"Nosedive," Tanya said softly.
"Go away."
"Nosedive, honey, are you all right?"
"Does it look like I'm all right?" Nosedive asked as he looked up at her.
Nosedive had tearstains down his cheeks and blood on the corner of his mouth.
"Oh Nosedive," Mallory said sympathetically. "I'm so sorry."
"No you're not. You enjoyed watching Wing slap me. Admit it, you liked seeing him beat me around!" Nosedive choked on his unshed tears.
"Nosedive, what Wing did was wrong. He had no right to hit you."
"Do you mean that Mal?"
Mallory nodded as she bent down and wiped away his tears.
"Here let me clean this up," Tanya said as she dabbed a wet cloth to Nosedive's mouth.
"Oww."
"Hold still. This is going to hurt."
"Now you tell me."
"Nosedive, the comic books," Wildwing barked from where he stood in the doorway.
Nosedive looked up at his brother. Wildwing was holding his hand out, palm up.
"You want them, you get them!"
"Give them to me Nosedive!"
Nosedive stood defiant. He was not going to let Wildwing push him around. He let Canard do that all to often when they were kids and he was not going to let Wildwing turn into another Canard.
"Nosedive give me the comic books."
"I don't think so baldy."
Wildwing became enraged and stepped into the room. As he did so he thrust out his hand violently at Nosedive. "Give me the dang blasted comic books you horrible little monster!"
Nosedive's beak dropped. "Go to hell!"
"I'm already there. I've been there ever since you were hatched!"
"Who ever said I wanted you as my big brother! You don't know anything about me! Your sooooo delusional. I wish that you had died in that car accident!" Nosedive said as he held his hands up in Wing's face and wiggled his fingers.
"And I wish that I never found your stupid frozen ass when you got lost. I should have left you on Puckworld like Canard wanted me to!" Wildwing shouted back as he shoved Dive's hands out of his face.
"I hate you!"
"Good! The feelings mutual! Give me the comic books!"
"Fine!" Nosedive picked up the pile of comic books and slapped them into Wildwing's chest. "Now get lost!"
"You are grounded FOREVER!"
"Good that way I don't have to look at your ugly face or smell your death breath. Besides the mask hides your ugly mug well enough to spare this world of your hideous face!"
Wildwing lifted his hand to strike Dive again. Dive shrunk back, looked away and lifted his hands to defend himself from the assault. Wildwing paused, shook his fist in the air, pointed his index finger at him then walked away. "Forget it, you're not worth my time or breath."
Wildwing left the room and the team in awe. They had never seen their leader like that before. It was like he was a huge hideous monster towering over them bent on destroying everything and evoking immeasurable fear one moment, then he suddenly shrank into a weak helpless child that had given up on life.
"What just happened?" Duke asked.
"He gave up," Tanya stuttered.
"His spirit has fled," stated Grin.
"We'd had better go after him," Mal said finally. "Will you be okay Dive?"
"Yeah, just peachy."
"We'll be right back Dive, I promise."
The team filed out of the room and went to search for Wildwing. When they finally caught up with him he was walking into the kitchen.
"Yo Wing, wait up!" Duke called.
"What now?" Wing sighed to himself as he looked up to the ceiling. "Did I not beat him enough for you in the kitchen? Did you want to see me really go off?"
"Wing, what's wrong?"
"What's wrong? What's wrong!" Wildwing choked. "You saw me hit him and heard me say those horrible things and you have to ask me what's wrong?"
"You were upset and have a right to be."
"I HAD NO RIGHT!"
"Wildwing calm down."
Wildwing took a few deep breaths before answering his friends, "I'm going out."
"Out? Where?"
"I don't know, maybe the park?'
"Wildwing you can barely walk without the wall for support."
"Thanks for pointing out the obvious Mal," Wildwing said indignantly. "I'll use a stick if I have to, but I can't stay here. I'm too upset. I don't want to say or do anything I'll regret in the morning."
"Wildwing I forbid you," Tanya blurted out.
"Excuse me?"
"I forbid you to go out on that leg. Just stay in the infirmary if you want to be alone, but you are not going to injure yourself more on account of a stupid argument with Nosedive."
Wildwing gave a heavy sigh, rolled his eyes, and submitted to Tanya's orders. He went to lie down in the infirmary. Once alone he rolled up his pants leg to see his knee. It was swollen and a beautiful shade of purple. Maybe Tanya was right. He should stay off his feet and ice his knee. After all as soon as the Olympic break was over they had several big games and he needed to be at his best.
After Wildwing left to go to the infirmary, the others went back to check on Nosedive. Grin had stayed with him to prevent him from doing anything irrational.
"Hey Dive, we're back," Mallory said cheerfully.
"Oh joy," Nosedive said sarcastically. "Did you find Mr. Wonderful? Did he go off the deep end?"
"Nosedive don't start," Duke said as he rubbed his temples. "You two need to learn to stop fighting and you need to stop pushing your brother's buttons."
"Sure thing, DAD, whatever you say, DAD, after all, DAD, Wing can never do anything wrong, DAD."
"Don't give me that tone Mr."
Tanya waved Duke off. They didn't need him getting involved in the fight.
"Are you all right, Nosedive?" she asked.
"No. Wing hit me, I get quarantined in here and now you guys are ganging up on me."
"Nosedive we are not taking sides and defiantly not ganging up on you. We want to help and put this all behind us."
"WHAT!? You expect me to just forgive Wing for slapping me and saying that he wished I was dead!?"
"If I recall correctly, Little Friend, you wished he were dead," Grin stated.
"No, he said that he had wished that he had left me lost when we were kids. I almost froze to death. So technically he wished I was dead," Dive said as he folded his arms across his chest satisfied that he proved his point.
