Quiverwing Duck: Part 1

Part One

Quiverwing Duck, dressed in his blue, purple and lush green costume, woke up on a lab table. "What the?"

A young woman's voice sounded nearby. "Well, at least we've got one of them." She said with a quaver in her voice. Her voice was almost familiar.
"We've also doubled the problem!" A very familiar doomed sounding voice said. So familiar, in fact, it had to be Megavolt. "The only thing positive that I can see in this experiment is that we now have a strong indicator that the phenomenon is localised."
"To what, E?"
"To Darkwing Duck."

Quiver sat up, and saw Megavolt arguing with a teenager in a purple mask and matching outfit. She had purple gloves and a fuzzy teal skivvy under her purple jacket. The cape she wore was of a nearly-black purple and if the bow and arrow set slung over her shoulder didn't give away her identity, the pointed Robin Hood hat certainly did.

When The Quiverwing Quack had died he had become Quiverwing Duck in memory of her, but now here she stood as a teenager! "Can you two please explain to me what's happened here?"
"Eh?" Megavolt cocked a goggled eye at Quiver in a quizzical expression. " 'What' is easy, the problem is why, and how do we fix it."
"The Quiverwing Quack?" Quiver considered the young woman, and she smiled brightly at him.
"Gosh, it feels like I haven't seen you in ages." She replied.

"Oh, how wonderful." Megavolt gestured sarcastically, clasping his hands together. "A family reunion. Shall I make a pot of tea and bring out some biscuits to celebrate?"
"That would be great, thanks." Quiverwing replied.
Megavolt looked at her in disbelief. "I was being sarcastic, Q."
"That's funny, because I wasn't."
Megavolt blinked at Quiverwing, then turned away, grumbling about errant teenagers wasting electricity and stormed out of the room. The instant he left, Quiverwing grabbed Quiver in a fierce hug. He couldn't utter a single word and simply returned the affection he hadn't felt in so many years, however intense that it was.

She stepped back, getting her composure back.
"Gosalyn? What's going on here?"
"It's a continuum tangle. Well, that's how Megavolt explains it to me. Someone's gone and tied a whole bunch of timelines together into one great big knot."

"Where's Launchpad?" He asked, looking about the room.
"Dad ..." Quiverwing said with a troubled look on her face.
"Has something happened to Launchpad in this universe?" He gulped.
"No, no, dad, he's alright! He's out there playing Darkwing Decoy. Dad, you went missing last night. Of course he has to be out there."
"Phew, I was worried." He took a steadying breath.

"So where exactly are we?" Quiver glanced out the window at the roof of the brick building opposite them. It was clearly an old apartment or office block.
"Xo Tech. When dad went missing, we did a bit of research, and decided that Megavolt was the best person to go see. So here we are."

"Dad?" He repeated softly. "I thought I was your father?"
Quiverwing shrugged, uncomfortable. "Sure, emotionally. But technically you're some other Gosalyn's father."
"Technically I'm not." Quiver countered weakly, tears in his eyes. "In my universe, you're dead."
That caused her to grab him into another fierce hug. "Well, I'm very glad you didn't turn evil this time around."

"How could I?" He sobbed, rubbing his hand against her back. "I have you in my heart to guide me."

Quiver considered the timeline knot case as Megavolt came back in the room with a loaded tray. "Who'd want to do this?" He asked the two of them.

Megavolt put down the tray of tea and biscuits. "Well, it's localised to you," he answered, "so I can only imagine it's someone who really hates you."
"Who hates Darkwing Duck that much?" Quiverwing tapped her beak in thought. "Or how about ..." her eyes widened. "Oh, no."
"Who?" Megavolt repeated the question, seeing as Quiverwing had the answer.
"Darkwarrior Duck." She wrung her gloved hands and began to pace the room. "It's gotta be."
"Oh, sure, like pacing really helps, Q." Megavolt pointed her behaviour out.
She sighed and visited Megavolt's tea tray. "You're right, E." She helped herself to the offerings. "Thanks."

"I think I remember you mention this person once. You went on a trip into the future." Quiver looked sternly at Megavolt, being the partial cause for this dangerous adventure. But knowing how dangerous life was didn't change the outcome, and Quiver knew there was no point in laying blame. Not on Megavolt, and not on himself. He let his shoulders drop.

"Well, that's good!" Megavolt announced, askew somewhat from the emotional turmoil. "Now we know who, all we need now is a solution to the tangle, and I'm already thinking on that."
"No, Megavolt!" Quiverwing stopped him. "What we need is our Darkwing Duck first to solve Darkwarrior, or we'll be the ones that get 'solved'!"
"Oh, yeah, and D's been lost in the tangle."

Quiverwing handed a cup of tea to Quiver as he stood there staring at Megavolt, his arch nemesis and long lost school friend. 'He called me ... D? He hasn't called me D since primary school.' He took a sip. Back then, D had stood for Drake. When Launchpad had first started calling him 'DW', he'd found the unscary connection frightening. And a term of endearment, like having his primary school friend back again. Since when had Megavolt called him 'D' almost like the way Elmo had all the way back then? Or like how Launchpad called him 'DW'? How strange this all was. 'A different universe.' He concluded.

