A Continuation of The Slash Saga: My Funny Friend and Me and Birds of A Feather
By Roaming Tigress
Chapter One:
In the Shadows
It was a cold January night when Bushroot cautiously emerged from the woods behind St. Canard Park. As far as anyone could tell, the thin plant duck was alone, but not for long. Nearby, his rooster companion, Steelbeak, ran up behind him and out of breath. They were desperate to escape from the hidden enemy was closing in on them -- F.O.W.L.
Ever since Steelbeak had been with his relationship with Darkwing Duck, F.O.W.L wanted to rid itself of their best agent forever. Their reasoning behind this? To permanently get rid of the bad image he had placed upon them. Once so loyal to the organization, he had turned against them by sleeping with the enemy. He truly felt a great deal of shame for giving them a bad name, but there was nothing he could do now to get back on their good graces.
A lot was on the rooster's mind. His organization wanted revenge -- in the form of death, or perhaps possibly worse, by getting fired. Without a job, without a reputation, Steelbeak would be nothing as far as maintaining an image goes. Additionally, a week had past since he got back into a relationship with the member of the Fearsome Five, and he wanted to make sure he was able to keep him now.
"Dey're still followin' us, we's gotta go!" The rooster panted, looking over his shoulder for a moment to see how far away his pursuers were. Using the stars as his direction guide, Steelbeak tore off into a northerly direction with his boyfriend.
Two quarters of a mile away, a tall duck with a black patch over his left eye mounted a chestnut stallion. He was determined to bring Steelbeak into the organization for whatever punishment was appropriate and rather hoped it involved the firing squad. This duck was Javert, a villain with a heart made of ice and a spirit made with fire to go along with his passion to kill the rooster.
"Ze tracks are fresh . . . I'll catch him soon enough!" He remarked to himself, placing the horse in a trot through an opening in the forest. He made the animal quicken its pace, and before long he managed to catch up with what he was looking for.
"Steelbeak, I can't leave you out here with that - that - that monster!" Bushroot said in desperation, holding Steelbeak by an arm as he made a run for the direction of the inner city. In doing so, he was dragged across the snow for a short distance as the rooster failed to stop for his demand.
Quite suddenly, Steelbeak stopped fleeing. He looked down at Bushroot as he caught his breath, and the expression on his face was that of confidence.
"I'll be back, Bushroot. I just gotta create a diversion and we'll get rid of dem!" With that, he took off back towards the forest were he had last seen the other F.O.W.L agents.
Bushroot looked on, hoping for the best. For fifteen minutes he sat on a bench and shivered, waiting for Steelbeak to return to him. A pang of worry set in his gut, and he raced back into the woods were all he found were footprints and one feather that belonged to the rooster.
"Tell me what happened!" Bushroot called out to an evergreen, desperate to find his rooster. "Please, please tell me were Steelbeak is."
Following a gust of wind, a haunting voice from the tree's pirit spoke back. "They have taken him away, Bushroot."
"Where?"
Without another word, one of the tree's branches pointed to an easternly direction. With a quick thank you, Bushroot ran off to that direction. A million thoughts ran through his head; was Steelbeak dead, or wounded? He hoped to reach him before anything drastic happened.
At the headquarters of The Fiendish Organization for World Larceny, Steelbeak was escorted into the High Command chamber by two armed Eggmen. Each time he fought back, Javert gave him a jolt from his taser until they finally reached their destination down the hallway.
"You're only making things more difficult for yourself, rooster!" The French-accented duck taunted. "Cease your resisting, zere's no way out zis time!"
The three shadowy figures of the big shots looked down at Steelbeak with their beady eyes, making him uncomfortable with their creepy presence alone. Javert remained by the door, ready to fire should he make any attempt to get away.
"You can try to run away from us, but eventually we will find you!" The center figure, Juno, hissed in a tone that was enough to make Steelbeak cringe back. She had thoughts of killing the chief agent but was leaning to a fate that would be worse than death.
"Shall we carry out the nessesary punishment now or throw him in the cell until we decide upon what should be done?" Asked the figure to the right, Jerold. "The boys in the firing squad are rather bored, they haven't killed anyone for a week now. Maybe -- "
"Well, let them be bored for a while," Juno smugly replied, looking pointedly in the rooster's direction. "Chief Agent Steelbeak, as of now you are banished from F.O.W.L. This means no tresspassing upon F.O.W.L grounds or participating in any of our operations. Do I make myself clear?"
"Fire me?!" Steelbeak yelped, recoiling from the shock. "Youse can't fire me! I-I'm yer best agent! Youse can't do dis to me!"
"Oh, but we can!" She answered snidely, showing her sharp teeth. "You chose to break the rules, and therefor you deserve whatever punishment we see fit."
"I'm . . . Sorry I've failed youse," Steelbeak said with sorrow, wishing there was something he could to do change their decision.
"All my life I wanted ta meet de approval of someone, to show 'em what I'm made outta."
The High Command matriarch's order stung Steelbeak right in the heart. He would rather face the death penality than be fired -- the ultimate humiliation of all. Bowing his head in shame, he slowly trudged out of the High Command chamber with Javert marching up behind him. The duck wanted the make sure the rooster made his way out the back door, and did not resist the temptation to poke him a few times with his gun to get his point across.
Steelbeak felt rejection, shame, anger, depression, all at once. It was only his shred of pride that had stopped him from crying.
"Enough already!" He snapped, feeling the end of the gun jab against his shoulders. When he didn't cease the poking, he grabbed the gun and smashed it against the wall before stalking off to find "his" plant duck. The son of High Command had pushed him to his limits, and the death penalty was the only thing that stopped him from doing more damage to him.
"Someone has anger issues . . . " Javert remarked, regaining his composure after being startled by the ex-agent's rage.
A block away in the entrance of an alleyway, Steelbeak suddenly jumped when he felt someone crash into him. He staggered back a bit and let out a closed mouth growl of irritation. He had a bad day to begin with, he didn't need some clumsy nitwit to make it all the more worse for him.
"Awright, who -- "
The sight of Bushroot nervously edging away had calmed him down. With a small smile, he gestured him to come over for a hug. As the hybrid moved in closer, he could see the smile was forced and that something was bothering Steelbeak. He gave him the hug he requested, gently placing a vinelike arm around his waist. Whatever it is that is making him upset, I'll give whatever it takes to cheer him up. It wouldn't make up for my abandoning him, but it is better than nothing.
"What's wrong?"
Steelbeak didn't want to tell him about being fired from F.O.W.L, not because he was afraid Bushroot would laugh at him, but rather because he was too ashamed and depressed to even mention in. He couldn't lie to Bushroot, though, and with a choke to his voice he decided to let the cat out of the bag.
"I . . . I was fired."
Bushroot's heart sunk. He tightened the embrace as they walked away and he couldn't help but to feel angry with High Command. Another villain might have took too revenge, but Bushroot just wanted to stay by Steelbeak's side and offer comfort in any way he can.
"I'm very sorry to hear that . . . " Bushroot replied as if he found out his companion was dying from cancer. "I - I just really don't know what to say."
"No need ta be sorry, Bushroot," Steelbeak glumly answered, feeling tears streak down his face. "Ya don't really need to say anyt'ing, really. What's been done 'as been done, and what matters to me de most is dat I still 'ave youse."
In the shadows lurked an ominous figure. Its eyes shone through the alleyways, and the figure crouched down like a cat lying in wait for it's prey. Someone, something, was following the boyfriends.
With the exception of Juno and Javert, all characters mentioned in this chapter are © Disney.