Satan, you now where I lye
Gently I go into thy good night
The DuCaine Legacy
by Candy aka solarsun
Chapter 1: Pain
For the first time in a month, it was a good dream. A nice dream of back when he could goof off and hang with his two pals Mookie and Thrash. They had been smiling and laughing talking about one of the many comic books that they where reading at the moment, enjoying being young on a carefree summer afternoon around Aneheim. Then the door swong open and Wildwing, gold mask and everything, walked in smiling at him, telling him that Phill had some big thing planned and that if he didn't leave with him now they wouldn't make it in time.
It was almost like Wildwing was standing right there. It felt so real. Mookie and Thrash too. Their smiling faces behind those piercings and tatoos telling him that they'd be there when he got back.
..but that was a lie, wasn't it? They had lied that day way back when. Wing had lied too, when he ran after the shadow. Why did they have to lie to him! He wasn't a kid anymore.
Tossing and turning Nosedive awoke from his dream, partally from the fact his dream was going south, and partally from the commuicator beeping on his night stand. Sitting up, Dive reached over picking it up and opening it, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes seeing Tanya there looking all worried.
"Yo, what's up Tanny?" He mumbled calling her his old pet name he had given her so long ago.
"There's an attack on a weapons shop down on main." She said hurried, her head turned, probably doing something else. Nosedive knew she probably was watching the attack, though it made him wonder how Tanya was there already.
"I'll be right there," He yawned slipping out of his bed and walking over to the bathroom, turning on the light. Dive's PJ's consisted of boxers and a loose fitting tank top.
Looking up at the clock it was about Two am. One hand opened his cabnet, the other turning on the cold water. Pulling out his perscription he dug a pill out of the thin bottle and tossed it in his beak, then bending down slurping the water up from the focet swallowing it all. Sighing, squeezing his eyes shut, Dive took both his hands and splashed his face a few times with the water trying to wake himself up...
...and also to try and hide the fact he had been crying in his sleep. Sometimes he just wished that his dreams would stick to nightmares. At least those he could blow off a bit more then his happy ones. The happy ones reminded him of what he had lost. Dive was reminded every day of what he had lost, he didn't need some damn dream reminding him in his sleep as well.
Turning he went to quickly dress and grab his gun.
"Shit!" Nosedive yelled taking cover behind a smoldering car. Who the hell would sell grenades at a NORMAL weapons shop! They couldn't even get close! Every time someone would try and charge, one of the humans would just throw a grenade out from the store. So there had to be a better way.
"..The sewer!" Mallory yelled toward him. "I'm sure there is some sorta drain under that building we can use!"
Nosedive nodded looking ahead seeing a manhole not to far from where he was standing. Quickly without saying anything else he took off toward it, Mallory instantly understanding and gave him cover.
Grin was already there, prying the manhole open for him and Dive jumped down, one of his hands grabbing onto an old ladder bar stopping him from falling completely.
Reaching in his pocket, he pulled out a small flashlight and shinned it down to see where the floor was. It was only three feet below him so he just dropped down, shinning the light around trying to get some sense as where to head. His team above couldn't handle much more of that fire power. Most of the cars they had been using for shields where blown up.
That's when his communicator beeped. Reaching down he opened it seeing Tanya.
"..Uploading the map of the sewer layout in this area now..." She mumbled as his communicator beeped again, a green map taking up most of the screen now. There was a flashing area that was him and a star of where he should be heading.
"Thanks Tanny." Dive said shining his flashlight in the correct direction.
"..I'll have Mallory come with you," Tanya started.
"Don't." Nosedive muttered. "You guys need all the firepower you can get up there...besides," He took a deep breath forcing a laugh out. "I don't think Mal-mal could fit down the manhole. She's been gaining a few extra pounds as of late."
"I'm going to kill him!" He over heard on Tanya's communcator. "If he doesn't die doing a stupid stunt like that, I'm going to kill him when he returns!"
Nosedive just shook his head and quickly ran down the sewer, trying to ignore the smell and how slippery it was under his feet.
Tanya looked up from her communicator worried at Mallory and shrugged. If Nosedive thought he could handle it on his one, why was she to complain?
