"Ouch, ouch, ouch," was all Nosedive could mutter under his breath as he exited the rink. A hard slap on his already bruised shoulder caused him to wince and glare at the older duck behind him.
"Come on kid you've been hit harder and more frequent before," Duke said as he walked past the stiff and sore teen. Dive only glared at him and rolled his eyes. He had taken an extra beating tonight from the opposing team. He barely even made three goals that night. A much softer touch to his shoulder caused him to look up at his older brother.
"You okay bro, you took a pretty good beating," he said as they entered the locker room. Dive smiled and waved Wild Wing off his shoulder as he went to go change. As the other ducks pulled off their jerseys and pads Dive ducked behind a grouping of lockers to begin changing. As he removed his jersey he looked at the side of his body that was giving him the most trouble. A huge bruise covered his entire right side and was very tender to the touch.
"Awe man, better have Tanya check this out," he said as he slipped his shoulder pads off and over his head and hissed as his side flared up with pain. Soon he had completely stripped from his uniform and was back in his casual jeans, T-shirt, and vest. As he immerged from his changing areas he noticed the others had already left the locker room and were down below the pond in the living quarters. Dive sighed and headed down to where he would find the others being sure to favor his right side. As he finally reached the living room he noticed Mallory and Grin watching the news while Duke was nursing a mug of coffee at the table. Wing was most likely in the gym and he could pretty much guess where Tanya was. With only a small glance back inside the room he headed for the Med. room.
~~*~~*~~*~~
"Well Nosedive, it was a good thing you came down here, you have sustained two cracked ribs," said Tanya as dive lifted his sore body up from the scanners. Tanya punched a few buttons on the computer and different screens popped up. "See right there the uh two middle ones are uh suffering from tiny cracks nothing a few days in bed can't cure."
"Hey Tanya do me a favor will yah?"
"Duh…shoot."
"Don't tell Wing alright, no don't even open your mouth to object," he said holding up his hands to silence her, "you know how he fusses over me and well I don't want him to and he doesn't need the extra stress." Tanya looked at him with one eyebrow raised in doubt but she soon sighed and signaled for him to follow her. She had him sit on a bed, more appropriately a hospital bed, as she began to wrap his upper torso.
"This should keep them from moving around enough to cause greater damage," she said as she tied off the bandage. As soon as she had finished Drake 1 began to sound its alarms alerting the ducks to trouble. Soon they were all in front of the massive computer in their armor awaiting information on the situation. Tanya began to allow her fingers to fly over the keys while the others watched the numerous screens popping up.
"There, at the Anaheim Metal Works," pointed out Tanya as the screen flashed the exact location.
"Let's roll ducks," yelled Wildwing as he charged towards the Aerowing. The others followed after him but Dive was soon jerked back softly by Tanya.
"Dive your in no position to go up against Dragaunas's goons, you should stay here."
"Are you kidding and miss all the fun," with that he took off after the others followed by a very worried Tanya.
~~*~~*~~*~~
"Hurry up you little lizard we gotta get these beams back to the Raptor," yelled Siege as Chameleon struggled with a giant I-beam. Chameleon let go of the beam then in a bright green light he morphed into a giant ogre.
"Oh yeah it's time to pump some iron," he said sounding very much like Arnold Schwartzinager. With ease he lifted the giant I-beam and carried over to where the others were morphing back to his original form.
"Alright that's it all we need now to get back to Dragaunas."
"Hold it right there Saurian scum," yelled Wildwing as he aimed his built in puck launcher.
"It's the ducks!"
"Ducks where," said Nosedive sarcastically as he looked around, "Oh you mean us, heh silly me." With this said the Saurians began to fire on the ducks causing them to scatter. Wildwing and Grin dived behind a piece of machinery while Tanya and Duke headed behind a pile of I-beams. Mallory and Nosedive stood their ground firing onto the two henchmen.
"I wonder were that fire toting Wraith is," growled Mallory as she launched another puck causing Chameleon to take cover. Suddenly there was a puff of smoke and right before them stood Wraith a fire ball forming in his hand.
"You had to open your bill didn't you Mallory," said Nosedive as he and Mallory ran for cover. They both dove as Wraith released his fireball and launched it at the two ducks. While Mallory and Dive handled Wraith, Grin and Wildwing continued their battle with Siege.
