“Echoes”
Chapter Two
A good henchman was hard to find. A good mercenary was even harder; thus, when Varkais came before Dragaunus and swept into a low bow, the overlord urged him to rise.
“Lord Dragaunus,” the mercenary voiced with reverence and only straightened after a nod of respect, “I cannot express my gratitude for your kindness of sheltering me during my stay in the past. I once more pledge my allegiance to you and only you, my lord.”
“Suck up,” Chameleon muttered to Siege behind Varkais, and the burly lizard simply slammed a first down upon the shape shifter’s skull.
“Ah, so that explains your age.” Dragaunus scratched his chin with his elegant fingernail, his malevolent mind seemingly conniving even as he spoke, “Now, tell me what has brought you back into my service, Varkais. What—or should I say whom—are you hunting at this moment?”
Varkais placed his scaly hand on his chest. “As your loyal servant, I have been hunting the last of the Mighty Ducks for you, my lord, so you may expand your empire off world. And it has been nothing but a pleasurable experience.”
*^*^*
“Varkais is a mercenary,” Nosedive began, disgusted. He rolled his eyes toward the ceiling before spurting, “He was trained in Dimensional Limbo by the Ancient Hunters and mastered his skills by weeding out the traitors in Dragaunus’s Fleet after they conquered Puckworld. When Dragaunus brought his fleet to Earth, Varkais was given the same job before finally being given the same thrill the Baron got a high from.”
Shock swept through all the ducks’ faces, though at different degrees. To Nosedive’s left, Mallory reacted by grabbing the hilt of her launcher in its holster, even though Varkais was not present. Duke held his sword firmly in his hand, while Wildwing, who had shed the Mask, did nothing more than tense and keep his hands tucked into his elbows. Grin sat on the floor in a mediation position, his face calm and his eyes lightly shut, and finally, Tanya took off her glass and massaged the space before her beak. Nosedive, himself, felt his muscles go rigid as his ankles knotted in an obvious nervous gesture. His fingers drummed upon Drake One’s console, on which he sat, and he sought for the right words to say. He really thought he would never have to recite the knowledge of the future, what he had regrettably lived through and his greatest failures. Hell, simply thinking about how he met Dreg swarmed his stomach with dread, and he only continued because Wildwing nodded for him to do so. His one explanation would not suffice as an answer.
However, Tanya spoke first. “Wait. I don’t understand. The Saurian Fleet hasn’t come through the gateway yet, which would mean—”
“—you’re from the future, eh, kid?” Duke finished, bowing slightly.
Nosedive sighed and beseeched the Heavens above for the strength to continue. The most help he received was the unclenching of his throat and a thinning of the salvia in his beak. “…yes. No. Stars, it’s not this hard to talk to a howling pack of military advisors.” Now, he was starting to sound like a teenager again. He took a deep breath, slumped, and made sure not to look at the drawing eyes of his brother. Perhaps that was why he acted like a kid again. He could be—in front of Wildwing.
“Yes, I’ve from the future—at least my conscious is. Eight years from now, actually.”
Mallory sat back in her chair and glanced toward Wildwing. “That would make you twenty-five.”
Nosedive snorted. “Math always your strong suit, Mal?”
“Then why don’t you look any different?”
Nosedive uncrossed his ankles and shrugged. “Don’t ask me. That’s Dreg’s doing. I really had no participation in this other than being the body.”
“And why is that?” asked Duke.
Did he have to explain everything? Apparently so. “Dreg’s an informant of mine, my in into the Saurians. He decided to betray his father and the Saurians because Varkais, too, had killed his wife, who was suspected of betrayal on Puckworld. Dreg tried to warn me that Varkais was back to finish his job and kill me, fulfilling his contract to kill the Mighty Ducks, and unbeknownst to Dreg, he was followed. We were ambushed, and Dreg pushed me off a cliff to save me. He sputtered some words in Saurian, hit me with blue fire, and the next thing I knew, I woke up here.”
Mallory always was perceptive. “And just who is Dreg if you trust him so much as to believe he didn’t betray you?”
Great. This would be fun. “He’s…uh…Dragaununs’s son.”
“What?” came the collective cry.