"Keep them destracted!" Tanya then yelled over the police cars that where now blaring behind them. Things blowing up around a gun shop got noticed pretty easily. That and she had called them after the ducks. They needed all the help they could get with these idiots.
Pointing her left hand out it began to move and take the form of a plasma gun, glowing as she willed it to fire, her other hand crossing over her chest, trying to steady it as it powered up...
Hoping up, slowly Dive pulled himself out of the sewer, into a small back room of the weapons shop. Nobody had yet noticed that he had disappeared from the way they where talking outside the door. It seemed that Tanya had used her kick ass gun, blowing a hole in the side of the building. He could hear hurried footsteps outside the door.
Hoping up, he pulled his gun back out and walked over the door, cracking it up to see what they where truely up against. There where three people he could see, and one of them had two grenades in his hands.He'd have to shoot to kill with that one, the other two though both had guns, and where firing them. He'd have to wait till at least one of them was reloading.
Actually both of the men stopped at the same time, giving Dive a perfect window. Quickly he pulled down an odd propane tank next to him and kicked it out of the door, coming in behind it, shooting the one with grenades in his hands, squarly between the eyes. The other two where scrambling away trying to take cover wondering what the hell had just happened.
Smirking he sent the other two to hell with their friend. Turning his head he noticed two very angrey men running toward Dive. Quickly picking up one of the grenades he pulled the pin out with his beak and tossed it in front of him, quickly turning around and back into the door, diving into the grate and running for dear life. With that propane tank there, that store front was bound to explode!
"Tanny, Mal-mal, Grin get everyone AWAY from the store front!" Dive yelled into his communicator. Quickly he jumped up the ladder that he had came down with and just as he was about to peak his head above the ground, the whole store exploded! Dive ended up falling back into the sewer, ruining his good jacket, pants, and everything he really was wearing.
"..Shit..." Dive hissed shakign his arms off and slowly making his way back up to see the damage he had caused.
The store was gone...and so was half of the buildings next to it.
"..woops..." Dive blinked sitting on the street, legs still hanging in the manhole.
"Woops! WOOPS!" He heard Mallory's voice behind him yelling, then felt a good kick between his shoulder blades as he fell back into the manhole again. "That'll teach you...calling me fat..." She hissed turning away walking past Tanya who just sighed shaking her head as Nosdive came out of the manhole for a second time. She would have offered a hand..but..well he reaked all the way over where she was standing.
He was laughing at least.
"Miss Tanya?" A police officer called to her. Turning she began to walk over toward the captine to explain what had exactly happened. Of course every big city in the United States knew of Dragonuas now and most of them where fully cooperative with thim in the hunt for him. None of them wanted the saurian overlord taking over their city.
Sighing Dive got up completely and waved at the police, who had seen him fall and waved back. He need a shower, a new jacket, pants, hell he needed something new of everything he was wearing at that moment. Turning his head he saw Tanya talking with the police and decided to let her deal with them. Right now he just wanted to go shower and sleep. Nothing else he really felt like doing.
Maybe when he woke up later something would inspire him, but for right now all he could think about was the looks the humans gave him before his bullet landed on target, killing them instantly.
He wished things didn't have to be this way. Out of all of the ducks in the beginning, he had been the one to like them first. Now he was killing them, most of them where probably innocent, just lead astray.
Not only was he scarred up, mentally and phsycial, he had innocent human blood on his hands. And it didn't seem to want to wash away very easly. Probably because he wasn't scrubbing it very hard.
Most of the ducks had day jobs, that of course had special leway that if there was attack they could leave pretty easily. Tanya of course was a visiting scientist at a local labratory, that was an easy job for her to get. Grin was doing an inner peace seminar at this city. Mallory worked as a self defence coach at a local YMCA. He, well he didn't get the glamorous jobs like they did. It might because unless he was around the team he didn't try to be cheerful anymore. Most people didn't want a grumpy alien duck working for them.
So he was the head of security for some big company, that Dive really didn't even know the name of. There where offices in every big city too so travel was easy for him. Plus he had an appartment waiting for him in every city at least.
