Darkwing Duck: Prince of Thieves

Act VIII

Terry did her best to keep her expression neutral as the palace guard inspected her license. Filthy, stinking traitor. To give in to Negaduck of all people. She wanted to throw him out of her pub, or even better, throw him out of the kingdom. It was days like this one that she wished she had a little more power in the community than simply being the proprietor of a pub.

"Well, nothing objectionable here, Miss," said the guard, looking up and giving her a slightly forced grin. "I guess you can keep Eisley open!"

"What about Mo's?" she asked, gesturing across the street at the rival pub. She had always out-done it for business; only the outlaws passing through from other villages went in there.

"Oh, Mo's is going to be expanding. It'll be a chain soon, by order of the King. It's his favorite restaurant." Terry fought back a scream of outrage. Not only was she going to lose to that hive of scum and villainy over there, but it made her sick to think of anyone calling Negaduck "The King". She fairly shook with anger, but kept it inside.

Coolly, she replied, "Well, thank you. Thank you very much." If he caught the sarcasm, he didn't care much about it. He waved at her over his shoulder as he left.

"Pig," she muttered to herself, and began wiping down the tables to take her mind off the horrible situation. What a day. What an awful, awful day. At least she hadn't lost her business, but to have lost so many of her friends, her sense of security, and most of what made this village home- all in one day- she wondered if she could handle it. The more she thought about it, the worse she felt.

Drake. One of her oldest, dearest friends... Dead. How? She had thought Darkwing Duck practically immortal. He was the Prince of Thieves! True, the title had been self-proclaimed, but only those who remembered the beginnings of his career knew that. Many people these days thought that the duck had preceded the legend, when in fact, thanks to Drake's rumor-spreading ability, the legend had come before the duck. She smiled to herself, and her heart ached immensely.

Don't think about it.

She stared at the table she had been wiping for five minutes now, noticing that she was beginning to wipe some of the finish away, and chuckled to herself. If she got much more depressed she'd end up ruining the furniture, she thought. And she had no right to be so depressed; others had it worse than she did. The royal family especially. She pitied them; perhaps not the brightest family ever to rule, but they didn't deserve this. Locked in the dungeon, betrayed by a handful of their guards, and their only daughter... executed. How horrible.

Yes... There were lots of people worse off than she was.

The thought didn't help her at all.

Don't think about it.

A clattering in the back room of the pub brought her back to reality, although she wasn't sure if that was good or bad in the long run. She gasped, and grabbed the only thing resembling a weapon that she could find, which was a broom. Maybe this was it, the moment when she did lose her business. Why she hadn't knocked on wood when she had the chance, she didn't know... She set her teeth and flung open the door to the back room, brandishing the handle of the broom like a staff, and stopped short.

There were a handful of about five sopping wet people facing her, all of whom should have been dead. In fact, one of them did look half dead, as he was being supported between two of his teammates.

Terry stared. The thieves stared.

Finally, she broke the silence. "Drake?"

Darkwing grinned. "Hate to spoil the party, but can you give us a hand with Launchpad? We've had a really hard day."

"...So, once I was sure that the rope was secured around the tree branch, we all managed to climb out of the moat before Megavolt electrocuted it. We would have come straight here, since we knew it would be hard to get around in the village once Negaduck sent out patrols, but Launchpad kind of slowed us down." Darkwing paused in his recounting to take a sip of the tea that Terry had made for him and his thieves.

She looked over at Launchpad, who was looking a lot better. "Are you alright, Launchpad?" she asked.

He gave her a weak smile. "Yeah, I'm doin' a lot better. Just kinda tired now. I feel like I swallowed half of the Audubon River." He chuckled.

"Good thing I'm an excellent swimmer," Darkwing sniffed, but threw his sidekick a grin. "You're sure you're okay, buddy?"

Launchpad nodded sheepishly. "I thought you'd been knocked out."

"Hey, Darkwing Duck is made of tougher stuff than that."

"Teflon, apparently," said a thief whose name Terry didn't know. She joined the others in laughing, backing up as she did, and bumped into Harry.

