//------------------------------// // 206. Post Museum Preparations. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Earth, Darkwing’s Lair, Ocellus- “You’ve rescued Gizmo Duck, Gizmo Gal will be happy to hear that when she recovers from her incident.” I sighed with relief at hearing Darkwing, Quiverwing and Arrow Assistant had found Fenton. Banana boy was still unaccounted for and Rubber Chicken was still presumably captured, but things were turning around in the city slightly. “No idea as to what Negaduck has planned, but he’s laying very low consider no one has seen any sign of him since the broadcast.” “Well he’s somewhere around the city, I just know it. He can’t stay quiet forever.” That’s obvious Darkwing, what wasn’t obvious though? It seems like he was thinking about his own statement. I’m fairly sure when Negaduck goes noisy, it’s going to be quite hard to stop him after all the stuff I’ve seen sitting up here in Darkwing’s Lair and directing the various heroes. “Keep directing people as needed Ocellus, you’re doing a wonderful job at keeping us all organized. Update us if anything comes up.” Whatever Negaduck had planned, it had to be enormous given all the trouble he’s caused. Nothing requiring this much effort to hide and distract everyone from was ever going to be a good thing when a criminal mastermind was behind it. Queen Chrysalis’s Canterlot wedding debacle comes to mind. I heard the entrance chairs spinning behind me and felt several strange emotions, melancholy was one of them, an amount of anxiety and… is that what a sense of purpose felt like? Strange, maybe I was getting that one wrong. It really didn’t take me long to guess one was Pom even before I turned around, but who in the world could match the intensity of Pom’s anxiety problems? I blinked, oh… Dormarch had a body now. That… should really surprise me more than I thought it would. “So Dormarch came out of the device? Okay.” Really Smolder, you’re just going to let that go so easily? I mean I am, but you’re just taking this in stride far too well. “Don’t look at me like that Ocellus, it was fairly obvious it was going to happen eventually.” Smolder crossed her arms and stared at me. “Okay, yes, it seems like something that would happen after we learned about how Dormarch came to be from Kahn Industries.” I got up and stretched out my back and turned into my dragon form and calmly walked over to Pom and Dormarch. “Who needs it most?” Pom was carrying an unconscious Shanty and Dolly glued to the wool of her back along with several distinctly familiar toy figures, one looked to have been fixed from being split entirely in half. Dormarch also had a familiar banana toy in his mouth… I believe that was Quackerjack’s Mr. Banana Brain and both he and, somehow, the toy looked upset. “They do.” Pom didn’t even ask as to what I was talking about as she dropped the toys on the floor and then carefully pulled Dolly and Shanty from being draped over her back. Six pony toys of our teachers. That was more than a little unusual, as nobody in this world could possibly even know about them to make those. More infectious harmony magic of Equus maybe? I wasn’t exactly idle while Pom was doing this, I was picking up the nearby medical kit to begin treating our wounded. “What happened to them?” I said conversationally. They looked to be soaking wet, were bleeding lightly from numerous cuts and while they didn’t look to be in serious danger of dying, they were quite clearly exhausted for the day. Putting the banana toy down near the pony toys and looking at it solemnly for a bit, Dormarch turned to me and answered. “Got trapped in a room with more than a hundred ninjas at least, Shanty set off the sprinkler system and who knows what they fought before that, but they have heavy bruising on their bodies from some rather heavy impacts. Not fit for combat, but at least they are not critical.” Nodding to Dormarch as I opened the medical kit, I moved over to him and pointed the box towards him. “Uh…” “Will you help me patch them up?” I asked quietly as I carefully reached out and fondly patted him on the head and tussled his floppy ears affectionately. “You know a lot about medical procedures and I’m sure you’ll be a good help here, I don’t want to accidentally do something wrong.” “Sure!” Dormarch seemed to cheer up a bit at being able to help with their issues. “Any pressing issues with their health or any other methods of care we need to administer before we get started?” That was important to ask and Dormarch looked quite ready to get into it. I glanced at Smolder to see that she was staring at the toys on the ground, we’ll probably talk about this later. “Well we need to get Dolly’s helmet off and dry them both off to start…” Began the dog with the three fur covered fish tails as Pom wandered over to Smolder, I moved closer and reached out and started to pet the tails and he suddenly got a cute blush on his face. He was as adorable and sweet in person as he was on a screen. -Pom- Ocellus could handle Dormarch emotionally for the moment, changelings would make for good emotional therapists provided they can handle the negative emotions quickly enough. “How are you doing?” Asked an obviously bored Smolder as I flopped down on the floor next to her. “I watched a jester blow himself up to take out what might be a semi-immortal person that might come back from being killed anyway.” Mostly because I couldn’t react too much after having