Chapter 11

Accusations

"We can't find that cat anywhere. It's like he just disappeared. Mallory and Grin are still looking." Nosedive said as he entered into Talon's room. Wildwing, Tanya and Duke were in there. Tanya was medically checking Talon out again. She took the thermometer out of Talon's mouth and shook her head. It's been two weeks since Talon was hit with this infection. The green was now up on the right side of her face. Tanya guessed that Talon was doing her best to stop the infection. "How's she doing?"

"Her body temp keeps dropping. At this rate she'll..."

"Don't say it! She's going to be fine!" Wildwing shook his head.

"Of course she is, Wing," Duke said as he place a hand on Wildwing's shoulder. He was probably the most calm out of the group right now. Even Grin was finding it hard to concentrate on meditation.

"Nothing is raising her temp and she has several blankets and hot water bottles on her. What do we have to do? Drop her into the heart of a volcano?" Nosedive snapped.

"Calm down, Nosedive. Listen to yourself," Tanya said.

"Come on, you two. Let's let Talon rest," Duke grabbed their shoulders and stirred them out of the room, leaving Wildwing with Talon.

Wildwing reached out and touched Talon's forehead. She shivered in her sleep and rolled over onto her left side, now facing him. They have done everything they possibly could to help Talon, but with their lack of knowledge on how her powers actually work with her body...they were utterly clueless how to help her. They debated taking her to the hospital but Wildwing immediately shot that idea down as they had no clue how to explain to them why her arm was green. So they did their best with the medicine they had in their own infirmary.

Talon broke into a coughing fit. Wildwing stepped away from her to grab another thick blanket from her closet. He placed it on top of the three blankets that was already on top of her. Still she shivered uncontrollably. Suddenly, something propelled him to banish his armor and kicked off his shoes before he lifted up and climbing into bed with her, he even took off the mask. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her as close to his chest as he possibly could, making sure to place her right hand right against his chest. He lightly smiled as he was very thankful to be wearing feathers. Her skin was so cold it could probably freeze water at this point.

After several minutes of him holding her close, she responded to his warmth and opened her eyes. Through her blurry vision she could easily make out how worried he was about her. Her voice was low and raspy as she spoke. "Hey..."

"Hey yourself, kid. We were really worried about you," Wildwing spoke softly as he stroked his thumb over her hand.

"I...s-sorry..."

"For what?"

"Worry you...nothing but worry you," Talon stumbled over her words, as she broke into another coughing fit, but he could tell what she meant. He held her close until her coughing subsided.

"Don't worry, honey. You're family. Of course we're going to worry about you. At least it looks like you're getting better. You haven't responded to anything for two weeks."

"T-Two? Ho...How..."

"Shh...Hush now. Just sleep and get better," Wildwing said as she tried to keep herself awake. "We'll be here when you wake up."

As her eyes closed she closed her hand around Wildwing's and fell into a deep sleep.

Five weeks later...

"You sure about this?" May asked as she sleeked around a corner of the head quarters with Talon.

"What happened to your sense of adventure?" Talon tried to keep her scratch voice from alerting the others to what she and May were presently doing. It was kind of hard when she needed to talk loud or her voice would mute out while she was talking low due to her constant coughing the past several weeks. "I've been locked up in this place for almost two months. I need to get out of here or I'm going to bust."

"I know that, Talon," May said as she fidgeted uncomfortably. "But Wildwing doesn't want you to push yourself."

"Oh! He worries like a mother hen," Talon quipped then added an after thought. "Sometimes I wonder if he has chicken blood in him somewhere on his family tree. That would explain a lot."

"He's a leader. It's his job to worry about his family," May frowned. "And I'm still a bit worried about you too. That illness was wicked! Quite literally in fact. You should make sure you're all healed. One hundred percent."

"And you think that sitting 'round insid' is goin' to o 'hat?" Talon asked but all the whispering she was doing made her mispronounce words. Talon coughed a few times to clear her throat. May gave her a concerned look. "What?"

