Beyond Sight.
Chapter Seven:
"You're sure about this?" Canard asked Wildwing as he watched his friend pack up his new jeep.
"The press aren't going to leave her alone," Wildwing said securing something on the roof, "Cleghorn says that evidence you gave him is more than enough to put Gregory away and they have plenty of people to testify. You saw what it was like the last time I took her out. The press mobbed her and she panicked." Wildwing sighed, "You guys can cope without me messing things up for a while so what are you worried about?"
"You don't mess things up," Canard said forcefully, "you never have! Besides I'm just not sure about this whole driving off into the sunset thing without anyone knowing where you're going. What if something happens and we can't get to you?"
"Nothings going to happen and if I tell anyone someone will just let it slip and we'll have the same problem all over again." Wildwing glanced at his friend who did not looked convinced, "look this place is owned by a friend of Hitome's, if anything major happens she'll know where to find us and she's under strict instructions not to tell you unless it's an emergency."
"All right already." Canard held up his hands in defeat, "Just take care of yourself okay?"
"So long as you keep an eye on Nosedive, and no bullying him," Wildwing wagged a finger at him, "I know what went on behind my back when we were kids you know even if Dive never told me." Canard gulped and followed Wildwing as he headed to the Rec room where Jessica waited for him. "Ready to go?" Wildwing asked as he took her hand and led her back towards the hanger.
"Wait!" Yelled Nosedive as he ran through the door to the ready room, "I get why you guys are going and all but you sure as hell ain't going without saying goodbye bro!" Dive looked at his brother accusingly.
"Sorry Dive I guess I just want to get on the road that's all." Wildwing put a protective arm around Jessica who was leaning into him trying to make herself look small.
"We'll miss you guys." Dive said looking at Jess with a concerned expression on his face, "You're gonna write aren't ya?" He asked hopefully. "And you'll call us if he tries to poison you with his cooking right, Jess?"
"Hey!" Wildwing protested but noticed a slight smile on Jessica's face out of the corner of his eye. "Well I really don't want to be travelling all night so you guys'll say goodbye to the others won't you?" Dive and Canard nodded and watched as Wildwing turned and led Jessica away to his Jeep.
"It's gonna be so weird without him." Dive said dejectedly.
"Yeah right!" Canard scoffed, "you'll be reading you're comic books by the end of the day just like any other."
"Look at this." Nosedive said as he shoved a newspaper under Canard's beak.
"You trying to prove you read newspapers?" Canard said brushing it away.
"No listen," Dive whined then cleared his throat, "a cruise liner was saved yesterday by a mysterious girl who from all accounts is a real live super hero. Some have given her the name Super Girl after the comic book character and others have called her an angel. Either way this girl has been sighted at numerous disaster areas with reports of her saving many lives at each one." Canard glanced over to Cassidy who had been talking to Tanya but was by now listening intently to Nosedive, "There's much speculation about who or what this girl is and where she's come from, many believe she's another alien like the mighty ducks, others that she's an escaped experiment. However once she has rescued anyone in danger she doesn't stay around long enough for anyone to question her about her motives." Dive finished and placed the paper onto the table, "those thugs mentioned some leggy girl the other day when we busted them . . ."
"Nosedive, why do you care about what some paper says? Those things have lied about us hundreds of times they're most likely lying now!" Mallory said as she sat at the kitchen table and peeled an apple.
"Besides," Tanya continued, "there's any number of explanations . . ."
"She saved a planed from crashing," Dive said getting annoyed, "without an aircraft so that means she can fly and she's really strong. It also says that eye witnesses from that volcano eruption in Japan said beams of light blasted out of her hands which she used to hold back the lava. I mean come on guys!"
"What does this have to do with us anyway?" Canard asked.
"Oh come on if she's that powerful and she's on our side then she could help us get Draganus and maybe she knows a way to get us home too!" he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I guess. . ." Tanya started but was cut off by the alarm. "It's Draganus." She said once she got to the computer.
"We've not seen him for months." Duke said to no one in particular.
"Which means it's probably some sort of trap," Canard said, "so be ready for anything guys, Tanya you got the coordinates?" She nodded in response, "let's go then!" He let the others run on ahead and looked at Cassie.
"Want some back up?" She said smirking.
"Keep out of sight though with Nosedive so interested in you're alter ego it'd be all we need for him to guess who you are." Canard turned and ran after his team whilst Cassie flew down the hall to grab her gear and change.
"What could they possibly want here?" Tanya asked as they walked in between two cliffs in the dessert.
"Perhaps they have found a magical artefact of some sort?" Grin suggested.
