“Fallen Angel”
Chapter Nine:
Purgatory
It was the first time the Mighty Ducks saw the full extent of Dragaunus’s malevolence. As Wildwing held his sodden brother close, the water trickling over them but offering no reprieve, none of the ducks could truly comprehend the abysmal depth of the Saurians’ iniquity. How could they harm one as innocent as Nosedive, continue to torture him despite the boy’s recent freedom from them? He had been healing, relaxing, yet…the Saurians were devious—and they attacked subtly.
And they wondered, later, how something so terrible could have started so innocently?
It happened during the most impromptu of times—Nosedive’s first practice.
Right before it happened, Canard, dressed in full hockey equipment, leaned his elbow on the board of the player’s bench and watched the scene unfolding before him. He glanced over at the aforementioned duck. “Three minutes, easy.”
Nosedive shook his head and lifted his left foot to the bench, lacing up his skate. “Oh, come on. Five, and I’m even downplaying it.”
“Five, huh? A hundred says you’re wrong,” Canard bartered.
“A hundred what?”
“Bucks.”
Nosedive snorted. “Hello. Did we forget I’m the one only here who isn’t getting paid?” He dropped his skate to the floor and lifted his right leg.
“Fine. A hundred once you start playing,” Canard amended.
“That could be next year,” Nosedive reminded the older duck flatly as he stood and checked his hockey equipment once more. Shoulder pads, check. Shin guards, check. Helmet—on bench, check. Uh, under shorts—check. Double check—yup.
Canard shrugged. “I’m in no hurry.”
Furling an eyebrow, Nosedive shrugged as well. “I could use a hundred smackers. You’re on.” They shook hands briefly, then turned back to watch Phil and Wildwing.
Standing at the edge of the ice, the manager and the leader of the Mighty Ducks stood, awaiting the other ducks to shuffle in for the morning skate. Phil babbled unendingly about another publicity stunt and gave no room for Wildwing to decline. However, with his arms crossed and an irritated look plastered on his face, the leader made his reservations known.
“Double or nothing says Wildwing tells him off before practice,” Nosedive offered mischievously.
Canard smirked and put out his hand. “I like the way you think, kid.”
Sure enough, as Duke finally glided onto the ice, Wildwing burst, “No, Phil! Just no! Anything with razorblades and the words ‘Death Dodgers’ in the title is an automatic no!” He skated onto the ice in fury.
“HA!” Nosedive flaunted. He fastened his helmet and tugged down his nameless jersey. “Pay up, sucka!”
Canard growled with a sigh. “After practice, okay? My wallet’s in the locker room.” Gliding away from the bench and toward the middle of the ice, the tan mallard left Nosedive alone to his thoughts.
The younger duck walked down the bench, balancing perfectly on his skates. He paused as he reached the door to the ice and let out a pent-up sigh. It seemed like forever since Wildwing had taken him on the ice almost a month and a half ago, and even longer since he had actually played hockey. Way before the Resistance, that was for sure. His insides squirmed with a gaiety that had been fermenting since he returned, but Tanya ruled he was in no condition to play hockey with two broken ribs, a concussion, and pulled knee ligaments. What was worse was she made sure the whole team knew he wasn’t allowed to even touch the ice and too easily conned Wildwing into making it a team decree.
But now he was finally cleared to play, though no one could check him or even hit it him in anyway, but he didn’t mind that. Now he could play! Everything else would fall into place eventually.
Wildwing waved him out on the ice with a smile, for it was time for practice to start. He returned the grin and extended his leg toward the ice—
“NO!”
Nosedive froze and cocked his head back over his shoulder.
“STOP!” Phil screamed madly as he rushed down the hallway and into the arena. Hunching over, hands on knees, Phil panted and gasped to catch his breath. He grabbed Nosedive by the shoulder and tugged the teen feebly away from the ice. “You *Gasp!* can’t *Cough!* practice!”
“What!” Nosedive couldn’t believe he had just heard that. “Phil, it’s been almost a year since I played hockey! I need to get out there, or I’ll go insane, seriously. And if that happens, you’re the first one I’m coming after!”
Huffing, Phil called breathlessly, “This is a *Gasp!* practice, right?”
“Yeah, Phil,” Wildwing skated over, concern contorting his face. “Why? I don’t see the problem—”
“Only official team members can take part in practice,” Phil informed curtly, righting him and leaning on Nosedive’s shoulder. “Kid’s not only not an official member, but also isn’t sanctioned by the League. We’re looking at heavy fines if anyone found out he practiced with the team.”
“Who’s gonna find out?” Duke posed when he shished to a stop. “It’s just us here, and what does it matter, anyway? We just won’t make it a practice. It’ll be a shoot-around or something.”
“It’s a practice as long as everyone’s on the ice.”
Wildwing shook his head. “It’s still a practice, Duke. Phil’s right. We shouldn’t cut corners.” He looked at the demoralized expression on Nosedive’s face and shook his head. “I’m sorry, little brother. I’ll practice with you later, okay?”
“You’re putting me on, right?” Nosedive accused, pushing Phil off his shoulder carelessly, causing the human to almost collapse to the floor. “Wildwing, come on! What’s two hours? It’s not the end of the world!”
“Nosedive, it’s against the rules. Besides, it’s not that big of a deal. After practice, you can shoot around with me and Canard.”
“I don’t want to shoot around with you and Canard. I want to play hockey! You know, an actual game!” the teen shouted bitterly, storming back to the locker room. “First, I get connected to Lord Dragaunus. Then, I get up at five this morning so I can play, only to find I can’t! My life unequivocally sucks!” He pushed open the locker room door with a smack. A moment later, his helmet cracked through the doors and crashed against the hallway wall.
Wildwing sighed loudly. “He took that rather well, don’t you think?”
Duke nodded. “Hardly noticed he was upset.” They stood in a contemplative silence for a moment. “Kid knows the word ‘unequivocally’?”
“How should I know?” Wildwing arched his shoulders. “I’ve only known him ten months.”
Clasping the younger drake on the shoulder, Duke lead Wildwing back to the middle of the ice. “Let him cool off, huh? He’ll come out and watch in a few minutes.”
Wildwing hesitantly submitted, and the ducks split into two teams for practice. Sure enough, half-way through practice, Nosedive slumped onto the players’ bench, drew his legs up, and observed the scrimmage. Wildwing noticed him right away, and on the first offensive play afterwards, caught Tanya’s shot in his glove. He then smacked the heck out of the rubber, hitting it directly into the players’ bench door and knocking it open with a *thunk*. Nosedive looked at the puck, at his brother, then back at the puck. With an exaggerated-exasperated sigh, he lugged himself off the bench and bent down to pick it up before stopping. He raised an eyebrow, and a mischievous smirk formed upon his face. Trotting off to the locker room, he returned a minute later, hockey stick in hand. Lining up his stick with the puck, he drew back his left arm and then, with a crack, hit the puck toward Wildwing. It soared through the air at a speed that made Duke whistle and brought silence to the rest of the team. It sneaked under Wildwing’s arm and slamming into the back of the net.
Wide-eyed, beaks agape, the team stared at the younger mallard.
Blink.
Blink.
Blink.
Nosedive shrugged, a wicked grin upon his face, his weight leaning on his stick. “Technically, I’m not on the ice.”
“H—How did you do that?” Mallory stammered, glaring at him fiercely. “The angle…from the bench…”
Furling a perceptive eyebrow, Nosedive looked down himself and motioned with his hands. “You see this? Five-foot-seven with a swimmer’s build? If I couldn’t shoot, you think I could survive on the ice?”
“And skate,” Canard interjected. “You can sure as hell skate.”
“Not just skate,” Nosedive boasted. “I tear up the ice.”
“We’ll get you on the ice soon, Dive,” Wildwing consoled, flipping the puck out of the net and to Grin. “I promise.”
Nosedive waved the game on and flopped on the bench to watch practice—until Wildwing looked over suddenly with fifteen minutes left and noticed the empty space.
“Hey! Hold it!” he ordered to Canard in mid-shot. His twin brother immediately dropped his arms and scowled, gliding behind the net and around Wildwing.
“What! I was in the slot!”
