Chapter 38, everybody! And I think in my writing up on this I might be getting close to having it entirely written out…might bump it up to posting twice a week once that happens but in the meantime know that we have updates clean into the new year. :D

Continuing blanket disclaimer: I still have not finished Season Two. We're flying blind, boys. Still keeping up with Season 3, though, and…I did watch a tiny bit Friday and I question how a bunch of tech geniuses failed to have an antivirus program more effective than what I can get. :\ And again, a good chunk of these chapters were written before I had been able to bring myself to watch "Countdown to Catastrophe"…and in other news, yes I'm still in denial of the end of "Countdown to Catastrophe" don't at me. D:

As with last chapter, this chapter was one of those that were written ahead, and written when all I knew of the episode "Muira-Horror" was Ned's monster form on the commercials. So…unique approach time. :D In other news: appropriate music for this chapter would be "Sharptooth and the Earthquake" from the Land Before Time soundtrack. You'll see why in a bit. ;)

Also uh…so there's birds shown in Muirahara Woods but part of the story demands for this AU is that Bessie affects magnetic fields (since strong magnetic fields would disrupt technology) which would also affect birds. It's something that's a major plot point with flecks in the Guardians of Ga'Hooleseries, which was a big inspiration and definitely worth a read. :D

Also, anyone remember IKEA's "Start the car!" commercial? Same energy.

Angelwings2002, thanks for the review! AHHH ME TOO! Webby definitely knows how to introduce herself. :D Me too—and me too. D:

Hexyah, thanks for the review! Who is Alison and what does her cow costume have to do with anything? Yeah it's been a bit in meta time—not in the fic though, since it's been…pff, maybe two days? Yes, I would think Fred's mom would notice bird-people….

SilverPhoenix, thanks for the reviews! We'll find out and yes! And yes and yes and thank you. :D And hopefully Hiro will be meeting a Tadashi soon….And yes excited bird-kids, good charades, and she is Webby, bringer of death. :O Probably! I kind of headcanon that Tadashi was friends with Fred first out of their whole group (with Fred meeting the rest when he tags along with Tadashi to SFIT), and that their dynamic is something like Bill and Ted or Miguel and Tulio. :D YES!

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

Ducktales © 2017 Disney

Dead.

Dead dead I'm so dead WE'RE dead—

Crashing, splintering—his whole world was suddenly the dying shriek of a tree, branches stabbing deep into the earth, slicing through the sod, sending it breaking away down into the river—ground falling away beneath his stomach—

New shrieking—look up—the branches had missed him, missed Nox, missed the other bird-kids—Lena and Webby were scrambling for purchase—

Nox kicked his legs free, grabbed at a branch with his back feet—

Hiro was suddenly dangling, almost perpendicular, supported only by Nox's grip on a branch.

Panic—heart—it wasn't wanting to work right—it had figured out first that they had just had a very narrow miss—brain wasn't wanting to work, just a blank static haze of panic—heart thudding out of tempo—couldn't suck a breath in—

Managed to suck a breath in—had to cough and splutter at the dirt—squint up, saw Lena leaning to grab Nox, squawking for him—saw Fred, still hanging onto her back—

Webby was climbing up one of the branches, inching her way towards them—maybe she was saying something, he didn't know—the tree's dying breath was still dominating his ears—

Another low boom—everyone flinched, looked—Hiro knew—another explosion—

Knew intrinsically that it was where the bird-people must be.

Muscles twitching—higher reasoning was starting to return—gingerly kick out, start swinging—had to get his feet against solid ground—it didn't matter if it was at a severe slope—he had to help get them out of this—

Hearing was starting to return too, enough for him to hear screams in the air—screams that didn't belong to anyone here.

They knew, though—he could see it, see it in the bird-kids' eyes, their expressions—redouble his efforts, dig his trainers in the sod—Lena spotted him, reached down—he was closer—look at Nox—he needed a hand free—

He had seen that expression before, too, on that face.

