Disclaimer: I don't own Darkwing or any affiliated characters from the Darkwing Duck show. Disney owns Darkwing to whom I am grateful for the inspiration. I am not making a penny off this. I am using this as writing practice. I am doing it for pleasure and to get feedback in order to become a better writer. Characters not contained in the original Darkwing Duck series are my own creation and as such are my copyrite. Please read enjoy and review. Thanks.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Today it was Bushroot's turn to check up on her. He wasn't about to call her on the cell Negaduck had bought for them. That cell phone was for Negaduck to call them on only. If Negaduck even knew he'd thought about using it just to check up on Electra to see if she was ok, he'd kill him.
Bushroot hated being anywhere near this part of town. It was such a bad area even the cops wouldn't go any where near it. Nor would the fire trucks, the ambulance or any other services people. It was so bad it had been nicknamed Hellville by the populace of St. Canard. If Electra hadn't insisted on living there none of them would ever even venture into this part of town. But she did insist on living here so Bushroot was here today to check up on her.
As Bushroot skulked through the part of St. Canard nicknamed Hellville he tried to stay as much out of the open as he could. It wasn't that he was afraid anyone would see him or report him. No. Even if anyone saw him, in this part of town so filled with freaks and weirdos and low life's they probably wouldn't give him a second glance. He was trying to stay out of sight because in this part of town you never knew when a bullet would suddenly whiz past or something or someone was going to fall out of a window. This was also a part of town where you you even feared being mugged in broad daylight. Murders happened here all the time, although they were usually crime or gang related. No Bushroot hated this part of town and wouldn't be here at all if it weren't for Electra's insistence at living around here.
Why she wanted to was beyond his comprehension. Normal people, even normal criminals wouldn't be caught dead in Hellville let alone living day to day in it. It made him wonder what sort of place she was from if this was like home to her. Where ever she was from he sure didn't want any part of it if it was like this.
And her apartment. That was another thing. He couldn't conceive how anyone let alone a beautiful woman, rat though she was, could live there. No running water, no power, it was a dump. Well ok he had only been there once. That was when all of the guys had decided to take another shot at convincing her to move somewhere else. It hadn't worked. But they had helped her get rid of that disgusting mattress out of the bedroom for her. She had said it was there when she moved in and she wouldn't even touch it. None of them had wanted to either, but in the end they had. If she was going to live there regardless of whether they approved or not there was no way they were going to leave her living with something like that in the same apartment as her. There were things living in it that none of them wanted to think about. Wriggly things. Disgusting things. Things that made cockroaches and maggots looks beautiful. So they had gotten rid of it for her. After they had gotten rid of it, Megavolt had incinerated it with his powers and then they had burnt the ashes with gasoline just to make sure everything in the mattress was dead and gone. Then they had returned to her apartment and helped her clean the bedroom to make sure there wasn't anything left in it that had been living in the mattress.
So here he was in the worst part of town in Hellville making sure she was ok. It boggled his mind to think he was even doing this. Who would have thought he Bushroot would ever even go near Hellville let alone visit it every fourth day to check up on somebody living there.
He didn't venture into her building. He had dared it once, the day they got rid of that mattress. He would never go in there again if he could avoid it. That place was a death trap. A piece of the stairs had actually broken under his feet when he had been going up to her place that day, and all she had said to him after he told her about it was "Well just watch your step next time. It's only the center parts that are no good, Stick to the sides by the wall and you'll be ok". He couldn't believe she had said that. He couldn't believe ANYONE in their right mind would live in a place that was literally rotting away under their feet.
It wasn't safe out here to be sure but he sure wasn't going into her building where he could get hurt or worse and no one would ever know about it. At least out here outside her building if he got hurt or worse she'd likely find him sometime when she went outside but in there, in that death trap of a building, no one would ever see him again if he got hurt.
Shouting out at the top of his lungs Bushroot yelled "Electra! Electra! Are you ok?! Electra!"
A few seconds later Electra's head popped out the window. She always left it open. He had berated her about it to no end until in frustration she had yelled at him one time "What do you want me to do leave it shut so I can die in here? If I shut it it'll never open again and if anything happened I'd be trapped!" As her head popped out the ALWAYS open window Electra shouted. "I'm here Bushroot what do you want?"
Bushroot felt relief. She was ok. He wouldn't have to enter her building and check on her. He also felt relieved that she remembered his name. That meant she had been keeping her energy reserves charged up which was good. The gang had quickly found out that if she was too drained of energy she couldn't function or even remember anything and even could die, so they always tried to make sure she didn't drain herself too much on her missions. It had been Megavolt who had realized this weakness or flaw or danger in Electra first. He had brought it to the rest of their attention. And now they were all careful to look out for her that she didn't drain herself to death. That was another reason for checking up on her. If something happened and she forgot to recharge herself she'd be useless to the gang AND if that happened Negaduck would kill them all.
