This one is definitely new material. As for chapters 14 and 15. I know what I want to have happen. They are, in their current stat, an incomprehensible mess.
Disclaimer: I do not own Darkwing Duck™ or any character, location or event from that said show.
Last time on The Duck Knight Returns
- GizmoDuck's big day interrupted.
- Negaduck attempts to assassinate J. Gander Hooter.
- The Justice Ducks are caught on the back foot.
- Darkwing Duck and faithful sidekick Tank face The Liquidator.
- Negaduck gives Bushroot a secret assignment.
The Duck Knight Returns
Ch 13. A Song of Water and Weeds
It was chaos. The majority of the crowd had cleared though stragglers cowered, ran in diverging directions or sought took shelter where they could find it. Smoke and tear gas grenades obscured vision. Gunfire echoed in the streets.
"I should have taken the South American option," Reggie lamented, keeping his head down in an overturned kebab stall. Signing on with Negaduck's insane plot to assassinate J. Gander Hooter, what had he been thinking? What else could he do? He needed help. A professional shrink. A padded room perhaps. They had put him in a deep, dark hole.
Gosalyn, with Tank, raced to the heart of St Canard. Sliding the Ratchatcher to a halt.
Stegmutt traded left and right hooks with an animated tree. Burte strength deciding which combatant would walk away. Gosalyn watched a squad of S.H.U.S.H. agents, assault rifles and shotguns raised, advance on another tree. Dashing forward with stunning agility for a tree, several agents were thrown in the air like rag dolls. Revenge was instant. Cleverly, the agents concentrated fire half way up the trunk. Firing from left to right. Bullets tore through the creature like a buzz saw. Cut in half, the tree crawled on its limbs and fought on.
"This is great footage." Tank still had his camcorder rolling. Capturing this disaster gleefully with a view to boost his U-tube subscribers no doubt. Gosalyn was less enthused. The agents may have been just defending themselves, but to unleash such firepower on streets packed with civilians? It was madness.
"Bubba!"
Caveduck hacked at the smaller roots with a whip and machete like he was Indiana Jones. When and how he smuggled his gear past the S.H.U.S.H. perimeter, who could say? He shredded the bush with an almighty hack and looked across.
"Liquidator!" Gos pointed behind her.
Bubba nodded. Looking around, he ran for a convenience market and made a dash for it. Gosalyn knew she could count on the outdoor survivalist to hatch a strategy, anything, to assist her.
The two story tall water man in question thundered down the street. The lead she had created closing rapidly. Snipers above fired on him. They may have had a difficult time identifying clear targets through Negaduck's smoke haze. Liquidator was impossible to conceal and surely not one of the good guys. Not that their rifles were having any noticeable effect.
His watery fist reformed into a mallet.
"Don't leave just yet Darkwing, we have a very special offer on coffins for you," he taunted the teens. Tank muttered to his partner about putting her foot on the gas as he approached.
"Two for one special," Liquidator swung.
The Ratcatcher disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Liquidator stared dumbfounded at his hand. No cycle parts or mangled corpses caught in his grasp.
Twin gas grenades entered the back of his head with a splash. There having exploded inside him annoyed Liqi, but did not more damage then to turn his fluid a little cloudy.
"Not fast enough Liquidator."
She stood atop a lamp post. Eye level. Gas gun in hand. Where her sidekick or gaudy bike disappeared to he could not guess. Liquidator turned on the cocky girl child.
"Never underestimate the power of water."
His arms extended and tore the lamp post from ground. She grappled to a nearby storefront.
...
The Eggman responsible for drugging Launchpad still wore his hot dog vendor uniform but had traded in the cap for a F.O.W.L. issue helmet. He ran up behind Negaduck, whom had just knocked out the impostor, Camille Chameleon.
"We need to leave," his boss commanded.
"Oh Christ! It's Darkwing Duck!"
Negaduck shot around. He spotted the young caped crusader up a lamp post. Battling the Liquidator.
…
Liqi used the lamp post as a club to flatten Darkwing, missing as she evaded and destroying the storefront instead.
"Do you have that sinking feeling? On call Plumber no where to be found? Maybe you should just drown yourself!" the water man roared, swinging again. Missing again.
So focused on Darkwing, on ending her life. He never heard the overloaded trolley clatter and rattle or the determined, "Yaaaah," battle cry of the man behind it.
