Anaheim, California – present day
The warehouse or—more aptly—the hidden basement below the warehouse, was empty. Wildwing, Nosedive, and Grin had taken the Migrator to check out the area, but it was apparent that this place had been ransacked hours ago, if not longer.
Mallory, who had taken a separate duckcycle before the rest could catch up with her, was nowhere to be found.
The youngest member of the team looked forlornly at the spot that used to house the budding gateway generator. Wildwing must've seen his expression, as he quietly walked up to him and wrapped his arm around Nosedive's shoulders.
"We'll get it back, Dive."
"Sure we will," he said, not sounding even slightly convinced. Looking up at his older brother, he asked, "Do you think Buzz was here, when..?"
The team captain, his expression hidden behind the Drake DuCaine Mask, didn't answer right away. He returned his gaze to the same empty spot, dust and abandoned extension cords the only items left in the device's wake.
Instead of responding, he brought his arm down and opened up his communication link on his forearm. "Mallory, come in."
They both waited, but there was no response.
Sighing, Wildwing closed the connection and reopened it. "Tanya, you there?"
"Y-yeah, we're here."
"This place has been emptied out."
There was a long pause before she asked, "The generator's gone, too?"
Wildwing cringed slightly, and Nosedive couldn't blame him. They all knew how much time and effort the blonde scientist had put into it over the past year. "Yeah, Tanya … I'm sorry."
"It—it doesn't make sense," she finally said, the clicking of typing resuming as background noise. "No alarms were set off. Hold on."
The white drake sighed again, keeping the connection open but letting his arm drop back to his side. Turning around, he saw Grin studying the stairwell that led to the warehouse upstairs.
"Got anything, Grin?" he prompted, walking over to him with Nosedive following.
"The path is narrow and binding."
Nosedive tilted his head as he looked up the stairs. "The road is … long? We're not seeing something?" His hand went to scratch his head. "Or … we're … narrowminded?"
Grin scowled at Nosedive, causing the teenager to sheepishly smile and hold his hands up in resignation. "The stairs are narrow," the pacifist stated more clearly.
The team captain hummed. "The generator wouldn't have fit through it in one piece, you mean."
The large gray duck nodded.
"Oh, you were being literal," Nosedive said. "Fifty fifty chance most days, all right?"
"But isn't that why we think Buzz was taken?" Wildwing countered, ignoring his brother's gripe. "They'd have him to put it back together."
"Yes," Tanya eavesdropped through the COM, "but, uh, it would have taken some time to take it apart carefully."
"So … he had help," Wildwing concluded. "Which means we're looking for someone with a lot of tech know-how."
He heard Tanya hum in agreement. "Have you checked, uh, Buzz's home yet?"
"Heading there now," Wildwing stated, motioning with his hands for Nosedive and Grin to follow. "I think Mallory's already beaten us to the punch, though."
"She's still not answering?"
Wildwing paused. "No," he tersely replied. "Any idea on how they disabled the security here yet?"
"Ch-checking the logs now. H-hold on a second." There was the sound of typing, followed by a pause, and then a short sigh. "Buzz t-turned it off with his pa-passcode."
That made the team captain curse. "So he was either attacked here, or they used him to force their way in. We still don't have any video feeds?"
"We h-have them, but they're, uh, scrambled. Someone went to a lot of, um, work making s-sure of that." She was typing like crazy, now. "I'm checking local cameras, from t-the other buildings in the area, to see, um, if I can't find a-anything."
"All right. Do what you can and keep us updated. Wildwing out."
The three drakes made their way back up through the warehouse, opting to do one last perimeter sweep of the area. Still coming up empty, the team then headed back into the Migrator, with Wildwing taking the wheel. The three ducks were silent through most of the drive to Unbridled Technologies, the loss of their only way home and the potential kidnapping of Buzz keeping everyone either tense, worried, or both.
As they cruised along the freeway, Nosedive cleared his throat a little oddly.
"Hey, bro?"
His older brother glanced over at him briefly, enough to let him know he was listening.
"Everything all right in, uh … paradise?"
"What?"
"You and Mal, dude."