"Just checking to see if you're ok as usual Electra" answered Bushroot.
'Sheesh. Men' thought Electra. It wasn't as if she couldn't take care of herself. Why did they have to keep checking up on her? If it wasn't Bushroot it was Megavolt or Quackerjack or even Liquidator. She especially hated it when Licky checked up on her. He was the only one of the 4 who would ever enter the apartment building any more, and he would pop out through the pipes in her kitchenette, which she HAD gotten to partly work. The sink still didn't work even if Licky could travel through it but at least the oven and microwave now worked. Megavolt had helped her out by fixing some wiring after they had got rid of the bed thing that had been in the apartment. He had also gotten a couple of the lights to work. Too bad he refused to enter the building anymore after that day. She still thought he was kind of cute. Silently she giggled to herself at the thought that Megavolt was cute. "I'm fine!" she yelled back to Bushroot.
"Don't forget the meeting later Electra!" Bushroot called out to her as he hurried away after having reassured himself that she had survived another night in Hellville.
............................................
Actually living in Hellville was, at least for Electra, a survival tactic. Her choice of apartment even more so.
The police never set foot in Hellville, not under ANY circumstances, so there was a zero percent chance of getting arrested while in Hellville even when out in the open. Also... In Hellville there were no snitches. Snitches didn't last long in Hellville. They were lucky to last even half a day before someone found them dead strung up drawn and quartered as an example to others not to be a snitch. Since there were no snitches in Hellville there was no chance of anybody reporting her presence or whereabouts to the cops, although, since no cop dared set foot in Hellville that wasn't really a risk to begin with.
Then there was her choice of apartment building itself. Anyone who didn't know better would assume she was crazy for picking it. She wasn't though. That is, to say, at least she wasn't crazy for picking that particular apartment building. Whether she WAS crazy for doing the other stuff she was doing, her choice of apartments wasn't actually crazy at all. You would think it was a crazy choice but you'd be dead wrong.
First off, the building was in very bad condition and looked it. No one would ever mistake it for the Ritz. Anyone walking by would in fact assume that it was abandoned and that there was nothing in fact in it worth stealing, so the building was extremely safe from being broken in to.
There was also the fact that the landlord whoever he was that owned the building had abandoned it a long long time ago so there was no rent to be paid for staying in it. It was absolutely and completely free to live there. Oh sure, the absence of utilities could be considered a negative and problematic, but the squatters there had in fact partly restored some of those utilities. They had some running water, working toilettes and even some elctricity. Maybe the apartments didn't have it but the building did. In fact, the fact that most of the apartments didn't have power or water was actually a good thing. The absence of working pluimbing through most of the building meant no need for plumbers and no leaks or dips. The absence of electricity and lighting meant that there was very little to draw attention to the fact that the building was actually occupied. Even at night it seemed vacnat and deserted.
As to the decrepit condition of the building itself, well that discouraged anyone who wasn't actually squatting and living there from venturing too far into the building. If their foot broke through a spot on the floor or something broke in their hands, most people would quickly leave for fear of their own safety.
No Electra wasn't crazy for choosing to live in Hellville and she definately wasn't crazy for choosing to live in this particular building, even IF it seemed that way.
Living in Hellville could have been self preservational genius. Very few people even dared venture into Hellville if they weren't residents of it. Fewer still would give a second glance to an old decrepit building. Almost NONE would dare venture into such a decrepit looking building more then once if they entered it at all. Most would deem it too dangerous, and all but the building's residents left it alone after a brief cursory glance around. That made Hellville AND this building in particular THE safest place in the world to live or at least one of the safest places.
The safest place in the world? That is, assuming of course you disregarded the rotten floors, bad wiring, decay, maggoty garbage, roaches, insects, lack of water and lack of electricity. Also assuming you ignored the daily occurances stabbings, shootings, stray bullets whizing past your ears, drive-bys, street corner prostitutes, pimps, dope dealers and daily muggings happening in the neighborhood. Also assuming you ignored the nightly trash fires and burning cars. And assuming you ignored open sewage flowing through the gutters and people, things and bodies being hurled out of windows at random as you walked by. IF you could ignore all that then Hellville might be the safest place in the world to live.
Hellville was named Hellville for a good reason, after all, Hell COULDN'T be any worse then this could it?
