Chapter Text
…..... His back hit the iced water and the liquid quickly engulfed him. Swallowing him down into the dark array of muck and mud at the bottom of the bay. It felt like a shock, the electricity of pure below-zero salted water melting into his clothes and slipping away the warmth from his feathery skin. At least he was finally getting a bath after months of constant sweating underneath his thick winter jacket and combined sweater. His body was rigid, hands clawed in a stuck position, staring up at the black figures at the surface whose shadowed faces were warped by the green depths. His lungs were going to explode yet he couldn’t climb himself out of the insistent cold prison he was pulled into, his eyes were most likely bugging out of his skull and the air caught in his throat was begging to be released. A little cold had never hurt him before, yet here he was, at the bottom of Audubon Bay, suffocating because he couldn’t pull his own muscles together to swim to the surface. Even if he could though who's to say the little hole in the ice he fell through wasn’t already frozen over? His eyes glossed over and slowly began to blur even more than just being underwater, black spots filled his vision and the large creature advancing toward him did not register in his brain. It grabbed his frigid body and pulled him up. When his head hit the surface and landed on the thick crunchy snow his eyes flew open, his throat seized, and air finally escaped and entered his lungs. He heaved, trying not to vomit whatever last thing he was able to scavenge and consume. But he was too late; the bile escaped his mouth, and he went limp atop the freezing landscape he was projected onto.
“you guys did it!” a shrill voice exclaimed, and Darkwing Duck pulled himself out from the pile of amateur superheroes. He rubbed his head before turning to the open doorway that led to the STAFF ONLY back room of the disheveled bakery that he and his newfound acquaintances stood in.
The little girl with curly pigtails looked up at him with a bright grin and her red-haired friend with huge bulky glasses pointed to the glowing cake within the far room.
“But it appears Negaduck has escaped into the portal,” Nega-Tank explained and Darkwing pulled down his fedora securely on his head.
“You gotta go get em’ Darkwing.” The pink-clad girl said. “Besides your Gosalyn needs you!”
Darkwing stopped.
He turned hesitantly and kneeled to the height of the smaller girl. “What about you?” he asked, pressing his palm to her cheek as if she were his own daughter. Well, she was. But not exactly. It was confusing... But he was starting to try and understand.
Nega-Gosalyn beamed happily and hugged him. “Don’t worry about me,” she said, letting him go and stepping back where the Friendly four were standing behind her. “I’ve got four Darkwings to take care of me now!”
Quickly with one last embrace Darkwing wrapped his arms around the little girl tightly, then let her go. Muttering a soft ‘Goodbye Gos’ and running back towards the cake portal, where he jumped in.
The sight that met him was nauseating. The constant swirl along the exterior of the worm hole as he flew through the passage between dimensions with his doppelganger ahead, trying to escape.
The yellow villain turned around, halting his advance towards the Primeverse with a deep scowled and threw his hands down to his sides.
“Give me, a BREAK!” he snarled and reached for one of the many objects floating by to use to fend off the masked mallard of justice.
“Just when you thought you could get away Negaduck, I always- YIPES" Darkwing yipped when a whip was snapped towards him, and he grabbed the closest thing floating by, a trashcan lid which cracked in two halves with the next hit from the whip.
Darkwing fled, trying more objects to fend off the elongated weapon in his nemesis's grasp before he reached for something he didn’t quite look at until he threw it at the opposite duck. The villain recoiled at the unlit bomb and dodged it.
“What are you doing?! Do you want to blow up both our universes?” Negaduck screamed and Darkwing blinked.
“As if you would care about that!” The hero frowned and threw a Frisby at the criminal, bonking him in the beak. His hands flew up to his face and the whip dropped from his hands. Ahead Darkwing noticed the doorway to the Primeverse and he winced.
Keep him busy, he thought. But what exactly was he going to do? He couldn’t send Negaduck back to the Negaverse because Nega-Gosalyn was there. And even if he was arrested in the Primeverse he always found a way to escape prison. Thus, leading to more of an issue especially if he couldn’t go back to his ‘presumed home’; the Negaverse. But if he was sent back to the Negaverse he had no more allies. Negaduck had abandoned them, and they had all just gotten their butts kicked by the friendly four and Darkwing. But the Primeverse heroes knew how to fight against Negaduck, the friendly four only just started. But-
“You’re right I don’t care! I just use the damn place as a playground to destroy the things I hate!” Negaduck cackled. Darkwing frowned, his eyes flicked towards the bomb to his left floating in the abyss and at Negaduck slowly inching towards the Primeverse. He had to decide. The portal was too much of a danger with such a crazed villain having access to it. Especially now that he knew that Darkwing knew of its existence. The hero bit his lip in thought and shook his head, quickly making up his mind. Darkwing launched himself forward, propelling off a large object and tackling Negaduck. They floated to the left where Darkwing grabbed the bomb and kicked off another large item, sending the spitting pair backward towards the Negaverse doorway.
