Love-15
Authors' Notes: This story is a Collaboration by BrideofBasil, Darkwing5143, and Luckyduck29, who hope you are enjoying this Ludwig Von Drake and Darkwing Duck story as much as we are enjoying writing it.
We would like to personally thank all those who have left their complements and reviews. We really appreciate them!!
As much as we would like to own Ludwig Von Drake, Darkwing Duck, Negaduck, and Launchpad McQuack, Disney owns the copyright to our favorite feathered friends.
Chapter 2: Ludwig's Unexpected Plunge
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Negaduck arrived at City Hall and met the Mayor in the storage room that was located in the basement of the century old brick building. The Mayor came out from behind the shelves with card board hat boxes and addressed the yellow and black suited duck.
"Is he coming?"
The Mayor never came out of the shadows, but Negaduck knew him by his physique and the smell of that cigar he always smoked. Negaduck scowled.
"I almost had him, but that do-gooder duck got in the way. I think it's time for Plan B." Then the Mallard Menace let out his maniacal, sinister laugh and rubbed his feathered hands together. "I love adding misery to people's lives."
He looked at the shadow of the Mayor, who was busy puffing away on that cigar and blowing its cancerous fumes towards the Black Caped Mallard. Negaduck coughed at the offending smoke.
"What do you want with that old fossil anyway? Can't you see, I don't have time to waste on pension padding professors? Unless he has a vault full of diamonds and gold bars, why are you bothering with him? Hey, I do bank robberies, jewelry heists, relieve our generous seniors of their bread right after they cash their social security checks."
Negaduck then looked up at the ceiling with pride, as visions of the fear in their faces as he gladly took their money came to his mind.
"Ahhhhh!" He then looked at the Mayor. "I HATE kidnapping!! I like to commit my crime and break away clean!"
The Mayor turned and looked at Negaduck and laughed.
"Kidnapping? Who said anything about kidnapping? Besides, I am surprised at you! Don't you want to triple or quadruple our proceeds from these crimes? Look, I already have half the cops on the Saint Canard Police Force looking the other way when you commit a heist, and the other half either could care less what goes on as long as they get their doughnut or they are too brainless to realize a crime is being committed. But who is the one responsible for getting in our way?"
Negaduck made both of his hands into tight fists and squeezed so hard he was beginning to rip the feathers from his hands.
"That Dimwitted Duck, Darkwing!"
"Well, what if I were to tell you the good Professor has invented a formula that would make your job a lot easier with Darkwing? He has invented something that would take the fight completely out of him. He will be at your complete mercy."
The dark smoking shadow got Negaduck's attention when he mentioned Darkwing Duck being at his "complete mercy".
"What are you talking about? I always beat that idiot with intelligence, for if he had two brains, he'd be twice as stupid."
Negaduck seethed, exposing his teeth. The Mayor started to laugh at his partner's statement.
"Yes, but he always seems to have the upper hand when it comes to fighting. Face it, Negaduck, he has the advantage when it comes to those powerful web kicks. It appears that Darkwing does not have much upper body strength, but he does have a tremendous amount of lower body strength."
The mayor threw the cigar down to the grey painted concrete floor and extinguished it with the bottoms of his leather shoes.
The Mallard Menace clenched his fists, as he realized what the Mayor was saying was one hundred percent accurate.
"So, what's this genius come up with that is so great?"
"He has come up with a formula that if you spray it in Darkwing's face, his mood will be completely subdued, and he will be put in a trance like state. He will lose all the fight in him; he will give in to your every command."
Negaduck rubbed his white feathered hands together and displayed a wry smile across his beak.
"Anything I say? Huh, this does sound interesting. How long does the effect last? We can even have that Darkwing Doofus commit crimes for us."
The Mayor took another cigar out of his breast pocket, sniffed its length, bit and spit out the end of the cigar, and proceeded to light it up.
"Now, Negaduck, we have to be vigilant and patient. For I know he conducts most of his research at home, so he probably keeps his notes and formula there. No doubt, Darkwing will be with him, guarding him, but there are always ways around that purple-caped buffoon."
The brazen bureaucrat handed Negaduck photos of the professor's caped cod house from all sides, so Negaduck could plan for a way to gain entry.
"Well, now that I have a picture of the house, what's his address?" Negaduck asked irritably. "I can't find a house without AN ADDRESS! Knob!!"
" Patience, Negaduck!!" As the mayor smoked, he turned to a computer that had access to all the property records of all the taxpayers that were located in Saint Canard City. After logging into the network, he busily typed "Ludwig Von Drake" into the search field.
