Duckburg's purveyor of truth and justice, the Duck Avenger, looked down into the city he loved. He stared at the streets below through his thin black mask and studied the citizens as they passed by.

The pride and joy of the state of Calisota was undoubtedly Duckburg. In Duckburg was where business tycoon Scrooge McDuck based his empire, and millions of commuters and permanent residents thrived within the city limits.

With its busy restaurants, nightclubs, and even a nationally-known casino operated by McDuck Enterprises, a lively flurry of chatter, car engines, and footsteps was always a given out in Duckburg's center square. It was hardly the place for deep insightful introspection or anything of that quiet, country-living sort. Not when Powerline was playing three blocks down to a sold-out crowd.

However, high above all the hustle and bustle, on the edge of a skyscraper's roof, it was easy to escape the urban jungle and find a moment of peace. At this height, one only had the sprawling night sky, the breeze carried in from the sea, and the bright lights to look down on.

He had to admit, this made city living worth it.

As Duck Avenger observed in silence, crowds crossed the intersection like ants on the move, the neon lights and electronic billboards painting their figures in an array of colors. From his vantage point, the nighttime noise was hushed to a mere whisper, the symphony of cricket chirps taking over as the more dominant ambiance.

If only every night was this doggone quiet, the hero thought to himself.

...never mind. Goodness knows what happened the last time.

The still evening air was broken by a sinister growl coming from somewhere nearby. A shiver slinked through Duck Avenger's spine, bringing him away from his thoughts. He turned around, ready to tell off whomever that decided to interrupt him, and yelped.

This was no nosy citizen as he was expecting. In fact, it was neither duck, nor dog, nor any other earth creature.

Standing on the roof, aiming a blaster at him, was an alien.

It was duck-like in that it had the signature bill, and the short, rotund body. However, its head was engulfed in a bright white flame of energy. It was a being that Duck Avenger had the displeasure of encountering more than once on his recent adventures. and he sighed when he realized his slow patrol was about to pick up.

"Can't a superhero have one moment of peace without you Freezeflames butting in?" he said to the creature.

Duck Avenger's mild frustration was lost on the Freezeflame, who he knew was so exceptionally mind-controlled that the only thing it comprehended was the inner voice telling it to destroy, destroy. Thus, the only way the alien could respond to the jumpsuit-clad duck tapping his foot in front of him was by shooting its blaster right at its target.

"Yeow!" Duck Avenger hit the deck hard, the bullet of energy missing him and sailing off into the distance. Duck Avenger glanced at his attacker, who was walking toward him menacingly.

"Nice way to greet someone," he grumbled, and as the Freezeflame neared the duck, he surged forward, striking his foe with his X-Transformer shield. "Return to sender, buddy!" He watched the Freezeflame tumble away from him, and he squeezed the shield in his fist with assurance.

A loud bang sounded to his right, drawing his attention. Two more Freezeflames were appearing from the roof's exit, their cold, empty eyes seeing nothing but the duck they needed to exterminate.

Duck Avenger rolled his eyes and ducked again as another blaster bolt sailed over. "Great. You brought friends," he muttered, then raised his voice. "If I'd known this was gonna be a party, I would've brought chips!"

His quiet night was wrecked, but looking on the bright side, a little bit of exercise never hurt.

And it had been a while since he was bothered by invaders.

"No matter. I can still entertain you kooks for a little while." Duck Avenger rubbed his boot on the rough concrete, readying himself for some fun. He stared down the Freezeflames with a smirk as they charged toward him.

Before they could reach him, Duck Avenger jumped up and threw his X-Transformer over the heads of his attackers. They stared at it as it flew away from them. The technological marvel warped and bent its square shape into that of a boomerang, and it circled back toward the Freezeflames again. The swirling metallic projectile caught all three of them on the chin, knocking them backward.

"Not too many boomerangs where you come from, huh? That's too bad!" said Duck Avenger, running up to catch the X-Transformer, now back in its original form. The Freezeflames were sufficiently fazed, and the flame surrounding their heads grew bigger with their anger. "It's a classic that just keeps coming back! Toodles!"

He waved at his adversaries and dashed toward the roof's edge. With a mighty leap, he was sailing in the air before he landed on the next roof over.

Static cut through his footsteps, drawing his attention to the X-Transformer. The shield was receiving a voice communication.