"Or they're just above us about to open fire any minute." Duke said earning a glare from the others. Canard glanced up and saw a flash of yellow and a high pony tail rise up from behind a rock. He then promptly bumped into Nosedive who had stopped dead.
"Do you have to do that?" He asked irritably then noticed the others had stopped too and were staring at a tall golden falcon.
"Falcone." Duke spat.
"Duke old boy," the falcon grinned, "it's been a while, but Draganus sprung me from jail so we could play a little game."
"And what game is that?" Mallory yelled puck launcher at the ready.
"Follow the leader." With that he spun around and bolted off to their left and round a bend, Duke immediately pursued.
"Uh guy's I'm a little out of the loop here." Canard said as he followed the others.
"That's Falcone," Nosedive told him, "he used to be in the Brotherhood with Duke but he turned traitor and works for Draganus now." Canard nodded making a mental note to ask about the details later on.
"We lost him!" Mallory said frustrated.
"It won't take long to pick up his tracks sweetheart," Duke said studying the floor and indicating for them to follow him, "he never was very good at coverin them." They followed for about five minutes and approached a pile of fallen rocks; Duke's trained hearing picked up a noise coming from behind them and indicated for everyone to be very quiet. They reached the rocks and peered around them to see a fellow duck chained to a rock twenty feet ahead. She was a petit build with black feathers and bright pink hair and was currently holding onto the chains and pulling at them as she stood on the rock.
"It's no use you little brat you won't get free," Falcone said, "I tell you what agree to be mine and I'll let you live and your uncle die quickly."
"In your dreams you scuzzy buzzard!" the girl spat. The ducks were ready to go in to rescue her but Duke held them back and indicated for them to watch.
"You always were a brat," Falcone carried on but stayed a safe distance away, "always thinking you were above everyone else cause your parents were assassins and your dear uncle was our fearless leader. Well now I'm going to use you to kill your uncle, how do you feel about that little girl?" The girl rolled her eyes and kept pulling at the chains. "Nothing to say?"
"Why don't you come any closer to be a creep or is it that your still scared of me you sorry excuse for a thief!" She said not even looking at him. Falcone growled and approached hoping to get her whilst her attention was elsewhere but as soon as he was within reach she flipped over backwards and landed behind him then she jumped up and kicked out hard pushing him against the rock and knocking him unconscious. "Stupid buzzard," she mumbled as she searched his pockets for some sort of key or something to pick the lock with, "never did like this guy, and he gave me the creeps!"
"Well you haven't changed one bit Candice," Duke said as he and the others walked out from their hiding place, "you're still a mouthy little brat."
"Uncle Duke!" Candice screeched and jumped on her uncle.
"How on Puck world did they catch you?" Duke asked ignoring the questioning looks everyone was giving him.
"Um, well," she blushed so red you could see it under her black feathers, "I was swimming you see and well they um kinda got me at a bad time."
"Now what have I told you about skinny dippin Candy Floss?"
"I know but I didn't have a suit and . . . hey! Get that look off your face!" She slapped Nosedive who had been staring at her rear end and imagining it naked.
"So you're related to Duke huh?" Tanya asked then scowled at Duke, "he never told us he had a family."
"I rarely tell anyone I have either," she said, "when you're related to the best jewel thief and the daughter of the best assassins it's not a good idea to go broadcasting who your loved ones are."
"Speaking of loved ones," a high pitched voice said from above them, "we'll be sure to send Wildwing you're regards when we're tearing him limb from limb."
"After we tear you limb from limb of course." Wraith said charging up a fire ball. Siege appeared behind them blocking their only exit and Draganus appeared to watch the proceedings.
"Farewell you wretched mallards!" He said as an army of hunter drones appeared and all hell let loose.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Grin said taking out one hunter drone with another.
"Oh I don't know," Canard said as one was blasted by a golden sphere of light, "we may just pull through."
"Who did that?" Draganus demanded.
"Don't you know being a megalomaniac is so faux pas?" Cassidy flew out into the open about eye level with the saurian overlord.
"And who might you be girl?"
"I've been called a lot of things," she said cryptically, "but in this outfit I usually go by Light Sphere."
"And how is it Light Sphere, that you expect to stop me?" he grinned, "whilst flight is a handy trick it will not be enough to help those mallards and that one little ball you created certainly won't be enough to handle all of my drones."
"Who said that was all I could do," she replied charging up as she spoke, "let's see what you saurians have got!" She flew straight for Draganus who teleported away preferring to let his minions find out what she could do before he would do anything. She changed direction and headed for the drones where she blasted them with a huge sphere then she picked up a large boulder and threw it at another group of drones. She turned to face the other saurians to find them gone and the ducks watching her.
