Chapter 4: Getting Worse
Wildwing wandered around the corridors of the Pond, nothing but anger was on his mind, and the level of it only intensified as more time passed. He didn't know why he felt like this, his mind couldn't get off of it. But the more it stayed in his mind the more he liked it. He'd give anything right now for anyone to say a single word to him, but unfortunately after what happened in the kitchen chances were the others would avoid him. "Hey Wildwing there you are." The mallard deviously smiled as Phil's voice rang in his ears; he would get his wish after all. Putting on an irritated face the mallard turned to face the manager.
"What is it now Phil?"
The unsuspecting manger moved closer as he started to explain, "Now please can't you just at least hear me out with this one." No response came, either a bad or good sign, he couldn't really tell, but it didn't stop him from continuing. "What I have is nothing big?"
Wildwing decided to play along, "Fine…let's hear it."
That came to a surprise to Phil, normally none of the others would want to hear any of it, but he didn't care at the moment. "Ok…I just want you and everyone else to make an appearance at a zoo, nothing big or dangerous," A smile appeared after stating his case.
Wildwing just smiled hearing this, and decided to take this even further. "Yeah…sure, sounds good."
"Really?" Phil questioned, that was the first time anyone of the ducks agreed to something like this. The manager just took it as a once in a lifetime opportunity. "Wow thanks, I know-" He didn't get that far as the mallard cut him off.
"Just answer me this one question," The facial expression changed from irritated to one of anger. "Do I look like an idiot Phil? Do I?"
Said manager started to back up, only for Wildwing to advance on him, "Uh…no."
His back hit the wall, two hands planted on each side of him, preventing any kind of escape. "Then why do you always insist on booking us on those stupid stunts?"
"Well…uh…" Phil began to stutter out but was cut off; as he was starting to feel scared.
"You're selfish, you know that," He rhetorically asked. "All you care about is yourself!"
"Hey that's not-"Wildwing threw a punch into the wall, cutting the manager off before he could finish. A punch like that made a dent in the wall, but it didn't seem to affect the duck. A small yell came from the man as his heart started to pound. The mallard didn't seem to feel any pain at all as he gripped Phil's shirt and lifted him up off the ground.
"I'm going to instill into you what I really think about your stupid publicity stunts, and yes it's going to hurt." With that Wildwing drew his fist back, preparing to strike. Phil's eyes shut as he waited for the blow to come.
Just then someone tackled Wildwing onto the ground, releasing Phil from his grasp. Looking up he could see that his assailant was Duke. "Are you crazy!" the one eyed duck yelled, just as everyone entered the scene.
Wildwing didn't care as he shoved him off and got back to his feet, looking back only to find that Phil had high tailed it out of there. "Look at what you did, you let him escape."
"How could you do that to Phil?" Mallory shouted as she helped Duke up.
"I was just telling him what I really thought about his publicity stunts, he had it coming," A smug smile appearing onto his face. .
"But bro you could have hurt him," Nosedive spoke, still surprised at what they just witnessed.
"I would have preferred it."
That shocked everyone when they heard this, violence was something that their leader would only do against Dragaunus, and not anyone else. His attitude has defiantly gone out of hand. "What is wrong with you?" Tanya asked, moving a bit closer. "You never uh…acted like this before."
He ended up turning his back on them, "Maybe my eyes final opened to all this hell I have to put up with and I'm not putting up with it anymore."
"That's not it; please tell us what it is so we can help you."
That agitated their leader even more, slowly turning he showed then a face of fury, "Help is the last thing I would need…especially from you."
"You know that-"She began to say as she tried to lay and hand on him but he roughly shook it off."
"Don't do that!" shouting as he turned back and was staring daggers at her. "The last thing I need is for you to touch me!"
That reaction caused her to back off a bit, "Whoa easy there."
"You think I would trust you with my life, like I already do with your inventions!"
Tanya didn't know why but that stung, she didn't fully understand but it still did. "What…what are you talking about?"
'Oh no,' Duke and Mallory thought at the same time, both knew what was coming next.
"I don't see why you even bother with the inventions, most of the time they don't work right, because you forget about the most important thing, testing them!"
"Wildwing stop!" Mallory shouted out, trying to end the outburst before it caused some emotional damage.
It didn't work as the words kept coming out, "You must be one of the most stupidest genius's out there if you forget that one simple step!"
