Chapter 4

Later that evening, after Jack had gone up to bed, Drake silently made his way over to two hopelessly out-of-date easy chairs in the corner and sat down in one, letting the silence of the room fill his head. Tonight of all nights, the eve of his daughter's death, his dilapidated lab should be the last place he wanted to be, and yet, it seemed to call to him somehow. It was the last place he and Gosalyn had shared a moment together before her death, and the first place he visited after finally getting out of the hospital after weeks of being in traction. Drake looked slowly around the living room, his hand poised to strike the head of the statue that would take him to the lab. So many memories in this small space made up of nothing more than bricks, mortar, carpet and paint; good memories, bad memories, some he wanted to remember, some he'd rather forget entirely. With a small sigh, he hit the statue, sending him careening towards the lab, emerging unscathed in the empty space lit only by the moonlight filtering in through the towering windows.

He hadn't actually used the lab since that night ten years ago. In fact, he hadn't even moved anything, meaning that stacks of paper, coffee mugs now cracked with age, and bits of discarded equipment lay haphazardly around the room exactly as they had that night. Although he'd visited the lab since then, Drake took care never to touch any of those things, wanting to keep everything exactly as it had been. He limped over to a large window, looking up at the full moon hanging in the sky, obscured slightly by the tops of nearby sky-scrapers. Drake placed his hand against the cool glass of the window, remembering the way he and Gosalyn had stood in that exact spot so many times, the older duck pointing out constellations and nebulae in the sky for an awe-struck little girl.

"I miss you so much, kiddo," Drake said softly to the darkness. He grimaced painfully. "And I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry, Gosalyn. If I'd known...oh, kid, I would have done everything differently that night if I'd only known," he whispered.

Ten years ago, Drake had never heard of the LRTM device, short for Long Range Terrestrial Manipulator, but more popularly known as the Scorched Earth Ray (or "Scorchy" as Megavolt had idiotically dubbed it, Drake thought to himself, unamused). It had been a collaboration between seven of the worst supervillains in the city - Megavolt, Bushroot, Liquidator, Tuskerini, Steelbeak, Quakerjack and, naturally, Negaduck. The Scorched Earth Ray could be concentrated on any area of terrestrial Earth - be it land, lake or sea - and render it uninhabitable for decades: stripping the land of the ability to grow anything by creating toxic levels of chemicals, the air unbreatheable by poisoning the immediate atmosphere, the water deadly to those creatures living in it or relying on it in some way, killing and poisoning everything in its path. It was the systematic destruction of life itself if the inhabitants didn't bend to the will of whoever operated the LRTM. Fear, of course, was the most powerful persuasion tool in the world.

Drake didn't claim to understand all of the mechanics behind the thing, even now. Besides that, while there were certain villains in that line up who seemed to fit with the overall mission at hand, Drake was mystified by the others. For instance, why the hell would Bushroot be interested in a device capable of wiping out entire rainforests in a matter of seconds? Why would Liquidator have any interest in entire tracts of land devoid of any moisture whatsoever? What the hell were Quakerjack and Tuskerini even doing there? What did they hope to gain from it all? The answer didn't occur to Drake until he was face to face with all of them.

The villains didn't join forces simply out a desire to control the world. That was a big part of it, certainly, but more than that, not a single one of them wanted to be on the outside of the unstoppable team they'd become.

Better to be on the winning team, even if it went against what few morals you had, than to be alone as the loser in a world now controlled by your enemies.

Drake and Gosalyn had instantly grasped the implications of a device such as the LRTM. The entire world could be held hostage by these madmen. Cities, countries, entire continents could be scrubbed off the face of the Earth on a whim without as much as a second's notice. They could render the whole planet unlivable, transform it into just a hunk of burnt out dirt floating in space, if they so chose. Everything – absolutely everything – was at stake.

Darkwing and Quiverwing didn't hesitate for a moment.

Gosalyn's husband, Thad, was more scientist than hero, part-nerd and part-strongman, an interesting combination to say the least. A SHUSH agent by day, and – well, a SHUSH agent by night as well, Thad was able to tag along with Darkwing and Quiverwing without anyone being the wiser as to the masked protectors' true identities. He wasn't much for fighting (although he would step in the moment he thought his wife needed help), but instead was their idea-and-gadget man, something Drake had longed for in a crime-fighting companion. So, when Thad had identified the power source for the LRTM, and had concocted a way to destroy the power source without taking half the city with it, the three-strong team immediately got to work.

And then. And then, and then, and then…

Over the years, Drake and Gosalyn had had many conversations about what their careers paths could mean for their lifespans. Wills and final wishes were updated yearly, attended to as carefully as the best manicured garden in the most well-off neighborhoods. They'd spoken seriously about What Could Happen, but always with the hope that it Never Would. Drake had always assumed, as all fathers do, that he would go before his child, that if push came to shove he'd be willing to give his life for his daughter's without hesitation or second guessing, that she would be attending his funeral rather than he attending hers. When Jack was born, some part of Drake hoped beyond all reason that his daughter would, at the very least, leave the truly dangerous escapades to himself and the police. But she had believed that sometimes the best a parent could do for a child was to go out and fight for a safe world in which their child could grow and thrive in peace. It was a philosophy Drake was intimately familiar with.