"It's...nothing...I guess," May rubbed the back of her head. Her eyes dropped down to Talon's arm. Talon's body temperature had shot way up but she was still cold to the touch, which was why she was wearing one of Wildwing's sweaters and one of own sweaters underneath, letting Wildwing's sleeve fall over her right hand to hide the still slight green tint to her skin.

"Then come on," Talon said as she lead the way out of the pond.

"Oh man," May looked back over her shoulder. "They're going to kill me when she finds out. And Wildwing...I don't even want to think what he's going to do to me."

May joined Talon in the elevator and the proceeded quickly and quietly through the pond until they got outside. Talon stretched out her arms as the warm sun beamed down on her, still slightly cold, skin. She adjusted Wildwing's sweater and made sure her right arm was completely covered, she wore a little of Mallory's makeup to hide the green on her face and neck. May watched as Talon's eyes darted everywhere. Talon barely noticed just about everyone around giving her harsh glares. "It feels so good to be out of that pond!"

Talon's smile vanished when her eyes landed on a couple of girls, a little older than they were, whispering to each other and looking at her. She put her hands on her hips and glared at them. "What?"

"You! How dare..."

"Talon! There's a sale over there!" May grabbed Talon's arm and dragged her away from the two glaring girls.

"Hey! What was that for?" Talon asked.

"There's a sale here! I didn't want to miss it!" May replied.

"Out buying a new outfit for you new man?" A guy asked.

"Excuse me?" Talon turned to the brown haired boy.

"Not cool, chick. I'm not into the dating scene...but still not cool," The boy shook his head and walked away.

"What was that about?" Talon asked.

"Look! This dress is so cute!" May smiled and pointed at the dress in the window. "Don't you think it would look good on me?"

"What's with you today?" Talon asked.

"I think that dress would look great on you...but a white and black stripe suit would look even better on you two jail birds," May and Talon shrunk down at the sound of an ex-theif's voice and his shadow loomed over them.

"Duuuke! What a nice surp..." Talon raised her voice to fast and was hit with a coughing fit. She covered her mouth and turned away from them.

"That's why Wildwing doesn't want you out here just yet," Duke said as he rubbed her back. Her coughing subsided and she gasped for air. He then helped her over to a near by bench and they sat down.

"Sorry. I guess I'm not as healed as I thought I was," Talon said as she leaned tiredly against his side.

"It's my fault. I shouldn't have let her escape. I should have called one of you," May apologized.

"No. Don't blame her. I wanted to do this," Talon said.

"How did you know we left?" May asked.

"I'm a thief, kid. It's in my blood to know when someone's sneaking around," Duke smiled.

"Ex-thief," May corrected.

"Right. Ex-thief."

"Nosedive isn't enough for you, huh? You have to go after Duke too?" Talon raised her eyes to a group of three teenager girls, a blonde, black hair and a brunette. They were dressed nicely and gave off the air of being cheerleaders.

"Excuse me?" Talon asked. May and Duke exchanged looks. "What are you talking about?"

"He's, like, sixty years old," The brown haired girl said as she pointed at Duke.

"Hey! I am not!" Duke protested.

"Yeah. He's, like, a sweet daddy," The black haired girl giggled.

"That's sugar daddy, Maddie," The blonde corrected.

"What are you people talking about?" Talon asked again, her voice getting more and more raspy. "What about Nosedive?"

"You're such a looser!" The blonder girl spat. "Wildwing should know better than you have you hanging around. He's so much better than you."

"What?" Talon shot up from her seat. The sudden movement caused her to get dizzy. She had to sit back down.

"Come on, girls. Let's get out of here," The blonde said and left with her friends.

"What in the world is going on here?" Talon asked as she placed her hand on her head. May and Duke just remained quiet, passing looks between each other. Talon finally caught this and looked at them. "What's going on?"

"It's nothing. Let's go back to the pond. You're obviously not ready to be out and about," May said as she stood up with a fake smile.

"Yeah. Let's get back before Wildwing notices you're gone," Duke added, also with a fake smile.

"I'm not going to...uh," Talon got herself ready to demand her friends tell her what was going on but she got her answer when an adult was reading a paper and looked over at her and shook his head. The man folded his paper and walked off but not before shaking his head at Talon again. "It's another news article, isn't it?"

