Then he cleared his throat and his voice deepened and his face changed from surprise to tough. Somehow he managed to look sheepish at the same time. Launchpad never took his eyes off his hero and he liked the tough but sheepish look; he found it vaguely amusing. "I mean, really?"

Sure! What are you doing here?"

"Oh, just another stop over in my never ending fight against-" he paused, looking first at the plane behind Launchpad's left shoulder, then at Launchpad, then gasped. "Hey, you're a pilot!"

He jumped at Launchpad. He landed with his feet on Launchpad's chest and grabbed his flight goggles and pulled on them. Launchpad was too surprised to say anything. He leaned back to balance them both as his head was being jarred by Darkwing still pulling on his goggles. Then Darkwing hopped over Launchpad's head and landed on the ground. Launchpad stared after him, holding the left side of his aching head, where Darkwing had been pulling, and wondering if his hero had all his marbles.

"We can use this plane to catch those crooks!"

"Oh boy," Launchpad thought, "This must be my lucky day!" This was exactly the opportunity he'd been hoping for!

"Oh," he laughed, "I got something a lot better than this plane!" He pointed behind him at the Joy Rider with his thumb. He started to walk towards the other hanger with a grin.

"No time; get in!" Darkwing insisted. Launchpad was suddenly hesitant and surprised. Darkwing was practically yelling at him, almost like Mr. McD. "We have evildoers to thwart!"

"But in the next hanger, I got this-"

"Now, Fan!" Darkwing said firmly. Then he seemed to notice the look on Launchpad's face. His face became pleading and he gave Launchpad puppy dog eyes. He said, in a wheedling tone, "I'll give you my autograph."

Launchpad ran to the cockpit.

"I'm here for yah, DW!"

"Yah know, I could be your sidekick!" he said as he took off. "I got a whole scrapbook of your newspaper clippings. He chuckled. Of course, it's not a very big scrapbook."

Launchpad knew DW was not a big time hero. Most of the articles seemed to mock him. Launchpad was hoping to help him change all that. He knew there was a real hero inside DW, but that no hero could do everything alone. Behind every great hero, there was at least one person to help him.

"Wouldn't it be easier to fly if we were facing the other way?" Darkwing asked nervously, standing up in his seat and pointing over Launchpad's head.

He lowered his head to avoid DW's arm, suddenly realizing that he was flying backwards. He hated when he got over eager like this. He wanted so badly to please that he let himself get distracted. That was what caused most of his crashes when he worked for Mr. McD.

"Oh, yeah, sorry; I sometimes have trouble with that," he said sheepishly, spinning the plane like a top in order to turn the right way, propeller first.

Darkwing had been chasing a condor carrying an engine with wings attached to a train car. The car had been separated from the train so the crooks could steal the piece of equipment it was transporting. Three thugs had stolen the equipment for their boss, a big time criminal named Taurus Bulba.

"It's right under us," Darkwing said when he saw the train. "Can you take us lower?"

"No problemo!" Launchpad said cheerfully, and took the plane into a near nose dive, breaking a few feet above the condor.

"Gosh, thanks," Darkwing said.

"I aim to please!" Launchpad closed his eyes, pointed at his chest with his thumb and smiled happily. He'd managed to impress DW with his flying.

"It's that costumed meddler again, a gruff voice came over a radio around the condor's neck. "Get rid of him."

"OK," DW said, "I'm here. Now how do I turn this thing around?"

Launchpad's mouth dropped open in shock as the bird suddenly grabbed DW in his claws and flew away with him.

"All right, Beak Face," DW said, sounding braver than he looked, "This is getting monotonous! You better-"

The bird dropped him. DW screamed, looking terrified; his eyes were wide. "You don't understand! I like monotony!" He tumbled towards the ground head first.

"I'm coming, DW!" Launchpad said, as he did an upside down twist and loop to fly over Darkwing so DW could grab onto the Joy Rider's wheel axel.

The angry bird chased after them. Launchpad put his right hand to his mouth.

"Don't worry," he said to Darkwing. "I'll shake him!"

He went into another near nose dive on a spin, made a sharp right and barreled into a series of tight spins to form a pig's tail. He doubled back into an up and down wave, then a few more pig's tails. The condor followed Launchpad's every move.

Desperately, Launchpad did a low dive into a residential area. He was diving so low that DW was forced to run on the roof tops of houses, but he had to get rid of this crazy bird. He dove lower, pulling Darkwing through tree tops, then crashed in and out of a house. The condor, still hot on their tails, came out of the house wrapped in a blanket.

"Nice going, Ace," Launchpad thought. "You finally meet your hero and have a chance to help him, but saving his life is gonna kill him if you're not careful. Think about what you're doing!"

Darkwing screamed for Launchpad, grabbing onto the wheel axel again. Launchpad flew a bit higher, then dipped to try to surprise the bird, but he crashed into a telephone pole. The bird flew off, back in the direction of the train.

Launchpad found himself sprawled on the telephone wires. DW was holding onto the telephone pole, looking shocked. Launchpad wasn't phased. As he told the kids ones, "Any crash you can walk away from is a good crash."

"They got away," Darkwing said, looking at Launchpad sadly.

Launchpad was now secretly furious with himself. Here was his chance to prove he could be a good sidekick for Darkwing and he had crashed already! He hated the part of him that was so eager to please that he forgot everything else that was usually common sense to him! But he showed Darkwing the side of him that never gave up, the fighter, who refused to let a crash stop him.

"Can't argue that point, DW." Launchpad smiled down at him. "So what do we do next?"

"We?" Darkwing asked angrily. He glared at Launchpad as he slid down the pole, using the remains of the joy rider's right wing as a kind of step stool. Launchpad followed, sliding down the pole. "We do nothing! I work alone!"

"But I could be your sidekick," Launchpad said. He didn't like the pleading tone in his voice, or the fact that he was in tears. It hurt to be rejected by someone you idolized. He felt even worse than he had all those times Mr. McD had fired him or called him stupid.

"Singing cowboys have sidekicks! I rely on me, nobody but me. Got that?"

"Oh, please," he begged, squeezing his eyes shut and grabbing Darkwing's left leg with his arms. He couldn't believe he was doing this. He was begging Darkwing like a child begging a parent for something he really wanted, but he couldn't seem to stop himself. Being Darkwing's sidekick was as important to him as it had been to fly the McX in the air show to impress his family. He also couldn't believe his hero wanted nothing to do with him.

"Let me make this clear for you," Darkwing said, pulling away. Launchpad fell to the ground due to the force of Darkwing's pull, feeling worse than he ever had in his life. "I never want to see you again, ever!"

"OK," Launchpad said sadly as Darkwing turned his back on him and walked down the street. Then his fighting spirit reasserted itself. Maybe once DW cooled down he could talk to him and ask for another chance to prove himself. "Do you want my phone number?"

Darkwing kept walking.