Nosedive rolled his eyes and really couldn’t say he didn’t expect their surprise. “Don’t give me that. I wasn’t the one who first made contact. You want to blame someone? Fine. Look at Wildwing. I just picked up the meetings once…y’know.”
The four blindsided ducks slowly gravitated to Wildwing, who threw up his hands in a mock surrender. “What? Like I know what I’m going to do in the future.”
“There is still one thing I don’t get,” Mallory’s eyes narrowed, and Nosedive knew he wouldn’t like what she had to say.
*^*^*
“As much as I hate to admit it, my lord, your own son betrayed you and our cause,” Varkais solemnly disclosed. “Thus, I had no choice in the matter but to stop him.”
Dragaunus clenched his fists and turned his back to the mercenary. So, his weakling son had a backbone after all. In some twisted and perverted way, the overlord actually found pleasure in the fact that his son had grown to be strong and ruthless in his own right, though perhaps not as Dragaunus would have liked. No matter. Now that he knew, he could mold Dreg as he saw fit—once the Fleet came through the gateway.
“But tell me, Varkais, how did you find your way to this backwards planet?”
“With your son dead, I deferred to your daughter, Syra. She was more than willing to assist me in perusing Flashblade, and unlike her brother, she was able to send me body and soul back to the past, not just my metaphysical self, like Flashblade.”
Dragaunus sighed and motioned toward the door to the left. “My henchmen will more than willingly assist you in your mission, Varkais. Now, go. Rest, and tomorrow, you will finish the Mighty Ducks once and for all.”
“Oh, I cannot finish Flashblade yet, my lord,” Varkais interjected and even bowed to give homage to the overlord. “In order to truly destroy the Mighty Ducks, I must attack at their very heart, which is no longer Flashblade. He is the target, but his heart lies in the future.”
Dragaunus’s amber eyes glowed; his curiosity tingled. “Of whom do you speak?”
*^*^*
Nosedive was right. He didn’t like her question.
“Just who’s the ‘cute little redhead’ Varkais tormented you with?”
“It’s not you, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Nosedive scowled and averted his eyes. In fact, the mere thought was disgusting and drove shivers up and down his spine. She was his bonded sister and to…with her…agh.
“Then who she is?” Mallory demanded, inching upward in her chair. “Your girlfriend?”
“Mallory—” Tanya reached out to grab her friend’s wrist, but Mallory simply smacked her hand away.
“Your wife?”
Nosedive cringed.
“Your bootie call? Your every now and then—”
“My child.”
Wildwing’s stark voice startled the group, all but Nosedive whose head rose and ice eyes melted. “Even after all this time,” the little brother replied, so low that his voice seemed to tear his throat, “I’m still nothing more than glass to you, aren’t I?”
Wildwing shrugged and sent Nosedive a fond smile. “I know you; that’s all. And you know me. I wouldn’t want you jeopardizing my son or daughter simply for me to live, and you know I wouldn’t, either.”
Yes. No matter what, that much was true. Wildwing valued family above all else, as his brother told Dreg the first night he brought Nosedive to meet the Saurian prince. “There are three things I will not sacrifice for this war, Dreg: my child, my wife, and my brother.”
This, Nosedive always knew to be true.
Sighing, Nosedive rubbed the back of his head. He knew he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t help but speak, his tone airy and fond, which he only used previously when speaking about his brother. “His name is Crease, and—” He motioned to Mallory and then Wildwing.”—he has your hair and your feathers, and our mother’s crystal blue eyes. He’s the cutest little goalie ever, and when he gets scared or wants a hug, he just clings to my knee.” When he exhaled deeply, his voice dropped to nothing more than a whisper, guttural with emotion and raspy from strain. “I don’t know what I would ever do if I lost him. He’s all I have left of you, Wing.”
Before Wildwing even spoke, Nosedive let out a dry laugh. “Sometimes I don’t know how to get out of bed in the morning, and he’ll just come in and do it for me. H—He’s the greatest thing I ever did, and he’s not even mine.”
Even with the warm hand clutching his shoulder, he refused to meet Wildwing’s eyes until his brother’s voice, fond and ever affectionate, drew his head up to be held captive in those piercing blue eyes. “In a way, he is, and there is no one else I would want to raise my child if I or my wife couldn’t, baby bro.”
