AN: And I'm back from NaNoWriMo! I successfully completed and surpassed the 50,000 word goal by writing a total of 58,047 words in a mere 30 days. That story is nowhere near ready to be shared; I have to re-write the entire first half because I made the characters older halfway through the month and things no longer line up. I promise, when revisions are finished, I will share. In the meantime, please enjoy this little slice-of-life tale!
Merry Christmas everyone! I know it's a little early, but I am going to be super busy next week and unable to get anything written. TheMightyDuck requested a Christmas tale, so this is my contribution.
"Damn it, Nosedive!" Duke growled in frustration as he pulled open yet another empty drawer on the Aerowing. "Where'd you put the first aid kit?"
"Chill out, compadre." The blond teen unstrapped himself from his seat and went to the back of the plane to help search. "It should be right here." Confidently opening a cabinet door, he was stunned to find barren shelves. The first aid cabinet was normally very well stocked; it had to be with their rather dangerous lifestyle. All of the bandages, latex gloves, medicine, hot and cold packs, and blankets were gone.
Murder lurked behind the cold stare the former thief leveled at the youngest team member. Clearly, he thought this was another prank. Duke was not amused.
"Uh..." Thinking quickly, Nosedive backed up and gently shook Tanya awake. "Hey. Did you move the first aid stuff?"
Blinking sleepily at him, the technician rubbed her eyes and yawned.
"Hm?" Tanya was always slow to get going after a nap.
"The first aid kit. Where'd you move it to?" Nosedive tried again, patiently waiting for the question to work its way into her brain.
"Um..." Tanya rubbed her eyes again and readjusted her glasses. "I moved it?"
"Someone did!" The gray drake was clearly irritated and didn't care who was on the receiving end of his wrath. He crossed his arms and glared at the two blonds.
"Oh, cut it out," Mallory broke in. "It's got to be around here somewhere." She got up to help look while Tanya sank back into the pillow she had propped up behind her and drifted off again.
Wildwing glanced over his shoulder at the commotion, but remained uninvolved. The Aerowing was currently under his control and he wasn't about to leave the pilot's seat unless it was an absolute emergency. Grin sat next to him, impassively watching the dark gray clouds outside the window.
Growling softly, Duke rubbed the chipped end of his beak.
"What did you need anyway?" Mallory asked. She too was coming up empty on the search. Where had all their medical supplies vanished to? Despite the troubling nature of the question, she chose not to stress about it. There was nothing they could do other than search while they were still in the air. If it came down to it, they could always restock after landing in Pittsburgh.
"A vodka's beginning to sound really nice," came the sarcastic response.
"Tough luck." Mallory put her hands on her hips and returned his glare, refusing to be bullied by the master swordsman. "You can either be nice and tell me what you were looking for or go back to your seat and shut up. I'm not going to listen to you complaining the rest of the way there."
"Nothing in the cargo hold," Nosedive announced as he returned from below. "I wonder what happened to all of it."
"As long as someone gets me an Advil, I don't care." Duke held his head in his hands, eye closed in pain.
"If that's all you need, I might have some in my bags," Mallory offered as she headed towards the cargo bay to find her gear.
Deciding to avoid the gray drake's ire, Nosedive walked to the front of the plane and stood behind his brother, hand resting on the back of the seat.
"What's his problem?" Wildwing asked, glancing at the instruments in front of him before half turning around to get a better look at his sibling.
"Dunno," Nosedive snorted. "Headache, I guess."
Wildwing nodded and flipped a series of switches above his head.
"Aerowing to Approach. Are we clear for landing?"
"This is PIT Control," a tired sounding male voice responded over the radio. "Please confirm aircraft type."
"Aerowing."
"Come again? We need your aircraft type, not your call."
"PIT, this aircraft is an Aerowing."
"Brainless apes," Duke growled as he paced.
"Here," Mallory finally reappeared, two brown pills in hand. "Take these and shut up."
"Aerowing, we don't have your specs."
"It's not like they're not expecting us!" Duke gestured wildly at the controls as if the people running the aircraft control tower could see him.
