A quiet buzzing sound surrounded Negaduck, penetrating him to the very core
of his being. He knew there was light, but he could not see it. He knew there
was pain, but he could not feel it. He knew he was afraid, but he felt only
courage. That was the most terrifying thing of all.
He could not tell how much time passed. Everything was all swirled
together in a sensation unlike anything he had ever felt before. It was the
greatest thing he had ever felt, but at the same time it was far worse than a
thousand lifetimes of torture. He could not understand it, he could not stop
it. He could only wait.
Then it was over. The light above his head clicked on, illuminating the
two buttons. Negaduck clumsily reached for the button to open the door. He
stumbled out of the machine, dazed. He wanted to run a thousand miles, but he
was afraid that if he moved he would fall unconscious.
A quiet, peculiarly feminine voice brought him back to the world of
the living. "Are you all right?"
Negaduck tried to answer, but he found that his mouth would not move the
way he ordered it too. He slurred something that was meant to be words, but
sounded like helpless groaning. His helplessness frustrated and infuriated
him. He couldn't stand being powerless, especially in the company of a
female. His anger worked to his advantage, lending him strength.
"Wwwhhaaatt… hhh… aaaappennnd?" he managed after a few tries. His eyes
were still too blurred for him to see clearly. The soft, sweet voice
returned, this time accompanied by a second high-pitched giggling sound.
"You were in that cloning machine. You tried to clone yourself."
Negaduck felt something marvelously cool and wet poured down his throat.
Water. And over his head. More. Yes, things were coming clearer now. Clearer…
There was not one, but two products of the machine. Both were female.
They were ducks, sure enough, but they were unlike any ducks Negaduck had
known to walk the streets of St. Canard. Their feathers were of the softest
blue. The one who had made him drink water had a head of bushy feathers not
entirely unlike Bushroot's hair, only pulled back. From the middle of her
forehead, five white lightning bolt stripes branched out and grew to make
five white streaks, plus one straight line of white leading from her silver
beak to her forehead. She wore a long white lab coat and a tight suit of
black with a light bulb pictured clearly on the chest.
The second duck was smaller. Her feathers grew as bushy as her sister
clone's, but they stuck out over her face. She had three lightning bolt
stripes. One in the center that began at her beak and ended at the base of
the back of her head, and two others that began there and curled around her
head like a Grecian half-crown made of olive leaves. She wore a long black
skirt that flowed like a waterfall, and what amounted to a black bikini top.
She batted her eyes and grinned at Negaduck.
"So, sweets, it looks like we're one and the same," she murmured. "How
about we… test that theory?" She put her arms around Negaduck's neck. He
pulled away, utterly confused.
"What in the name of Pete happened?? How did I become… you? Who ARE
you????"
The lightbulb-toting duck hopped onto a table and sat there. "Well, when
you were messing about with all those switches, a couple things happened.
First, you set the thing to make two clones. Second, you told the program to
mix the last clone's traits with yours. Third, you also disconnected some of
the gene magnets, leaving room for the computer to improvise."
"So what you're saying," Negaduck growled, "Is that you two are the
children of me and… Megavolt?!"
"That's right, daddykins," said the smaller sister. "We're all yours!"
Still trying to absorb the fact that he had just apparently become the
father of Megavolt's children, Negaduck asked the only question that seemed
logical at the time. "So… uh… do you two have names or what?"
"Yes and no," the lightbulb girl answered. "We know our names, but you
can change them. We know names that would be given to us by one of the
parents."
"Okay… So… what are they?"
The lightbulb girl pointed to her sister. "That's Quanta, and I'm Ampera.
We know these names because we have inherited part of the minds of both you
and our other father."
"Great. One big happy family, eh?"
Quanta twirled around and rested her chin on Negaduck's shoulder. "That's
right! Time for us to settle down and have some quality family time," she
giggled. "Isn't that right, Ampera?"
Ampera crossed her arms. "It's lovely for you to talk that way, but what
about Megavolt? And where is the other clone?"
Quanta smiled coyly. "You can go find Megavolt, dear sister, but I doubt
there will be enough room for his darling little clone too. Besides, isn't he
a bit young for you?"
Ampera took the time to stare daggers at her sister before returning her
attention to Negaduck. "What happened to the clone?"
"You mean Coulomb? He's off in a rage running amuck somewhere."
"Then we have to find him."
"Why? I think I might just rather stick around here for a while…"
Negaduck threw Quanta a little half-smile.
"Because we'll all be up to our shoulders in bad broccoli if we don't."
Negaduck shrugged. "Have it your way. I personally couldn't care one way
or another. As far as I'm concerned, Sparky and Sparky Jr. can go on a
liberate-the-giraffes campaign until Kingdom Come."
"A what?"
"If I remember correctly, Megavolt has a peculiar fondness for liberating
the Zoo's critters. He usually picks giraffes. I guess it's because their
horns look like lightbulbs or something." Negaduck was only paying half of
his attention to the conversation with Ampera. The rest of his mind, and
everything else, was in the process of becoming the sole property of Quanta.
Ampera sighed. Obviously these two were going to be no help whatsoever.
And so, without the slightest idea where she was going, what she was looking
for, or even exactly why she was bothering, she set off in the direction of
the Zoo. Or she thought it was the direction of the Zoo. With her muddled
memories, it could be the way to Zanzibar for all she knew.