Electra liked it just fine though. It felt like home to her. And she DID feel she was safe here. As long as she didn't get hit by flying bullets that is. So Electra chose to live in Hellville. She knew nobody would bother her there. And she felt at home and safe there. In the middle of Hell on Earth.
.............................................
It was 3 hours later now, and it had been 3 weeks to the day that Electra had first bumped into Megavolt. The gang, namely Bushroot, Megavolt, Quackerjack and the Liquidator had taken to checking up on her on a daily basis at her apartment. It was in the worst part of town after all. And they just KNEW Negaduck would blame them and probably kill them all if anything were to happen to her.
Each of them had discovered for themselves that Electra had a very bad memory but that it improved dramatically and was better when she was fully charged and got much worse when her charge was run down or she was tired.
They had each pulled off several robberies for Negaduck with Electra as a partner in crime, and all of them had started to care about her as a colleague. She seemed to be a natural born criminal and they all vied to be partnered up with her now, knowing that partnering up with her meant a greater chance of pulling off the heists successfully. Well, almost all of them vied to partner with her. It had quickly become obvious that Liquidator and her were not good when partnered together. Liquidator tended to short her out and reduced the chances of succeeding when he was paired with her.
Negaduck was very pleased with the gangs achievements since Electra had joined. He knew full well it was mostly because of her electrical disruption that they had achieved so much. It was amazing what they could get away with when the alarms didn't go off. Still, Negaduck had quickly learned Electra wasn't perfect. She had some major flaws. He had found out very quickly when he had tried having her commit a robbery on her own that that wasn't a good idea. She had gotten distracted and come home with an armload of radios, stereos, Cd's and a handful of instruments instead of cash or jewelry. He had been warned at that first meeting with Liquidator the day she had joined the gang of course about her thing for music stuff, but he had promptly forgotten until she had come back with musical things instead of money. He had been furious and had almost, mind you just almost scared her to death until he had remembered what Liquidator had told him. Then with her still cowering from his chainsaw in the corner he had turned it off and abruptly said "don't ever let this happen again". Instead of running off though she had slumped down against the wall. Since then though Negaduck NEVER sent her off alone to do any work by herself. He ALWAYS partnered her with one or more of the others. It had quickly become very profitable. He had also discovered she wasn't without skills on her own even without her powers. She was quite the lock picker and she also was quite the little safe cracker. In fact he had quickly found out her skills, apart from her electrical powers were much better to rely on then her magick. Her magick, which is what he had wanted her for in the first place was very unreliably and misfired dangerously more then 80 % of the time when she tried to use it.
Now he had a plan for taking over St. Canard. He needed her and several of the others to take over the power plant before he could put the rest of his plan to work though. So he had called them all together for a 'business meeting'.
"Listen up you knobs! I need you to do some things for me. Liquidator I need you to infiltrate the St. Canard water works and wait for further instructions. Bushroot, Quackerjack, Megavolt and Electra I need you to take over and disrupt the St. Canard Power Company. Now get to work!" Negaduck growled at them. They immediately acquiesced to Negaduck's demands. Working with him, they all knew it was best to do what he said before he got his chainsaw out. Even Electra had learned this quite quickly. So all 5 villains rushed out the door of the hideout to get to work. Liquidator hurrying off to the water works while Bushroot, Megavolt, Quackerjack and Electra hurried off to the power plant. "And Bushroot..." said Negaduck as Bushroot hurried to comply and head to the power plant.\
"Yes boss" said Bushroot, pausing at the door.
"Keep an eye on the others and make sure they don't get into too much trouble" said Negaduck.
"You got it boss" said Bushroot as he then hurried up to catch up with the others. He understood why Negaduck had said this. Negaduck had once paired up the other 3 together by themselves and it was a total disaster. They had wound up destroying everything in sight when the police and Darkwing had arrived on the scene. They had even gotten busted and Negaduck had been forced with the help of Liquidator and Bushroot to break the 3 out of the St. Canard Police Department holding cell. No, Bushroot totally understood WHY Negaduck wanted him there. He had to baby sit the other 3 villains to make sure nothing went wrong, and to be sure they didn't destroy everything in sight. Quackerjack had a tendency to destroy things just by himself without Megavolt there to goad him on and Megavolt had a tendency to destroy things with his electricity when he got excited.
As for Electra? Bushroot wasn't quite sure but he did get the feeling that she too loved destruction for destruction's own sake just like the other 2 although he hadn't seen it for himself yet.
