Disclaimer: . . . blah blah blah . . . they're not mine, don't sue . . .
blah blah blah . . . The revolution will indeed continue Jess, we'll win
'em over one way or another, lol. A big shout out to DQ for her input on
this, you were such a big help! *glomps* Thanks so much to all who
reviewed, I love hearing back from readers! I'm sorry this took so long to
be posted! One more big stretch, and here we go again . . .
All I Want For Christmas
Like clockwork, her military habits kicked in a half hour before dawn. Mallory's eyes cracked open scant centimeters above the coverlet; she had burrowed underneath in a warm little ball overnight. Almost purring in contentment, she gave a monster stretch and prepared to greet the day. Crawling to the end of her bed she got up and walked quietly over to her dresser, pulling on the first thick sweater she could find and the most comfortable pants she had. Everything was quiet as she emerged from her room, as usual. She was always the first to rise. Preferring the cool grayness of the weak morning light, she passed right by the light switches and padded barefoot into the kitchen. As a treat she skipped her usual cup of coffee for her favourite hot chocolate, it had the sweet taste of white chocolate. Relighting the huge fire to bring some warmth to the house, she pulled a chair up to the window and watched the sunrise, sipping her chocolate. She stayed there until she heard the first faint stirrings above her head. Mallory smiled in anticipation; she had a surprise for them this morning.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Duke stumbled back out of the bathroom in his boxers and robe, still half asleep, but the aroma of coffee met him at the door. This got him considerably more awake and he followed his nose downstairs. Knowing it was likely Mallory who had gotten up before him, he started to speak before he reached the kitchen.
"Mal Mal sweetheart, you're my . . . hero?" His voice rose as he stopped, disbelieving, at the sight before him. The table was brimming with delicious-smelling food, coffee was perking, and Mallory was standing in front of the stove, competently flipping pancakes and keeping an eye on the scrambled eggs and bacon. She turned to smile at him, expecting and enjoying his confusion. "Morning Duke." He stood there, scratching his head, completely speechless. "Hungry?" she asked.
"You can cook?" he asked as he finally found his voice.
"Mmm hmm" she replied as she added the steaming, fluffy eggs to the plate piled high beside her.
"Since when?" he asked rather accusingly.
"Oh years ago," she said distractedly as she popped down more toast. "It was the only condition my mother gave my father when he wanted to put me into training for the military. Mom managed the mess hall at the base we were stationed at and she wanted to still be able to spend some time with me, being her only daughter. She taught me all she knew."
He wasn't finished yet. "So we've been putting up with Grin's tofu, Tanya's disasters, and take-out for all this time, and you can do THIS?"
Rather sheepish, she tried to make light of the situation. "Well, adversity builds character, so I've been told."
Too hungry and pleased at the surprise, he couldn't stay upset any longer. He was still curious, however, at her reluctance to reveal her talent.
"C'mon, why did ya keep this a secret?" he asked as he piled his plate high, practically drooling, and sat down. She grimaced; she had hoped, rather naively, to avoid this conversation. Oh well, she thought, she did sort of owe them an explanation.
"Well, it's complicated, and I admit straight up that my thinking was a little warped on this one. When we first became a team, my objective was to establish myself as a serious fighter purely focused on our mission. Food, or good food, wasn't the issue. Once we had settled I just found I wasn't comfortable revealing myself. Last night when we were all sitting here talking like the oldest of friends I realized that by holding back something that was important to me, I wasn't being true to everyone, and this got me thinking. It was time to put myself out there. So here you have it, this is me." She turned her back, uncomfortable with revealing so much.
Floored for the second time by her this morning, Duke was oddly touched, and stunned that she had confided in him whereas she had never done so before. The old Mallory had no working knowledge of a kitchen, nor would she have ever spoken so candidly. His fork finally found his mouth, and he melted along with the food.
"Sweetheart, we could forgive you for anything after this. Will you marry me?" he asked straight faced as he took another mouthful.
Thankful for being brought back into familiar territory, she smirked as she fell back into the routine.
"In your dreams, L'Orange."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Tanya was the next to arrive, followed shortly by Grin and Wildwing. The delicious aromas floating though the house had everyone waking in a hurry, except for Nosedive, but nothing ever woke him up anyway. Each showed their disappointment that she had hidden this from them, but all cares dissolved as the feast in front of them was hungrily devoured.