She jumped. "Oh- excuse me!" she said. He nodded slowly. It was the most response she'd seen him give since they showed up. She stared at him a second longer, not sure what to think, and then shrugged. "Drake, is Bo okay?" she said, her voice betraying the urgency she'd tried to keep from feeling.

"I... didn't see what happened to Bo," said Darkwing thoughtfully. "If he stayed behind, he was probably captured along with everyone else. But I don't know, I mean- I didn't see..."

"I saw," said Harry. Everyone turned and waited for him to continue, which he didn't.

Finally Terry prompted him. "You saw what?"

"Got captured."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Well, I mean, at least he's alive." Although if Negaduck was treating all of his prisoners the same, that might not be true for much longer, she realized. She wondered if Darkwing had heard about the Princess's fate yet, and was about to ask him when he answered her question on his own.

"Right! So we'd better get to planning on how to rescue him, and Gosalyn and the Princess!" The others agreed.

So he hadn't heard. Terry tried to think of a good way to say it. Somehow "don't bother, she's dead" sounded a little bit harsh. If somone had told her of Drake's death in that way, she'd have slugged them. Meanwhile, during her silence, the conversation continued.

"Maybe you'd better stay behind here for a while, LP. Just until you're sure you're up to this."

"Drake..."

"No way, DW. I promised Beth I'd come back for her, and I'm-" Darkwing, hearing the note of quiet urgency in Terry's voice, held up a hand.

She still didn't know quite what to say. "Drake... the Princess..." Before she could complete the thought, even in her head, a sudden pounding erupted on the door of the pub. Terry gasped. "The cellar! Quick! Get down there, now! I'll keep them at bay!" She pushed all five of the thieves towards the back, the way they'd come in. No sooner had she bolted the cellar door behind them than the front one slammed open.

"WHERE IS THE MUDDLEFOOT'S CASTLE!?"

"Oh, for crying out loud, Ray, we don't need directions, I live there," said an exasperated-looking young man standing behind the eternally-lost member of Darkwing's band.

Terry caught her breath. "You!!" She unbolted the door to the cellar and then started pushing Ray down the stairs. "Down, down! They're down there and they need you! You, too!" She grabbed the other duck's hand, whoever he was, and pulled him into the cellar as well.

"What the heck is going on here?!" cried Ray's traveling companion. Terry ignored him.

Darkwing looked up as Ray joined the group. "Ray! Where have you been?"

"I was on that mission you sent me on, sir," said Ray. "You remember, delivering the message to the King."

"I sent you out on that mission? Boy, what was I thinking?" Darkwing shook his head, and looked over as another young man came down the stairs along with Terry. He recognized him right away.

The recognition was mutual, evidently. The young palace guard's expression changed from confusion to one of rage. "You!!" he roared, and drew his sword and attacked Darkwing with all his force. Darkwing dodged, and looked about for a weapon. He ducked a high stab that Mike made, then jumped to avoid a low stab, and landed by a barrel. He kicked the barrel, and Mike paused in his attack to dodge.

"Settle down, Junior!" said Darkwing.

"What's going on? Isn't he a member of your team?" Terry asked Ray.

Ray shook his head. "Oh, no, his name's Mike. He's a member of the Junior Palace Guards. Kind of a jerk, too."

Terry slapped her forehead. "D'oh!!"

"Settle down? Settle down?! You monster! You dare to tell me that!?" Mike swung his sword at Darkwing again, who picked up a wooden plank and let the sword get embedded in it.

"He's on your side!" Terry called.

Mike snarled and addressed the others in the room. "I am on the side of justice! This thief broke into the Princess's chambers while she was gone, then proceeded to kidnap her and hold her for ransom! He's filth! He's everything I stand against! This slime is-"

"This 'slime' is my best friend," said Terry.

"This 'slime' is my boss," said Launchpad.

"This 'slime' thanks you all for the distraction," said Darkwing, and threw a moth-eaten blanket over Mike's head, disabling him. Terry applauded, and Darkwing bowed. "Now," he said to the figure tangled up in the blanket, "are we willing to listen for a moment?"

"Yes," came the reluctant answer, muffled through the blanket.

Fifteen minutes later, both sides of the story had been told. "I still can't believe I sent Ray out to deliver the message. I must have been distracted that day," muttered Darkwing. Ray looked insulted.