At times he wished he could leave this war and run off. But even when Duke left Dive was sure he was still fighting for them somewhere else. Dive just wanted to run away, from everything.
Sometimes he felt like he was falling.
Trying to grab something, anything.
At times when the war had started he'd feel that way
But Wing had always been there to catch him.
Nosedive walked out of the shower and rubbed one of his eyes with the back of his hand.
Tears began to welt up in his eyes again. Walking over to his couch he sat on it, hunched over, his face buried in his hands as much as they could be as sobs rocked through is body.
Why the hell was he still doing this!
Dive didn't quite understand himself anymore. The man staring back at him in a mirror was a far cry from the teenager smiling happily on the one photograph he still had with everyone on his dresser. The man in the mirror was a very bitter, depressed, hopeless duck. That always seemed to have rings under his eyes, probably due to the fact he could never sleep. The prosac didn't seem to be helping at all, probably a fact that he was a duck, and not a human.
..All he wanted was for things to be the same again before the saurians, on Puckworld. Sure his parents had their problems there but at least they where there for him!
Rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands he took a deep breath.
Nobody was here for him anymore. So why was he still trying to win this war? Probably to try and grasp at something the old Dive would do in a heart beat. Trying to keep, maybe just a tiny fraction, of himself as he used to be.
Turning his head he reached out and picked up a picture of Wildwing and himself, after a game taken by one of their old fans who had sent it to them after the team had been sold. Before everything changed.
Taking a deep breath he set it back down. His true reason for still fighting was obvious.
Revenge.
Dragonuas would pay with his life for the hell he had caused. Where all saurian's like this? Did they always try and take over Puckworld? Compared to Earth, his home planet was cold, and frozen. Earth was a much better place to try and take over, and Dive figured after the saurian saw how different the two planets where that he'd try and take over Earth anyday before he'd try and take over Puckworld again. If the saurian would ever try and take over Puckworld again...that's if everything ended up bad and they all where dead.
At least he would get his revenge and he'd get revenge for Canard as well. That's what his brother was trying to do after all, that and protect the team. He had died for them.
Shit not again...
Reaching up he quickly rubbed the tears away. Why the hell was he crying at the drop of a coin lately?
Taking a deep breath Nosedive turned his head to see the sun rise. Maybe he should try and go back to sleep. When he woke up he could at least go shopping. That would take his mind off of things. Besides he needed a new coat from what had happened during the battle a few hours ago.
Yawning he stood up and headed back into his room, glancing at the picture on his dresser for a moment. Then crawling back into bed. Maybe he would dream a nightmare. At least then he can sleep.
Leaning on her arm, her hand picked at the keys in front of her. Mallory was looking up who had posted they would be in her class that night very slowly. Computers hadn't been her strong suit. Tanya had once offered to help her with just basic things that deal with a computer but Mallory had declined the offer at the time figuring they'd always be fighting Dragonuas like they had been and playing hockey as a semi cover. There was no need for computers in that time.
Now.
Well now she was working like a regular human, though the United States did give them money to live off of, the team that was left knew that it wouldn't be enough. They needed better weapons, better training, better armor. Something the United States wasn't paying for, nor Mallory didn't even want them to pay for. If they payed for their weapons, and armor it would be cheap. Tanya with a bit of work at her job could come up with stuff that was ten times better and cheaper. Not to mention Tanya would then hold the patent on it and could make money selling the stuff.
Mallory knew how lucky she was to have a friend and team mate like Tanya. If it wasn't for her, Mallory would still look horribly disfigured. Though she still couldn't grow feathers or hair, Tanya had made the next best thing for her and nobody around her even knew she had a giant bald spot except for the ducks and that's how Mallory wanted it to be. She didn't need her co workers looking at her with pity every day...
...sorta like how Duke had.
Frowning, she had stopped typing and leaned back thinking about the ex-thief. It wasn't his fault at all what had happened, but he had been the closest to her when it did happen. That's how he came to blame himself. She just hoped he was ok, and fighting Dragonuas and kicking some ass.
Smirking she chuckled a bit thinking about the gray duck. Everyday she hoped he'd return to them and everything would be as normal as it could be.
