If you have previously followed or favourited this story and have received an alert that a new chapter has been added, that is not the case. I have spent some time these past few years altering and streamlining this story. And somehow it became longer by about three chapters. Currently, I am just posting my updates. I haven't actually made much progress furthering the story.
If you want to know what I've been up to, I have been adding flashbacks to help explain why Darkwing disappeared (only ever to the start of chapters to make them easier to find). Ripped out SHUSH material which I felt wasn't working. Anything involving Gosalyn, Tank, Honker, Negaduck, Launchpad or Morgana I may have made slight alterations but their stories should be just as you remembered them. If you remember them.
Disclaimer: I do not own Darkwing Duck™ or any character, location or event from that said show.
Last time on The Duck Knight Returns
- Grizzlikof seeks to uncover the mysteries surrounding Wonderland
- Morgana readies Gosalyn for her date.
- Darkwing Duck Returns.
The Duck Knight Returns
Ch 10: Date Night
Negaduck walked like a shadow past the Eggmen. Most readied a rack of grenades. Others cleaned and readied a Hot Dog stall. Negaduck looked over their shoulders to check their work. The Eggmen were professional. Negaduck was disappointed to find no error and loathe to admit it. He was pacing. Full of nervous energy. An error might have given him an outlet.
This operation was a gamble.
He addressed Megavolt and Quackerjack, "You're certain of the list of items you need?"
Quackerjack confirmed, "Triple checked."
"Narrowed your list of targets?"
"We know tech, Negs," Megavolt snapped, wincing once he thought better of who he was talking to.
Negaduck frowned, but was more irritated with himself for badgering the pair.
"We'll handle the rest," Negs assured them.
…
Heads turned. Some to admire. Some to desire. Gosalyn knew – she had to notice, Honker decided. Miss Darkwing had powers of observation enough to see the obvious. As he could observe her body language. The way she trailed behind the waitress guiding them to their table. Using Honker as cover to shield curious eyes. The young man thought it comical. He'd only ever known Gosalyn to be fearless; she could have walked through the same sophisticated crowd drawing stares in protective hockey pads or torn jeans and held her tough guy confidence. Stood tall and proud. Instead the dress Maru loaned her, which supplied a very good view of in her supple lower back, left her feeling naked – as the figure of speech goes.
She pulled out her own chair, saving Honk the mental debate of whether to be a gentleman. The waitress informed the pair of today's specials and asked for drink orders. Soft drinks, being underage, and moved on to seat another couple. Leaving Honker alone with Gosalyn to decide on their meal and catch up on time apart.
If Honk could convince Gosalyn to pull her hidden beak out from the menu. "I feel like I'm skating onto the ice before the big game. Bleaches full with an expectant crowd."
"You don't get anxious before a hockey match," Honk cited.
"No. I guess not. But I imagine this to be that feeling."
"Is it that you've turned every head in this room with that stunning dress?" Honker asked slyly, "Or being here with me?"
"What do you mean?" She hoped he was not implying she felt somehow ashamed to be in Honker's company. Or regretting being here with him. She asked him out. She was wearing a dress for him!
"It's been a while. You. Me. Talking."
"We talk. We talked yesterday morning." Where she had refused to even face him and let him speak to the back of her head.
"Not the same. Why now? Did putting on the costume really change how you feel about me overnight?"
Pull no punches, Honker. Perceptive question.
Gosalyn had been terrible to her erstwhile best friend in the past year, she knew. How could Honker be criticised for wondering if she were reluctant to be seen out socially together? An outsider would find it inconceivable they had been friends at all the way she had treated him. Whenever the pair was together she felt a wave of resentment toward him. Any time they were apart the regret was worse. Until she feared one day Honker would loath to talk to her at all and the only feelings she held for him would be ones of pain.
"Yes. Putting it on felt like I was me again. I knew what I had to do. Setting things right with my old partner top of the list."
Honker did not respond. He silently contemplated. Leaning his head to one side in a 'tell me more' gesture. Denying any sign her words had penetrated that big brain of his. What was he waiting for, an apology? Could he not see what she was trying to put across? That he could be so dense to her feelings was what drove this wedge between them.
"On second thought, I do know this – anxiety, was it? - feeling. Meeting prospective parents in the adoption agency. Soaring hope you knew could turn false."
Honker dropped his pathetic stoic act and turned sympathetic. "I promise I'll take you home with me."
