Xylem

By DemiHuman123

----------------------------------------

I don't own the TV Show Darkwing Duck. I don't own Darkwing, Gosalyn, Launchpad, Negaduck, or the insane Quackerjack. Disney and Tad Stones own them, so nobody better come and sue me because I got a copyright up so I'm fine. I think. Probably not though considering I have a better chance of Disney coming after me than anyone else… gulp

----------------------------------------

RATING: PG - Slashiness

INSPIRATIONS: I can't begin to tell you how much I loved Darkwing Duck when I was a kid! It was just the coolest show on television at the time. Looking at it from today's point of view, it's actually pretty dark and brooding. Still funny though. I need to buy the DVDs. Yay, for classic Disney cinema!

---------------------------------------

Bushroot never liked to use paper when it came to his research studies. Something about skinning his own kind and using them for his own selfish needs didn't seem to sit right with his stomach, or at least whatever digestive organ he had in his plant like body.

True, he had used some of his plant brothers for his own advancement, but Darkwing ended up ruining them, not him. They were his children, so why cause harm to them?

No, no… the professor much rather used large panes of glass with shoe polish, or a chalk board, or something that didn't use the green of the earth. It weighed much less on his conscious that way.

"Lets see here," he muttered to himself pacing the floor of his greenhouse.

As he walked, his roots scrapped across the ground; not slide, or step, but scrape. His beloved home was beginning to dry up and die from the agonizing summer heat wave that had befallen St. Canard for what seemed like the billionth time this year. The days just got worse and worse, as temperatures climbed one degree after another. The current temperature of the day was somewhere along the lines of one 'o five, or one 'o six. Whichever one it was it was sure to spell out H-O-T.

Bushroot gave a sigh and looked down at his feet. A painful expression appeared on his face as he observed himself scrapping along the dead brown ground. He knelt down slowly onto his knees and tried to give the grass a little scratch, almost like a pet. Sadly though, when he mustered this, all he got were cracks and snaps of breaking earth.

With another heavy sigh, he raised himself from off the ground and looked up toward the sun through the glass.

He quickly shielded his eyes from the bright light and scoffed, "Your getting on my nerves today."

He so wanted to give his children some life giving H2O, but the water rationing that the city board had passed snuffed out any chance of helping them. Nobody was aloud to use water in the city with the exception of personal hygiene. Because of this, any major area of the city that used water was shut down immediately: fountains, water parks, amusement park rides, and of course, green houses.

There was now no water coming from the sprinkler system overhead, which is exactly how the children got their nourishment. The sun and photosynthesis could only do so much for the plant life in the house. Sure the desert fauna would survive just fine, but most of the green house consisted of… local shrubbery.

Bushroot had only learned to survive in the weather with the thanks of dew droplets that had formed on some of the windows in green house. It merely felt more like a snack though and not a full meal. Civilized food didn't seem to settle himself much either, not since the accident.

Turning his attention back to his studies, and away from his own aching hunger, Bushroot resumed his pacing and contemplating on his current research. Today's subject: a venus flytrap that could swallow a whole building in a single gulp. Farfetched, yes, but he's been known to do wonderful slash terrifying things to plants before in his past. His own body was testament to that.

Jotting a few things down on a plastic dry erase board, he resumed his pacing here and there, only stopping once in a while to think, or write something "useful" down, whether they be an actually brain storm or a doodle of a dismembered caped duck.

Suddenly though, his thought process was disrupted by something soft and squashy. His attention immediately focused on the ground, no longer a dried husk of the planet, but now a soppy wet pile of mud.

Bushroot slammed himself down on the floor and quickly began to examine where the water had come from to bring about mud. Maybe a pipe had burst. There was only one way to find out.

So he began to dig…

…and dig…

…and dig…

Until finally, he found what he was looking for. It wasn't much really, if only just a small puddle of water that seemed to have come right out of nowhere. His head cocked slightly at the sight.

"Where did you," he started.

But he was cut off half sentence when a face popped right out of the puddle screaming "BOO" in the process of it.