"Duke, go sit down," Wildwing calmly ordered. He'd seen Duke when he was irritated before, but this was unusual. Normally, the team's center would fall silent after delivering a threat and glare at whoever had annoyed him. This time, it was like he was mad at the world and was taking it out on them. Turning his attention back to the radio conversation, Wildwing tried his best to work with an uninformed control center on their landing.
"PIT, this is Aerowing from Anaheim. We don't need a runway, just somewhere to land."
"Give me a few 360's while we find your specs. Maintain level 1100."
"Wilco." Wildwing sighed and shook his head in exasperation. It seemed like they always ran into issues like this when taking the Aerowing to airports for away games. Usually, they tried to find smaller, local airports instead of the larger international ones; but, that hadn't worked this time due to some sort of Christmas air show.
"Uh, Aerowing, your specs aren't in the system." The traffic controller sounded extremely confused.
"They wouldn't be, PIT. We're an off world military fighter."
"Excuse me?" If the poor guy in the tower had been confused before he was stultified now. "Aerowing, we're busy here. Cut the joking and give me your specs."
"We're the white fighter jet with yellow and green striping. No runway needed, just landing coordinates."
"PIT, this is Eastern 327," a new, heavily accented voice broke in. "Aerowing isn't anything I've seen before. Confirming appearance as white with yellow and green."
"Stay out of this, Eastern 327," the control tower snapped. "Aerowing, maintain 360's until instructed."
Suddenly, Wildwing was beginning to understand Duke's bad mood. However, he knew these humans weren't used to dealing with a technologically advanced alien aircraft. Delays should be expected, even if they came at inconvenient times. They had already foiled yet another of Dragaunus' plans this morning before loading up for the away game. Christmas was in two days and Phil had been doing his best to run them ragged with public appearances. It was some small comfort that they had been able to leave their manager behind and force him to fly with the rest of the equipment staff. All the leader wanted to do was land, drive to the hotel, and get some sleep. A quick glance over his shoulder showed that everyone had reclaimed their seats and strapped in for landing.
Smiling to himself, Wildwing contemplated bringing the Aerowing in to hover right in front of the tower. The jet was more than capable of performing the maneuver and he could safely do it if he had Mallory turn on their radar so he could track where all the other planes were. Giving that irritable controller a direct view of their aircraft would be very satisfying, but most likely terrifying for everyone else in the tower. Yet again, he had to settle for the mental image instead of actually carrying out the plan.
"Aerowing, this is Eastern 327. Switch to 126.4?"
Confused, Wildwing did as asked and opened the private channel to the other plane.
"Eastern 327? This is Aerowing. State your intention."
"Just had a question for you." The French accent made his words difficult to discern over the radio, but it was clear the pilot was excited to actually receive a response.
"Go ahead and ask, Eastern." He had an idea he knew what the question was.
"Are you the Mighty Ducks?"
"Yes we are." Yup, exactly what he'd expected.
"I'm a huge fan. Good luck tomorrow!"
"Thanks, Eastern. Preciate it."
"Aerowing," the masculine voice finally returned to their radio after a long delay. "Cleared ILS runway 32L approach. Maintain speed 250 knots."
"Roger that. How long do you need me to maintain that speed?"
"All the way to the gate if you can."
Wildwing glanced at Grin, frowning. The placid giant simply shrugged in response. Clearly, they had both heard the same thing.
"Okay. You better warn ground control we'll be coming in fast." He didn't like to approach buildings at what amounted to nearly 290 mph, but knew the Aerowing could handle it. Apparently, whoever was in the tower hadn't checked the flight plan he'd filed with them; either that, or they simply didn't believe the Aerowing could perform a vertical landing and expected them to need a runway.
"Fucking idiots," Duke muttered.
"Sorry," a new voice came over the radio. "This is PIT. Aerowing, you're cleared for landing. Approach runway 32L, hanger C. We'll let you handle the specifics."
"Thank you, PIT." With that, the captain broke radio contact and brought the Puckworld aircraft in for a smooth landing. Slowing his speed to a much safer rate, he taxied to the specified hanger.
"Can it, Duke," Wildwing ordered as he stood. "I don't know what your problem is, but you don't need to take it out on us."
"My problem is the snow." The reply was delivered with the condescension of an adult to a child who should have known better.