If it weren't for the battlegear, Nosedive would have sworn that Wildwing's feathers bristled at the comment. "Everything's fine, Nosedive." His sight remained fixated on the road ahead.
Nosedive did not respond right away. He watched his brother for a moment, then lifted a skeptical brow in his direction. "Uh-huh," he finally said, turning to look back out the windshield, as well.
The leader let out a lengthy breath, but eventually he stated, "Don't … say anything, all right?" The previous annoyance had dissipated from his tone.
The teenager crossed his heart with his hand, then used a finger to trace the outer edge of his beak, mimicking the motion of zipping it shut. "Drake DuCaine himself wouldn't get a peep out of me."
With his eyes still on the road, and further hidden by the Mask, Wildwing said, "Mallory's been having a few … nightmares, lately."
"Oh?"
"And she doesn't want to talk about them."
Nosedive let out a low hiss, leaning back into his seat. "Bro, I know you want to fix everything, but … sometimes, you just gotta be there."
This time Wildwing did glance over to Nosedive. "You don't think she should open up to me?"
"All right, twisting my words there," Nosedive argued, his feet unceremoniously coming up to rest on the dashboard. "Considering, y'know, the Saurian takeover of our planet, we all got some monsters lurking in our heads. I know I get them—"
"You do?"
Nosedive paused, beak still open and mid-speech, but he quickly shrugged and continued. "Well, yeah. They're not super horrible, but they definitely trigger an insomnia night here and there." Seeing his brother grip the steering wheel tighter, Nosedive shifted in his seat. "I mean, they happen, Wing. We all went through … a lot."
Wildwing's posture did not improve, so Nosedive sat back up, leaning over on the armrest. "Bro, give her some time. Mal's not exactly one to talk about herself, right?" He returned his sights to the road in front of them, as well. "I'm sure she'll come around."
The team captain shook his head slightly. "Maybe," he answered eventually, not sounding entirely optimistic.
"Give yourself some credit, Wing. You've kept this team together this long; I think you can handle some patience with your soon-to-be lifemate."
That managed to get Wildwing to release a breathy chuckle. As he turned the wheel to exit the freeway, he glanced once more at his brother. "When did you learn to become so levelheaded?"
To his benefit, the blonde duck jerked a thumb to the large duck a few seats behind them, currently meditating in his chair with his eyes closed. "Eh, our resident pacifist's propaganda has leached out and set up shop inside my brain, apparently."
"Right is right, even if everyone is against it. …And I am not a leech," Grin levelly commented, not even opening his eyes.
Both brothers snickered at that.
Unbridled Technologies headquarters
Mallory parked her duckcycle next to Buzz's large mansion, her eyes worriedly falling on the EMS parked near the entrance, its lights silently flashing. Her COM buzzed again, but she pressed a button on it to silence it once more.
Taking off her helmet, she jogged over to check the back of the ambulance and saw no one inside. Seeing the front door ajar, she turned and quickly made her way through.
"Buzz?" she called out, pucklauncher drawn and aimed down to the floor. The entranceway was empty, so she took the hallway that she knew would lead her to his bedroom, keeping a close eye on her surroundings for anything out of place.
"BUZZ!" she yelled again, her steps becoming more determined as her voice echoed in the otherwise empty building. Finally turning the corner to his room, Mallory saw Buzz's sliding door partially ajar and pushed it the rest of the way open.
She gasped at what was inside.
It was Buzz's room, or what was left of it. The place had been torn to shreds from laser fire, with comic book pages littering the floor and ashes from the charred mattress splattering the walls. In a panic she searched the room for clues, holstering her weapon and rummaging through the debris with both hands.
The computer along the back wall was utterly destroyed, with streaks of scorch marks jettisoning out every direction. Mallory frowned as she studied it. The markings indicated that the explosion came from the inside out, but … how?
She walked over to the wall adjacent to the door, where a poster had been split with a straight burn across. Feeling the surface behind it, she noticed a small divot, or seam, within the plaster. As her fingers traced its edges, it seemed to be something rectangularly shaped. Her frown deepened, as the drywall itself was undamaged. And yet, the other three walls of the room were scorched to the frame in some places.