unleashed all that force making my body hard to move after taking the impacts of a number of cannonballs. “Even if he didn’t do it and I somehow managed to accidentally defeat the person he blew up, it might still have ended him. The guy went out with a bang, quite literally, and I all I could do was watch with a whimper.” “Well, at least you’re still going, which is good for the long term… but you look like you could use a break.” Yeah, things weren’t great and this day has been a rather long one Smolder. Rolling her eyes she added. “Wish I could get off mine.” Spine still splinted and being stuck to sitting down all day would be pretty bad, but at least she was safer than I was. “I plan to scrub myself down of any paint I might have on me, get something to eat and thirty minutes of rest. Once I find out if Jitters has any information different to what I recently received, I’m immediately heading out and hunting down Negaduck to stop whatever it is he’s up to.” I’m not sugar coating this, I am actually hunting the guy. Negaduck quite literally kicked a box full of puppies one at a time and what Quackerjack said about people being killed made me wonder why the area around the museum had been so quiet. Didn’t take long for the horror set in as to what happened to anyone who was around the museum when Splatter Phoenix took control of it at the start of the day. I had my first run in with an evil De Ville and I seriously didn’t like the implications of everything that happened before I did. The realization as to what Quackerjack had hit the paint demon with to defeat it was humbling and well thought out for the wacky toy maker… all it took was some acetone, benzene and turpentine. All of it highly toxic, but necessary, substances that would put Splatter Phoenix down fast. How many people did Splatter Phoenix exactly get before Shanty, Dolly and Dormarch launched their attack on the museum? All the artwork Splatter manipulated, the monsters she created… yeah, I really needed to scrub the blood paint off of my hooves vigorously with soap and scalding hot water. “Thirty minutes? Are you sure that’s enough rest for you Pom.” Not currently worried about my condition Smolder. “It’ll be more along the lines of an hour because I’ll be eating at least something warm and showering.” I’ll even be cooking the food myself to get the shakes out of my muscles. “Why are you shivering?” It seemed that Smolder noted that my form seemed to be shivering ever so slightly, I concentrated and tried to still my body. “It’s not that cold.” “I performed a counter with too much build up, Splatter Phoenix was going for lethal… didn’t know I could handle blunt impacts or use the total buildup of force from them. What you’re seeing is me trying to keep my Dancing Flame style under control, just a minor side effect from the counter making me lose some control over it. Nothing to worry about, I’ve still mostly got a hoof on it though.” My muscles were still vibrating minutely, but I still managed to carry Shanty and Dolly all the way back to Darkwing’s quainter home where I proceeded to come to his lair through the spinning chairs without ever being spotted. Smolder was now eyeing me with some suspicion. “We kind of decimated the museum… I wonder who’s going to pay for the damages.” “Wait… aren’t you?” Smolder, there are some times when lying by omission of guilt is the better option. “Nope.” I said as I looked around. First bathroom, then bathing, followed by cooking and eating, then I’ll spend the rest of my time here playing with Dormarch to keep him from what happened to Quackerjack. “Heh, and here I thought you were just about always doing the right.” Smolder didn’t sound upset about it, but she was still eyeing me about it. “If it’s between keeping Shanty’s near bottomless stomach fed or rebuilding an almost entirely destroyed museum that I’m probably never going to see again, what exactly do you think I’m going to choose as more important? Also Dormarch is another mouth to feed and I’m not letting him sit inside his PET any longer than he has to if he ever actually needed to in the first place.” There was a long pause as Smolder crossed her arms and eventually she uncrossed them, she looked away slightly and was possibly upset with me. “While I do like being friendly and nice, I’m not made of infinite charity and we kind of need the funding for Professor Callaghan. I may act like a self-sacrificing idiot at times, but everyone has their limits and I’m not going to let people die if I can feasibly do something about it. So tell me Smolder, why should I volunteer myself to be the target of all the blame and hatred of every artist that had their hard work summarily trashed in that museum to my detriment for no great reason? Mind you, I would actually normally take responsibility for the room I destroyed personally if we were on Equus, but we’re not. We’re illegal aliens from a different dimension that are still technically trying to lay low, not trying very hard at all really, I seriously don’t want to be a hate sink. Without a target to focus their ire on the artists and people will hopefully rebuild and move on with their lives.” From the look on her face, I can tell that Smolder didn’t have a good response to my question. “Huh… I’ll grudgingly admit it’s actually a good call to let the museum be someone else’s problem.” Smolder said nodding from the seat she couldn’t get up from. “This is one of the roughest friendship problems