The Pond
Tanya's COM buzzed. She glanced at it and popped it open. "Dive?" she asked, seeing his name on the connection but no corresponding video.
"—Ta—! Vi— d—, —n — t— h—rs—"
"Dive, you're uh, breaking up," Tanya said, frowning. She had engineered the COM links with an extremely low frequency, to the point that even two feet of concrete wouldn't cause a hiccup of static.
This broken connection was concerning. "Dive, come in," she said again, more sternly. There was nothing but warped noises when she tried to reconnect with him, however. She tried Wildwing's with the same result, and then Grin's.
"I am here," Grin stated through his COM. His voice somehow managed to be even deeper through the speaker.
Tanya stood up from her stool. "Grin, thank-uh, Drake. Where is Dive a-and Wing?"
"Escaping a collapsing building."
"What?!" she squeaked. "Oh, w-we're on our way!" she fumbled away from her desk, barely listening to the pacifist as she hurriedly walked to the laboratory's door.
"They have notified me that they have Mallory and are escaping. Buzz is in my custody," he said.
"Tanya!" Buzz called from farther away, Grin's open communication picking it up. "They took the generator, but I think I know where!"
Tanya did not respond, but not because she didn't want to. She was unable to say anything, however, due to the fact that a saber—dripping in blood—was currently pointed at her neck.
Lucretia waltzed into the laboratory, Falcone close behind her and dragging a prone Duke along the floor. A trail of red marked his path from down the hallway.
"Hey, where'd you go?" Buzz asked, his face appearing on the COM that was now facing away, since Tanya's arms were up in silent surrender.
Without saying a word, Lucretia motioned with a head nod towards Tanya's communicator.
The blonde duck, eyes still wide with fear and surprise, slowly brought her COM back to her face. "Uh, sorry Buzz, workin' on a lead. Keep us, um, updated, okay?"
"What lead are—"
Lucretia quickly reached over and ended the connection. She smiled at Tanya, her saber continually poking the scientist and forcing her to take more steps back.
"Please, Lucretia," Tanya pleaded, her eyes drifting to Duke's unconscious form, "let m-me get D-Duke on the Me-Medicom." Her stuttering stood out more with the shakiness in her voice.
"Oh, he's just got a nice little cocktail going," she lightly explained as Tanya was backed up to the stool she'd originally been sitting on. "Mr. Viper makes specialized venom with his snakes." She did glance back at the ex-thief, however, and arched a brow. "Hmm, he does seem to be making a mess of your floor, unfortunately."
Once the laboratory doors slid shut, Falcone dropped Duke's legs, leaving the gray mallard at the entrance and walking over to the two females. His smile was just as rueful as Lucretia's, and Tanya felt her fear increase twofold. Before anyone could speak, however, a loud beep came from Falcone.
The Raptrin let out a curt sigh, reaching into his pocket to pull out a black device. "Can't help being popular," he gloated with a smirk, pressing a button on it and holding it up like a walkie-talkie. "Falcone here," he stated into it.
"Bring the scientist to the secondary location," a voice roughly coughed out. Falcone frowned at Lucretia, and she returned the same concerned expression.
"Fortaineau? Where is Phineas?" he asked.
There was the sound of more coughing, with the heavy background noise of propellers. "He's gone," he breathed out. "I have the data, we just need her to transfer the information."
"Gone?!" Falcone growled out. "What—"
"It doesn't matter," Fortaineau interrupted. "We can bring him back, and we can get you home. Just bring her to me."
The line clicked and silence returned to the room.
"DAMMIT!" Falcone practically screamed, slamming his fist into the nearby tabletop. "I knew that ugly little scientist was no good."
"Let me g-get Duke on the M-Medicom," Tanya insisted again, trying to step away from Lucretia's saber.
Falcone had his own sword trained on her in an instant. "You make one wrong move and I'll make sure you get your precious Duke back in pieces."
Tanya's glare at the Raptrin was murderous. "If he dies you get NOTHING from me!" she yelled, her stutter suddenly replaced with fury.
Lucretia stepped between the two, lowering her own weapon. "All right, all right, we're all adults here," she pacified. "Falcone, honey, let's put Duke on the Medicom so she can see he'll be all right, and then we'll all go on a little road trip together, okay?" She gently pushed Falcone's blade away from Tanya.
