Negaduck didn't really try to center his life around Darkwing Duck, but it was so hard to ignore his goody-goody doppleganger. Everything that Negaduck did, seemed to have something to do with Darkwing. Either the vigilante forced his beak where it didn't belong, or Negaduck had no choice but to try to focus his plan on getting rid of Darkwing, or else the hero would eventually get in his way.
No matter what Negaduck did or how hard he tried, he couldn't get a one-up on Darkwing, and the hero couldn't really get rid of him either. They were two sides of the same coin. They were literally the same person who just took different paths. Negaduck knew all of Darkwing's flaws and strategies, and Darkwing knew the same about him. It was infuriating.
It was for this reason that he had formed the Fearsome Five. Negaduck wasn't a team player, but he wasn't above manipulating and using people the way that Darkwing was. Not only could there be strength in numbers, and five against one was definitely the kind of odds that he could get behind, but three of the fools he'd recruited were mutants.
Superpowers were an amazing thing, and if Negaduck couldn't have powers himself then he would just use the people that did. As for Quackerjack, while he didn't have powers he did have the ability to outsmart Darkwing Duck. It could actually be impressive if it weren't for his insanity.
Negaduck both loved and despised how crazy Quackerjack was. On the one hand, it was because Quackerjack was absolutely mental that he didn't really have qualms about hurting people, or at least didn't seem to even comprehend just how dangerous his games could be. On the other hand, if it weren't for Quackerjack's obsessions with his childish games he could have probably beaten Darkwing Duck.
Negaduck saw undeserved potential in the four fools that he brought into the Fearsome Five. When he'd started this he had thought that he could lead or use them, but when the four of them were together they seemed to lose every bit of sense and skill they had. They went from conniving, if incompetent, villains to whining children.
Actually, Negaduck thought that they were worse than children. At least little kids could be scared and molded into just what he wanted. That was the only good thing about kids. They were like whiny molds of clay just waiting for him to manipulate. The Fearsome Five were still whiny, but they were independent enough to question him. Sometimes Negaduck felt like he was fighting them almost as much as he was fighting Darkwing.
He didn't really know when the plan began to form. It always just seemed to be there in the back of his mind, and one day he realized what seemed so obvious. Sometime after another Fearsome Five failure, when Negaduck was brooding about not having powers of himself, and having to work with complete losers to get even close to it, his mind began to stray.
For reasons he didn't understand, he found himself thinking about that little brat that always followed Darkwing around. Except that was just the thing, wasn't it? She wasn't always around. Oh, sure, she was put into danger a lot more than was surely safe for any child her age, which Negaduck could totally get behind, but she only seemed to be around when Darkwing was at his lowest and absolutely needed help.
Negaduck knew that the girl was spirited, which was one of the things that he hated most about kids, but she was also surprisingly obedient. Darkwing Duck was too heroic to purposely endanger a child, so he had to be telling her to keep her beak out of his business. Clearly, she didn't always listen, but it looked like for the most part she did.
Somehow Dorkwing Dipstick got a child to at least consider listening to him. Why could he do it with such a spirited girl and Negaduck had to struggle to keep his four in line. Darkwing was a wimp. He wouldn't hurt or threaten bodily harm to a kid to rein her in. Negaduck had no such hesitations. He could, would, and had, hurt the other members of the Fearsome Five. Why wasn't it enough? What was the difference here?
The only clear difference was that Darkwing was working with a child. They were inherently more moldable. If the four idiots he was working with were children then he could probably do some serious damage with them. He would have access to their powers, and he'd actually be able to make them do what he wanted. He could even take those annoying parts of him that he barely tolerated, and he could successfully beat it right out of them.
They could be the perfect tools. Sure, children were annoying, but so were the weaker members of the Fearsome Five. If he could deal with them now, he could deal with them as brats.
It was surprisingly easy to find a way to actually accomplish the seemingly impossible. He just had to sneak into Shush headquarters, which was just getting easier and easier to do, and he was able to find blueprints for exactly what he was looking for. He just needed to hand the blueprints to Quackerjack and Megavolt, specify exactly the way that he wanted it, threaten them away from asking what this was for, and he was set.
Most of Negaduck's planning was for the specifics, what he would do after they were children. He wanted different things from each of them, so he would have to work with them individually. He hated the thought of spending one-on-one time with anybody, especially these idiots, but this was an exception he was actually looking forward to.
