A/N: Like I said here is the next part of this story. The ducks are now back at the Pond.
"Take off the mask and lay down," Tanya instructed as she turned the medicom on.
"Yes mother," Wing said sarcastically.
Tanya cast him a displeased look before she keyed in the instructions. Wildwing lay down on the bed and closed his eyes. His head was pounding. Thinking, talking, or any movement made it worse.
"Good. Everything's fine," Tanya finally said after running the tests three times to be sure.
"Are you sure?" Dive asked.
"Nosedive, he's fine. Wildwing you can get up now."
Wildwing lay perfectly still on the bed.
"Wildwing did you hear me? You can get up now."
Wildwing did not move.
"Wildwing," Nosedive panicked and shook his brother harshly.
Wing still did not respond.
Dive looked to Tanya then back to his brother. "WILDWING!"
A slow smile spreads across Wing's bill before he opened one eye to look at his panic stricken baby brother. "Boo."
"AHHH! I hate you!" Dive screamed before he slapped Wing in the arm.
Wing chortled to himself.
"Wildwing you can get up now," Tanya said as she placed her hand on her hip.
"I heard you Tanya. I'm just so comfortable. Can't I just take a nap here," Wildwing said as he rocked back and forth to find a better position on the bed.
"No get up!"
"Fine, but not until I get something for this head ache."
Tanya gave an exasperated sigh before going to get some Tylenol. Duke and Mallory stifled giggles, while Grin sat in the corner meditating. Wing picked up the mask after he sat up, but he did not put it on. Tanya returned with two pills and a glass of water.
"Thank you."
"Your welcome."
Wing set the mask down on the medicom's console and took the medication. After finishing the water he threw the paper cup in the garbage and went to retrieve the mask. The instant he placed his hand on the mask an electrical shock shot up from the console and up Wing's arm. The medicom blew up a few seconds later and sent the ducks flying. Wing sat up and shook the dust off his head. The infirmary was in complete darkness. He heard someone move around on his right.
"Is everyone all right?" Wing asked.
"Yeah."
"I'm okay."
"My pride's hurt but nothing more."
"All fine here. How about you bro.?"
"I'll live, Tanya what just happened?"
"I don't know. It must have been a short circuit or something."
Wildwing put on the mask and surveyed the room. The mask's eyes had an eerie green glow.
"What do you mean you don't know! Your suppose to be our top tech! Find out what happened you stupid fat blond bimbo!" Wildwing shouted before he stormed out of the room.
Tanya and the others were stupefied. Did they just hear what they thought they heard? Did Wildwing just call Tanya those things? Tanya was more shocked then hurt by the outburst. Tanya looked to the others for support, but how can you see anything in total darkness. She was going to have to install windows in the place some day. No one tried to move, considering that there had just been an explosion in the room. Who knows what was on the floor and where. The lights come back on suddenly. Wildwing's face appeared on their wrist coms. "I turned the power back on, happy?" Then he was gone.
"What just happened?" Dive asked.
"Beats the heck out of me kid."
The ducks cautiously made their way through the smoking debris over to Tanya. She was sitting in a corner with her knees pulled up to her chest and her head hidden behind her folded arms. She didn't want to, but she was crying. The insults Wildwing had flung at her were now starting to sink in. They hurt, but not as much as knowing the fact that it was her equipment that blew up and almost killed them all.
"Don't listen to him sweet heart. Wing's just having a bad day."
Tanya shook her head. "That's not it Duke," she sobbed "it's my fault it blew up."
"No it's not Tanya," Mallory comforted. "It was probably a damaged circuit, or a power overload."
"I almost killed him Mal. Didn't you see it? The electricity that went shooting out of the medicom and into Wing?"
"Yeah, but"
"He has every right to be mad at me; I don't even know what happened, or how to fix it."
"Oh come on Tanya. I've done a lot of worse things to Wing then almost roasting him with electricity, and he's not mad at me," smiled Nosedive.
"Like?" Duke asked.
"Well, there was the time I stabbed him with a pencil."
"You stabbed him with a pencil?"
"Yeah I stabbed him with a pencil."
"Why would you do that?" Mal asked.
"Um, we were playing."
"Playing what, pirates? I'd hate to see what would have happened if you were using knifes."
"No, we weren't playing pirates Mallory. We were coloring."
"Kid you don't use pencils while your coloring."
"I know that. But Wing and I were coloring and I thought it would be fun to color his picture. He told me to stop marking his page or else he was going to color me. I didn't stop, so he jumped me and colored me. It wasn't working very well though, so he started to tickle me. He sat on top of me and would not get off. I couldn't breath because I was laughing so hard and because he was on top of my chest. I tried to push him off, but he has a big butt. I tried to kick and punch him, but he's always been bigger then me."
"Where'd you get the pencil?"
"I was getting to that Duke, geesh," Nosedive rolled his eyes. "Wildwing was tickling me relentlessly. I couldn't call my parents for help because I was laughing so hard. I reached up and grabbed the first thing my little fingers could grasp. I thought that it was a crayon, so I hit him with it. Wildwing stopped tickling me, grabbed his arm and ran off crying. I sat up and looked at my weapon and saw that it was a pencil. I guess when I stabbed him the lead broke off in his arm. My mom was soooo mad at me. I'm surprised Wing forgave me for that."
"Tell us again how stabbing him with a pencil is worse then electrocuting him?" Mal asked.
"Hello, hospital mean anything to you. Wing hates the hospital. It means doctors and needles. He had to get the lead surgically removed from his arm, hence the doctor and needle thing."
Tanya still sat on the floor immersed in her sorrow.
"Come on Tanya cheer up," Nosedive said energetically.
"That story was interesting little friend, but not very helpful," Grin stated.
"Okay then, how about all those times I hit Wing over the head with hockey sticks and made him bleed. Does that come close?"
"Nope." Duke said flatly.
"What about the time I bit him and ripped a chunk of flesh of meat out of his side?"
"You did WHAT?!"
"Okay, how about the time I shoved a rock up his nose, no wait he did that to me. Um," Nosedive thought really hard about all the evil things he had done to Wildwing as a child. He couldn't think of anything worse then what had just happened to his brother. He would have said his birth was worse, but Wing liked him (or so he thought he did), so that wouldn't work. Nosedive gave up before his head exploded.
"See nothing is worse then what I did," Tanya sulked.
"No, what if you added up all the things I did to Wing when we were kids? Wouldn't that count for something?" Nosedive asked.
"Well, I guess you could say that," Mal admitted.
"Come on Tanya give me a smile. If he could forgive me for all these years of torture, he's sure to forgive you," Nosedive smiled.
Tanya smiled at him and got up. "I guess we had better clean this mess up."
"We'll help," Duke offered. "And this time we won't sweep it under the rug."
Tanya laughed with the others as they cleaned up the infirmary. Unbeknownst to them Wildwing was listening to Nosedive's recollection of the past. Wildwing sneered at the tale and the mask's eye glowed green. *Stab me with a pencil will he, I don't think so.* Wildwing quietly left.
End flashback