Nosedive ducked his head, unable for the moment to reply verbally, and he only answered with a few nods. When he finally recovered enough, he revealed, “My nephew…he was conceived during specific…um…” How could he reword, “aftermath of Duke’s death”? “…appalling events, and if I were to tell you, I’m certain he will not be born. I have another little buggar, too, but he I don’t have to worry about. The past on Earth has no bearing upon his life.”
“I take it Canard has a hatchling,” Wildwing asked as he leaned back against the console to be next to his brother.
“His name’s Reth, and he’s just over a year older than Crease. They’re more or less brothers, but we call them cousins.”
“So…if the kid was conceived in Dimensional Limbo…” Duke’s eyes widened, and Nosedive only kept his dignity by closing his eyes.
“Lucretia, for all her evil, died the most honorable way possible—during childbirth. Reth doesn’t know what his mother did to us, and for the most part, no one else does, either. But for Klegghorn and what not…the kid inherited his mother’s purple hair. Didn’t really help.”
A moment of silence broke when a wicked smirk crossed Mallory’s features. “Okay, so if you and Canard are raising his child and your nephew, then who’s the mother between you two?”
Nosedive returned his smirk, not at all abashed. “Me, no doubt, but it’s really by default.”
When Wildwing looked at him with a cocked head, Nosedive refused to elaborate, so Wildwing simply asked, “If you don’t mind me asking, if you’re in Dive’s body now, then where is my little brother…well, from now, anyway?”
The phrasing hit Nosedive a little more than he would have liked, but he shrugged quickly. “I can’t answer that, Wing. I don’t how this magic works. I’m just as lost as you are.”
“So,” Mallory drew the brothers’ attention, “what was the whole cream cheese thing about?”
“Well,” Nosedive chuckled a little, and Wildwing turned to lean upon the console next to him. “The American Resistance doesn’t have the resources to make cream cheese, so I have to eat butter. It’s not by choice, I assure you.”
Tanya continued to rub the space in between her eyes, as if having a constant headache. “The American Resistance? There is a consolidated body fighting Dragaunus?”
Nosedive nodded. “You got it, Taunny. There are actually five cells throughout the world. The American, the East Asian, the West Asian, the European, and the African.”
“So, the American Resistance consists of—”
“All of
With an exhale, Mallory crossed her arms. “So what do you do, Nosedive? How do you serve the American Resistance?”
Nosedive blinked and leaned back on his arms. “Ouch, Mal. That hurt.”
“…why?”
“Because—” Grin opened his eyes and focused directly on Nosedive. “—Nosedive runs the American Resistance.”
Everyone swung their startled gazes back at him, and Nosedive accepted them with a brash smirk and a shrug. “Ah, what can I tell you? I grew up. It was bound to happen eventually.”
And yet, he could tell—even though it was the one thing they had always told him to do, they now regretted it.
Hell, so did he.
*^*^*
Nosedive found the simplest tasks harder since coming to the past. Running with a body not as filled out or as heavy left him almost tripping over his own shoes, and his puck launcher—Stars! When was the last time he had a puck launcher? When Dragaunus took over Earth, the ducks had no production for their own weapons and stole blasters to fight the war, but even that paled in comparison to trying to relax.
For the past five years, he felt as if he always was on alert, ready for the next Saurian attack. Part of him knew it could still happen in the past; after all, the ducks still fought Dragaunus. However, it wasn’t the same. He wasn’t in charge, and Saurian domination wasn’t exactly one fight away.
…
Correction. It was, but it still wasn’t the same situation.
In attempt to calm his nerves, Nosedive drew his feet underneath him like Grin taught him and evened his breathing to help him open his mind. He didn’t try to meditate often, but when he did, it usually helped to alleviate some of his stress and invigorate him for the meetings and battles ahead.
The door to the Main Room swished open.
Of course, not today.
Nosedive leaned back against the couch and arched his neck to look back. Wildwing sent him a sheepish smile as he came to plop down upon the couch.
“Sorry. Did I disturb you?”
Nosedive twitched a shoulder. “No more than usual.”