"DA, are you alright?" a voice crackled on the shield's speaker.

"Just dandy, One," Duck Avenger responded to his partner on the other end. "Some enflamed Freezeflames decided to crash my patrol, so I thought I'd teach 'em a lesson."

"Enflamed? Sounds like a troubling redundancy," One pointed out.

Duck Avenger sighed. "No, enflamed as in they're- Never mind. Computers don't understand banter, do they?"

"Yes, we do," said One, "but only the intelligent kind."

Duck Avenger didn't need to see One's face to know he was snickering. "Whatever, giga-brat."

He reached the roof's edge and dove off, prepared to drop dramatically into his trusty vehicle, the 313-X, parked ten stories below. But when he looked down, two strange individuals in purple uniforms were seated in its cockpit, blissfully unaware of what surprise was about to drop in on them.

"Great howlin'-" Duck Avenger yelled in surprise but was cut off by his crash landing right on top of the intruders in his car. The pile of hero and stranger crowding the 313-X's cab loosed a collective groan and began trying to freeing themselves from this game of Twister they were in.

Duck Avenger, recognizing his unwelcome guests, wiggled his X-Transformer's fist underneath the unwanted passengers. He pressed a button and the fist sprang from its locked position, launching the alarmed trespassers out of the car and into a nearby dumpster.

"Don't you stupid Evronians have any manners?" he yelled at the dumpster as he retook his rightful place at the helm of the 313-X. The now soiled and stinky Evronian aliens surfaced from under trash bags to see Duck Avenger revving the engine and speeding off in a cloud of dust.

The Evronians were an all too common opponent of Duck Avenger these days. Ever since the militaristic race first invaded Duckburg to enslave an entire cast of soap opera stars, Duck Avenger took pride in being a constant thorn in their sides.

Duck Avenger looked over his shoulder to see the slender beings scrambling out of the dumpster and glancing around frantically. He figured he had seen the last of his foes for tonight and refocused on where he was flying.

A moment later, he spotted the Evronians growing bigger in his rearview mirror. He gasped and looked back to see them on their floating discs with a Freezeflame companion each, rapidly gaining on him.

"Why don't you take a hike, you space-uglies!" Duck Avenger exclaimed, shaking his fist at the hostile aliens.

"The only thing we will be taking is your life, Earthling!" an Evronian answered back. He then turned to his Freezeflame and shouted, "Fire!"

The Freezeflames fired their blasters at the 313-X. Duck Avenger lowered his head as bolts flew by in rapid succession.

"Not for sale, I'm afraid," said Duck Avenger, and he jerked his steering wheel to the left. The car sliced into the air with a sharp turn, catching the Evronians off guard. They turned their discs too and were soon back on Duck Avenger's trail.

He dipped and climbed and bobbed and weaved as fast as the 313-X could take him, trying to shake the Evronians. But they held fast to Duck Avenger, easily matching him with their years of combat training.

He flew between two buildings and descended into the main district, keeping well above the citizens so as not to endanger them. The 313-X dodged its way around many a gargoyle decorating city hall, providing perfect cannon fodder for the Freezeflames' less-than-stellar aim. Each bolt was powerful enough to disintegrate a gargoyle, sending fragments of mineral to the surface below.

"Yeesh, hope the mayor doesn't find out…" Duck Avenger sighed, then he shrieked as a laser bolt hit the driver-side door and scratched its freshly waxed surface.

He pressed a button on his steering wheel, connecting him to his hideout. "Evronians are on my tail, One! It's time for the ol' nine and three-quarter routine."

"Roger that, hero. It's ready when you are!"

Duck Avenger slammed the brake and yanked the steering wheel to the right, bringing the 313-X into an abrupt U-turn. The look of chilling joy grew on the Evronian soldiers as their foe faced them, but it quickly turned to terror when Duck Avenger hit the gas and blasted toward them. They dipped to avoid a collision and looked back to see Duck Avenger rocketing away.

"By Evron, he'll not get away!" an Evronian shouted, and he brought his disc around and followed, with his cohort not far behind.

He raced over the city towards the side of the tallest building in Duckburg. It seemed like a disaster waiting to happen, but Duck Avenger only accelerated towards it. His eyes narrowed with focus as the stone wall came closer and closer, and he shut them, bracing himself. In an instant, the sounds of the city were muffled to silence, and he opened his eyes to see that he safely passed right through as if it had never existed.