“Did you guys see Dive leave?” he asked urgently and skated out of his crease.
“He disappeared again?” Duke inquired incredulously.
“He was here two minutes ago,” Tanya informed.
Wildwing’s face scrunched, and his blocker hand curled into his fist. “That’s it. I’m getting to the bottom of this.” He skated furiously off the ice.
Slamming open the door to the locker room, he stormed inside, the ducks directly behind him. A feeling of horrified confusion swarmed in his stomach as he spotted Nosedive’s tee shirt, boots, and socks on the floor. The sound of the shower only added to his apprehension. “What…is going on here?”
A macabre, harrowing howl cut through the air!
“Dive!” Wildwing tore open the showers’ door—and froze.
A breathless gasp escaped his beak at the grisly sight that greeted him.
Crumpled under the shower, water cascading over his bare back, jeans unzipped and pulled down, Nosedive pressed his forehead against the wet floor, tears streaming from his clamped eyes, mixing with the water from the shower. His sodden, blonde hair stuck to the cheeks of his clenched face, while his fists laid helplessly against the floor. A fine shivering overtook the teen’s partly emaciated body. A strained whine slipped through his tightened beak.
“Dive…” Wildwing whispered. He switched out of his hockey equipment and into normal clothes, then crept along the wall until he reached the shower. Kneeling down at his brother’s side, he took in everything that was occurring and flinched under the sudden ice cold water that pelted his face and shirt.
“Wha…What’s wrong?” He reached out with a trembling hand, only to halt a few inches from actually touching his brother’s shoulder. He didn’t know what was going on, and he sure as hell didn’t want to make it worse.
All his wariness fled when reticently, Nosedive raised his head and met Wildwing’s eyes.
“Make it stop…” he implored. Vulnerable, scared, desperate eyes conveyed his anguish, begging the older brother for some kind, any kind, of reprieve. Suddenly, a flash of desperation flickered in his face, and he collapsed against the floor again, his head lowering to his chest, his body shuddering in waves of unfathomable agony. “Make it stop…please…”
Clutching Nosedive’s shoulder, Wildwing drew his shivering and sobbing brother into his arms, trailing his fingers tenderly through the teen’s damp hair. His baby brother clutched the sides of his shirt insistently as the water continued to gush over his body and Wildwing’s.
“It won’t stop…” he repeated over and over, broken. “Please...make it stop, Wildwing…”
His own tears trickled down his face. “I wish I could, kiddo…” Wildwing murmured helplessly. “I’d do anything…”
Nosedive went rigid suddenly, as the pain became unbearable. Another bloodcurdling scream burst his beak, the sound tearing at Wildwing’s chest. He clasped Nosedive tightly and visually looked over him for any sign as to what caused him so much—
He stiffened. His eyes hardened. His eyesight drifted downward, forlornly laying upon his brother’s lower back.
The Stigma.
Wildwing detached one hand from his brother’s body and pressed his palm against Nosedive’s back to rub the area—
A hiss escaped his beak, and he snatched his hand back, a burning sensation still lingering under his feathers. The Stigma was smoldering, despite the continuous ice water cascading over the mark. There was no stopping it. It was stained there, a taint never to be removed, but he couldn’t just sit there when his brother was in agony!
Wildwing scowled, disgusted. He felt it—He was powerless to help his brother. Hopeless! Dragaunus was right; he knew how it felt. What could he possibly do to help his brother? He couldn’t even touch the damn thing, let alone rub it. He would switch places with Nosedive in a heartbeat if he could.
Holding his brother tightly against his body, embracing him, slowly rocking back and forth under the showerhead, Wildwing murmured that it would pass and prayed silently to the Stars it would.
It didn’t.
Nosedive continued to shudder, cry, and scream, as the pain ravaged his body mercilessly. And all Wildwing could do was watch.
Abruptly, as the teen buried his tearstained face into Wildwing’s chest, Drake One’s alarm pierced the air.
None of the ducks moved. They couldn’t, wouldn’t leave their youngest teammate in this state.
To their surprise, Wildwing tossed Canard the Mask and directed weakly, “Go.”
Canard blinked at the ancient artifact in his hands, then gazed over at Wildwing. “But—”
“I’m needed here,” he said dismally, reaffirming his hold on his brother, as Nosedive tensed again. He ducked his chin, resting his wet beak on the top of Nosedive’s soaked hair. “Go.”
Staring at the trembling and crying form of Nosedive—He was in so much pain—Canard couldn’t help but wonder if the kid had been like this every single time they left to save the world. Alone, screaming and writhing in pain without any reprieve—Canard felt his heart tighten and resigned lowly, “Let’s go.”
The ducks filed out from the shower—all but Duke, who stared, eyes wide and filled with angst. Canard grasped the older duck by the arm and whispered in his ear, “There’s nothing you can do now. Let’s give them some privacy. Come on.”
Duke glared at Canard, and for the first time, Canard realized something hidden in Duke’s eyes. It was gone a moment later when Duke broke eye contact and nodded, heading out the door.
As the ducks somberly entered the elevator, Canard couldn’t help but wince and collapse, grief-stricken, against the wall when another morbid scream resounded from the showers.
*^*^*
“Hey, big guy,” Chameleon said unsurely, as he watched another piece of rock break off from the mountain and smash into the sandy desert, “it’s not like we’re going to find the chip that way.” He formed into John Wayne. “Settle on down there, boy.”
Siege aimed the huge blaster on his chest at the Chameleon, and the little lizard shifted back into his original form, slinking away nervously. “Now, hey there, Siege, no need to get in touch with your bloodthirsty side.”
“Then shut up, you dolt! I’m only making it look like we’re searching for this thing. How else are we going to get Wildwing to find that chip?” Siege scowled and reaffirmed his grip on the blaster. “At least we get to make pointless destruction!” He laughed haughtily and blasted another side of the mountain. He thoroughly enjoyed his job.
Chameleon shook his head. Why couldn’t he get any of the good jobs? Well, there was that one time he got to pound the sanies while he was morphed as Wildwing. Since then, though…man, he liked it when the kid was around. He wasn’t the lowest on the pole, then.
He cocked his head up when Wraith stiffened suddenly, his eyes narrowed ominously. “The boy isn’t with them,” he reported, obviously disappointed.
“So?” Siege replied dryly, blasting another section of the mountain. “As long as they have the Mask, what do we care about that kid?”
Wraith didn’t answer; he only turned and looked up in the sky as a small, white object neared them. Suddenly, he raised his hands, magically creating a wall of rock in front of them. A blast of blue firepower burned from the Aerowing’s front. The plane rocked overhead, only a few feet above the ground, blowing up sand and dirt. Chameleon suddenly wished he would have been assigned a different job—or maybe Lord Dragaunus should have decided to take over a different world, preferably some planet without sand.
As soon as the thought ran through his head, he dusted the sand from his eyes and shifted into Jackie Chan. By the time he turned to the ducks, he was caught off-guard at the leg coming toward him. Ducking, he lunged to punch at the duck called Mallory, but she was too quick, pivoting on her left leg and delivering a kick to his head. He didn’t know what happened until his back collided with something hard, which he realized as the mountain. With his head pounding unbearably, he realized vaguely he had been twenty feet from the mountainside.
*^*^*
Duke couldn’t contain his anger.
Scrutinizing Siege through narrowed his eyes, he dove into a forward roll as the lizard fired his chest blaster. He didn’t even heed as his blood boiled. He lunged instantly, slicing through the chest blaster and not even giving a mere thought for the lizard’s wellbeing. So what if he nicked the Saurian? After seeing the kid like that, it really didn’t matter what he did to the lizards. They deserved it. He saw Nosedive after receiving the damned thing the first time, and he couldn’t, wouldn’t hold back. He had never killed another being before, though he had been sorely tempted, but now, he wasn’t so sure he couldn’t.
A furious growl escaped from Siege’s scaly mouth, and he charged at Duke at full speed. Smirking dangerously, the former thief moved to the left, avoiding a punch, then ducked, hitting Siege directly in the kidney. With a backhand, he forced Siege back before kicking the huge Saurian in the stomach. Even before he could attack the lizard again—which he really wanted to do with his blade— a force slammed into Siege’s side, knocking the huge lizard to the ground. The Chameleon shifted back into himself as he squirmed on top of Siege. Duke tilted his head to Mallory jogging up to his side. Turning to help the others with Wraith, they needn’t worry.
