-Darkwing’s lair, Ocellus-
“They are barely doing anything to him.” I winced at watching Pom try to pummel him down in desperation and nothing happened, Negatron Duck didn’t get so much as a light bruise or minor scratch for the staggering blows that were dealt to him.
Maui, or Cold Shadow as he called himself currently. Got in a hit afterwards with his staff that didn’t do a single thing, but it did distract Negatron Duck from shooting Neptunia, nearly gpt shot himself doing so.
I had to try and recall something. When was the last time Pom actually successfully defeated some major threat in a fight? I believe it was the shadow doppelgangers of her friends… Pom really hasn’t had the best history with going on the offensive and Hollow Heart was still going strong by the time backup arrived and started pummeling him. He was even still going strong at the end of that fight.
“Should I go now?” Lena was leaning against a wall and watching the monitors with something approaching fear. She had been particularly effective in helping to stop Hollow Heart alongside Dolly, but this situation had implication just as world ending or shattering.
“No, not yet.” Violet stated while looking at a helicopter appears at the scene and started to watch the battle in progress. “Looks like the news is going to make a circus of this battle.”
“They are kind of getting creamed out there, so that’s as much a show as anything...” Smolder wasn’t wrong, the remaining heroes that could be mustered were having troubles just slowing Negatron Duck down as the antenna nearby continued to be setup or repaired as it was damaged.
I had an inkling that Negatron Duck was actively taking their time, what with making the entire structure of the antenna have a skull patterned motif from the modifications being done to it.
“What I want to know is… if he has all this power, then why is his setting up of the antenna going so slowly?” It did seemed odd that he hadn’t just immediately sped up the modifications to the antenna, was he just toying with them all and could have just finished it at any time or was he actually being pressured? “He could do it far faster than he is and not even move much to accomplish it.”
“I think it has to do with his polarity.” Answered Violet drawing our attentions to her as she turned her seat away from the screens. “The tronsplitter splits into both positive and negative polarity, thus the tron-splitting. I’m guessing here, so take this with a grain of salt, but the negative polarity could possibly be conducive towards destructive decay… in the opposite vein a positive polarity would be prone towards constructive cohesion. As such his telekinetic powers are working somewhat against him as he’s trying to build a method to turn the whole city into negatively charged, possibly evil, entities under his sway without destroying the antenna with all that negative energy coming from him as he does so.”
“Could we be maybe giving one of the hero’s with positive energy to cancel out Negatron Duck?” There was a worried look on Shanty’s face as she made the suggestion.
The three active heroes were knocked back by a concussive force, with Cold Shadow having taken brunt of the force for both Darkwing and Neptunia while attempting to blunt it at the same time.
A still dazed or stunned Pom was currently being carried around by Banana Boy avoiding blasts of energy and Dormarch could be seen keeping down and out of the way while looking quite lost on what to do in the current moment.
“That’s not a good idea. If we had two entities of the same person, say a positively charged Negaduck created from the tronsplitter, then we’d be able to negate them in that exact manner.” I’m guessing this is where you tell us what was wrong with that idea Violet. “However if we tried to negate him in the manner you describe with a different being… well… it would end in the death of two individuals with a small chance of creating a new one with both the personalities of the resulting amalgam if the resulting mishmash doesn’t die from biological incompatibility first or if they were incompatible… it might create anything between a normal person to an unstoppable eldritch entity. We have enough issues keeping magic in Duckberg in check as it is.”
“So… that’s a no to that idea then.” Lena received a nod from her sister. “Ugh, of course.”
“Among the things they need to do, they have to return the positive energy Negatron split off from himself to his body or, I loathe that I even have to suggest this, they could further split him with a tronsplitter to render him completely into particulate matter and release whatever positive energy Negaduck has from the tronsplitter he used. If it doesn’t kill him, it’ll take him a long time to pull himself back together.” Violet sounded like she knew what she was talking about when it came to the science of it. “If they are to follow the first suggestion, they would also need to wear down the supercharged state through powerful hits to disperse his aura. It doesn’t matter how they hit him, they just need to hit him hard, fast and never stop until the negative energy loses the ability to build up. If they don’t keep him under constant attack until they pass a threshold that can’t be recovered from, then the energy will just inevitably build-up again. On the bright side, all the negative energy can’t come from nowhere. So the more negative energy there is, the more positive energy there will be floating around in the general vicinity if it isn’t being absorbed by the other tronsplitter already. After a certain point the tronsplitter might go critical if Negatron Duck draws on an excessive amount of negative energy to himself causing a localized backlash of positive energy, positive energy without a mind behind it would naturally be destructive. So when I say excessive amounts of energy, it would be within the realms of a small nuclear device going off in the city… but at that point at least three fourths of the city would survive.”