“Will this really blow up both our dimensions? Or will it just destroy the portal?! The portal that you built yourself, right? Probably your life’s work right there!” He exclaimed over the hissing of the villain in his grasp. Negaduck’s eyes widened and Darkwing froze for a split second before pulling a match box from his breast pocket and lighting the weapon. The fear (or what could be mistaken as fear) In the villain's face was scaring him.
Negaduck reached for the bomb to put it out, but Darkwing threw it down the portal where it lodged between the doorway to the Negaverse and a pile of random junk.
“What are you doing?!” Negaduck screamed and screamed so genuinely that it threw the hero off guard. There was none of the typical sarcasm and anger in the villain's tone that Darkwing had grown used to, now, he was staring into the eyes of a terrified duck. Eyes that reflected his own in every way. But he shook his head. Darkwing grabbed the front of the yellow-clad duck’s jacket roughly and threw him into the doorway portal of the Negaverse. Quickly he attempted to rush towards the opposite entrance to the Primeverse. The flashing lights and large arrow met his vision before the large blast did and he threw himself out of the birthday cake and onto the bakery floor.
On the opposite end, Negaduck rolled out from the cake, onto the hard flooring and launched himself to his feet, running towards the portal before the large blast from the bomb emitted from within it. It sent him backwards, covering his vision in white and ears in a pulsing high-pitched squeal.
Slowly, his senses returned, his costume was charred on the back and his mask was mostly gone from landing embers. His jacket was just shreds and when he sat up and squinted, he could barely see. Or feel. His fingers clutched piles of white and he shivered. The masked menace, well, the mask was just a strip of fabric now; sucked in a deep breath and wheezed. His hands tightened painfully against the melting slush stuck in his fingers and he convulsed violently, his brain attempting to understand what exactly was happening as he lay in only his red turtleneck sweater, slowly freezing to death.
Outside was pitch black and even with the few fires still burning the surrounding remains of the portal Negaduck could barely see within the remnants of the bakery. The front of the store had collapsed and when he tried to stand the pulsing headache of a concussion as well as the telltale burn on his leg of a broken bone pulled him back onto the snowy bed. He slowly turned his neck around to find his fedora, but it was nowhere to be, and he cussed, his voice crackled with his dry throat, and he scowled. Okay , he pondered, let's start over. Because he was sure the last time he checked it was the middle of June, not January.
Darkwing went through the portal because of those asshats throwing him in, right? Right.
Darkwing recruited the friendly four and nearly died by herb and blah blah, and I almost got him, but his stupid face got the better of me, right? Right...
Then I tried to escape through the portal back to the Primeverse and he followed me and blew up the only thing I had going for me in this dumb existence and apparently now it’s winter, right? Uhhhhh.
Negaduck rolled onto his stomach from his position on his side and winced with deep breaths as he tried to swallow the huge lump of swollen pain in his leg.
Well, if he was going to die might as well do it with the scraps of a burning birthday cake portal. Negaduck swallowed a sob and dropped his head down into the thin layer of snow, which thankfully helped the thumping heat in his head. Shadowy eyes closed and slowly he fell unconscious.
When his eyes fluttered open, he was met with white blinding light, and he recoiled. Groaning and hissing with hands coming up to his face to claw his eyeballs and rip them out of his skull. The light shifted and what he thought was the sun blaring through the caved-in roof of the bakery switched off and a figure holding the presumed star in their hand kneeled on one knee in the thick snow. More snow than when he was last conscious.
The gruff voice sneered, and a hand grabbed his head and shifted his frozen body to the side, jostling his leg.
“How are you still alive?” they chuckled in a deep accent and Negaduck squinted, releasing a shaky breath in the cold. The flashlight was switched on again and something was draped over the Villian’s frail body, molded to the building snow. The person stuck the torch in their beak and grabbed the criminal, lifting him with the foreign fabric folding around him like a burrito. Negaduck gasped when his leg hit something, and he swallowed the dry bile in his throat.
