Dimensions Make The Duck

Darkwing grunted as one of his feathers was pulled out.
"Do you mind?" he asked the SHUSH owl doctor grumpily.
"If you’d sit more still…" the doctor muttered.
"Do you honastly need that feather?"
The poor doctor sighed. "Yes Mr Darkwing, we do. Speaking of tests…"
"We weren’t." Darkwing rudely interrupted.
"Speaking of tests, we have a new one we’d like to try. May we?"
"What would I have to do?" Darkwing was wary, he’d been pricked, prodded and plucked sufficently to make his short morning temper snap.
"Oh nothing, we just test this feather once more, that’s all."
"Go ahead then, I don’t care. Out of curiousity, what’s it a test for?"
"Oh, we’re just examining particles from all three dimensions."
"Uh huh." Darkwing was confused, but had been coming to SHUSH long enough to know that asking for an explanation was actually asking for an hour long physics sesion. At 9 in the morning, after being out till 5:30, he just wouldn’t be able to hack it.
After being examined more throughly than Darkwing thought was really nesscessary for a rutine check up, Darkwing went back to the tower. He climbed straight into bed once there, and fell asleep.

A week later Darkwing received a message from SHUSH to go to headquarters immediately. This surprised Darkwing, the only reason he ever went to SHUSH was for the checkups, as they were the only ones who agreed to his secret identity. He arrived at around 2pm, and went in. He found that the doctor he’d had for the checkup was waiting for him in the front foyer. This made him nervous, he’d never liked going to the doctors as a child, and that feeling had stuck with him into adulthood.
The doctor opened the door into what Darkwing presumed was his office. He took a seat and waited.
"Tell me Mr Darkwing, what dimension and universe were you born in?" The doctor peered over his glasses at him.
"What?" Darkwing was confused.
"You don’t know about the dimensions and universes?"
"No." Darkwing said pointedly.
"Ahh. OK, where were you born?"
"I don’t know, I’m an orphan." Darkwing said quietly.
"Ahh," the doctor said again. "Where do you first remember being?"
"St Canard Orphanage, at 5."
"Let me try and explain something to you."
Darkwing groaned inwardly.
"There are three dimensions. The Toon Dimension (that’s this one), the Human Dimension (the largest) and the Human-Toon Dimension (the smallest). Each dimensions are made up of an infinite number of universes. The one we are in now is officially known as The St Canard Mixiverse, but is actually nicknamed the Darkwingverse," The man laughed. "You’re more famous than you realies."
Darkwing sat still and thought. "OK, that’s great. Especially the Darkwingverse bit. But why are you telling me this? Surely not just to give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside."
The owl fiddled with a pen. "This will defiantly shock you Mr Darkwing, but according to your feather structure, you don’t belong here. You’re a human from the Human Dimension, the universe known as Real Life."
"What’s a ‘human’ anyway?" Darkwing asked, deciding to ignore the silliness that was being told to him.
The owl brought out a photo and placed it in front of him. "This is."
Darkwing stared at the photo. It was of a young girl, about 13. She was short, with brown hair and hazel eyes.
"That’s your little sister," The doctor told him. "This universe is just a TV show in the Human Dimension, and she loves watching your adventures."
Darkwing was getting worried. They seemed to know a lot. "How do you know this?"
"We did some research. Seems you were taken from your family at around 4 by a freak Dimensional Portal. You’ve probably erased it from your mind, it can’t have been much fun. The orphanage found you, and took you in."
Darkwing stared into space, feeling dizzy.
The owl cleared his thought uncomfortably. "There’s something you should know. When in a dimension that isn’t your own, you should have morphing powers, and around one special trick. Have you ever had anything like that?"
Without breaking his stare, Darkwing promptly disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke, to reappear a minute later.
"I never thought about how I could do it." Darkwing said in a far off voice. He’d suddenly realised that what the owl was telling him could be true.
"There’s one test to end all doubt," the owl said, leaning over his desk towards him. "Do you have a family?"
Darkwing shook his head.
"Darkwing Duck, how would you like to go home?"

Drake looked around the lab for what was perhaps the last time. He was wearing a black T-shirt with a pair of board shorts. He didn’t really like them, but he’d been told that that was what all the other human males were wearing. The owl was running through the instructions one last time.
"You must keep your mind completely blank. Don’t fight the sedative, it’s needed. We should land in some scrub in some sand dunes. Are you ready?"
Drake nodded, took the mind blanking sedative, waited a minute, then he and the owl stepped through the swirling hole before them.