"Wasn't snowing the last time I looked," Nosedive broke in, standing up for his brother.
"Not yet. But we're in for a hell of a storm."
"Come on, Tanya," Mallory prodded. "Time to get up. You can sleep at the hotel."
The sleepy blond tried to glare at her roommate, but only ended up looking confused. Yawning, she allowed Mallory to pull her to her feet and followed the smaller duck down to the cargo hold.
Mallory and Nosedive began unhooking the chains that held the Migrator in place while Grin moved the large, gray, wheeled bin containing their duffel bags of hockey gear from the cargo hold and up the ramp into the back of the Migrator. Normally, their gear would have traveled with Chuck and the rest of their equipment crew. However, the flight they were supposed to take to Pittsburgh had been canceled and there was a question of if they'd make it in time or not. Rather than risk arriving for a game with no gear, the ducks had opted to transport it themselves.
"Tanya, did you pack the chains?" Wildwing inquired as he lowered the ramp that would allow the Migrator to exit the plane.
"Chains?" Poor Tanya. She'd been up for the past two days trying to upgrade Drake One before their away game in addition to fixing the dishwasher yet again, re-stocking the infirmary, and working on some new invention. There were times when she became so focused on her many projects that she forgot to sleep or eat, even if someone else was there reminding her. They'd all learned to just let her work until she decided it was time to quit; some of her best work was done when she entered that insanely focused zone and neglected everything else. As long as they were there to make sure she took care of herself afterwords, they didn't see the harm in allowing her those creative binges. Besides, it only happened once every couple of months or so.
"Never mind." The goalie realized they weren't going to get much information out of her until tomorrow at the earliest. Rather than trusting in her currently faulty memory, he checked the floor storage compartment himself. The snow chains were exactly where they should be. Satisfied that they were prepared for the snow Duke predicted, he sat in the driver's seat.
"Nuh-uh." Nosedive waved Wildwing out of the seat. "I'll drive."
"I've got it, Dive." He may have just flown for four hours, but he wasn't willing to trust his younger brother's sense of direction in Pittsburgh. He'd been warned by the Puffin's goalie about all the one way streets and how confusing driving in the city could be when they'd hosted Pittsburgh yesterday.
"Bro." Gah, that look. Nosedive wasn't going to back down.
"Fine." Getting up, he moved to the passenger seat and strapped in.
They only got lost twice on the way to their hotel. Honestly, Wildwing had to admit that he would have taken the same turns Nosedive did and ended up just as lost. It was late by the time they finally made it to the Marriott. Fortunately, the hotel was practically across the street from the Civic Arena. If it came down to it, they could walk to the rink instead of driving there.
Duke's mood hadn't improved any with landing. If anything, it had gotten worse. Fortunately, he'd settled for scowling quietly and occasionally rubbing at the chipped part of his beak.
"They'd better have a sauna," Duke grumbled.
"I doubt it," Mallory smirked. She was having entirely too much fun poking at Duke and ordering him around. Why he hadn't snapped at her yet, nobody could figure out.
Finally finding a parking space, they gathered their overnight bags and made their way to the hotel. Grin took Tanya's bag for her when she dropped it for the second time as they crossed the street. Tanya wasn't always the most coordinated individual and exhaustion only added to her chaotic tendencies.
Three employees stood behind a tall, black, granite topped desk as the six ducks entered the richly appointed lobby. Clean, white tiles covered the floor while comfortable, beige chairs and couches crowded around a large coffee table and fireplace across from the check-in counter. A buffet style kitchen area was visible around the corner from the front desk.
"Welcome to the Marriott!" an overly cheerful brunette greeted them. "How can I help you today?"
"Just checking in," Wildwing tiredly answered as he rested his arms on the cool, stone counter and placed the team credit card on it.
"Name?"
Great. Phil had made the reservations and had neglected to tell him what they were under. Normally, Phil would have taken care of check in and everything, but they'd just had to leave him behind. No, it was worth it for the peace and quiet of not being badgered for last minute autograph signings.
"Try Palmfeather," he suggested.
"No, nothing under that..." She stared at the screen, looking for the correct name.
