Episode 9: Old Friend, New Foe

Everyone was gathered at the Air Force Base in prepartion for the annual air show. Dozens of fancy decorated planes lined the strip, and even some old and new military machines lined the track.

"Wow!" shouted Gossalyn, pumping her fist into the air " this show is going to be awesome!"

"Yeah" said Launchpad " I can't believe I'm flying in it. It's going to be really tough facing off againist these piolits,"

"You'll beat them easy LP," said Drake, standing Launchpad's side.

"If he doesn't crash into the ground first," said a snide duck,approaching the group.

"Who are you?" asked Drake.

"Ghoul Rasco" said the duck " me and Launchpad here have known each other since flight school. I flew striaght to the top while he took the crash course. It's still a mystery to me how he ever earned a piolit's linsense,"

"It's a wonder you're even here at all" said Launchpad to Ghoul " you got your linsense revoked the moment police found out you were sneaking drugs across the border,"

"Yes" said Ghoul, looking at Launchpad " I wondered who called the cops,"

"If you don't have your linsense anymore" said Gossalyn " then what are you doing here at the air show?"

"Cute kid" said Ghoul, pinching Gossalyn's cheek and walking away " I doubt you would understand my reasons,"

"I don't like the looks of this guy LP" said Drake, as soon as Ghoul dissappeared " he might try and cause you trouble,"

"Hey don't worry DW" said Launchpad " he's not a piolit anymore. What harm can he do to me from the ground,"

Launchpad really shouldn't have asked that question.

About halfway through the air show, a heavy thunderstorm suddenly struck, canceling the rest of the excitement for tomorrow. Launchpad was dissappionted because it had almost been his turn to fly. Oh well, one thing a person could never predict was the weather.

As everyone left the base to dry off and rest before tomorrow, one person stayed behind. Swiftly silently through the pounding rain, a shadow creeped into one of the hangers.

Inside the hanger was a gaint, silver, wedged plane that the military had designed to be super fast and extremely deadly. A wide grin grew on the shadow's face as he patted his hand over the name of the craft.

"Silver Lightning" said the shadow " you're as good as mine,"

The spoken sentence had caught the attention of one of the nighttime guards. Quickly the shadow ducked behind the plane, as the guard and his flashlight started to scan the room.

Once the guard started to examine the area near the plane, the shadow jumped over the craft and whacked the guard on the back of the head. The guard was out cold instantly.

"Sorry pal" said the shadow, throwing something at the guard before getting into the Silver Lightning's cockpit " I gotta fly,"

With a roar of the engines the jet took off. When the guard recovered the next morning the plane was gone, and villian's calling card lie at his feet.

Launchpad was excited to get back to the air show, he couldn't to show off his flying skills to the masses. Only Drake accompanied him today, because Gossalyn had school and afternoon soccer pratice.

However, what had looked like a day filled flying and fun took a dark turn once they arrived at the air force base. Dozens of police cruisers lined the inside of the base. A few policemen were searching the grounds, while two stood nearby questioning a guard.

"What's going on here?" asked Drake, approaching the pair of policemen.

"Robbery that's what" said one of the policemen " a top secret military aircraft was stolen from this hanger last night. The Silver Lightning, fastest jet known to man. This guard was knocked out trying to stop the theif,"

"Any clues?" asked Drake.

Before the policeman could answer him the guard looked up from his conversation with the second police officer and pointed at Launchpad.

"He's the one!" said the guard " he's the one that stole the jet!"

"What?" asked Launchpad shocked " I would never...,"

Before he could even finish his sentence, handcuffs were placed around Launchpad's wrists.

"Let's take him downtown boys," said the first policemen.

"Wait Officer!" said Drake " there's got to be some sort of mistake. Launchpad was at my house sleeping all last night. Me and my daughter can vouch for him,"

"Then how do you explian this" said the guard, pulling out a card " I found it on the ground,"

"Hey my driver's linsense" said Launchpad, taking the card " I lost this at the air show yesterday,"

"Officer please" said Drake " don't take Launchpad to jail. Release him into my custody, until we can figure out who framed him,"

"Very well" said the first police officer " until we can find any new hard evidence againist your friend, he shall be held in your custody. But until this mystery comes to pass, Mr. McQuack is revoked of all flying rights. Hand over your poilit's linsense McQuack,"

Reluctantly, Launchpad handed over his piolit linsesnse to the officer, and with a somber mood he and Drake left the compound.

"I promise you Launchpad" Drake swore in his mind " I'll find this crook and get your linsesne back!"

That night, Darkwing's patrol was limited to the Ratcatcher. Since Launchpad had his linsense revoked he could no longer fly the ThunderQuack. This put a serious lack on patrol time.

Launchpad was busy sulking at home with Gossalyn so Darkwing was on his own tonight. The mallard's eyes kept looking to the sky for any sign of the missing plane.

"Hmph" sighed Darkwing " this is like looking for a needle in a haystack,"

Suddenly something zoomed overhead, and then Darkwing spotted it. The missing jet! Hovering over the Bank.

A laser fired from the bottom of the jet, blowing the roof off the bank building. The poilit behind the wheel saw Darkwing approaching and fired his laser at the superhero.

Darkwing jumped off the Ratcatcher just before the laser hit, and although he came out unscatched, his motorcycle was toast.

A claw reached down from the bottom of the jet, grabbing tons of money sacks. Not willing to let the villian slip away, Darkwing jumped onto the claw and climbed up toward the cockpit.

"Alright you..." said Darkwing to the poilit, his eyes widened in surprise " Ghoul Rasco?"

"Surprised Darkwing?" asked Ghoul " you shouldn't be?"

"So you're the one who framed Launchpad McQuack!" growled Darkwing.