Slowly taking in the rest of the room, she realized there were no signs of blood, anywhere. There wasn't any robotic debris for that matter, either. Whatever had happened seemed to have been done without casualties of any kind, which made Mallory's fear subside only slightly.
Instinctively, Mallory opened her COM unit again to contact Buzz, but was greeted with Wildwing's voice instead. "Mallory?" he asked. "You there?" he added when she did not respond.
The redhead sighed. She must've clicked open the incoming call from Wildwing by accident. "I'm here," she finally answered.
"Where are you?"
"Buzz's room. It's trashed. There's … laser marks, and everything's torn up or burned. I'm not seeing any blood though." Her voice sounded strained, despite her best efforts to mask it.
"I think we might have those answers here. We found his guardian, injured—but alive. Meet us in the security room, east wing. Over."
His voice was tense over the static, and Mallory could hear the aggravation in his words. He had every right to be. She was the one pushing him away, and for no reason, either.
He deserved better than this. He was constantly trying to get her to open up to him, and to stop using anger as a mask to hide her feelings. For all of that, what did she offer in return? Nightmares she refused to talk about, outbursts to disguise the fear, and a vicious cycle of empty promises that she would change.
She felt like a fraud.
But it didn't matter right now. She'd deal with it when the time came. Closing the communication link, she took one last look over the area before heading outside and in the direction of the security room.
"Buzz had created more defenses since the last time, including a self-destruction mechanism for his bedroom. That was why you saw it so trashed," Fritz Manner—Buzz's guardian—explained to the team.
Mallory entered the room during the tail-end of the conversation. She acknowledged Wildwing and the others with a simple head nod, watching as the two medics finished up bandaging the guardian's head wound. It was superficial, at least, requiring no sutures, but it was clear that there was already some swelling to the area.
When Wildwing, Nosedive, and Grin had arrived on the scene, they ended up running into one of the medics retrieving supplies from the ambulance. She was the one that led them to the security room to speak with Fritz.
Per the guardian, he'd been attacked in the hallway by unknown assailants, gotten hit in the head, and had subsequently fallen unconscious. Upon waking, he had contacted Unbridled Technologies' private security firm instead of the true authorities, to keep things under wraps.
Supposedly, contacting the ducks had been the next item on his agenda, after being treated for his injuries.
"What about any security footage?"
"Take a look for yourself. It looks like they jammed the frequency, so I'm afraid there's nothing to see."
"Of course," Mallory grumbled out loud.
"What was Buzz trying to protect?" Wildwing asked Fritz, gearing the conversation back on track.
"The secret project you guys have been working on," Fritz remarked. His hand went up to gingerly touch his bandaged head. "Buzz wouldn't let me know much more than that."
"Nothing else?" Wildwing prompted. "Most of the blueprints for that was on our servers, not his."
"What about the beryllium production?" Mallory interrogated. "That was supposed to stay quiet for another month, until Buzz announced it at that tech convention."
Fritz grimaced slightly. "Well, our last conference in L.A., perhaps … Buzz wasn't with us, but some of the chairmen of the board let it slip that we had this revolutionary idea at our fingertips."
Mallory glowered at him. "Great, so anybody could've taken him for the info."
"Can you give us any leads?" Wildwing asked. "Names or companies that were at this conference?"
Fritz, still holding one of his hands to his head, used his other to grab his phone from his pocket. He pressed a few buttons and handed it to Wildwing. "This is the itinerary and guest list."
Wildwing took the phone, opening his COM link. "Tanya?"
"I'm here."
"I have Manner's phone here with info on a recent conference. Can you upload it to our network?"
"S-sure, just put the phone close to the COM. I'll use near-field communication to, uh, retrieve it."
Wildwing did as he was told, and seconds later Tanya stated, "Got it."
"Good. Take a look at that list and see if any names or companies stand out. Someone on there gains the most from Buzz's new element."
"Will do. O-over."
Closing the connection, Wildwing returned the phone to Fritz, who took it and quickly pocketed it within his suit jacket. The middle-aged man sighed, leaning back into the security chair he sat in. "Please bring him back safe ... he means a lot to us."
