DARK DUCK: FOWLed

CHAPTER TWO

PART 1

Ingredient

Early Sunday Morning

"Hey, dad!" Gosalyn was shaking him. "Geez, it's true; vampires really could sleep through earthquakes."

"What, what's the matter?" He sat up and looked wildly about at his blue, green, and wood coloured room. "There's no earthquake here!"

"Uh, no; it's breakfast time."
Drake groaned, "Gosalyn!" He fell backwards onto the pillow again and shut his eyes. All he wanted right now was more sleep.
"This is serious, dad. I want to make sure you eat the right food." She tickled him until they tumbled onto the floor.
"Okay! I'm up already!" Without really a choice about 'getting up', Drake got up off the floor and straightened his bedcovers back into tidy place. He changed behind the screen and headed downstairs with Gosalyn.

A litter of mess greeted him in the kitchen. Orange halves, banana skins, the green tops off strawberries, apple cores all pushed aside during a hardcore creation process.

"Gosalyn ...?" This all signified hard work on her part.
"Here, dad," she handed him a glass of juice poured from the blending jug.
"Oh, sweetie ..." Drake took a breath, overwhelmed with his own emotions. And it smelled so good. He drank the juice thirstily, and then gazed at his empty glass in flavourful awe.
"That ..." he gasped, "that's fantastic, Gosalyn. It's definitely better than the super juice from the store." He put down the glass. Drake had to tear his greedy eyes away from the rest of the juice in the jug sitting on the table in order to give his daughter a hug, "my wonderful little girl."

Preoccupied with the taste of the juice, Drake picked Gosalyn up and put her into a chair. He handed her a bowl, a spoon and the box of cereal. Then he turned his full attention back on the fantastic juice sitting on top of the table.

"Milk, dad," Gosalyn interrupted.
He blinked, his vision still stuck on the juice in the blender, "what, Gosalyn?"
"Milk, you gave me everything but the milk."
"Oh?"

Drake backed away from the jug of juice and bumped against the fridge. That snapped him back into reality. He rubbed his face to get his eyes to work properly again and addressed the milk issue, turned, opened the fridge and took out the carton and handed it to Gosalyn. Stumbling into a seat at the table, he reached for his empty glass and faltered. Instead, he snatched up the jug and drank until it was finished. He put it down, steadying himself.

Drake took a long breath, "fantastic," he repeated, looking up at her gratefully.

"That's because I made it." Gosalyn announced matter-of-factly as she poured the milk over her cereal. "People always say home cooking is the best because the extra ingredient is love. So it is true that vampires can smell and taste all the ingredients in something."
"Really? So why is that then?" He asked curiously.
"What are you looking at me for, dad?"
He blinked. "I'm sorry; I was looking for the answer from you."
"Dad, I'm only ten."
"... I suppose ..." He cocked an eyebrow. "But you do have to have the answer. How do they depict vampires in movies, Gos?"
"No two are the same. Sometimes they're lost-souls doomed to be stuck here with the rest of us. Sometimes movies have them written in as bodily possession from a demon. Sometimes they're lonely animals who defy scientific identification. Most always they're hunting, hunted, haunted, hidden and alone."
It was a long while before Drake had thought this information through "I'm not," he smiled at her, "because I've got you, kiddo, and Morgana and Launchpad."
Gosalyn smiled back.

Drake cleaned up the kitchen as Gosalyn finished her cereal. She handed him her bowl and he washed that up as well.

"Come on, dad, it's Sunday morning, you know what that means," she dashed into the hall and he followed her, watching her snatch up the flowers from the vase as she went.

Drake stepped out into the sunlight. He blinked, adjusting.
"Bit better today, dad?"
He walked down the path, "yeah."
"Good, the juice is working then."
"Gos, it was just juice. I mean, it was really nice because you made it for me, but it didn't have any mystical properties." Gosalyn laughed and didn't have an answer for him; she just took his hand and continued to walk by his side.

"Okay, here's another question." Drake asked his daughter after a long while of early Sunday morning silence and sunshine. "I've been a bit preoccupied this morning, so perhaps you could tell me where all that food came from?"
"Launchpad dropped around this morning before heading off again. He bought it all yesterday. He suspected you wouldn't have thought of it with everything going on."
"Gosh that's ... that's swell of him!"
"Dad ..." Gosalyn paused, turning to him. "Oh, it's okay. You only went red for a moment."

Drake put his hand to his chest for a moment, checking his heart rate.

"You better tell Launchpad what's actually happened to you."
Drake considered Launchpad's recent behaviour for a long moment. "He already knows." This analysis made him frustrated. "Why didn't you guys tell me?"
"I was just going on an educated guess, dad." She opened the wrought iron gate with the words 'South Hill Cemetery' in the ironwork. "Gee, I sure don't get to say that one a whole bunch: an 'educated guess'."
"How does it feel?" Drake chuckled.
"Well, you know ..." she grinned leisurely at him, "I could get used to it."

