Vines snaked through the laboratory. Gosalyn grabbed her crossbow and dove over a vine, shooting at them before they could reach Huey in the chair. Louie made a mad dash for the door and tried to shove it closed, but the vines only grew bigger to open it wider and they sprouted new growths whenever Gosalyn hit them.
They coiled around Gosalyn, stiffening her limbs and lifting her off the ground. Huey jumped off the chair and into a wrestling match with the vines that grabbed her.
It wasn't long before a wad of weeds picked him up and slammed him into the wall. Huey coughed and squirmed as they pinned each of his limbs to the wall. They tightened around him until his swollen ankle felt like it was going to burst. He winced.
"Wahhh! Ouch!"
Huey looked up just in time to see them yanking Louie up by the feet as he fumbled with the walkie-talkie. His green hat fell to the ground.
"Where are you?! We're kind of tied up in here!" Louie panicked into the walkie-talkie as he dodged the vines that tried to grab his arms.
Dewey's voice then crackled over the radio. "What's going on? Are you okay?"
Vines grabbed Louie by the beak. "HAhhhhlpp!" he choked before dropping the radio. The vines swung him rightside up and curled around his body until you couldn't tell what green was his sweatshirt and what were the plants.
The weeds slowed as a funny-looking plant with a beak step into the room. Is that-not it can't be. "Bushroot?!" Huey and Gosayln said in unison.
"But that doesn't make any sense! The Ramrod… he… you…" she stuttered.
He's a cartoon character from the world of Darkwing Duck. How on earth did he make it back into our world? Unless…. Huey searched through the recesses of his memory back to the Ramrod plans.
Brushroot smirked and circled the room, looking each of them over. "I know this must be insanely confusing for you… being from the world of the real Darkwing Duck and all." He stopped in front of Gosalyn. "Pfft. Why am I saying the real Darkwing Duck? He's a sham, dressed in costume. After the hole was closed, did he check the Ramrod diagnostics and levels? No! He went on pretending to be a character from a cartoon!"
Huey's eyes widened as the realization dawned. "You got sucked in just as the Romrod's dimensional hole began to close… but it didn't take you back to your dimension. Instead it spit you back out somewhere in ours!"
"Bingo!" Bushroot winked at him. "And at a different place in the timeline, so it seems." He circled Gosalyn. "From the looks of it, Darkwing's little girl sidekick is all grown up now."
Gosalyn struggled against the vines. "What do you want, Bushroot?"
"Oh, it's simple, really. To be seen and not feared for once in my life, is that too much to ask?" Bushroot sifted through the paperwork on the workbench. "I was a freak in the cartoon and I'm a freak now. It's a hard world for us plants, but I intend to make the world more… plant-based. Why shouldn't plants rule the planet? After all, we make the oxygen for all of you airbreathing buffoons."
Gosalyn growled. "You won't get away with this! Darkwing will stop you. You don't stand a chance against the caped crusader of St. Canard. He's more real and more dangerous than you could ever-"
Bushroot clamped her beak shut with the vines. "Darkwing can't stop me. He already failed to catch me the three other times I broke in here."
Gosalyn attempted to break free again but failed.
Huey swallowed hard. Well, I guess we're adding whatever this is to the list of things we did today. "What do you need from Ludwig's lab? He's certainly not the plant type." He nodded to a dead flower in a pot on the windowsill.
"Ludwig created your world's only growth serum. Just a few drops can grow a sapling into a tree in a matter of seconds. With that kind of scientific formula, in league with my own expertise and serums, I could turn the whole population into plant-people. Then I would become their leader and no one would ever make fun of or doubt me ever again!" He blabbed on as he walked out of the room, trashing the place he searched it.
With the power over plants that Bushroot had, Huey had no doubt that he could carry out his plan. He glanced over at Gosalyn who continued to use all of her strength to fight the vines. They only squeezed her tighter.
Louie, on the other hand, just dangled in their hold, a hesitant look on his face. "Did he say growth serum?"
Huey's eyes narrowed. "What did you do, Lou?" He kept his voice down to a whisper to match his brother's.
Louie shrugged. "Well, mow might be a good time to Duke it up, that's all I'm saying."
An icy feeling pricked his shoulders and sliced down his back. He clenched his jaw. "No. I'm not doing that. Do you know where the serum is?"
"Come on, Hubert. If he gets his hands on it, what do you think he's going to do to us? He told us his entire plan and we're the only ones standing between him and his plant kingdom."
Man, I wish I'd watched more Darkwing Duck. "He may not kill us. Besides, Dewey, Launchpad, and Darkwing are out there. They'll get us out."
Louie cringed. "Can we really bank on that? He's already incapacitated Gosalyn and she has all of the skills Darkwing has. Dewey has far more confidence than he has skills and Launchpad is… well, he's Launchpad."
Huey squeezed his fists and glanced at Gosalyn. She still had that fighting look in her eyes but there was a hint of fear behind it. He sighed and shook his head. "We need a different plan, Louie."
