Unbridled Technologies headquarters
"Mallory!"
The redhead let out a disgruntled breath at the name call. She finished snapping her helmet on and went to mount her duckcycle.
A hand on her forearm—gentle but firm—stopped her, and she pulled away from the touch angrily. "What?" she icily asked.
Wildwing's expression was neutral, thanks to the Mask, but his tone was sharp. "Antagonizing our only lead is not a good way to find Buzz, Mallory."
She had been prepared for the lecture, however, and argued back immediately. "That man has 'creep' written all over him, Wildwing. They don't care about Buzz—they never have. That kid's nothing more than a tool to them, and I'm sorry if that pisses me off."
Wildwing sighed. "Look, you're probably right, but we need Fritz to want us to find Buzz, which means you have to keep comments like you made to yourself."
Mallory's eyes flashed hot with anger. "We should've never allowed that company to keep custody of Buzz the way that they have. He needs a family and a stable environment, not a manager ready to pick his bones." She crossed her arms defiantly. "Living like you're a slave, never being treated with respect, and without any sort of guidance, or support, or care, or..." Mallory stopped her rambling, her fury making it hard to form coherent sentences.
"Are we talking about Buzz or you, now?"
Mallory's eyes no longer flashed with anger, but roared. "Don't you dare make this about me! You know nothing about my past!"
Wildwing's own irritation began to boil, as well. "You're right, I don't, because you don't tell me anything about it! No matter how many times I tell you that I'm here for you, you'd rather let it fester inside and hide yourself behind this ugly mask of anger all the time!"
Mallory was taken aback by Wildwing's outburst and she didn't respond right away.
"I'm worried about Buzz, too. And I'm sorry I kept asking you about your nightmares. I just want to be there for you, but you won't let me. You'd rather bury it along with Drake knows what else you've kept from me, and the more you do it the more I realize that maybe you're just not ready..." Wildwing's sentence faltered near the end, the anger in his voice subsiding.
He didn't finish the thought, and Mallory barely found her voice to ask, "Not ready for what?"
Wildwing let out a long breath, his arms hanging loosely at his sides. "This. ...Us."
Her breath caught in her throat. "What ... what are you saying?"
Wildwing shook his head. "I don't know. I don't know what I'm saying." He groaned in frustration, running his hand through the feathers on his head. "I don't know what else I can do to make you trust me, Mallory."
Wildwing's COM buzzed, stopping the conversation from going any further. The white drake gave one last glance at Mallory, but she opted to remain silent. He sighed and flipped the device open.
"What is it, Tanya?"
"Drake One, uh, background checked all of the conference a-atten—uh, patrons, and found one that stood out. A new up-and-coming company, called Adder Telecommunications, is working heavily in large-scale machine innovations. And, uh—he's changed his name, but you'd never guess who the brain behind this place is."
"Who?" Wildwing prompted.
"He goes by Finn Persent now, but we knew him as Phineas Viper."
The team captain let out a low curse, glancing up to see Mallory frowning and silently listening to the conversation. "Do we have the location of his new enterprise?" he asked.
"Uh, yup. I'm uploading it to the network now."
The revving of a bike brought Wildwing's attention back to the duck in front of him, but Mallory peeled out of the driveway before he could even call after her. He let out an aggravated yell, turning around to see Nosedive and Grin jog up to him from the Migrator. "Tanya, you and Duke meet us there."
"Uh, copy that."
Wildwing snapped his COM shut roughly, but it instantly buzzed again. "Yeah?" he brusquely asked.
"Don't give me that attitude, birdbrain! I'm the one doing yer damn job over here!"
That made the team captain inwardly groan. "What is it, Klegghorn?" he asked more civilly.
"That's right," the police captain agreed, hearing the change of tone. "Now, if you'd be so kind, please come and pick up your eagle friend over here!"
"Eagle? My word, what in the world are you insulting me with, captain?"
"Your bald-ass head! Now take a word of advice and REMAIN SILENT!"
