Living Doll {Ragdoll}

[Quackerjack]

Ever since his latest escape from D'Arque Asylum, Quackerjack had busied himself getting his new toy line ready for Christmas.

Never mind that he was no longer a legitimate businessman, but a wanted felon. The lunatic duck's grasp on reality was tenuous at best, and he truly thought his new designs would be on store shelves come Thanksgiving.

After weeks of work, Quacky's latest was ready: a 6-foot remote-controlled transforming robot. "It's so beautiful," he murmured, wiping away a tear as he surveyed the gleaming mass of plastic.

"Better give it a test run," Mr. Banana Brain chimed in. He was right, as usual. But where to set up the test? Of course! Somewhere there was a lot of kids, naturally.

Accordingly, a certain duck in a jester costume soon appeared outside a prestigous local high school, accompanied by one banana-shaped puppet and one very large robot.

Grasping the RC box, Quacky explained to Mr. Banana-Brain the procedure. "You won't believe what this robot can do! He walks!" Quackerjack depressed a button, and the automaton lurched forward, headed right for the fence that surrounded the school grounds. "And when he comes to an obstacle--he plows right through it!"

And so it did, slowing for only a moment before the iron railings gave way with a crash.

[ragdoll]

When Ragdoll had gotten the vision of a giant robot attacking the school, she had admittedly been expecting something a lot more impressive than the lump of plastic in front of her. This was the problem with the strange visions she had been receiving ever since her tango with death; they told her where she needed to be, but were awfully shaky when it came to the details. Still, it was obvious from the way the robot ploughed through the railing that it was far stronger than it looked, so it seemed as if her haste in getting here had not been in vain.

Sally had been in such a rush to get here that she hadn’t been able to find any other members of the Dream League before she departed. Normally this wouldn’t have been a problem for a member of Epcot City’s premier superhero team, however Ragdoll was still relatively inexperienced when it came to fighting crime. Usually she would just alert someone else about the vision that she’d just had and then tag along for the ride, thus this was actually her first time facing a threat like this on her own. Still, it wouldn’t do to let her nerves show, so after taking a moment to compose herself she emerged from behind the tree she’d been lurking behind and pointed dramatically at the heinous harlequin.

“Hey!” she yelled in what she hoped was a commanding voice, “I cannot allow you to threaten these children! Call off your robot!”

[Quackerjack]

Call off your robot!

A voice coming from somewhere (and a perturbed voice at that) distracted Quackerjack from his test run. Glancing up, he spotted the speaker: a life-sized rag-doll, apparently remote-controlled, like his robot.

Well, the test could wait; this bore investigating. Bounding over to the doll, he hmmm-ed at it a bit before remarking to Mr. Banana Brain, "Moves nicely, don't you think? Very life-like."

"Yeah, but the stitching's pretty sloppy. Look at the seams," answered the puppet.

Seems there was another toymaker around somewhere, controlling the doll. Not that Quacky was angry or jealous; he enjoyed meeting his colleagues in the toy biz.

Glancing around, the duck jester couldn't spot anyone. "Look, your doll's a really nice piece of workmanship. And an RC rag-doll is very inventive. Shows you've got a good imagination."

So far, he might as well be talking to himself. Not that that was anything unusual.

"No need to be bashful. C'mon out."