Silence greeted him until he looked over at Wildwing. His brother obviously did not know how to take that, so Nosedive had no choice but to explain, “You’re really a distraction, bro.” A soft smile edged upon his beak, which quickly fell to a frown. “It’s…hard, being back here. All I keep seeing is how you…died, and I know that one day I’m going to go back to…that…”
He stopped before he cried, stopped before he had to deal with it, and instead, he closed his eyes and inhaled a sharp breath, held it for five seconds, then let it go. Didn’t help his nerves. He briefly thought about taking up smoking, but he was sure those around him would kill him. And then he would have to have withdrawal in the future. Nah. Better just to keep trying mediation.
“…It must be hard, being in charge of seven million people. At least here, I only have to watch over five.”
Nosedive knew an Olive Branch when
he heard one. Sighing, he open his eyes and abandoned his futile attempt at
calmness. “You were going to do it, actually. We had become the preparations
and negotiations with
Wildwing dragged his hands down his face and let out a distraught sigh. “I don’t want you to. Not if—”
“Wildwing, let it go,” Nosedive commanded starkly, causing his older brother to stiffen and turn wide-eyed toward the physically younger duck. “Let it go,” he repeated harshly. “There isn’t anything you can do to change the future. It’s set in stone, and no matter what you tell me now, no matter how you try to find a way to make it different—because we both know your mind is reeling even as I speak—it’s not going to change the fact that the Saurians take over the world and we were helpless to stop them.”
The words were brasher, more harsh, than he would have liked, but Nosedive knew of no other way to convey the truth. He had long given up tact, which probably was the reason neither the European nor the West Asian commander dealt with him well. Ah, well. They had to deal with him because without his help, they would have been crushed years ago.
Wildwing’s voice was strangled as he began, “Dive, I—I’m—”
“Don’t.” Nosedive whirled toward his brother, a finger pointed outward. “Just…don’t, okay?”
He couldn’t hear it again. The words wafted like the dying words from an apparition, and Nosedive wouldn’t endure them again. Instead, he simply closed his eyes and ducked his head. Stars, he wanted to be strong. He was the damn commander of the American Resistance, the strongest leader in the modern world besides Dragaunus, and yet…
He wouldn’t cry, and he didn’t.
The couch cushions shifted, catching even the trained duck off guard. He looked up to see Wildwing upon the floor, pulling out the Nintendo 64 from under the flat screen TV.
“What are you doing?”
Wildwing hit on the TV, then threw a controller to Nosedive. The physically younger duck caught it, remembering the feeling of the slim controller in his hand and quickly became acquainted with it.
“What does it look like I’m doing? Get down here.” Wildwing, himself, settled cross-legged upon the ground. “We’re going to play Donkey Kong Racing.”
“What?” Nosedive rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Wildwing, trust me when I say that video games and I don’t get along anymore, not since many I have lived.”
Wildwing ignored him and started the game. He hit Ice Pyramid and when Nosedive failed to play, launched a rocket into the turtle, tossing the usually calm creature into the air in a blaze of stars and fire.
Nosedive scoffed, “Look, I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but I’m just—”
Another rocket, another balloon gone, and that poor turtle was flung again into the air.
“Okay, now I know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not going to—”
Fire and stars exploded upon the screen, the turtle let out a little cry, and only one balloon rotated about the little car.
“Oh, you so don’t know who you’re messing with here!” Nosedive pitched forward off the couch and down next to his brother on the floor. His thumbs pressed the A and B buttons furiously as rockets began to launch from the little turtle’s car.
Wildwing led his little mouse away and cursed when a rocket zoomed into its back.
Duke found the scene all too amusing over three hours later, after two different games, and with a pair of tongues hanging out of beaks. He called the others in and watched as the brothers dueled until Wildwing beat Nosedive in their fifth game—the morning after.
*^*^*
Long after Varkais finished speaking and left for his own quarters, Dragaunus stayed awake, his conniving mind running through different scenarios and possibilities. So it happened. He finally conquered those miserable Mighty Ducks and those who deserved to die—all but the brat—got what they deserved. Yet, he realized all that now was in danger. With the boy here in the past, he could easily tell his deplorable older brother what to avoid and how to win battles. And though Varkais had offered the same to Dragaunus, the overlord knew the truth. There was only one solution to seal his hold upon Earth.
“Wraith.”