And then Nox let go of his left hand, letting him throw it up at Lena—

Sharp claws dug into the flesh just beneath his wrist—she hauled back, spine arching—Fred grabbed her around the waist, Violet on the ground and pulling on the tail of his shirt as he tugged—

And then Hiro's other hand was scrabbling against solid ground, as his knees hit dirt and pushed him away from the edge—flop back, chest heaving, barely registering Nox and Webby crawling upside-down for them—

Another explosion—another tree angling down—

The bird-kids jumped, scrambled at the dirt, hauled themselves up—everyone scrambling back as the second tree crashed into the first, sending both crashing down into the river—

Hiro wasn't sticking around to see if the ground would give beneath them.

Grab Nox's wrist, scramble upright, hollering run—his own voice felt like it was coming from the other end of a long tunnel—push at Lena, point away from the explosions, following the river—it had to lead to the bay at some point, it was their best bet—

Fred scooped Violet up, sprinted—Lena and Webby bounded forward, shrieking and glancing back, finding a thin trail through the trees—Hiro let go of Nox, put his arms up to shield his face as they crashed through the underbrush, shrieks travelling through the forest around them—it was chaos, mad chaos—the fog was blood-red from the fires behind—

Glance back once, to see flames licking distant trees—absently thought that Ned would be furious when he got back up here—Nox's eyes were wide and gleaming fear as he bounded along on all fours, angling around Hiro, glancing back—fling up his tail so the tip waved in Hiro's face, squawking—

Hiro wasn't quite sure just why he grabbed on, but the moment he did he found himself nearly yanked off his feet, Nox pulling him along—again he was pushed to the ends of his limits and beyond, muscles jelly, sweat blinding, breath ragged—he couldn't—awareness boiling down to his gasping breath, the dull thud-thud-thud of his feet and his heart—just—let it be over soon, please—

Snap-snap-snap—

The sound of sneaker treads on asphalt.

Awareness startled back to him—the parking lot! There, the limo!

"Start the car!" Fred was screaming, waving an arm. "Start the car!"

Cracking, splintering, a dying groan—

Hiro risked a glance back, could see branches snapping, could hear them crying out as another tree broke through, angling down—

Nox dodged sideways, yanking Hiro along with him—

Hiro had his face shielded with his free hand, still cried out when splinters went flying—the limo was angling for them, side door sliding open—

Fred dove in, Webby and Lena bounding in after him—Nox leaped in—Hiro jumped, foot caught the edge, sending him tumbling in, knees scraping—someone squawked—

But the limo was already speeding off, door sliding shut, cutting off the screams of a forest in distress.

Hiro rolled off of whoever he had landed on—Nox, he realized when the bird-kid sat up—laid there, gasping, trying to suck in a decent breath, watching branches whisk away through what he could see of the windows…it was over, they were out….

With more questions than answers, with at least fifteen or sixteen bird-people who had…what, been attacked? Burned? The whole forest was on fire—the guy who would have defended it with his dying breath turned into a monster—

Who was responsible crept through his awareness like a deep chill, the why frosting along his bones.

Sycorax. After the bird-people they must have been responsible for, perhaps burning everything to cover their tracks.

Burning everyone….

He was shaking, he realized—realized Fred was saying his name, leaning over him and looking concerned—

Realized someone else was shaking next to him. Look—Nox, laying there with his good wing draped over Hiro, curled up, fists against his head and eyes shut tight, Lena laying next to him with a wing draped over him—Violet still had a death-grip on Fred's torso, Webby was making soft sad noises—

"—Hiro—Hiro buddy, speak to me. Are you okay?"

Hiro blinked—blinked several times more, trying to process, trying to restart his brain—his entire existence had boiled down to getting away, his mind had recoiled at the idea of someone destroying the woods and potentially murdering people, at the idea that they had very nearly died….

The first noise he made was somewhere between a deep exhale and a cough. "Y-yeah," he managed, getting something sounding like speech going. "I'm here." Not okay—not after all that—

Fred heaved a sigh of relief. "Oh good man—I was—like, a dozen times, thinking we were about to die, you know?"

Hiro nodded, thought about getting up—didn't think he was ready for that just yet. "I…I'm just going to…I'm going to just lay here, for a minute."