"Now, One!" Duck Avenger yelled, slamming the brake and stopping with a piercing screech.

As Duck Avenger vanished inside the building, the approaching Evronians were astounded. "Sir, this is our chance to see his hideout!" a nasally-voiced Evronian said to the one flying next to him.

"Good thinking, Kursaal," said the other, his beak curling upward. "Full speed ahead!"

They increased their speed, their eyes steeled in determination as they focused on the approaching phony wall.

But they didn't have the same luck as their enemy.

With a loud crash, metal, Freezeflame, and Evronian matter collided with the now solid side of the building. Gravity took hold of them, bringing them down, battered and bruised to the ground below.

Duck Avenger heard the crash and pumped his fist in the air. He jumped out of the 313-X still high on adrenaline and exited the runway into the main room of Ducklair Tower's 151st floor.

The tower was purchased by Scrooge McDuck after its owner, billionaire inventor Everett Ducklair disappeared, and soon it was filled with tenants of all kinds. It was a real estate gold mine, housing apartments, restaurants, and even local news channel 00.

But unbeknownst to any Duckburgian, it also housed the lair of Duck Avenger on a secret floor at the top, underneath an elaborate metallic structure.

It was a spacious place, with marvelous gadgets and gizmos covering its towering walls. And in the middle of this great hub, a giant computer the size of a car stood proud, executing its many programs that controlled all aspects of the tower. Atop it was a large green sphere where a head gently floated. It looked like a duck in every sense, with a slightly scruffy haircut and sideburns reminiscent of the great Scrooge McDuck.

The duck head was only an illusion, however. An image generated by the powerful computer to communicate visually with regular people. This was One, the most powerful and capable artificial intelligence in the world, and Duck Avenger's loyal partner.

"There's nothing better than sticking it to a couple of Evronian losers, eh, One?" he joked, greeting One with a wave.

"A successful night, indeed, Duck Avenger!" nodded One. "Although, I wonder what exactly those soldiers were doing inside the 313-X."

"Probably were just jealous they couldn't get a swingin' car like that back home."

"But it's not a particularly special car. Even with the modifications you have made, it's still at least ten model years behind today's vehicles."

Duck Avenger's puffed chest gave way to slumped shoulders. "Way to ruin my moment," he griped. "Haven't you heard of 'letting people down easy'?"

"I am a computer, DA. The only 'thing' I can be is factual and logical."

"Alright, then," Duck Avenger challenged playfully, "what, pray tell, is your 'factual and logical' reason?"

"For starters, they've seen you in 313-X before. Perhaps they were examining it to learn secrets about you. However-"

One was cut off by Duck Avenger's gasp. "Omigosh, you're right! And if they know about 313...maybe they know about you, a-and were trying to hack into the tower!"

"Calm down, old bean," One reassured with his calming, sophisticated voice. "My defenses against cyber-attacks are unmatched, so their attempts would have been fruitless."

Duck Avenger sighed in relief, then walked toward the window, which held the city's picturesque view. "Well, hopefully, those Evro-jerks have learned their lesson for now."

"Believe me, DA," snickered One, "after an embarrassment like this, they won't be coming back anytime soon," The floor-to-ceiling one-way window was transformed into a grid of monitors. On a normal day, it could show the hottest TV programs or one of Duckburg's many surveillance feeds. But at this moment, it flashed a perfectly captured freeze frame of the Evronians' moment of impact against Ducklair Tower.

Duck Avenger burst out laughing as he saw Evronian, Freezeflame, and disc alike smashed into the stone like bugs on a windshield. "This is amazing! How did you get this?"

"Well, I only have access to every camera in the city if you recall. It was just a matter of selecting the best angle," One explained.

"Brother, that's one for the photo album!"

"A perfect keepsake," One concurred, and he returned the window's display to the city landscape.

Duck Avenger looked back out into the night as Duckburg continued to bustle as if nothing happened. This view wasn't quite as colorful as what he had across town previously, but with a decisive victory for Duck Avenger, it was undoubtedly sweeter.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've put a lot of work into this and I'm excited for y'all to read what's to come. This is my first time writing for Duck Avenger, so I hope I did him justice. But what of those poor Evronians? Well, come back next time when they discover Mallards in Duckburg!