"Flashblade?"
"Um." Again, she paused and searched. After a moment, she shook her head.
"Mighty Ducks?" This was getting ridiculous. First Duke's attitude, then the confusion at the airport, and now this. Was a comfortable bed too much to ask for?
"Hey, we have a no pets policy," a bellhop with dark, spiky hair joked as he walked past.
"You did not just say that to me," Duke threatened. His hands clenched into fists and he angrily stepped towards the youth, only to be stopped by Mallory's firm grip on his upper arm.
She warningly shook her head no at him, silently promising to stop whatever he'd planned on doing.
"Sorry," the hotel employee flippantly brushed off the duck's attitude. "Geeze. I thought you guys could take a joke."
"Hey, I'm glad I'm not human. At least ducks got manners," the gray drake retorted, pulling free of Mallory's grip. Crossing his arms, he turned his back on the rude human and stood next to Wildwing. "What's taking so long?"
"I'm sorry," the young woman behind the counter apologized. "I can't find anything in the system that would be even close to any of your names. Are you sure you have reservations here?"
"Yes. Forget the reservation. Do you have any open rooms?"
"Not with the holiday, unfortunately. We're completely booked up."
"Crud." The leader rested his head on his forearms as he tried to think of what to do. If this hotel was booked, all the others likely were too. Phil had better not have screwed up the reservation.
"Oh, wait a minute!" Suddenly, the clerk's eyes lit up as she found something. "You needed three rooms, right?"
"Yes."
"Normally, I can't give out names, but this can't be a person. Does Baba Ganoush sound familiar?"
"Hah!" Nosedive started laughing. "Yeah, that's Phil alright."
"Leave it to him to reserve rooms under a food name," Mallory laughed.
"Yes," Wildwing couldn't help but roll his eyes at yet another of their manager's strange idiosyncrasies. Tapping the edge of the credit card on the counter, he patiently waited for the clerk to check them in. Finally, he was handed three packets of room keys and they were able to head to their rooms. Passing out the keys, he found himself infinitely grateful that he was rooming with Nosedive instead of Duke. He really didn't think he could take any more of his attitude tonight.
"Get some rest, everyone," the captain directed as he and Nosedive found their room. "We'll meet in the lobby at six for breakfast and head over to the arena for morning skate at seven thirty."
Tanya was following Mallory in a half daze and almost bumped into the redhead when she stopped to open their door. The girls were across the hallway from Nosedive and Wildwing while Duke and Grin had a room two doors down.
"Don't bother gettin' up that early," Duke muttered. "There won't be a game tomorrow."
"Duke, go to bed," Wildwing ordered. "If you're still like this in the morning, I suggest you have Grin help you take an oath of silence for the day."
"Bad storm's comin'," Duke warned, rubbing his beak once more. "There's gonna be so much ice, nobody here'll be able to go anywhere."
If Tanya had been more coherent, the goalie would have asked her for an update from Drake One about the weather. As it was, he didn't care. All he was interested in was sleep. Nosedive had already gone in their room and he was more than ready to follow when Duke threw another complication into the evening.
"Ya know what? Screw it." Duke dropped his duffel bag inside the door and took his key from Grin. "I'm gettin' that vodka."
"Mallory," Wildwing started his order, but was instantly interrupted as she inferred his intent.
"On it." Mallory accepted Tanya's bag from Grin and pushed the blond into their room. "Come on, Tanya. Let's get you into bed. I've got to go babysit."
Wildwing seriously hoped tomorrow would be better.
0000
It wasn't hard to find Duke in the hotel Bar and Lounge; aside from the fact that he was the only duck present, there were only five other patrons gathered at two tables. The gray drake sat at a glass topped bar, his profile sharply outlined by blue LED's under the counter and behind the bottles of liquor. He rested his head in one hand while slowly spinning a shot glass between his fingers. A second, taller glass filled with orange liquid sat at the empty space next to him.
"This seat taken?" Mallory joked as she stood behind him.
"Nah." He shook his head slightly and continued to stare at the clear liquid in front of him.