"Cool, cool, good idea," Fred said, easing from a crouching position to a sitting position, putting his weight on the side of his hip as he craned to see out the back window. "Aw man…."

"Is it bad?"

"It's messy," Fred confirmed, twisting to a sitting position—pumped his fist at the front of the limo. "But props to my man Heathcliff! Getting us out of there in record time—nerves of steel, man!"

"Indeed sir," Heathcliff said.

Webby bounced up into the open partition. "Hi! I'm Webby!"

As it turned out, there was at least one way to rattle Heathcliff mightily.


Louie hit the sandbar hard enough to go into a tumbling skid, Dewey and Della rolling behind, Della shrieking in protest when her broken-leg failed to hold her weight, Huey touching down last, hugging the box tight to his chest, heaving as he looked behind, trying to see if anyone was following—

Louie laid there, gasping—tried rolling, pushing himself up when sand threatened to get in his mouth and nares and eyes, sticking to his wet facial feathers—dig his beak into the water just a short crawl away—spit it back out when it was salty and nasty and yuck.

He didn't want to turn around—didn't want to look, already knew what he was going to see—

He finally rolled to his hip, looked behind bleakly—Dewey was fretting over Della, sitting there and trying to wave him off, Huey staring at the forest behind and upriver, trembling—

A forest that was on fire and echoing with screams.

He should have known—he should have known when Grump came back without 'Kase and 'Dashi, shortly after Webby and Lena and Violet had left to look for them look for Nox, after they had heard their message of danger-careful-not safe-careful-careful-careful—Grump had landed hard and heavy in the clearing, careful of one paw before collapsing in a heap.

The olders immediately started fretting and fussing over him—Brittany took the box he had shoved at them—Sashi panicked at the sight of his leg, Huey trying to be helpful and running around the clearing looking for the bitter plant Sashi had made Della chew on—all of them asking what had happened.

There's no point in trying to explain it to you, Grump had grumbled, laying down in a deep sag that suggested he was going to sleep until the next day. Wait until the others get back.

That made Louie protect the fragile trust deep in his chest, made him ward off the blow angling for it—Grump seemed sure that the others would come back.

That trust started crumbling from within the longer they waited, though.

The olders discussed the box as Grump slept—Louie eavesdropped in a not-obvious way by flopping down in Sue's lap, letting her hug him close and pet his head—none of them thought that he or the others understood, which was a sort-of truth—gleaned from what they said that the box contained some sort of…poison. That's what it had to be, to take away wings take away tail take away feathers—

Maybe the others had gotten the poison. Maybe they were stuck, stranded—maybe they should go find them right now

Louie had forced himself to stay calm, even though all his feathers wilfed down tight to his body and a whimper escaped his beak—despite himself, he had clung tightly to Sue, not wanting to be near the no-good bad poison wanting comfort

The angry roaring that had been echoing through the forest sounded again, sounding far away and chasing something else—it still made the olders tighten, made them start herding everyone in close—Louie squawked and cawed, telling the others to play and tumble to distract as the olders did a headcount—

Grump knew, Grump wasn't fooled, Grump was able to do the count before the other olders and demanded to know where Webby and Lena and Violet were.

Out looking for you, Louie had huffed.

Grump seemed to think that was foolish, opened his beak to say so—

And then the first of the dark things crashed through the woods, speeding into the clearing and shooting bright lights that made the underbrush catch fire—

Panic—screaming—everyone scrambling everywhere, Louie rolling to the ground, bouncing back up only for Dewey to crash into him—fly—sky was safe—except the dark things were zipping around in the sky, above their heads, forcing them down—

Bigger dark things, things that like the sky-things had no feathers, came charging through next, pointing at them and making fft noises—

Mei shrieked when Beth went crashing down and didn't get back up, wings crumpled limply—crawled out of her arms, shaking her, begging her to wake up, wake up please

More came—Louie grabbed onto Dewey, onto Huey when he went skidding in—balled up on the ground, quaking, shrieking, hoping it would be over soon—'Dashi—'Dashi where was 'Dashi—

One of the black things came for them—

Was knocked out of the way by flashing sharp claws.