"Miss Mallory?" A voice butted in. Glancing up she noticed one of the other instructors standing outside her office door. "Just making sure you where back in the land of the living." She giggled continuing to walk past her door.
Mallory smirked shaking her head. Duke would be back with them in no time, she was sure of that. It had to be that way.
Didn't he love her after all? Mallory chuckled a little. Never had she thought she'd even think those words and now here it was, and it sounded natural actually. Though Mallory wondered when Duke's feelings had grown. Shrugging she figured she'd ask him when he returned.
That was something to look forward to.
Her mind wondered to their semi-leader now, Nosedive. That was also something she'd never thought she'd see the day off, but when Wildwing disappeared everyone seemed to look toward the teenager. He was the least changed out of all of them. Maybe it was the stablity he shown that they clung to.
Her eyes gazed downword thinking about the blonde goofball. She was sure that Dive didn't really want to be leader, but neither did Wildwing when he was thrown in the situation. The blonde duck hadn't yet put the mask on . She wondered absently if that ment anything or of he had just lost the mask. It didn't much matter anyway how Dragonuas was fighting as of late. It seemed it was always blatent and explosive.
Though something seemed to worry Mallory thinking about Nosedive as of late. Sure, she knew that he wasn't quite the same Dive that tagged along during their first mission, but his eyes. At times they seemed almost absent, cold, frozen. Almost pleading as he told her she looked fat, or if she screamed any louder at him that she'd wake the dead. Shaking that thought off Mallory told herself that if Dive was really in that much pain, he still had the team to talk to. They'd all listen to him. Even though he was the leader, and six years older, an adult in many aspects in the way he talked, walked, and moved, all the team tended to see him as that same sixteen year old. An odd sixteen year old that seemed to have been born with a gun in hand at how well he could shoot.
Mallory frowned looking at the time. She wasn't going to get anything done today. Standing up she walked out of her office. There was other things she could be doing anyway.
"Breath deep," His simple words instilled a quiet and calmness that marveled the first time students. Even though the duck was ten feet tall nobody felt threatened. Nobody thought he would hurt even a fly. Most of the children would even play with the large duck while waiting for class to start. In his classroom nobody could believe that he was a crime fighter and that there was indeed some evil monster hiding somewhere wanting to take over the world.
But there was a lot Grin still had to overcome. Mainly his eyesight. Everyone in the class understood what had happened and had accepted why he wore it and what the goggles looked like but it didn't make anything better. Part of the calm big duck he wished either he could get used to being blind, or Tanya create him better eyes. He knew that he was relying to much on the scientist who was trying to help him as much as she could and as fast as she could. There was never enough thank yous for her for what she had at least done for him. What she had done for the whole team. If she could help she did. But there where some things that a scalple and mechinery couldn't fix alone.
That's where inner peace came in. If you couldn't be happy by yourself, how could you find peace with what was going on around you? Grin as of late was struggling a bit in that department but he knew it would take time before he'd accept everything as it had happened. He had to be a strong sturdy part of the team. At least for their leader who still didn't seem to be grasping it totally.
He had tried to be their leader, and in a war, not everything could be settled peacefully. Sitting and trying to find a salution to a problem sometimes was worse then not acting. That's why he denyed the mask when Tanya had asked him to be their leader. The only one of them four who could fill Wildwings shoes was Nosedive, and not just because he was his younger brother but because he new how to think.
Look at early this morning. No civilians had been hurt. Dive had single handledly swayed the battle, with their help of course, and there wasn't an injury on the team. If the little man could just be a strong leader like that all the time, then they would defeat Dragonuas, and find their way home.
Home. Now that brought peace to his heart.
"Relax little one," He said kneeling down at a young child who was trying to do what was done in the class. The child seemed to look up at him.
Smiling he ruffled his hair and continued down. He'd do it again, if it was to save a single innocent life. He was getting along with what Tanya gave him well anyway.
Rubbing her brow with her sleeve, Tanya continued to concentrate on the final upgrade on her arm. It would make wireless connections to computers, internet, phones, a whole lot easier.
"Do you need any help?" One of her assistants asked as she quickly shook her head. All she needed was to spot weld it and it would be done. Turning and with her right hand she took a small welder that she had had brought up from the storage room. It was only a few more seconds...
