"What are they going to do to Nosedive?" Wildwing demanded to know. "What?"
"Well, he will be tortured for certain. How, is yet to be seen," Duke explained.
"Perfect, we don't know where he is and we know he's going to be tortured," Wildwing sighed.
"We also don't know by who," Duke put in.
The other four ducks glanced over at him, slightly confused looks on their faces.
"By who?" Mallory repeated. "You mean you don't know who's going to be doing this? How could this get any worse?"
"I know it's going to be either Rene or Patrick but I don't know which one. They have drastically different techniques but they yield the same results. We have to find him soon," Duke replied. "They have their own ideas of how they decide who should have the honour. I don't know how they decide."
Wildwing ran towards the Migrator and the others soon followed him. They headed out of the Pond and into the streets.
"How can we find them if they could be anywhere?" Wildwing wondered.
"We do it the only way we can," Duke replied.
"And how's that again?" Mallory asked. "I don't remember you telling us."
"The old-fashioned way - look! And maybe we can find them before they seriously hurt Nosedive," Duke replied.
The others sighed. They all knew they didn't know where to start searching and Duke's idea of simply looking was the best thing they could come up with without resorting to other methods. The soon decided to split up and head in different directions.
00000
Duke looked out over the city. He was wondering about Patrick at the moment, about why he was doing this again. Rene was no easier to figure out.
"Patrick, what have you done? You've incurred the wrath of an older brother," Duke quietly said.
"Oh really? I'm so scared," came a sarcastic voice. "Family doesn't scare me. It never has and never will."
Duke turned around to see Patrick standing on the roof behind him. Duke stood up, ready to grab his sabre if the situation needed it.
"Where's the kid Patrick?" Duke demanded to know.
"The one you call 'Nosedive'? He's alive and in one piece. I don't know how well he's going to be in the end after Rene gets done with him," Patrick replied.
"Should've figured that one out, letting a kid harm a kid," Duke mused. "Why?"
"Duke, we've had many hostages but none around her age. She had yet to be around someone that was her age. Shouldn't she be able to play?" Patrick mused, a smirk on his face.
Duke growled before grabbing the sabre off his shoulder. He lunged for Patrick, who pulled his out from behind his back. The two traded blows for several minutes when they heard a vehicle on the street. Duke gave a knowing smile.
"That's your friends, isn't it? Well, they'll never catch me," Patrick told him.
He turned to leave the building when he found himself being knocked over. He hit the rooftop and turned his head enough to see Mallory on top of him. He inwardly groaned for letting his guard down long enough for her to do that.
"Get off of me!" he cried.
"Not yet buster. Not until you lead us to Nosedive. I don't know where you ever got the idea of hurting people but Nosedive is going to be the last one," she angrily replied.
Patrick laughed quietly as he listened to her talk.
"You know, you're cute when you're angry and I'm never going to tell you my secret of that idea you just had," Patrick snickered. "My life is my own and no one else needs to know it."
Duke ran over to her in order to help her to keep him pinned down. Patrick struggled but found he couldn't free himself from their grasp. He watched as Grin, Tanya and Wildwing ran onto the roof. He groaned.
"Good job everyone. We managed to get one of them," Wildwing said. "Then, maybe he can tell us where my brother is located."
"I'll never talk and I'm very good at it too. Years of practise and I've taught Rene well in the subject," Patrick coldly replied.
Grin walked up to him, making sure that Patrick didn't escape. Mallory stepped up to face Patrick. She had an angry look on her face yet the thief continued to hold a smirk on his face.
"Then how do you know Sanyo then? Tell me!" she ordered him.
"What's it to you? What does a part-time tour guide have to do with you, a military duck? Yes, I can tell you are part of the military. I've come across several in my life," Patrick wondered.
Mallory growled, not wanting to answer the question. Patrick gave a small laugh before shrugging his shoulders.
"Maybe another time, you'll tell me. I can wait and I would like to know," Patrick told her. "I won't tell you until you tell me."
Patrick noticed that they hadn't taken away his sabre. He moved his hand closer to the base of it when Wildwing walked up to him and took it out of his hand. He tossed it over to Duke, who examined it. Duke soon nodded.
"It's safe. We're good to head out," Duke said.
"Good, let's take him back. Blindfold him," Wildwing replied.
00000
She lifted up her sabre and stuck in the table, right between his legs. Nosedive did his best to get as far away from it as possible. He was beginning to regret heading out to look for her. He knew that he should have known something like this would happen. She gave a smile at his reaction.
"That was way too close if you ask me," Nosedive told her.
"That was the point. I want to see you squirm," Rene replied. "You and your kind of duck make me sick sometimes. Most of you hate what you don't understand. If you only knew what I had to go through, there'd be another reason why you'd hate me."
"You've given me enough reasons already, between helping Dragaunus and holding me captive here. Wildwing's not going to be happy when he finds out you've got me," Nosedive told her.
Rene narrowed her eyes before reaching towards Noesdive and placed her hand over his throat. He held his breath, fearful that she was going to choke him.
"How is this Wildwing related to you anyway?" she wondered.
"He's my brother," Nosedive replied, slight anger in his voice.
He waited for her to tighten her hand but it never came when they heard a noise from across the room. Rene glanced to see that Sanyo walked into the room, with Chameleon right behind him. They walked up to the two ducks.
"What is it?" wondered Rene.
"There's been a slight change in plans. Dragaunus wants you to bring the Ducks out into the open sooner than originally planned. We like to get rid of them as soon as possible. Once we get rid of them sooner, the sooner you can get the respect you deserve," Chameleon told her.
Rene nodded her as she watched the shapeshifter leave. Sanyo also watched him leave, a distrustful look in his eyes.
"Sanyo, what's wrong?" she asked him.
"I don't trust them," Sanyo replied.
"You don't trust anyone save Patrick and myself," she smirked.
Nosedive watched the two of them before his stare came to rest on Sanyo. He narrowed his eyes the longer he stared at the red-haired duck. He thought he recognized something in the duck.
"Hey Sanyo, how did you get to know the brat over there?" Nosedive called out to him.
"Who're you calling a brat?" Rene interrupted.
She walked over to him and grabbed her sabre by the handle. She leaned it forward and Nosedive yelped out.
"You'd better be careful what you say for I can be very dangerous. You'd better shut your mouth otherwise you might not be able to have children," Rene warned him.
"Like I'd have the chance anyway. I'm not going to get back to Puckworld anytime soon and I doubt that I'm going to do anything with anyone here. Particularly not you if that thought ever crossed your mind," Nosedive replied.
He struggled in his binds and Rene growled. Sanyo walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, hoping to calm her down. He faced Nosedive as Rene walked away from them.
"To answer your question, I met Rene and Patrick purely by accident. They let me talk before their instincts kicked in," Sanyo quietly explained. "I know I was one of the lucky ones and so are you. Trust me on that for I know them better than anyone on Puckworld."
Nosedive raised his eyebrows at what Sanyo said. Before he could think about anything else, a small flashing light caught his attention. Nosedive saw that it came from the handle of Rene's sabre. He wondered what it meant as Rene saw it. She ran over to the table and quickly pulled it out. She stared at it for a moment, giving a sigh.
"Patrick," she barely said. "Looks like your friends have my mentor. Shall we pay them a visit?"
Nosedive gulped as he stared at her, wondering what was going to happen next.
TBC...