I’ve ever heard of, but you know what they say about the road to Tartarus Pom.” “Well aware and I try not to have intentions unless I know what I’m doing Smolder. That said, where’s the bathroom?” Once I got a few directions from Smolder I nodded and thanked her for her help, before I walked off I decided to say something. “If it assuages your conscience, we’ll be telling Darkwing and at least Jitters of TOON Division about what happened and we will be leaving them all the information we have on Artisia ‘Splatter Phoenix’ De Ville before Dormarch and I set out. It’ll be useful for them to know if Splatter can in fact come back to life like Spot thinks she can.” -Dormarch- Having a metric ton of medical knowledge in my head was helpful for treating injuries and I was willing to apply that knowledge every time I got. I would feel bad for having it otherwise and not using it, I felt like I must use it when it was applicable at least. Having this knowledge at least helped with my Cure Liquor program’s efficiency in repairing myself too. Both Shanty and Dolly weren’t critical, but it would be a day or two before they were ready to fight again. Both had their wounds cleaned, bandaged and were resting soundly. I got a better picture of them snuggled together too. I think I needed some energy and to figure out why a portion of my body was rumbling, manifesting seemed to be having odd side effects on me. “So what has you feeling a little blue?” Ocellus leaned on me and nuzzled the top of my head. “It’s the knowledge that we can’t save everyone nor can every criminal be taken alive.” I wasn’t even one year old yet and I don’t think I should have experienced so much in such a short time frame. The general psychological environments around Pom were decidedly hostile. “While there is wonder and magic, there is also equally horrifying and ugly things out there.” “Nobody said life was fair, but there are those who will try to make it that way by doing their best.” I felt Ocellus wrap her current forms arms around me and tugged me into a hug. “Can you tell me what you think Pom would be like if she hadn’t met Dolly or you? Where she would be?” I flinched, Ocellus just sent a wan look at me. “Exactly.” Ocellus said while drooping a bit and looking to the computer. “We’re all doing our best.” “Dormarch, do you want a bath?” I looked to Pom… I had no reason to say no and I had no reason to fear water. I’m sure water doesn’t have any negative effects on my manifested form, the sprinklers were still running somewhat when we entered the ninja exhibit back in the museum. Maybe bathing would feel good? -A minute later- Baths felt nice and warm, being scrubbed clean makes one forget about the worries of the world for a while, up until my body started making that noise again. “Oh.. you’re hungry. You’re not a normal dog, so I have to wonder what you can actually safely eat.” Pom looked me over. “You haven’t ever had a single bite of food since the device turned on, let’s change that shall we?” “I usually got my energy from the PET device, being manifested is strangely different.” Shaking her head at me, Pom smiled and held me close. I could feel her heartbeat again and she could feel mine… or what passes for my electronic pulse anyway. This was quite comforting as was knowing we were safe, up until Pom went after Negaduck. I’m fairly confident she’ll come away from it alive, though odds on being in one piece mentally or physically were varied. “I’ll make you something to eat. If you don’t have any issues eating regular food, then you might have a wider range than Dolly in the things you can safely consume. You’re first meal should be something warm and filling... if mostly safe.” There was an ample amount of curiosity to Pom’s words that had me almost excited to see what she was going to do. “I want your first meal to be something special, we need to do some business while here and then get some rest before heading back into the city. Let’s see what I have to work with.” -Five minutes later, Pom- Drake had a really nice breakfast suite up here, the fact that he uses it for training is a little daunting when I saw a machine gun loaded with cereal pop up. Ocellus had thankfully deactivated that before it fired sugary oats and grains at me. Thankfully the variety of food Drake had stored here was healthy stuff and could be used to make a variety of meals. I’ll throw in a side of kibble for Dormarch and see how much he likes it compared to my cooking. “Dormarch, can you please do me a favor and call Jitters.” He did so as I was prepping the food, by reaching his paw physically into the screen of the PET. “Hello?” Jitters hesitantly said after a moment. “This is Agent Peehs.” Sheep spelled backwards was ‘Peace’. “I got some key information, but I need to hear what you have to say to confirm my thoughts and narrow down where the Chess Master is.” “Oh Agent Peehs, how did things on your end go?” Jitters brightened up considerably. “About as well as can be expected. Look up missing person’s reports and if you tie them to being around the museum from the start of this morning throughout the day that would be helpful in some future investigations. I’ll have to ask Darkwing or his protégé to forward you the information on the villain known as Splatter Phoenix later.” I didn’t even need to say it, because Jitters gasped and he made a sorrowful sound. “So do you have the information I sorely need to confirm things?” “Well that’s