"I still can't believe I'm going to team up with you people," said Mike. "Getting help from one band of thieves to defeat another..."

Terry came back into the cellar with some cidar. "Really, Mike, they're not so bad. Actually, I've known Darkwing for years, and he's one of the most honorable, upstanding people I've ever met."

"Who just happens to be an outlaw," said Mike.

Darkwing shrugged. "To each their own."

"Uh, can we get plannin' soon? I'm worried about Beth," said Launchpad.

Mike snapped his head around to look at him. "What do you care about the Princess?!" he demanded, his tone rather possessive.

Terry spoke up. "Uh..."

"I care a lot about the Princess," said Launchpad.

"Uh, hey..."

"Oh, yes. So much so that you held her captive for four days straight. You sure care for her."

"Guys? About the Prin-"

Launchpad looked to be on the verge of getting angry. "I love her," he said quietly.

Terry forgot about attempting to interrupt. Darkwing looked surprised- he hadn't seen this coming, although in retrospect he probably should have. Harry didn't seem to have heard.

The only one who wasn't shocked into silence was Mike, who answered, "Well, so do I."

There was a brief stare-down. Without breaking eye contact, Launchpad said, "So I guess the question is, who does she love?"

"Me, of course!" Mike said instantly. She must love him. She'd known him most of her life. And after all, he cared for her. He hadn't really thought about love before this, but hearing this guy's claim on Beth brought it to the surface.

This would only get worse from here. Terry shook her head. "Guys. Listen." For once she must have timed it right, or something, because she finally got their attention. She took a breath. "The guards who came by earlier- they were the ones who told me that Darkwing was dead. And they told me that the King and Queen had been overthrown, and... they told me... the Princess was, she, she was executed early this evening."

Launchpad didn't reply. Mike found his voice first. "B-but... they were wrong about Darkwing..."

Terry shook her head and tried to swallow the lump in her throat. "They were guessing. This was, apparently, an execution. It was done personally. There's... there's no doubt." Terry heard a dull 'thump' as Launchpad sat down heavily.

Darkwing asked softly, "And Gosalyn...?"

"They didn't mention her."

He nodded. The expression of sorrow on his face didn't go away. He took off his hat and held it against his chest silently.

"I..." Mike suddenly roared, "I'LL KILL THEM!!!!" and ran for the door.

Ray caught him on the way there, and held him back, barely. "Hey. Hey! What did I tell you?! You can't take them on yourself! Mike, hang on, we'll get them, just hang on!" Mike continued to struggle, apparently not hearing Ray at all. "Mike! Mike, come on, listen to me!"

"He's right, Mike," said Darkwing. "The best thing to do is stick together, stay with the plan, and we'll get them in the end."

"You won't do yourself or her any good like this," said Ray.

Mike stopped struggling, but was shaking as he said, "Fine. I'll play it your way. But I swear, I swear they will pay with their own lives." Ray slowly let go of him, satisfied that he would stay put.

Darkwing put a hand on Launchpad's shoulder. "You okay?"

"I never... I never told her, DW." Launchpad's voice was even more pained than the expression on his face. "I never got to tell her that I love her."

Darkwing couldn't think of a reply. It all seemed so phony in the face of this. "I know," he said simply. "If you want to sit this one out, LP, I understand."

Launchpad shook his head. "No way. I'm going. I have to. Even if it's just to... to say goodbye." Darkwing squeezed his shoulder in silence, and Launchpad stood up.

"Sir..." One of the other thieves said hesitantly. "How are we going to get into the castle?"

"There's a back way," said Mike. "I'll get us there. It's small, so it'll take a while for all of us to get in, but I'll get us there."

"Going in all at once risks capture," said Darkwing. "That's a chance we can't take. We have to try for groups."

"I can help," said Terry suddenly.

Darkwing looked at her gratefully, but said, "No. You can't put yourself in danger like that. I won't have it."

She shook her head. "No danger. Honest. I can sneak some of you in the front way and I doubt they'll even be able to trace it to me. That's assuming, of course, that you guys win."

