Hey again! So... I didn't get as many reviews from the last story as I would've liked... actually I only got two from the same person... which was still nice, but... I need feedback people so please please PLEASE comment and give your HONEST opinion on my work... 'kay?

Okay, a few things before the story starts.

1) this story does contain mention of abuse, and full out present day abuse. It got a little detailed in one of the chapters and though nothing is stated specifically, for those of you who are smart enough to know what 2+2 is... you'll be able to understand where the train of thought was going. I will mark which chapters are the bad ones... If you skip... you wont really miss anything important, just an awesome rescue attempt!

2) this gets depressing and a little dark... but it comes out cheerful and rainbow and butterflies in the end, I promise!

3) THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORY! Duke does NOT fall in love with the OC and the OC does NOT fall in love with him! Sorry if I've made it sound like it was going in a different direction.

4) its not that good at the end... but like my last story... it gets better as it goes on I promise!

5) It may seem that my OC has a few things to realize before this is all said and done... and there are... I've tried to keep it organized... but if you have trouble basically she needs to gain self-confidence, trust, and a belief that there are heroes out there who wont fail her... kinda ties in with the whole trust thing...

6) THE END NOW READ!

Ch. 1: Heroes

I looked around in fear. Where was I? One minute I was walking down the street, trying to pass my mobility class... then I was flying through some blue vortex. Now all I could make out was that I was sitting on something cold and metalic. I stood up and tried my best to examine the red interior of what I was able to gather was some sort of space ship.

"Well, well." a cold voice said. I took a step back as a huge dragon, or dinosaur like creature came towards me. He was tall and held himself up like the way a high-athority figure would. I narrowed my eyes.

"Where am I? Who are you?"

"You weren't exactly what I wanted, but I can still use you to my advantage." He turned to three figures behind him. I could make out a green lizard looking guy, a dude the size of a bolder with what looked like teeth protruding from all over his face, and another tall figure. He wasn't as tall as the first guy, but he still had a sence of power about him.

"Take our guest to the first holding chamber. Then send a message to those anoying heroes." the leader said softly. I stared as the green guy morphed into a tall soldier. He gave a salute and in an imitation of a cadet shouted, "EYE-EYE SIR!"

"Knock it off ya little creep." the toothy bolder guy snaped at him. He walked over and grabbed my arm. "Fallow us Sweetheart."

I yanked my arm away. "I don't require you holding me. I can walk on my own thank you." I was scared and more then slightly pissed. It looked like to me that these freaks were going to try and use me as bate. Well, I might be partially blind, but I sure as hell wasn't helpless. After all, I've had to fend for myself, fight my own battles, right from the git go. I was used to slaying my own dragons, and I learned a long time ago that there were no such things as heroes. Plus, if anyone was going to be foolish enough to try and rescue me, they'd only get themselves hurt.

I fallowed the bahemath as he led me, grumbling something about fisty little kids giving him the urge to hit something, to the holding cell where they planed on locking me up. Yeah right, as if I was going to let it be that easy. I wasn't going down with out a fight. As soon as we cleared the main room, and was about half way down the hall, I ran for it.

Looking back, I can't tell you how I managed to escape. All I remember is running through halls and trying every door I came to that looked like it would be a possible exit, while those creeps tried to get at me. As if they could. I wasn't the fasted kid in the world, but I sure as hell knew how to get away from people I didn't want near me. Again, another useful trick I aquired as a result of my misserable past.

All at once, I was running down a street and dodging into a crowd of people. I only stopped when I ran head long in to someone.

"Sorry." I muttered, clutching the back of my head as I picked myself up from the concrete. "My bad."

"Hey no worries." a rather fat man said cheerfully, helping me regain ballance. "Not hurt are you?"

"Just my pride." I muttered.

"Looked like you were in a hurry. Going somewhere?"

"No where in particular. Just so long as it's this way." I said, pointing straight ahead of me. Then I dodged around him and ran for it before he could ask any more inquisitive questions. I rounded a corner and then finally decided I was safe. For now.