Negaduck was growing ever more impatient. He just hated to wait, his evil blue eyes stared a hole right into the mayor as he was tapping on the
ancient white key board and looking at the white monitor. The Menacing Mallard started to pace the floor and if he didn't have an address to him
within two minutes, he swore to put the chainsaw to that computer.
"Ah ha! Here it is! Professor Ludwig lives at 349 Mandarin Way, which is…" as the Mayor turned, the black masked duck was already out the door.
While Darkwing taunted Negaduck and then talked to the professor, Launchpad did as DW had asked and installed the bug in Negaduck's motorcycle. It was small and camouflaged, the same color of the dash board. It had been issued by SHUSH and Sara Bellum had practically guaranteed that Negaduck would never notice. This was very important; Launchpad hoped she was right.
He finished installing the bug just in time. He spotted Negaduck coming out and ran back to the Ratcatcher. Negaduck was apparently preoccupied; Launchpad was almost positive he didn't notice him. He listened and taped the conversation between Negaduck and the Mayor. DW's suspicions
were dead on.
From City Hall, the Mallard Menace drove the Troublemaker as fast as he could to Mandarin Way. He disregarded stop signs, speed limits, and even rode the loud and very powerful bike on the sidewalk, plowing through a street café to escape the rush hour traffic that was beginning to clog the narrow city streets. Negaduck laughed as he now pictured the terror in the fleeing people's faces as they were screaming and running to escape the motorcycle's war path. He also loved the destruction it caused, the sounds of the breaking glass, tables and chairs being smashed, not to mention that surprised waiter who got his feet ran over as he was busily taking someone's order.
Shortly there after, he arrived at his destination, Mandarin Way. When Negaduck got off and covered the bike for camouflage, he observed his surroundings, nice cape-cod style houses with large front yards that had a sidewalk leading up to the front door, and usually they had well manicured lawns with ornamental trees on both sides of the walk. It really made the criminal gag when he saw the flowers and yard decorations as he walked past the houses in search for 349. He was tempted to toss a flower pot through a window, but that would have to come later and he stopped to observe an address, he appeared to be in the 200 block. "Just another block to go", he thought as his webbed feet met with the rough, concrete sidewalk
As Negaduck approached the three hundred block, one house in particular caught the criminal's eye. He didn't even have to look at the address to know it was Ludwig's. While the other neighbors' houses were neatly kept, this house had weeds and dandelions that graced the front yard and the bushes were covering the front windows. Negaduck looked on his feathered palm and read the address he had written. "349 Mandarin Way." This was the right house all right. Seeing that nobody was home, he looked around to see if anyone was watching and to his satisfaction, nobody appeared to be home from work yet. He noticed that most of the driveways on the street were still completely bare. Quickly, he got behind the bush, and noticed that it was covering not only the front window, but a basement window as well. He was able to jimmy the window open in a matter of seconds, and slowly he put his webbed feet in first, and then wiggled his way into the small opening.
"Unlike that dippy do-gooder," he scoffed, "I keep my body slim and trim. That knob is much too heavy to easily slip through that window. Obviously he'd much rather eat his doughnuts than keep his body in shape."
He maniacally laughed as he pictured his double getting stuck in the window. Within minutes, the cold calculating criminal was in the house of a genius.
Negaduck was trying to find his way around the very dark and cluttered basement to get to a light switch so he could see. All around him were what appeared to be mountains of hat boxes that stood from the concrete floor all the way to the ceiling. Negaduck growled as he soon found himself lost in the maze of the brown hat boxes.
"In about 5 seconds," the impatient mallard thought, "I am about to get my chainsaw out and shred those boxes into a million pieces!! Geez, I never saw so many boxes in my life! This fossil must have a hundred years worth of notes in here!! I would need a Mack Truck to get all these boxes back to City Hall!"
Since it was dark, his webbed feet tripped on a lone hat box that was on the floor and he fell beak first into a pile of hat boxes that were against the wall. The mallard ducked as the boxes landed on top of him.
Darkwing Duck waited outside in the white painted cinderblock corridor, as The Professor retrieved the notes from his cramped and cluttered university office. When the Professor closed and locked the flush grey metal door, the hero led the apprehensive inventor to the outside door that was at the end of the hallway.
"Professor Ludwig, would you mind riding on a motor cycle? Launchpad should be waiting for us outside this entrance."
Darkwing crossed his fingers behind his back.
"Dot's okay," Ludwig answered, glad to have retrieved his materials and praying to get them home safe. "Den I vill show you vat I am vorkin' on, an' maybe you can take everyt'ing to da SHUSH labs for safekeepin'? To answer your questions early," he continued, "I am not bein' sure how long mine Love-15 is affectin' da subject. Zo far, da effects do not seem to be lastin' long, dot is vy I vant ta do more works on it..."