actually an interesting bit, it ties into my research of the weapons being smuggled in through the docks up north. He’s not on the west edge of the city. I’m going with a hunch that he is not coastal at all, so he’s possibly more south around the city center. We all know he’s likely not east side either... so he’s bound to be between neither in the north or south shores, but in a more central area.” Good, that was very good Jitters. Looking at a nearby map of the city, my eyes focused on a particular spot. There, that had to be it from Bushroot’s hint, at least in that general area as no other place would fit that psychotic duck’s modus-operandi. He had to have been where Moliarty wasn’t patrolling in the south, but north of the Egghead southern shore activities that Launchpad and Maui dealt with. “Is that what you needed Agent Peehs?” “Yes, I know exactly where Chess Master is now, but not what he has waiting. He doesn’t know the hidden queen is still in play. Maybe we can hopefully foil whatever plan they have before it goes into action.” My eyes were the south western portion of the city map, one very small place where activity seems to bend in a very small way around everything that was happening in the city. Darkwing possibly passed by the place on the way to the Arboretum. It was a bakery… one of the sweetest cake making places in the city being used by the likes of the criminal mastermind Negaduck. “What are the chances he’s in the basement of a particular bakery on the southwest side?” “Huh… actually pretty good with what we have on Negaduck. How so… very diabolical of him.” Everyone would think it is very diabolical Jitters, especially considering that he might be targeting an orphanage, an animal shelter that the puppies were likely stolen from and an old people’s home as his first acts of destruction if that was his goal. I thought the puppy kicking was horrible, but he was in a perfect position to do some purely evil things for the sake of it. “When will you be setting out Agent Peehs?” “I’m getting dinner in and a total of thirty minutes rest, then I’m going to set out with my remaining active partner, my other two are on mend from various injuries of dealing with Villain Maker.” I became quiet as the food cooked and I stirred the soup I’ve been preparing as I talked. There was plenty for Dolly and Shanty later. “Hm… I want you to send Fall-Apart to what is the current tallest building in the city, have your other people check the basements of various buildings. If Negaduck is as demented as I think he is, he might have a backup plan for total carnage in some hard to reach places. Something that could explode for an exceedingly deadly domino effect put in place by expendable pawns he may have running around.” “I’ll do so after this conversation and will have everyone looking into it.” Thank you Jitters. “My Tanya is thankfully safe and mostly sound, we might even get more funding for flak vests after the few shots she took. TOON Division still has other things to attend to as the city is still having problems with average thugs armed with the smuggled in assault weapons from the north, but at least the worst of the higher tier criminals are down… not that it’s comforting that Negaduck has been preparing something for this long. Have Eye Spot spread the word to the heroes to be on the lookout around the southwest if he’s not at the bakery when you arrive. Good luck once you set out Agent Peehs and I hope you have a nice meal.” With that the call ended and I focused on the food, a nice cream of mushroom and vegetable soup. I looked over to Dormarch quietly messing with his PET and idly squeaking the Banana Brain toy in his mouth, up until his nose was sniffing at the air as the simmering soups scent drifted over. Dormarch's ears raised up, his tails started wagging and his mouth almost looked to be watering. I smiled, it looked like he was going to enjoy this. “Ocellus, help Smolder to the table. It’s time for Dinner, any leftovers will be for Shanty and Dolly when they wake up.” I started setting up the table. “I know that I can trust you two to heat the soup up. Just make sure that Dolly gets a little first, also give her a big helping of kibble and water afterwards. Shanty will drain the pot completely after all the energy she has expended today.” -Dormarch- Having sat down next to me and stated that she was going to help me eat. I had a few words for Pom about that. “I’m a not a baby.” I received blank stares from Ocellus, Smolder and Pom. “Okay, yes, I’m not even a few months old… but I’m an intellectual for my age!” “Just let me help for the first bite... please?” The spoon was loaded and Pom was looking at me with a smile. I crossed my paws and grumbled a bit before taking a bite. I choked on a bit of it after immediately swallowing, I have never felt anything like that. Also choking on food didn’t feel as good as it tasted. “Careful now Dormarch, you need to learn how to chew.” Bringing another spoonful around for me, Pom waited patiently. “I would hope that you know those teeth are for more than just combat applications.” It wasn’t long before I tried kibble. -Ocellus- Too bad the heartwarming moments between those two couldn’t last. “Well if Dolly is going to be the sidekick Caper Canine for as long as we’re in this world, does that mean that Dormarch is Dynamo Dog of the dynamic dog duo?” It took a moment, but Smolder’s suggestion for sidekick name was quickly accepted.