The half-plant, half-duck yelled in surprise and jumped back from the hole in the ground at the sight.

The ground shook a little and the hole began to flood upward. Upward mind you, not over. The water actually flowed up into air spinning a couple of times as if trying to show itself off. It then branched itself off into three directions, one to the left, one to the right, and the main line still streaming upwards. It gave itself one last spin and finally ceased to move.

"When a shock to the system is what you're looking for," the pillar of water began revealing its canine face, "try brand new Liquidator!"

Bud Flood, or Liquidator as he was now known as, always did like to make a flashy entrance, even if it did mean scaring one of his partners half to death.

"Hiya Bud," Bushroot greeted with little enthusiasm. The water dog had apparently gotten his hopes up and struck them harshly.

The hydro being raised his pointing finger in a tut-tut fashion to correct his friend. "Ah-ah, its Liquidator now!"

He said it with such smugness in his voice and on his face it was almost sad. He just didn't like his old name anymore. Didn't like the thing he once was: weak, slow, easily caught, and above all else, mortal. One of the many charms of being completely made up of water.

Of course the other reason for sticking with his alias was…

"You know," Bushroot coughed standing up from off the ground, "they're gonna find out your Bud Flood one of these days."

He quickly dusted himself off and returned to his studies.

The Liquidator smiled at that little comment. The image of a certain newspaper headline had been etched into his mind, on proclaiming the identity of a new villain.

WATERY VILLIAN KILLS HEAD OF WATER COMPANY AND EXHUMES POWER!

He was sure he even had the newspaper somewhere hidden around if he could remember where it was. Still, his focus was not on his past or anything, it was more focused on his partner in crime at the moment.

"What are you doing here anyways," the scientist continued head deep in his own work.

"What," the dog circled around the plant duck, "an old chum can't swim by to say hi every now and then?"

"We saw each other last week when we robbed a convoy of silver," Bushroot answered writing more this and that down.

"Did we now," Liquidator asked spinning playfully.

Bushroot turned himself away from his research to answer the dog face to face. Just a quick nod though.

"Must have slipped my mind," the water stream spouted with his usual smile on his face, playfully dancing around the room.

If there was one thing about Liquidator that Bushroot did highly admire, it was the grace that he presented. All the other villains of the Fearsome Five all seemed to move in a disorganized and sloppy mess when trying to do their thing. But Bud on the other, moved with grace and ease thanks to his body schematic. It was almost beautiful in a sense… almost, if while he was fighting it didn't turn from grace and anger. Especially when fighting that duck.

"So," the professor asked again.

Liquidator just shrugged slightly and went about his playing.

Bushroot really was in no mood to be dealing with his co-worker. All he wanted to do was get his research done; his precious, precious research that he loved just as much as his beloved plants.

"Why so glum, chum," Liquidator asked.

Again, Bushroot didn't even give a valid sound response but instead used his free arm to point towards the other side of the green house. There lay a thermostat nailed to the wall exclaiming temperature and humidity, which unfortunately lay on the zero percent mark.

The watery dog gave a quick huff of interest and resumed himself again.

All Bushroot did was ignore him, doing his best to finish what he had started. If he could get it down, then he could probably relax a little bit before carrying out his findings.

Suddenly, a splash of water hit one of the boards, a chalk board to be accurate, washing off all his equations and chemistry. He stood there, mouth agape, watching about ten hours worth of findings trickle down the green surface. In bit of rage, he snapped the marker he was holding in two and turned to his house guest.

"What do you think your doing," he screamed out causing the entire building to echo with his voice.

"Watering the plants," Liquidator said sitting in a rather large tree smack dab in the center on the room.

Bushroot was about to open his mouth to say something else, but it couldn't come out after hearing that little quip. A quick glance around the place told him that was exactly it. Everything was wet, from the grass to the bushes. Even the ceiling itself seemed to be dripping water down onto the soil.

"What do you think," the canine asked flowing himself down onto the ground.