"That's enough!" Duke called out, but the words have already started affect Tanya big time as she stood there with a blank face.
"If it wasn't for your intellect, you would be one of the most useless members of this team," A smile crept on to his face once it was done. The same blank look on her face was priceless and he was enjoying it.
The others looked at her, still in shock at what their leader had said. She ended up looking down on the ground, they weren't really sure but they thought they could see some tears.
Mallory came up and placed her hands on Tanya's shoulders, just as Duke pushed them back behind him. "Wildwing you're out of your mind!"
"I know, otherwise it wouldn't have felt so good," Turning his back to walk away.
"You're not going anywhere!" Mallory called out.
"I'd like to see anyone of you try to stop me," He responded without looking back.
But right on cue large arms enclosed around his body, which lifted him off the ground, it didn't really take that much thought to know who it was. "Grin put me down now, or else."
"Wildwing what has happened to you?" The peaceful one asked, trying his luck.
"Last warning!" Again he threated, remaining completely still in the larger mallard's grip.
"What has brought change within you, and why use it to hurt your friends.
He gave him the chance, now Wildwing was taking matters into his hands. Using both free hands he reached for Grin's wrists and pressed down on some sensitive pressure points, which could cause the toughest ducks to cry out in pain.
The effect was almost immediate, Grin shouted as pain shot through his arms, causing the grip to loosen enough for Wildwing to easily overpower the burley mallard. Keeping his hold on the points Wildwing pried the larges arms off of him and landed back on the ground, turning back to face them he rough shoved Grin back. Said duck was relieved when he was released and rubbed the almost numb skin. The others were shocked by their leaders actions, as far as they all knew no one could have out bested Grin like that. Heck even Nosedive was shocked, since he personally knew that his brother had no knowledge of pressure points. "I warned you, and that's what you get!"
Still the larger duck kept up his peaceful approach, "your aura is highly disturbed, this isn't-"
"Will you just shut up already!" That one comment did just that. "Why do you even talk like that, new flash: None of us don't understand what you are saying!" No one else tried to stop the verbal assault, in reality this was something they did want to bring up with him, but not like this. "You think you're the cool and collective member of the team, peace is all on your mind. Why don't you quit with all the Zen-like stuff and talk like a normal duck for once!"
Unlike the other this didn't affect Grin as much, "Anger, and hatred have overtaken you…you are incomplete."
"You shut up right now before I do something that you'll regret!" The threat seemed to take effect as the duck's beak remained closed. Seeing that his work was done Wildwing turned and left the others behind, the damage has been done.
They all took a big to recover from the confrontation, everyone took a verbal assault except Nosedive, which seemed to scare him the most because the same thing could happen later. "Wildwing is way out of line," Mallory commented first.
"But he is right in a way," Tanya final spoke up, surprising everyone. "What kind of inventor forgets on of the most important steps like that?"
"Don't listen to him, Wildwing is out of his mind!"
"I don't think that's Wildwing," Duke responded, earning a raised eye from everyone, as in to say 'please explain'. "Something doesn't feel right with him, you don't suppose this is an imposter?"
The possibility floated in everyone's mind, the more it fumbled into their minds the more it made sense. "If you don't think that's Wing," Nosedive asked, walked next to the one eyed duck. "That who do you think it is?"
"Don't know, but there's only one way to find out."
"The Mask!" They all called out, but then they realized that getting it would be a problem, since their leader wore it all the time.
"If we can't get it, what do we do then?" Tanya asked.
"We just have to wait for an opportunity to swipe it, don't know how long it could take. Maybe we can swipe it tomorrow when he least expects it."
That then caused alarms to go off in Nosedive's mind, "Hello, I share a room with him, I rather not sleep in the same room place with a crazy duck like that!"
"You can bunk with one of us kid, but for now let's just avoid him." They all seem to agree as they started to disburse, but Duke noticed that Grin was still in the same place he was in before. Walking up to him he voiced his concern, "Yo, you alright?"
The larger mallard didn't look at his friend as he spoke, "Something within Wildwing is missing, it's almost like…the darkness within has overtaken him." Without saying another word he left, leaving Duke behind wondering what he was talking about.
A/N: Hope you like, I had to change things up again, but it's only minor, so it won't ruin the story. I'll get the next one up soon.