He had however, HEARD about her apparent love of destruction second hand from his plants and from reading the paper's accounts of the time Negaduck had teamed the 3 of them, Quackerjack, Megavolt and Electra up together. The paper's hadn't named her by name but he knew who they meant because he knew all 3 of them and knew about the mission Negaduck had sent them on. It had happened a week and a half ago or so and St. Canard WAS STILL trying to clean up the mess and destruction the 3 had caused. The reports had gone on to sat that while Megavolt had been shooting electrical bolts at everyone in sight trying to fry them all, and Quackerjack's toys had been attacking every one and everything in sight and creating havoc, Electra had been using her powers to cause adjacent vehicles, electrical transformers, and buildings to explode amongst other things. The reports his plants had given him had even hinted at other things she had done while Megavolt and Quackerjack were fighting off the police. He didn't even want to think about those reports. But he did know he had to catch up to the others and make sure what had happened last time the 3 were together on a mission didn't happen this time too.
So Bushroot hurried off to catch up to them.
….....................
Darkwing had been getting very very frustrated these last 3 weeks. Every time he thought he was onto something in his investigation every time he thought he had a new lead or new clue about the mysterious energy SHUSH had detected come through a portal or anytime he thought he was about to get more information on that new super villain something happened and he didn't make any headway at all. He HAD though he was going to get some information on her or from her when they had caught her and Megavolt and Quackerjack, but then the 3 had broken out of jail, and there was no new information on her at all. Other then the fact that she now apparently had to be working with Megavolt and Quackerjack and presumably the rest of the fearsome five and therefore she was presumed to be working for Negaduck.
…................................
Morgana hadn't made any headway in her own investigations either. She had lost the trail of the mysterious magickal emanations about a week before and there had been nothing to do with them since. Not a trace of magick anywhere and she was getting very frustrated too. She still had nothing firm to tell the council about the magickal discharges and she couldn't even tell them that they were done happening either, and they HAD asked her THAT.
…................................
Bushroot caught up with the 3 other villains as they got to the power plant.
Megavolt quickly shorted out the alarm system (although he didn't need to since Electra's power caused a disturbance to electrical systems and the alarm wouldn't have gone off anyways because of that).
Quackerjack had wanted to blow up the door with an exploding teddy bear but Bushroot had managed to convince Quackerjack that it would be better if the outside of the plant didn't have any noticeable damage to it to attract unwanted attention to it like attention from the cops.
After Bushroot had convinced Quackerjack NOT to blow up the door it had seemed Megavolt, Quackerjack AND Electra had been disappointed, but maybe he just imagined it. Electra quickly had set about picking the lock and gaining them all entry through the back door. Bushroot noticed the alarm didn't go off. It was a good sign. Either Megavolt had succeeded in disarming it or Electra's powers were blocking it, but either way they were inside without anyone knowing it.
It was to be Megavolt and Electra's job to siphon off enough electricity to cause a power brown out throughout all St. Canard so that Liquidator would be able to take over the waterworks without interference. Quackerjack was supposed to stand guard and lookout. Bushroot's job was to make sure Electra, Megavolt and Quackerjack did their jobs like they were supposed to.
So far everything was going perfectly. Perfectly that is until a cloud of blue smoke appeared.
"I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the brownout that crashes your computer! I am... Darkwiiing Duck! Came a voice out of the smoke.
Bushroot looked around quickly. There was no way out except past Darkwing and there were no plants in the power plant so there was nothing he could do. He decided to hang back and let Quackerjack deal with Darkwing Duck hoping that Quacky COULD deal with it. Negaduck would be really pissed off if they failed or worse yet landed in jail again.
"It's Plaaay Tiiime!" yelled Quackerjack as he unleashed a barrage of bouncing ballistic balls at Darkwing.
Darkwing deftly dodged the explosive balls and pointed his gas gun at Quackerjack. "Suck gas evil doer!" he shouted.
"I'll make him sizzle like spit on a griddle" said Megavolt.
Sensing imminent danger from megavolt, Darkwing quickly changed attachments on his gas gun, switching the gas canister for something that looked suspiciously like a hose nosel. "I don't think so SPARKEY!" said Darkwing as he used his gas gun water gun attachment to spray a barrage of water at Megavolt.
Megavolt quickly sidestepped the spray of water. This unfortunately allowed the entire barrage to spray onto Electra who was still siphoning electricity from the turbines.
As the water hit her Electra promptly shorted out, sparks flying every where. Megavolt, Quackerjack, Bushroot and Darkwing and Launchpad quickly dived for cover.
With the power still surging into her from the turbine dynamo and the water shorting her out, Electra began to scream. It wasn't the shorting out or even the electricity coursing through her that was making her scream however, it was a barrage of flashback memories assailing her mind that was making her scream, unbeknownst to the others present in the room with her. They thought she was screaming from the pain of shorting out. Falling against the now shorted out turbine with memories assailing her mind from every possible direction Electra continued screaming. It sounded like she was dying.