Duke and May dropped their eyes to the ground. Talon broke away from them and ran towards the comic shop. They ran after her. "Talon! Wait!"

Thrash was sitting behind the counter as Mookie was stocking some selves when Talon came busting into the shop. She slammed her hands on the counter and demanded, in a squeaky voice, for newspapers. "'et me see 'hem!"

"What?" Thrash blinked at her.

"New'pape's!" Talon coughed. "NOW!"

"Uh," Thrash and Mookie exchanged looks. Since Talon knew where they placed their own papers, she went behind the counter and just grabbed them. Her eyes widened at the stories. All the past weeks newspapers had an article of her cheating on Wildwing with Nosedive.

"Talon!" May and Duke said as they entered the shop.

"'his why you didn't wan' me to go o't?" Talon asked through her raspy voice and tears. They nodded. "Stup'd! I nev'r! These photos are tampered with!"

"We know that, Talon," Duke said as he tried to comfort her. She shook her head and ran away from him. She ran out the back door of the shop and headed for the pond.

"Sorry, guys," Mookie said.

"Don't worry about it," Duke said.

"She would have found out sooner or later," May added as she followed Duke back to the pond.

...

Talon ran through the pond and down into the headquarters. She rounded a corner and almost smacked into Wildwing. "Whoa! Tal, I though you were in your room with May."

Talon looked at him and back away. He noticed the tears in her eyes and reach for her. "Tally, what happened? Why are you crying?"

Talon backed away from him more. He gave her a confused look. She just shook head head and ran past him. She was too scared to touch him, to get close to him. She didn't want anymore stories about her in the paper. Wildwing whipped around ran after her. "Talon! Wait!"

Once she got to her room, she locked the door and fell face first on her bed, burying her face into her pillow. When Wildwing started banging on the door she tried to tell him to go away but she was so upset her voice disappeared on her. "Talon! Open this door!"

"What's going on, Wildwing?" Mallory asked as she and Nosedive walked up to him.

"I don't know. Talon was crying and locked herself in her room."

"There has to be a reason," Nosedive said. "There's no way Talon would shut you out for nothing."

"I know," Wildwing said. "Talon! Open this door right now or I'm going to over right the lock!"

"Wildwing, wait!" May said as she and Duke ran up to them. "She...um..."

"Talon found out about the newspaper articles," Duke said.

"And how did she do that? She's suppose to be staying inside until she's better," Wildwing glared at Duke and May.

"It was..."

"My fault," Duke interrupted May's confession to take the blame for her. "I know it was wrong but she was feeling so cooped up in here. I'm sorry."

Wildwing stood there for a few minutes and processed that information. They all pretty much knew he didn't believe it. He knew Duke was more responsible than that. He let it go and turned back to the door to override the lock. He entered alone, closing the door behind him.

Talon was laying face down on her bed. Wildwing walked over and sat down. "I should have told you about the articles. It's just that...you've been through a lot lately and I didn't want to upset you more."

"I can't handle this, Wildwing," Talon lifted head up from the bed and whispered. "I can't."

She sat up and looked at him with pleading eyes. "Wildwing, make it stop! Please! Just make it stop! I don't want it anymore! I don't feel safe anymore! First Ash and that stupid cat! And now someone is taking pictures of me with Nosedive and manipulating them into something it's not! I'm tired of it!"

"I know you are, sweetie," Wildwing pulled her to his chest.

"Who's doing this? Why are they doing this?" Talon's muffled voice asked then coughed again.

"Forelock," Wildwing said as he held Talon close.

"But why? Why is she doing this? Why me? Is it really because of my power?"

"I don't know," Wildwing said calmly. "Maybe it's time to find out."

"Really?" Talon pulled away and looked at him.

"I am going to make it stop. I will protect you from this," Wildwing said as he brushed away her tears. "It's going to be alright again."

Talon nodded. Wildwing scooted back farther on the bed and leaned against the wall. He then pulled Talon back into his arms. She shifted until she got comfortable then closed her eyes