He walked out to the Ratcatcher and blinked uncertainly at the small seat. "Is dere bein' enough rooms for me an' your friend, I t'ink?"
Darkwing Duck looked at the Professor's initial confusion and chuckled as he instructed, "Professor, you can have the side car all to yourself. That way you can concentrate on keeping your files together. The side car is not big enough for two adults, and you couldn't hold on to me and hold on to your files at the same time as we are riding."
The mallard looked away and laughed as he got images of Ludwig sitting directly behind him and precious papers flying everywhere, littering the streets of Saint Canard. Then he mumbled to himself, "Gee, we might as well gift wrap the formula for Negaduck and the Mayor." Darkwing then looked back at the Professor and said, "Launchpad can ride behind me where my daughter Gosalyn usually sits."
Launchpad smiled at the professor as he and DW approached the Ratcatcher. He remembered Von Drake from a very stressful time in his life and he liked this guy.
"Hi, Professor. Remember me? You thought I was cuckoo and then I brought yah that harpy that wanted to marry me? Hey DW, yah gotta listen to this tape from the--"
He broke off, not wanting to give away information DW might not want anyone to know.
"Uh, I gotta show yah something later."
After his partner's initial conversation with the apprehensive genius, Darkwing approached Launchpad and asked, "Is everything in place on Negaduck's Troublemaker? When we get to SHUSH headquarters, we will have to listen to those tapes of Negaduck and the Mayor.
He pointed his finger in the air.
"Everything's in place," Launchpad told his boss, grinning, "and you were right. The Mayor's as crooked as Negaduck."
Darkwing took off his grey fedora and started to wave it in the air exclaiming, "So, I was right! I JUST knew Negaduck and The Mayor had sinister plans for Ludwig and his formula!!"
Darkwing then put his fedora back on and started to punch the air with his fists.
"Yep, Yep, Yep, my keen instincts are always honed in when dirty deeds are going down by a couple of devious, demented criminals. Negaduck ought to know better than to mess with the Mighty Masked Mallard!!!"
Launchpad climbed onto the bike behind DW.
"I don't think Negaduck's got any idea we bugged him; he didn't seem to notice me and he didn't look for bugs before he left. He just left City Hall. He's on his way to Professor Von Drake's house."
Darkwing then started the bike, exchanged his fedora for a helmet and handed Ludwig Gosalyn's burgundy helmet.
"T'ank you, Mister Darkving," Ludwig replied.
He put the helmet on his head, hoping it wouldn't mess up what was left of his hair.
"I feel like dat Evil Kah-nievel guy," he mused as he clung to his suitcase filled with material. "How fast does dis t'ing go, anyvays?" he
asked Darkwing.
The mallard looked back to see if Launchpad and the Professor were ready to ride.
"You're welcome. Ohhh, I guess this baby could do well over 100 miles per hour, of course, I am an expert driver." Darkwing said as he put his hand on his chest, and then looked back at Launchpad. "Though, I usually don't like to go that fast, because Launchpad usually ends up losing his lunch."
Darkwing was always amazed at the technology that SHUSH supplied him with. That was pretty clever of Dr. Sara Bellum to invent that little bug with the microscopic camera lens that produced very clear, ultra-sharp color pictures and sounds from across town. He thought about the comment Derek Blunt made to him years ago when they worked on a case together. "A good agent will work out of a cardboard box if need be." Well, no matter how Derek felt about the use of technology, the Mallard would use any new technology to his full advantage, especially if it meant catching evildoers expediently, and eliminating surprises. If anyone was going to do the surprising, it was going to be Darkwing Duck.
Launchpad felt furious as he watched Negaduck on the computer screen. He was terrifying all those people, causing destruction and injury for the simple pleasure of it.
"Even without Professor Von Drake's formula," he told DW angrily, "You've got plenty to arrest this monster for right here. It'll take weeks for all that to be rebuilt, and that poor waiter could have lost his foot!"
Not one to stay angry for long, Launchpad smiled at Von Drake when he saw Negaduck pull up to the professor's house.
"Nice neighborhood, Professor. Bet yah got a beautiful view from your lab window."
As the hero was driving in the direction of downtown to meet with J. Gander Hooter, he heard his faithful and observant sidekick mention the destruction and mayhem that Negaduck caused at the café, and that he was spotted in what appeared to Launchpad as the Professor's neighborhood. The mallard quickly slammed on the brakes and pulled over to the side of the street. He then looked at Ludwig
"Quickly, Professor," he asked with much nervousness in his blue eyes, "what's your address? I need it right now!"
Ludwig looked up from his papers and blinked. His mind was half on his work and he only barely noticed the concern in Darkwing's voice.
