Heavy Mental

"Hey, DW!"

The vampire jumped, startled. He turned from the graves, looking for the person that had yelled.

Someone bulky hurried towards him. "Gosh, DW. If it wasn't for that tracking receiver, nobody'd ever know where to find you."
'There's a tracking receiver on me?' The vampire made a motion to find the thing. Then he realised it was probably the size of a microchip and hidden in any random square half inch of fabric he had on. He lowered his hands. "What is it?"
"It's S.H.U.S.H. Director Hooter. He wants to see you."

The vampire frowned. He wasn't keen on the idea of being summoned, no matter who it was. But this brown and cream clad individual's enthusiasm was inspirational and the familiarity this person spoke to him with was intriguing.

"Come on, DW. S.H.U.S.H. is this way."
"Alright then." He followed after the person back up the white gravel pathway. 'Apparently my name is four syllables long. Somewhat excessive; I should get it shortened. How about W? Three syllables; not too curt, not too-yikes! What-is-this?' He stopped in front of the gleaming machine '... a motorcycle?'
"You alright, buddy?"
"I'm fine."
"Oh, that's alright then." His friend held out the keys to him.
"Er, I am feeling a bit shaken up. How about you drive this time ... buddy?"
"Heh, no problemo."

DW sat gingerly down in the sidecar and got handed a helmet. DW took his hat off and put it on, wondering what good it'd do.

The engine started and they were off. "You look a little lost, DW. Is everything okay?" His escort commented over the roar of the engine.

The affection and concern in his new companion's voice made DW feel very warm. He reached his mind out, looking for his friend's name in his aural field. "Yeah, I am feeling somewhat disconnected ... Launchpad. It must have been that witch I escaped from last night. I might ask Lupisei to have a proper look at me later."
"Good to hear it. You gotta take care of yourself, yeh know, buddy."
DW settled into his seat and stared at the road as the motorcycle thundered aggressively up the road. 'Sure I'll take care of me, but the old DW that Launchpad remembers isn't worth rescuing.'

DW followed his brown and cream clad companion into the large low-set building that was S.H.U.S.H. and up along the maze of corridors. The vampire resolved to keep a bit of faith about the reason they were in this place. From his aura field Launchpad was clearly only doing this for DW's benefit.

They stepped into an office and immediately DW felt a cold shiver of warning.

He turned his head for the threat and sized up the bear standing there. The bear had his sights on the vampire and the minion's scowl deepened as they made eye contact. But the bear was no match so long as the vampire kept a check on his heart beats. DW turned his head back to the avian seated behind the desk. 'And so this must be ...' "Director Hooter?"

"Hello, Darkwing. I'm glad you could come in to see us at such short notice."
'Who's that; me? I'm Darkwing now? How many names do I go under?' Darkwing approached the desk. "What reasoning do you have for calling me in, Director?"
"We have a case we think you can solve for us."
Darkwing scratched his head, feeling perplexed. 'A ... "case"? A case of what?'

Hooter offered a folder up to him and Darkwing took it. He flicked through it.

Picture after picture. 'Dismemberment, missing appendages ... oh, and the set wouldn't be complete without missing organs, of course. Yee-uck!' He looked back at the elderly avian, sitting serenely in his chair on the other side of the table. 'Oh, yes that's right, none of this bothers you. And what are you, anyway?' He searched the Director's aural field and came up with nothing more than his previous observations. 'Yep, you're one serenely in charge guy ...'

"DW?"

"Oh, sorry; here you are, Launchpad." DW promptly handed the offensive picture collection to Launchpad. "I'm warning you it's not pretty."
"Uh, I meant have you got any ideas about the culprit, DW?"
"Well, it's a tribute, obviously, Launchpad. It could be for a witches spell, it could be a demon worshipper or just someone tired of playing with miniature Barbie dolls and are going for the life size edition. Why should I know?"
"Hey! You mentioned a witch earlier, DW. We should check it out! They may be connected."
DW wasn't very impressed with this connection that his companion had just made. "You mean check out the witch?"
"Yeah."
"You are kidding me, right, Launchpad?" DW looked at his friend in disbelief. 'I could've been dust last night and you expect me to go back there!'
"No problem, Director Hooter; we'll get right on it."
"It is greatly appreciated Darkwing, Launchpad."
Launchpad started out of the room. "DW?"

DW frowned at Hooter for a moment, trying once more to read the elderly avian's delta waves with very limited success. 'I don't think I trust you, Director Hooter.' He finally decided and turned on his heel.

The vampire followed his companion as they headed back along the corridors.
"So let me get this straight, Launchpad. We're going to go looking for the extremely deranged person that slaughtered all those people, even though we may in fact find ourselves facing a super powerful witch who knocked the stuffing out of me scarcely twenty four hours ago?"
"Uh ... yep." Launchpad chuckled. "That's about the size of it." They got back to the motorcycle.
The vampire stared at the gleaming metal monster. "That's a really dangerous thing to do, Launchpad."
"Heh, I seem to recall you telling me that your middle name is 'danger', DW."
"Really, Launchpad? Did I happen to mention that 'insane' was my other middle name?"
"No, but 'crazy' is mine." Launchpad smiled at him and handed DW the helmet again. "Can you remember where you were, DW?"
"I hazard a guess to say it was the witch's lair, Launchpad. It was filled from wall to wall with their sick set of specimens."
"Hey, I remember Gosalyn telling me that the St Canard museum of Natural History has a huge collection of creepy dead things!" Launchpad revved the engine into life and DW quickly dived into the side car.
"We're not ... you don't want to go there now, do you?" DW squawked. "You can't just fight a witch like that, Launchpad, you need to be-."
"The museum is near a Hungry Hippo outlet! We can go have a look and then grab a couple hamburgers afterwards." Launchpad twisted the grip and they shot forward rapidly.

DW caught his breath as they tore up the street, holding tightly onto his fedora in his hands as the wind made his cape flap wildly behind him. "Launchpad!" He complained. "I know you're hungry but we'll never get there if you don't slow down!"
"Gee, sorry, DW. You wanna drive?"
"Don't tempt me, Launchpad." DW sat back and stared at the road ahead of them.