As I took a few deep breaths trying to regain my normal heart rate, I took a look around. It didn't look like I was any where different. At least, it still looked like I was in the US. I shook my head. My long bangs that concealed my right eye shifted a little and I immideatly put my hand up to make sure that my eye wasn't visible. Flattening my hair over my face, I started walking again.

I hadn't gotten two blocks however, when all of a suden I heard this loud noise behind me. Feeling that something was comming up fast I lept to the side, narrowly avoiding a net that had been blasted at me.

"WHAT THE?" I shouted as I saw a huge vehicle swerve the corner, the little green guy popping out of a sun roof holding a blaster.

"Come here you little brat!" he shouted as he aimed and fired again.

I again dodged the net and started running as fast as I could. These guys just wouldn't give up.

I heard another vehicle screetch to a hault and turned to the road, which I should mention was on my blind side. A white car had skidded to a stop and started firing blue darts at the car chaising me. The little green guy gasped and ducked as one of the darts zoomed straight for his head.

"Lets get outa here!" I heard him shout as the car turned around and sped off in the oposite direction, away from me.

I turned and watched them go as six figures got outa the white car that had come to my rescue.

"Are you alright?" a tall, well built man asked.

"Yeah, I think so. Thank y..." I broke off the moment I saw him. He wasn't a man, though we was built like one. He was a duck!

"Ummm... nice comstume, but I don't think Halloween's for another two months." I said looking at him and his team. All of them were ducks.

"Hey, haven't you ever heard of us?" a girl duck with red hair asked looking at me curiously. I shook my head.

"Must not be a hockey fan." a blonde duck, obviously another femaile, sniffed.

"I'm not any kind of sports fan." I told her.

"But you must have at least heard of us through the news. I mean, we've been saving this planet from distruction for at least a year." a grey duck said. He had a pony tail and an eye patch over his right eye. Was he hiding the same thing I was?

"Look, I'm not from here. Sorry to offend your egos." I snapped. I wasn't going to trust anyone here, least of all six walking, talking mallords.

"Well there's appriciation for ya." stated another blonde duck, this one male. "I mean, what's the point in saving people, when they just don't have any thanks for it?"

"What do you mean you're not from here?" the first duck asked me.

"I mean, some red dino dragged me here. I don't know. All I know is one minute I'm walking down Down Town Richmond, then I'm in some weird space ship thingy like I was suddenly casted as a lead role in Star Treck the Next Generation."

"But, why would Dragonis want you, little friend?" a huge grey duck standing in the background asked, looking at me curiously.

"Like I know? I heard him say something about me not being what he wanted, but that he could still use me to his advantage. He was going to have his buddies lock me up and then send some heroes, I'm assuming he was talking about you lot, some message." I said.

"Do you mind comming with us? We can keep you away from him and hopefully find a way to get you back home." the first duck, I'm guessing he was the leader, said. I thought about it. They didn't seem dangerous, and maybe I could use their help keeping those freaks off my tail. I shrugged. "Just don't try anything funny and I guess there's no harm."

"Deal." we shook hands. Or rather, I shook a feathered version of a hand. It was weird.

"So, what's your name?" the blonde dude asked. He sounded like some surfer dude, and he looked younger then the others.

"Polly." I said. I wasn't going to give them my real name.

"Nice to meet you Polly, I'm Wildwing." the leader indroduced himself and then his team. "And that's my baby brother Nosedive." he indicaded the blonde surfer dude. "Mallory." he pointed to the red head. "Tanya." he pointed to the female blonde. "Grin." he turned to the big guy. "And Duke." he pointed at the dude with the eye patch and pony tail. They all said hi and we piled into the car.

"So, Polly, you don't like sports?" Nosedive asked, turning in his seat to look at me. I was sitting with my hands in my lap, head slightly bent down. I didn't make eye contact with any of them, like I really could any ways. I shook my head. "I like playing them, but I don't really like watching them."