“Send me the calculations you are getting for that estimate Violet.” Ordered Dormarch from his position, Violet proceeded to type something out on the computer.
“Can you interface with the antenna or device while I send you the math?” As Violet asked this of Dormarch, Neptunia managed to get a good hit in on Negatron Duck with her trident.
The trident did no damage despite directly being jammed into his stomach with incredible force that knocked Negatron Duck back and he tried to take control of her weapon from her with his energy. The attempt failed as some kind of magical script prevented the negative energy from stealing it out of the small mutant biped fish’s grasp.
“So he can be beaten, but it’s going to be one hell of a fight to even begin putting him down?” Making my way over to Smolder. She needed some reassurance and I’m always willing and able to provide it, mostly by nuzzling her cheek softly and smiling at her. “From way you say it… nuclear is something bad right?
“Yes, either they fight him with lethal intent or they disperse him… the latter of which is harder as he’ll evade attempts to be split any further if they can even get access to the present tronsplitter. It just means that he’ll figure out a way to come back from it, as again dispersal doesn’t necessarily equate to death if he has a strong enough mind to draw all of his particular particles back together to reform himself. Even then he’d reform back as basic Negaduck and not Negatronic Duck due to the loss of all the negative energy.” Violet turned back to the screens and began to direct people. “We most certainly don’t want him gather such energy in excess, as it would be a cataclysmic event to anyone nearby. It’s a good thing this is just mad science and not magic, because magic would have made this far more unpredictably terrifying.”
“I wish I could stop the antenna setup, but there’s nothing to interface with in the tronsplitter to stop it from being connected to the antenna and the antenna itself is probably analog based. Nothing for me to tear through digitally and Negatron is highly resilient to most forms of attacks that are not of a positron based charge or at least a high enough energy output. It’s bad enough that antimatter is possibly coming into this, I really didn’t need to know Negaduck could wipe out almost the entire city… by the way you’re calculations are off Violet, I think you forgot to the carry a six. To think the fact that the tronsplitter is built out of nothing but a toaster is mind boggling for the amount of danger it represents.” Dormarch reported and winced as a rocket exploded against the place he was taking cover in knocking him over onto his face. “Its nice information to have though, I’ll try to tell someone about this dire need to bring him down faster… when they are not busy dodging for their lives. Besides, Negatron Duck will always go critical first before the tronsplitter will ever have a chance of exploding all its contained positive energy if it is drawing said energy from the surroundings. So he’s very much the thing we should focus on the most here.”
“Oh… carry the six, add to that… fix my mental calculations then… not good. Let me rescind my previous statement by issuing a new one, should Negaduck hit critical excess with his negative energy drawing capabilities… well exactly what Dormarch just said. Paints a dire picture when nine tenths of the city could be completely vaporized centering on Negatron Duck’s position when he inevitably goes off. He’s also likely to survive said destruction.” Violet looked so very pale. “We’d survive unless he moves approximately half a mile east from his current position, I’m quite thankful there won’t be any deadly fallout, still far worse than I thought… exceedingly so.”
“So the backup plan of the spare tronsplitter?” Lena asked tentatively as she pointed at the device recovered from Taurus Bulba’s laboratory, one of the devices that came from the dimensional portal incident that Dormarch mentioned as being one of the things that had caused major dimensional instability.
It was from the incident when Megavolt, Quackerjack, Bushroot and Liquidator were brought in from another dimension before being sent back by the combined strengths of the McDuck family and Darkwing. The recent existence of Splatter Phoenix brought the characters to life in this world, not that they were around for long once Splatter was splattered.
“Emergency use to disperse Negatron Duck completely should he get close to critical negative energy mass.” That was not very comforting Violet, especially if I even understood half of what the things said meant like I thought I did. “He must not succeed at either broadcasting his negatron wave or exploding.”
-Airspace around the middle of the city, Pom-
“Leap Lamb, ma’am, you okay?” Hearing Banana Boys voice, my ears buzzed with a strange noise.
I shook my head and found myself draped over Banana Boy’s back. What I did was dumb, but we really needed to get in hits.
“I’ll be… fine.” Though I wish I could deaden my ability to feel pain at the moment, I felt quite raw and cooked at the same time right now.
“Well you just proved we need weapons to fight him or to attack him from a distance if just touching his aura actively hurts you.” Banana Boy was keeping track of the fight on the roof and avoiding any blasts or projectile fire coming our way. “Also his weapons certainly don’t help with dealing with him. Hopefully that news copter will continue to stay well out of range of the fight.”