After the meal, Tanya stayed to help Mallory clean up while the others went off to plan their day. Putting away a plate, Mallory turned to her,
"So Tawny, want to go shopping with me today? I saw that big mall in town when we flew overhead yesterday."
"Uh, actually, Duke asked me if I, uh, wanted to go skiing with him. I'm sure he meant to ask everyone, so why don't you come with us?"
Having forgotten she was on a mountain, Mallory had not considered this option, but found it to be more desirable.
"Hey, that sounds great! I love to ski! Thanks for the invite," she said, smiling broadly, "I'm in."
The girls spread the word to Wildwing and Grin, but of the two only Wildwing wanted to go. He decided to try and get his brother to surface to get him outside for the day. The task was easier said than done, however. He walked into Dive's room and found him sprawled backwards on the mattress, drooling onto the comic book that was open beside him. Wildwing tried and tried to wake him up, but after five minutes of being told to "Go 'way Mommy, jus' five mo' minutes . . ." he'd had enough. Standing back, he shouted in his leader-voice:
"LET'S GO TEAM!"
Well that worked. Nosedive was instantly out of bed and searching for his puck launcher.
"Where is that scum! We'll get him this time! Where is he? I . . . huh? WING! I told you not to do that!" Nosedive rubbed his eyes blearily.
"I had to do something Dive, it's too nice a day to be sleeping. You already missed the breakfast of the century and this day's too great to waste indoors. Why don't you come skiing with us?" Wing asked.
Normally Dive would have already moved on from any slight, but this time he was rather miffed. He had been fooled with that one too many times. He sat back down and said rather sulkily:
"No. I'm not coming. I'll find something here."
"Oh come on baby bro . . ."
"Nope, I'm stayin'."
Wildwing looked at him sternly as if he wanted to say something rather parent-ish but decided to drop it. "Fine," he said, "stay here then. We'll be out having fun." Wildwing turned and left the room, closing the door behind him.
As ideas began to form, Nosedive chuckled and muttered: "Oh don't worry bro, I'll have fun too."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Duke seemed oddly confused when he found Wildwing and Mallory waiting with Tanya to go skiing, but made no comment about it since he enjoyed being in their company as well. He secretly didn't care who came as long as Tanya was there. All enjoyed the outdoors and they spent several hours speeding down the glistening mountain trails. Hiking back to the cabin, they were almost at the door when they noticed what stood next to the line of trees at the end of the driveway. Wildwing was the first to stop and stare in bewilderment. The others continued to walk and chatter until he interrupted them.
"Uh, guys, what's that?"
One by one they stopped and stared with jaws agape. Apparently Nosedive had indeed decided to go outside as Wildwing had suggested, for there he was, having a grand old time showing off his snow sculpting skills. It wasn't seeing him outside that had them stunned; it was what he had done that staggered them. Six carvings surrounded Nosedive, and the ducks did not like what they saw. First in line was a statue of Wildwing, but it was almost painful to look at. The normally proud leader was snow- clad in a dominatrix outfit, complete with whips and chains. The live Wildwing winced; this was rather harsh revenge for a somewhat early wake up call. Next was Mallory, and her expression darkened threateningly. She had been depicted as a starry-eyed, giggly cheerleader, complete with pom- poms and high kicks. Mallory's hands balled into fists in anger. Next to her figure was a scary sight, Grin was grinning (pun intended) maniacally, preparing to lunge in attack while a gruesome head dangled from his hand. Tanya's sculpture was beside Grins'. She had been dressed in skimpy clothes, her face frozen in a suggestive smirk. This deeply unsettled the normally genteel Tanya. Seeing her face darkened Duke's already black mood. He had been portrayed as a police officer, prepared to run after a thief and blowing his whistle. Nosedive had chosen to create the exact antithesis of everything his teammates were as his revenge. Their gazes finally converged on the last creation. There was Nosedive himself, smiling his amusement, as he continued to pat snow on the rump of an icy supermodel. Said supermodel was in the company of several other frozen ladies as they fawned over another figure in their midst, for there stood a posing Nosedive, muscles rippling under his snowy Superman costume
Perhaps some super-sense warned him that his life was in grave peril, as he chose that moment to look around and meet their furious gazes. For a moment he stood frozen like a deer caught in the headlights, but he knew he was in deep trouble and his thoughts soon met up with his feet. He practically flew back into the cabin to hide away in his room, dodging past Grin who was just coming through the door. Grin thought nothing of it, for Nosedive frequently runs away from many things, and continued to walk out to meet the others. A few steps out and he finally glanced in the direction that everyone was looking towards. His expression remained unchanged, yet the atmosphere suddenly felt like a storm cloud had fallen over them. A duck of few words, the only sign of his displeasure was the intimidating cracking and re-cracking of his massive knuckles. Duke was the one to break the stony silence.