Falcone's teeth were still barred as he glared right back at the scientist, but his eyes eventually drifted to Lucretia's, her own stare at him unwavering. Like the snap of a finger, the Raptrin's previous anger dissipated and he was giving the blonde duck another charming smile.
"Very well, love, you take care of your cousin. I'll get L'Orange on the table." He glanced down at the unmoving duck and sighed. "Is there a sheet around here? I really don't want to get blood on my clothes."
Tanya went to reach for Duke again, but Falcone stopped her with his sword once more. "Ah ah, Taunny-roo, I can handle this."
"Besides," Lucretia interjected, linking her free arm through Tanya's, "we have so much to catch up on."
The blonde duck was still distracted as she watched Falcone scrounge around for something to lift Duke with. Lucretia was persistent, however, and pulled her through the side doors to the adjacent infirmary, straight towards the Medicom. Once there, the shorter female released her grip, allowing Tanya to start the machine up.
She instantly went to work turning it on, Lucretia watching her with her arms casually crossed. The scientist didn't say anything, instead glancing repeatedly at Falcone as he followed them into the room and successfully found some linen to drape around Duke. He pressed a couple buttons on the wall console to keep the automatic doors open, then went back to the laboratory, lifted the ex-thief, and dropped him rather unceremoniously onto the Medicom's stretcher.
Tanya wasted no time in starting the scan, checking the results, and quickly following its instructions. She was silent as she worked, Lucretia and Falcone both observing her intently. Within a few minutes she had cut away Duke's uniform around his shoulder, cleaning the area the best she could before the machine was prepped and began working.
A relieved sigh escaped her when the Medicom indicated the poison was temporary, and was acting like a tranquilizer, in a way. Likewise, his stab wound had not done extensive damage, and aside from some moderate blood loss, the nanobots would be able to repair most of the tissue within a few hours.
Lucretia, hovering over her shoulder, seemed to have read her thoughts on the subject. "See T-belle? I told you he'd be okay."
The nickname was a mental slap in the face for Tanya, and felt like a wake-up call to a different time and place, in more ways than one. She pushed the weird feeling away, as well as her previous worry for Duke that had clouded her thoughts. With her task complete and him healing on the Medicom now, as well as the added reassurance that he was not in critical condition, she was able to think through the situation more clearly.
"The beryllium," she said, looking at the two intruders, "it w-wasn't enough for a gateway, but it was enough to open D-Dimensional Limbo."
Falcone grinned. "I admit, I was skeptical at first, too. But Viper was right: limbo is nothing but a gateway with no destination."
The purple-haired duck noticeably flinched at the term limbo, and Tanya felt a pang of sadness, despite her best efforts not to. She focused her attention back to Falcone. "Y-you've been planning this for a while."
That got a laugh out of the Raptrin. "You have no idea, love."
Tanya's eyes went to the ground as her mind began processing a dozen thoughts at once. "Viper got the b-beryllium and Raptor p-parts to open limbo. He got you out of prison, so you could get h-her on board ... y-you needed her t-transporter to get back home." She had looked at Lucretia as she spoke, but now gazed at Falcone with a frown.
"But why would h-he help?"
"Perhaps it's because he was unwilling to leave someone floating in an abyss for the rest of their life," Lucretia snarled out suddenly, catching the blonde duck's attention.
"We didn't k-know Dragaunus would—"
"Oh, please, you planted that chip on me knowing full well he'd find it!" Lucretia got up into Tanya's face, but the latter did not budge.
"You n-nearly drowned my team!" she yelled back.
"So?! I kept you safe, cousin. But apparently blood does not run thicker than water."
Tanya shook her head. "T-there was nothing we could do! We d-destroyed the generator and had t-to rebuild it!"
Lucretia pushed Tanya back into the desk next to the Medicom. "And I'm sure you were just itching to use it to bring me back home, weren't you? I'm sure it was the first item on your to-do list!"
The scientist, her own anger growing, shoved Lucretia back. "I w-would have—"
"Ladies, ladies," Falcone soothed, getting between the two. "We have a prior engagement, do we not? Let us not bicker here."
Lucretia took a deep breath, stepping back and smoothing out her black tank top and pants. "Of course, honey," she said to him, only glancing briefly at Tanya. "Water under the bridge." She stepped to the side of her cousin and stopped the Medicom.