"Eat laser you walking bag of feathers," yelled Siege as he fired on Wildwing who duck and shot Siege's laser from his hand. "Aurgh blast you, wait better yet," he reached down and lifted one of the giant I-beam, "smash you." He swung the beam connecting it with Grins jaw sending the gentle giant flying.
"Grin!" Wildwing ran towards his fallen comrade to find him recovering.
"Bad karma," said Grin as he shook his head. Wildwing smiled slightly and looked to see that Tanya and Duke had the Chameleon on the run and Mallory and Nosedive had Wraith in a corner.
"Retreat," yelled Wraith as he and Chameleon disappeared in a green light. Before Siege reached for his teleporter he tossed the giant I-beam towards Mallory and Nosedive. Both ducks turned in time to have the beam nick Mallory in the side and hit Dive full force. Mallory groaned and flew to the floor hitting her head hard on the hard concrete. Dive held back a scream as he felt something in his chest crack. As he hit the floor he yelled out as a sharp pain went through his chest and he found it extremely hard to breath as some liquid rose up in his throat before everything went black.
~~*~~*~~*~~
Wildwing ran towards his brother as soon as he heard him yell out. When he got there he kneeled down next to Mallory who was only semi conscious and moaning on the ground. He watched as Tanya knelt down next to her and checked her vitals.
"Duh she'll be okay," she said as Wildwing stood and ran towards his brother. When he reached him a skidded to a stop and stared. His brother lie sprawled on the floor unconscious with a giant I-beam lying over his chest. He saw something glisten near Dive's mouth, Wing gasped when he saw it was blood.
"Tanya!" Tanya ran over and cursed under her breath.
"I told him not to come," she said as she kneeled down, "Grin I need someone to uh… get this beam off of him." Grin bowed and then bent down wrapping his large hands around the beam lifting it off of his young friend. Tanya knelt down next to Nosedive and tenderly added pressure to his chest. After a moment she stood and faced Wing. "Duh, we need to get him back to the pond as soon as possible. His ribs are broken and I think one may have pierced his right lung." Wildwing nodded numbly and ordered everyone into the Migrator. Duke picked up Mallory into his arms and carried her off while Grin, carefully, picked up Dive and headed for the Migrator.
~~*~~*~~*~~
"Tanya back at the metal works what did you mean by you told Dive not to come," Wildwing looked at Tanya while she finished stitching up Dive. She looked at Wildwing and sighed averting her eyes. "Tanya!"
"Nosedive sustained some cracked ribs after today's game, I told him he shouldn't have gone out to the fight today," said Tanya as she stood from Dive's side pulling the sheet over him up to his chin. "If his ribs weren't already cracked he wouldn't have sustained such a bad injury in battle." With this said Wildwing sat down in a chair and stared up at Tanya.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Nosedive made me promise I wouldn't, he said he didn't want you to have extra stress." Wildwing looked at her astonishment written on his face. "I'm sorry Wing I should have told you and…"
"Yes you should have Tanya and I sincerely hope you won't keep something this important from me again!"
"Of uh cour…uh cor…uh No Way!" Wildwing nodded and then turned and looked at his younger brother. His peach colored feathers were paler than normal and his breathing was coming in shallow gasps.
"How bad is it Tanya?" Tanya looked at Wildwing with mournful eyes and lowered her gaze.
"Two of his ribs penetrated his right lung causing internal bleeding. The blood as totally flooded one lung so he has only his left to depend on. I am not surgeon Wing; we don't have the medical equipment we need to help him. He needs surgery, with out it he could…die." She looked up at Wing as he sat down in the chair and ran a shaking hand through his hair.
"Well then we need to take him to a hospital and…"
"They won't take him, many of the doctors are unsure of us so they won't take any of us in as patients, the only people willing are…" Tanya trailed off and looked up at Wing with a less than hopeful expression.
"Who, Tanya?"
"The U.S Government, but Wing I don't trust them as soon as they fix him up who knows what they might do. We are aliens to them and uh…they want to know what makes us uh…ya know tick." Wildwing looked at Tanya with a grave expression.
"We don't have any other choice, get in contact with them," said Wildwing and Tanya left the room. He looked over at his brother who still hadn't woken up. He sighed and hoped he had made the right decision.
SVX: And CUT!!! Very good everyone I got chills I'll call you when Chapter two is written bye! Okay everyone what do you think so far I hope you like it! Well I gotsta go I have guitar lessons in ten minutes and I still have an empty gas tank! Bye and don't forget to review!