Bubba Caveduck rammed a supermarket trolley loaded with washing powder and soaps into the beast. Shouting triumphantly as they immediately reacted with water turbulent water.
Liquidator was formed when crooked entrepreneur Bud Flud took a dive into toxic, heavy metal contaminated 'hard' water. It may strike one as strange soap powder could be anything more than a nuisance to a being made entirely of water. Suds, even too higher levels of pure water, were actually one of Liquidator's few weaknesses. A weakness Darkwing Duck had used this against him on several occasions.
Soap powder messed with his composition on a chemical level. Removed heavy metals. Converted him to 'soft' water. Weakened his outer membrane and damaged cohesion, taking all the more concentration for Liquidator to take form.
He felt queasy and weak. He could not continue as a two story behemoth. Liquidator had no choice but to shed his stature. Reverting to his normal size and falling to his knees.
Now Agents of S.H.U.S.H. closed around him, activating their taser prods. Several charged in to stun the monster.
…
Liquidator considered himself well versed in all forms of pain. Enduring Hooter's experiments Wonderland facility, the jolts of electricity from the stun batons were gentle by his measure. Feeble as a trolley load of soap powder had left him, he felt strength return with his rage. He swung at the agents and missed. Another swing and he knocked an agent back.
"Get a vac team here now," an agent in charge transmitted, calling for specialised, back mounted, vacuum cleaner styled equipment designed to contain Liquidator. To take him back to the house of horrors.
Not going to happen.
Fury gave Liquidator a second wind he grew in size again.
He kicked over a man. Smacked another with a backhand. The agent in charge he scooped up. Enclosing in a fist. The little man, a donkey, took a last gulp of precious air as water closed around his head.
"No cash down. Pay with you life."
Payment for seven years of torment locked in a fish bowl. Liqi picked up another agent. Stood on another. They would all drown.
"No!"
The irritating new female Darkwing attempted to shoot a grapple line to the agent, a lifeline for him to grip as she tugged him free. Caveduck followed her example, throwing handle of his whip to the agent the monster stood upon. The drag of the currents inside Liquidator were too strong, it was like trying to drag a bus with a length of rope. Instead, Liquidator yanked the grapple line, exerting enough force to pull her off her perch on the storefront overhang. She flipped and landed gracefully on the pavement.
Liquidator felt his strength ebb once more. The suction holding the agents trapped let up and Caveduck pulled one to safety. The wretch gulping in life giving air once free. Liqi quickly established the source of the problem. The plants. Small bushes and trees congregating around him. Their roots were draining his energy. Drinking him.
Bushroot.
"No, no, no, no," the prone to fret weed whined. "Negaduck said no killing."
…
Reggie approached his old partner in crime cautiously. Leafy palms raised. No threat. Concerned for his well being, Gosalyn wanted to stop him from approaching the water man only for Caveduck grip her shoulder. Urging her to wait.
"This isn't the plan. We need to leave. Disrupt then flee. Negaduck said. "
Liquidator was having none of it. "Screw Negaduck!"
"I'm not going to let you kill them Bud," Reggie spoke with renewed resolve.
…
Two nights ago.
"You know what I'm ultimately planning; you'll have to decide sooner or later if you can square it with your conscience. But I still need to know with absolute certainty that iron resolve you think you have before me won't buckle. So first, a test. You're first assignment. Liquidator."
Negaduck righted the seat he had knocked over and huddled close for conspiracy. He could have shouted it; he had designed this room soundproof among other things. But some things were better said in hushed tones.
"I can't imagine what they did to Liquidator in there. He had it worse than the rest of you combined. I want you to stay close to Liquidator. Keep him on the level. Keep him focused on the task. And for God sake, don't let him kill anyone. Once he starts, he'll never stop."
Once Negaduck had outlined Reggie's assignment he stood, passed his board of targets and headed for the door. Best to check up on the other three quarters of the moron squad.
Before Negaduck had left the room - this was something that could only be spoken of in this room and even then - Reggie had the presence of mind to ask, "Why would you ask this of me?"
Negaduck paused. Considering his answer.
"Because you killed two men."
Negaduck turned and left. Leaving Reggie to think about his past crimes and Negaduck's assignment.