"That's it, the kid's gone too far this time!" he said angrily.
Mallory had rolled up her sleeves, glaring ominously at the door Nosedive had just disappeared through. Wildwing placed a gentle restraining hand on her shoulder and shook his head.
"Karma will ensure he gets what he deserves," came Grin's assurance.
"Oh he'll get what he deserves alright," said Duke as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Guys, I got an idea. What say you to showing Nosedive how things REALLY are?"
"Uh, you mean, making our own s-statues?" asked Tanya.
"Bingo sweetheart," Duke grinned.
A very devious look spread across Mallory's face. "I want Nosedive's."
"Right, any objections? No? Are we all in this?" A chorus of eager yeses answered Duke's question. "Excellent. Now we just need a statue for Mal Mal and we're all set."
"I'll do it," said Wildwing.
Mallory looked momentarily taken aback when he spoke up. She could find no objections, and she trusted him to make things right on her behalf at least. Somehow at a loss for words, she merely nodded her acceptance and he smiled in return. "Hmm . . ." she thought to herself, "why do I almost feel . . . pleased . . . that he was the one to offer to help me?" She mentally shook her head. "That's crazy, it's just the fresh air messing around with my thoughts."
Each walked over to their separate projects, smiling in anticipation and plotting how best to serve their revenge. One by one they destroyed the offending sculptures, loving every minute of it. Using the snow to rebuild and reshape, they set to work. Two hours later the ducks stepped back to evaluate. A huge, wicked grin spread across Duke's face.
"Team, I think we've done it."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Dusk had fallen when Nosedive finally emerged from his room. Hunger had won out over fear; he was starving. He hummed the Mission Impossible theme song as he crept down the hall, praying he wouldn't see anyone. In his head he was laughing to himself.
"Oh man, that was the best prank ever! They're never going to forget that one! Now all I have to do is avoid them for the rest of the holidays . . ."
Oddly enough, he made it down to the kitchen without seeing a soul. Very few lights had been left on and dinner dishes were drying on the rack beside the sink. They had obviously been here, but he had no idea where they had gone. On his way to the fridge he happened to look out the window and saw that the outside lights were on. Curiosity got the best of him. He tossed on his coat and peeked outside the door, prepped to run at a moment's notice. His glance skimmed towards the end of the drive, over the sculptures and beyond, but something made him look back and take a second look at his work. Something wasn't right.
"What in the stars?" he muttered. He left the sanctuary provided by the door and walked closer. He kept rubbing his eyes as if to clear the image before him. Things were certainly not what they had been before. His gaze roamed over what had been created in place of his work.
Wildwing was now seated astride a Harley, so real looking one could almost hear it purring. He was still in leather, but this time in the form of a leather jacket. Sexy sunglasses were perched on his beak and his head was turned back to look at his passenger. Perched sideways on the padded seat behind him was an absolute vision. No longer a childish, girly cheerleader, Mallory was stunningly sophisticated and confident in a slim, stylish evening gown. She appeared entirely sure of herself and was every inch a woman. One snowy arm was draped around Wing's middle to hold on as she looked up and smiled at him.
Nosedive's gaze shifted to the next statue. Grin was seated lotus- style on what appeared to be a cloud. A flowing cloak was draped over him, including his enlarged Buddha-belly. Tanya stood next to him, proud and successful in a business suit. Clutching textbooks in one arm, she cradled the Nobel Prize in the other. Seated next to her in a jewel-encrusted throne was Duke, wearing a suit and hat straight out of the twenties. Piles of money and jewels surrounded him; he looked the epitome of the profitable gangster. Last but not least would be Nosedive's own statue, but he was almost afraid to look. Summoning up what remained of his waning courage he looked to the right and winced in pain at what he saw. There were his supermodels, only now they were turned away in disgust. He was still in the center of the circle where they had once fawned over him, but now he was hunched over on the ground, several hundred greasy-looking pounds heavier. Mounds of food, most of which was on the front of his now stretched and ripped costume, surrounded him.
