A/N: My fanfic "Fair Is F.O.W.L." is more or less a prequel to this story. This fic is practically a joint effort between Kooshmeister and myself; he's responsible for most of the Taurus Bulba part of the plot. In fact, much of the dialogue during the scenes with Bulba and his goons was written by Koosh. The F.O.W.L. stuff is generally mine.

"Another day, another bank heist," Darkwing Duck commented as the Ratcatcher skidded to a stop in front of the First Bank of St. Canard. "Second time this place has been hit up in a week. Yep yep yep, what would they do without Darkwing Duck to foil the felonious offenders?"

"Wonder if it's F.O.W.L. again this time," Launchpad McQuack pondered as he hopped out of the motorcycle's passenger car.

"We shall soon find out. Come on, L.P." Darkwing fired a grappling hook from his gun, latching it onto the decorative edge of the bank's roof. "Let's see if we can get a drop on them, so to speak."

Darkwing climbed up the side of the bank, leaving the rather less agile Launchpad to scramble up after him. They peered down through a skylight that gave them a clear view of the bank's lobby. Below him, Launchpad saw a trio of hoofed felons-- a goat, a ram, and a donkey-- pointing guns at the bank manager and tellers.

"Hmm," Darkwing murmured. "Hammerhead Hannigan and his boys. What are they doing back in town?"

"Robbing a bank, it looks like," Launchpad offered.

"Why do I even bother?" muttered Darkwing.

As they watched, the porcine bank manager was trying to convince the goat, Hammerhead Hannigan, that an attempt to get into the bank's vault was useless.

"You'll never get through that door," the pig protested. "It's made of reinforced titanium with a time lock! We can't even open it--"

He broke off as Hammerhead bent down, scraped the ground with his foot, then pelted towards the door at full tilt. When he rammed into the vault, the door popped right off its hinges and fell inward with a crash.

". . . oh," the manager said weakly as Hammerhead made a fist and knocked on his own head. It made a hollow, metallic noise.

"Boy," the vertically-challenged ram said cheerfully, "that sure is using your head." He broke off in mid-chuckle when Hammerhead picked up him by the horn and popped him one.

"I make the puns around here, Mouth," he growled before tossing his small associate into the vault. He gave Hoof the donkey, who was holding several burlap sacks, a shove in that direction as well. "Now start loadin' up the dough into those sacks, ya mugs! I gotta watch the hostages."

"Barnyard bums burglarizing banks?" Darkwing quipped. "This looks like a job for--" He broke off as there was an earth-shattering crash below them.

"Gizmoduck!" Launchpad cried. The robot-suited superhero had burst through the large plate-glass window in the front of the bank.

"Hold it right there, you hooved heathens!" Gizmoduck declared, before turning to the bank manager with a slightly abashed look. "Uh, sorry about the window."

The pig shrugged. "Don't worry about it. We're insured."

"Gizmoduck" Darkwing squawked. "Not him."

"What's the big deal?" Launchpad shrugged. "I'm bushed-- we've been chasing crooks all night! Why don't we let him take care of these three?"

"What?" spluttered Darkwing. "And let that gadget-laden goon take all the glory? Not on your life, L.P.!"

Below them, Gizmoduck had already started dealing with the offending mammals; as Darkwing pried open the skylight, Launchpad saw Hoof get bopped with a boxing glove on a spring while Gizmoduck slapped Mouth in the face with a large fish. (As always, Launchpad wondered just what Gyro Gearloose was thinking when he came up with some of the Gizmosuit's weapons.)

When the skylight was open, Darkwing fired a smoke pellet down into the bank, then he and Launchpad dropped down into the resulting cloud.

"I am the terror that flaps in the night!" Darkwing crowed as the smoke cleared. "I am the auditor who freezes your Swiss bank accounts! I am--"

"Darkwing Duck! Not him!" groaned all three felons-- and Gizmoduck.

"Yes, him!" Darkwing snapped, rounding on Gizmoduck. "What are you doing here? This is the second time in a week you've interrupted me interrupting a robbery! You think this bank is your personal property or something?"

"Uh, D.W.--" Launchpad began, but Darkwing waved him off.