The ghastly old Saurian mage formed from a swirl of gray smoke, and he bowed instantly. “You beckoned, milord?”
“Yes. I have decided on the course of events yet to come.” He leaned forward on his throne and sent Wraith a shit-eating grin. “I believe you will help Varkais to the future… prematurely.”
*^*^*
The whole event was so surreal to the teen; it felt like a lifetime ago.
Nosedive groaned at the blaring in his ears, shattering the thin façade of peaceful sleep, and unlike anything he’d done in five years, he ignored the wailing. He instead turned over in bed, not caring that his clock read seven o’clock at night and he’d been asleep all day. He simply pulled the pillow over his head.
It was only when he heard blaster fire and launching pucks that he realized the blaring wasn’t Drake One’s usual alert—It was an intruder alert.
Nosedive immediately threw off his covers and grabbed his comm. off the end table. As he ventured into the hallway, a green light consumed his entire body, and his puck launcher came to bear in his hand. He knew he was being foolish, jumping into a fight half-cocked, but his team was at stake. He had to help anyway he could, even though the fight appeared futile. At least ten hunter drones turned their attention upon him as he came out his room, causing him to swear under his breath. A moment later, pucks ripped through many of their chest.
“Move!” Mallory ordered, and Nosedive used to the reprieve to back into his room and use the edge of his doorway as a shield. He fired upon the rest, trying his best to give Mallory help when she needed it. His teammate used the same technique he did, though shots from a blaster also pelted her doorway.
Nosedive loaded one explosive puck into his launcher and fired, effectively taking out all the machines—and leaving a hole in the corridor’s floor.
“Think you leave the place in at least a hundred pieces, if not one?” Mallory smirked as she came out of her room.
“I’ll try but no promises.”
A shot cut through the air, and Nosedive whirled—before jumping in front of Mallory. His armor accepted the blow far better than her flimsy battle shirt, though it still knocked him to the ground and stole all the air from his lungs.
Mallory stepped over him and laid down suppressive fire to give him enough time to recover. Gritting his teeth, he pushed pass the sharp stabs in his chest and worked his way into a kneeling position. From there, he was finally able to access the situation. About a corner, Siege stationed himself to shoot and pluck off ducks, while Chameleon stood off against Grin, who slammed the troll reject from Harry Potter against the wall. Nosedive glanced behind him and realized neither Wraith nor Varkais, and Wildwing, Duke, and Tanya were missing, too.
“Can you handle Siege?” Nosedive yelled over Drake One’s alarm.
The redhead nodded and interpreted, “Go to your brother!”
Damn. That was just freaky.
He sent her a fleeting smile, then dashed in the opposite direction. He opened his comm. and found both Duke and Tanya in the Ready Room, while Wildwing’s energy signature remained in his room. Nosedive stopped dead, as did his heart.
Oh, Stars.
He immediately whirled and ignored Mallory’s grunting as a blaster shot nicked her shoulder. He pushed away Siege’s frontal assault, and as he learned to do in his youth, he trusted his fellow teammate to do as she said. If Mallory said she would take down Siege, then she would take down Siege, despite the fact that she clutched her shoulder, trying to keep the blood within her body; despite the fact that her launcher clinked against the wall over five feet away; despite the fact that—
Wildwing, for all Nosedive knew, could be dead by now. Like Nosedive had been, his brother probably was passed out from their video game competition the night prior, and knowing how deceitful Varkais was, the teen had no doubt that the mercenary would have killed Wildwing in his sleep. The only shred of hope the younger mallard clung to was—Varkais wanted Nosedive to be tortured, mentally, emotionally, and inevitably physically. The mercenary wouldn’t kill Wildwing—at first.
“Damnit!”
Yet, as the seconds ticked away, he was leaving his brother unarmed and unmatched against the mercenary, but still, Nosedive detoured, making the excuse that he needed to get past Siege to get to Wildwing’s room on the other side of his own, and leapt. His boot connected with Siege’s once-grinning cheek, and bringing his launcher to bear, the teen depressed the trigger once. A boa constricted just about Siege’s torso, keeping his arms pinioned to his sides.