After a pause he added, "It would be a shame to ruin that dress walking," and he smirked mischievously. Gosalyn realised he was genuinely pleased to have her back.
And she was genuinely pleased to be back. "The dress, the dress. You wouldn't feel bad leaving me to walk?"
"Since you bring up the dress, how did Morgana coax you into wearing one?"
"It belongs to Maru. I fought tooth and nail against everything Morgana suggested all afternoon. Maru was our honest broker. It looks better on her, with those green feathers."
"You submitted to a girl's day of make-up and clothes?"
"You didn't imagine I woke up in this dress? It wasn't bad though. Clothes shopping was that bad. Having Maru style my hair was…. It was nice. Until she admitted I was her first model."
They jumped back into small talk like old times. Thawing the freeze in their friendship. There had been a rhythm which existed between them previously, as if they knew each others thoughts. Now tone deaf with disuse. So long as they were talking. It was all Gosalyn could ask for.
The small talk did level off for a time. There was only one topic on their minds and it was not the appetisers. The return of Darkwing Duck. Strangely, Honker was delaying broaching the topic. Gosalyn expected he must have something he wanted to ask or say, how could he not? The waitress arrived with their soda and took their meal order and Gosalyn took a different path to allow Honk to open up to her.
"So. A collage man, finally! What can they teach a brain like you? Or are you teaching them?"
"Are... you positive you want to talk about school?"
School was a taboo subject. Gosalyn was outright reactionary on the subject. If you brought it up, she reacted. She mentally kicked herself. In asking about Honker's move to college, Gosalyn inadvertently created an impasse in which Honker felt the need to close off least he offend. She did not want him to close off.
"I don't want to talk about school. I want to talk about you, dummy. I'd have thought they would have accepted you a few years earlier. The youngest college graduate of SCCU history!"
Honk displayed mock horror. "And give up the baseball team?" lapse in judgement as Gosalyn had been dismissed from the baseball team. Same as every other sports team. He breathed an inner sigh of relief when she simply teased him, saying, "Honk, I never told you this but you're lousy at baseball. You hate baseball."
"I hated Tank as team captain," Honker defended. His older brother had never given up an opportunity to give Honker a hard time. "Never said I hated baseball."
"Maybe you never used the word hate…," Gosalyn admitted.
"I guess over the years I remember only the good times in baseball. Like you carrying us to victory on your ricochet rocket. Thinking back, I remember your home runs more clearly than mine."
Being banned from all school sporting events for un-sportswoman like behaviour, Gosalyn despised reminders of the, "good ol' days". This evening, with Honk, she decided to accept a trip down memory lane in the spirit it was given. There was wistfulness to his recollection of events. Honker missed those innocent days as well.
"Honk, you never scored a home run. You hardly ever hit the ball. If you did, it was thrown by a machine and you'd pre-calculated the trajectory."
"I did not," cocky smile saying otherwise.
She insisted. "College! Tell!"
"I was invited to assist my lecturer's in his latest research thesis," he finally decided to tell her. "He's attempting to prove the existence of alternate universes by replicating Elmo Sputterspark's rumoured stable division of positron and negatrons. Truthfully, I was invited because I was the only one on campus who believed his theory. Otherwise – he has tenure; the board can't get rid of him."
"No block parties and teenage girls for Mr Smartypants?" Not that Gosalyn minded if other girls kept their distance. Their loss. "Did you inform him of your role in the true events surrounding Megavolt's Tron Splitter?" Their first encounter with the original Negaduck, sparking the reoccurring incursion into this world from the Negaverse.
Then his smile left him and he played with his soda. Running his finger around the rim of the glass.
"I saw on the news. Negaduck is back in St Canard."
"I saw it too," Gosalyn confirmed.
"You know, you've started an urban legend on campus. 'Negaduck threatens St Canard. Darkwing Duck has returned."
They came at last to the topic on everyone's mind. He had to talk quiet, so his voice did not travel. The ambient noise of a busy restaurant covered his words.
"It's more than myth!" Gosalyn determined to make it so. "Soon, everyone is going to know Darkwing is back. People don't have to be afraid anymore. Unless you're a bad guy."
"Going to clean up the streets all on your own, are you?"
A tall order for a solitary duckling, he was suggesting. He could not realise Gosalyn had been considering the same before she pulled up to order a pair of Hippo shakes.