Nosedive was very scared now. He knew they had to be nearby; they would have waited around for him to see his reaction. Sure enough, one by one, they stepped from behind their likenesses. The fact that they were all smiling like idiots did less to ease his fear than if they had been furious. He caught sight of what was in their hands and his heart skipped a beat.
"Hello there baby bro," said Wildwing as he tossed his snowball in the air casually. "We were wondering when you'd show up."
Nosedive managed a strangled, "Mommy!" as he scrambled to crouch on the ground as they all let fly their arsenal. In seconds there was no sign of him; he was buried. They finally finished pelting him with snow and it was all he could do to unfold his body and crumple onto the snow. The rest of them had since collapsed as well from laughing so hard. Tears were running down their cheeks, they had had too much fun to be angry anymore. Wildwing walked over to his brother and offered him a hand up.
"All right bro?" he asked as he helped brush the snow off.
Nosedive nodded rather sheepishly. "I guess I deserved that one, didn't I?"
"Well you did pretty much ask for it you know," said Wing as he laughed. "It's all good now though, I'd say we're more than even."
The others approached, clapping Nosedive on the back. Their laughter was infectious and soon had him laughing too. As the others were distracted, Mallory used the moment to steal another glance at Wildwing's creation. She didn't know what to think. She had no problems with how she had been depicted, yet . . . there seemed to be a strange intimacy, some sort of bond, a shared look, between the figures, despite the ice and snow they were created from. "How am I supposed to read this?" she thought. She shook her head, "I'm just seeing things again, that must be it." Tanya brought her out of her reverie.
"Look guys! It's, uh, snowing!"
Sure enough, a large fat flake was floating past her beak. Several more followed in its wake.
Duke yawned. "Time to head in guys, I'm beat."
A chorus of agreement met his statement and the ducks turned as one, happy once again, to go into the house. As they climbed into bed snow fell softly on the mountainside.
All I Want For Christmas
Like clockwork, her military habits kicked in a half hour before dawn. Mallory's eyes cracked open scant centimeters above the coverlet; she had burrowed underneath in a warm little ball overnight. Almost purring in contentment, she gave a monster stretch and prepared to greet the day. Crawling to the end of her bed she got up and walked quietly over to her dresser, pulling on the first thick sweater she could find and the most comfortable pants she had. Everything was quiet as she emerged from her room, as usual. She was always the first to rise. Preferring the cool grayness of the weak morning light, she passed right by the light switches and padded barefoot into the kitchen. As a treat she skipped her usual cup of coffee for her favourite hot chocolate, it had the sweet taste of white chocolate. Relighting the huge fire to bring some warmth to the house, she pulled a chair up to the window and watched the sunrise, sipping her chocolate. She stayed there until she heard the first faint stirrings above her head. Mallory smiled in anticipation; she had a surprise for them this morning.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Duke stumbled back out of the bathroom in his boxers and robe, still half asleep, but the aroma of coffee met him at the door. This got him considerably more awake and he followed his nose downstairs. Knowing it was likely Mallory who had gotten up before him, he started to speak before he reached the kitchen.
"Mal Mal sweetheart, you're my . . . hero?" His voice rose as he stopped, disbelieving, at the sight before him. The table was brimming with delicious-smelling food, coffee was perking, and Mallory was standing in front of the stove, competently flipping pancakes and keeping an eye on the scrambled eggs and bacon. She turned to smile at him, expecting and enjoying his confusion. "Morning Duke." He stood there, scratching his head, completely speechless. "Hungry?" she asked.
"You can cook?" he asked as he finally found his voice.
"Mmm hmm" she replied as she added the steaming, fluffy eggs to the plate piled high beside her.
"Since when?" he asked rather accusingly.