"But the Duke can get us out of this."
At the very mention of the Duke taking control, his heavy voice snuck into the back of Huey's mind. "He's right. I'm your only chance."
But Gosalyn… she can't see me like that. I won't let her see you. You're not who I am. Ever since the Duke developed his own voice, Huey had a harder time holding him back. It was like he could break through with just a word if Huey wasn't careful to keep in control.
"No. You can see all the angles. Find another way."
Louie looked him straight in the eyes. "You are the angle. We need the Duke."
But the Duke's not me. He shouldn't even be a part of me! Huey squeezed his eyes shut.
"Let me out, Huey. I can fix it."
No. You never fix anything. I fix things. You break them. You are the only thing that makes the kind of messes that I can't clean up. Why would I willingly let you make another mess?
"Because you need me. You don't exist without me."
Gosalyn is just starting to like me. I can't let you screw that up because if you do, I won't be able to fix it.
"She was never going to fall for you anyways. You're a nerd who pretends to be someone you're not. You deny the deeper parts of yourself. She could never love you. Now let me out!"
Huey heaved deep breaths as he fought back the impending red fumes that billowed in his system.
"Gah! Where is that infernal serum?!" Bushroot busted back into the room.
Huey opened his eyes and gasped for breath, his pulse racing, sweat running down his face. No. I can't let him out again.
Bushroot stepped over to Gosalyn. "My plants can sense lies. Tell me where the serum is?" He clenched his fist, willing the vines to squeeze her.
She gasped and coughed. "I… I don't know!"
Fire flickered in Huey's eyes as he watched Bushroot squeeze the breath out of her.
"There's no way you can hide me where she won't see me. I'm part of you."
Huey bit down on his lip, his heart stamping faster than the hooves of a race horse.
"She'll never love you."
He growled and threw his head back. The Duke was relentless and he could feel the snowball standing at the top of the mountain, ready to start the avalanche at any given moment. The Duke was coming… and he was going to make sure his entrance was grand.
Bushroot loosened his hold on Gosalyn. She wheezed and gasped for breath. He sighed and turned to Louie. "She's telling the truth. But what about you?" He narrowed his eyes and slowly coiled more vines around him. "Where is the growth formula?"
Huey met eyes with his brother. That was all it took to know. Disappointment swirled with fear in his gut. Louie has it.
Louie smirked. "You said it yourself, flower-power. It's gotta be here in Ludwig's lab. How should I know where it is?"
"That's not an answer."
A panicked look swept over Louie's face as the vines coiled around him tighter.
"Where is the serum, kid?" Bushroot's vines constricted around him.
"I don't-cough." Louie glanced over at Huey, wheezing a little as the breath slowly ebbed out of his lungs. "The Duke would-be-great-now." He coughed, sputtering.
Louie. Frigid cold seized Huey's skin that was soon overtaken by a blistering heat. As he watched the breath being squeezed out of his little brother, the ropes restraining the Duke finally snapped.
Huey muscles tensed and his eyes grew red. With two quick snaps of his wrists, his hands broke free from the vines and then his legs. He dropped to the ground, his chest heaving like a raging bull's. He barely felt the pain in his ankle with the amount of adrenaline pumping through his system.
The Duke flew into high gear, busting vines and swinging them like tentacles to knock all of the oncoming ones away. Like a madman, he chewed through vines that held his brother, freeing him before going straight for Bushroot.
As soon as Louie hit the ground and caught his breath, he ran to help Gosalyn out of the weeds.
As the Duke pursued, the timid scientist-plant fell back, scrambling for the door. "What-what are you?!" He shot all sorts of weeds at him but the Duke snapped each stem that came between him and Bushroot before grabbing the scientist by the collar and lifting him off the ground.
His head twitched, his breath seethed through his barred teeth, and the fire in his red eyes grew. "Stay away from my brother," the Duke's heavy voice mixed with Huey's in a threatening growl.
Bushroot threw his hands up. "Okay, okay, okay! I surrender! Just don't… don't… do anything crazy, kid… monster… whatever you are." He cringed.
The sound of an engine revving brought their attention to the vine-covered windows just in time to see Launchpad and Dewey busting in on the Ratcatcher in an array of vine juices and glass. Launchpad crashed the Ratcatcher into the opposite wall with both Huey and Bushroot watching in silence.
Dewey tumbled off the back and fell on his face. He lifted his head and grinned. "AW YEAH! The Duke strikes again, baby!" He hopped up and headed straight for them.
The Duke shoved him back. "He's mine." With that, he swung his arm with the intent to knock the man scientist out for the count. But before he could take the swing, a poof of purple mist fell over him and he lost his grip on Bushroot. His eyes grew heavy and he stumbled back, falling into Dewey's arms.
The Duke began to flicker away and the last thing Huey saw before his eyes fell shut was Gosalyn and her look of absolute shock and terror. Yeah, he was fooling himself. What girl could ever really fall for the Duke of Making a Mess?