Mallory scoffed. "His brain means a lot to your company, you mean. You guys couldn't have cared less about that kid as anything other than your source to wealth and fame."
Fritz frowned at her. "Now see here—"
"If that kid had meant anything to you, we should've found you here maimed or dead from trying to protect him, rather than a pansy ass scratch on your head!" Mallory turned heel and walked out of the security room, back towards the exit.
Nosedive and Grin watched her leave with wide eyes, then returned their attention to Wildwing. After an uncomfortable silence, Wildwing finally said, "We'll let you know if we find anything, Mr. Manner."
Fritz nodded at him. "Our security will do their own investigation, but in a few hours we will have no choice but to bring the authorities into this."
"Do what you have to do, and if you're contacted by the kidnappers, let us know." With that, Wildwing motioned the rest of the team back to the Migrator.
The Pond
Tanya pressed a button on Drake One, closing the connection with Wildwing. She instantly opened the files she'd transferred from Fritz Manner's phone, plugging the information into Drake One's algorithm and adjusting the settings to look for links. As she executed the function, a mug of steaming hot tea was set next to her on the console.
The steam wafted to her nostrils, and the smell of orange zest filled Tanya's senses, instantly calming her.
She smiled at its sudden arrival, tiredly glancing up at the gray mallard that had delivered it. "Thanks, Duke."
"Ya looked like ya could use a pick-me-up," he responded lightly, sitting down in the chair next to her, his own cup of tea in hand.
Tea was a big thing on Puckworld, so finding an equal love of the beverage on Earth had been a great nostalgic reminder of their home. Since many of the herbs were so different here, they had a multitude of new flavors to experiment with, as well.
Orange zest, however, was one all of the ducks loved. Oranges on Earth were very similar to the Fouge fruit back home, and was also a tea flavor that was used for relaxation. When the team had found it, they had bought out all the nearby stores, since most of them drank tea at least once a day.
Picking up and bringing the hot liquid closer to drink, Tanya hummed agreeably.
"So ... anythin'?" the ex-thief asked, his gaze turning to the behemoth of a monitor before them.
The blonde scientist sighed. "I guess time will, uh, tell."
"What is that?" Duke asked, squinting at the names and numbers flashing on the screen.
"L-list of names and, uh, companies, from a recent c-convention. Drake One is running them against our records, to see if—ya know—it can give us any leads."
Duke nodded at that, his gaze eventually travelling back to the console of the large computer mainframe. Tanya watched him carefully.
"Duke?"
"Hmm?" he asked, glancing briefly at her.
"Everything, uh, all right?"
He did not answer right away, instead taking a sip of his own hot brew. "It doesn't add up," he finally responded.
She tilted her head at him. "Uh, what doesn't?"
"Falcone." The gray mallard sighed, straightening back up in his chair. "We're missin' somethin'," he added quietly.
"Well, sure. We d-don' know who he's working with. Or, uh, who he's working f-for," Tanya admitted.
Duke shook his head. "Nah, Angel, there's more ta it d'an d'hat." Placing his cup on the console, he stood and began to slowly pace. "He 'ad a way home, through us, an' he threw it away." His arms were crossed in front of him as he thought, Tanya occasionally glancing between him and Drake One as it ran its algorithm.
"Taunny, ya sure d'hey can't use d'hat beryllium?"
She nodded in confirmation. "You need four times w-what was, um, lost to create a c-con—link between two worlds, at least." Taking a second to type some commands on Drake One, she continued, "I mean, beryllium is a good, y'know, power source. M-maybe he's using it to power some new weapon?"
The older drake had resumed pacing, but did say, "Meybe," to her suggestion. "But d'here's a piece of da puzzle we're missin', I'm sure of it."
Tanya watched him for a moment, thinking. Eventually she turned back, crossing her arms and resting them along the edge of the console. She glanced down at the steam rising from her tea, dissipating into the air.
A beep from Drake One startled both of them, and brought Duke up behind Tanya's chair as she started typing furiously. "What is it?" he finally prompted.
Tanya was scrolling through a bunch of information quickly, her eyes widening. She glanced back up at Duke. "I know who took Buzz."