"Not now, L.P.!"

"I didn't see you interrupting any robbery!" Gizmoduck protested. "If you wanted to stop it, where were you all this time?"

"D.W.--" Launchpad tried again, tugging on Darkwing's cape.

"I was waiting for the right moment, when these crooks would be off their guard!"

"You mean, the right moment when you could make the grandest entrance!"

"Why you--" Darkwing started to jump on Gizmoduck-- but instead got clobbered in the head with a moneybag held by Hoof, about whom Launchpad had tried to warn him. The donkey brayed in wheezing laughter as the stunned duck sank to his knees. Launchpad tried to grab the bag away from Hoof, but got tripped by Mouth, who struck him in the knees with another sack.

"You miscreants, I'll-- oof!" Gizmoduck's attack was stopped by Hammerhead, who head-butted the superhero so hard, he fell over on his back.

"C'mon, let's get outta here!" Hammerhead ordered his associates. They bolted out of the bank, Hoof and Mouth still carrying their purloined cash.

"Our money!" the bank manager wailed, watching the crooks depart. He turned on the stunned superheroes with a glare. "You just let them escape!"

"Ugh," Darkwing groaned, staggering to his feet. "Let's see you try to chase someone with 'E Pluribus Unum' imprinted on your forehead." He glared at Gizmoduck as he slowly righted himself onto his wheel. "If you hadn't tried to steal my glory--"

"What glory?" Gizmoduck protested. "I wasn't trying to infringe on your territory; I just go where I'm needed! I was in St. Canard on military business, and I intercepted the police broadcast about the robbery. Besides," he added, his beak turning down disapprovingly, "I didn't see anyone else trying to stop it. While you were up there biding your time, these good people could have been hurt!"

"I had it under control," Darkwing said in a tight voice which Launchpad recognized as a sign he was about to lose it.

The bank manager folded his arms. "So, did it ever occur to either of you to follow the robbers?"

"Uh, right, I was getting to that," Darkwing stammered. "Come on, L.P.!" He darted out the door, followed by Launchpad. They looked up and down the street. . . which was completely empty.

"They must have had someone waiting to pick them up," growled Darkwing. "So they aren't working alone. . . ."

"Do you think they could be working for Taurus Bulba again?" Darkwing jumped at the sound of Gizmoduck's voice, and turned on him with a glare.

"Don't you ever quit? And how do you know anything about Taurus Bulba?"

Gizmoduck shrugged. "I read the newspaper. Everyone thought he was dead until he was spotted a few weeks ago, in some kind of robot costume."

"It wasn't a robot costume," Darkwing said disparagingly, then he went on more seriously. "He was dead, for all intents and purposes. F.O.W.L. had somehow obtained his remains and kept them physically alive until they could develop a robot body to house them in. He's a cyborg-- a real one, not just a guy in a suit."

"I resent your tone!" Gizmoduck said loftily.

"Tone aside," Darkwing glowered, "they had the chutzpa to think that Bulba would work for them-- typical of High Command. I tried to stop him, but he. . . got away," he admitted in a low voice.

"Hmm. So he's stronger now than ever?"

Darkwing looked slightly surprised that Gizmoduck hadn't taken the chance to mock him for failing to stop Bulba. "Erm, yes. He does have one flaw-- whenever he gets really angry, his robotic body overheats and he shuts down for a short time, a moment at most. But other than that, he seems to be indestructible."

"Aha-- then you need another indestructible mechanoid to defeat him!" Gizmoduck declared.

"Oh no," Darkwing groaned.

"I think I'll stick around for a while in St. Canard," Gizmoduck said. "I have some vacation time coming, and perhaps I can track down Bulba!"

Launchpad scratched his head. "You want to spend your vacation fighting crime?"

"What else am I going to do with it?" Gizmoduck murmured.

"You won't find Bulba," Darkwing informed him. "I've been looking for him for weeks. He's holed up somewhere, apparently while that gang of his steals money for him." He frowned. "Wonder what he needs more money for. He left his estate to his secretary, and if I know Clovis van de Cudd, she gave it right back when he turned up alive."