Nosedive and Grin shot a surprised glance at each other before looking back to Wildwing. "They caught … Falcone?"
"We'll be right there," Wildwing simply said, snapping the connection closed. He opened it back up. "Tanya, come in."
"On our way now."
"Change of plans. Klegghorn has Falcone at the police station. I need you and Duke to appertain him and keep him under lockdown."
There was a long silence before Duke spoke through Tanya's device. "Wing, it's gotta be a trap. Falcone didn't just get caught by Klegghorn."
Wildwing had already motioned for Grin and Nosedive to hurry back into the Migrator, the team leader taking up the rear. "I know, Duke, but we don't have a choice on this. Mallory's going after Viper herself, and if he does have Buzz, then we might not have much time."
He could hear Duke mumble something away from the speaker, but eventually received a, "Copy that. Be careful, Wing."
"Likewise." Wildwing shut the connection, jumping into the driver's seat of the Migrator and gunning it out of the long driveway of the mansion. He pressed a couple buttons on the dashboard, bringing up a small map on the screen directing them to their next location.
"I know this is Buzz and all, but Mal's kinda gone off the deep-end here," Nosedive commented, watching the screen to see when the next turn was.
"Dive," Wildwing warned.
Nosedive looked at his brother and shrugged as if to say, "Who? Me?" but he kept quiet.
"A single twig breaks, but a bundle of twigs is strong," Grin chimed in, sitting quietly behind the brothers.
The information was digested in silence, before Nosedive's eye lit up and a hand shot up in the air. "Oh, I know what you're saying, and I am so going to one-up you, dude." He cleared his throat, and put on a gravelly voice as he continued with, "I feel thin … stretched. Like butter scraped over too much bread." Nosedive sat back triumphantly.
Wildwing raised a brow at his kid brother.
"Lord of the Rings, duh," Nosedive answered his unasked question. "And Grin is right; we're stronger as a team, not so much on our own."
"Indeed," Grin simply agreed.
The team captain shook his head. "I can't control her actions, Dive, or Falcone's for that matter, either. We have to make the best of it."
Neither Nosedive nor Grin responded to that, silence returning to the vehicle as they sped along the freeway. Wildwing gripped the steering wheel tightly, his own fear rising steadily as his thoughts and worries began to consume him.
Puckworld – four months into the Saurian War
Lucretia and Falcone entered the building along the desolate street, or at least what remained of it. Aside from four walls and a partially-standing roof, only ice and snow covered its interior, a bitter draft flowing through its bleak cavity.
Falcone swallowed any signs of fear, following the purple-haired vixen through the mess and towards the back, where stairs led down into an underground level.
"Doesn't seem like headquarter material," he commented into the silence.
Lucretia turned her head as they descended the stairs, offering Falcone a small smile and nothing else.
The basement's structure had seemed to hold up better than upstairs, with the residual warmth of underground making the room slightly less miserable. Falcone looked around at the empty shelves, cabinets, and toppled furniture, his arms crossing in front of him as he stood in its center.
"Underwhelmed here, love," he said again.
She came up behind him, then, her arm running across the width of his back as she stepped around his rigid form. She turned around to face Falcone, her hand briefly coming up to brush the side of his beak, before slowly taking a step back. "Check your pocket," she stated with a smirk, turning around once more and walking away.
The Raptrin instantly felt his pants pocket, noticing a new item inside. Pulling it out, a small curved device rested in his palm, bloodred except for a small black side screen with green foreign characters on it. He studied it for a moment, turning it around in his hand and brushing a finger against the single sharp point along its edge.
"Didn't realize pickpocket was on your list of skills," he replied to her. "You would have made great Brotherhood material."
"Minus the 'brother' part?" she lightly debated, finishing her walk to the other side of the basement. With her arms crossed and facing him once more, she nodded towards the device in his hands. "Place your finger on the point."
Falcone, still turning the device around in his hand, raised a suspicious brow at her but did as he was told.
"Press down," she instructed.