Canard ducked a fireball made by Wraith, only for Tanya to fire a puck boa at the mage. It caught at Wraith’s feet then circled about the bony mage, entrapping him. Grin grasped him by the shoulder and tossed him effortlessly into the other two Saurians.
“What are ya after?” Duke demanded heatedly, clutching his sword. If he could sink his blade into one of them—just one, he would feel better. Was that so much to ask?
Siege laughed. “Where’s your leader?” His voice was tinged with knowledge.
“You have two seconds, Siege,” Canard, Mask upon face, aimed his launcher into the burly Saurian’s face, “or else I’ll pull the trigger. Now, what’s out here?”
“Your annihilation,” was all Wraith spoke before the Saurians faded from sight.
Duke lunged for them, honed blade activated to strike, but he only swiped through thin air.
“We have got to remember their teleporters!” Mallory bellowed, holstering her puck launcher with a sigh.
Duke deactivated his weapon, but didn’t place it on his shoulder. He fumed internally, but kept his face expressionless. Instead, jaw tightened, muscle rigid, he walked away from the group and began to survey the area where the Saurians had occupied. He bent his knees and securitized the rocks. His hands coursed the burnt edges.
“Excavating,” a voice behind him realized. He peered over his shoulder to see Tanya. She smiled down at him and repeated, “The Saurians were excavating, but… why?”
Dusting off his hands and straightening his legs, Duke shook his head. “That’s the million dollar question, sweetheart.”
Canard hit the sides of the Mask. “Why don’t we find out?” His eyes narrowed upon the mountain to the east of them, inspecting it closely. “There’s something in there. A spaceship of sorts.” He dropped his hands to his side and thumbed the rock. “Grin, will you do the honors?”
The monolithic duck bowed slightly and strode over to the mountain. Grouching down and grabbing hold of the mountain, he murmured determinedly, “Mind over matter.”
With a strained groan, Grin heaved upward with all his strength. His muscles shook as he continued to haul, while his face contorted in a painful grimace. Cracks slowly crawled up the mountain; the rocks slid off-balance from their rearrangement.
Grin moved away from the mountain
as the rocks crumpled and slammed to the ground, kicking up dirt and sand. Once
the dust cleared, embedded in the mountainside was a pillared-building. Two
large constructors held up the pointed roof, while a huge entranceway allowed
them access. Eloquent carvings of lines and pictures—people and the
elements—twirled about the pillars and decorated the rock walls that lead into
the mountain.
“It’s…a temple,” Mallory breathed.
“The spacecraft must have landed on Earth centuries ago,” Canard elaborated as he walked into the temple, the ducks a few steps behind him. “The humans must have built a temple around it and worshiped it.”
“Or maybe the humans just decided to build a garage for it,” Duke commented dryly as they halted in front of a sleek, silver spaceship. It wasn’t big by any means, only fifty feet tip to end. The nose stretched from about mid-ship to twenty feet in front of the cockpit, signaling its rather large engine. Nanotechnology obviously hadn’t been developed by the time the speeder had been created. The width of the ship was approximately ten feet. Only about five people could have fit in the ship, and even that amount would definitely had pressed the air tanks. The speeder probably was used for transportation of a diplomat for nearby conferences.
“Anyone anxious to see what’s inside?” Canard offered cheerfully. When no one spoke up, the temporary leader sighed heavily. “Well, I guess it’s my job. Where’s my brother when I need him?” As soon as the words flew out of his beak, he clamped it shut and reluctantly headed toward the ship’s extended stairs. By the accumulated dust on them, it was a fair shot to say no one had been on the ship for a while.
Duke crossed his arms but kept an eye on his sword, just in case. Only Stars knew what was in these caverns. “Hey, where do you think the passengers went, eh? I wonder if they’re still on Earth or if their descendents are here.”
“Bite your tongue,” Tanya replied with a exasperated laugh. “That’s all we need.”
“Who says they’re not in here now?” Mallory interjected, her elbows taunt, her puck launcher pointing downward in her hands.
“Hey, guys?” Canard called from the spaceship’s doorway. In his hands was a silver, triangular disk, glowing a deep, alluring azure. “Any guesses?”
*^*^*
“An energy source of some sort,” Tanya conjectured as the team entered the elevator from the hanger. She turned the disk over in her hands, studied it, then turned it over again. The glow of the disk confused her, and she wouldn’t be satisfied until she knew everything there was to know about it.
Canard stifled a laugh as he watched her ruffle her hair and resituate her glasses on her beak. She looked so perplexed, and for a genius to be so confused, it was hilarious.
“Well, that would explain why Dragaunus wants it,” Mallory reasoned, leaning against the wall and crossing her arms. “The question is: for what?”
“I don’t know,” Tanya answered, frustrated. She still hadn’t figured it out, and Canard could hardly keep his laughter in at the look on her face.
“I wonder how Wing and the kid are doing,” Duke interrupted suddenly, snapping the team out of its kidding attitude. A look of worry and apprehension enveloped his face.
Canard studied him with a neutral expression, yet his mind was reeling. He was worried, of course. His brother’s little brother was suffering unendingly, but that was his family’s plight. Sure, the team had become close in the last few months, but…Duke was really concerned. Genuinely. That didn’t sit well with Canard. There was something behind that. There had to be.
Shaking his head, Canard sighed reservedly. “Kid’s tough. He survived Dragaunus’s torture twice. He’ll be okay.” I hope.
Duke scowled and hastened out of the elevator when it clinked to a stop. “I don’t know, Canard. I really don’t know.”
“What is there to know?” Canard followed him swiftly. “Dive’s a good kid, hell of a strong kid. He’ll persevere.”
Swinging around, Duke leveled Canard with a harsh glower. “Did you see him before? Did you see what that was like? No kid should ever go through that! Especially not…” His anger depreciated into a deep sigh. “Never mind. Forget it.”
“No, I won’t!” Canard gripped Duke’s shoulder and whirled the former thief around to him. “What the hell is up with you? Why do you care so much? It’s not like he’s your brother or something.”
“Yeah, something,” Duke muttered under his breath. He rubbed the back of his neck and met Canard’s gaze with hard eyes. “I don’t know if you noticed it, but we’re all each other has. We’re in this together now, and there’s no getting around that, Canard. And that kid, he’s everyone’s little brother now.”
Canard didn’t need to turn to see the looks of agreement on the ducks’ faces.
“I know that, but…Duke, the kid will okay.” He laid a hand on Duke’s shoulder and was shocked at the tension in the older man’s muscles.
“Who you trying to convince, Canard? Me or you?”
Canard smirked, then shrugged. “Both.”
“In the darkest night does the light of hope burn brightest,” Grin proclaimed in his gentle voice. He walked pass Drake One toward the door on the opposite side of the room. “We shall see what has happened, rather than adding to the negative karma by quarreling amongst friends.”
Mallory and Tanya stared at Duke and Canard before nodding to each other and following Grin. Canard hesitatingly started after them, afraid of what he’d ultimately find. He halted at the doorway, confused when he realized no one was behind him. Turning, he spied Duke, still on end in the middle of the Ready Room, arms crossed, face hard. He hadn’t moved.
“Duke?” Canard called softly, urging an answer.
Inhaling sharply, Duke closed his eyes solemnly. Canard observed him silently, watching as the older man seemed to have a battle with himself. Finally, exhaling resoundingly, Duke walked toward the Main Room, head ducked.
*^*^*
A solemn silence laden the Main Room, the only sound a faint, barely audible humming.
Sitting on the couch in a dry shirt and jeans, Wildwing noticed the ducks in the doorway the moment they entered the room. He waved them in, then put a finger to his beak, for Nosedive was sprawled chest-down across the couch. His head rested on his big brother’s lap, and he breathed evenly in his sleep. The back of his shirt was pulled upward to his armpits, while his jeans were unzipped and tugged down to reveal his taint. He moaned faintly and painfully in his sleep from the prolonged soreness that remained. Methodically, Wildwing dragged his fingers through Nosedive’s long hair, humming a rock song from Puckworld from before the invasion. It was the same song that lingered on Nosedive’s beak every so often. With his other hand, Wildwing pressed an ice pack against Nosedive’s back.