The person stepped out from the rumble with Negaduck in his arms, wrapped up in what he thinks is a blanket. His leg propped up on the person’s shoulder with his head leaning against their chest, his vision dark and spotty with blurry images passing by. His beak is a light shade of blue rather than orange and the exposed skin on his fingers from picking at his feathers is black. The person walks through the crunchy snow outside, the dark sky covered with black clouds and falling snow and they lean down, grabbing something from the ground, shaking it off and pressing it against Negaduck’s beak.
He breathes and suddenly he gasps. His eyes fly open and filtered oxygen fills his system. His vision sharpens and finally, he is completely awake. The thing pressed against his face is black and rubbery with glass goggles and he looks up. The person holding him, with that large beak, rats tail tied in the back of his fiery red hair and thick winter jacket looks back down at him. The gas mask on his face obscures his expression.
“Tie it so it stays on asshole,” Launchpad grunted and Negaduck reached his clammy frozen fingers back to secure the straps of his own gas mask tightly against his head. They kept walking and Negaduck shifted underneath the blanket he was wrapped in. LP trudged down the icy roads of Saint Canard, into the suburbs, and into the destroyed Mallard household on Avian Way. Negaduck shoved his hands underneath his arms to try and resurrect any source of the dead skin cells as the large aviator dropped him on the broken sofa, walked off, and returned with an instant thermal pad. He popped the container inside the bag and grabbed the villain’s black crusty fingers, pressing them to the heating pad.
They were silent, basking in the awkwardness of being half dead and covered in gas masks with snow falling in the dark abyss of the outside world. Negaduck quirked his head to the side to face the living room window, staring out at the blackness while the duck crouching down below him huffed.
“Use your big brain for a second.” Launchpad gruffed and Negaduck swirled his gaze back down, which was a mistake when the crick in his neck released a massive sharp pain that traveled down his spine.
“How long until this passes over huh? Till the sun comes back? Till the fuckin’ snow stops?” Launchpad squeezed Negaduck’s wrist tightly and the mallard recoiled, leaning away.
“what’re you talking about?” Negaduck slurred, his head pounded, and he swayed slightly as his vision grew spotty when he spoke.
Launchpad let go of his wrist and stood, his beak hidden by the gas mask but Negaduck, even in his concussed state could tell he was snarling down at him.
“The portal exploded idiot, and I haven’t seen natural light in three days. When's it gonna come back? Huh?! You built the damn thing, so explain!”
Negaduck’s eyes narrowed, and he looked down.
The snow. The portal exploding. The sun disappearing. Not being able to breathe fully without a gas mask.
...
...Hmmm maybe building a cake portal with a nuclear reactor and buttercream frosting wasn’t the best idea.
Next time he’ll use cream cheese frosting.
Launchpad stomped away, throwing his mask on the ground and slamming his fist into the already indented drywall as he left. Negaduck flinched and shifted on the couch. A spring was digging into his back, but he ignored it as his leg protested with each simple movement. Everything hurt, and he was confused. Where was his little brat? She hadn’t died, right?
When Launchpad came back, he sat on the couch next to his boss with his head in his hands, sighing deeply.
“I'm freezing,” he muttered and Negaduck looked away.
“where’s the kid?” he asked, and Launchpad looked at him with an unreadable expression.
“Did you hit your head or somethin’?!” the pilot snarled and Negaduck hissed back.
“Uh, yeah, I did fucker! Smacked my noggin down when I fell out of the damn portal!” he spat, and Launchpad laughed once, and shook his head, burying his face back into the callused palms of his stained feathery hands covered by black woolen gloves.
“Kid’s gone. Friendly four, or Darkwing’s ducks, I can’t remember what the hell they call themselves. She basically asked them to adopt her. But I guess it doesn’t matter because we never actually got the code to the Ramrod, huh.” LP sneered and glared at the smaller mallard who stared with a glazed look.
“Right. Doesn't matter,” he said and pulled off the mask. Sucking in the fumy oxygen mixed gases in the air.
Launchpad rolled his eyes and sniffled. Looking ahead and pulling out the flashlight from his thick coat pocket, he flicked it on and off absentmindedly and ignored the smaller’s attempt to shift to a more comfortable position with his leg propped on the couch. Negaduck grunted with each slight movement and the aviator finally groaned aloud and left. Leaving the once-powerful criminal alone in the dark with his shattered leg and hand warmer.