He didn't need to hang out with them, he needed to control them. Torture. Manipulation. Punishment. Those were the tools that he would be using, and it was going to be so much fun. Negaduck got excited at just the thought of making children miserable, but for those children to be the other four of the Fearsome Five it was absolutely invigorating. He couldn't wait to get started.
While he waited for the machine to be ready Negaduck dedicated his time to plotting. He already had dozens of ways that he wanted to torture the others. He just needed to edit and revise his plans to make them as efficient as possible. As much fun as messing with the idiots could be, he couldn't forget the reason why he was doing this. He didn't just want to hurt them, he wanted to control them.
For the Liquidator he wanted to get it into his thick head that if he couldn't figure out how to talk like a normal person, then he should at least learn how to keep his big mouth shut. Negaduck also wanted the mut to actually utilize those powers of his. The possibilities with the Liquidator were almost limitless, but he rarely ever did anything interesting with them. He definitely didn't deserve those powers, and Negaduck was going to make sure that he knew it.
Bushroot was a sniveling coward, but he could also be the most ruthless of the four of them when he snapped. Negaduck needed to get Bushroot to grow a spine, because he despised his cowardice, but at the same time he needed to make sure that the weed didn't even consider turning on him no matter how badly he snapped.
Negaduck wished that he could beat Megavolt's bad memory out of him, but he knew he probably wouldn't be able to. At the very least he wanted to make sure that the rat knew who was in charge. When Negaduck wasn't around he knew that Megavolt took up the position as unofficial leader of the group. He didn't think it was on purpose, or that any of the others knew that it was happening at all, but it was clear.
Negaduck also wanted to see to it that Megavolt got over his delusions about light bulbs and electronic devices being sentient. Every time he stopped to talk to and coo at light bulbs he became the biggest joke in the villain world, which was downright pathetic when there was a literal jester in their midst.
And then there was Quackerjack. He was the one that Negaduck could really have fun with. He wanted the jester to be less childish, and much more mean. He needed to nurture that insanity, and he had so many fun ideas on how to do just that, and most of them required very little effort, which was so ideal in so many ways.
For a few weeks Negaduck had to be satisfied with just planning and fantasizing. The machine was rather complicated, and between Megavolt's memory issues and Quackerjack's interest always being caught by something else, they didn't focus as much on the project as Negaduck would like. Eventually though the machine was complete.
Negaduck would love to rant and rave about what he was doing and why, as there was very little that was as fun as rubbing his victories in people's faces. What was the point of being a villain if he couldn't even gloat about it? But he knew that it had been his downfall more than once, and this particular project was too important to let it go that easily.
Negaduck didn't waste time with any of that. Without even giving the others time to realize what he was doing he knocked out Megavolt and Quackerjack with a few good hits to the head. He absorbed the Liquidator into a sponge, which he then sealed in a jar, just in case. And he finally made good on his promise to mulch Bushroot.
Now he had the time to set things up just right without being pestered or rushed. He had considered doing this in the Negaverse, giving him more space and freedom to do what he needed. He'd ultimately decided against it because the Friendly Four were even more of goody-goodies than Darkwing was. They were always getting in his way, and they cared more about helping innocent people than Darkwing ever could.
If Darkwing caught wind of what Negaduck was doing, he might not even meddle just because the four were involved. On the other hand, the Friendly Four would jump through hoops to save child versions of themselves from his influence, and he didn't want to deal with that.
So instead he'd used some of his precious loot to rent a house on the outskirts of St. Canard. It was in a neighborhood where everybody minded their own business and people could get away with whatever they wanted behind closed doors. It was as much privacy as he could get right now.
He brought the idiots and the machine to the house. Maybe it would have been better to de-age them first before moving them, but he didn't know if they would wake up in the process, and he would much rather move four unconscious adults, one of whom was in a jar and one was little more than a pile of dirt, than to try to fight with four rambunctious children, three of whom had powers.
Negaduck dropped them unceremoniously on the ground of his house. He double-checked that the machine had the right setting. There were so many ways that people could be de-aged. They could revert to the way they were when they were younger, complete with the memories of being a child. They could just take their usual self, complete with their adult memories, and be turned into a child. Negaduck was looking for something in the middle of that.
He wanted the mutants to retain their powers, which none of them had as children, but at the same time he really didn't want them to have their adult memories, or else that would lose the whole point of turning them into children in the first place. Negaduck played with the settings for a few minutes before he was sure that he had just the thing that he was looking for.