He never even looked back at Mallory and instead raced to his brother’s door. He slammed in the code he knew by heart and entered the room instantly. Empty. The bed was made, the room practically untouched. Then where—
A white object barely showing underneath Wildwing’s bedspread caught Nosedive’s attention, and he dove for it, scowling even before he held it. Wildwing’s gauntlet. No doubt Varkais had been there, then. No doubt he took Wildwing, but where? And what could the Saurians possibly want, and—
He knew all those answers.
“Shit!” Apparently, his vocabulary only consisted of swear words today.
Nosedive tore out of Wildwing’s bedroom and dashed pass Grin helping up the injured Mallory. “Ready Room! Come in from the hanger!”
“What?” Mallory balked, only for Nosedive to turn about and command, “Don’t ask! Just do it!”
He knew she would tear him apart later for yelling, but Wildwing didn’t have the time to explain. He concluded his brother probably had just enough time for Nosedive to race to the aforementioned site and see exactly what he dreaded.
Man, he hated being right.
Though Nosedive now could defeat Duke, there was no question who was the best fighter in the past. Before Nosedive lay the thief, unconscious with blood seeping from a rather large gash down his forehead. A large contusion grew upon his cheek even as Nosedive knelt upon the ground and checked his pulse. As thumps of blood raised his fingers, the younger mallard took a sigh of relief and moved onto the next duck. Tanya, seemingly flung upon the floor, was sprawled just beyond him, but unlike Duke, she appeared unscathed. Nosedive cocked his launcher and inched about Drake One’s console, absently hitting off the alarm with one hand, while the other kept his puck launcher firmly pointed at the struggling figures before him.
Wildwing, sans the Mask, knelt upon the floor, his entire body quivering as his free hand fought again the crimson arm about his neck, threatening to break his neck. Varkais curled Wildwing’s right arm about his back and twisted, keeping the older brother upon the ground and without enough strength to break away.
Nosedive inattentively remembered time and time again this same situation, though usually he was the one held upon the floor, moments from death.
He schooled his face to remain neutral, though he knew his anger grew and radiated in his eyes, no longer icy but vibrant. For the most part, he wasn’t angry at Varkais. Sure, he arguably hated the lizard even worse than Dragaunus himself, but Nosedive truly loathed himself for not being to see Varkais’s plan and more importantly, for letting his brother get close again. He shouldn’t have played video games with Wildwing. He shouldn’t have even stayed here. He should have made an excuse to leave to take the heat off of the team.
He felt the old pain resurfacing, the hate he felt for years.
Damn his brother and damn his love. Damn it all, especially if this was the result.
He wouldn’t survive Wildwing dying again. He couldn’t, wouldn’t lose his brother again.
Stars, no.
Varkais diverted enough strength to laugh and smile his ever cruel grin. “You should have changed your code, Flashblade. It was too obvious, even to me.”
Nosedive shrugged as absently as he could, to make it seem as if he wasn’t as afraid as he was. “What? The kid’s hatching date was too obvious, huh?”
“My first guess.”
Wildwing growled, but Varkais just twisted his arm a little more, causing the older brother to let out a little gasp of pain.
So, pleasantries were done. “What do you want, Varkais? Me?” Nosedive, with restraint he didn’t know possible, lifted his puck launcher, then took a deep breath. “You have me. You’ve always had me when it comes to my family.”
“Dive, no…” Wildwing choked, but Nosedive shrugged and smiled softly.
“You’ll do the same for me,” and Wildwing, though shaking his head, didn’t dispute it. Nosedive was right.
The teenage duck dropped his launcher to the ground and took a step away. “Let him go. You don’t need my brother.”
“In actuality, you are correct. Even in strategy, you have me, Flashblade, but in pure pride, you have yet to beg.”
Nosedive let out a deflating sigh, and without any pride but tainted by a long, everlasting fear, he sank to his knees, his hands out with palms up. “You know there is nothing in this world that will ever replace my brother, even his son. Please… don’t do this.”
Varkais’s superior strength squeezed ever harder about Wildwing’s neck. A gag was the reply. “Not good enough.”
“This—This isn’t right.” Stars, damnit! Mallory, Grin, where are you? “You aren’t slated to kill my brother for another three years, and you know…” His voice faltered, and he barely held back the tears. “…I’m more than willing to give everything I am and any chance at redemption for those three years with my brother at my side. Please, Varkais, torture me, maim me, kill me, but please…leave my brother out of this.”