Done!
Smiling Tanya gazed down at her weld and felt proud. Not only did it look nicer, she was able to get rid of a lot of the cords which ment it was smaller then before..and
...and she could use the same tecnolagy she had made for Mallory to cover the hand in synthetic feathers, so unless you knew her hand was gone, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Tanya had never been a vaine duck. Duke had been more vaine then her when the team had been whole. As whole as they where on Earth after loosing Canard but she wanted her bio hand to look like a real hand. When her first hand was created it was out of nessessity, not for beauty. To work on future projects she would need both hands, it was a given and with the way the war was going she would have future projects to make.
Speaking of a project...
"Hey Dan! Did that part come in the mail yet?" She yelled snapping her bio hand back onto it's base she had attatched to her left arm so it would move and sit like a regular hand.
"..Yes it did, just now." He yelled back from somewhere behind a case. Tanya began to smile uncontrolably. If her calculations where right...which they where rarely off...
..at least she had that to look forward to.
"We need to install it!" Tanya yelled back picking up an odd tub of liquid. Moving her left hand she sighed. Sythetic feathers in it's true natural form was liquid. It attaches to something and drys as feathers, the color depending on what chemicals you added to the batch. It was to hot in it's natural form just to pore on Mallory's side. Tanya was still trying to correct that. So Mallory would have it it directly on her bare skin, instead of a cloth.
Moving her left hand over the batch she dipped it in, feeling the connection between her arm and hand instantly warm up. Pulling it out quickly the scientist duck watched as it dried quickly...to a feathery look.
Success!
Moving her hand around she noticed how it moved naturally with the arm. Tanya would definitly have to celebrate tonight about this bragging to one of her team mates.
"Are you ready Miss Tanya to install that in that machine?" Dan then called to her.
"Yeah. Do you got the tools?"
"Their right here..."
Cinder and ash trailed behind the beast as he moved through the hallway.
"What the hell happened to the attack this morning!" The creature sneered at one of the humans who was now cowarding in front of him.
"...the ducks somehow blew our forces up." The human almost squeeked out visably shaking now at the creature who stood before her, smoke coming out of it's large nostrils, anger flaring out of it's eyes. The human hoped to god that if the creature decided to kill him, it would be at least painless.
"Fuck!" The creature turned. "It's been four fucking years since this new stratagy change has happened, and what the fuck do we have to show for it! Not a thing! Not a fucking thing." Sneering her stormed out of the one room, back into the hallway. At times he missed how big the ship had been, but he knew, and so did the other three saurians that if they where going to truely change tactics, they couldn't be trying to hide that ship anymore. It was to much of a waist of time. The ducks couldn't do anything with the ship anyway, he made sure of that.
Shaking his head he continued to walk down the hallway, toward the basement of the building. His bad mood was cramping his thought process. It was time to go let a little steam off.
After all, a war wouldn't be war without at least a prisonor to tourcher and destroy.
(authors notes)
Yes Dragonuas has a swearing problem. :P So it seems does Nosedive. huggles her nosedive action figure she's had for many many years It's alright Nosedive! I will try and make it better...
Nosedive action figure: Can't...breath...dies
Yeah I know in the original that Miya was already in the series by this time. But things change and when I try and write well stories get longer! yay for longer stories! When the DuCaine Legacy stopped getting new chapters, it was 150kb and 15 chapters long. In only two chapters I'm at 40kb with this rewrite. I want this story to be long, with a very defined ending and maybe a sequal after it all, but that won't be a while. Look at my other long story:The Mars Saga. It's at 700+ kb and still got chapters to go! My dream is to write something that's at least 1Mb! OO. Though it might not be the mars saga and it might not be this one, but one day I will write an awesome story that takes up a megabyte!
Anyway the song that sorta inspired this all is called "Innocent" by Fuel (what's at the top of the story in italics, it's not that short though). I love this song. And it sorta is on the soundtrack for this series, if this series had a soundtrack of course. Maybe in other chapters I'll add to the "Soundtrack". Before you go please review and as always thanks for taking the time to read one of my stories.