Tanya instantly turned it back on, elbowing Lucretia out of the way to do so. "No, h-he needs to heal!"
She instantly had the bloody saber pointed at her neck again. "Push me again, sweet cousin, and we'll just see how thick blood runs."
The blonde duck kept her stance by the Medicom, but did raise her arms up in surrender. "Y-you're trying to t-transfer the coord-coordinates to the gateway, right?" she asked, already knowing the answer. "I'll go with y-you and help, but o-only if he stays here."
"Well, actually," Falcone stated, wiping a smudge off his drawn saber, "it's a little more complicated than that." Satisfied with its sheen, he pressed a button on it to make it dematerialize.
Lucretia had lowered her own saber as she suspiciously studied her cousin, to where it pointed at Tanya's stomach rather than her neck. Eventually, a cruel smile played across her beak. "Oh goodness, does my T-belle have her first boyfriend?"
Falcone chuckled. "I guess it has been quite the dry spell for old Dukester, stuck on this boring planet and all."
"Oh yes, I remember," Lucretia replied, her eyes never wavering from Tanya's. "I had him practically drooling at my feet when I met him."
Tanya, to her benefit, remained expressionless when she said, "L-leave him here to heal, and I w-will h-help you get home."
This time Lucretia giggled, walking up to Tanya and playfully tapping her beak. "You are in love with his boytoy, aren't you? Look at you, trying to suppress your jealousy." She walked by Duke, interrupting the Medicom's process when she used some extra sheet to wipe her own saber clean. When she finished and stepped away, the machine started back up again.
Lucretia sheathed her saber, casually brushing her hair away from her shoulders. "T-belle, you know I love you, but you were always a little naïve in this department. Duke L'Orange, former leader of the Brotherhood of the Blade, does not fall in love with a government nerd who has never worn a dress in her life."
Falcone nodded. "Take my word, dear, he's more of the buxom, tight leather variety." He paused, glancing his partner up and down purposely. "More like another Vanderflock I know," he added suggestively.
The tan mallard smiled back at Falcone appreciatively. "Such a charmer," she said, wrapping an arm around Tanya at the same time. "Very well, T-belle. We'll leave your Dukey to heal, so long as you come with us and provide that big, smart brain of yours."
The blonde duck took in a shaky breath, watching both Lucretia and Falcone with growing apprehension. A small mechanical whir behind her, however, reminded her of the duck she'd be saving.
"L-lead the way," Tanya answered bravely.
Adder Telecommunications
"Where are they?!" Buzz frustratingly asked from the open loading bay of the Migrator. He ran his hands through his hair, his eyes never leaving the main entrance to the building.
Grin stood next to him, watching with a concerned expression as the high-rise literally shook with explosions. Luckily, the perimeter around the building was huge: in the likelihood that it did collapse on itself, there would be very little damage to the neighboring skyscrapers.
Nonetheless, Grin had already called Klegghorn on the situation, and he and Buzz had done a quick perimeter sweep with the Migrator to make sure the surrounding areas were clear. Minus some rather hefty body damage to the front, the vehicle was in perfect working order.
It'd only been about five minutes since Nosedive had contacted them, and now the two waited anxiously for their three missing team members.
Another explosion up high finally gave the last bit of force needed, as the roof near the top of the building began caving in on itself, starting a slow but steady domino effect.
"Stay here, Buzz," Grin stated, running over and hopping onto a duckcycle. With a loud rev, he tore out of the Migrator and towards the entrance.
"Wait, Grin!" Buzz called out, alarmed at what the big duck was about to do.
"Crap crap shit crap!" Nosedive repeatedly cursed as the three made it down the last few flights of stairs. The ceilings above them had begun raining small chunks of plaster, and the very foundation of the stairs themselves had begun buckling under the structural integrity of the framework collapsing above.
Aside from Nosedive's rather colorful wording, however, the group was silent. They were solely focused on getting the hell out of there as fast as possible.
Wildwing jumped the last few steps to ground floor, Mallory completely unconscious in his arms now. He'd seen her struggling to remain awake during their long trip down the crumpling building, but all he could do was hold tight to her.
He did find the bullet wound near the left side of her abdomen, however, and had shifted his hold so his hand could apply pressure there.
But the skin beneath her feathers had become very pale.