Stepping onto the crossbar of the stool, Mallory easily lifted herself into the tall seat. She studied the glass in front of her and pushed it away before turning her attention to one of the televisions above the bar. One showed highlights from a football game and another screen was filled with newscasters. The volume on both was muted, leaving the closed captioning to deliver the unheard verbiage. Soft jazz floated through the dimly lit room, granting the establishment an air of legitimacy.
"Don't want your screwdriver?" Smirking slightly, Duke switched his shot glass with the taller, orange one.
Shaking her head in the negative, she willingly accepted the shot glass and tossed back the fiery liquid in one gulp.
"Whoo," her eyes went wide at the strong flavor. "That's a good one." Flipping the glass upside down, she rested one elbow on the counter and turned towards her teammate. "What's the plan tonight? Get so drunk we can't skate or just a little tipsy?"
"Neither." He shrugged as he sipped the mixture of orange juice and vodka. No sense letting a good drink go to waste. He'd known she wouldn't want it; Mallory detested orange juice. Honestly, he'd have been just as happy drinking the vodka straight; but, he couldn't pass up the opportunity to try giving her the citrusy beverage. It had almost become something of an inside joke between them at this point. "Just trying to kill time and wait for this fucking storm front to pass."
"That bad, huh?"
"You've got no idea."
The bartender finally showed up to see if Mallory wanted anything. He was cute, for a human. The t-shirt he wore showed off his muscles nicely while the gelled, spiked hairstyle complimented his sharp features.
"Evening," he greeted. "Can I get you anything?"
Mallory glanced over the bottles of liquor behind him, trying to decide if she wanted anything. After a moment, she had made her decision.
"I guess we're going with vodka tonight. Give me a barracuda."
"Got ID?"
Rolling her eyes, Mallory produced her Puckworld Special Forces ID rather than the drivers license she'd had to get upon their arrival.
"Um." Biting his lips together and raising his eyebrows in incredulity, the bartender gave her a sideways look. "Nice, but I need something with your birthday on it."
"You carry that thing with you everywhere?" Duke asked.
"Bet you didn't get carded." She replaced the military ID with her drivers license. After a quick glance, it was handed back to her.
"Nope," the one eyed drake chuckled.
"Care for anything to eat?" the human asked as he turned around to select the appropriate alcohols and poured her drink.
"No, thanks." Accepting the glass, she threw back the shot and ignored the raised eyebrow of her bartender. "One more."
"Keep going like that and you'll have a hangover tomorrow," Duke warned.
"I don't get hangovers."
"Liar." Groaning, he rubbed the end of his beak again, clearly trying to get some relief.
"How bad's the storm going to be?" There really wasn't much to talk about, so she might as well see how accurate he was with the weather prediction.
"Bad. My beak ain't hurt like this since that ice storm that closed down Rooklyn."
"I remember that one," Mallory nodded. "I was in basic when it hit. The whole base was shut down, except for the new recruits. We had to go out and chip eight inches of ice off the walks."
Surprised, Duke frowned at her. Puckworlders were used to ice covered streets and sidewalks; that's why they wore skates to get around for half the year.
"I had a real asshole drill sergeant," she explained. "He wanted to work us every day. If the base was shut down, he was going to come up with something to do."
"That storm was the only time I ever spent the night in jail."
"What? I thought you never got caught!"
"Not without intendin' to, I wasn't. I knew the storm was gonna be bad, so I held up a convenience store and took my time getting away. Cops picked me up pretty easy. Jail's a whole lot better cover from storms like that than going to a homeless shelter. Food's not as good, but ya don't have to worry about the guy next ta ya stealing your blanket or slipping a blade between your ribs. Warmer, too." Shrugging, he took another drink. "Sides, I was outta there before they figured out who I was."
"They let you go?"
"Hah!" He scoffed at the idea. "Those fat fools couldn't keep me caged if they wanted to. I just up and left when I was ready." He finished off the screwdriver and leaned back. Thankfully, the alcohol seemed to have settled him a bit.
Mallory was just grateful that he had finally started acting like himself again. She'd seen better behaved two year olds compared to the way he was acting earlier today. She knew Tanya was out cold and wouldn't miss her. Grin probably went straight to bed too when they got there; he was never much of one for watching television or staying up late. Considering how deeply the giant drake slept, he'd have no idea of what time Duke returned.