As the team filtered into the room, Nosedive raised his head, coughed, and rested it on the other cheek before settling down again. His face, now free from his golden locks and facing the team, was still tinged pink from crying, clenched and grief-stricken. Wildwing snapped his fingers at Canard, grabbing his twin brother’s attention, then pointing to the cooler on the coffee table.
Canard furled an eyebrow but opened the cooler anyway. He nodded as he saw the extra ice packs, swapping his brother’s warm one for a cold one. Wildwing once more pressed it against his brother’s back. Looking down at Nosedive with downcast eyes, he fought the tears threatening to trickle from his shaking eyes. He continued to trail his fingers warmly through Nosedive’s hair but choked back the sobs reverberating from his beak.
Canard strode around the coffee table and grabbed his brother’s stroking hand. “You can’t do this, not here,” he emphasized in a whispered command. He nodded to Grin, drawing the burly duck to them. Silently instructing Grin to ease Nosedive off Wildwing, Canard lugged his brother off the couch and pushed him into the kitchen.
Wildwing clutched the counter, his back to the rest of the ducks as they spilled into the room. “Is Dive still sleeping?” he asked firmly.
Mallory smirked. “Like a hatchling.”
He shook his head in disbelief, concentrating forlornly on the sink. “He’s just a kid,” Wildwing claimed, his fingers curling slowly into balls. “He can’t even drink yet! He shouldn’t have to deal with this. Dragaunus should have come after me, not him.”
Canard walked up to his brother and squeezed his shoulder. “Wildwing, it’s not your fault. There was nothing you could have done.”
“There’s nothing I can do!” Wildwing exploded, turning on his heel and scowling darkly at his twin brother. “I can’t remove it! I can’t take the pain away from him! I can’t switch places with him! I can’t go back in time and stop Dragaunus from ever putting it there!” He collapsed against the sink, dropping his head to his chest, frustrated tears streaking down his face. “Dragaunus is right. I’m helpless to save him.”
Canard drew his brother into a tight embrace.
“You’re wrong, Wildwing.”
Pulling out his brother’s hug, the distraught elder brother leveled with Duke.
“There is something,” Duke spoke slowly. He grimaced, gave his head a quick, resolute shake, and confessed, “My sister was…She was Marked, too, and Dragaunus went after her son to get at her. My nephew was young,” he recalled in a somber voice, pain evident, “real young. He had no chance of escaping, and the Saurians took advantage of him. They stained him with a Stigma and bound him for life.”
“There an upside to this, L’Orange?” Mallory threatened, but Duke excused the harshness of her voice.
“My sister was friends with this Puckworlder mage—”
Tanya burst with an incredulous gasp, “Magic hasn’t been practiced on Puckworld since the first invasion!”
“I said she was a Puckworlder, not that she had lived on Puckworld,” Duke corrected with scowl, then let out an exasperated exhale. “Look, the mage was able to cover up the Stigma with...spells and stuff. The effects of the Stigma were blocked, and even the taint itself was masked. If we could do this to Nosedive, he’d still be bound to Dragaunus, but…” He shrugged. “At least he wouldn’t be in pain, and Draggy wouldn’t know where he is if he ever took off the necklace.”
“So…” Wildwing said slowly, processing the information just thrown at him, “you’re saying there’s a way to cut Dragaunus’s influence from Nosedive.”
“…Yeah.”
“How?”
“That’s the clincher,” Duke confided brokenheartedly. “I don’t know. I just know it can be done.”
“What about this mage?” Canard asked. “How can we find her?”
“I don’t know if she’s even alive.”
“What do you mean, if she’s still alive?” Mallory inquired brusquely. “The invasion only came last year.”
“My nephew was stained…early.” He revealed equally as curt. “Kendra could be anywhere now, most likely Dimensional Limbo.”
“Great, another dead end,” Wildwing muttered. Pushing himself up from the sink, he flipped the hair from his eyes. “So…how were the Saurians? Did they miss me?”
Canard chuckled. “Yeah. Siege actually asked about you. I told him you were at a barbeque.”
“Wouldn’t have been my choice of places, especially if Saurians are present.”
“Actually, we found this,” Tanya reached in her pocket and produced the glowing disk. “Whatever it is, the Saurians seem to want it—”
A strangled cry!
*Thunk!*
*CRASH!*
Wildwing traded a quick, startled glare with his brother before whirling and running into the Main Room.
Breathing erratically, hand clamped his shirt over his chest, his eyes vacant and unseeing, Nosedive gulped as he now sat on the floor. Next to him was the cooler, cubes of ice and ice packs scatter across the floor and melting.
His breathing slowing to a pant, the teen leaned his elbows on his knees and dropped his head into his hands, never seeing the ducks before him.
“Dive?” Wildwing advanced slowly, unthreateningly.
The teen’s eyes fluttered open with a rush of energy, and he focused upon his brother approaching him. He offered a small, tired smile. “Hey, big bro. Didn’t see you…” He looked beyond Wildwing and blushed, embarrassed. “…or anyone else for that matter.”
“You okay, kiddo? What happened?”
Nosedive accepted the offered hand and was hauled to his feet. He hissed suddenly and rubbed his shoulder. “I guess I must have woken up kinda fast and… uh…rolled off the couch.” His smooth forehead slowly crinkled at the flushed look from Tanya and the smirk on Mallory’s face. Following their glares down to his—
“Stars!” He whirled, his back facing the team, as he zippered up his jeans. When he once more turned to the group, his face was a bright, cherry red. “You could have just told me, y’know?”
Wildwing shook his head and stifled a snort. “It sounded like you had a phantasm, baby bro.”
His face blushed a deeper, violet color. A nervous laugh escaped Nosedive’s beak, and he collapsed to the couch, leaning back and propping his feet up on the coffee table. “So what else is new?”
“Want to talk about it?” Wildwing suggested, taking a seat next to Nosedive.
“Not really, but thanks anyway.”
“It helps to talk these things out, kid,” Duke reprimanded. He leaned on the back of recliner and offered the teen an assuring grin.
Nosedive rolled his eyes. “Do I have to tell you people everything?”
“You’re seventeen, the youngest, and have no chance of escaping,” Canard declared as he came around the back of the couch. Slapping Nosedive on the leg, he plopped down on the other side of the teen. “That means we get to pick on you the most. Start spilling.”
A furious growl led to a strained sigh. “I told you guys I get phantasms from when I was kid and my foster parents were killed.”
Tanya nodded. “When the hands—”
“—Yeah!” he cut her off tersely and rested his head back on the spine of the couch. “Same deal here. I just…get them some times. There’s no trigger or anything. They just come, and I can’t stop them! I’m seventeen, for Stars’ sake. This happened when I was four! I shouldn’t act like such a hatchling!”
“Things happen in our lives we don’t get over, Dive,” Wildwing reminded plaintively. “It has nothing to do with age.”
“No one else has this problem. You don’t have this problem.”
“I never said that,” Wildwing objected.
Nosedive caught his gaze and sent him a befuddled look. “You get phantasms?”
Wildwing nodded a little sadly and leaned back on the couch to be even with Nosedive. “Yeah, kiddo. I don’t like to talk about them much. I guess we’re similar like that, but…I told you I saw our grandfather killed in front of us, and I met Dragaunus when I was little. I…I still get nightmares about that, and I’m fighting him now. At least you don’t have to see the person who did that to you every day.”
“Huh.” Nosedive blinked, taken back.
“Feel better?”
Nosedive smiled slightly. “Yeah, a little.”
Wildwing whisked Nosedive’s bangs about his forehead and smirked at the mock-annoyed look on his little brother’s face. “Good. Then you get to clean up the floor.”
“What? Who are you to boss me around? You’re not my dad.”
“No, but I am your older brother, and Canard is technically two months older than me. So I can’t make him do it.”
Canard smiled widely. “Ha!”