"Oh years ago," she said distractedly as she popped down more toast. "It was the only condition my mother gave my father when he wanted to put me into training for the military. Mom managed the mess hall at the base we were stationed at and she wanted to still be able to spend some time with me, being her only daughter. She taught me all she knew."
He wasn't finished yet. "So we've been putting up with Grin's tofu, Tanya's disasters, and take-out for all this time, and you can do THIS?"
Rather sheepish, she tried to make light of the situation. "Well, adversity builds character, so I've been told."
Too hungry and pleased at the surprise, he couldn't stay upset any longer. He was still curious, however, at her reluctance to reveal her talent.
"C'mon, why did ya keep this a secret?" he asked as he piled his plate high, practically drooling, and sat down. She grimaced; she had hoped, rather naively, to avoid this conversation. Oh well, she thought, she did sort of owe them an explanation.
"Well, it's complicated, and I admit straight up that my thinking was a little warped on this one. When we first became a team, my objective was to establish myself as a serious fighter purely focused on our mission. Food, or good food, wasn't the issue. Once we had settled I just found I wasn't comfortable revealing myself. Last night when we were all sitting here talking like the oldest of friends I realized that by holding back something that was important to me, I wasn't being true to everyone, and this got me thinking. It was time to put myself out there. So here you have it, this is me." She turned her back, uncomfortable with revealing so much.
Floored for the second time by her this morning, Duke was oddly touched, and stunned that she had confided in him whereas she had never done so before. The old Mallory had no working knowledge of a kitchen, nor would she have ever spoken so candidly. His fork finally found his mouth, and he melted along with the food.
"Sweetheart, we could forgive you for anything after this. Will you marry me?" he asked straight faced as he took another mouthful.
Thankful for being brought back into familiar territory, she smirked as she fell back into the routine.
"In your dreams, L'Orange."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Tanya was the next to arrive, followed shortly by Grin and Wildwing. The delicious aromas floating though the house had everyone waking in a hurry, except for Nosedive, but nothing ever woke him up anyway. Each showed their disappointment that she had hidden this from them, but all cares dissolved as the feast in front of them was hungrily devoured.
After the meal, Tanya stayed to help Mallory clean up while the others went off to plan their day. Putting away a plate, Mallory turned to her,
"So Tawny, want to go shopping with me today? I saw that big mall in town when we flew overhead yesterday."
"Uh, actually, Duke asked me if I, uh, wanted to go skiing with him. I'm sure he meant to ask everyone, so why don't you come with us?"
Having forgotten she was on a mountain, Mallory had not considered this option, but found it to be more desirable.
"Hey, that sounds great! I love to ski! Thanks for the invite," she said, smiling broadly, "I'm in."
The girls spread the word to Wildwing and Grin, but of the two only Wildwing wanted to go. He decided to try and get his brother to surface to get him outside for the day. The task was easier said than done, however. He walked into Dive's room and found him sprawled backwards on the mattress, drooling onto the comic book that was open beside him. Wildwing tried and tried to wake him up, but after five minutes of being told to "Go 'way Mommy, jus' five mo' minutes . . ." he'd had enough. Standing back, he shouted in his leader-voice:
"LET'S GO TEAM!"
Well that worked. Nosedive was instantly out of bed and searching for his puck launcher.
"Where is that scum! We'll get him this time! Where is he? I . . . huh? WING! I told you not to do that!" Nosedive rubbed his eyes blearily.
"I had to do something Dive, it's too nice a day to be sleeping. You already missed the breakfast of the century and this day's too great to waste indoors. Why don't you come skiing with us?" Wing asked.
Normally Dive would have already moved on from any slight, but this time he was rather miffed. He had been fooled with that one too many times. He sat back down and said rather sulkily:
"No. I'm not coming. I'll find something here."
"Oh come on baby bro . . ."
"Nope, I'm stayin'."
Wildwing looked at him sternly as if he wanted to say something rather parent-ish but decided to drop it. "Fine," he said, "stay here then. We'll be out having fun." Wildwing turned and left the room, closing the door behind him.
