XENA

I woke when my alarm clock sounded off and turned to press the snooze button. I sent my gaze around the room, seeing posters on my wall of the Duck's team, a few rock bands, action movies, a Chuck Norris, a Cynthia Rothrock, and one with rearing black horse with a stormy background. The rest of my room was neat and orderly with fantasy figurines dotting the surfaces here and there.

With a flurry I was out of bed and quickly dressed. "Bring me luck and help me find my friend," I murmured, rubbing the head of a Golden Dragon figurine. "I'm going out! Be back later!" I yelled as I darted out of my room glancing into the living room.

"And where do you think you're going?" My father snarled, his voice ugly, as he sat in his lounger, a beer in his big hand as usual.

"Let her go out," my mother said meekly.

"Shut your fat pie hole and get me another beer!" my father snapped nastily at her.

Saying nothing and not looking in her husband's direction, my mother climbed to her feet. She was a pretty woman who looked a lot like me, though now she looked downtrodden, older than she should with deep wrinkles and graying hair. But despite the slumped, defeated shoulders, I found some hidden strength and spirit still left in her despite all my father's efforts to stamp it out.

My father on the other hand was a disenchanted and abusive drunk. He'd been the typical high school jock who thought the world owed him everything but who learned quickly that you were only as good as you made yourself but he was far too lazy and found himself not such a big fish when he joined boxing in college and failed to meet the standards of both academics and the boxing world. Thrown out after his second semester, he settled on a menial job that paid nearly nothing and decided the whole world was against him.

His wife, who he'd married just before he was kicked out college, suffered under his bad temper and disillusionment. Despite his position in life, he still felt he was the bread winner in this family so refused to allow his wife to work to bring more income in and never let her out of the house least she decide to leave him. She haunted the house, a ghost of her former self. But despite her treatment by her husband, she lavished her love and attention on me, her only child, who adored her.

As she came out of the living room heading for the kitchen, she paused to smile at me then nodded toward the door. I smiled back and mouthed 'may stay with a freind I love you' then turned and went out the door quickly.

Moments later, I was out the door of the apartment building and looking around, immediately spotting one of the Duckcycles a short distance away, Mallory at the wheel.
"Took you long enough. We've got to get started," she said, throwing me a helmet which I caught and put on.

"Anything new?" I asked as I climbed on behind her.

"Tanya may have narrowed the search position, the dart helped with that."

"Then what are we waiting for!" I shouted and she hit the gas.

WILDWING

We pulled up to the gate of the complex where the clues had led us and climbed out to confront the security guard we could see watching us.

"If the security was any tighter you might as well call this place a base." I muttered looking around at the high walls, strong gate and security cameras. The sign over the gate stated, 'Paradine Research Labs'.

The moment we came in mass toward the gate itself, a guard in black military style fatigues stepped out from the small guard shack, an automatic rifle slung over his shoulder and held casually.

"Please state your business," he said, politely.

"We need to see someone in authority," I demanded. "And we aren't leaving until we do," I added when I saw refusal in his eyes.

He stared at us for a long moment then returned to his guard shack and picked up a phone. He spoke for several minutes then came back out to us.

"Someone is coming to speak with you."

I nodded and we all waited. Soon a little gold cart, sort of like a golf cart, came rolling up on the other side of the gate. In it were three men. Two were dressed like the guard, wore sunglasses and were more muscular than the gate guard, the third had greased back hair and wore a fine suit.

The three stepped out of the cart and approached the gate and stared at the Ducks. "May I help you?" the man in the fine suit asked.

"You have our foster kid in there somewhere and we want them back?" I said coldly.

He frowned. "Why would we want your foster kid and what makes you think they are here?" he asked haughtily.

I held up the dart. "We found this at the scene of the kidnapping," I said.

He chuckled and shook his head. "That dart could have come from anywhere."

"No it couldn't have. The serial number clearly says they were shipped to your facility, no where else," Tanya said, with certainty.

The man with the suit stared at us, his face going cold and expressionless, "it may have been sent here but that does not mean it was used by one of our people and still does not prove we have this boy you're looking for."

He made a blatant mistake and I smiled and chuckled. Everyone of the team were wearing the same smug look.

The suit blinked in surprise and asked, "What may I ask is so funny?"

"We never said it was a he," I said, coldly.

The suits face hardened. "I want all you to clear out of here in five minutes or else I will call the police," he said flatly. He snapped his fingers.

Instantly, the gate guard plus the other two guys with the suit held up weapons and pointed them at us.

All but Xena were suddenly in battle armor which startled the guards but no one made a move to attack just yet.

"We'll be back with a warrant and our own army," I warned the man then signaled for everyone to return to the Migrator.

Once aboard, Mallory said, "well at least we know where he is."

I nodded. "Get ahold of Kleghorn, tell him were on our way to see him and that I need a big favor from him. I just hope they don't move Drake or harm him before we get back."

MALLORY

We had burst into Kelghorn's office only a short time later but what the man had to say wasn't what I wanted to hear.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW?"I shouted at him, slamming my palms down on his desk.

"Need I remind you that you guys were the ones who decided to go lone wolf on this? If you had told us the moment you knew Drake had been taken we could have had a warrant before you even found the place. Paradine has a lot of pull in this town with the research they do. Hardly any judge is going to sign a warrant for it to be searched without due process and iron clad evidence!" Kelghorn barked leaping to his feet.

"Are you kidding? They practically admitted to us they have him!" Xena barked.

"Do you have proof?" Kleghorn demanded.

Tanya tapped a button on her Omnitool and a recording of the conversation played back. "That's not good enough. He could easily say that tape was doctored, plus Drake being your foster son is not a state secret," Kleghorn spat.