He aimed the machine at the four in front of him and set it off. The reaction was immediate, at least for Quackerjack and Megavolt. Only time would tell if Liquidator and Bushroot would be the same. In the meantime, Quackerjack and Megavolt shrunk before his eyes until they looked about the same age as Darkwing's brat. This was going great..
Their clothes didn't shrink as well, but that was the least of Negaduck's concerns. He'd never liked their outfits anyway. He went to the children and grabbed Quackerjack by his arm. He started to drag him to the back of the house, not at all caring that he was gripping and pulling just a little too harshly. He really couldn't care less if he hurt any of these kids.
Negaduck opened the door to a small windowless bedroom, which he'd set up beforehand. He threw Quackerjack inside, making the kid grunt in pain. The child sat up, rubbing his head. He looked up at him curiously.
"Do you know who I am?" Negaduck asked. Now was as good a time as any to see if their memories would be a problem.
"...No?" Quackerjack tilted his head at him. He didn't look scared. Negaduck would fix that soon. Right now he had three other children that were his priority.
"Good." Negaduck growled. He slammed the door shut and locked it. He wouldn't keep the kid in there for too long, at least not this time, but he needed to get a jump on the kids with powers, and Quackerjack would just get in the way of all that.
He was just making his way back to the main room when he heard a shattering sound, quickly followed by the sloshing of water. He'd thought he would have more time. Negaduck clenched his teeth as he entered the room. He saw a dazed looking Megavolt sitting on the ground. His fingers were visibly sparking with electricity, and Negaduck had the bad feeling that he would have to figure out how to help the rodent get control of his powers.
He wasn't his top concern right now. Negaduck was much more worried about the watery form sloshing around and trying to take shape. The Liquidator had already somehow gotten free of the sponge and broken out of the jar, and yet he was struggling to just take a physical form. Negaduck wondered if the Liquidator had less control, but also more raw power. It was something to keep an eye on.
The Liquidator looked at Negaduck and his eyes narrowed. The mutt's form from the waist up took on a clearer shape, though he was dripping a lot more than usual.
"You." The Liquidator said. He definitely sounded younger, like a prepubescent brat. "You took that kid. What'd you do with him?"
Negaduck raised an eyebrow. He hadn't considered that the Liquidator would be completely aware while in the sponge and jar. He was curious about how much awareness the mutant had when he was in liquid form. That was something else to experiment with.
More exciting than that was that the Liquidator wasn't talking like he had jumped right out of a television commercial. Maybe this wasn't something that he would have to drill into him after all.
"Trust me, Quackerjack is the least of your concerns." Negaduck said "If you're that worried about him, do what I say and maybe I'll think about leaving him alone." The Liquidator and Quackerjack had never really been close friends, but now that they were children who had suddenly found themselves in a strange place with a strange man, they were clinging to each other for security.
Negaduck wasn't going to complain. It was just another thing that he could use to get the kids to do what he wanted.
Negaduck grabbed the cheap flower pot that he'd put Bushroot into. The sprout was already bigger than before. He eyed the plant critically, growling when he saw a small eyebrow peek back at him.
"There you are." Negaduck said. The plant yelped and seemed to draw back as much as it could. "You can't hide from me forever." The plant didn't move. Bushroot was trying to pretend that he wasn't a sentient being. He was still a coward, and Negaduck would make him pay for it later. The only reason he was letting it slide was because Bushroot still had plenty of growing to do before he could walk around. In the meantime, he had two other mutants to get started with.
He set down the pot and pulled out his trusty chainsaw. He revved it a bit, just to let the kids know that he meant business, and because it was fun to see them jump.
"Splash and Spark." Negaduck leered at the rat and dog before him. The kids looked anxiously at each other. "We've got some time on our hands, so why don't we see if we can get past that elemental hurdle of yours." Sometimes Megavolt and the Liquidator could work together beautifully, using each other to make their powers stronger. Other times trying to do the same thing only ended up hurting both of them. It was infuriatingly inconsistent and Negaduck wanted to figure that bit out.
"Now, if you do what I say, you might get hurt." Negaduck pointedly adjusted his chainsaw. "But if you don't, you'll definitely get hurt. So, what'll it be?"
Megavolt unsteadily got to his feet. He looked nervous, but he wasn't doing a bad job at hiding it. "What do you want from us?"
Negaduck smirked. Now it was time for the true fun to begin.