…
It was true. Dr Reginald Bushroot. Once a botanist. Now a murderer. He murdered Dr's Larson and Gary. They bullied and they belittled and they laughed as his failed experiment mutated his body into a half duck/half plant hybrid. He murdered them and he kidnapped the only one who ever showed him kindness. He tried to force Dr Dendron become like him. Because he loved her.
He knew now why Negaduck entrusted him with this. Even if he did not understand why Negaduck cared.
Liquidator was shrinking once more. The plants were sapping having an impact.
"I demand satisfaction!" Liqi bellowed.
Liquidator owed no loyalty to any duck. He simply desired revenge. To repay with interest the indignities S.H.U.S.H. imposed on he. If Reggie got in the way, that was just too bad.
He stomped on small saplings and pushed grown trees off him. The sting of another electric prod on the back of his calf informed him the S.H.U.S.H. squad had regained their courage. He understood the danger too late. Vac agents, called for earlier by the senior agent, attacked with their vacuum packs. Liquidator tried to resist and grab a handhold, clawing at the stone tile work of the plaza. To his horror he could not escape. They recovered every drop, leaving naught even a puddle of the once fearsome Liquidator.
Agent Donkey withered on the cold ground and coughed up water. He gulped in precious, precious air like it was soon to be taxed. He had really thought he was done for.
Able to breath. Able to stand. Able to walk. He understood Bushroot had saved his life and that of his men. Standing up to Liquidator at a crucial time.
"You saved us," he coughed. "Thank you."
Donkey lifted his sidearm and shot Dr Reginald Bushroot in his forehead.
…
Gosalyn screamed obscenities for the treacherous agent though he didn't care. Actually kind of liked a few of the more inventive curses she threw at him. His agents closed in protectively, weapons drawn on the girl and ordering her to desist as Caveduck braved every elbow and backward kick. Gripping tightly around her waist. Keeping her from a making a bad situation worse.
Donkey felt a chill down his spine like the Grim Reaper laying a hand on his shoulder.
He looked over his shoulder. Across the plaza he locked eyes with the Negaduck.
Negaduck stared at him. Donkey stared right back. Negaduck was expressionless. A face carved in stone, etched with grim resolve. Donkey meet it with a passive indifference. A smoke canister went off at Negaduck's foot and their eyes broke contact as the enemy of the state disappeared.
…
Gosalyn ordered Tank to stay back and he was thrilled to comply. Whoever was too proud to take orders from a woman? Not Tank Muddlefoot. She ordered him to stay away from water tower of terror. Who was he to argue?
"Take the bike. Not a scratch," she had said.
Between capturing sweet action shots with his camera and aiding a few stragglers to find cover, Tank had unexpectedly discovered Launchpad and Morgana. She appeared to have dragged his unconscious dead weight to cover behind a low stone wall and continued to watch over the useless lug. Also, she was suffering a muscle spasm every few seconds.
"It's the bracelet…. Keeps shocking….Can't do magic…."
Tank had no idea how to remove the bloody thing. It was too tight to pull off, he only caused Morgana pain when he tried. Tank even received a good zap once or twice. He was reminded of the time he wore a dog shock collar on a losing bet to Gosalyn.
The joining claps wouldn't budge. Morgana hammered her wrist upon the stone wall hoping to break it. "Witchcraft…. Requires…. Calculation…. He knew….."
To be honest, Tank hardly listening. He found a spare bottle of engine oil in a Ratcatcher compartment and was trying to pry the bracelet off again. It was messy. And it was stubborn where the thumb connected. There was no way to remove it without causing Morgana pain, so he simply tried to work as fast as possible. Wiggling it back and forth. Gaining millimetre by millimetre.
"He knew because…. I told him…. Tank, he knew…."
"Who?"
"I don't know…. Tank…. I don't know…."
…
Thrown in the ground and cuffed. Just like her every other run in with law enforcement. This was was not how Gosalyn imagined her services would be rewarded. Under arrest. Her beak planted on the ground, her hands handcuffed behind her back and a S.H.U.S.H. agent holding a gun to the back of her head.
She felt guilty for Caveduck who was in the same boat as her. All he did was hold her back and try to talk her down. Maybe she took it too far when she asked how Agent Donkey managed to lick Hooter's ass with such an enormous nose in the way. Or it might have been the crack about how his parents were related which set them off. Definitively the jibe about how his funny teeth were from sucking too much of Daddy's thumb as a child. If you replace the word thumb with….
...
…