"You're flying." Nosedive stated the obvious and Duke could swear he was drooling, "Just like in the comic books!"
"Wow you're quick ain't ya?" Candy said earning a chuckle from Mallory, "Thanks for the assist uh, Light Sphere wasn't it?"
"Um yes anyway, you're welcome and I really have to go now, you know people to save and so on gotta go bye!" And with that she flew off.
"She's real this is sooo cool wait till I tell Thrash and Mookie!" Dive said ignoring the others and heading back to the airowing.
"Interesting group you hang with unc," she stared curiously at the blonde's back, "so I guess the rumours really were true there was a strike force and my dear old uncle's a member huh?" They followed him to the airowing.
"That's right." Duke said
"What's happening at home?" Tanya butted in, "a . . . are they rebuilding or what?"
"We're still rounding up stray saurians and working out who survived the invasion and who didn't luckily the saurians didn't destroy the hall of records basement. There's a vault down there with all hand written records. They're not great but they're helping us find out who people are and that." The ducks all looked at her confused so she decided to explain, "some of the ducks, in fact most of the ones who had only been freed from the camps are pretty messed up. Half of them won't talk for fear of a saurian beating on them and the others babble on about this and that incoherently so no one knows what they're talking about. Some of them are starting to adjust and get over it but one of the doctors I met said that some will always be like it."
"But our people are free from saurian reign?" Grin asked calmly.
"Oh yes we're all free and that."
"What about the traitors?" Mallory this time.
"Well that's kind of a mute point." Candy replied.
"How so?" Canard asked form the co pilot seat, Nosedive was flying the jet.
"Well you see some did it under coercion and that's a proven fact," she looked at Mallory who looked like she was about to object, daring her to argue, "But some are just saying that to get themselves out of trouble. So far we've convicted four of them and they've been put to death after being quizzed of course. But others are simply being held in make shift detention centres until we can prove that they did it of their own accord."
"Pft in other words they'll just sit there singing away being looked after better than the ducks that stayed loyal." Mallory spat.
"If they did do it under coercion because a loved on was threatened or something then I could never condone the death penalty for something they did for another?" Duke's niece said hotly, "I barely support it now, we hadn't used it for years before the invasion and we only brought it back because of the severity of the crimes these people committed."
"Duke said you're folks were assassins though so wouldn't they like work for the saurians too?" Dive asked, "No offence or anything."
"My brother and his wife we're the best assassins on puck world, but unlike my line of work assassins have employers. In my brother and sister in law's case it was the government." Duke said watching the other's reactions carefully, "the two of em worked separately a lot of course but they often took out a lot of high brow hoods. Rarely thieves' o course, not that Cam's boss knew about me, mainly mob bosses or terrorists. You know anyone who was a threat to security that sort of thing."
"When the invasion started my ma and pa, along with any other assassins they we're closely associated with joined forces and did their best to help people where they could. They mostly rescued kids from camps and took them out to abandoned facilities out in the back of beyond where the saurians couldn't find them." Candy told them playing with her hair, "after a while though we realised we needed to be a little more offensive so we found a few mechanics and scientists and took them to one of the more equip facilities and they gladly built us weapons and vehicles that were battle worthy. Then we set about training anyone who was willing to fight and started to hit the saurian's one camp at a time."
"Wait a minute you're one of the rebels aren't you?" Canard said turning back.
"You mean the ones w . . . who took out some of the saurian bases and rescued a whole bunch of ducks in ca . . . camps just before we left?"
"The very same." Candy smiled sheepishly.
"I heard about them," Mallory stated, "a bunch of ducks on motor cycles pulling off dangerous stunts with no organisation what so ever."
"Well we saved more slaves than your prissy resistance did miss army brat!"
"Oh please I heard you blew up an entire valley!"
"We'd gotten the slaves out," Candy defended herself, "and we didn't blow it up. The saurians did!"
"The resistance never caused that much damage." Mallory muttered loud enough for everybody to hear and when she look around at Candy, Duke was desperately trying to hold her back.
"Mallory!" Canard growled, "You're both right in your own ways now the two for you are going to get along and be nice to each other understand."
"I'll be nice if she's nice to me." Candy said in a sing song voice.
"Fair enough, Mallory?" Canard looked at the red head who was still glaring at their new edition.
"Just keep out of my way punk." She spat and turned away from the teenager.
Well there ya go hope you liked it, please review. Toodles Angel xxx.