Nosedive groaned and shimmed to the end of the couch when his attention was stolen by a bright blue shimmering. His eyesight ricocheted to Tanya’s hand, where a triangular disk radiated. “Hey, you found the Proteus Chip.”
“You know what this is?” Tanya asked, astonished.
Nosedive shrugged. “Sure. Lord Dragaunus’s been after that doohickey for a while. It’s some kind of power source for that ray he’s trying to construct.” With that, the teen reached for the napkins on the table and began to wipe up the ice and water that had spread across the metal floor. He halted, feeling six pairs of eyes poring over him, and looked up from his crouching position to meet their bewildered stares.
“What?”
“You know Dragaunus’s plan?” Duke questioned in an incredulous voice.
“Just the general aspects,” Nosedive replied flippantly and swabbed up the remaining liquid on the floor. “He’s trying to build this ray to melt the world’s capitals into mush. He feels once he demonstrates his power, the countries will just bow down to his feet. Of course, for a ray that powerful,” Nosedive dropped some ice cubes into the righted cooler and wiped his hands off on his jeans, “he’ll need a power source with a tons of energy. Hence, the Proteus Chip.”
“And that’s why he wanted the steel,” Tanya added starkly. “To build the ray’s cannon!”
“Give the genius a gold star,” Nosedive commented. “Lord Dragaunus was going to start building the ray when he got the steel, but I couldn’t let him, so…that’s why I brought the steel here.”
“I’m sure Dragaunus loved finding out it was gone,” Wildwing chuckled.
“Oh, Lord Dragaunus was thrilled,” Nosedive replied sharply, his hoarse voice a withering indication of what had occurred.
Wildwing immediately wished he could take back his comment, and when he opened his beak to apologize, Mallory cut him off.
“Stop that.”
Nosedive cocked his head, gazing at her sideways. “Come again?”
“Stop calling him ‘Lord Dragaunus.’ It’s just wrong, and it grates on me every time you do it. So…stop.”
Blinking at the fierceness of her words, Nosedive looked away, his bangs brushing over his eyes. “Sorry. I didn’t…I mean, I knew I was calling him that; it’s just…I mean, he is my…I…” He growled at his inarticulateness and kicked over his cooler. Fortunately, the top stayed on. “I don’t like doing it, just so you know. It’s just every time I didn’t call him that, I got hit. So, I guess after awhile I started doing it just to give them one less reason to hit me.”
“I know, and it’s not just that I don’t like it. It’s that you don’t have to say it here,” she affirmed in consternation.
Nosedive smiled tentatively at her. “I know. It’s just going to take sometime getting used to.”
“Then start by not saying it, okay?”
“Whatever.” He shrugged tactfully as he bent over and grabbed the cooler. When he stood upright, he was caught off guard by the rough hand that grabbed his jeans’ waistband. He yelped when he was propelled back to the couch. “What gives?”
“Say it,” Wildwing demanded.
“What? Are you nuts? You’re not seriously telling me—”
“You’re not going back, so say it. Call him ‘Dragaunus’ or ‘Draggy’ or ‘Lizard Lips’ or something without respect. ”
Nosedive eyed Wildwing warily. “Why? What does it matter what I call my—him?”
“Because you still believe you’re a slave, and you’re not. You’re afraid that if you do go back and get used to calling him something else, you’re going to get hit.”
An exasperated sigh. “You’re insane.”
Wildwing stared directly into his brother’s eyes. “I’m right.”
Defiantly, Nosedive looked away. His head then fell abashedly. “I’m a slave, whether I’m here or there. You can deny it all you want, but as long as I have this thing on my back, he will be my—”
Wildwing clasped his little brother’s beak shut and forcefully turned Nosedive toward him. “Stop. Mallory’s right. You will not call him that. He is not your lord.”
Held silent, Nosedive just glared unkindly at his brother.
“But you don’t believe me.”
Piercing blue eyes dulled to ice, downcast.
“How can I get you to believe anything different?” pleaded Wildwing helplessly, urgently. He released Nosedive’s beak. “Tell me what can I do.”
“There’s nothing to do, Wildwing. It’s just so.”
“No, it’s not, Dive! He doesn’t—”
“You saw my back!” Nosedive countered, his face scrunched in hopeless fury. “You saw what happened to me in the shower!”
Wildwing took in a reinforcing breath. “Did that happen every time we fought Dragaunus?”
Reluctantly, Nosedive nodded.
“I don’t like seeing you that, kiddo,” he admitted somberly.
Letting out a dry chuckle, the teen crossed his arms and leaned back on the couch. “Well, we agree on something.”
“You combat everything else, Nosedive,” the older brother stressed, his voice calm and solacing. “You fight me, your father, the team, every other Saurian. Through your whole life, you battled through unfathomable odds when others would have surrendered. Why now? Why him?”
A defeated, truthful confession, “Because he broke me.”
Wildwing draped his arm around Nosedive and pulled the teen tightly to him. “Well, then, I guess I’m just going to have to fix you.”
*^*^*
A punch, a kick, a duck, retaliation with a backhand, a flip, his feet smacked into his enemy with his momentum, then landing on his boots and pivoting, a kick delivered directly into the enemy’s stomach—
If only his enemy wasn’t a punching bag and was a huge, fire-red, dictatorial, hatchling-beating sadist.
Duke leaned his entire weight on his hands, firmly placed on his knees. Sweat dribbled down the sides of his face from his forehead, and spurts of air burst from his beak. Gradually, his hands formed fists as anger once more surged through his veins, and he scowled. It should never have happened. He shouldn’t have joined Wildwing’s team. He knew it was wrong. Nosedive needed him more. The kid should never have been Harper’s to begin with. He should have accepted his duty years ago and gotten the kid out of the watchful eyes of the Saurians. Wildwing was in no danger. He was stupid to want to know Wildwing. That could have come later, after Nosedive was safe. He was stupid! Why didn’t he protect Nosedive?
With a strangled cry, he lurched at the punching bag, once more taking out his anger on it like it was the cause of his strife. He kicked, punched, attacked the bag mercilessly. His thoughts whirled unbound from the first time he held Nosedive until now, realizing the reasons he thought were right for not accepting his duty were fraudulent, wrong and selfish. Even if it meant a life of fake names and lost identities, he could have spared the kid. He should have.
Lithe footstep behind him, at least ten feet away…
“Hey there, Outlaw. Taking it out a little hard, aren’t you?”
He whirled and attacked the owner of the voice. His punch was easily defended, as he half-heartedly knew it would be, and the person gripped his forearm. Thrown over a shoulder, he slammed full force into the mat, pain writhing through his back. He deserved more that that. He deserved a fate worse than Nosedive’s.
“What the hell is the matter with you?” Mallory bellowed, looking down at him furiously.
Her red hair was blurred in his vision, encompassing her entire face. Sweat seeped into his eyes, causing him to squeeze shut his eyes. Duke, squirming in pain on the ground, winced and let his wrapped hands fall to the ground.
A worried prompt, “Duke?”
He couldn’t face her.
“Duke, what’s wrong?”
As the pain subsided—much quicker than Nosedive’s did—Duke pulled himself rigidly into a sitting position. Laying an elbow on his knee, Duke wiped his face with the front of his tank-top. He didn’t even register Mallory until she sat down in front of him, an anxious expression upon her face.
“Duke, please. Tell me what it is.”
He shook his head, hanging it in shame. “Mal, you can keep a secret, right?”
“I’ve been known to keep one or two. Why? What is it?”
Fighting back the tears that rose in his eyes, he glared up at her. “No matter how bad it is or how much you want to, if I tell you this, you can’t tell Wildwing or—Stars forbid—Nosedive. You can’t. It’ll change everything.”
She grasped his free hand. “Duke, you’re scaring me.”
“You have to promise first, sweetheart.”
Mallory nodded firmly. “…Okay.”
*^*^*
Nosedive sat at Drake One, running his hands numbly on the controls. He had finally convinced Wildwing he would be okay for the rest of night, that never once did he get an attack twice in one day, and that his older brother could go on patrol with the team without fear. The team was hesitant as well, and ever since their talk in the Main Room, there had been uneasiness, especially with Duke and Mallory. Duke had been distant, cold almost, while Mallory came over to him before leaving and gave him a hug. It was weird, unexpected, and naturally, freaked him out. Even though she was warmer than she wanted people to think, never had she given him any affection without a stimulus. He shrugged it off now, but still, it was weird.