"Yes" said Ghoul Rasco " but I plan to destroy more than his reputation,"

Doing a quick bareel roll Ghoul knocked Darkwing off his jet and sent the mallard flying for the ground. Getting out his gas gun, Darkwing activated the grapple hook feature, and descended to safety. His blue eyes glared at the villian responsible for his fall.

"If you see Launchpad" shouted Ghoul from up above " tell him to meet me in the skies tomorrow night for a duel to the death. See you later loser!"

And with that Ghoul Rasco sped off. Darkwing glared at the villian's smoke trail for a few seconds, before turning to the burning remians of his ruined Ratcatcher.

"What am I gonna do now?" said Darkwing.

"Why that sneak!" said Launchpad as soon as Darkwing told him what had happened " if he wants a duel, then fine!"

"Launchpad what are you thinking?" said Gossalyn " you can't battle him! Your linsense has been revoked remember? If someone spots you flying the ThunderQuack you'll be put in jail for life!"

"True" said Launchpad, sitting down on the couch " but what else can I do? I just can't let him get away with it!"

An idea suddenly popped up in Gossalyn's and Launchpad's minds as they both turned to Darkwing Duck. Darkwing immediately sensed what they were planning and waved his hands in protest.

"What? No! No way!" said Darkwing, backing up " I am not flying the ThunderQuack! I don't even know how to work the controls,"

"Easy Dw" said Launchpad " I can teach ya. The police may have said that I couldn't fly, but they didn't say I couldn't teach someone else how to,"

"Yeah don't worry Dad" said Gossalyn " after all Launchpad got out of flight school didn't he,"

"Yeah" said Launchpad " after crashing every plane they had, they gave me linsense and kicked me out,"

"I'm doomed," Darkwing thought.

Tomorrow night soon came, and the ThunderQuack was soaring through the skies. Darkwing sat nervously behind the wheel, while Launchpad sat in the co-piolit seat giving Darkwing some much needed flying advice.

"Keep the nose up Dw" said Launchpad " now straighten it out, good. You're doing a lot better than you did this afternoon DW,"

Darkwing's mind reflected back to the first few hours of his flying lesson. He had crashed into building after building after building. There was that one time he crashed on top of an old lady. She wasn't very pleased with that.

"Who knew an 88 year old lady with a walker would have a rifle stuffed in her purse!" thought Darkwing shivering off the thought. But he had to admit, Launchpad was right, his flying was getting better.

Suddenly the Silver Lightning appeared in front of the ThunderQuack, with it's evil poilit grinning behind the wheel. Launchpad and Darkwing looked at Ghoul with a glare.

"Well, well, well" said Ghoul " I'm dissappionted to not see you behind the wheel Launchpad. Got scared and had to hide behind your superhero friend?"

"You know very well the reason I can't fly!" yelled Launchpad " you had my linsense revoked! So Darkwing here is substituting for me!"

"I have to battle the hero huh?" said Ghoul, shrugging his shoulders " very well, he's no match for me. You'll both die anyway,"

Revving up the engines, the two planes charged at each other and the air battle had begun!

Ghoul made the first move and launched some high speed missles at the ThunderQuack. Darkwing tried to remember Launchpad's flying tips, but right now he flying more of panic than experince.

The unatural patterns of Darkwing's movents made the ThunderQuack able to dodge each and every missle aimed at it. Ghoul pounded his dashboard in frustration.

"It seems like Darkwing is going to be an even tougher adversary than I thought," said Ghoul.

While the ThunderQuack was recovering from it's little tango with the missles, Ghoul activated the laser feature on his plane and started firing at the ThunderQuack. Unlike the missles, this Darkwing barely managed to dodge.

"There has to be some way to disable that plane without actually damaging it," thought Darkwing. Then an idea suddenly popped in his mind.

Turning around, Darkwing blasted the ThunderQuack away from the Silver Lightning.

"Oh no" thought Ghoul, pressing the turbos " you're not getting away that easy,"

With that, the Silver Lightning sped after the ThunderQauck, determined to put an end to this battle once and for all. The ThunderQuack was only about twenty feet ahead now, Darkwing turned it around to face the incoming plane.

The mouth of the ThunderQuack opened revealing a large cannon. Grinning wickedly, Darkwing pressed a button, and a strange yellow substance launched itself at the Silver Lightning.

Ghoul couldn't move his plane to dodge, he was heading for the ThunderQuack to fast! The yellow substance splattered over his plane, and he lost visual instantly.

"Hope he's good at blind landings," said Darkwing, as the Silver Lightning spiraled and crashed into the ground.

Police were immediately on the scene when Darkwing crashed the ThunderQuack and he and Launchpad drug Ghoul out of the stolen plane.

"Here's your thief officer" said Darkwing, throwing Ghoul to the cops " Mr. Ghoul here was trying to frame Mr. McQuack for the theft of the Silver Lightning because he wanted revenge for Launchpad ruining his drug smuggling operation years ago,"

"I swear I'll get you for this Darkwing Duck," said Ghoul as he was handcuffed and loaded into a police cruiser.

"Well Mr. McQuack" said the police officer from yesterday " I believe I owe you an apology. Here's your poilit's linsesnse back,"

"Gee, thank you!" said Launchpad excitedly.

"Good to have you back LP," said Darkwing, slapping his friend on the back.

"Good to be back" said Launchpad " hey, now that you how to fly the ThunderQuack now, maybe you can drive us on some of the missons,"

"No thank you" said Darkwing, as he and Launchpad walked back to the ThunderQuack " from now on, you do the driving,"

And with that said Launchpad slipped behind the piolit wheel and flew him and Darkwing back home, to the Automan Bay Bridge.