"I lif at T'ree Forty-Nine Mandarins Vay. Are ve almosht home?" he asked hopefully, thinking he could stand a cup of tea and a slice of cake about now. He had an appetite almost like Launchpad's (though he would've drawn the line at Cajun Brownies) and never worried about spoiling his dinner. "If dere is time, I can get you boys a liddle snack, yes?" Then he looked over at Launchpad. "An' nice ta see you again, Mister McQvuack," he continued, after shaking the pilot's hand. "Hope you're not seein' no more harpies, yes?"
Darkwing wasn't sure if Ludwig picked up on the mallard's concern about Negaduck helping himself to anything in the genius's laboratory. He put his left hand on his hip and said, "Ludwig, this is no time to be thinking of culinary delights!! We must get back to your house ASAP, right, LP?" He then looked at Launchpad for his response.
Launchpad laughed. "No more harpies," he said cheerfully. "An abominable snow woman, an ice queen, an artist who could trap people inside her paintings, even a vampire potato, but no more harpies since yah got rid of Anastasia for me. How did yah do that anyway? I was never sure how yah convinced her that I wasn't the guy for her."
With that response, Darkwing grabbed his grey fedora with both hands and squeezed the ends tight with anger. Then he slapped his own face with his right hand and let his hand slide down his beak as a sign of frustration.
"Launchpad, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? Will you stop with the harpies already. Give it a rest! You said yourself, Negaduck is already at Ludwig's house probably tearing the place apart as we speak, searching for the formula and his notes!!"
Launchpad gave Darkwing a look that was half sheepish and half frustrated.
"Well, he asked; I didn't wanna just ignore him. Yeah, Professor, we do have to get to your house. Negaduck's there; he's--" Launchpad broke off, looking at the screen just in time to see Negaduck fall. He laughed. "He just fell over one of your hat boxes. I think he's lost in your basement and he can't find a light switch."
"Well, since Negaduck is already there, there is nothing we can do about that now. I have to think about the Professor's safety. Obviously we can't take him back to his house, so he will have to stay at Darkwing Tower in hiding until I can guarantee your safety, Professor."
He then looked at Ludwig in the eyes.
"Professor, you will be safe at my hideout. Nobody but my daughter, Launchpad, and I know where it is. All I know for certain is Negaduck and the Mayor are after your formula, but I am not sure if they will kidnap you or not. So, now I will take you back to the hideout."
Darkwing was getting excited, for he always loved when situations escalated. This always meant bigger headlines!!
"Danke!" replied Ludwig, alarmed at the thought of the trap he might possibly have walked into and grateful at the thought of going somewhere safer. At the same time he was just a bit annoyed, since this was the second caped mallard who'd dismissed his need for a snack.
Remembering Launchpad's earlier question about the "harpy", Ludwig leaned over to Launchpad while Darkwing's attention was occupied.
"It vas no problem, Mister McQvuack! Da Professor only told Miss Harpy dot dere must be a handsomes MISTER Harpy someveres, who vould like her cookin'! An' speakin' of cookin's," he asked Launchpad in a low voice, "ya gots ennyt'ing ta nibble on in Mister Darkving's hideout?"
"Thanks," Launchpad said, smiling at Von Drake, "and call me Launchpad."
His stomach growled.
"A Snack sounds good, Professor, but there's food back at the hideout. We can eat when we get there."
Food was the furthest thing from Darkwing's mind now, as he was trying so desperately to maneuver the powerful motorcycle around the clogged streets of Saint Canard from the commuters who were trying to get back home.
"I'll never get to the Tower in time to make sure the Professor is safe in hiding," he thought worriedly, "and to get to his house in time to tackle Negaduck!"
Darkwing's blood pressure was really rising with all the stop and go traffic he had to deal with just to get back to the Audobon Bay Bridge. As the trio got within a block from the bridge, the Mighty Mallard quickly made a right turn then a sudden left turn and asked the Professor a question.
"How are you at holding your breath?"
The hero knew that since it was during rush hour, he couldn't take the Professor and Launchpad through the bridge deck elevator, so their only choice was the elevator entrance that was located under the bay.
Ludwig's eyes widened as he saw where they were heading.
"Da Professor iss a champion at holdin' his breaths! Vy do you---"
But he had no time to finish just as the Ratcatcher raced off the pier; the Austrian scientist had the dubious honor of proving his words
as he gasped in a lungful of air.
The mighty and powerful waters of the Audobon Bay quickly came into view as the Daring Do-gooder turned the throttle on the handlebar of the Ratcatcher to full speed and the bike, along with all of its passengers, dove into the cold waters below.