He sat back in his chair with a huff. He was bored out of his mind. Sure, he could go up to the arena and skate, but he really wanted to play hockey. That was not going to happen with everyone out. Phil was probably in his office, faxing papers and trying to make more money. While he could skate, Wildwing he wasn’t in the net. Even Canard or Grin made better goalies. However, *Sigh!* they were gone, too.
Alone. All alone. Just he and the silence of the Pond. Wednesday
night, nothing on the tube. Not even a hockey game on, since the ducks
didn’t OLN. Whose bright idea was that? ESPN would have been such a better
carrier, and since Nosedive had heard of something called a “lockout,” the one
thing the NHL needed was exposure. Sure, putting hockey on some channel only
people in
He jumped suddenly as the silence was shattered by the ringing of the phone. He picked up the receiver immediately. Finally, something to do! Even if it was a telemarketer, at least he could tease the guy for ten minutes into thinking he was going to buy something, despite the fact he didn’t even have a credit card.
“Thanks for calling the Mighty Ducks. If you’re in trouble, we’ll be there on the double.”
Silence.
“Yo! At least give me some heavy breathing here. I’m dying for anything!”
A malicious cackle sent shivers through out Nosedive’s frame. The words that followed were as unwelcome as Lord Dragaunus’s fist.
“Roast duck.”
*^*^*
Wildwing couldn’t help but smile as he ducked a bullet and delivered an uppercut to the thief in front of him. A jewelry heist—not a life threatening caper, but still, Wildwing took it. Now that Nosedive was home and safe, he actually enjoyed his job as leader of the Mighty Ducks and, at times like this, giving the villainous part of society its due. He was lucky, Wildwing mused as the thief’s gun flew from his hands. He got to see justice, while others went their whole lives not knowing if evil ever received punishment. With a roundhouse kick, Wildwing smashed the thief into the nearby wall. The human slid the floor, unconscious.
Wildwing whirled to take a headcount and smirked at his team. Grin stood over a rather large thief, dressed completely in the clichéd black, while Canard and Tanya knelt by the owner, checking his wounds and offering reassurances. Not too far away, Duke leaned over one of the glass cases and spied the contents inside. Not even an inkling of distrust pinched Wildwing, as he simply turned to Mallory. He was startled to find himself on the opposite end of an amused glare.
“What?”
Mallory shrugged and smiled guardedly. “Nothing.”
“Are you ticked I didn’t let you take down the guy?”
With a stifled chuckle, she cocked her head to the side. “I don’t see it.”
Wildwing furled an eyebrow. “See what?”
A loud bang crashed through the air as the already cracked and broken door slammed against the side of the store’s wall. Turning, Wildwing eyed Captain Klegghorn, gun pointed toward the ground. The older human just shook his head and directed his partner to get a report from the car. He then strode up to Wildwing.
“I see you already have this wrapped up. Should we deputize you and your team now or later?” He holstered his weapon in his trench coat.
“I’m not one for public spectacles.”
“Says the professional hockey player,” Klegghorn gripped. “Ever think of just calling the proper authorities? Vigilantism is against the law.”
“Aw, but where’s the fun in that?” Duke interjected, slapping Wildwing on the shoulder. A fleeting smile crossed his beak, too bright and boisterous to be natural.
“It will be fun for me if one day I decide to bust you for it,” Klegghorn snapped before sighing.
“As long as we get out before Friday. We’re playing the Sharks, and I want to cream them,” Mallory retorted.
“I thought we were boycotting because the league won’t let the kid play,” Duke interrupted.
Klegghorn grunted, clearing his throat. “Speaking of which, how’s the kid? Still in one piece?”
“He’s…dealing,” Wildwing managed to say.
“So, when am I going to meet him? If he’s going to join you birds soon on these raids, I should at least make sure he’s not going to point that puck blaster thing at me.”
“He’s…not.” The sheer thought made Wildwing shudder. There was no way he was going to actually put Nosedive in the line of fire, any more so than he was already.”
Klegghorn’s face laxed. “Oh. Don’t want to break the law through delinquency of a minor, eh?”
“The situation’s complicated, Captain,” he tried to smooth over the tension. He was angry at Klegghorn but more with himself. His fuse seemed to be getting shorter and shorter. “Dragaunus is already after him. I don’t want to put him in the spotlight and invite Dragaunus to—” He was cut off by the sound of the Drake One’s blaring alarm.
He flipped open his comm. His breath caught in his throat with an abrupt gag. His heart skipped a beat.
“The safe’s alarm has been triggered,” he informed sharply.
Nosedive…
*^*^*
The Migrator screeched to a halt inside the hanger. Its stairs immediately clunked to the ground, and the ducks rushed out, launchers pulled, sword activated, muscles ready to tear. Tanya quickly scanned the Pond with her omnitool, while Wildwing hit the sides of his Mask, scanning frantically. No Saurian signatures. No Puckworlder signatures. Nothing.
Not a bad sign. Not a good sign. Nosedive could still be in the Pond. If he was wearing his necklace—which he should be, Wildwing thought fervently—then there was a good chance he was still there.
When Tanya reported the same findings, Wildwing decided to check room for room without splitting up. While it might find Nosedive faster, he couldn’t risk losing his team to whatever booby-traps the Saurians could have planted.
A stabbing feeling in his gut plagued him as he waited anxiously for the elevator to stop at the Ready Room. Nosedive had to be here. He couldn’t be gone. He just couldn’t be, and that was that. Wildwing promised his brother everything would be alright. Nosedive wasn’t going back to that torture. Please, Stars, don’t let me have lied to him.
Taking a deep, collecting breath, Wildwing nodded to his team. The elevator came to an abrupt stop with a jolt, and with a swoosh, the doors opened.
Wildwing jumped into the room first. He was the only one with armor, the leader, and because he was eager to find his brother—hopefully alive and in one piece.
Wildwing gasped breathlessly as his eyes pored over the scene in front of him.
A gapping hole had been blown out of the floor, leaving shards of metal sticking up along the edge of the hole. It looked like the hole had been blown from the ground up. The safe, which previously had been occupied by the Proteus Chip, was probably empty.
But that was all irrelevant and the farthest thing from his mind. His wide eyes ricocheted toward his brother—his unmoving, lifeless brother, slumped in Drake One’s chair, head tilted back onto the headrest, hair falling and covering the back of the chair. He was deathly still.
Wildwing would have screamed, shouted, and shook the teen to make him come to life if his feet had not been as heavy as lead and his stiff, demoralized body wasn’t frozen in place.
Suddenly, with a strained groan, the teen leaned forward, his head falling to his hand. He massaged his forehead and hissed softly as if in tremendous pain.
And Wildwing heaved a great sigh of relief, his body visually losing tension.
“Nosedive!” he yelled, and the teen’s head shot up instantly, much to his mortification. Circling one of his eyes was a dark, grisly contusion that seeped back to his bloodshot cornea.
“I—I’m so sorry!” he sputtered in a rasped voice. “I couldn’t s—stop them! T—They—”
“Shhh…” Wildwing hushed him immediately, kneeling down at his brother’s side. He brushed back the bangs that obscured Nosedive’s face and grimaced at the contusion. “It’s fine. It doesn’t matter. We’ll get it back. As long as you’re okay.”
“What happened, kid?” Canard seethed, staring at the abyss in the middle of the platform.
Nosedive sighed and shook his head. He winced again, lightly touching his forehead. Wildwing appealed toward Tanya, who apparently understood his silent command. Nodding once, she immediately headed off toward the infirmary.
“Phil was at the door, and he said the keypad wasn’t working,” the distraught teen struggled through his clouded eyes.
“It should have been,” Mallory muttered.
“Yeah, found that out. Once I unlocked the doors, the Saurians infiltrated the place. Luckily you guys came back when you did. They had just found the chip, and they were going to take me back with them, but they couldn’t teleport while the shields were up. So they left me here, figuring they couldn’t haul me up to the main level and fight you guys off at the same time if they ran into you.” He smiled painfully but gratefully when Tanya returned with two pills and a glass of water.
