Summary: Mallory is sick and tired of Nosedives' plague of pranks on the Pond, so she takes matters into her own hands. With the help of an unexpected partner. Sequel to "Of Onion Rings and Spatulas". Divided into three parts for reading convenience.
Thoughts
-Flashback-
A/N Here's the very long-awaited sequel to, "Of Onion Rings and Spatulas".
Of Revenge and Redheads
Mallory paced back and forward in her room, spanning about five feet each time she walked about, turn, and repeat the process. It was mid-July in Anaheim, and it was not only blazing hot outside, but also horribly humid. The only creature crazy enough to go out and gander in that weather was teenagers and kids at the beach.
But since all five of her comrades and herself were covered from beak to toe in feathers, none of them dared leave the blissful safety of the Arrowhead Pond. It was times like these Mallory loved living under a frozen lake.
While all that was well and good, there was one thing in the Pond that was not so good. As much as she respected Wildwing as a leader, his brother was the single worst pain in her life. No joke. The kid would not stop plaguing the Pond with his pranks.
Mallory had tried diplomacy, but he just couldn't contain himself. She'd also tried duct taping him to a chair. Then Drake One went off, and Wildwing was just a little more than pissed off.
All of her previous attempts to rid the Pond of the plague that was Nosedive had failed, leaving her discouraged, embarrassed and loving the idea of revenge.
Revenge of the redhead... She mused silently.
There was a hard rapping at the door, and she spun around. "Who is it?" she asked.
"Wildwing."
Mallory mentally groaned and went for the door. "For crying out loud, isn't winning the Stanley Cup enough "practice" for one year?" she muttered to herself.
She punched the 'open' button on the control panel for her door, and it opened with a loud whooosh.
It was one of those rare occasions when he was wearing street clothes. Teal pants and a teal shirt, partially covered from the white and yellow jacket with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. White sneakers and his alternative comm unit were, as always when he wasn't in battle gear, on his left wrist.
"Have you seen Dive? I promised him I'd take him to the movies, but I can't find him anywhere."
Mallory shook her head. "Sorry, I haven't seen him." Thank DuCaine. "He might be in the hanger working on the zamboni machine, though."
Wildwing nodded. "Well, if you see him, tell me." he waved and walked off in the direction of the hanger.
Mallory curled her fingers to form a fist and whacked the close button. "Ok, enough distractions." she turned around and walked to her bed, and sat down on the soft pillow-ridden bed. Think think think...
The rapping started again. Mallory closed her eyes and counted to ten, just to keep from knocking the door down and screaming. "What." she breathed venomously.
"Uh, it's Wildwing again."
Again! For crying out loud!
"Coming." she stood up and trotted over to her door again. She slammed her fist into the console, and the door opened. Wildwing was standing there, wetter than an overflowing well. "You wouldn't happen to have a towel in there, would you?"
Mallory raised her hand over her beak. "What happened?"
"My little brother happened. And his new squirt gun he so conveniently forgot to tell me about." Wildwing answered. His snow white feathers were dripping wet, and his clothes soaked all the way through.
Mallory sighed and walked to her closet door. She opened it and reached up to the top shelf for a couple towels, a blue and green one. She walked back to her doorway and handed them to her drenched leader. "Why do you let him get away with this stuff? He's gotta grow up someday."
Wildwing shrugged. "It's just water."
Mallory shot him another him her yeah right look. "Yeah, this time it was just water. But what about all his other "harmless" pranks? What about-"
"I get it. I guess he just has so much responsibility for a teenager anyway, I think his pranks are harmless compared to all the good things he does for the team."
Mallory folded her wings. "Alright. But I'm plotting a little revenge if you want in. Tanya's already offered me her lab if I need any chemicals or brains, and Duke offered me help for... Well, who knows what he'd be willing to do."
Wildwing looked up. "Revenge? On Nosedive?"
Mallory suddenly realized her error. "Well, that is to say-"
"Count me in!"
Mallory nearly doubled over when she heard that. "Are you serious?"
Wildwing nodded his head. "Yeah! After all the pranks he's pulled, he deserves something in return."
The redhead shot her leader a skeptical look. "I just thought..."
"-because I defend him so much, I'd never pull a prank on my baby brother?"
Mallory nodded. "Well, yeah. Maybe you should come in." She stepped out of the way, and Wildwing took a few steps forward into the purple haven. Everything was purple. Her bed sheets, her bed comforter, her chair cushion, her computer, and her pillows. The only thing that wasn't, was the walls. They were the same metallic blue like everywhere down in the base.
She sat down on the bed and grabbed a pillow, playing with the frayed edges of it. "I've been trying to brainstorm a plan for the last forty-eight hours, but I can't think of anything."
Wildwing smiled. "I've got an idea. But it'll take effort, and the whole team. How about..."
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Duke looked down both corridors at the forked section of the underground base home to seven aliens. Not a sound except the humming of machines. He dodged into the shadows, slithering down the left hallway.
When Mallory had asked him to do him a favor, he rolled his eyes at first. But when she said it was for a prank, he gladly offered to help.
Thus the reason he was carefully and quietly sneaking through the hallways of the Pond. He had a mission, and he couldn't fail.
The prank was counting on his expertise in stealth, and he was not about to compromise this chance to prove himself.
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Grin stared at the single candle in front if him. Its warm glow illuminated his clothes, casting a golden color on his white pajamas. His inner peace was at its peak. And with that advantage, his job in this practical joke was of quite a bit of importance. He was the lure, the bait, the worm for the fish, the meat for carnivore, the carrot for the rabbit, the- well, you get it.
He would never usually prank his little friend, but he had shattered his prized meditation crystal last week, and he was in a mood to make an exception.
Grin leaned over and blew out the white candle. The room was pitch black, and quiet. He clapped twice, and a sixty-watt bulb returned light to the room.
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Tanya ran her fingers across the vials with many different colored substances, looking for just the right one. When her finger reached a dark red one, she stopped and picked it up. "Yeah, this is it." she said to herself, grabbing the brown paper lunch bag and gently setting it on the bed of cotton she laid down earlier.
She turned around and started looking through cabinets until she flipped one open and found a spatula. She dropped it into the bag next to the vial.
Tanya then grabbed a few more odds and ends, and folded over the top of the paper bag. She taped open section with scotch tape in two places, then wrote 'POD' on the bag.
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Wildwing whistled innocently as he rummaged through the fridge, grabbing up some lettuce, tomato, cheese, ground beef, and three packets of triple spicy hot sauce. After all, what could be more convincing of a peace offering than a triple spicy taco made by your own flesh and blood?
Wildwing set the ingredients on the counter, turned back around, then starting flipping open cabinets. Aha! He snatched the box of hard taco shells of the top shelf, and set them on the counter.
Everyone had been in shock when they heard he was in on the prank. But come on, where did they think he got his prank skills from? Their parents? Hardly. True, he had never revealed to his team his secret past time of pulling pranks when he was a kid, but still.
He was also partly to blame for Nosedive when it came to his crazy stunts and insane actions. His name wasn't "Wildwing" for nothing, and his parents could testify to that. Nosedive was just taking after fourteen years of watching his older brother do really crazy things.
Oh well, it didn't really matter. Time was on his side, and it was ticking down the seconds to his revenge. Full and sweet, it would be.
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Fooled ya! It's not really a one-shot, but a two parter! You'll have to wait 'til next time to know what the gang is planning on.