"All right, but care to tell me why—agh!" Falcone nearly dropped the contraption when it shot out a small needle and punctured him. "It bit me!" he accused.
The black screen lit up with more green characters, scrolling across its length at a considerable speed before suddenly stopping. The Raptrin tossed the item into his other hand, allowing himself time to examine the drop of blood on his finger. He frowned at Lucretia.
"Now what?"
Lucretia let out a low chuckle. "Now you have your way off the planet, Mr. Falcone."
He incredulously looked down at the red gadget. "This tiny little contraption is … a transporter?"
"Not just any transporter, honey," Lucretia insisted, keeping her distance from the Raptrin. "It's linked to you and only you." She paused, her smile crooked this time. "Happy travels."
"What—?"
The transporter beeped and a swirling vortex suddenly formed between the two ducks. Falcone brought his hand up to shield himself from the intense pull he felt, but was unable to stop the pathway from enveloping him whole.
He fell to the ground, the transporter skittering across the metal surface of a room that matched its bloodred sheen. In a blink the vortex was gone, and Falcone was left in some sort of warship.
Two large Saurian feet stepped in front of him, heavy silver armor covering the legs and ending around the ankles. The lizard's thick yellow claws tapped rhythmically against the metal floor and, just behind the feet, a thick red-skinned tail swished in agitation.
Falcone swallowed heavily, forcing his breathing to calm down. When he finally found the courage, he looked up to meet the eyes of the very Overlord that had started the Saurian War; the one who had broken his own kin out of their dimensional prison, and now enslaved over half the population of Puckworld.
"Dragaunus," he breathed out.
Anaheim, California – present day
Duke and Tanya walked into the Anaheim police station determinedly, and only earned a few double glances as they passed the booking station. Reaching the back of the building where the holding cells were located, Klegghorn sat on a stool in front of the jail in the farthest corner, munching on a donut while downright sneering at the cell's inhabitant.
Coming up next to him, they peered through the bars and saw Falcone, hands cuffed in front of him. The Raptrin had a look of disgust on his face as he stared back at the captain, but when his gaze shifted to Duke and Tanya, he gave them a huge smile of relief.
"Oh, my, aren't you two a sight for sore eyes!" He stood up, motioning with his head towards the short police captain. "If you ever need a good diet regimen, please watch this bozo eat a baked good." He shuddered dramatically, and Klegghorn in turn rolled his eyes.
"Where'd you find him?" Duke asked, not responding to Falcone directly.
Klegghorn snorted, donut crumbs flying every direction. "He was in some neighborhood park—which, by the way, is not a smart thing to do when ya got a lot of paranoid parents around, considering he looks like some sort of creeper in a costume—"
Falcone sighed loudly.
Klegghorn glared at him, but pulled out a small plastic bag, "—but he evaded arrest when we found him. So, I guess," he spit out, glaring at the Raptrin, "even with my undying love for donuts, my chasing skills are still up to par." He smugly grinned.
At some point during his talking, Tanya had slowly reached out and grabbed the plastic bag, staring in shock at its contents.
It was Falcone's transporter.
Or, what was left of it.
"What … what happened?" Tanya practically whispered, Duke looking over her shoulder to see the pieces of metal and broken circuit boards splayed out within the clear plastic.
Klegghorn, not catching on to her change in demeanor, shrugged. "Some doohickey he was holding. He says we broke it, but I'm pretty sure his feathery ass stepped on it."
"When you tackled me like some sort of street criminal," Falcone haughtily replied. He looked over to Tanya and Duke. "But this lovely lady is smarter than the lot of this planet's brain power combined. I'm sure she could pull the necessary information we need from it, yes?"
Duke shot Falcone a fierce gaze, but startled when Tanya turned heel and walked out of the room. "Tanya!" he called. He instantly followed her, interrupting Klegghorn's surprised calls with, "Keep yer shirt on, captain, we'll be right back!"