“We have to get that chip back,” Canard declared suddenly, smacking the console of Drake One. When Nosedive flinched at the clamor, Canard quickly reclaimed his hand. “They can get the steel from anywhere, and as long as they don’t trip an alarm, we wouldn’t know it. It’s that chip that gets Dragaunus the ray.”
“How do you suppose we find them?” Mallory countered, crossing her arms. “They could be anywhere.”
Nosedive fidgeted as Tanya prodded the side of his eye, checking for broken bones. He tried to pull away, but Tanya was persistent and ushered a quick command for him to stay put. “Sorry I can’t be more help. I never walked out of the Raptor. Anytime I left, I always teleported.”
“We just have to draw them out; that’s all,” Canard said as an afterthought.
“With what, bro?” Wildwing asked skeptically, standing and facing the team. “What could we have that Ol’ Lizard Lips wants?”
Complete silence engulfed the room after his question, as five pairs of eyes landed on the person to Wildwing’s left. The object of their attention pulled away from Tanya’s grip, returning a bewildered expression. Suddenly, he shook his head in denial and rose abruptly, despite Tanya’s sputtered protest. He backpedaled, as Canard nodded, satisfied.
Wildwing
immediately stepped in front of his little brother and faced his twin. “No! No
way! You’re not giving Dive to the Saurians!”
“Who said anything about
giving him to them?” Canard feigned innocence. “I’m just saying we use him to
get the Saurians to come out of their hole.”
“Have you lost it? There is no way we’re using my little brother as bait, Canard! No!”
“But what else do we have that the Saurians want, Wing? He’s the only thing that can get us even near those lizards!”
Nosedive cringed at the world “thing” and ignored Tanya’s worried glance aimed his way.
“Besides,” Canard continued in a less threatening voice, “we’ll be there to stop the Saurians from actually getting him, you know? No danger.”
“Just like at the mall or at the ski slopes?” Wildwing retaliated sarcastically. “Face it, Canard. We can’t protect him. They almost had him once tonight! I’m not going to give the Saurians a second chance.”
“Then get ready to see the camps and Resistance again, bro, because that’s we’re heading at this rate.”
Wildwing was silent for a long moment, his face rigid, unyielding. Canard was wrong. There had to be another way. There was always another way. They just had to figure it out.
But the decision was made for him two seconds later.
“Okay…” the meek voice from behind Wildwing conceded.
Wildwing
whirled, and Nosedive actually squirmed nervously under the harsh glare. “No.
I’m not going to let you—”
“Doesn’t seem like we have a
choice here, big bro,” Nosedive forced himself to say without cracking. To his
credit, he succeeded. “Canard’s right. Lor—Draggy
can’t keep the chip, and…he wants to reclaim me, so…”
“No!” Wildwing clasped his brother by the shoulders. “We can do something else, anything else.”
Nosedive met his brother’s gaze and shrugged awkwardly in his grasp. “There is nothing else, Wild.”
Wildwing knew it. Deep down in his heart, he knew this was the only way to stop to Dragaunus, and he hated himself for what he was going to do next.
Tussling his little brother’s hair, he sighed, defeated, and
resigned, “Tanya, get the armor. Canard, Duke, reconnoiter
Grin bowed, taking a seat on the floor and mediating.
*^*^*
Duke observed the teen sitting across from him. In the last seat of the Aerowing’s cockpit, Nosedive fidgeted with the cut-off gloves covering his hands. On his wrist was his new communicator, complete with automatic battle gear retrieval. Duke couldn’t help but smirk at the sight of the teen’s uniform, however. It was exact replica of Nosedive’s Resistance uniform from Puckworld, as Wildwing said, and it didn’t surprise the former thief at all. Nosedive wore the same color jumpsuit and boots as his older brother. Even the armor was the same, except it was sleeker, less bulky, more like the pads of a winger, not a goalie. About the collar of the teen’s uniform, Duke could make out the sparkle of the boy’s necklace tucked just underneath his armor.
The kid, to his credit, didn’t look too nervous. Sure, he seemed squeamish, and not too long ago, he had dashed into the bathroom in the back. While Duke tried to turn a deaf ear, as did everyone else, there was no way he couldn’t hear the retching. The teen returned a few minutes later, his face languid and haggard. He plopped down in the seat dismally and since then, hadn’t moved.
Pushing his stubborn locks out of his eyes, Nosedive sighed deeply and shifted in his seat, resting his arms on his thighs. His seatbelt wasn’t buckled, and no one had the heart to tell him to, even the safety-nut Wildwing. For all they knew, they were sending the kid to an early death.
Way to go, Duke, he chastised himself. Real chipper outlook there. He had to get more optimistic, even if it wasn’t the life he had grown accustom. He wouldn’t place doubt on this. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t let Nosedive die, and he sure as hell knew Wildwing wasn’t going to let that happen, either.
Hunched over in his seat, Nosedive glanced up at Duke briefly from under his bedraggled bangs. His eyes were more than slightly haunted, conveying all the horrors he had faced in his young life. And now they were going to use him, throwing into the throngs of the intergalactic war that he unwillingly had been dragged into. The teen seemed to sense Duke’s doubt and swiveled around in his chair. He proceeded to ignore the former thief. Duke couldn’t help but chuckle internally. Nosedive was so much like his mother.
No, not now. He couldn’t go there now. He had to focus on the here and now. Everything else could be figured out later.
A loud, cleaning sigh sounded from Nosedive’s way, and Duke didn’t blame the kid for being scared. Dragaunus had tortured him before. He couldn’t image the kid a third time under the overlord’s unforgiving claw.
Nosedive laid his head back, his muscles still tense. His face was to the side of Duke, and he could see the boy’s eyes were closed. His face wasn’t rigid but more somber. His hand absentmindedly reached under his armor, and the teen seemed to take solace in the feeling of his necklace, whisking it through his fingers.
Wildwing walked back from the front of the cockpit and took a seat next to Nosedive. The teen heard the shuffling and opened his eyes, a small, natural smile curling onto his beak. Duke noticed that early between the brothers. It seemed anytime the two saw each other, an unconscious smile was produced.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Wildwing bartered.
“I won two hundred from Canard. Your penny is pittance,” Nosedive smirked, dropping his hand from his necklace.
“Do I have to match Canard’s offer, or are you going to give me the brotherly discount?”
Nosedive snorted softly, then shook his head. “I was just thinking about when I started going out with Natalie.”
“Natalie?” Wildwing echoed, then a knowing smile crossed his beak. “Oh, your girlfriend, right?”
“Yeah. Did I tell you what happened when we first started going out?”
Wildwing shook his head.
“See, Nat and me, we started rocky. She was the prettiest girl in school, maybe on Puckworld, flat out. She had better hair than me, and that’s hard to do. And she had this smile that could melt the sun, and Stars, her eyes…They were this crystal blue, and in them, you could just see forever.”
His reminiscent smile fell slightly. “But she had gone out with a string of bad guys, and the last one before me was this thug named Brant. Rumor had it she had a restraining order against him, but that didn’t stop him from making it known that anyone who went out with ‘his’ girl was a dead duck. Well, that didn’t stop me from flirting with her, and then, after about three months of living by the decree, I broke it and asked her out. She accepted immediately, and when it got around—”
“Brant wasn’t too pleased, huh?” Wildwing finished with a smug smirk.
Nosedive shrugged complacently. “I wasn’t going to let some reject Blood Beak wannabe tell me who I can and cannot date. So, when he came up to me at the lunch line and made it well know of his reservations, I told him to ‘Bite me.’ Dad, of course, wasn’t too thrilled when he had to bail me out.”
“Bail?” Wildwing repeated incredulously. He sat straight up in chair. “As in jail?”
“Brant and I kinda trashed the lunch room when we fought,” Nosedive confessed sheepishly, then shrugged it off. “I won, though...”
“Like I had a doubt. I’m sure your dad didn’t like that, though.”