Varkais seemed to actually contemplate the offer for about a moment before a swirling, storm cloud formed behind Varkais, and Wraith hunched over on his staff.
“Ah, Wraith. You have come to see me dispose of Flashblade once more, I see.”
Wraith shook his head, and instead of replying in English, mystical Saurian came from his lips.
Everything else happened so fast Nosedive hardly could move.
The doors behind Wraith, Varkais, and Wildwing swished open, and Mallory and Grin burst through just before blue fire danced upon Wraith’s fingers.
“W—What are you doing?” Varkais’s hold upon Wildwing lingered just enough for the older brother to elbow the mercenary in the gut and free himself. As he pushed to his feet and lunged, a fierce wind blew through the Ready Room, and the blue fire caught flew upon its wings. Nosedive would have done anything to escape its touch, but he knew the inexorable truth. He didn’t belong in the past, and if Wraith was sending he and Varkais back, then he would gladly go to save his brother.
He reveled in that one thought as the Ready Room gave way to a forest below, and death rushed upward to claim him.
*^*^*
Nosedive was right. Triple spicy tacos were good—just not before bed at eight A.M.
The last few days or so drained Wildwing, utterly and completely. After finding out his little brother was now two years older than he and being hunted by a crazed mercenary who had already killed him and his team, the leader had set to work on changing to the future. Yet, none of his plans ever came to actuality. He knew of no way to stop what would from being, and in the end, he had no choice to accept what happened and pray for some intervention.
He never thought intervention would come in the form of Wraith and some sort of blue fire.
Groaning, Wildwing lightly touched to his head to assess that yes, he was in one piece, even though the remnants of Varkais’s attack still ravaged his noggin and left him unable to do anything but wait until the feeling of lightheadedness subsided. Even that he couldn’t do when he heard ruffling from what sounded like a bush. He ventured to open one eyes, and the second one immediately followed. Not even lightheadedness was enough to keep him from pushing into a sitting position, and as he glanced about, Nosedive’s account of what happened between him, Varkais, and Dreg infiltrated his mind. Dense woods entrenched the world in darkness to his left, while a mountain rose into the sky to his right. If this was true, if this was what Nosedive spoke about…
Stars. That would mean they were in the future.
Again.
Damnit. Why did it seem to get worse and worse every time they came forward in time?
A startled gasp grabbed his attention. A terrified cry from Mallory besieged his ears, “Tanya!”
Wildwing whipped around too fast for his head to take and ended up leaning heavily against the base of a tree to keep somewhat erect. When the world once more balanced, he glanced over his team. Duke still appeared unconscious a few feet away, but Grin knelt by him. Tanya and Mallory for the most part blocked someone from his vision, and curiosity led him to push to his unsteady feet. Then, haunting knowledge and fear at seeing their missing member launched him forward. His short run, however, slowed to mere steps until he stopped completely at the horrific, macabre sight before him.
Nosedive—older.
His hair was shortened considerably, but dirt colored it a muddy brown. His clothing had changed to be nothing more than a teal T-shirt, which was cut at his muscular shoulders and embroiled with a Mighty Ducks’ logo. A pair of jeans were held up by Wildwing’s own golden belt. His arm was contorted to the side and laid limply upon the ground—broken most likely—while fresh blood oozed from open wounds in his shoulder and his face. Bruises brightened his cheeks with hues of purple and blue, and—was that a taint on his shoulder? It reminded the older brother of Canard’s.
None of that mattered. The only thing Wildwing cared about was Tanya’s next statement. “He’s alive but barely. We need to get him medical attention, like yesterday.”
“Yeah, but where? We don’t even know where we are,” Mallory challenged, fear tainting her voice.
Wildwing growled and pushed between Mallory and Tanya to pick up his brother. “I’m not just going to let my brother die. We’ll find someplace.”
But as he slowly tucked his arms under Nosedive’s armpits and knees and straightened his back, he turned—and froze. His eyes widened, and he unconsciously drew his dying brother closer to his chest. His heart failed, for standing before he and his team was a team of twenty humans, all bearing blasters.
The leader of the human force took one look at Nosedive before stepping forward. “You’re not going anywhere.”
To Be Continued…