"Stop it you're killing her!" yelled Bushroot.
It was too late though. The memories were coursing through her brain fast and furiously as she fell to the ground still shorting out but now almost drained of power. Memories of both her own human life in the other Universe AND of the life belonging to the rat's body her soul was now trapped in. Coursing through her with a violence tearing at her mind. If she could survive being shorted out there would be no telling if her mind would be able to survive the barrage of memories that had been caused by the massive electrical surge of her short circuit.
"And the award for most brilliant achievement of a scientist in the field of electrical research goes to..."
"If you ever darken the door of this establishment again we'll call the police and have you charged with trespassing"
Rain falling. Rounding a bend. Suddenly a light in the same lane as her. Changing lanes. Hydroplaning out of control. Skidding on wet road. Gravel ripping pant legs. Going off the edge of the embankment. Sliding on mud. Impact with a tree. Blackness.....Waking up wet. Leg stuck under something. Got to get out before I drown. Pulling leg free. Pain. Agony. Finding a broken branch. Cutting off remains of pant leg. Creating a makeshift split. Trying to stand. Pain. Agony. Falling. Crawling. Another branch. Grabbing it. Using it as a crutch. Limping. No point in trying to save the motorcycle. Looking back. Seeing it explode in flames. Limping home...
Fever. Pain. Got to get away. Save leg. Not let then take it off. Limping. Finding a vacant building. Good no one here except a few squatters. Picking lock on an apartment. Nice place. Opening bedroom door. Oh yuck gross blech. I am not going in there. Is that something moving in the bed. Closing the door quickly. Flopping down onto couch.
"This is what we're going to do Sandy WE are going to steal that mystery device those scientists are working on..."
"Quick sandy take the device and run. Go to the hideout. We'll catch up with you there. Now go!"
"I didn't mean to break it uncle! I'll fix it! Honest I will. Just give me another chance uncle. Just give me another chance! Please!"
"If you ever set foot near me or any of my organization again I will kill you Sandy. You hear me? You are no niece of mine you are dead to me you hear me? Dead and if I ever see you again I will kill you!"
"I'll show them. I'll show them all. Worthless device? We'll see. When I get you working they'll see. They'll see my brilliance. They'll come to me begging forgiveness asking me to give them the fruits of my labor. and what will I say to them then? I'll laugh in their face"
"I have to get that gizmo doohicky back and fix it. if I can fix it uncle won't be mad anymore and he'll let me back in the organization"
Possibly billions of memories of both her own life and her rat's body's life were assailing her mind, tearing her mind apart. Memories that were incompatible with each other. Of being a valedictorian and a high school drop out. Of being a research scientist and a thug. More and more memories assailed her as she fell to the ground.
"Stop! Your killing her" she heard somebody scream but it was so far away. It didn't seem relevant. She passed out exhausted. Almost completely drained of energy.
She doesn't seem to be breathing. She doesn't seem to have a pulse. But she is alive, though just barely. But the hands checking for breath and a pulse can't tell that.
"You've killed her!" shouts Bushroot. Time seems to go in slow motion as Bushroot, Megavolt and Quackerjack realize Electra isn't with them any more. That Darkwing killed her by shorting her out. They all launch themselves at Darkwing, caring nothing for themselves. They want Vengeance for the death of a comrade the death of a cohort the death of a friend. Nothing will satisfy them short of Darkwing and Launchpad's death. It's very strange for 3 villains to care for another villain but they do. Maybe it's because she was a girl. Whatever the reason they launch themselves at Darkwing and Launchpad with intentions to kill.
Darkwing and Launchpad run as if their lives depend on it. They do. What had seemed at first to be just an ordinary run of the mill night of stop the bad guys has turned into something else. A life and death struggle for survival. They run for their lives. The villains pursuing them with vengeance on their minds.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Authors Notes:
In the part about Electra's hideout location and her views on it I was trying to do a juxstaposition between how she see's living in the Hellville part of St. Canard vs how other people view the Hellville part of town. Did it work?
I felt the story needed a bit of action at this point so I decided rather then progressing slowly as I have been I would throw in this chapter now. This IS the longest chapter I've written thus far. Let me know what you think. Im not really sure I should have stuck this chapter in just yet. I probably SHOULD have done more character developement before I worte this chapter. What do you think?. So let me know if you like it ok? Please?
Should I write more chapters leading up to this then place this one somewhere later in the story line? Should I leave this chapter as is where it is? oR Should I delete this chapter altogether? Do you like this chapter? Tell me wht you think please. What you liked. What you didn't like. I'd really like some feedback please.