As ideas began to form, Nosedive chuckled and muttered: "Oh don't worry bro, I'll have fun too."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Duke seemed oddly confused when he found Wildwing and Mallory waiting with Tanya to go skiing, but made no comment about it since he enjoyed being in their company as well. He secretly didn't care who came as long as Tanya was there. All enjoyed the outdoors and they spent several hours speeding down the glistening mountain trails. Hiking back to the cabin, they were almost at the door when they noticed what stood next to the line of trees at the end of the driveway. Wildwing was the first to stop and stare in bewilderment. The others continued to walk and chatter until he interrupted them.
"Uh, guys, what's that?"
One by one they stopped and stared with jaws agape. Apparently Nosedive had indeed decided to go outside as Wildwing had suggested, for there he was, having a grand old time showing off his snow sculpting skills. It wasn't seeing him outside that had them stunned; it was what he had done that staggered them. Six carvings surrounded Nosedive, and the ducks did not like what they saw. First in line was a statue of Wildwing, but it was almost painful to look at. The normally proud leader was snow- clad in a dominatrix outfit, complete with whips and chains. The live Wildwing winced; this was rather harsh revenge for a somewhat early wake up call. Next was Mallory, and her expression darkened threateningly. She had been depicted as a starry-eyed, giggly cheerleader, complete with pom- poms and high kicks. Mallory's hands balled into fists in anger. Next to her figure was a scary sight, Grin was grinning (pun intended) maniacally, preparing to lunge in attack while a gruesome head dangled from his hand. Tanya's sculpture was beside Grins'. She had been dressed in skimpy clothes, her face frozen in a suggestive smirk. This deeply unsettled the normally genteel Tanya. Seeing her face darkened Duke's already black mood. He had been portrayed as a police officer, prepared to run after a thief and blowing his whistle. Nosedive had chosen to create the exact antithesis of everything his teammates were as his revenge. Their gazes finally converged on the last creation. There was Nosedive himself, smiling his amusement, as he continued to pat snow on the rump of an icy supermodel. Said supermodel was in the company of several other frozen ladies as they fawned over another figure in their midst, for there stood a posing Nosedive, muscles rippling under his snowy Superman costume
Perhaps some super-sense warned him that his life was in grave peril, as he chose that moment to look around and meet their furious gazes. For a moment he stood frozen like a deer caught in the headlights, but he knew he was in deep trouble and his thoughts soon met up with his feet. He practically flew back into the cabin to hide away in his room, dodging past Grin who was just coming through the door. Grin thought nothing of it, for Nosedive frequently runs away from many things, and continued to walk out to meet the others. A few steps out and he finally glanced in the direction that everyone was looking towards. His expression remained unchanged, yet the atmosphere suddenly felt like a storm cloud had fallen over them. A duck of few words, the only sign of his displeasure was the intimidating cracking and re-cracking of his massive knuckles. Duke was the one to break the stony silence.
"That's it, the kid's gone too far this time!" he said angrily.
Mallory had rolled up her sleeves, glaring ominously at the door Nosedive had just disappeared through. Wildwing placed a gentle restraining hand on her shoulder and shook his head.
"Karma will ensure he gets what he deserves," came Grin's assurance.
"Oh he'll get what he deserves alright," said Duke as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Guys, I got an idea. What say you to showing Nosedive how things REALLY are?"
"Uh, you mean, making our own s-statues?" asked Tanya.
"Bingo sweetheart," Duke grinned.
A very devious look spread across Mallory's face. "I want Nosedive's."
"Right, any objections? No? Are we all in this?" A chorus of eager yeses answered Duke's question. "Excellent. Now we just need a statue for Mal Mal and we're all set."
"I'll do it," said Wildwing.
Mallory looked momentarily taken aback when he spoke up. She could find no objections, and she trusted him to make things right on her behalf at least. Somehow at a loss for words, she merely nodded her acceptance and he smiled in return. "Hmm . . ." she thought to herself, "why do I almost feel . . . pleased . . . that he was the one to offer to help me?" She mentally shook her head. "That's crazy, it's just the fresh air messing around with my thoughts."
Each walked over to their separate projects, smiling in anticipation and plotting how best to serve their revenge. One by one they destroyed the offending sculptures, loving every minute of it. Using the snow to rebuild and reshape, they set to work. Two hours later the ducks stepped back to evaluate. A huge, wicked grin spread across Duke's face.
"Team, I think we've done it."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Dusk had fallen when Nosedive finally emerged from his room. Hunger had won out over fear; he was starving. He hummed the Mission Impossible theme song as he crept down the hall, praying he wouldn't see anyone. In his head he was laughing to himself.