"What's your favorite sport to play?" he asked.

"Nosedive, lay off." Mallory said.

"It's okay. I... I like skating more then anything." I said slowly. I couldn't see the harm in confersing with them. They obviously didn't seem like they were going to hurt me.

"Really?" he said. "Then you're going to love where we're going!"

I raised my head and looked at him. "Why?"

"It's an ice rink." Wildwing explained. We kinda live there.

Figures. I thought.

When we arrived I stared as they led me to the locker rooms where a giant elevator was. When we exited it, we came out into an underground... well, there was no other word for it... 'headquarters'. There was a main room where they kept treasures from all their past battles, a large computer that they called Drake 1, and then branch rooms that served as bed rooms, living room and kitchen. I was, needless to say, stunned. We had nothing like this in my own... world.

"Unbelievable." that was all I could say.

"You must be tired. You can have my bunk." Wildwing said, leading me to his room. I looked at him. Now that I stood a little closer, I could see that his face wasn't golden, as I originally thought. But rather, he was wearing a golden mask. I nodded. Until he mentioned it, I wasn't really that aware of how tired I really was. I looked at my watch. It had been 1:30pm when I arrived in this twisted place, now it was 4:45pm.

"Thank you." I said, and fallowed.

"Ow!" I couldn't help it, that corner hurt. I put my hand over the bridge of my nose as I quickly tried to correct my mistake, but the damage was done.

"Are you okay there, kid?" Duke asked running up to me.

"Err... yeah. I'm fine, just..."

"You should not be ashaimed of holding back any weaknesses. It is that which appear to weaken us that actually make us stronger." Grin said. I stared at him.

"Uh, yeah. Right." I said.

"Do not try and hide your disability." he said, trying to make his meaning a little more plain.

"What disability?" I snarled.

"You are nearly blind." he said simply. He didn't ask, he didn't sound like he was guessing, he stated it, it was a fact.

"So what if I am? That's no disability, it's a..."

"Down tiger, we're not criticizing, are we?" Duke said, his hands on my sholdiers turning me in the right direction. I shrugged him off.

"No, and thank you but I can make it by myself now." I was imbarrased that Grin and the others were able to see my wound so easily. My mind turned to the reason I had that wound in the first place and a wave of hot boiling anger swept over me.

"You must make peace with yourself, or that which you hold on to will distroy you." Grin told me as I walked away, fallowing Wildwing.

"Does he always talk like that?" I asked him as he led me to his room.

"You get used to it." he reasured me.

"I hope I'm not here long enough too." I replied. Wildwing paused and turned to me.

"Believe me when I say that each and every one of us knows exactly how you feel about this. And believe me when I also say that things happen for a reason. Maybe you were ment to be sent here."

"Yeah, right." I said.

"Polly..."

"You guys aren't really superheroes, are you?" the question was out before I could stop it. But I didn't want to take it back after I said it either.

"No, not supperheroes, just heroes." he explained.

"Yeah, right." I said again.

"Is that so hard to beleive?" he asked.

"There's no such thing as heroes." I told him. "That's all fairy tale nonsence."

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow. By now he had taken off his mask and I could just make out that he had a nice face. Well, nice for a duck at any rate.

"Trust me on this one. It's all just a bunch of bed time story smutt that you dream of then when you need it the most, nothing."

Wildwing pushed open the door to his leff and waved me in. "Here you are. I hope you change your mind, Polly. Heroes are sometimes just in fairy tale books, but they can also be real too." And with that, he closed the door behind me. I walked over to the bed and sat down. Heroes, real. Yeah that'll be the day. I thought, kicking off my shoes and laying down. I rolled over onto my side and closed my eyes. Well, even if they aren't heroes, it looks like I managed to get myself mixed up with a pretty decent bunch of birds at any rate. Then, I drifted into an uneasy sleep.

Okay like I said... sets the scene... kinda slow... next chapter is too but at the end of that one things start to speed up... I hope... just R&R please! and don't stop... it does get better!