Wrenching it from Wildwing's pocket I slammed the dart down on his desk. "What about that? That was the dart Drake was shot with. You'll find his blood on the tip and tranquilizer in it," I demanded.

Kleghorn looked at it then at us. "And you have absolute proof that this could only have come from Paradine?" he asked, hesitantly.

"Vacuumed sealed," Tanya said.

Kleghorn sat back down. "We still have to wait till tomorrow. I can only think of one judge who might sign off on it and he doesn't get back till tomorrow morning. So either way we have to wait," he sighed.

"So we have to pray, Drake holds out that long," I said bitterly.

DRAKE

Time was meaningless as I lay in whatever I was being kept in. I had no idea how long I had been there. A day, a week, a month, a year?

I felt no hunger or thirst. I felt no pain. Just utter emptiness.

In that time, my mind played every memory, every thought, every fantasy of my life. The funny thing was, it played it over and over again until I was beginning to doubt what I was seeing was actually real. Doubts began to float through my mind: were my parents alive or dead, was I duck or human, was I a street urchin or had a home. It was like losing my mind a bit at a time.

Through it all, I thought I sang, cried, screamed, laughed, shouted in anger, all the emotions of the rainbow and at other times slept with no thought at all. All of it ran together except for one thing.

'Some things are and always will be certain,' a voice said.

My heart skipped a few beats. 'I'm sorry if I startled you, and I don't normally do this but your need is great,' the voice continued.

The voice seemed to come from no where and everywhere. I couldn't tell if it was in my brain or hearing it with my ears but the feeling I got hearing it was of something huge ... powerful ... alien ... like it was the giant and I was but an ant in its presence.

'That's it! I've finally lost my mind completely!' I thought.

'I assure you that you are not losing your mind,' it said.

'Can this thing hear my thoughts?' I asked myself.

'What do you think?' it said and I would not be surprised if my eyes had popped out my head.

'There is no need for alarm, I'm not with them,' it said as my fear ebbed in.

'Then who are you?'

There was silence for a couple of minutes then… 'You will know in time but for right now you must do as I say if you want to escape from this.'

I thought about it. 'Uh...how do I know I can trust you?'

Silence again. 'If you can't trust me then you can't trust anyone,' it said plainly.

That seemed to make sense to me so, 'tell me what to do.'

'Relax, and I mean completely...you have to slow your heart rate down. I'll do my best to help you but this has to come mostly from you...I can only do so much.'

Slowly, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Or at least I thought I did.

The seconds ticked by as I focused on just breathing in and out...nothing else. Gradually, though I didn't notice it at first, the pressure and tension in my head began to ease and various parts of my body seemed to relax.

My breathing slowed, each inhale and exhale spread further and further apart until it seemed I no longer breathed at all. It seemed my body was slowly, quietly shutting down. Then at long last the first thing I could actually hear was my heartbeat. It too was slowing down, the beats spacing out as my breathing had.

I lay submerged in that liquid not moving an inch. All I did was listen to the sound of my heart beating and willed it to go slower. I don't know how long I kept at it...a minute...half an hour, it was meaningless then a new sensation came over me, like something was being sucked up.

Slowly, I felt the water dropping around me until at last my side touched something but I remained still even though my body was afire with pain from my neglected sences. I heard something open above me and blessed light poured in, hands grabbed me and lifted me upward.

"You were supposed to be monitoring his vitals!" a voice barked, sounding horribly loud to me after that long silence I'd endured but I kept my body still and didn't flinch.

"I was! They just dropped!" another said, anxiously, as I was laid on something hard and cold.

I struggled to keep my muscles loose as I waited for the right moment. "Look...just inject the adrenaline in him...we've got to get his heart rate up!" the first snapped, urgently.

I felt something wrap around my upper arm. Instantly, I grabbed the man by the wrist, my eyes snapping open and seeing two men in white lab coats. Before he could react, I twisted and rammed my fist in one's face then just as fast, kicked the other in the face.

In a flash I rolled off the gurney I was on and turning kicked the first man again hard in the chest. With my foot still raised I kicked him hard in the face and I felt his nose break and he fell back out cold. Hearing movement I turned and saw the second man go for a phone.

I shoved the gurney aside brought my leg up high and brought it down on his forearm feeling his bones break. My foot back on the ground, I twisted around and brought my other foot across his face, sending him back. Giving him a brief look, I saw he was cradling his arm which had a couple of odd angles to it now, I looked away and stared down at myself and saw I was wearing only a tight pair of shorts.

Keeping an eye on him, I moved away from the table to the roll around stand that held the syringe they had intended to use on me. Sitting there were bottles of medication. I filled the syringe halfway with the contents of one of them before leaning down and jamming the needle into the first man's ass, emptying it into the soft tissue, insuring he'd not be getting up anytime soon.

"You bastard! You broke my arm!" the second guy hissed, glaring at me from the floor as I swiped the other man's keys and stuck them in the top of my shorts.

My eyes afire with anger, I stalked over to him, the syringe still in my hand. I paused to grab two medication vials then continued on to the angry, hurt man. "There are two hundred and six bones in the human body, THAT'S TWO! And I'll do worse if you don't do as I say! Now don't move!" I growled grabbing him.

I twisted him around, locking up his good arm as I shoved him against the tank I had been in. To keep him in place, I jammed my knee into his spine.

"What are you going to do?" the man asked weakly as I dropped one vial and filled the syringe completly with the other then dropped it.

I lowered my leg, grabbed his good arm and twisted it back toward me before jamming the filled needle into his neck. "Do I have your full and complete cooperation?" I demanded.

"Yes," he said, trembling.

"Good, NOW MOVE IT!" I barked.

PLEASE REVIEW