Darkwing grinned, and he was back to the old Darkwing, inflated with what was, in truth, a well-founded ego. "Of course we'll win," he said. "We're the good guys."

In the cells of the castle dungeon, Ted was thinking hard. This situation was totally bogus! They'd taken away all his weapons- and even though he couldn't really think of a way to break out of a dungeon with a dagger, he still thought it was pretty non-triumphant. He screwed up his face and thought hard. Somewhere to his left, people were talking. It was breaking his concentration. "Hey, I'm tryin' to think! Can you shut up for a second?"

This was met by a sudden, stunned silence. Ted looked over to see that the people who had been talking were the King and Queen. "Oh, uh, sorry, royal dudes," he said apologetically. They frowned.

"What a horrible situation!" said Binkie fitfully. "After everything else, we're locked up down here with these... ruffians, and to be spoken to in such a way...!"

"Please excuse him," said another occupant of their cell, coming up behind her. Herb and Binkie jumped and turned to see a panda smiling at them. "He's got about as much on his mind as it can handle at the moment. Please, rest assured that we're doing all we can to free you from your imprisonment."

"Why should we trust you?" demanded Herb. "You're a thief, just like them!"

Bo's smile fell, and he looked a little insulted. "Having the same occupation does not mean having the same values, Your Majesty," he said. "The Fearsome Five stands for things that I and my teammates loathe. We would never-"

"Nothing you can say can change the fact that you kidnapped our daughter," said Herb angrily. His look of anger was replaced with one of sorrow, and Binkie started sobbing. Honker, who had been standing uneasily in a corner of the cell they were in, moved beside her and hugged her. Herb mumbled, "Maybe, if you hadn't, things might have turned out differently."

"I... apologize for your loss, Your Majesty." Bo looked completely sincere as he said this. "My teammates and I have also suffered losses today. But you must realize that we have to keep fighting, and can't afford to give up until we've won!"

"Winning won't bring our daughter back."

"No," Bo agreed. "It won't bring anyone back. But it will keep others from suffering the same losses."

"Dudes! Please, gimme a break here!" called Ted irritably from the other side of the cell.

Herb ignored him. "How do you propose to form a plan to break out of these dungeons, when the only other member of your group in the same cell as you is him?" He pointed at Ted, who was tugging on a few strands of his shoulder-length hair in an effort to think more clearly.

Bo sighed, and admitted that the King did indeed have a point. Ted wasn't his ideal planning partner. He was sure that the Fearsome Five had split their cell groupings up haphazardly, but it was an interesting coincidence that he was paired only with the Royal couple, their youngest son, and the member of his group with the most space in his head of anyone. It was possible, he conceded, that some of his teammates in other cells might escape first, though. Or some of the palace guards. Or, maybe, miracle of miracles, Bo and Ted could actually think of something on their own. "Never lose faith, Your Majesties," Bo said, with confidence he didn't quite feel. "We'll do our best, and one way or another, we'll get out of here." The Royal Family didn't look too convinced. Bo crossed the length of the cell and knelt down beside Ted. "Got a plan yet?" he asked, not expecting much.

"Uh... No... Wait! Yeah, I got one! We could try pulling the bars out!"

"Pff. Good one, Ted...," Bo trailed off as Ted jumped up and started feverishly tugging at the bars in front of him. He realized that his teammate wasn't joking. A sweat was appearing on his face as he pulled. "Ted, come on, you'll hurt yourself!"

"No way, it's not hard!" Ted assured him. "C'mon, maybe some of the cement'll crumble or somethin'!" Bo joined him and they both pulled as hard as they could, but to no avail.

"I don't believe I just did that," panted Bo after they'd given up. They sat back down on the floor. "If I only had my metal file... We could wear these bars down to nothing!"

Ted snapped his fingers. "Hey, maybe the king or queen has one!" he said. He walked over to the royal couple and politely asked if he could use a file. Binkie smiled and gave him an emory board. "Here ya go, Bo," he said, returning to the cell door.

"Oh, now this is getting silly," said Bo, looking down at the flimsy wooden board.

"Nah, silly would be for us to try to dig our way through the concrete to the outside!" Ted and Bo chuckled a little over this suggestion. Their laughter died down after a moment, however, and both began scrabbling at the cement floor.