"He's a criminal," Gizmoduck shrugged. "It's typical for them to love money."

Darkwing raised an eyebrow at him. "If you're operating under the assumption that Taurus Bulba is a typical criminal, you don't stand a chance."

"Am I the only one who finds this suspicious?" F.O.W.L. High Commander Aquila tapped the tip of his pen against the desk High Command shared in their conference room. "Out of all our agents, Steelbeak is the only one not out of commission?"

"That's not what's suspicious," Commander Chogan said, glancing up from his Blackberry. "What's suspicious is that they all woke up yesterday morning with broken legs." He sighed and looked back down at the small screen.

Beau Beakford growled and jabbed the point of a well-chewed #2 pencil against the desk. "He should be punished for this! You know he's behind it. For some reason he wanted this assignment badly enough to make certain there weren't any other candidates in the running."

"We'll never be able to prove it was his doing," Aquila told him rather tiredly. "And besides, I don't suppose it really makes much difference who goes after Gizmoduck."

"It's the principle of the thing!" Beau exploded. "He's getting too damn arrogant! Just because he's our best agent-- and that's not saying much, considering the imbeciles we employ-- he thinks he can resort to kneecapping to get his way!" He glowered down at his pencil. "I don't know why he wants this assignment anyway."

He looked up sharply when his sister Belle burst into the room. "I've got it," she announced. "Gyro Gearloose has to be the inventor of the Gizmosuit."

"Hmm." Beau gave his sister a dirty look and muttered, "Then again, maybe I do know."

"Gearloose has been working for Scrooge McDuck for years," Belle said, leaning across the desk to slap a print-out down in front of the others. "Including the time period that McDuck had Fenton Crackshell as his accountant."

"And you're sure that this Crackshell is Gizmoduck?" Aquila asked, studying the information she had gathered on Gearloose.

"Yes. He looks just like the duck I saw wearing the suit. In addition, he began working for McDuck at the same time Gizmoduck did, and he quit when Gizmoduck left McDuck's employment to work with the military." She revealed her sharp teeth in a smile, an unusual gesture which she only used when things were going extremely well for F.O.W.L. "The Gizmosuit was originally created for McDuck, as a way to guard his fortune. Gearloose is the only inventor who's ever worked for him, so it makes sense that he created the suit."

"Excellent. And he's still in Duckburg?" asked Chogan.

"Yes." Belle straightened up and folded her arms. "When Steelbeak calls to report in, you can tell him to go after Gearloose as well as Crackshell. How long before you expect him to call, anyway?"

"It should be any minute now," Chogan told her. "He was supposed to report as soon as he reached Duckburg."

"Mmn. I'll be in my office if you need me." Belle stalked out of the room only a moment before a call request came through to High Command's video-phone unit. Aquila pushed the connect button under the desk, and Steelbeak appeared on the monitor. He was sitting in his car with three of the Eggmen.

"Okay, I'm here. Now what?" the rooster asked impatiently as he pulled out a handkerchief and started polishing his prosthetic beak.

"We have some new information for you," Aquila replied. "We have identified the creator of the Gizmosuit-- his name is Gyro Gearloose. After you. . . pick up Crackshell, locate Gearloose as well. We want them both."

"Geez, never satisfied, are ya? Where do I take 'em after we've got 'em? To youse guys?" He looked at Beau somewhat suspiciously as he spoke, as if trying to discern whether the silhouette he could see belonged to him or to Belle. Beau smirked and leaned back in his chair. Let him wonder.

"Yes, bring them here to headquarters. We'll have, ah, accommodations prepared for them," Aquila told him.

"Right." Steelbeak gave his beak a final swipe with the handkerchief. "Agent Steelbeak, out."

"Here's hoping he doesn't screw it up like usual," Beau grumbled. "Especially since he seems to be our only available agent at the moment."

"As long Crackshell is caught off guard and doesn't get a chance to put on the Gizmosuit, everything should be fine. The only other force in Duckburg who could contend with us is the DIA, and there's no reason why they would get involved," Chogan said. "You know that Commander Beakford planned everything carefully."

"I know," muttered Beau. "That's what I'm afraid of."

To be continued