Nosedive agreed with a restricted sigh. “Yeah, well, Dad made it pretty clear for about three straight hours that would be the one and only he would ever have to bail me out.”
Wildwing nodded. “What made you think of that?”
“It was the one time I actually knew I was going into melted ice, you know? Kinda like now. I know that I’m going to face L—Lizard Lips, just like Brant.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Wildwing promised, clasping his brother’s shoulder and rubbing it comfortingly. “Dragaunus isn’t going to get you.”
“I’m not…afraid of him, Wildwing. I just...” He sighed with trite exasperation. “I’m tired of hurting, Wildwing. I’m tired of all the wounds, of all the beatings. I tired of being someone’s plaything to take their anger out on. I’m tired of being helpless. I…I want to be in control of my life, not have it dictated by a lizard with grudge on my big bro.”
Duke watched silently as Wildwing pulled his brother into an embrace and rubbed the boy’s back, despite the armor.
“I’m proud of you, little brother,” Wildwing praised softly.
Nosedive pulled back slightly, a wicked smile upon his beak. “What’s not to proud of?”
Duke smirked. If Winter and Wilder could see their sons now…
*^*^*
Stupid or brave? This was definitely one of those times when Nosedive treaded that thin line. Sometimes, the teen had learned, they were one and same. Today, not so much.
Gingerly, he enclosed his hand about
his lavaliere, taking a deep, bracing breath. He peered about him, noticing the
thick wood of the forest. Canard and Duke chose this place to plan their
attack, mainly because there were lots of places to hide. Also, the Saurians
always seem to attack in
Nosedive let out a helpless sigh. He was stalling. The quicker he took off his necklace, the quicker Dragaunus would be there, the quicker he would be dead.
Okay, time to be stupid, sadly enough, not for the first time in his life.
“Okay, just take it off now,” he told himself with weak resolution. “Come on. You can do it.”
Wildwing said he could take his time and do it when he was ready. How about… uh, never?
Okay, now he was really just being childish. He could do this. He had to do this.
Expelling one last puff of air, he whipped off the necklace and tossed it quickly to Wildwing before he could change his mind. Lightheaded suddenly, he tried not to hyperventilate, taking slow, reserved breathes. Twirling slowly, he gazed about—not yet. Still no. Maybe soon. Hopefully never.
A little twinge of relief teased his gut. Maybe Lord Dragaunus didn’t want him anymore. Maybe that was just a whim, y’know?
Tinkerbell—behind him. Pixie dust. The feathers on the back of his neck stood on end, while his lungs refused to take in air.
Maybe it was Chameleon. Yeah. Oh, Stars, please…
“You were foolish to leave.”
Nosedive stiffened, his body completely rigid. So much for wishful thinking…
He spun on his heel, facing the demon who enslaved his people, hunted his brother, and wished to oppress him under his iron fist and leave him so broken he could never recover.
Lord Dragaunus took a stride forward, coming out from under the canopy of leaves, his body illuminated under the moon. The shards of light beat Lord Dragaunus’s body and trickled over his acute muscles. His armor shone regally in the light, creating the appearance of a ruler, much like the overlord he was.
Nosedive gulped down the knot that had formed unobtrusively in his throat. “Well, no one ever called me bright.”
Lord Dragaunus’s hard face expressed his grim demeanor. “I have called you ‘slave,’ but even I have my limits. Your nuisance has outweighed your abysmal worth, sanies.”
Nosedive backpedaled at the uttered word, said so contemptuously and maliciously that the teen found himself unable to remember a time when his lord had ever used that harsh of a tone with him. He had threatened, beaten, and degraded Nosedive at every whim, but it was never that vicious. Lord Dragaunus wasn’t going to keep him as a slave this time.
He was going to kill him.
As the thought fleeted through Nosedive’s head, Lord Dragaunus lunged forward at lightning speed toward the aghast teen, claws honed in the moon like shining daggers.
A shot!
A puck line encircled Lord Dragaunus’s wrist, tugging and resisting the overlord’s much wanted bloodshed, his claws mere millimeters from Nosedive’s cheek.
The teen whirled to the side and let out a sigh of relief. Wildwing held Lord Dragaunus tight by the line, as the ducks emerged from the depths of the forest, surrounding the overlord and Nosedive.
“You will not touch him, Lizard Lips,” Wildwing proclaimed, his voice actually more venomous than Lord Dragaunus’s. It was the coldest tone Nosedive had ever heard his brother use, and it was in his defense.
The corner of Nosedive’s beak tugged upward slightly.
However, in the split second it had, a hand fisted in his hair, tugging him—hard and painfully. Sharp claws dug into the bottom of his neck maliciously, searing pain through Nosedive. The teen grunted as he was yanked backwards and pressed against something as hard as rock, and it wasn’t Grin. He also figured the sudden wetness on his neck wasn’t water, either.
Dragaunus’s second hand—it was free—or had been, anyway. Now it was clamped about Nosedive’s head and neck.
“You do not make demands of me, Wildwing,” the overlord seethed in barely contained rage. “I can crush his skull in the time it takes you to blink.”
No, he would not be a hostage. Not this time, Lizard Lip!
Nosedive
kicked back his heel, smacking directly into Lord Dragaunus’s shin. A growled
scowl grunted from Lord Dragaunus’s lips, and his grip on Nosedive slipped just
a smidge, but enough for the teen to elbow the overlord in the gut. He then
delivered a knee to the lizard’s stomach. The claws discharged from his neck,
and Nosedive stumbled away, tripping over his own boots. He was caught by Duke,
who helped to steady him.
“Good job, kid,” he commended with a warm slap on his back.
Nosedive snorted, touching the back of his head with extreme care. When he looked at his fingers they were tinted red. “Wonderful. What else could go wrong?”
He cringed and whined even before the sound of glimmering and the shimmering green light formed about the ducks, surrounding them. As numerous hunter drones, by far outnumbering the ducks, appeared from thin air, Nosedive slapped his forehead.
“I have to keep my beak shut.”
“Surrender, Wildwing,” Lord Dragaunus gloated as he freed himself from the puck line with one swipe of his claws. “You and your team will not survive if you do not.”
“You won’t let us live anyway,” Nosedive spat, grabbing his puck launcher and unclipping the safety.
“The exact opposite, my slave,” Lord Dragaunus snarled, nearing the teen.
Duke defensively placed himself in front of Nosedive, sword activated and honed toward the overlord.
Lord Dragaunus sent him a tolerant glare, eyes narrowing. “I plan keep to you alive, so that you might witness your brother’s death and know there is no one left to save you as the universe crumples in my palm.” He flexed his palm, mimicking the universe’s fate.
Nosedive met his gaze, eyes hard, his jaw lifted defiantly, even though his insides turned cold like a flash-freeze. For some reason, he knew death wasn’t that cruel.
“I say we fight to the death,” Mallory interjected, focusing her puck launcher at the nearest hunter drone.
Wildwing growled under his breath, still pointing his gauntlet at Lord Dragaunus. Abruptly, he yelled, “Canard?”
“Fight.”
“Duke?”
“Ain’t surrendering now, fearless leader.”
“Tanya?”
Through Wildwing’s comm. unit, “It’s not a choice, Wildwing.”
“Grin?”
“If it samsara’s will, then may this become one of my past lives.”
“Dive?”
Nosedive’s head perked up at Wildwing’s voice, unhinged. His brother was including him in the count—like a real member of the team. Cool.
“I’m nobody’s slave, bro,” Nosedive said before he realized he had actually spoken. The sound of it unnerved him a little, so harsh and so unyielding. When he did get that much confidence? He met Dragaunus’s dark glare squarely, unflinching for the first time since meeting the lizard nearly seven months ago. And for the first time since his seasoning, he saw Dragaunus for whom he was—not his lord. “If this it, then so be it. I’m in control of my life, and no pile of scales is telling me different.”
Nosedive didn’t need to turn to know his brother was smirking and shaking his head.
“Well, Dragaunus, I’m glad to report we’re disappointing you. If we die, it won’t be by your claws,” Wildwing retorted.
Dragaunus hit his teleporter. “We shall see, duck,” he sneered as he faded from sight, leaving the ducks to their fate. “We shall see…”
To Be Continued…