"I think I left my book in the Migrator. Want to break in and get it for me?"
"Not tonight."
"Fine," she shrugged. "Suit yourself." His beak must really be bothering him. Catching the eye of the bartender once more, she waved him over. "What do you have on the dessert menu?"
"Well," he placed his hands palm down on the counter and leaned towards her. "The blood orange mousse is pretty good. We've got ice cream and chocolate tart. Don't know if you like coconut or not, but the lychee rice pudding is one of my favorites."
"Chocolate tart sounds good."
Duke tapped the counter next to his empty glass when the server looked at him.
"Hey! If it isn't my favorite birds!" The rude bellhop from earlier entered the bar and leaned on the counter a couple of chairs down from Mallory.
Duke purposely ignored him and focused on the television. Mallory narrowed her eyes, but held back the retort forming in her mind. Instead, she followed the thief's example and remained quiet.
"Look," he continued. "I'm sorry if I offended you earlier. I'd heard that you guys liked jokes and thought you'd understand."
"No harm done," Duke muttered, still refusing to look at him.
The bartender returned with Duke's second screwdriver and Mallory's chocolate tart and set them on the counter.
"Hey, Nick!" The ill-mannered bellhop greeted. "Can I get some chicken fingers?"
"Sure." With that, he vanished once more, taking the order to the kitchen.
"You know, I actually am surprised they're letting you stay here." That kid just didn't know when to stop. "I know we have at least two employees who are allergic to feathers. I'm sure some guests would be too."
"What?!" Alcohol had eliminated Mallory's already short fuse and she rocketed to her feet, ready to teach the impudent brat a lesson. This time, it was Duke's turn to stop her.
"Sit," he ordered, pulling her back to her chair. He tightened his grip on her arm when she pulled against him, initially resisting his restraint. Finally, she relented and sat on the stool once more.
"You're lucky I'm not going to pound you into a pulp," Mallory snarled.
"Here." Duke jabbed the fork into her tart and pushed it in front of her. "Eat."
Sensing that his survival might depend on a quick escape, the bellhop quickly moved to a table near the door to wait for his dinner.
Mallory glared at Duke and refused to touch her food.
"You were ready to punch him earlier. How come you're so calm now?" she demanded.
"Because, it's not worth it." He calmly nudged her food once more, drawing her attention to the chocolate. "If you're not going to eat that, I will."
"Mine." She protectively pushed his hand away from her plate and curled her arm around the precious dessert, smiling a little.
"Now, there are other things I could do that are far more entertaining," Duke continued.
"Oh?" Taking a bite, Mallory considered his proposition. With his history, he could certainly come up with some interesting payback.
"Well," he leaned forward and lowered his voice so only she could hear. "Our little friend over there seems to be pretty fixated on animals in this fine establishment. I think we need to find a pet for him."
"I don't follow." She slowly chewed a bite of the tart, savoring the delicate mixture of dark and white chocolate on cocoa nib streusel. Setting the fork down, she leaned a little closer to him, eager to hear his idea.
"I think a mouse would be just about right," he mused conspiratorially. "He might learn something from his fellow rodents. Besides, there's sure to be a mouse around here somewhere."
"You're going to catch a mouse?" How? That sounded ridiculous.
"Yup. There's a kitchen here. It don't matter how clean they are or how good they are at hiding it, but every restaurant has mice and roaches. You just gotta know where to look. I think he needs one in his pocket."
Suddenly, the chocolate tart didn't taste quite as good. Frowning, she pushed it away.
Duke calmly picked up her fork and took a bite, undeterred by the thought of the pests that could have inhabited the same room as the food.
"Not bad," he complimented. Setting the fork down, he gave his fellow duck one of his trademark grins. "Would you care to join me in a mouse hunt?"
"Ooh, yeah," she happily nodded. Snatching his glass, she contemplated taking a drink of his screwdriver in retaliation for the stolen dessert, but the thought of the orange juice was too disgusting. Changing her mind, she set it down again.
"Might even get that book for you, after," he offered.
"That," Mallory emphasized as she reclaimed her tart, "Sounds like a great plan."