"Now you mention it, I could use a trusted sidekick. The candidate must be brave and true. Able to keep a secret. It's not a prerequisite but looking handsome in that sweater doesn't hurt…," eyeballing his casual attire. She let the offer hang in air. Not daring to say more.
"The last time I played sidekick we were nine. When I advised you to listen to your father and stay home. You trapped me in a net and ran away to confront Negaduck. How did that turn out, by the way?"
Not well. ""Believe me, any invitation to a mano o' mano grudge match from Negaduck, I'm tapping GizmoDuck and taking the night off. I won't walk into the same trap twice."
"You will encounter Negaduck eventually," he pressed. "If you learn Negaduck had something to do with your dad's disappearance? Hypothetically speaking," he clarified his logic to ease the bombshell he dropped, "Negaduck had motive. And vanished around the same time as Darkwing."
Gosalyn did not have an immediate answer to the scenario he outlined. Truthfully, she'd never considered Negaduck as the culprit. His departure from the St Canard crime scene predated the trouble with F.O.W.L., culminating in the disappearance of Darkwing Duck. Honker interpreted her sudden silence incorrectly. For the first time, Honk envisaged revenge as her motive. Taking up the mantle just as Negaduck reappeared.
"You would risk your life on the chance Negaduck had something to do with your dad? What's your plan for dealing with the Fearsome Five? You can bet they'll be hiding under Neg's cape."
Honker added, "You can't think you can take them all on. I told you Negaduck was too much then and you didn't listen. Are you listening now?"
Gosalyn was cross. She crossed her arms to prove it. Effort to restrain voices to the crowd in the restaurant eased. She spoke at a normal level and damn anyone who snooped on their conversation. "I'm listening. I'm listening and hearing a lot of, 'can'ts' and, 'won'ts'. As long as people 'can't' and 'won't' this city will stay a toilet."
"St Canard has a hero. Several heroes," Honker argued. "GizmoDuck and the Justice Ducks. Hooter has FOWL demolished. He's expanding SHUSH jurisdiction to clean up domestic crime. Professional agents with training, experience and recognised authority."
"Not the same down in the old haunt. Hooter can crack down foreign dictators or anarchists all he likes. I'm talking about the people they overlook, viewing the world from their towers. Families and gang violence. The city hasn't been the same since Darkwing," she refused to say die, "left."
Gosalyn pleaded with Honker one last time. Because if he best friend didn't believe in her…. "Honk…. I need you. I can't do this without you."
Honker went silent. When he did speak. He was quiet. But he was steel. "You're going to have to find a way.
"I've dreaded all day what you were going to ask and all day I've been turning over and over in my head how to tell you no. There is no future in bounding over rooftops for me. Nursing bruised knuckles. I have more to offer completing my PhD. Making a difference with science. I'm not afraid. I'm where I want to be. It's not selfish."
"No. You're right. It's not selfish." Crushed as she may be, Gosalyn did not fault her friend (or was trying very hard not to fault her friend) for his choice. Every word he said was true.
Feeling bad she wasn't as smart as Honker. By no means the first time he had made her feel inadequate beside him. Perhaps that why she avoided him. She took the role of Darkwing because she was good for nothing else.
"Please don't go," Honk asked, citing the poor argument, "These tables were difficult to get on short notice." Then his reasons for wanting her to stay. "I want to have a night out with Gosalyn. Not Darkwing. Gosalyn. My friend. I don't want us to end like this; I want to see you again."
"I won't," go, she meant to say. Though staying made her feel embarrassed she had been turned down.
With the deepest sincerity, he told her, "I am so sorry."
She may never see his cute tail feathers in tights. As long as they were here, experiencing this awkward moment together she might as well utilise his brain.
"I want to ask you something. Or tell you something. I want to tell you something and hear what you think."
Once he accentuated with a nod, "Morgana played a video of the Negaduck attack. I was me. Working for Negaduck. A Nega-me."
"A Nega-you? A Negaverse you?
"Nega-Gosalyn. She had the abilities of the entire Fearsome Five. Megavolt, Liquidator, Bushroot, Quackerjack. And she moved like Negaduck. I can't imagine how."
"Darkwing said Negaduck came from a Negaverse. I never knew what to make of it. I suppose if there is a Nega-Darkwing and a Nega-Gosalyn then there must be a Nega-Honker," he mused.
"He's probably good at sports," Gosalyn could not help but tease.
"Nega-Gosalyn and Nega-Honker together must be the baddest two kids in the world."