“I’m… ready to get back into it.” Turning the top portion of his head to me, Banana Boy gave me a look.
“You hesitated for a second.” Rather blunt of you Banana Boy.
“Please remember that I’m not exactly as medically sound as I appear to be.” Also getting a chainsaw wound to one of my hind legs made me lose quite a bit of blood before I managed to close the gash with a wool stitch and bandage. “Excuse me for a second.”
I noticed Dormarch trying to get my attention, I felt him trying to tell me something he was in a panic and it felt like I needed to know something immediately. Several images came to mind, the idea of a devastated city through several means depending on our current situation popped up.
“Get me near Dormarch on the roof, I think he needs to tell me something.” Unlike Dolly, Dormarch couldn’t exactly communicate with me mentally… well at least not yet.
If the bond I had with Dolly was anything to go by, then it might happen. There was also the fact that Dormarch was an alien entity not of this world too, so the bond between us could be something different entirely to this world itself.
-Cold Shadow-
I landed on the other side of Negatron Duck and brought my staff around at him, he blocked it so easily with a hand.
My purpose was not to damage, it was to distract. I have thus far managed to knock away his
“Coming through Daredevil Duck!” The fish lady, Neptunia, shouted.
I assume that affectionate nickname was given to me because I was blindfolded on a roof of a building while fighting a mad godlike duck trying to cause untold destruction with with only a staff.
She stabbed at Negatron Duck’s back as my staff kept his right hand occupied, he turned and caught the tridents middle prong with his left hand and that’s when Darkwing capitalized on the opportunity to fire another positron gas canister provided by the ever clever Maui straight into his chest.
We backed off as the cloud caused him flare with raw energy, but at most it only vaguely weakened him. He then pulled out two double barrel shotguns, he had many weapons on his person… far more than an entire armory for third world country apparently. I could see no end to this conflict where we would be still standing unless something changes.
I swiftly planted my staff and used it to safely cartwheel out of the way of the blast of the gun fired one handed, and Neptunia does the same in the opposite direction away from the blast aimed at her and took approximately three pellets. As tough as she was, she was looking too health after taking two pellets in the chest in dangerous places and one deeply embedded in her left leg.
Following his two blasts, he aimed both the guns for Darkwing.
Quickly firing a grapple hook, Darkwing pulled himself out of the way using one of his gas guns many features and was struck by four barrels worth of fury. He was hit with at least seventeen of the pellets, but none of them penetrated his costume, those would leave nasty bruises.
“Is the great Darkwing Duck is afraid of a little firepower?” It seems Negatron Duck had an unnaturally large focus on putting Darkwing down. I could see they had a history together, even with a blindfold covering my eyes. “Not like you could actually protect anyone, much less you’re friends!”
“Dodge.” Stating this immediately while pointing my head in Neptunia’s direction while in motion, without much explanation I pole-vaulted high into the air for the edge of the roof.
Said edge was soon to become a crater matching missing corner of the roof when one shotgun fired a blast charged with the energy Negatron Duck was exuding. With a swift swing as I fell my staff caught one of the holes recently created by the explosive force of the various pellets and I hung there with my feet dangling over a long drop.
“Yes Maui, I too hope that Neptunia survived the one aimed at her.” I planted my feet against a window and heaved myself up and twirled my staff to jam it into another hole.
Were anyone paying attention to me, they’d see a blindfolded duck slowly steadying his precarious position with care on the side of the building before launching up to another large hole carved by the supercharged shotgun pellets.
-Neptunia-
Dang it, why does Darkwing always get himself into these kinds of messes… I’m losing a lot blood here.
I heard a clicking noise and looked up from where I had narrowly avoided death and saw Negatron Duck squeezing the trigger.
I clenched my eyes shut as an explosion of the shotgun firing went off. Only when I opened them I saw the crater that used to be a rooftop where I had been and I was in the air, sitting on top of Banana Boy.
“Thanks for the save, Buddy Banana.” I murmured as I lurched in my position on his back and tried to clench my trident tighter. “Now let me down and…”
“Dynamo Dog said to not let you continue fighting with your injuries, you’ve spent most of the day being tortured and then you still came to this fight.” Well Buddy Banana, the reason for that was because I was a tough nut to crack… unfortunately I think that last shot cracked me and almost ended my life. “I need to get you to the hospital before you bleed out. You gave as much as you could, you need medical help.”