Ten minutes later, they had nothing to show for their efforts but scraped, bleeding fingers. "Ow," said Bo, sucking on them. "Nice idea."

"I said it was silly! You were the one who tried it!"

"I was just following your lead, Ted."

"So now what?"

Bo sighed, and crossed his legs to take a comfortable seat on the concrete. "I guess now we play the waiting game."

Ted sighed as well, and sat silently for a total of five seconds. Then he announced, "Dude, the waiting game is totally bogus! Let's play 'Hungry Hungry Hippos'!" Bo put his head in his hand and groaned.

"HEY!!" called a voice a bit down the road from the castle. The two guards on duty instantly drew their swords. The voice was female, but that didn't mean it wouldn't pose a threat to Negaduck. And Negaduck had made it very clear that if any threat was posed to him, he had no qualms with shooting the messenger.

"Who goes?" called one of the guards, squinting to make out the figure who was approaching them in the dimming evening light.

"I'm Terry! From Eisley's! I have a delivery, could you give me a hand?" The guards shrugged, and then the bigger one approached her. "Thank goodness, I really needed help with these," she said when he reached her. She gestured towards a cart that was loaded with huge barrels. "I don't have a horse, and the land here is getting muddy, and-"

"No deliveries," said the guard.

"What?" she said, with just the right amount of shock and indignance. "Wait a minute. I didn't lug these things all this way for nothing, pal."

The guard shook his head. "We're under strict orders not to let anyone into the castle unless Negaduck says so."

Terry snorted. "I have an order, from Negaduck. Five barrels of root beer, for some celebration tonight. I'm late as it is, what with all the mud around here." She produced a piece of paper from her pocket. The guard peered at it closely, but couldn't make out any words. "Oh, for crying out loud. Look, I'm not even going in there! I'm just here to drop off the drinks, no questions asked."

"Root beer, eh?" The guard looked at her suspiciously. "We'll see about that!" He kicked one of the barrels off of the cart. It split open, and dark liquid poured out of it. The guard bent over and poked the puddle with his finger, then tasted it. "Oh."

"Root beer, genius. Like I said." Terry's tone was wry. "Look, if you're willing to take the blame for why Negaduck has no drinks for this party of his, I'm willing to leave. Your choice." She took back the paper that had the order on it, and made an alteration. "Look. I've changed the order so that it says four barrels instead of five, okay? You won't even get blamed for busting that one. Are we good?"

The guard looked at the broken barrel on the ground, and then growled, "Fine, fine." Terry smiled.

"Great. So give me a hand, will you? Like I said, I'm late with this already." She pushed the cart as hard as she could, and it slowly began moving. The guard helped her, and within another minute or two they had reached the entrance to the castle. "I'll take it from here, boys. Have to deliver my order to the King himself." She smiled and waved as she went inside. "This one's for the real King," she mumbled as she pulled the cart into a deserted hall of the castle.

She pulled the top off of one of the remaining four barrels, and Darkwing climbed out. "That was a close one," Terry whispered.

"I thrive on 'close ones'," said Darkwing with a grin. He and Terry each opened one another barrel, and Launchpad and another thief climbed out.

"I wasn't expecting him to break the barrel that way! Thank heavens he picked one of the fakes," said Terry, as she replaced the lids on the still-intact barrels.

"My neck is stiff," said the third thief, stretching her muscles briefly.

"Hey, it coulda been worse. We coulda actually been in root beer," said Launchpad.

"Okay, okay, so it wasn't a perfect plan! It got us inside, didn't it?" said Terry in mock-irritation.

Darkwing chuckled. "Next time you can ride in the barrels," he said.

Terry looked around quickly. "Okay, I have to go. Good luck, Drake." She squeezed his hand. "And make sure Bo gets out okay."

"No problem," said Darkwing. He noticed that Launchpad's expression had turned morose, and changed the subject. "Get out of here, kid. We'll see you in no time. And thanks."

"My pleasure." With that, she left.

"Now what, sir?"

Darkwing narrowed his eyes. "Now... We find Negaduck and give him what's coming to him."