"Hey Dive!" Wildwing said as he entered the bedroom that he and Dive shared.
"Hey bro."
"Whatcha doing?"
"Playing with Magic."
Nosedive fired off a rubber band that flew across the room and hit the wall. Magic ran after it, batted it around, then brought it halfway back to Nosedive. Twip, Nosedive fired off another rubber band and Magic did a back flip trying to catch it.
"Cute."
"He likes to play fetch."
"Does he bring them back?"
"Sometimes, but most of the time he only gets them halfway back before he drops it, but we are working on it."
Wildwing sat down next to Nosedive on the bed and watched Nosedive fire off a couple more rubber bands.
"Want to try?"
"Sure."
Wildwing took the rubber band Nosedive held out to him and cocked it on his finger. He released the trigger and sent the rubber band flying. It hit Magic between the eyes.
"Bro your suppose to shoot the wall, not Magic!" Nosedive exclaimed as he jumped off the bed and raced to Magic's side.
"Sorry Dive. I wasn't trying to hit him."
"Sure you weren't," Nosedive said in a playful sarcastic tone as he inspected Magic for injuries.
"Is he okay?" Wildwing asked as he reached toward Magic.
"Yeah, he's fine," Nosedive pulled Magic away from Wildwing.
"Come on Dive I would never hurt Magic intentionally."
"I know bro, but I still have to look out for him."
"Does that include cleaning out his litter box?"
"Maybe."
"Did you know that he could get sick if it's not cleaned on a regular basis?"
"Uh no, here hold him," Nosedive said as he practically threw Magic at Wildwing.
"Why?"
"I have to go clean his box."
Wildwing had to laugh. He didn't know if what he said was true or not, but as long as he got that box cleaned he was happy, and so was Magic. (You try tip toeing around clumps of urine and old piles of poop while your going to the bathroom next time. Cat boxes don't come with a handy dandy flushing system. Now if Magic only knew how to use the toilet then that would be the end of the cat box problem. Now if only I could teach my cats to do that instead of them using the toilet as a drinking fountain.)
"Hey Dive can we talk?"
"Sure, just a minute."
"No, I think we should talk first."
"I'm almost done."
"Oh fine."
Wildwing waited till Nosedive was done cleaning the cat box before he told him about the other's plans. Nosedive wasn't too thrilled with the idea, even if Duke was giving him the sentence. Duke WAS better then Mallory.
"Couldn't you talk them out of it?"
"Lighten up baby brother. I get the final say on the punishment. Besides if you weren't so busy making their lives miserable then they wouldn't have to make yours miserable either."
"But Wing I didn't do anything wrong. It was just a little joke. They are WAY too up tight about this."
Wildwing walked Nosedive to the ready room with Nosedive complaining all the way. When that didn't work, he resorted to begging.
"Please Wing, don't let them punish me. I'll do anything."
"Anything?"
"Anything!"
"Fine then, promise me here and now that you will not pull anymore pranks."
Nosedive crossed his fingers behind his back, held up his right hand and said, "I promise, scouts honor."
"Sure Dive, but you were never a scout."
"You were."
"And you were not."
"So."
"Never mind, come on."
"Your still going through with this, even after I promised!" Nosedive exclaimed in disbelief.
"We have to make it look like we are going along with them Dive."
"Oh Faboo!"
The two brothers entered the ready room and approached the team. Grin sat on the floor indian style meditating, Tanya sat at the controls of Drake One typing, Duke was leaning against the console with his arms folded across his chest and Mallory stood behind Tanya looking at the screen. Duke cleared his throat as Wildwing and Nosedive approached. Mallory straightened up and Tanya turned to face the approaching ducks. Grin continued to meditate.
"Well Duke, what have you decided?" Wildwing asked.
"We," Duke referred to the others, "Have decided to make Dive your slave for a week."
Wildwing gave a confused look as Nosedive exploded "WHAT?! Me a slave! I don't think so! Nuh uh, not me, can't make me! So which one of you came up with such a lame idea? It was Mal wasn't it!"
"Nosedive calm down," Wildwing stated.
"No I'm not going to calm down! I'm not going to be anyone's slave!"
"Excuse us," Wildwing said to the others before he pulled Nosedive to the side. "Nosedive if you would just calm down and listen to me for a second."
"I don't want to calm"
Wildwing clamped Nosedive's beak shut.
"Dive listen to me. They want you to be my slave."
Nosedive knocked Wildwing's hand away. The sudden release of his beak caused his head to reverberate like the end of a diving board after a diver has jumped off. Once his head stopped bouncing up and down uncontrollably he said angrily, "Yeah slave! I'm no one's slave."
"I know Dive, I know."
"I had enough of that in the camps on Puckworld. I'm NOT going to relive it here!"
Wildwing was taken aback. That was right, the camps were horrible. He couldn't let it happen here. Wildwing looked at the others, who all gave him hard looks. They were all in favor for the punishment. Wildwing pulled Nosedive a little farther away and whispered, "Dive I know you don't want to be a slave, but you don't have to."
"I don't?"
"No, we just have to make it look like you are. Remember, you promised," Wildwing smiled.
"Oh yeah," Dive smiled.
"Pretend we are arguing about it. It'll make the charade more believable."
"No I don't wanna!" Nosedive yelled in Wildwing's ear.
"Not so loud," Wildwing hissed.
"But don't you want them to hear us?"
"Well okay," Wildwing said quietly then added in a louder voice for the others to hear, "Nosedive you are going to take the punishment and you are not going to complain about it."
"But Wing."
"No buts Nosedive!"
"Oh faboo!"
"Nosedive go to your room."
"But"
"I said!"
"I know what you said."
"Then go!"
"I'm going, I'm going, geesh don't need to bite my head off."
Nosedive left the room as Wildwing joined the others. "You just had to pick that!" he spat with disgust. "Don't you guys have a single heart among you? We were in the camps back on Puckworld. They made us their slaves! I can't believe you'd make him one here too!" Wildwing stormed out of the room and left the other's to rethink their great plan.
"I think we just screwed up," Duke said as he turned to the others.
"No kidding Sherlock," Mallory spat.