He woke slowly. He was lying on warm sand. He sat up and looked at the owl doctor, not daring to look at himself. The doctor looked away sadly.
He slowly looked at his hand. It was pink, with 5 fingers. He tried not to cry as he asked "What’s my name?"
"Matthew Baker. I’ll show you where you live." The owl started walking on a bush track.
Matthew looked himself over. He was short, with fluffy short brown hair. "What colour are my eyes?" he questioned.
The doctor turned, but continued walking. "Blue." He said after an inspection. "Like your fathers."
"So I’m really a human." It was a statement, not a question.
"Yes. You didn’t think as you went through, ergo you weren’t thinking a form for yourself, so you’re in your natural form."
They walked in silence for awhile.
"How old do I look?"
"I don’t know, 25?"
Matthew allowed himself a small smile. All his years of crime fighting had payed off.
He was 26.
"They wont be able to see me, you know," the doctor said like this was just a normal conversation. "Wait, your sister will, but no one else."
"Why?"
"It’s strange. Humans don’t believe in the three dimensions, and for some reason, what they don’t believe in, they can’t see. Your sister can, because she believes in the dimensions. Oh, they wont be able to hear me either. Use your mind to talk to me."
"What? How on earth can I do that?"
"Just think something to me. Go on, try it, and I’ll answer."
Matthew thought ‘You’re kidding me.’ As hard as he could.
Then I’m not a very funny person.’ suddenly echoed around his brain. He looked at the doctor, and the slightly bemused owl shrugged.
How did you…?
Just works like that.
Matthew decided that this was rather sneaky, even for him. He tried to hear what the doc was thinking.
I wonder what Susan is making for dinner?
Well, that was a waste of energy, he grumbled. A thought passed through his mind.
"What’s my sisters name?"
"Rachel. You were taken years before she was born."
Matthew digested this piece of information. He looked up, and they were standing in front of a house. There was a large brick letterbox, and palm trees everywhere.
"Is this…?"
"Yes."
Matthew walked up the street driveway, and pressed the doorbell. He heard little running feet and the door opened. It was the girl in the picture, looking rather shy.
"Are you Matthew?" she asked softly.
"Yeah." He said, slowly remembering about this place and the people in it.
"My name's Rachel."
"Yes, I know."
She turned to the owl. "Hey Arthur."
Matthew was confused. "You know him?"
Arthur cleared his thought. "I told you I did research."
Rachel grabbed Matthew’s arm. "Come on, Mum and Dad will want to see you right now!" she smiled.
Arthur stopped them. "Wait. Here Matthew, take this," he pushed a small metal thing that looked like a walkie-talkie with more buttons. "This is a DC, Dimension Changer. If you want to come back, click the red button. I’ve already set it."
Matthew turned it over. "Thanks. See you around Arthur."
"You don’t want me to come?"
"No thanks. Oh, thanks for showing me this though."
"See you back at SHUSH?" It was a question really meaning ‘Think you’ll come back?’.
Matthew looked around. "I don’t know."
Rachel closed the door. "Mum! Dad! You’ll never guess who’s here!"
A woman with black hair came walking briskly from the far side of the house, the place where Matthew remembered the bedrooms were.
"Rachel, who is…oh my." She stopped short when she saw Matthew. "Matthew?"
"Mum?"
She ran and they hugged and kissed. Annette was crying. "We thought we’d never see you again!"
"Well, I’m back now."
"Chris! Chris!" she yelled for her husband. When he appeared she cried "Look!"
Chris walked calmly over and grasped Matthew’s hand. "Welcome home Matt."
"Hey Dad." He returned the guesture.
Rachel grinned. "Guess what! He likes Darkwing Duck even more than I do!"
Chris groaned. "Rachel, that’s impossible."
Matthew and Rachel shared the look that means ‘let’s keep it a secret’.

One month later Matthew stood at the door. "It’s been so wonderful to see you all, but I really have to get home."
The Bakers were understandably sad. Matthew had explained to Rachel that, while he loved being with the family he had never remembered, and even though he had no family in St Canard, he loved being Darkwing Duck too much. Rachel said she understood. She also told him that if he waited on the Ratcatcher on a certain street, on a certain day, for a certain red-head, he would have that family. He’d agreed, mystified. They’d worked on a replica of the DC for her, and had finished it just in time.
Having said the goodbyes, and having done the hugs, Matthew walked out the door and when the door closed and only Rachel was watching him, he stepped through a swirling circle to his old life.

After he’d gone, Rachel tossed her DC up and down. She had a little idea to give Matthew a bit of the childhood he deserved.

Story Copyright Rachel Baker ’98. Only Darkwing is Copyright Disney, the rest Copyright Rachel Baker ’98. My parents don’t know they’re in this story, don’t tell them! I called Darkwing ‘Matthew’ simply because I was going to be a Matthew if I was a boy. OK? Good.

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