Bushroot was still in shock at how the once dry and barren green house had now become soaking wet. In a single gesture, he raised up his hands and snapped his fingers at the exact same time. Within seconds, the brown and dead gray that had overrun the room for the past week had vanished, changing to a lush variety of greens and reds and many different other colors as well. He'd been wanting to bring the plant life back to health as long now, but didn't have the strength nor the water to do so. Now that the plants were nourished again, he was once again free to manipulate there genetic structure, including speed growth.

His attention though automatically shifted back to Liquidator, who was only a couple of steps away now.

"Why…"

"I was," Bud opened up, "…concerned."

Why would he be concerned, and about Bushroot no less. None of the Fearsome Five seemed to care about one another all that much, with maybe the exception of Megavolt and Quackerjack, but everyone knew what they were doing behind closed doors.

"Why," Bushroot asked again.

The Liquidator stepped forward a couple of paces keeping his little trademark smirk on himself. "No reason."

What a lie. Bushroot saw right through it. The dog is a former business man, he knows exactly how to lie, cheat, and manipulate himself out of answering any incriminating questions. This only peaked the plant ducks curiosity.

He was about to ask the same question again, then the canine put his hands upon both of Bushroots shoulders, slowly coming in close and pulling him into a hug.

"Feeling partched," Liquidator asked with his usual spokesman tone, "worn out, tired? Liquidator brand water dog is sure to spruce you right up!"

Bushroot's eyes rolled. "You know, your mottos are starting to get kind of dumb."

"Really," Bud answered, "I always thought that they were charming and exciting! Especially for the everyday consumer on the go!"

The look on Bushroot's face was enough to tell Liquidator to lay off of the campy 1980s TV slogans. Still it didn't detract him from the current situation!

"Drink up," he continued, "its good for what ales ya!"

Now he was just starting to get cliché. Still, it made Bushroot wonder what he meant by that. He didn't have to wait long though when he felt his enter body fall into the center of the pillar of water that was the Liquidator.

At first, he went into panic. He had no idea what that dog was doing or at least trying to do with him. The plant struggled valiantly, trying to get out, but failed in every attempt. What was the Liquidator up to? Was he trying to drown him or something? Was that canine trying to do one last good deed by the watering the garden before offing its master? Was he trying to…

"Ugh," Bushroot gasped in the water.

A wave of surging warmth over took his body. At first, it was a shock not knowing what was happening to him, but then it all started to make sense. The xylem cells in his plant like body had begun to absorb the water from the Liquidator into his system. It wasn't a secret that Bud Flood was made of more than just water. He was also made up of the chemicals that he used to poison his competition. Apparently though, those chemicals seemed to be giving Bushroot in an extremely pleasurable euphoric experience. It was something he never really felt before. Something he couldn't quite describe.

Though, almost as soon as it had begun, it had ended just as quickly. He soon felt himself falling out of the water and back onto the dry air that had surrounded his home. Expecting to fall onto the ground with a thud, he found that he had actually been caught by the Liquidator, still sporting his little smirk.

Bushroot felt full after that. He wanted to say something, but the words just didn't seem to get out of his bill.

Instead he just watched as the Liquidator laid him softly on the ground.

There was a look on the canines face though. It was something that Reginald Bushroot couldn't quite put his finger on. The look was… sincere, maybe even almost wanting. What an odd look.

Sincere…

Wanting…

Those were the last thoughts before drifting off into slumber.

------------

AUTHOR'S NOTES: After hearing POE's "Lemon Meringue" I felt compelled to write this for some reason of another. Really has nothing to do with the song, but I just felt like it after listening to that song. On another note, Darkwing Duck's villains are surprisingly slashly, especially Megavolt, Quackerjack, Liquidator, and Bushroot. A lot of people seem to like Megavolt/Quackerjack (their almost practically canon), but I think my favorite pairing for the show is Liquidator/Bushroot. They just seem perfect for each other, I mean… look at them! It's a plant and a water spout! w00t!

PS. I am also aware that the ending is a little dry and bland. I wrote a couple of different endings for this and they just didn't sit well with me, so sorry.

So Until Next Fic…

Adieu…