Louie stared, not quite believing—Grump standing over them, wings spread, screaming in outrage, nasty glowing quills sticking out of his fur—

Shoving the box of poison at them.

Take this and RUN.

That was the last thing he said—the last thing Louie heard any of the olders say—he ramped up, clawing the air, screaming anger-hurt-DESTROY—charged the black things, throwing them everywhere—Sue was trying to protect the youngers, trying to wake Beth up—Sashi was at Brittany's side, pulling one of the glowing quills out of her, sobbing—suddenly went down on top of her, more nasty glowing quills bristling out of his back—

Louie, wings draped over Huey and Dewey, making eye contact with a terrified Della belly-crawling to them—they had to run—they had to run—

Running meant leaving the others—the olders that protected them, the youngers that couldn't get away—the thought made him want to retch—

RUN!

The shriek ripped out of him—he grabbed Huey, clumsy with the box—Dewey dashed ahead, grabbed Della and hauled her forward—they plunged into the forest, shrieking to follow the river, follow the river to 'Dashi—maybe someone would hear, maybe the youngers would hear and follow—trees were falling, dying from blasts from the flying things harrying them and the fire blazing—

And now he was looking back at the burning forest, feeling sick at himself, hating everything that had prompted the need to run, to leave the others—they were flock were flight and he had led the charge in abandoning them.

Trust was crumbling to pieces now—where was 'Dashi? 'Dashi was supposed to be good and safe and older-brother and safe—Louie had trusted him, and now where was he?

He was shivering now, quaking—wrap his wings tight around himself, arms tight around himself, tail tight around himself, trying to stop the shaking—it wasn't working he was tired he was scared he wanted 'Dashi he wanted any of the olders he didn't want to think about the youngers screaming and crying he wanted them to be all right he wanted all of them to be all right he wanted to go back to before they had even set sight on the bad-woods why had they come here anywhere had been better than here maybe not the bad-place but everywhere else had—

The others were shaking now—Della and Dewey were hugging each other, keening—Huey was sitting there, hugging the box tight, wings limp, shaking so hard that feathers were coming loose—

Louie came up next to him, put wing around him—

Huey collapsed against him, keening so hard it made Louie ache—he started sobbing, sagging against Huey he didn't want this he wanted 'Dashi where was 'Dashi where he said he'd never let anything happen to them where was he?

Trust was now crushed-egg.

It was a long time before they were cried out, when Louie separated from Huey and started trying to clear his nares of snot and tears—snorted several times, swallowed, wiped his beak…they couldn't stay here…they couldn't stay here they needed plan

If we're not back in two days, follow the river down to the bay.

Louie wasn't certain if it had been two days, but they had followed the river to the bay, were sitting on a little sandy bar at the mouth of it—

Della made a quiet murmur of amazement, prompting him to turn around, to take note of the thing across the bay that Louie had failed to notice on the mad flight here.

'Dashi there? Huey asked quietly, hugging the box tight as they stared, trying to take in the enormity of the big shining thing in front of them, gleaming over the entire expanse of the water, taking up the whole shore across from them—so many bright lights and colors, flickers of movement—

The crushed-egg crackled a little—'Dashi could be there.

He sniffed, snorted, inhaled deeply to try to get the choking sad out—

Scented something familiar.

Sniff again, sniff carefully at the sand, padding around, seeing where their pawprints crisscrossed with larger pawprints—there, there had been where Grump had flopped down—and here—and here—

'Dashi! And 'Kase! And there, faintly—Nox!

Chatter his find to the others—they had definitely been here.