Then something more useful occurred to his disorderly mind. "Don't different universes operate on different frequencies?"
Megavolt considered this for a moment. "Sure they do, but it'll take days to build a transceiver capable of detecting bio-resonances at the required magnitude."
"Well ... what about electronic resonances?" Quiverwing held up a small black box.
"A tracking receiver?" Megavolt's eyes lit up greedily. He snatched it from Quiverwing's hand. "Oo. It's a few years old but very up-market." He dangled it by its wrist-band in front of him, as if showcasing it. "And I thought your dad was the stingy sort, Q."
Quiver snorted at that comment. Then he heard a sound outside. A burglar?
"Not when it matters." Quiverwing shrugged in distraction and turned away from Megavolt. She bounded towards the window, beating Quiver with sheer enthusiasm and youthful exuberance.

"Oi, where are you going, Q?" Megavolt said. "You can't do anything yet; I've still got to ..."
"Calm down, E. It's just a burglar. Like I'm going to do anything stupid." Quiverwing pulled her bow and an arrow out from under her cape.

"I am the Quack in the Dark! Boy, are you outta luck tonight. I am The Quiverwing Quack!"

Quiverwing let the arrow fly from her position on the fire escape.

Quiver climbed out the window and looked down over the fire escape, watching Quiverwing gymnastically take care of the criminal. Quiverwing disappeared down the main street with her charge.
Behind him in the room, Megavolt was talking to the device. "Don't worry old girl, I'm just going to upgrade you, it won't hurt a bit."

Quiverwing came back into view and walked back to the fire escape. Instead of using the stairs, she just climbed the outside of it.
"Good work." He was proud of her.
"Thanks, dad." She smiled at him and climbed back into the room.

Quiverwing glanced up at the clock and a look of sheer panic fell on her face. "Oh-mi-gosh, I'm late!" She looked down at her costume. "I don't have time to stand in front of the wardrobe for twenty minutes. At least I'm presentable this time. Last time I was covered in raspberry jam." She ran to the corner of the room, pulling out a skateboard. "I'll be back later, E. I'll be down on Acorn Avenue if you need me. Thanks again for all this." She climbed back out the window.

"We do have an elevator, you know?" Megavolt called to her.
"I don't have time for elevators, E."
"You never do." Megavolt muttered to himself as he settled back to work on the transponder.
Quiver looked to the window: 'late for what? Why didn't she ask me for help? She's on a skateboard so the time it takes me to reach her will be ...' Quiver stepped towards the window in his thoughts.

"No, don't!"
He wasn't even looking at Megavolt when a bolt of electricity hit him. He coughed and crashed painfully to the floor. Megavolt came and stood over him as he picked himself up. "Ouch."
"Oh, sorry. I forgot." Megavolt moved closer to help him up and Quiver grizzled and pushed him away.

"See, that's just the kind of thing that made Darkwarrior Duck happen." Megavolt crossed his arms and walked off. "I said I was sorry."
Quiver hesitated for a long moment, taking this into thought. "Yeah, okay, Megavolt." Quiver grumbled. "I'm sorry too. Thing is, you're a criminal in my universe."
"I gave that up in this one."
"So why'd you stop me? She could be in trouble."
"Trouble? That's a bit too philosophical for me at the moment. I'm trying to figure out how to undo a multiversal filament splice."

"And I've got to help Quiverwing."
"For the last time, she doesn't ..." Megavolt shook his head as Quiver stepped out of the window. "Wonderful inventions, elevators." He looked back down at the tracking receiver bits. "Isn't that right, granny?"

To be continued ...

A/N: I disclaim the Quiverwing Duck character to Ian Brill and associates, Celey and Gryphinwyrm7.

A/N: The words of "Weird Al" Yankovic are deeply profound. I come to believe that a character is just like a tune. You take a pre-existing character (or song) and use the same tune to sing a new verse.

As in the case of Quiverwing Duck, if you want to change the tune from the original, you have to earn it by putting in another verse in order for this change to be legitimate. (Or else just write OOC (out of character) in your author's note and get on with telling everyone your alternate story!) Either way, if you change him enough you can play multiversal pinball with him later against the original Darkwing Duck.

A/N: Now, moving on to the subject to the disturbing emotional theme of QD, I misquote from the movie The Titanic:

And so, the fiddlers play on as the ship and its trapped occupants go down into the freezing waters of death. The ghostly haunting moan of Celine Dion replaces their last dying strains and fills the air. "My heart will go oh-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-on."

It's hard to write with tears in your eyes, so I have discovered. Sarcasm is the last resort.

A/N: My subspace travel theorem is not a new concept although I have obviously adapted it a little. I give reference to the following two episodes of the following two TV shows from Gene Roddenberry:

Star Trek: The Next Generation "The High Ground". I misquote Doctor Crusher: "Thinking of getting out using their way, captain? I wouldn't recommend it. It's killing them." and

Star Trek: The Original Series "The Gamesters of Triskelion" I misquote Lt. Commander Spock: "I'm looking for the captain, doctor, not pursuing some wild aquatic fowl."

These quotes on the theory of subspace travel are kind of funny in this context, since right now they are exactly what I AM in fact doing!