Please God, not let there be a Nega-Honker. Gosalyn did not wish to fight a Nega-Honker. "Any ideas?"
"I'm wondering how many more negatives Negaduck has backing him up, and where are they? He had the opportunity to recruit a population of evil negatives."
"Not inspiring confidence, Honker."
There was that one adventure…. "She wasn't holding that mystical crystal Negaduck once used to steal and combine the Fearsome Fives powers?"
Shrug.
"I'll give the matter some thought as to how to counter her. Until then, your best bet is the knock her out of a fight before she can use those abilities against you."
…
Gosalyn steered conversation toward lighter topics such as her antics in the salvage yard. Asking Honk if he knew any college girls and feigning disappointment when Honk admitted he didn't really have the courage to talk to any.. Honker, terrified of offending, would not broach the topic of Darkwing anymore. Silencing his unease seeing his oldest - only - friend in the firing line.
Honk offered to be a gentleman and pay the bill. Naturally, Gosalyn rubbished the thought. "I asked you out. Besides, it's Morgana's money," she added sheepishly. She could never have afforded this night without her guardian's charity.
Unsurprisingly, Honker was unused to clubs and not the greatest dancer. Gosalyn did not mind. Not when she could stand close. Teach him how to move in time with rhythm. Hold his hand. Touch his chest. The pair danced with more enthusiasm than skill.
Gosalyn also did not mind the attention of other patrons, men and woman alike. She wanted them all to know this one was taken.
The bouncers did mind underage patrons sneaking in. Makes the exit more exciting.
Honker was instructed to pull up a block downwind of Tanks apartment. No telling when Mr Edmund, the landlord, may be sniffing out Tank's visitors. Enforcing his strict tenancy rulings.
"Again? Sometime?" Gos floated, reluctant to end the night by getting out of the car though uncertain of herself, him, together in this scenario. The awkward goodbye proceeding a successful night of dinner and dancing.
"I won't bother asking again for you to give up the cape and come back to school. You're too stubborn. I have to ask – every time I offered, why did you never let me help you?"
Truthfully, she held high hopes Honk had already figured that part out. "I didn't want a tutor, Honk. I wanted you."
"I think I see that now." Months of analysing the postscript of their splintering friendship had planted the one dubious rationale in his mind. He could kick himself for the lost time after misinterpreting how Gosalyn saw their relationship. "For someone so smart, I guess I can be pretty dense, huh?"
Yes. Yes, you are. "Goodnight, Honk"
Awkward moment upon them. Lean in for a - you know. A kiss?
Handshake. Handshakes work too. She offered him hers and he took it.
"Night, Gosalyn."
…
Tank had two nights off a week. Never the weekend. Not solely the strip club. He applied the trade of breaking heads up and down the old haunt. Working contract. His own boss. This night he choose to spend enjoying a full night of sleep such as those lofty, high class blue collar nine to five workers enjoyed.
"How was it?"
She would usually fall in to bed no matter what her attire. Gosalyn didn't want to get Maru's beautiful dress crumpled.
"Move over and give some blanket," she ordered after removing Maru's dress and digging out a t-shirt from her washing pile. Tank grudgingly obliged.
"Tank? Will you be my sidekick?"
"I thought I already was."
Good enough for Gosalyn. She rolled over and closed her eyes. Disturbed by a shifting body under the blanket beside her.
"How much does it pay?"
…
Early morning. St Canard City Plaza. Uniformed police closed the roads, restricting the area to pedestrian traffic. The blight of protestors efficiently removed. The streets spotless and spit-shined. Snipers lined the rooftops. Anyone entering the area passed through metal detectors. Crowds gathered in their thousands hoping for a glimpse. The most heroic duck in all the world would be making an appearance today.
Today was meant as a show of solidarity between the GizmoDuck and S.H.U.S.H. Recognition of his tireless pursuit of justice and how the authorities appreciated his efforts. A special gift symbolising that relationship had been promised which the world was eager to be unveiled.
The date for this public presentation had been set for weeks now and was not, as some commentators suggested, a morale boosting stunt for the city. Many officials did note the timing was a fortunate coincidence and what the doctor ordered.
Or no coincidence at all, Negaduck mused. Mingling in the crowd. He had been covertly prowling this world for some time. Perfecting the timing of his plan. This presentation begged to struck down. Glorious perfection of a target for Negaduck to initiate phase two of his campaign. In his continuing war against this was the battleground.
At all costs Negaduck was determined to spoil the party.
…