Gosalyn stepped along the familiar white gravel path, holding the flowers tightly in her hands. She approached the plot that she'd approached countless times before. "Hi there; it's me."

The response she got back was the same one as every other time, being the writing on the plaques.

Steve and Hillary Waddlemire
Lost but not forgotten

Gosalyn arranged some of the flowers in front of the plaque and then moved on to the next one. It was nearly identical; her grandfather had purchased the plots and plaques in a single package.

Professor Henry Waddlemire
Loving grandfather to Gosalyn

She put the last of the flowers in front of his plaque and stepped back. "Okay, dad, let's go home." She smiled and took his hand.

After breakfast on the second day, F.O.W.L. finally posted his bail. Steelbeak sat in the operative car, heading to a secure location where he'd be debriefed.

'Hoo, boy…' debriefings were the worst when plans didn't come out right. Personally, professionally, Steelbeak was a successful agent; top in his field. If they didn't respect his past success, well ... they'd run out of top agents. Knowing this wasn't much consolation to him, however. He doubted whether that line of reasoning crossed their minds very frequently.

Steelbeak got out of the car and stepped into the cave hideout hidden up in the Audubon Mountains. He looked around. This was where they'd put Taurus Bulba back together.

"I see you've cleaned this place up, fellahs." He commented as the big screen turned on. It was not as if he wanted to stay here a darn second longer than he had to; not so long as Taurus Bulba was still at large.
"Agent Steelbeak, what is your report?"
"I reckon it's a 'no can do'. It's just a myth. Vampires cain't make other people into vampires."
The black shadows on the screen considered this for a moment. "No, you are simply looking in the wrong place."

"Agent Steelbeak, we have information that Xo Technology is developing high resolution spectral scan technology. This may prove useful in uncovering the secret."
"You will also need to secure another specimen. The last one will be on her guard from us."
"Do ..." 'you guys have any idea?' Steelbeak closed his beak, keeping his personal emotions out of the equation. "That last part ain't easy, it'll take time to even find another one, and ..."

"This is a very important project. It will eventually succeed, and F.O.W.L. will be a step down only from the gods. S.H.U.S.H. will soon be a thing of the past, and world control will be ours. You will find a way." The shadows on the screen cackled and the screen went blank.
"Sometimes even I worry about those guys." Steelbeak crossed his arms as his own henchmen came to stand at attention.
"Which job should we go after first, boss?"
"The scanner, coz it'll be easy. Xo won't know what hit 'em on a Sunday morning," he turned away from them as they hurried off. "The less time we hold the vampire, the better," he mused as he followed them.

"Huh?" Launchpad woke up in the armchair behind DW's old study desk to find Gosalyn tapping on his shoulder. "Oh, Gos, your dad's not up here," he yawned and stretched. He noticed she had her hockey training gear on her. Her hockey stick was leaning against the other side of the table. Daylight was streaming in from the tower windows high above them.

"What happened that night with Steelbeak?" Gosalyn asked.
"Gos, I'm not so sure I should be telling you."
"I can't help dad properly if I don't know what's going on with him. Did he bite anyone when you were with him on Friday night?"
"He came close, but it was like a trance and I snapped him out of it in time." Launchpad took a breath, "so it didn't happen."

He felt tears threaten behind his eyes again. "I'm sure sorry, Gos." Launchpad held out his arms for a hug.
"No thanks, Launchpad," Gosalyn stepped back. "All dad wants to do is hug me these last couple of days. And he sniffs me a whole lot too." She rubbed the back of her neck, easing tense muscles.
"You gotta know he still loves you, whatever else that's happened to his brain. His heart's in the right place."
"I know."

"When a person's heart is in the right place, things turn out alright in the end. Somehow, it always will. All that's needed is a bit of faith, kiddo. Hang in there."
"Thanks, Launchpad."
She picked up his copy hat, looking him over in his duplicate Darkwing costume. "So you're standing in for him?"
"Yup. Until DW comes right, you know I'll be right up here if you need me for anything." He saluted her, before yawning and stretching again.
"Well and good, Launchpad, but you should try sleeping in a proper bed sometimes. Why don't you use the one dad's got in the interior when you're too tired to get back home?"
"That's a good idea. Thanks, Gos."

"Launchpad, dad really appreciated the vegetables, thanks for that. And I really appreciate you being here, letting dad not worry about the job."
"I know." Launchpad smiled quietly. "I'm only here to help." He patted her head as he stood up and wandered to the interior area. Darkwing had set it up long ago as a shelter from the sun and the cold, so that he could sleep in peace.
"Sleep well, Launchpad." Gosalyn called after him.

"Thanks." He watched her disappear down the trap door before opening the door in front of him.