The power source for the Scorched Earth Ray was in a deep underground cavern, inaccessible without proper codes and clearance. Fortunately for them, Thad's specialty at SHUSH was as a codebreaker, and the codes had not taken long for his well-honed mind to crack. Once inside, it was only a matter of reversing the power streams to overload the system and destroy it for good. All was going well until the Magnificent Seven, as Drake had sarcastically called the seven supervillains who surprised them in the cavern, appeared and ordered their private security to remove Darkwing, Quiverwing and Thad. Unbeknownst to the seven criminals gloating around them, Thad had already inputted the necessary data into the system to reverse the power stream, which would then cause a chain reaction resulting in a stupendous explosion, ending the LRTM's reign of terror before it had begun.

"Take this to the powerstation right outside these doors," Thad had whispered to Darkwing quickly, shoving a piece of paper into Darkwing's hands and pointing to a wall of controls just visible from outside the doors above them. "These codes will instigate the power conversion and we'll have about thirty seconds to get the hell out of here."

"I'm not leaving without you two," Darkwing had protested vehemently as the private army of soldiers began to steadily move towards them.

"Quiv and I have to keep these guys busy while you input the codes. Just do it. We're right behind you," Thad whispered back, thumping Darkwing on the shoulder good-naturedly.

"Go, Dad! We don't have much time!" Gosalyn hissed at him, taking a fighting stance. "Please! This is our only chance!"

Darkwing took a deep breath and began to plow his way through the henchmen, jumping on one of their shoulders and grabbing a railing above their head, swinging himself up onto the platform that led out of the cavern. Several henchmen dove towards him haphazardly, and Darkwing dodged them expertly, smashing their heads together and knocking them out cold. He raced to the end of the hall, past the heavy metal doors, running as fast as his feet could carry him. Once at the controls, he typed in Thad's code as quickly as he could. The entire control panel lit up in a dark red color, which Darkwing hoped meant that the power conversion had started. He pressed a button on his wrist walkie-talkie that connected him with Gosalyn and Thad.

"All right, now get the hell out of there!" he shouted frantically as he could see the seven villains catch sight of him through the open doors at the end of the hallway.

Suddenly, a high-pitched siren screamed to life and Darkwing's heart sank to his feet as the heavy metal doors leading into the cavern swung shut in under a second, sealing in Thad, Quiverwing, and the Magnificent Seven. That wasn't supposed to happen! Not here! Not now! Darkwing thought to himself, beginning to panic.

"No!" Darkwing cried to no one in particular, racing towards the doors as a countdown sequence began by a computerized voice over the intercom.

"Thirty seconds to power conversion," the computer's calm voice rang through the hallway.

Drake found a panel of controls near the door, and began typing in whatever snippets of Thad's entry code he could conjure up from memory. "Thad!" Darkwing screamed into his wrist walkie-talkie. "Thad! What is the entry code?"

"No good, boss," Thad's voice could be heard over the scratchy connection. "The entry codes only work when the system isn't in an emergency state."

"Then what do I do?" Darkwing shouted back in a frenetic voice.

"You get the hell away from those doors, that's what you do!" Gosalyn's voice drifted up from the walkie-talkie.

"Twenty seconds," the computer's voice again was heard.

"Gosalyn! Honey, I'm going to keep trying! I'm going to get you out of there!" Darkwing shouted back, beside himself in agitation, forgetting in the heat of the moment not to use his daughter's real name. He grabbed the only weapon he had on him, his gas gun. Looking at the heavy metal doors in front of him, he knew that his little gun would be no match and no use in this situation. He threw it at the doors as hard as he could, roaring in frustration. He ripped the panel from the wall, hoping that by scrambling the wires, the doors would fly open, letting his daughter and son-in-law escape before the unthinkable happened. When that didn't work, he gave up and simply tore at the door hinges in rage. They wouldn't budge. An absurd thought born of the situation rattled in his head – How could these doors POSSIBLY be stronger than my desire to save my Gosalyn? he thought uselessly to himself.

"Ten seconds."

"Gosalyn! Gosalyn!" Darkwing called into his walkie-talkie. "Where are you?"

"Dad?" The sound of his daughter's voice cut through all of the noise around him. "Tell Jack to be good. Tell him – tell him that we love him." Her voice cracked on the last few words and Darkwing sank to his knees in front of the metal doors, the full realization of what was about to happen hitting him with the force of a speeding freight train.

"Five seconds."

"Sweetheart, I'm so sorry – "

"Three, two – "

"I love you, Dad."

Those last four words, those last four most beautiful words Drake had ever heard, seemed louder and clearer than anything anyone had ever said to him. When the explosion came and Drake was lifted from the floor for what seemed an eternity, his entire life with his little red-head streamed in front of him, as real as anything he'd ever touched, smelled or heard. Softball games. Hockey games. Barbeques on Saturday afternoons, just she and him and LP in the backyard on a sunny day. Her first date, dressed up and nervous, looking like the prettiest girl in the world. High school graduation, parties and well-wishes. The first time she'd apprehended a criminal on her own, and how strange Drake felt, both elated and terrified that now his daughter was on the same path as he. Her wedding day, watching her having her first dance with Thad as newlyweds. Jack. Holding Jack for the first time. Watching the way Gosalyn watched Jack as the little guy lay in his blankets looking up at his mother, her eyes and his, identical. Just now, before coming tonight, having one last family dinner, laughing and talking, all together, his family, whole and complete.

All gone in a second. All gone because of him. Drake remembered closing his eyes before the force of the explosion was over, and wishing it would take it with him.

Drake swallowed hard, coming back to reality, standing by the big empty window, a tear rolling down his cheek as he leaned heavily on the cane he'd needed every day since that night ten years ago. His sightless eye followed his good one in gazing up at the moon. "Sweetheart, I'm so sorry," he repeated quietly in the bare room. "I am so sorry."