Della immediately sat up, chittering that if they had been here that meant they were looking for them they needed to find them especially 'Dashi 'Dashi would fix things—Huey gave a little pained squawk, said that 'Dashi said two days and day was from one sleep to the next and it had only been one he thought Dewey argued that it had been more they had slept more than twice—

Louie flared his wings—it didn't matter, he said—it didn't matter because they needed 'Dashi now if he was so good and safe and older-brother then he'd be here and Louie was willing to give the benefit of doubt because that over there looked big and confusing and scary but they needed 'Dashi they needed 'Dashi now

Dewey stood, pointed at the big scary confusing thing across the water, wings half-furled and expression fight-win-challenge—declared that they ought to go to the big scary confusing thing and get 'Dashi back 'Dashi would fix this 'Dashi was good and safe and older-brother—

Louie flapped again, squawking, thinking—if big scary confusing thing was big and scary and confusing enough to swallow 'Dashi then they shouldn't but they couldn't stay here the bad-woods were not safe and everyone else was either snatched or—

He cut himself off before he could finish the or thought—if he didn't think it didn't voice it then it wasn't true.

Which meant that he had to act like it was so, that the others were good and safe and good and would be coming to them soon.

Ruffle feathers, resettle wings, beginnings of plan starting to drift together to touch and connect like flock like flight—chitter and squeak tentative plan to the others: half would stay here for the rest of flock of flight, at least for now, while half would go look for 'Dashi and 'Kase and Nox.

There was much chittering and arguing and squawking over who would go—Louie beat his wings again, squawking for pay attention—he knew Dewey would see this as adventure-challenge would want to go in fighting everything and Della would too but Della's broken-leg would slow them down—told them they were going to stay here and keep an eye out he was sure they could keep an eye out for the others and get them if they saw them—

Huey was wilfed down to nothing and trembling when Louie looked at him, Huey had figured out who was going when Louie insisted that Della and Dewey stay Huey was scared-afraid-terrified would be nervous and squeaky going in would be terrified—

Which was what made Louie trust Huey to go in. Huey would listen to Louie, would not run up to every strange thing and shriek CHALLENGE, would stay close to Louie and help keep eye out for danger-bad-danger and 'Dashi and 'Kase and Nox. Louie hugged him, small grooming that said everything would be good-okay-good—Huey relaxed a little, struggled up on shaky wobbly legs, gave a weak chirp to say ready

Della asked what they planned on doing with the poison.

Louie narrowed his eyes at the box, already planning on throwing it in bay or burying it—was cut off by Huey saying they'd take it to 'Dashi 'Dashi would know what to do 'Dashi would know what to do with poison 'Dashi was good and safe and older-brother and smart he'd know what to do—

It wasn't worth arguing, Huey had box hugged tight to him—turned to Della and Dewey, Dewey asking how long they should wait—

Day, Louie decided—that was when 'Dashi said to come here, 'Dashi would probably come here if they didn't find him or something else hadn't found him, the others knew to come here, and if no one showed up by then they knew something had happened but hide where could see and wait day.

Dewey and Della hugged him, hugged Huey, all of them hugged and pressed together in the safety that was flock was flight—Louie trembled, not wanting to leave this not wanting to fly into danger-unknown-danger—he wanted 'Dashi to drop down out of sky, scoop them up, take them to others nice and safe and good, somewhere that wasn't the bad-woods, somewhere like cabin where they were good and safe and warm and happy-full and dry-dry-dry and warm—

Except that wasn't happening. It wasn't happening, and they had to take care of themselves, like Louie thought they had always been doomed to be.

Except he was going to look for 'Dashi, because he was tired of apathetically waiting for bad-fate, he was going to fight against it, he was going to make things better.

Now if only making things better didn't involve doing scary-things.

They finally broke away from hug, Dewey pointing out spot on shore nearby where they could hide and keep watch—Louie watched as Dewey and Della hop-lofted to that spot, gingerly spread his own wings…looked north—he could tell north again!—looked north to see fire eating the forest angrily, choking the sky with smoke.

South didn't seem safe either, but south was where 'Dashi might be, and they needed 'Dashi.

Soft whistle to Huey, and then they jumped in the air, flapping hard to get high into sky and away from lazily lapping waves that could grab wing and suck down hard, up high into sky where it was safe

And then powering for the big scary confusing thing, where they were sure 'Dashi was.

They had to be right, Louie thought, gritting beak and teeth and clenching paws. They had to find 'Dashi.

Because 'Dashi would make everything better—'Dashi would make everything good and safe and good again.

Louie just had to trust that it would be so.