“D-darn it… fine…” With that I was being carried away from the fight, while I wouldn’t admit that I was hurting badly, I grudgingly accepted that Banana Boy saved my life and was continuing to do so. Sorry Darkwing, Daredevil Duck, Leap Lamb and… did Banana say the mutant canine was called Dynamo Dog? Heh, I just hoped they were enough. “But you are coming back out here and you are going to try and help them to the best of your abilities, you hear me… you’re a hero. Even if it doesn’t seem like you can do much as a banana, you can fly and that’s one thing most of heroes wish we could do.”
-Pom-
Leaping forward as Negatron Duck aimed for the retreating Banana Boy, I decided to throw of his aim with a well-timed bark blast to the left side of his face that not only staggered him, but made him drop his weapons as he was about to fire.
Said weapons went skittering over the edge and he calmly turned to face me after his he regained his sense of balance.
“Ugh, you’re back, I thought I melted your ducking ass!” I fired a second bark blast and then dodged away as he pulled and threw a knife that destroyed everything near it with a caustic energy as it passed through the air, burning the very atmosphere itself. “Can’t kill anyone these days without someone popping out of the woodwork to make the world a better placed, how very disgusting of people!”
The knife missed me and tore through a fence and something exploded violently setting a part of the roof on fire, my bark blast in contrast barely shook him after landing next to his feet and taking a small chunk out of the ground.
“Thank you.” I said honestly while looking at him with tears in my eyes, I think they might have been glittering too… I couldn’t tell.
“What are you thanking me for?” Negatron Duck stated with agitation as he reached for more weapons. “I’m about to kill you!”
“For saying ‘someone’ and not ‘some hero’, it’s nice to know that someone actively acknowledges that not everyone here is or wants to be a hero.” He looked more than flabbergasted by what I said as he pulled out a pair of rocket launchers.
“Yeah, but you’re still a nuisance no matter what you want to call yourself." He fired both rockets that, judging by his aim were going to try to crush me between both blasts. "I prefer dead meat!”
Widening my stance, I brought my legs together as I performed a rolling leap, one rocket actually veered toward me as I did so.
The other kept flying straight, my eyes widened as I started inhaling and when I exhaled I had a small amount of time to take in the situation.
The rocket coming at me seemed to be pointed directly at me and wasn’t following its previous trajectory. It was also glowing and given how powerful the things Negatron Duck become when he charges them…
I narrowed my eyes as the missile came at me in slow motion, I learned a thing or two from Colleen back on Elhorn about advanced weaponry like this when we had some free time to talk. The explosive device would trigger if I hit the head of it, but…
I inflated my wool, kicked my left hind leg up and struck the rear of the rocket, it flipped upwards as the flames died out and I caught the rear in my mouth. Deflated my wool, flipped towards the ground and spat it in an upwards arc.
“What the f…?!” Was about as far as Negatron Duck got into stating an expletive before he was cut off.
I managed to skip backwards and under the reconstructing antenna and outside of the blast radius that took out half the roof.
I calmly took a few gulps of air and tried to slow down, this time I managed to gain control rather quickly after remembering how it felt when Dolly did it for me.
“Did you… did you actually get him with that?” Darkwing said in shock as he loaded his gas gun and looked at the now collapsed half of the roof.
“Well…” The rubble from below erupted and Negatron Duck was now hovering in the air in front of us glowing vibrantly with rage. “No. Why can’t it ever be that easy?”
“I’m right there with you on that.” Grunted Darkwing as he flicked his gas gun upwards and it clicked.
“Please try to stay healthy.” Whined Dormarch with his tails between his legs, while looking between me and the floating biped duck.
The roof slowly started remaking itself in images of bones and skulls.
“Ready for round two? It seems that you’re down to three zeroes, that I need to subtract…” Negatron Duck wasn’t injured or even tired for that matter. “From existence!”
-Hospital, Launchpad McQuack-
“Don’t worry guys, I’ll find a way to help... somehow.” I looked around for some way to get up there quickly. “What can I do once I get up there exactly? I mean Jim Starling… Negaduck… Negatron Duck will just take me apart. Come on Launchpad, think.”
If someone were to look inside my head right now, they most certainly would not see a monkey clanging cymbals together and that I’m denying it because I’m not specifically thinking about that at this very moment while my friends were in danger.
I saw Banana Boy dropping off Neptunia, I watched as doctors took her away on a stretcher.
“Hey uh… Banana Boy right?” It was probably a bad idea to ask, because I didn’t want to be responsible for painfully crashing a person but… “Can I get a lift?”
“Sure thing.” Banana responded.
“Airport now!” I hopped on Banana Boy’s back and pointed to the sky.
I needed a helicopter!
I have a great idea, some might even say… that it was the greatest plan!