As they neared the main entrance to the building, a huge crash echoed above them. Wildwing didn't dare look up.
"The place is caving in!" Nosedive called out ahead.
Wildwing gritted his teeth and jumped over a large chunk of debris that nearly fell on top of him. He saw the glass doors at the main entrance had already shattered from the shifting weight of the building, and simply ran through the doorframe to outside.
Despite the chaos, the captain instantly heard the familiar sound of an engine. Moments later, Grin pulled up on a duckcycle.
"Grinster, our hero!" Nosedive called out, skidding to a stop in front of the big duck. "Wing, come on!"
Wildwing didn't waste any time. He carefully turned Mallory as he climbed on behind Nosedive, sandwiching her between him and his brother. He kept one arm secure around her and used his other hand to grab Nosedive's shoulder.
Grin gunned it, and within seconds the duckcycle was racing away from the collapsing building and towards the Migrator.
A huge explosion behind them told them they were just in time.
Buzz had whimpered upon seeing the building go from twenty stories tall to one in a less than a minute. The dust from the debris had blinded him from seeing the former entrance, much less the four ducks that had not returned.
He didn't have to wait long, thankfully. The sound of an approaching engine reached his ears and, within a few seconds, a large silhouette formed from within the blinding dust, approaching the Migrator fast.
"You're okay!" he called out excitedly, running up to meet the group.
Grin drove the duckcycle straight up the open ramp, parking it inside the larger vehicle. He quickly dismounted with his passengers, Buzz anxiously standing next to them.
"Mallory?!" he cried out, seeing her unmoving in Wildwing's arms.
"Grin, get us to the Pond and warn the others," Wildwing commanded, pushing a button on the floor of the Migrator. A built-in cot from the sidewall shot out, allowing him to place the redhead down. She moaned in response.
Buzz came up next to Wildwing, tears already forming in his eyes. "What happened?!"
"She was shot," Wildwing curtly explained. "Nosedive, bandages!"
"On it!"
Mallory groaned again, opening her eyes. She looked up at Wildwing, and then saw Buzz next to her and attempted to sit up.
Wildwing pushed her back down. "No moving," he ordered, his voice strained. "We need to put pressure on the wound."
"I'm fine—"
"You are not fine," he growled at her, pressing her shoulders back into the cot. "Stay down, that's an order."
She sighed, but stopped resisting. She glanced over at Buzz and smiled at him. "Hey kid," she breathed out.
"You weren't supposed to get shot," Buzz quietly said, a hiccupped sob escaping right afterwards.
"I'm okay, Buzz," she soothed. "I promise." She reached out with her right hand, which he grasped onto tightly.
A wave of pain must have washed over the redhead, then, as she hissed in a breath and closed her eyes briefly. Buzz felt her handhold instinctively tighten. Nosedive came up to them shortly afterwards, loaded with supplies. He dumped everything on the cot next to Mallory's legs, and Buzz was forced to step back as Wildwing and Nosedive began to dress her wound.
The captain had removed his gloves, allowing his hands to move more freely. He grabbed at the side of Mallory's unitard and ripped it along the perimeter of the bullet wound. Another moan escaped from the redhead as the clothing stuck to her bloodied skin and feathers, making Wildwing cringe and slow down his actions.
The leader wordlessly motioned to his brother, who saw what he was reaching for and handed it to him. "This is gonna sting," he warned, squirting the solution onto Mallory's side.
"Agh!" she shouted, instantly trying to pull away. Wildwing kept a tight grip on her shoulder with his other hand, however, and quickly finished the job.
With the dirt, debris, and blood cleaned off the wound, it was clear that the bullet had gone completely through. Buzz felt a wave of nausea take over as both sides of the wound continued to ooze relentlessly.
Wildwing quickly padded gauze in the wound to help control the bleeding. He took a long bandage and unraveled it deftly, and with Nosedive's help they wrapped Mallory's complete midsection.
"You need to rest until we get you on the Medicom," he instructed, his hand still pressing down on Mallory's shoulder.
She nodded at him, her face still distorted in pain. "I'm sorry—"
"Not now," Wildwing interrupted, shaking his head as he hastily put his gloves back on. "Rest." The captain then turned his attention to Buzz, who had been watching everything with wide, teary eyes.
"Tell us what happened," he gruffly demanded.