"Oh man, that was the best prank ever! They're never going to forget that one! Now all I have to do is avoid them for the rest of the holidays . . ."
Oddly enough, he made it down to the kitchen without seeing a soul. Very few lights had been left on and dinner dishes were drying on the rack beside the sink. They had obviously been here, but he had no idea where they had gone. On his way to the fridge he happened to look out the window and saw that the outside lights were on. Curiosity got the best of him. He tossed on his coat and peeked outside the door, prepped to run at a moment's notice. His glance skimmed towards the end of the drive, over the sculptures and beyond, but something made him look back and take a second look at his work. Something wasn't right.
"What in the stars?" he muttered. He left the sanctuary provided by the door and walked closer. He kept rubbing his eyes as if to clear the image before him. Things were certainly not what they had been before. His gaze roamed over what had been created in place of his work.
Wildwing was now seated astride a Harley, so real looking one could almost hear it purring. He was still in leather, but this time in the form of a leather jacket. Sexy sunglasses were perched on his beak and his head was turned back to look at his passenger. Perched sideways on the padded seat behind him was an absolute vision. No longer a childish, girly cheerleader, Mallory was stunningly sophisticated and confident in a slim, stylish evening gown. She appeared entirely sure of herself and was every inch a woman. One snowy arm was draped around Wing's middle to hold on as she looked up and smiled at him.
Nosedive's gaze shifted to the next statue. Grin was seated lotus- style on what appeared to be a cloud. A flowing cloak was draped over him, including his enlarged Buddha-belly. Tanya stood next to him, proud and successful in a business suit. Clutching textbooks in one arm, she cradled the Nobel Prize in the other. Seated next to her in a jewel-encrusted throne was Duke, wearing a suit and hat straight out of the twenties. Piles of money and jewels surrounded him; he looked the epitome of the profitable gangster. Last but not least would be Nosedive's own statue, but he was almost afraid to look. Summoning up what remained of his waning courage he looked to the right and winced in pain at what he saw. There were his supermodels, only now they were turned away in disgust. He was still in the center of the circle where they had once fawned over him, but now he was hunched over on the ground, several hundred greasy-looking pounds heavier. Mounds of food, most of which was on the front of his now stretched and ripped costume, surrounded him.
Nosedive was very scared now. He knew they had to be nearby; they would have waited around for him to see his reaction. Sure enough, one by one, they stepped from behind their likenesses. The fact that they were all smiling like idiots did less to ease his fear than if they had been furious. He caught sight of what was in their hands and his heart skipped a beat.
"Hello there baby bro," said Wildwing as he tossed his snowball in the air casually. "We were wondering when you'd show up."
Nosedive managed a strangled, "Mommy!" as he scrambled to crouch on the ground as they all let fly their arsenal. In seconds there was no sign of him; he was buried. They finally finished pelting him with snow and it was all he could do to unfold his body and crumple onto the snow. The rest of them had since collapsed as well from laughing so hard. Tears were running down their cheeks, they had had too much fun to be angry anymore. Wildwing walked over to his brother and offered him a hand up.
"All right bro?" he asked as he helped brush the snow off.
Nosedive nodded rather sheepishly. "I guess I deserved that one, didn't I?"
"Well you did pretty much ask for it you know," said Wing as he laughed. "It's all good now though, I'd say we're more than even."
The others approached, clapping Nosedive on the back. Their laughter was infectious and soon had him laughing too. As the others were distracted, Mallory used the moment to steal another glance at Wildwing's creation. She didn't know what to think. She had no problems with how she had been depicted, yet . . . there seemed to be a strange intimacy, some sort of bond, a shared look, between the figures, despite the ice and snow they were created from. "How am I supposed to read this?" she thought. She shook her head, "I'm just seeing things again, that must be it." Tanya brought her out of her reverie.
"Look guys! It's, uh, snowing!"
Sure enough, a large fat flake was floating past her beak. Several more followed in its wake.
Duke yawned. "Time to head in guys, I'm beat."
A chorus of agreement met his statement and the ducks turned as one, happy once again, to go into the house. As they climbed into bed snow fell softly on the mountainside.