The ex-thief jogged back to the main offices, frowning when he couldn't find his teammate. He stopped in the center of the room and was about to continue to the front exit when, from his left, he heard a soft click. Looking in that direction, he saw a side exit door and went through it.
The door appeared to lead to some sort of covered parking lot for the majority of police-sanctioned vehicles. Searching both directions, he saw Tanya leaning against the exterior wall, near the corner of the building.
"Tanya?" he hesitantly called, walking up to her.
"It's … it's over," she brokenly responded, staring at the baggy of broken electronics. "We're stuck here, for-forever."
"Hey, come on now, ya know that's not true—" He stopped his own sentence when he saw the tears forming in the blonde duck's eyes. His hands came up to rest on her shoulders. "Tanya, look at me."
She sniffed, obviously trying to regain her composure. Duke tilted his own head down and to the side, forcing her to make eye contact with him.
"We're gonna get home," Duke reassured her.
"I can't fix this," Tanya exclaimed with a hiccup, jostling the broken transporter in her hand for emphasis.
"I promise ya, Angel, that isn't the only transporter with coordinates to home." Tanya looked ready to rebuff his statement, but Duke continued with, "Falcone didn't just break outta jail and travel back ta Anaheim to get caught and destroy 'is only way home, too. He's brewin' somethin', somethin' big, and d'is is a ploy."
The scientist was quiet as she digested that information. Another sniff escaped, and she absently rubbed under her eyes with her free hand to wipe away the tears. "I'm s-sorry, it's just, t-the generator is gone, Buzz m-might be in big t-trouble, and n-now our coor—coordinates home are crunched."
"Well ... yeah. Okay, maybe not one o' our better days."
Tanya smirked at that, causing Duke to smirk as well. "Come 'ere," he said, pulling the blonde duck into a hug. She returned it gratefully, her head resting just under the crook of his neck with her height.
"We're gonna get 'ome," Duke reiterated. "I promise ya." He grinned a little and cheekily added, "Just like I promise ya d'at, one o' d'ese days, I'll get ya to say yes to that date."
"Duke," she chastised, but there was only a hint of annoyance in her exasperation. She didn't say anything more, but instead tightened the grip on her hug.
They both heard the nearby door swing open, however, and Tanya pushed away from the embrace quickly. Duke grinned even more at her obvious embarrassment, before turning his attention to the new arrival. Klegghorn stomped out, his head darting in each direction before his eyes fell on the two ducks. "This isn't a daycare, birds!" he yelled, walking their way. "Take this thief and get outta 'ere before the FBI gets wind that he's here."
"D'ey don't know?" Duke asked, sharing a surprised glance with Tanya.
"Of course they don't," Klegghorn patronized. "You think they'd let me release him to ya if they did?!"
He ushered them back through the door, leading the way back to the cells. When they got there, Falcone was being escorted out of the cell by three guards, his cuffs still on. The Raptrin gave a charming smile to the two ducks upon their arrival.
"My entourage has returned!" he declared presumptuously.
"Why are you helping us?" Tanya asked the police captain, watching as the guards helped Duke switch Falcone's cuffs out with one of the ducks' own specialized restraints.
Klegghorn crossed his arms, monitoring the situation carefully. "Is the plan for y'all to get the hell off my planet?"
Tanya turned her attention to him. "Um, well, yeah—"
"And you'll be taking this crooked beak with you?" he interrupted.
Falcone sent an insulted expression their way, but Tanya simply replied, "Yes."
"Good. Then let's not let a bunch o' red tape stop that from happening." Once the handcuffs had been switched out, he led the three Puckworldians back to the station's front entrance. As they mounted their duckcycles, with Falcone being seated behind Duke, he added, "The next time I see you birdbrains, it better be to say sayonara!"
He stalked back into the building, the door slamming shut behind him.
"Lovely fella," Falcone remarked.
No one responded to him. The Raptrin jolted as the bike accelerated out of the parking lot, and he quickly used his cuffed hands to grasp Duke's shirt for stability. With Tanya following, the three made their way back towards the Pond.
